The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-24

New York, April 2O.-Mark Twain's
complaisance to the portrait makers IS
well known. In consequence of it, large
number of portraits of him are in ex-
istence. 1 have seen myself, 1 should
think, as many two dozen. and new
er saw one that was not interesting.
was shown a new one the other day, one
that Mark had Just sent over from wen,
ma 10 a friend. 1t is what might be called
Z double ii shows Mark Twain sitting
TO a young Russian sculptress, Miss Res
who IS at work modelling bust OIL hlH
+ which, as shown in the picture IS al
ready far enough advanced to be itself
very satisfactory portrait.
Miss Ries, by the way, is an artlst
whose name is likely soon to be better
known than it is as yet. Mark Twain
himself has the highest opinion of her
talent, and so have other persons VINO
are acquainted with her work.
Mark Twain and his family have Deen
living ali winter at Vienna, at the hotel
Metropole, and will remain there until
late in the spring. Then they Will go TO
England, ana may possibly come over TO
America; but this last is rather I'M
likely, as they expect to pass next winter
in Vienna also. Mark Twain, II VIII IN
turned his attention to the drama lie
has translated from the German a new
play that recently created good deal
of stir at Vienna, and, what IS more IN
terasting ne has Just completed a play
OF his own. When his own play will be
brought out, and how, is as yet uncertain.
Inc fndhuSCIlDl mas DGell lOl NelIuCO ~
London and is there under consideration:
OF course, this play, if produced, VIII
not be strictly Mark Twains Irst ap-
pearance on the stage There Is Pud-
dn-head Wilson, and, better yet, there
is the "Gided Age which Mark Twain
wrote in collaboration with Charles Dud-
ley Warner, and wherein John L Ray
nond found a character so admirably
fitted to his talent that he almost lost his
identity in it, and when he died, what
the public at large lamented was the
death not of John T. Raymond, but of
Colonel Sellers" But in neither of these
instances did Mark Twain, l think, have
a direct hand in making the play; ne
simply supplied the material through his
books. His powers as a playwright pure
and simple are, therefore, still to be
proved There is no doubt of his ability
10 provide Incident nor of his ability to
provide character; but whether he has
mastered the translation of incident and
pointed, quick-moving series of actions
that constitute a practicable play, 1t Will
be interesting 10 see At any rate the
old contention that nOvelistS cannot write
Some Of the professors OF literature are
still discussing il, I believe, in the peri
odicals that affect TO be improving,
but in view of the fact that much the
best play shown ia New York this win
ter is ]. NJ. Barrie's Little Minister,
the most we are now justified in saying
this head is what one. had he been
prudent, would have confined himself TO
saying in the first place-namely, that
some nOFelSIS cannot write pays. How
ever, Il one never said but what one was
justified in saying. where would literary
criticism be2 And where, 1 might also
ask, would literature itself be?
Mr. John Kendrick Bangs has gone
or is soon to go, on a lecture tour
through the south Mr. Bangs is not
entirely new TO the, platform, although
l have no knowledge of his having
tried lecturing before. He has read
on occasions IN public, and very effec-
.rpl rzan On hnTf= limo for
some high charitable and tthe authors
reading is nearly always conducted as
a devotion to sweet charity wherein
perhaps dozen genuine literary celeb
rites had been laSSOeo and dragged
in for the Cutting of morbid curiosity
and wherein Mr. Bangs, though not by
several the most famous man in the
lot. proved much the best performer,
and was one OF onlystwo or three whom
2 IT, was not painful to contemplate. I'll
not say Eshe-es9-EliS remarkable occa-
sion did the worst, though L know my
readers are dying to know but he
came near to being the best of the lot
acceptable to his lectures as he has
proved in his book "A House Boat
on the StyX" he can come home on
very fair terms with himself. The book
has had a sale, I was credibly informed
the other day, of over $4,000 copies.
vate letter of Mr.. S. r. Crockett some
passages of general interest regarding
the novel which he is now engaged on
1t is to be entitled THE Black Douglas
and MIR. Crockett writes: 1T is a
story which l have been thinking Of
and arranging in my mind at intervals
for the last ten years. The fall of the
great house of Douglas constituted the
one romance of my boyhood. Their castle
of Thrieve stands on an island in the
midst of the river Dee. Its gray walls
are still over 20 feet high, and to this
day defy even the storms of Gallo
way. 1 am not yet able to tell you on
what lines of hero and heroine I shall
run out the story, but the backbone of