The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-26

Ernest A. BAKER is an exception. He
has not only attempted but he has also
accomplished a difficult task. In
single volume he has compiled a mass
OF information about over 4,5OO works of
fiction printed in the English language
1t is the first book of it's kind and should
be of much value to librarians and wri-
ters. If for nothing else it would be
worth while if it prevented the duplica-
tion of titles which is a common thing
nowadays.
Less than two years ago there appear
ed a story of newspaper life called THE
Great God Success" which was so much
better than the general run of novels of
the kind that readers began to wonder
who the author might be- 1t did not de-
velop until some months later that he
was David Graham Phillips, and then
came the unusual news that Mr.. Phillips
had left an editorial position on one of
the New York papers which paid him $10,
600 year for the purpose of making his
! living writing books. Since he began
the experiment, Mr.. Phillips has made
great strides; his last novel, Golden
Fleece" seems likely to place him in the
| front rank of the younger generation of
American novelists.
Mr. PhiIips's identity in connection with
| the authorship of 1.-THE Great God Sus
GERS" was suspected first because the
author had been a little, too faithful to
| fact in one of the incidents of his story.
| His hero made a great hit with his en-
! ployers and secured a beat" over the
rival papers in exactly the same manner
as the author, himself did several years
ago
| Besides writing novels, Mr. Phillips de-
votes much of his time to writing spe-
cial articles for the magazines. He has
/ for some years made millionaires spe-
| cial study and his Confessions of
Croesus" on which he is now working is
story which he has based very consid-
erably on facts. In the current number
| of Success, Mr.. Phillips gives a study
OF American editors which is of more
| than usual interest to book readers, since
| in large measure, the men who make our
magazines are the same men who pub
| lish our books.
| Instead of looking into a popular pa
per, book or magazine" writes Mr.. Phip-
! lips. ito see what vulgarities made it so
popular, the writer's and critics who APP
peal from their own to a remote future
generation might learn something If they
would look into that paper, book or maya
zine to see if there isn't something there,
some bold sweep of the great chord of
universal human nature which has caused
popularity in spite of the vulgarity.
| Americas revolt, expressed in cheap
and popular newspapers and magazines,
grew out of the very necessities of her
condition. A great democracy must be
| educated, and a great democracy Graves
education. 1t cannot read what 1T cannot
understand: it cannot understand wat is
deliberately addressed to the few and in
| terests a few only, interesting them often
| because they fancy that interest in what
| is above the heads of the masses is a
mark of superiority. Out of the need of
| education, out of the demand for educa-
| ton grow the high school Of cheap news
! papers and the college and university of
cheap and popular magazines.
American newspapers and magazines,
rot even in the old days when the new
ness of shallowness of culture caused
many aVowed minor writer's to employ
| the affectations of involved style and d
muddy or cloudy thought, were never
characterized by the platitudinous yaWn-
some righteousness which leadens the
great first class magazine and reviews OF
Great Britain and the Continent. We
never did deeply admire classes and row
erence We were always disposed to
suspect that the stuff that clings to our
own bones is of the Same consistency as
| the stuff of which star and all things
really or reputedly high are made. We
never did buy many newspapers or ma
gaines or books to have something to
sleep over and to give us intellectual
caste. We were ready, even impatient
for illustrated newspapers and illustrated
magazines when they came. If the "Edln-
boro" or the Quarterly when it can I
get such word pictures as Sidney
Smith, Macaulay, or a De Quincy could
paint would supply the lack with pic
lures, how they would tighten the dreary
pages of matter that is highly Informative
but extremely difficult to read IN the
pretentions and poverty stricken language
of Mr.. Intellectual Nobody.
Here is a suggestion for the editors-in-
chief of some of our so-called Solid
magazines. 1 have in mind one which
can present an apparently almost flaw
less title to being the oldest of our Sc
irious periodicals,-and in its early days
II was. with a brilliant relapse now and
then. a mighty serious" matter. 1t
never smiled IF it could possibly avoid it.
It was resolutely determined to convey
information in a way which as few cared
about Once in a while a real writer
seems to have "broken into it,"-possi-
bIy the dearth of really writers was in
part responsibility in the main it was
uossessed by men whose ideas hadn't
caught up with their voca bulares." as
ex- Senator Jones, of Nevada would say.
| nRnsnectahility was its chief claim %