The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-12

his own body especially shall be reduced
to ashes after he has resigned the use
of it,
Fruit farming seems to he an especially
attractive vocation to authors. BY mere
chance 1 have already named in this let
ter two who have found 1t so; and there
have been other rather notable instances
One is that of +. p. Roe, the author
whose novels sold, in the course of COM
paratveFy few years, to the unique meas
ure OF over 100000 copies. During the last
IA years of his life, Mr.. Roe conducted a
noted fruit farm at Cornwall-ou-the-H ud-
son. The story of it is quite familiar to his
readers for a good deal of the experience
and incident of his fruit farm went into
his later books. Yet another instance is
| that of Richard Rlackmore, whose absorb
ton in his fruit farm has been more or less
| of a sorrow to his admirers, because it is
| thought TO have kept him from writing
| more Lorna Doones" The theory is prob
/ ably a little over fond In the 30 years
since Lorna Doone" appeared, Mr. Black
more has managed in spite of the fruit
| farm, 10 write upwards of dozen novels
! and excellent as some of them unaues-
| tionably are not one of them has quite
| reached the mark of Lorna Doone;" and
| probably the result would not have been
essentially different if there had been no
| fruit farm. Mr.. Blackmores farm lies on
the bank of the Thames, quite near Lon
| don. Those who have seen il tell me that il
! is most charming place; and certainly
the world can afford 10 do without sever
| al pretty fair novels for the sake of the
| hne example of simplicity and independ-
ence which MIR. Blackmore has afforded
| il in his serene industrious, quiet life there
One of the men most answerable for
| the good name of the Authors Club in
the matter of hospitality IS Thomas b.
to .,Ft Al, Z,
| social entertainments of the club, YOU will
rarely fail TO find Mr.. Connery there; and
| if you need a guide and friend he will
| serve you with a promptness and good
| old-fashioned courtesy that will make it
| all very smooth and pleasant for you
| For many years MIR. Connery was an nm
| portant man on the New York Herald;
| for fifteen years he was the editor. Dur
| ing recent years he has been the editor
| of several different weekly papers-Truth
| for one, and last Golfers Weekly. A
! year or two ago however, he retired from
| active work and now devotes himself to
| writing simply as some subject interests
| or provo5es him. His articles are often
| seen in The magazines, and he has pub
lished several novels. and histories of va
| rious political episodes. lie has an inter
estng store of political "reminiscences. Be-
! fore he became the editor of the Herald,
| he was its representative in Washington
| and he has known personally most of the
| public men of his time. He is tall, fair
| manufacturing now TO walk with not TOO
| brisk a step and 10 stand in not too
| straight a posture-and in voice and eye
| and manner he bespeaks himself to YOU
| as one whose primary qualities are mod
| eSty and kindliness. In a day when, even
among the literary people, boasting is the
| customary note and self-seekiug the gem
! eral attitude, il is very delicious 10 fan in
! with such a especially at a club.
The London Academy, while back,
/ gave an account of a forgotten novel by
James Anthony Froude. 1t was publish
ed under nom de plume 'Zeta," when
| Froude was not quite 80 years old, and
| was entitled 'Shadows of the Clouds"
! The book is TO be found now in none of
the book sellers shops, not even the sec
| ond-hand ones, and il is rarely found In
| any public or private library. Its general
| disappearance is due, however, quite as
much to the authors repentance as to the
public's indifference. for Froude himself
suppressed it as far as he could. His rea-
son for doing so is generally supposed
| to have been that he concluded, on re-
| Election, that the story related too much
! from the authors own life. There is an
| other instance of a forgotten adventure
! in novel writing by an eminent historian,
| and here the author himself had no part
his work. except that undersigned part of
failing to make it sufficiently interesting
! to live. In this instance, the novelist
was the eminent historian of the Dutch
republic. In 1889, when Motley was rs
years old, he published a novel entitled
'Morton's Hope" and this was his first
work. 1t is always mentioned with
certain respect by his biographers but 1
| doubt if any of the present race of novel
readers has ever seen It; / know / never
| have Ten years later, after he had pub
| lished some historical essays and had be-
| gun TO gather material for history of
| Holland, he made a second venture of the
kind in Merry Mount, a Romance of the
Massachusetts Colony" This had been
written some time before it was publish
ed; so il, too, was, in a sense, youthful
| effort 1t was regarded by the authors
friends as a great advance on the earlier
story. and as a book of good promise;
but the promise, even they allowed, was
for an historian rather than for a novel
list T.. c. Martin.