Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-04-06

ILITERATURE AND LIFE i
/ j.
! A. in. i
$3.50.
Mr.. Thompson Seton is getting some
advertising which comes to him as
surprise and is-we fancy-of Kind
not at all to his liking. Mr.. Eeton is
most charming writer af animal tales
such stories as Lives of the Hunted
and Wild Animals / Have known
books which have in brief time,
brought to the author, both fame ana
| fortune. In fact he has come to be re-
garded not merely the king OF animal
romances, but also, among many OF
| his readers, authority in natural MS
| tory. And there is faint suspicion
abroad that Mr.. Mr.. Seton takes NM
| self seriously and entertains the same
|opinion of himself as his readers.
| But the popular romancer has run
lup against a formidable critic IN the
person of Mr.. John Burroughs VINO
charges the former with imposing upon
the credulty of his readers and deliper-
ately taking his "fact" for the sake or
Il
| fame and gain.
There is no doubt that the remark
able success and popularity OF Mr.. Sc
| tons tales have unduly stimulated ms
Imagination and tempted him to stretcn
| the facts as far as poetic license and
natural law will allow, and perhaps.
shade farther AT least. so says Grand
| ga Burroughs, (and what Grandpa
Burroughs says goes with most OF u.s.,
| for the reason that he was pioneer
land acknowledged master in the realm
/ of nature when Tommy Seton was run
lining around in knee pants and XIII
skirts, and besides Grandpa B. is a
Inaturalists primarily and writes TO
make we'll known the facts and not TO
| make capital of his observations. He
| is not only a lover of nature. but also
a lover Of truth, and he couldn't tell Il
lie to save his soul, nor incidentally to
sell his book.
But to continue our story. In
twelve page critique in the March At
lantic, entitled Real and Sham Natural
4 History." Mr.. Burrough turns his A-ray
upon animal romances. and vigorously
nunctures the sham facts of natural
history as given by Thompson Seton
and his imitators.
Grandpa b. comedies that Tommy is
an excellent story-teller that MS tales
are pleasing and artistic. He does not
/ criticise him as q romancer, out as an
observer in natural history. 1t is not
the fiction as fiction, to which our critic
| Objects but the fiction which MI.
1 Thompson endeavors to pass or as a
| fact; Not only-says Mr.. BIS the
! line between fact and fiction repeatedly
crossed, but deliberate attempt is
| made to induce the reader to cross, too,
and to work such a spell upon him that
he shall not know that he has crossed
and is in the land of make-believe.''
No naturalist In the world-says B.
i can report anything that comes WITH
4 in gunshot of Mr.. Seton's daily exper-
Hence" and our critic continues to carve
/ up Tommy in rare and humorous style
4 Wonderful for Grandpa b., and al
most as fascinating as Tommy's gilt
edged tales.
Turning his kodak on those animals
i that Mr.. Seton alone has known,
grandpa finds his fox too foxy for any
earthly use except the authors. his
rabbit "Raggyug." dream the re-
suit of eating welsh rabbit. and his
icrow, Silver Spot" nothing more than
|Tommy's lusty crow over his own i'm
laginary leadership. Such dogs, wolves,
foxes. rabbits, crows and mustangs as
he has known, no other person In the
world has ever known"
This is a bit hard on Tommy, we
admit and some of us may continue
our foolish faith in his four footed hui
mans. in spite of grandpa's rebuke.
Anyway it's nice to believe that way,
whether it's so or not.
After grinding Tommy Seton and his
|animal offspring all into mince-mea
our critic turns his scalpel on the
formers imitators-chief Of whom, is
one Rev William ]. Long, whom he
calls more absurd and bigger liar than
Ibis master OF course grandpa doesn't
luse those words but it amounts to the
same thing-calls him the Baron
Munchausen of nature writer's"
Mr. Long has written a book whose
title. school of the Woods" indicates
the nature of it's contents. His obser-
.Iyations are as wonderful as Mr.. Sc
tons, If not more SO. But unlike his
master, the Rev. Mr.. Long does not
pretend to romance, but simply records
his own observations as facts. He ex-
plains in his preface that his sketches
were made in the woods with the sub
ejcts living just outside his tent door,
and that they are all life studies, and
include ALSO some of the unusual life
secrets OF score of animals and
birds"
"These life secrets,''' says Mr.. Bur-
roughs, "are all the inventions OF Mr..
Long. OF the real secrets of wild life.
1 do not find trace in his volume.
His book reads like that of man
who has never been to the woods, but
who sits in his study and cooks up
these yarns from the things he sees
/ in sporting journals"
i An he is reverend, too! Just think
of preacher lying like that!
The following suggestion found in
the School of the Woods, especially