The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-09
q j ] J |(.!|l1

| ward Bellamy, ana captains Courageous
and THE Walking Delegate" bring Kip
ling into the field. Altogether, New Eng
land would seem to have been about as
thoroughly covered as is possible for one
] small piece of ground not as big as the
| State of Georgia. Yet, so great is the di-
| yersity of human types and the compleXity
of human relations. that there is much
even in this tiny section which has not
been touched, or has been handled but in
! adequately. Nobody has yet done much
| with the great immigrant population which
has everywhere come into conflict with, or
peacefully settled down beside, the old
| Puritan element; the Irish, the French
| Canadians, the Italians, the Poles, the
Germans. the Swedes, the Hungarians.
! Mrs. Wyman is almost the only one who
! has tried to picture the life of the factory
! town of today. Another factor in the old
! civilization of Massachusetts and Rhode
! Island which has hardly been noticed was
I the small slave population. What were
the lives of these few black aliens in a
civilization so opposite to their natures
| Only two New England writer's have men
toned them-Holmes, when he put old
Sophy into Elsie Venner,'' and Mrs. Stowe
when she wrote sam Lawsons Fireside
Stories" The Indian in New England
has figured scarcely more; yet he is there,
as he always has been; there are settle
ments of the original inhabitants of the
country at Stockbridge, at Oldtown, in
Rhode Island, and all around the frontier
of Maine.
But. if. with all this multitude OF
writer's, New England has not been fully
exploited, what about the West and South
The wealth of material here is so great
that it staggers one 10 think of 1t. II
the little island of Great Britain has
| afforded material for a great and still in
| creasing literature, what will this huge
| continent with its millions of people of
| all races and nations have produced in
the next three hundred years? The real
| istic movement, thanks mainly to the
| magazines which have carried its influ-
ence into every nook and corner of the
| land, has spread with advancing civiliZa-
! ton. and the young writer in a new coun-
| try has grasped the idea that to be really
! great he must tell the truth, and talk
/ of what he knows. Hence we have 4 regi-
ment of young magazine writer's earnestly
endeavoring to picture the life they know
| best, as they see it.
New York has hardly received its due
share OF attention till recently. II. C.
| Bunner man who loved the great Ne
tropoiis because his father and his faith
! ers father had been part of it, and SO
| was he-a man content to let his life be
/ swallowed up in the making of a weekly
| paper-wrote, IN The Midge," one charm
/ ing New York story; and his brief bu
morous sketches number some other pic
| lures of Gotham. Brander Matthews has
made 1t his business to tell of a certain
semi-Bohemian circle of the society OF
! that city. Thomas A. Janyier told OF an
| other In his whimsical Ivory Black"
sketches. Richard Harding Davis has per-
sistently assumed the right TO disucss New
| York but there remains in the mind OF
1 IL rsaTa st,zN 4.
| gets much of his material from hearsay.
| Mrs Burton Harrison has done some beau
tifully clever work in her own line. The
Anglomanacs" was a dainty satire. and
| Sweet Bells Out of Tune" was another.
\ The East Side has just begun to receive
/ its share of attention. Norman Duncan,
| in the Syrian quarter; Abraham Cahan, III
the Ghetto; Seumas MacManus, dealing
with the Amerieanized Irishman; Edward
| Townsend, in his burlesque "Chimmie
! Fadden.' all these have done something.
| but there is much left 10 DO. Josiah Flynt,
| In his "Stories of the Under World" has
| just begun to picture phase of New York
| life about which few people could possibly
write with any certainty-the criminal
| phase Mr. Flynts fiction is as valuable
/ and accurate as his fact, and in its way
| IS to be considered as fact.
| Central New York was represented by
! Edward Noyes Westcott in David Ha-
rum" and northern New York was han
! died by Harold Frederic in THE Damnation
! OF Theron Ware" and "Seth's Brothers
Wife, New Jersey impresses one some
| how as being the favorite happy hunting
ground OF Frank r. Stockton. For some
reason or other his people always strike
| one as Jersey folk Philadelphia is almost
untounched. Janvier did something with it
| in his last book, and Mr.. Paul Leicester
/ Ford apparently thought he had In writing
Janice Meredith" but he was deluded.
| Mrs. Deland has taken for her own GER
tain elements of Pennsylvania. The Curl
| Gus people known as the Pennsylvania
Dutch have never received much atten-
| tion from romance writers, though John
Luther Long has published some delight
| fui sketches of them. Delaware has never
| figured at all in fiction.
Coming down into the Southern States,
| Maryland. with all her associations Of
| song and story, has not been field for
any writer of fiction. Virginia has Hop
| kinson Smith-who by the way, should
4 also be credited TO New York on the
! merits of his Tom Grogan"-Thomas
Nelson Page, Amelie Rives, and four or
! five less important writer's. The Carolinas
are represented by Sarah Barnwell Ell
Holt. 1.-THE Black Homer of Jimtown"
! I'D. Motif and that wonderfully clever
| little book of folklore Charles Ches-
/ NUTS THE Coniure Woman" though Mr..
/ Chestnut is an Ohio man by birth. Geor-
gia is fertile. Sbo can boast of some OF
! the brightest people below Mason and
| Dixon's line-Joel Chandler Harris, with
his inimitable Uncle Remus" and Aunt
! Minervy Ann" Harry Stilwell Edwards
| with Two Runaways," a BOOK III which
| there is not one second Glass story; Sid
ney Lanier, a realist in verse, in his way;
Viola Roseboro, and Richard Malcolm
! Johnston Alabama may claim Miss Mary
Johnston though she writes of Virginia.
Louisiana is rich in imaginative story
! teilers. Cable started the ball rolling with
"Old Creole Days" Lafcadio Hearn did
/ lust enough Of Louisiana fiction to prove
| himself easily Cables superior; then he
went roaming TO fresh fields and pastures
new. But "Chita" far outwelghs anything
/ in Cables work Ruth McEnery Stuart's
stories Of negro life are charuingly sym
pathetic. humorous. and delicate. Grace
/ King has a field OF her own; so has Kate
! Chopin; and a recent conner Into this held'
I Alice Dunbar, has proved herself by The
| Goodness Of St. ROGUE" little book OF
/ short stories, to be the equal of both Nov
! ing north to Arkansas Mrs. Stuart has
also occupied that field in her "Simpkins-
Vile" stories. Tennessee has until recent
| Iy hsen supposed to belong to Charles Egg
1 bert Craddock. but the advent OF Pine
Knot" with its unctious humor and abso-
/ lutte accuracy Of detail, proves DIR. Burton
! 10 have a fair title TO the Kentucky and
! Tennessee mountains.
The capital of the nation has never real
/ " received adequate treatment in fiction.
/ Mrs Burnett's Through One Administra-
] A . -