, 1900-10-01
THOUGHTS And
A%FTERTH0UGHTS

; AFTERTHOUGHTS ;
\ Chicago paper has asked the lead
ing publishers what they think Of the
outlook for great books of fiction in
the coming year. The replies of the
publishers are somewhat hazy but
there is one bright and shining spot
in what they have said. All of them,
with various degrees of frankness,
agree that the historical novel has al
most run its course. We should like
to lead a chorus of thankfulnesS for
this assurance hat we are to be
~vouchsafed a rest. We arc weary of
the clash of swords and of the sput-
Itering "Zounds," "Odzooks," and
"S'Bloods," that have been these
three or four years the chief stock in
trade Of story writer's great and small
mostly small. Few things are east
er, to one who can write a little, than
to construct an historical novel. Civ
en- IA king or a prince, a Courtier out
at heel and elbow, a lordling with an
evil smile, a property sword or two
and almost any kind of n wax figure
for a heroine and the rest is like roll
ty. Nearly four hundred thousand
copies of Richard Carvel were sold;
and now, after its fitful fever has sub
sided, | should like to find the man
willing to weary himself with reading
it again. A novel that will not
endure ]re-reading should never have
been written.
What kind of novel will be popular
next year is a matter for conjecture.
Many a publisher would like to know.
The success of The Reign of Law"
and The Redemption of David Cor
son" many mean that the religious
novel is going to have another turn
at popularity. Again. The Voice of
The People" a political novel, has
leaped at one into the arena and
challenges competition. Halle Err
mine Rives, a sister of the wonderful
and unhappy Amelie Rives, has
just published a soul-racking
study in fiction of a soul
racked young woman and the
critics say the book is a great study
of the emotions. And, finally, there
is a plain tendency among writer's to
return to the realistic. the tragical
and the psychological. The stage is a
good signboard to point the way of
public taste; and the stage is filled
with plays which the fastidious
condemn as erotic but which the av-
erage person declares to be not only
~diverting but true. In the revIlsion
from the light and air historical novel
the readers of this country will well
come the kind of book that treats of
people as they are, that deals with
the real facts of life whether these be
tragic. comic or melodramatic, SO they
be true. Red Pottage,' though it
was published months ago, is one of
the new novels and it will be follow.
ed by others that will go deeper than
it has gone into the passions and per-
versities of mankind.
Writing of The Reign of Law"
which has reached its SOth thousand,
recalls the following little quatrain by
William J. hampton published in the
Bookman recently:
TO JAMES LANE ALLEN.
The Reign of Law
Well, Allen, you're lucky;
It's the first time it ever
Rained law in Kentucky.
Some day a great novelist may write
the tragedy of the Indian. There is
a plot ready-made down in Indian Ter
ritory today. The government has de-
creed that polygamy among the Kio-
was and Navajos must cease. The
order has been obeyed generally with
the splendid stoicism which is the fin
al redeeming trait of the red men.
And yet tragedies have been enacted
as the result of that decree. Of cast
off wives of the Indian bucks some
have only pined away while some
have taken their own lives. The gov
eminent officials We're amazed at more
one thing in the conduct of the
disciplined Indians. In every in
stance" says the report, when the
government agents gave the Indians
the opportunity to choose when of
their wives they would retain, they
chose the Oldest, latest and ugliest.
that the old squaws loved them
best. 1t is feared that all the discard
ed wives will kill themselves"
h newest theatrical sensation in
New York is E. H. Sothern's Ham
let. This sterling actor has played
high-class comedy all his life but has
climbed the very heights of trag-