The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-08

90 and Others is now In press. has Just
accented an editorial position on the fnfi-
adelphia North American.
.sThe Black VOLTS Breed" by Harris Dick
son. Is to be translated into French and IS
sued by q Paris publishing house The
story is an historical one. the scenes being
laid in Louisiana. when that common
wealth was a French possession, and IN
France, whittier the hero is sent on a oip-
lomatic mission which proves excluhs az
we'll The book has been a distinct success
in this country and il will be interesting 70
learn how the Frenchmen take the Amer
lean point OF view.
The reading of Dickens's stories soothed
and comforted the last painful days OF
Richard He suffered greatly
and his nights were more or less sleepless.
Here he found out the value of those I'M
mortal stories. lie is the only man can
read now" he said. though in previous
years he had not cared for the author OF
"The Old Curiosity Shop" One OF ms
odd possessions was a huge album nlled
with portraits of girls called Lorna, after
the heroine of his most famous DOCK
Literary annexation is in the air. MI. W..
P. James protests in the st. James's Ca
zette against longer enumerating American
writer's among foreign authors" He
writes: Lowell called us foreigners In a
~well-known essay. protesting against our
alleged condescension. but that was a
long time ago. Literature in English Is
English literature. and we do not call Low
ell himself. or Poe or Hawthorne, or bret
Harte or Mark Twain, a foreign autnor-
Mr.. Austin Dobson is now the most dis
tinguished man of letters in the British
civiI-service. He accepted at sixteen a
clerkship in the Board of Trade, where he
is now principal of an important depart
ment, in which there is an unusual mass
of official detail and drudgery. He mas
been for forty-four years in the civll-serV-
ice, as a faithful, plodding official; yet ne
has found leisure for an exhaustive study
of the literature of the eighteenth CEN
fury, and for writing many volumes OF
poetry, critical essays and biography.
While his reputation as another Praeu,
with a superior method and more deli
cate refinement, was made long ago, only
those who know him well are aware OF
his complete mastery of English ana
French literature of the last century. ThlS
has been the special study of his life.
"It is gravely announced" says John ID.
Barry in the Literary World. that Mr..
Edwin Markham is writing an epic. This
| statement will be of particular interest TO
those persons who believe that in the au-
thor of The Man with a Hoe has been dis
covered a great American poet. But 10
those who believe that one poem does not
necessarily make a poet, the exploitation
which this particular poet has been receiv-
/ ing seems rather plJl1ui. MI. MdrkldH mas
been lauded and advertised wholly beyond
his merits. He has even been persuaded to
appear on the lecture platform and elabo-
| rately explain how he wrote his popular
| verses. Just how long this kind of exploit
tation will last is not certain; but it surely
can't last long. Meanwhile, however, Mr..
Markham is making more or less pecuniary
profit out of his success"
| Mrs. Wards somewhat carping and hy-
| percritical observations concerning Char
lotte Bronte, in her introduction to the vol
ume of the new edition of the ~latter's
| works, have reused to wrath ar editorial
writer in the London Daily News (pre-
sumably Mr.. Lang.) OF Charlotte he says
that "her personality is stamped with the
hallmark of genius upon every page of her
writings, for which all true lovers of good
literature humbly and devoutly thank God.
| Mrs. Ward is a clever woman, but she cam
not weigh genius in scales like a pound of
tea. The curates in Shirley have nc
searchings of heart about miracles, but
they live for evermore. Charlotte Bronte
had her limitations, no doubt. Her style
was not ACCIDENTALLY perfect, and she was
too fond of using long words on small occa-
sions. But she had more natural eloquence
than any other novelist of the century, and
Mr.. Swinburne did not find it difficult to
quote from her some of the noblest pas
sages ever written in English"