The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-17
in THE LITERARY FIELD
Is AN AUTHOR EVER JUSTIFIED IN
KILLING HIS HEROs
Theory that Fine Novelist Cannot
Write Good Verse-Publishers'
Combinations.


causes many a novelist many sleepless
night, to Judge by the varying practice in
the matter, says the Book Lover. Mr.. Hall
Game has apparently seen the error of his
ways, for he has given the story of The
Eternal City" a happy ending as on the
stage presented. Let us, however, take
few illustrative cases.
Sherlock Holmes. Captain Kettle and Dr.
Nikola have long been the idols of the mag
azine reader, and many are the vicisstudes
they have passed through Several years
ago the Rev Silas K. Hooking for the first
time met Sir A. Conan Doyle-then Dr.
Doyle-in Switzerland. The two novelisls
were discussing Sherlock Holmes, and DR..
Doyle had expressed the sentiment that it
was by no means his ambition to be known
merely as the creator of that character.
In the course of a walk they reached a
glacier, and the following conversation en-
sued:
whether you like Sherlock Holmes or
not, he's been gold mine to you,' said
Mr.. Hooking.
Anyhow, I'll kill him off at the end of
the year. If he don't kill me-" added the
novelist with merry twinkle.
They paused at the edge of gaping
crevasse that gashed the glacier from side
to side.
How are you going to finish him?' asked
Mr.. Hooking.
81 don't know. 1 haven't decided yet,
answered DR.. Doyle.
why not bring him out here and drop
| him down a crevasse? That would finish
him and save all the trouble and expense
of a funeral" suggested Mr.. Hooking.
Thus it came about that we have the scene
| in which Sherlock Holmes and Morarity,
| the King of Crime, reel over the Reichen-
| bach Falls, locked in each others arms.
To the dismay of his admirers Captain
Kettle one day declared: i've chucked the
sea for good. I've taken a farm in Wharfe-
| dale and am going to it this very week,
and much more in the same strain. but.
| it is hard to confess" adds Mr.. Cutclife
Hyne, that mans ideals come short of
| his expectations when put to trial l am
free to confess that, although he enjoyed IL
all, Kettle was not at his happiest when
he was attending his crops or his sheep.
1t was no surprise then, to his friends TO
find him back again In MS OLD nauhts, more
correctly his accustomed pages, saying
I'm Captain Kettle. and I'd have you re-
member I'm a long way off being dead
yet" So much alive is he that like Sher-
| lock Holmes, he is now treading the boards,
| for Mr.. Murray Carson is figuring as the
redoubtable Captain at the Adelphi The
ater London.
Mr.. Guy Boothby has seen fit in Fare
well Nikolar to dismiss his hero into the
mysterious distance without much hope OF
things have happened When the wind
bowls around the house at night, he tells
us, land the world seems very lonely, L
sd to ane then in y fancy
yellow-robed mysterious figure, whose
dark, searching eyes look into mine with
to h him fH ery, Is F nu s NikoiaS anu
Mr.. Rudyard Kiplirg made concession
to public taste when he gave The Light
pe ans serially. We read, however, on the
! fiy-leaf of the volume, This is the true
story Of The Light That Failed as it
"Put me in the forefront Of the BATTLE"
cries Dick in the last chapter, and we close
the book we read. His luck had held
of kindly bullet through his head
Sush a tragic ending is no doubt justified
| by all the canons of art, just as to con-
cede happy ending to Romeo and Juli-
round the tragic fate of the hero and hero
Inc, would render the play artistically un-
Several of Mr. ]. Nj. Barrie's friends
tried their best to get him to alter the
ending of Tommy and GrizeI but It's
come, and die he must, and In the way
that his creator wished. He climbed the
wall" we read, ''but, as he was descend
ing one Of the iron spikes on the top of it
pierced his coat which was buttoned to the
troat and he hung there by the neck. He
struggled as he choked, but he could not
help himself" A very unromantic death
truly.
That an author has not unquestioned
power of life or death over his hero is
we'll exemplified by the following story
from Paris. certain novelist agreed to
write a serial for The Radical, to be
called "The Ragpicker." The author stated
| in his preface that his story would be the
whole life of his hero, and that he would
be above making two brews of the same
malt When two-thirds of the promised
story had been published the author got
tired and asked the editor to bring his
story to close This he did in approved
Paris fashion, by conducting his hero to
bridge over the Seine. where 1t Is to be
supposed he committed suicide. After the
lapse of a respectable period presumably
for funeral rites. the defunct ragpicker
turned UP exceedingly fit and lively in the
pages of rival journal called The Cry of
the People. The readers Of The Radical
were hurt in their tenderest feelings, and
the editor in his pocket, for his readers
forthwith transferred their custom to the
Offices of the rival print. IT only remains
to be said that in the action for damages
which followed the editor of The Radical