The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-14
BY HERBERT BREWSTER.

mood of the Present Day they are try
ing to reflect.
1.-THE new man." writes Mr.. HART,
sis presenting himself perpetually and
multitudinously. Also heterogenously;
IMPORTERS, painters, stowaways,
preachers, collegians, jail-birds, Turks,
Jews, ribbon clerks, engineers, natur-
alists, POUNDS, what a molly array.
And these, to whom the Angel says
Write, must, for such is the editorial
demand for timeliness that out of the
as-yet-untried must be wrested sue
cess"
That Boston still clings to her for
mer greatness as the literary center of
this country is shown by at least two
books recently published, Literary
Boston of To-day" by Helen w. Wins
low, president of the Authors Club of
that city, and "Fictional Ranbles in
and About Boston," by Frances Yves
ton Carruth and that Boston had and
still has much of which to boast, these
books hear evidence in plenty Those
who are bookish or who are interested
in the best in American books will find
delightful pleasure in reading these
volumes and studying the pictures
which. in the Fictional Rambles, throw
so much light on our classic stories
in the making. In a list of one hun
dred best Americans authors of TWEEN
ty years ago, more than half would
be found to be Bostones To-day the
list would not show as large a pro-
portion, yet the array of literary tai
ent that comes out of that staid old
city will convince anyone that Boston
is still remarkably rich in book cult
ure.
ITO the traveller" writes Mrs Car
ruth, "the Old World owes it's attract
iveness quite as much to the creations
of Shakespeare, Scott, Thackeray,
Dickens. Balzac, Hugo and Dumas as
to the princess, statesmen and soldiers
of whose births and deaths history tell
us with so much polmp and precision.
1t was said by an admirer of Henry
Esmond that the charm of the Potomac
river was not in the military associa-
tons so inseparably blended with it,
but in the fact that on its banks Es-
mond and the woman, who had so pa
tiently waited for his wooing had es-
tablished themselves; linking the noble
Virginia stream with the memories of
the Stuarts and Addison, with the Eng
l1sh meadows and with the campaigns
of Marlborough. Gibraltar's towering
might impress devotee of Maryland
not as being England's gateway for
tress of the Mediterranean, held more
than once against world in arms, but
as the scene of the exploits of Mr.. Mid
shipman Easy and the discontinue of
the surly boatSwain. Every year a
throng of tourists wander through the
land of Evangeline asking persons ma
tive to the soil to point out localities
whose names, as a rule, mean nothing
to them who are questioned, unless,
perchance, they may have read Long
fellows immortal poem. Robinson
Crusoe's island has been explored as
thoroughly as for buried treasures
the seekers looking not for gold or jew
els, but to identify the spring, the cave,
or the spot on the sands where Robin
son was startled by the solitary foot
print
SO Boston has been the scene of
much that will live in American fiction;
but it may be doubted if it has yet full
filled all that may be required of it by
the poet and novelist. For many years
1t was the town not only of New Eng
land, but of North America, leading po-
litically and commercially as we'll as
intellectually, but the men who gave
1t worldwide fame in literature were
not writing fiction"
Miss Carruth has come to her task
well fitted She is a direct descendant
VI fAlQOtt anu EIASGlIidf MULLINS
and her Pilgrim blood must have en-
joyed the labor of recording her fic-
tional rambles in and about Boston
the very heart of her own country.
Five years each of life in Washington
and in New York have not spoiled her
enthusiasm. Miss Carruth reads ON
niverously and when one with her gifts
reads much, it is short stey to an
attempt at writing Her first book,
Those Dale Girls" was mainly found
ed on fact she and her sister having
owing to their fathers loss of fortune
lived through many of the expert
ences of the book. The plot and
characters of the story were, however,
entirely fictitious. Her second book,
1.-THE Way of Belinda is New York
story on different lines, having no
foundations in fact and written, so the
author explains, for the purpose of
convincing herself that she had crea-
tive ability. Both of these books had
an immediate success.
Besides possessing inherited knowl-
edge and traditions Miss Carruth con-
siders that her task in writing the
'Fictional Rambles" was easier be-
cause she had lived several years away
from Boston. The true Bostonese would
scarcely have been able to see and
comment upon all of the many sides of
that city.