The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-03-04

the wouId-be investors in Seattle prop
erty. or upon Seattle business?, The
question answers itself. The worst
enemy of Seattie's progress and ad-
vancement could not possibly have
selected mode of injuring the city in
a more vital way.
A Prophet and HIS Countrywoman.
One Of the great advantages Of being
only moderately well known in the CO.'S
mopolitan world of art or letters is that
you always have a chance OF being
discovered" No one would undertake
TO discover Kipling or stevenson, but it
is still quite in order to exploit Hamiin
Garland as a find" This has been
done recently by the French critic,
Madame Blanc Benton. in the leading
Partisan review, with the result OF CIV
ing Mr.. Garland vast amount Of free
advertising on this side OF the Atlantic.
Madame Blanc-Bentzon entities her
study "A Radical of the Prairie: she
finds in his robust personality an ele-
ment OF the primitive savage OF the
West; he has "virile fascination; he
embodies the pioneer spirit: he repre-
SCENTS a phase Of social evolution; he
speaks for his dumb and suffering coun-
tryfolk. In short, he IS the Middle
West as 1t Is imagined In Paris salon.
But Paris is a long way from the
prairies and perhaps Mr.. Garland Is not
so strongly typical as he appears from
a distance. At all events. the editorial
writer's over here, where Mr. Garland
comes from, do not seem to think so.
One Of them says that an author. like a
bicycle, ought not to be taken to pieces
by people who do not understand the
business. and intimates that his most
admiring friends would not recognize
these colossal sections as fragments OF
his being" Another 1eers openly at his
claim that he has by the sweat OF his
brow transformed a desert into field
of wheat and observes that 'if we ac-
correct. we are compelled to admit that
he Ia the most gifted perspirer in these
United States"
But all these jibes are as nothing COM
pared to the protest which Kansas
farmers wife has just written to the
New York Times. For. II Mr.. Garland
has been anything. it is the champion
OF the down-trodden, oppressed and
over-worked farmers wife. He 1t was
who wrote:
" Born an scrubbed. suffered and died.
That's all you need to say elder.
Never mind sayin' made BRIDE
Nor when her hair got gray,
Jest say, born n worked q death:
That fts 1t, save y'r breath"
that she has been farmers wife for
twenty years and hasn't had a bad
time Of 1t at all; she says she lives in
one of the most cosmopolitan OF
states and she knows other farmers
wives from many other states. and that
she has not even in one case seen the
picts as nearly universal She resen,s
his representations and has heard many
other intelligent women express their
Indignation at them in no measured
terms. She AYERS that the Western
farm, even the Western farm with a
mortgage on II. Is a pretty good place
TO live and very good place indeed to
obtain training in self-reiiance and
self-respect
All this Is very gratifying to the stu
dent of social conditions. but 1t must
be embarrassing for Mr., Garland. How
can he act the part OF champion II the
oppressed heroine won't play9 You
can't do anything to release a victim
who says she's having a perfectly beau
tiful time just where she is. II is Inn
possible to be ST. George when the
dragon refuses to materiaiixe.
They had a discussion on portrait
painting In New York recently In which
divers artists claimed that IL was an
impertinenee for sitters TO ask that their
portraits should be good iikenesses as
well as works OF art. What holds Ia
art should be true In literature. Mr..
Garland has certainly written some ar
tistic stories. and II Is obviously scan
daiously ungra,eful in the farmers
wives to demand that his tales be also
true 10 life.