Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-06-08


posed and her eyes were dry.
Your husbands conduct could not
nave been more courageous His death
was such as a soldier would have
chosen, Palmer began.
| "Of course he was brave" sbe ro.
pied. THAT is taken for granted with
an officer Of the regular service. Wha,
l came ashore from the transport ia
ask you is ii my husband, who has
been in the army from boyhood, took
men into the flank fire.
Palmer told her how he had heard
British general assign her husband
10 a vcritable slaughter pen, and he
made plans of the field showing her
now coolly and scientifically the colonel
had set about eXtricating himself when
he fell.
Il knew it was impossible General
Macarthur said it was" she replied.
But he was not there and you were.
wanted the facts. l knew that they
would show that my husband had
never led his regiment into a cul de
sac"
And then tears of pride glistened in
Mrs. Liscum's eyes.
charles Major, the author of when
kniShthood Was in Flower" is to go
on the lecture platform. An enter
prisInS Western manager has sue
tceded in capturing him, and the re-
suit will be an extensive tour during
which AT the Stroke of Nine" "A
Castle Near SPAIN Angle Nobody
and other unpublished stories by Mr..
Mn iOr will ho
monotony of the program, Mr. Major
Will be assisted by Miss Katharine Egg
Sleston, an elocutionist who will recite
an unpublished chapter of when
knighthood Was in Flower
| 1t is interesting to compare the
American with the English sales of
! kipling's books. To the close of 1900
$1,000 copies of THE Jungle Book
were disposed of in the authors native
country, and $1,000 in the United
States. OF THE Second Jungle Book
! the sale there was $4,000 and here "a,
600. a still greater discrepancy is to be
! noted in the case of Captains Cour-
! ageous.' of which the English market
absorbed only 1900 copies and the
American 5000. 1t is estimated that
the English sale of kipling's works has
aggregated 100000. In this country
the figures would doubtless be several
! times as large.
Mr.. Poultney Bigelow's study of
colonization, The Children of the
Nations" recently published, is now
being translated into German, and
will soon appear in Berlin.
| We are apt to think, nowadays, that
the great quantity of spurious litera-
ture which continues to flood the coun-
try has spoiled the appetite of readers
for the masterpieces of literature,
and yet it is remarka bic how the taste
for good literature survives among
readers everywhere. This is attested
by the large sales of sets of Scott and
Tha ckeray. Dickens and Goldsmith
sold by subscription. 1t cannot be al
together that these are bought only to
be placed on the shelf to adorn H.
I brary. for statistics show that many Of
these editions are purchased by people
of no great means. Whether these
readers are like a prominent author
who, when asked the other day IL he
had read a certain popular novel. re-
piled, Il have no time to read current
novels: / have not finished reading
TIE classics yet" need not be inquired
into too carefully. "'
How far does an authors license ex-
tend in characterizing persons who
have actually lived but whose names
alone have come down to our genera
ton? This question has been raised
by Mr.. William Farquhar Payson':
novel John Vytal.' in which, as it is a
tale of the lost colony of Roanoke. he
has necessarily drawn entirely on his
imagination for characters. but ha:
freely used the colonists names thai
have been preserved. The name o.
Ananias Dare. for instance, is recorded
as belonging to one of the colony:
twelve assistants. yet nothing con
corning the mans nature is known
He may have been courageous ant
upright, though the author portray.
him as a coward and prOfiigate. Or
this point, Mr.. Payson has evidently
felt some computations. In reply to thu
question, What if in the next worlt
this Ananias should rise up to con
denim you for desecrating his memory
and dcbasing his name?' Mr.. PaysOl
says MY excuse Will be that the ram'
Ananias should have perforce and by
tradition belonged to an unpleasant
sort of person, whether it did or not
also that. foreseeing his indictment
| took good care in the preface to state
that the conception Of his character wa
nv own. Nevertheless. the prospect o
Master Ananias's accusation is Ger
tainly conducive to nightmares
In the Editors Study in Harper
for June Mr.. Alden has this to say o.
the responsibility of the editor ant
publishers:
Upon publishers and upon editors
rests a grave responsibility. They WI
fail both of their duty and of thei
high privilege in so far as they yield t
the importunities of a capricious popu
lar taste. If they surrender their bust
ross TO wholly mercantile purposes
regardless of the best interests o
, literature. and compete with eacl
! other in this facile and fatal descent
then a general publishing syndicate
: unon a purely mercantile basis, will b.
as natural and inevitable in its appli
cation to literature as it has become II
the control of railroads ana the pro
duction of steel. Fortunately TN
) great publishers of books and period
calls in this country have maintained ;