New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-21
SUNDAY, JANUARY 81, 1900.

fixed. AS the full names are familiar to most
other journalists in the United Kingdom it will
not be long before everybody will be in possess
sion of the facts. The experiment is of special
interest in this case, because the sense of re-
sponsibinty felt by a writer Of serious prose or
verse, when his name is given freely to the
public, must be intensified a thousandfold when
point of humOr is at issue. A man may sur
vive bad poem. We all know what gnominy
is poured upon the author of a bad joke. OF
course, the fun makers of punch" only expect
that the printing of their initials will spur them
to keener and more successful efforts. But
suppose some hitherto popular and seemingly
blameless gentlemen become known as the
fathers of particularly atTocOus puns of in
eHaby inane doggerel VIII they not be
marked men" in the most balefuI sense of that
term? Will not Fleet Street get to know more
haggard wights than poverty or failure has
ever enabled it to know before? One can see
them in the minds eye, pale, furtive mortaIs,
hurrying on with n hunted look stamped ON
their once bland features, avoided of all men.
Sir Walter Besant has, all unconsciousIy,
come forward as the best critic of his own
pleasant assumption that the practice of litera-
ture may easily lead on to fortune He Is
down for a substantial contribution to the new
IL
too by that very Society of Authors of which
he is so valuable member The fund is tn
supplement the operations of the Royal Literary
FUND and the Civil List Pensions The money
viii be used for pensions only which will be
not less than EDO nor more than f1OO year
NO one VIII be eligible who is less than sixty
years OF age. 1t is scheme proposed by
authors for the benefit Of authors The general
public will not be asked to subscribe. The
hleLnperS OF the craft have at once shown the
Hyeliest disposition to support the plan Some
thing in the neghbOrhOod of a thousand nOunds
mas already been secured, and the LIST Drom
iseS to grow with rapdty. Some authors offer
modest sum, but they promise to pay it every
year presumably for the rest of their lives
Altogether it is an engaging spectacle, and in
a way, healthy confession. The rewards of
literature may sometimes be great but they
are often most capriciously distributed MANY
man who has, in good faith and with every
promise of success dedicated himself to the
pursuit of letters, finds himself inevitably
pushed to the wall as the years creep on.
All men are born either-but we will not
repeat the ancient aphOrism All authors are
born, We prefer to say, romanticists. or reaIists
or something else. The last clause might seem
to open wide field of possibilities but as a
udlIer OF IacI the something else is getting
nowadays to mean only thing a simple
NarcissuS. If the novels printed offer any crf-
teriOn, fully third of the great band of writer's
of fiction are occupied in gazing upon their own
features and the events of their own lives The
literary novel, is becoming a veritable nui-
sance. The poet, by time hOnored rule, begins
his career by writing five act tragedy The
novelist at the same stage rusheS into print to
tell a waiting world the real truth" about
wicked publishers, evil critics, and an imam
preciative public, only mildly described as the
many-headed beast" Between the lines he
paints his own portrait, beautiful thing he
would have us believe, the preSentment of a
man Of genius. If it only the beginner
there would be little to say. But the veteran
too, is growing fonder and fOnder of drawing
pictures Of what he loves to call the literary
life. The growth of 'specialism" in fiction has
been attended by some good results Now and
then we have 'sum" novel that is worth
reading, scientific" romance that is really |
romantic and interesting But the literary |
life does not often inspire an author. Perhaps |
he knows ii too well, and, in the effort to ideal
lie, or satirize, is hampered by personal con- |
sideratiOns Whatever the cause such books |
are certainly masterpieces of unhealthy in nine |
cases out of ten, and they have rs often more |
ov2E, sad complacency. With the world will |
ing to listen to tales Of almost anything from