The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-27

sued, ana IN the 1n016cT1m1Hate DOO1u-
| ing Of publishers the reading public Is
sure to suffer. The difficulty is further
Increased through the anxiety OF disap-
pointed authors to get their works pub
York and other cities will undertake to
manufacture books for an author. pro-
vided the author pays the expense. 1t
Is worse bunco game than handling
green goods.
| 1t is an astonishing fact that books
containing the most giaring errors OF
grammar and rhetoric are being pub
lished In large numbers nowadays. In
| a novel recently brought to my atten-
| ton the following extracts are charac-
terestic:
Neither one of the three.
''She took on her gloves. pulling at first
one finger and then the other: she lay
Alone in the hotel. these two. Just
! him and her.
They lost by too closeness."
| In the same book the author has tried
to show a familiarity of the French lam
guage by throwing in few expressions
here and there. Even one almost en-
tirely unacquainted with French must
Messieurs fait vous jeu!''
One of the notable works of fiction to
appear this fall is Booth Tarkington's
Indiana love story of Mexican war
times. For the preparation of his novel
most of the early history of Indiana and
all of the literature there was to be had
on the subject of Hoosier society in the
forties and fifties- The story is re-
ably the best Mr.. HARRINGTON has yet
written THE Two Vanrevels,' the title
of the novel, is scarcely complete
enough to indicate the character of the
tale. but it is now no longer necessary
for the author to depend upon catchy
title alone. Indeed, it is not fair to
imply that Mr. Harrington ever de-
pended upon bis titles for any popu-
larity which has come to him, but GER
| tain it Is that THE Gentleman from In
diana" had some little to do with bring
ing him into general notice because of
its apt name for his first long story.
Mr.. Harrington is now in the front rank
of American novelists; perhaps it is not
too much to say that he is first of the
writer's of romance. And the best part
of it is that he deserves every bit of
success and fame that has come to
him. A special limited edition of 1.-THE
Two VanreyelS" is to be brought out
The author is to autograph each of
these copies, and they are to be illus
trated with reproduction of one of
Mr.. Tarkington's own drawings for the
story.
A most interesting discussion has been
started by the editors of some of the
magazines as to the need of a special
style in writing. in harmony with the
spirit of the times. The editors are try
ing to make their magazines both pop
ular and also interesting to the intel
lectual classes, and, at the same time.
they are going to considerable pains to
explain why they cannot do both.
The reason why popular magazines
are not more interesting to the intel
lectual Glass; SAYS Mr. Walter H Page
who has been editor of three of thelead-
ing magazines. lis that the intellectual
class does not write in more interest
ing way"
The editors seem to agree that the
writer's who are gifted with the popular
style are not endowed with ideas, and
ideas are, after all. necessary Mr.. Page
believes that the day of the leisurely
style has passed and that in the vigor-
style which shall be direct, clear and
energetic. The lack of this latter he
deplores, believing that the teaching OF
composition and the practice of style
ment of intellectual life in recent years
THE implications, says another, THAI
If the leisurely writer's like Hazlitt, De
Quincy, Macaulay. Carlyle and Matthew
leisurely style would be found tagging
behind our recent intellectual develop
, ment-requires no very serious discus
sion The writer who wishes to reach
our public would do much better, we be.
tlieve, to study the leisurely style than tC
strive for that nervous quality which
the modern magazine reader is supposed
= to require.
las a matter of fact, the desideratet
style for the times has had pretty
thorough trial. The late G. w. Steven:
certainly wrote it; Mr.. Kipling write.
= it and produces six distinct electrical
discharges in the space in which tn,
. leisurely writer would grudge himself
, one; Mr. Maurice Hewlett. although h,
: is still caviare to the general, has al
. the nervousness and picturesuuenes
= El,,t J,
! examples of the modern style hardly en-
: courage us to believe that progress lie
that way. 1t seems to US, in short
q that Mr.. Pages conception of DELHI
! crate attack upon the larger reading
n public, of general attempt to measure
: up, or down, to the standards of thos
n who have learned to read only between
pictures, is fundamentally erroneous
. We do not believe that the style which
r the great unframed public wants is
Q good style. The fact is that, while tn
. intellectual contributor is often dull
person, the writer's Of today are less a
fault than the public. 1t is the publ
that needs to be converted to intellect
ual leisureliness, not the writer VIII
needs to catch the fever of modern life
A collection of unpublished letters o
Sir Walter Scott's has been discovers
by an enterprising publisher and the
will be brought out shortly in boo
form. The letters are all written t
Mrs. Hughes, the grandmother of Thos
Hughes, the author of tom Brown
School Days." Mrs Hughes the recipi
ent, was well known woman in he
day and If her letters to Sir Waite
could be recovered, a companion volum
might well be issued.
Mention was recently made of a new
q ly discovered manuscript of Rober
Southey's. A limited edition of thi
II work ia RI he brought ont in this conn
le try under the title journal of a Tou
le in the Netherlands" The journey wa
q one Southey made two or three month
Is after the battle of Waterloo and til
e account was carefully kept by tn
7 Southey family until 1864 when it pass
L ed into the hands of the Pease famil,
Its existence was forgotten until. nc
= long ago. one of the latter family dis
= covered it while going over lot
: musty papers and allowed it to be re