Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-26
DON'T KILL THE HEROES.

According to the New York Mail and
Express, Anthony Hope has made fail
ure of his new work. Rupert OF Hent-
Eau" which reaches its end in the cur
rent number Of the Pall-Mall Magazine.
This story is sequel to Hopes beautiful
romance, 1.-THE Prisoner Of Zenda," which
set the literary world agog a few months
since
Mr. Hope. or more strictly speaking,
Mr.. Hawkins. in failing to please the
public with Rupert of Henzau," pre-
sents another example of the man who
killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
He was quite naturally gratifed by the
gilded harvest which followed "Zenda,"
and public fattery, together with the So
licitations of his publishers, caused him
to go q step too far. He has disappointed
his readers, and possibly he has also in
jured his reputation. But more OF this
anon.
The peculiar charm OF the great story
by which Mr.. Hawkins won so much
celebrity is in its ending. The author.
at just the right time, let's the curtain
fall on the romance, and we have an
"exeunt omnes" which Is entirely salts
factory. AS the leading characters are
left alive the reading public is given the
privilege-a popular one in literary cir
cles-of adjusting matters to suit them
selves.
But things do not end so well in the
sequel, for Hope has seen fit to Kill
Rudolph in tho concluding chapter. A
disreputable man named Bauer fires the
cruel shot and our hero goes TO join
the great unnumbered host. There may
have been good reasons for his demise,
hut the literary world will not see it IN
that light. To their minds it was a cold
blooded, unnecessary, and mercenary act.
Bauer may have been tho actual per-
petrator of the crime, but Anthony Hope
will be charged as thu principal in the
first degree. On him will rest all OF
the responsibility, while Bauer will be
merely regarded as an Insignificant ac-
cessory, entitled 10 full immunity.
It may be juvenile and sentimental,
but all the same people wish their novels
to end happily. Trouble and misery and
anguish and bloodshed are seen every
day in life's great drama, and 1t Is the
novels function TO dispe, Mt least for a
time. these horrid visions. When we
meet a good, whole-souled character in
fiction we give him the right hand Of fell |
loWship and ask him to abide with us
forever. We treat him with courtesy and
consideration; we admire him and we
praise him; but let him die and he loses
caste. The late Sherlock Holmes, for in
stance, was a splendid fellow while he
lived and worked his massive brain; but |
when he died we forgot that precept |
LET nothing but good be said Of the
dead" and set him down as a stupendous |
fraud.
Next TO seeing all the difficulties set |
tied In the last chapter Of novel, the |
reader best likes to have the author leave |
him guessing" There is something de- |
licious-nay, exhilarating in this. You
may not slaughter your hero or heroine |
in the closing paragraph, but If you de-
sert him in the presence of a royal Ben /
gal tiger or on red-hot stove, an adj
miring public will applaud you
And so we charge you, oh, manufac-
turers of fiction, to beware and stay |
your murderous hands. Leave US your
characters as incorporeal Entertainments
and let them blossom or wither peren-
nially. even as the wandering jew"
We want TO funereal romance!