The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-27

their selections. Perhaps they do,
some of them, but there are always a
number of men who are not willing to
leave the selecting business to the few
self-appointed reputable publishers.
Consequently almost any kind Of book
is likely to be issued and, in the in
discriminate booming of publishers, the
reading public is sure to suffer. The
difficulty is further increased through
the anxiety of disappointed authors to
get their works published. A number
| of houses in New York and other cities
will undertake to manufacture books
for an author, provided the author
pays the expenses. 1t is worse bunco
game than handling green goods.
1t is an astonishing fact that books
containing the most glazing errors of
grammar and rhetoric are being pub
| hshed in large numbers nowadays. In
novel recently brought to my atten-
ton, the following extracts are charac-
teristics:
Neither one of the tree"
"She took off her gloves, pulling at
first one finger and then the other; she
lay them in her lap"
"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 familiarity Of the
French language, by throwing in a few
expressions here and there Even one al
most entirely unacquainted with French
must smile at "bon guides, cafes musi-
cal, Messieurs fait vous jeu!"
Tarkinston's Love Story.
One of the notable works of fiction
to appear this fall is Booth Tarking-
tons Indiana love story of Mexican
war times. For the preparation of his
novel Mr.. Harrington must have alb
sorbed most of the early history of In
diana and all of the literature there
was to be had on the subject of Hoosier
society in the '40s and 50s The
story is remarkable in many ways and
1t is probably the best Mr.. Harrington
has yet written. "The Two Vanrevels.' -
the title Of the novel, is scarcely COM
plete 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
depended upon his titles for any popu-
| larity which has come to him, but
certain 1t is that "The Gentleman
| From Indiana" had some little to do
with bringing him into general notice
| because of it's 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 writers Of romance
| And the best part Of it is that he de-
serves every bit Of success and fame
that has come to him.
A special limited edition of "The
| Two Vanrevels" is to be brought out
The author is to autograph each OF
these copies and they are to be illus
trated with a reproduction Of one OF
Mr.. Tarkington's own drawings for the
story.
Ideas the Things NeedfuI.
A most interesting discussion has
been started by the editors of some OF
! the magazines as to the need of spe-
cial style in writing, In harmony with
the spirit Of the times. The editors are
trying to make their magazines both
popular and also interesting to the in
tellectual classes, and, at the same
time, they are going to considerable
pains to explain why they cannot dc
| both.
"The reason why popular maya
zines are not more interesting to the
intellectual class" says Mr.. Walter H
Page, who has been editor of three Of
the leading magazines, sis that the in.
tellectual class does not write in G
more interesting way"
The editors seem to agree that the
writer's who are gifted with the pop.
ular style are not endowed with ideas
and ideas are, after all, necessary. Mr.
Page believes that the day of the leis.
urely style has passed and that in the
| vigorous go-ahead world of today we
need style which shall be direct
clear and energetic. The lack Of thi:
latter he deplores, believing that the
teaching of Composition and the prac.
tice of style has not kept pace will
the development Of intellectual life il
recent years.
1.-THE implication" says another
"that, If the leisureiy writer's like Haz
lit, De Quincy Macauley, Carlyle an(
Mathews Arnold were writing today
their too leisurely style would be fount
Tagging behind out recent intellectual
M ua,xy uoN{o,y