BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-09-22
SAT{ JUAN, SEPTEMBER y
National Types

The death of Ed vatd Egg1eston, in
recalling the period of his story-wr1t-
ing, serves also to remind one of how
few of our novelists and tellers of tales
have really succeeded in transferring to
their pages any vivid and lasting I'M
preston of the native American in his
va:ious phases: Take the swarm of
books which have appeared in the past
ten years-ever since the native novel
cam to be truely popular-and consider
whether in more than two or three OF
them tn ere is anything like a perma-
nent contribution to national portralture
in the sense that the novels of Scott and
Dickens and Thackeray-ycs, and those
of Reade aud Hardy and even Dlsraell
contain such portraiture. 1t will be
found that there will stand out few, very
few, distinctive characteristic figures
which linger in the memory as do the
figures, for example, OF Claverhouse
and King James, of Pecksniff and Joe
.Gargery, OF Sir Pitt Crawley and Major
Pendennis. in other woIds, the Amer
lean writer succeeds, at the most, IN tel
ling an attractive stOro; he does not Sue
ceed in weaving into it the threads OF
a larger interest, nor does he really lu-
terpret our national life in its different
phases
This is generally true; yet fortunate
1y there are some exceptions, and 1t Is
these exceptions which are interesting
to consider 1t is often asked 10 what
extent these books of the past two OF
three decades are really contributlva to
literature and how much far each of
them has elucidated and reflected our
national traits and the peculiar condl
tions OF our social life. Such a test as
this will at once eliminate thousands OF
candidates for favor, and will serve as
an approximate means of distinguish
ing between a best seller and d real
1y sound and vial book.
Mr. Eggleston, for instance, though
he came to the work of fiction-writlng,
without the slightest preparation, did
nevertheless manage to hit off with
marvellous success the men and women
of Indiana and Ohio in the early for
ties. His pots were no.hing. In his
first and best book, The Hoosier School
master, he even left q good deal wholly
unexplained He injec.ed his villain
slap into the rniddie of the story with
out SO much as hint of why he should
be plotting against the, schooln2aster or
even as to who he~-waS. Bat ;hls
makes no difference The story is net
the tnrg; for his men and women, and
also hi: aw boys ard his blowsy girls,
even his smalles., brass, are actually
before you, HiLh all their prlnltlv-
half-barbarc instincts, their Tasty wood =
land ways their broad humor their
squalor, AMI their intensely aboriglna;
native AmericanisJn. Bret flarte was
earlier in the field than Eggleston, but
he too, did the same thing IN differ
ent way, in revealing to Americans
their own brothers l1artes Argonauts
are hardly real in themselves. Son e
may say that they are idealzed por-
traits, and.some may say that thy e
caricatures; but in either case, the
truth is clearly seen even in the eXag-
geration; and it is in this respect more
than in his manneris rs that Harte re-
sembles Dickens For it used 10 be
thrown out against Dickens that his
men and women are not real, that they
are " personifed catchwords. grotesque
fancies only; yet nevertheless there is
an intensely national. English flavor to
every book of his, so that Thackeray
used to say, with smack of his lips,
that reading Pick Nick" was like drink
ing a glass of good old English ale, and
Tame recognized thar underneath all
the fun and extravaganza of Micawber
and Pecksniff and Mark Tapley, there
was a real portrait which could have
been delineated only by an English
man, It this way, Breat Hartes emo
tional ruffiians and pitiflll harlots are
typical of the California Of 40, and
thus, too. Mark Twain's Col. Sellers in
carnates American optimism.
But the wri,erS who have SO far
caught and permanently fixed for US
the more characteristic types Of our
co lntrymen are still com nparatively fsw.
Mr. IIowells is among the more success.
full with Silas Laphanl, who is his finest
creation, and also with Lydia Blood,
and with Kinney. In !" A Boys Town
Ia book which is still but half appre-
ciated-Ee has once for al drawn TO
the last and subtlest shading the HE
and up5ringing aid the innermost
Thoughts aad fancies of the average
American country boy. Henry James
has given us in Daisy Miller an Anne
r.can girl Of the aineteenth century and |,
after Miss Wilkins has liked forever
On tbs printed page the old-fashioned I
New England village. Harold Frede-
ric succeeded With Central New York.
But hoy many more writers can bel
named who have caught national, -