Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-03-03

the various so called religious novels
taGv 6lnpiy walk into a room and sit
down On the sette". | have 0ftep won
dered what settee wac. Probably it
will be ike comfortable sleeper in a
parlor car. I'll discover il some day.
| have never been able to get over
The conceit of the man who wrote
ben Hur.' He said that Dickens
would be forgotten because his people
are common! Why, whom "Ban Hur"
ia being used to wrap up slate pencils
PEOPLE will be loving Little Nell, ad-
miring David Copperfleld, applauding
tho heroism of Sydney Carton and
adoring tho sweet womanlnesH nf Bella
Wilfer. | don't helievo Charles Dickens
and Thackeray talked that way about
people who wrote books whrn they
lived, yet here's man who happened
to make hit with book that had
history aH its foundation, add he throws
mud at men who pussessed the great
gilt Of touching the heart and of draw
ing the pictures of living, breathing
souls. Bother Conceit may push
book, but it won't make it live fnreser.
1t may advertise II, but it can't make
ua love it. Each ona of Us may read IL
once. but when the heart is sad We
don't 60 to il tn be Cheered up a5 We do
90 TO those living, breathing people
created by the two masters OF novel
writing in English. | never did geo
the use of writing novelB to improve
people. A novel, good one. is like a
beautiful pieco Of sunsbine--i going
to bring iny 10 you. II you ale we'll in
minu aUd body, ynu appreciate 1t
krenly; II you are Ill, it comes to you
Just like the goldcn ray that peeps
through your shutters and, Frightening
your abiding place, makes everything
around you gladder. lie who can write
good novel has done more than any
other man 10 bring happiness to men
and women. And good novel ism I
one that has 800 pngHs devoted to what
the writer thinks about some much
vpxed question and loo to the story,
hut it is one that tslls ita story easily,
carefully and in such way That it is
liks a series of pictures. 1t must be
the panorama of life, and for the time
you are the locker nu.
Tho immoral novel il one Of the ur
desirable products Of to.day--the
novels that apalyze faith into nothing,
that condemn man until one wonders
how it was possible that Cod made him
after his own image anu exploit and
make of worth foul OF a woman who
considers it her business to remodel the
world TN tired of it. This is very
good world If ono will only take the
| trouble to look for the good thingH in
| 1t. ] don + blame anybody for reflisine
| to honor anu respect such women ne
are pictured in the analytical novel o.
to-day. They talk, talk, talk, unit
you think that is the only mission they
have. They regard motherhood as {
burden, faith as folly, humanity az ;
fraud. They complain of unfaitbfu
husbands, of wicked children, of un
sympathetic friends. But what have
they done to deserve anything better
Thank goodness, most of these womeI
are in hooks! Only few of them ar,
in the everyday world, and those few
are not popular. Women can write adj
vocating a new kind of woman, hut i'll
the old kind. ths loving, sympathetic
gentle woman, who is popular. Mel
are wiser than they look, and the,
realize that il tins heroine of the ana
lytical novel we're desirable as a com
panion she would have been discovered
in Solomon's time. Instead, as tn
centuries have rolled by, men have gon
or loving and choosing the gentle
womanly woman, and she's the woniaI
he'll continue to select. I'm sure O
this Geueralizing he's honest an,
brave and kind, and he looks for
woman who will he cougenial and VIII
will bring into his life all tue pleasan
little womanly ways that he woul
miss il it we're not for her. Oh, yes
I've go much belief in man that knot
he will choose the right kind of woman
Parsnthetically, though, must be
of him not 10 disappoint me and go g
back on the good character vouched 70
him by Bah.