The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-13

r WELLS,
IS, whose latest book is "a Nonsense
by"
TOO much salt" he groaned. Water
will fix that"
L did not know how thirsty was I'M
til took one swallow" ne afterwards
explained Then I think 1 drank two
quarts; but it cured me-
Mr.. Rollin Lynde HART has written
an article on THE Making of Contrib
utors' for the current number of The
Reader, which should encourage all of
the amy of newspaper writer's who may
read it. Mr.. HART believes that the
writer's for the best magazines, the
writer's of the most successful books,
are recruited from the ranks of the con-
tributors to newspapers, more especially
from those who write for the magazine
supplements of newspapers. Here is
kind Of writing very different from the
preparation of news copy-a writing
which combines the fact of Thickness
with style, what Mr. HART calls the
literary treatment of a news subject"
That there is reason in his argument
no one can deny. The supplement ed
itor of a newspaper does much to mould
the clay of common scribblers into
beautiful vessels which glow and DalDl-
tate and change hues with the mood of
the Present Day they are trying to re-
feet
The new man." writes Mr. Hartt, SIS
prescribing lilIllSc4l pGlpEIudtty anu
titudinously also heterogenously: re-
porters, painters, stowaways, preachers.
collegians, jailbirds. Turks, Jews, ribbon
clerks, engineers, acknowledgements,
what motley arrayi And these, TO
whom the angel says Write must, for
such IS the editorial demand for timei-
ness, that out of the as-yet-untried
must be wrested success"
That Boston stin clings to her former
greatness as the literary center of this
country is shown by a least two books
recently published, Literary. Boston of
| Today" by Helen w Winslow. presi
dent of the Authors club of that city.
and "Fictional Rambles in and About
Boston," by Frances Weston Carrutn,
and that Boston had and still has much
OF which to boast these books bear evil
dence IN plenty. Those who are bOOl1ish
or who are interested in the. best i'll
American books will find delightful
pleasure in reading these volumes and
studying the pictures which, in the Fic-
tional Rambles, throw so much light on
our classic stories in the making In Il
| list OF one hundred best American au>
thors OF twenty years ago, more than
| half would be found to be Bostonese,
Today the list would not show as large
a proportion, yet the array of literary
! talent that comes out of that staid old
city Will convince anyone that Boston
IS stlll remarkably rich in book culture.
10 the traveller writes Miss Car
ruth, the Old World owes its attrac-
tANCAiSSS NU3lG DIS I1uCn TO the creations
OF Shakespeare, Scott, Thackeray, Dick
ems, Balzac, Hugo and Dumas as to the
princes, statesmen and soldiers of whose
births and deaths history tell us With
so much pomp and precision. 1t was
said by an admirer of Henry Esmond
that the charm of the Potomac river
was not in the military associations so
inseparably blended with it. but in the
fact that on its bans Esmond and the
woman, who had so patiently waited for
his wooing had established themselves:
linking the noble Virginia stream with
the memories of the Stuarts and Addison
with the English meadows and with the
campaigns of Marlborough GfDraltar's
towering might impressed a devotee Of
Marryat not as being England'ss gate
way fortress of the Mediterranean held
more than once against a world in arms
but as the scene of the exploits of Mr.
MidshiDman Easy and the discontinue
of the surly boatswain- Every year a
throng of tourists wander through the
4 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 per
chance, they may have read Longfel-
lows immortal poem. Robinson Cru
soe's island has been explored as thor
oughly as for buried treasure-the seek
/ erS looking not for gold or Jewels, but
/ to identify the spring, the cave or tie
spot on the sands where Robinson was
started by the solitary footprint.
so Boston has been the scene ofmuch
that will live in American fiction: but it
may be doubted if it has yet fulfilled all
that may be required of it by the poet
and novelist For many years it was
the town not only of New England, but
of North America, leading politically
and commercially as well as intellectual
/ ly, but the men who gave it world
wide fame in literature were not writing
| fiction"
Miss Carruth has come to her task
well fitted. She is a direct descendant
of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins and
her Pilgrim blood must have enjoyed
the labor of recording her fictional ram
bles in and about Roston-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 omniverously and
when one with her gifts reads much IL
IS a short step to an attempt at writ
ing. Her first book. Those Dale Girls
was mainly founded on fact she and her
sister having-owing to their father s
! loss of fortune-lived through many of
the experiences of the book. The plot
/ and characters of the story were. how
ever, entirely fictitious. Her second
/ book, THE Wav of Delinda'' is New
York story on different lines, having no
foundations in fact and written. So the
author explains, for the purpose of con-
vincing herself that she had creative
ability. Foth Of these books had an
| immediate success.
Besides possessing inherited knowI-
edge and traditions. Miss Carruth con-
siders that her task in writing the Fic-
l tional Rambles was easier because she
had lived several years away from Bos-