The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-19
THE LITERARY OUTLOOK.
AMERICAN POLITICAL INTERESTS
AFFECTED BY THE BOOM IN
WALL STREET.

try--An Historian Who Can Pro-
duce $4,000 Words Day-The
story of NeuGeId's Twelve Years.
Captivity Mt Observation-Disclosures
Bits of Literary News.
New York, Feb. 1S-Mr Frank r. Stock
ton is again making a kind of transient
home in the city, as he is apt to do for two
of three months each winter. He ID de-
voted TO q country life, and in his commo-
dious home at Convent Station near Nor
ristown, N j.. he has all the interior
comfort and wide. pleasant outlook that
8 man could require to keep him in the
temper TO write cheerful aud humorous
stories. But Mr.. Stockton is no recluse;
he likes company and social diversion
and. moreover, he was born In Philadel-
phia, and through his boyhood and his
early manhood lived pretty constantly in
the city, so a term Of strict city life now
and then remains rather a necessity with
him. He Is far from losing all connections
with IL, even when he is al his country
home: for 1t is only the ordinary daily
Journey of the suburbaner away. But he
can not then so certainly be counted on
30 appear at social functions and The
various literary entertainments and gath
erings for which he is always in request.
When he Is staying In town, he Is, for
example, one of the most faithful mem
bers of the Authors Club appearing at
the fortnightly social meetings about as
unfailingly as any one; but after he has
got back home, there must be some rather
ssaaHN NWfssaE Naa
I once heard of his saying that the city is
no place in which 10 find stories; and when
YOU think of IT, the small part that the
city and strict city life have i'm his stories
is quite remarkable. They are for the most
part Of the suburbs, the country and the
sea.
There is no really good portrait Of Mr..
Stockton that have ever seen. observed
near by. his living face has peculiar and
nosjtfve interest; there is distinct charac-
tr- in IL and extreme sensibiltty. But
much Of this gets lost In the pictures
II is perhaps not generally suspected
that the recent boom in Wall street has
had a direct effect on literature. A Few
evenings ago a friend Of Edmund car
epce Stedmans explained his absence
from an entertainment at which he was
EXPECTED by saying that since the great
tear of business In Wall street came on
Mr. Sledman went home so compile ely
tired out at night that he had 10 deny
himself evening diversion. For upward of
thirty years now Mr.. Stedman has been In
active business in Wan street as broker,
keeping office hours and following the
turns of the market with the scru-
pulousness of any other business. He
has had the fortune of his class-now
delightful flow Of prosperity. and now
a grizzlng, wrnkling turn of adver-
sity. The latest tide, apparently, is pros
porous; and, for myself l hope there VIII
he no departure from that for the amiahle
poet henceforth TO the end. On leaving
college, forty-five years ago. Mr.. Stedman
became editor of a newspaper In Norwich.
Conn Later he conducted newspaper at
Winsted, i'm the same state. Then he made
trial of fortune an author in New York.
The venture ended, as such ventures usual
ny end, by the adventurers settling down
10 regular work on some newspaper. Mr..
Stedman was an editorial writer for a
time, and then through the first three
years of the civil war, correspondent
in the field. Finding little satisfaction for
genuine literary aspirations I'm all this, he
finally took up his present calling, as one
that promised a comfortable, and possibly
a generous livelihood, and at the same
time allowed because of the shortness of
the stock brokers' business day, fair lei
sure for literary work.
From calculations of this sort-and they
have been made by many another literary
man beside Mr.. Stedman-there is apt to
follow some disappointment. Business in
its occupation and exhaustion of the mind,
il not of the hands so inevitably outruns
the stated business hours, that the preal-
lottment for writing and study is never
fully. and often scarcely at all. realized
Mr.. Stedman, / have no doubt, has found
il so. But he has no just reason 10 feel
otherwise than cheerful when he makes
review of what he has been able 10 ac-
complish as an author since he. went into
Wall street. Beside producing the larger
and perhaps more notable part Of his
poetry. he has produced three OF the per-
haps ten or a dozen really distinguished
books In literary criticism by American
writer's; and in addition, he has done
some large and important tasks as an edi-
tor of volumes and series of volumes.
Mr.. Steadman's present home. as l think
] may have mentioned in this correspond
ence, is at BronXville, a nearby suburb,
where he has for neighbors Mr.. Win II,
Lowe and other artists and authors. II
is not so far out but that he is often seen
at the Century and Authors clubs and va
rious literary and social gatherings. lie
Is a small man, with an abundance of
now almost white hair and beard; a pair of
lively black. or at least very dark, eyes.
and fairly youthful lightnss of step and
movement.
have just then accorded, as a special
favor, a glimpse into the manuscript of
Charles Neufeld's story of has twelve
years horrible captivity at Omburman.
Neufeld, il win be remembered, is the Ger
man-Englishman who was set free from
the Kaleefa's letters and prison last Sep
TENDER by Kitchener's final overthrow of
the dervishes and capture of Omburdman
of Khartoum. Within a week Of his get
ting to Cairo, after being set at liberty, he
began to dictate the narrative of his
twelve years of suffering; aud this Is the
story have just read. The arrangements
for its publication in this country are. 1
think, not yet fully completed; but 1t will, J
undoubtedly, be put out in book form,