The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-09
NEWS AND VIEWS
OF THE BOOK WORLD
Literary Reservation for the Promotion Of Genius Death
of Frank Norrs--EaSt End Stun SketcheS-A
Notable Historical WORT
By HERBERT BREWSTER.

Sometimes their owners sold out 10
their great rival, but sometimes they
struggled on, each year doing a little
less business. until finally the fires I'M
der the last still went out, and the
owner began life over in another bust
ness. 1t was combine or die in the
oil region, and there We're men who
preferred to die. Their stories lie in
sombre accusing lines across the path
Ct conquest which the Standard has
followed These stories are not hear
say, not the legends of a hard-lucK
community; they are legal records, life
histories brought out in the questions
and answers of examiners in federal
and state Investigations, or told in af-
fidavits filed in civil courts in various
cities of the country.
THE Reader a new literary publ
cation, makes a very favorable i'm
preston in its first issue-that for No
vember. and if the same standard IS
maintained there will be no doubt of
its success.
What promises to be an amusing
series of articles, is The Literary
Guillotine," in which popular authors
are tried for literary crimes before a
tribunal composed of Mark Twain,
Oliver HEREFORD and the unknown au-
thor OF the articles with Charles Bat
tell Loomis as chief prosecuting officer.
The first case Is that of the people
against Richard Harding Davis. Mr..
Davis is convicted of lese majestic
against the cause of letters. In the
course of the trial it is proposed by
the prosecution that Soldiers of For
tune be read aloud TO the jury.
with your honor's permission"
cried the foreman, springing to his
feet, 'as spokesman Of this jury
must vigorously protest against this
injustice We are peaceful. unoffen-
sive citizens, who are sacrificing our
time and interests to the state, yet
here it is proposed to force us to listen
to Soldiers of Fortune We throw
ourselves upon the mercy of the court
to protect us against this cruel and
unusual punishment"
After some discussion among the
judges, Mark Twain delivers the
ruling. I'm view of the appeal of the
foreman and of the fact that one of
the jurymen has heart disease, we
have decided not to compel the jury to
hear the book"
The idea of a court of literary in
CURRY is a good one. but of course the
plan could not be carried out. If.
however, the errors of authors be
called to their attention frequently
they may exercise more care in future
writing Naturally enough, more err
rors creep into TRANSACTIONS than ap-
pear in the original work. The old
story of the French translation of one
of Cooper's novels illustrates the mat
ter Cooper had one of his characters
hitch his horse to a locust-meaning
of course a tree. The translator knew
locust only as an insect. and his ver-
sion had the man hitching his horse
TO a grasshopper. with the following
explanation in a footnote:
in the United States grasshoppers
occasionally grow to enormous, incred-
ible size. When a particularly gigantic
specimen is met with. it is customary
to stun 1t, weighing 1t down with lead
for greater solidity. The animal is
placed in front Of the outside door
and used for hitching horses"
Perhaps the French critics may
point out as glaring errors in our
translati lions of their works, but we
doubt IT.
There is. however, too much loose
ness In writing nowadays. Even Kip
ling's last short story, Wireless" was
severely criticised by the scientists. and
from Kipling down there is much need
of greater care. Not long ago a pop
ular author had the full moon rising
at midnight-a mistake which a school
boy could scarcely make in a first COM
position.