The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-22

Publishers and writer's Will be more
! eager to find an opportunity in it than
/ they were to find one in the last war.
/ OF the civil war there is not today, SO
years after its close. a really authorita-
/ tive and eminent history; one which
/ any intelligent man, on being inquired
! of, would Lame as the book to read
/ above all others in that subject Nor
! is there novel or story OF that war
/ that stands out inevitable. In recent
years, indeed. the civil war has been
recognized, by publishers at least, as a
great subject; but. except in a COM
paratively transient, superficial way,
only in recent years. The books relat-
ing to it that have had the greatest sale
are the Century War Book" and
Grants Memoirs" 1t was nearly 20
years after the conclusion of the war
! when the matter of the Century War
Book" began to appear as separate ar
ticles in the Century Magazine, and it
was about the same time-in 1SS4-that
Grant began to write his Memoirs -
1t was two or three years later before
really authoritative biography of
Lincoln appeared, and even in this
there was but meager presentation
of the living. individual man. with his
rare personal qualities and genius.
War or any other great actual event
issue as literature. Cuba, for example
has been under the clutch of the writer
of short stories for several years, aud
IL is surprising how grossly he has thus
far dealt with her. ~ every new turn
in Cuban affairs any periodical that
was known to care for short stories
was sure. by an early mail. TO receive
quite a hearty bunch, all presenting
Cuban complications. The Maine, for
ivf eta rlna Id
the bottom in Havana harbor before
tales of a beautiful. mysterious Spanish
woman, cajoling the secret of the lay of
the mines at Havana out of some sus-
ceptible Spanish officer and turning, at
the apt moment, a fatal key, began to
be offered. I have myself read, 1 sup
pose, 100 Cuban stories within the last
year or two, and although many of
them came from practical writers. /
don't recall one that could be recon-
mended for publication. Yet almost
any casual dispatch or letter from Cuba
viii supply something of the stuff of
which good stories are made. l suppose
the chief cause of ii is that, in such
themes the writer's attempting to deal
with something they haven't them
selves lived, or in any vital way real
lied.
literature may now claim as a rep
resentative actively participating in the
war Lieutenant Colonel Theodore
Roosevelt. I am told by friends who
talked with Mr.. Roosevelt day or two
before he left the navy department to
go off to his regiment, that no other
man in Washington had the war fever
to quite such a burning degree as he.
A stranger, on appearing before him,
on no matter what errand, was greeted
with the question, asked in al seri-
business: DO you want to join my
regiment" And any disposition on
the part of his friends to be playful
with him on the subject of his going to
the war. met with TO response; Mr.
Roosevelt could be nothing but pro-
serious about it.
1t is his earnestness. however. and
his enthusiasm that have made Mr..
Roosevelt the immensely useful man
he has been. In whatever public service
he embarked, he has meant business,
and business only, from beginning to
end. He is, indeed, before all else, an
organizing ard executive man. Au-
thoTship has been, in the main. a sec
ondary matter with him. Yet he has
written as largely as many man who
is author alone, and with good solid re-
suits. He still lacks a few monLns of
being 80 years old; yet he has produced
several large historical and biograDhi-
cal works of value, besides his three or
four books on life and craftsmanship
on the frontier, and his countless. con-
tributions to newspapers and maya
zines on current topics. He is also a
man who is a good deal in society, and
as he has been most of the time since
1882. wher. at the age of only 2t, he
became a member of the New York as
sembly. in some rather exacting public
office. il is clear that he is a man who Z
knows how to work.
The economists have a battling theory
that, in International trade, accounts /
must. in the long run, exactly balance; /
that the imports must offset the ex-
ports. Just now there seems to be /
some such principle operating myster- |
Ously to just such ends in /
It least the literary branch J
If trade. While we are in {
he act of taking stock of the havoc .
> rOught in our vitality by another sea-
son of lecturing and platform reading
British rovelists, the cry is raised by
British journals that the Americana
.ation of the London stage proceeds
,race." The occasion of this Outcry is
hat three American companies are act
rg in London at once. and in plays
lat the London critics regard as none
90 good.
The outbreak of war has not dis
urbed Lieutenant Peary in his project
# a new Arctic excursion. He still eX-
,ects to embark toward the pole in
of course, the Wind
ward. the vessel so literally put at his
disposal by A. c. HarmswOrth of Lon
lon. does rot fall into the hands of the
spaniards. There is little likelihood of
his, however: her English flag, If not
he obviously peaceful character of
Peary's present employ
rents are entirely literary. He is
writing two important magazine arti-
les which he engaged to do months
100, and has been unable to find time
or until now-one on the plans and
purposes of his coming expedition. and
me on his experience among n tribe of
1skimos with whom he lived as one of
themselves for a considerable time.
when he was in Greenland last year
stores and making ready for
lis expedition. In addition to this. he
s seeing a book through the press.
Peary is now about "A years old He is
n alert, wiry-looking man, of great
courage and energy, and yet of a care
III, rather than a daring disposition. I
hould guess. He made his first expe-
Iition into the Arctic in the summer of
s91. He has great hopes of his next
expedition. 1t is to be in the nature of
slow, steady assault on the pole. He
las already collected stores and cached
hem at far northern points. and from
hese points as bases of supply. he will
onduct a systematic campaign.
AS there are two or three youth in
bout every school district wishing they
night hear of a literary opening. ven
ure to name one TO them: the office of {
ewspaper humorist 1t is an exacting
ost, though. \ man to hold it must be
regular and reliable, IN adj +
ition TO being a first-rate, all-round .
rag. The man who can toss of some
hing thoroughly funny one week and /