Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-07

*
Snul the night beset my way
WIN cheerful thought on song and tale
qua SO ! fare by hill and vale,
N"htented. day BY day.
For he who knows book to read .
NAY travel lightly without steed
ina ina ma sweet comfort on the road.
re snail forget the rugged way
Nor sigh for kindly company.
NOT faint beneath his load
4 w, y, kirk, an Frank Leslie's Popular
John Gllmer Speed, the writer of the
article, Tips and COMMISSIONS in the
June number Of Lippincott's Magazine.
mas been contributor TO American
ana English periodicals for some TWEEN
W years Like most American writer's.
ne served his apprenticeship in a news
paper office. He was Il writer for the
New York World when the brilliant
William Henry Hurlbert was eCitor-in-
chlel, and Schuyler Alden. Brownelly,
Williams and Lanigan were members
OF what Montgomery Schuyler called
the most expensive and delightful club
IN New York. The salaries paid to
World writer's at that time were very
Inadequate, and Schuyler said that the
dues to the club We're what the writer's
did not get" But it was a good train
ing school and nearly all the men who
served in it have achieved some meas
ure Of distinction. Mr.. Speeds most
important work probably is his Life,
Letters ana Poems Of John Keats"
Elizabeth Of the German Garden"
has written a new book, Which viii ap-
pear in the autumn.
The late r. w. Fl. Myers once related
an amusing incident which shows the
ridiculous nature of gueSseS at the ORR
ginals of great writer's characters.
1t appears that George Eliot and her
husband We're one day making good
humored fun over the mistaken ELUSIVE
ness of too sympathizing friend, who
insisted on assuming that the dreary
CasaubOn was a portrait of George
Henry Lewes, and on condoling with
the sad experiences which alone coulds
have taught the author of Middle
march" to depict the horrors of mar
riage With so gloomy q man. And
there was, indeed, something ludi-
crous, adds Mr.. Myers, lin the con-
trast between the drearY pedant of the
novel and the gOod-natured Self-cOn-
tent of the living sayant who stood
acting his vivid anecdotes before our
eyes" But from whom, then said Il
friend, turning to Mrs. Lewes, did you
draw CasaubOn?" With humorous
solemnty, which was quite in earnest,
however, she pointed to her own heart.
The stereotyped character of the il
Illustrations provided for most contem-
porary fiction, to which critical refer
ence has more than once been made
in The Tribune, is discussed by Mr..
Frank Norris in the current number
or "The critic" lie is tired. as we are.
of the pretty girls" the smart young
women, with wonderful frocks and
hats" who are constantly visible in
rna gaines and novels. all looking alike,
no matter what the time or place men
toned in the text may be. But we are
surprised TO find Mr. Norris complain
ing that fiction is today too full of
amiability, almost invariably symbol
lied and bodied forth in the person of
a young girl" lie declares, in fact,
that the figure Of the Amiable Young
Girl throws its shadow over the whole
scope ana range Of our latter day fic-
ton. This fiction is about Amiable
Young Girls: it il addressed to Amiable
written by Amiable Young Girls" We
rub our eyes. and wonder what Mr..
Norris has been reading. out of
pretty wide acquaintance with the
novels of the day We venture to assert
that if there is one thing more than
another which distinguishes the aver
age heroine from her predecessor of an
earlier generation in fiction it is her
i.I, f.1
cases out of ten your novelist appar-
only finds il impossible to carry on his
nlot with out involving the hero in
difficulties due altogether to the selfish
ana wilful conduct Of the heroine she
| IL capricious to the point Of cruelty
she is pert and sarcastic in speech she
il often so unsympathetic rs 70 seem
stupid. and, on the whole, she IS as
l,ard as nails-New York Tribune.
| ,rba+ the author of Miss PettiCoats"