The times., 1901-03-27

untrammeled freedom OF Flaubcrt or Zola, of
Tolstoy or Maupassant of D'Annunzio or Ma
tide Serao OF any other Continental author
good or bad He is unconscious OF anything en-
yiablc He utters his truths regardless OF Wlal
mankind may think. and mankind Is never t'e
worse for what he says.
This is good. wholesome talk, and the
more of it there is, in the press ana III
private conversation, the better it will be
for art in this country. Nobody wants
the American author. or any other au-
thor. to be squeamish, but If man Is
great he cannot be that, and if he is small
he would better err on the side of too
great reserve than on that of excessive
and sCandalOus frankness. Vice, when
treated by a man who is large enough to
see life from all sides, is only an Incl
dent; in the hands of a petty scribblerr
or even "A man of great but perverted tai
ent it is too often made to appear as II
it were the whole OF life. There is no
reason to object to the writing of fiction
in such way that it will not inJure the
morals Of the young person. The young
person will by and by be the old person,
and it will not improve the health OF the
country, mental, moral, or physical. to
have the ideals of young people poisoned
and tainted with immortality.
The cant about art for arts sake IS
our heritage from the days Of the Second
Empire, when, for a while, French ideals
held almost complete sway in this coun-
try. along with French fashions. There
is no question that the morals of the
French people are. on the whole, less bad
than their native authors would have us
I,.,In INsf.t,
and even in Paris there are pure women.
and mon who are gentlemen in every
sense of the word. But there is also no
question that the ideals which have gov
erned French literature are, as a whole.
demoralizing to the Angio-SaXon mind.
From many novels by Partisan authors
one gets the impression that no married
woman of intellect and character is in
love with her husband: that she must
either give the chief devotion of her heart
to the Church or to some masculine
friend; and one is also impressed with
the idea that every man of the world
must have in his past u considerable num-
ber of exciting and not very reputable
experiences. Such an ideal as that eX
pressed by Tennyson in his "Idyls OF King
Arthur is so far removed from the
French mind as to appear, to a French
man, utterly ridiculous, or the self-denial
of an ascetic. 1t is not good that the young
folk of this country, either boys or girls,
should get into their heads the idea that
there is no such thing as morality in real
ly good society, and that to love ones
own husband or wife is bourgeois and
stupid The greatest French authors, it
is true, teach nothing of this sort: neither
Victor Hugo nor BalZac is small enough
for such petty cant, but there are plenty
of Bohemian scribblers who are possessed
with it, and it is time that somebody put
a stop to them.
President Mitchell and other officers Of
the United Mine Workers organization,
at latest accounts were still in New York
vainly seeking an interview with Mr.. J.
Pierpont Morgan. head of the Coal Trust.
The chances are that they will not see
him. Whether in default Of some word
from the trust recognizing the union,
strike will be ordered on April ] or not,
is in some doubt; but the general opinion
seems to be that the miners leaders will
avoid that extremity in Difference to the
growing unpopularity Of The movement.