The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-20

JAMES LANE ALLEN TALKS ABOUT
THE PLACE OF WOMEN IN FICTION.
Friedrich Spielhagen's DEFINITION Of
FfctiOn-The Form of Rejec-
tiOn-NOtes.

The Lamp for September contains an in
terview with James Lane Allen, of which
the following is a part:
(which phase of our national life as ii is
at present will receive the greater share of
attention and treatment" Mr. Allen was
asked.
1.-THE material side, just now. Ard this
Is perhaps as ii should be, for our national
life is chiefly material one. We are still
builders of the country. The men who do
things. the railroad builders, the iron mas
tiers, the financiers, the merchants,
the formers of trusts, the manipulators of
Corners the creators of monopolies, these
are the true representative Americans of
the hour; and with them stands the work.
ingman. These are the men the country
needs. The spiritual must give way to the
material at this stage of our growth; it is
the price we pay for our dawning suprem-
acy in finance, in commerce, in industry,
and the price will be paid in part in our
fiction. AS individuals we may have
we do have-spiritual aspirations; as a ma
ton we are materialists. Circumstances
force US to be-"
DO you expect our women to become the
champions of things spiritual in our fic-
tion?''
Let me state, first of ALL answered Mr..
Allen, that our women are doing their
share. perhaps more than their share, of
the making of contemporary American fic-
ton. But there is one thing that must be
taken into onsideration-curiously enough.
1t Is too often overlooked-and that is the
material price paid by American women
for the settlement and development of our
country. The foreigner who visits US in
variably carries away with him the impress
sion that the American woman has moth
ing to do but to live leisurely in such COM
fort as men can procure for her, and TO
cultivate her ego, physical. intellectual and
emotional. This has never been true; IT
Is not true to-day.
1.-THE American woman took more than
her share of the material hardships of pio-
neer life She worked with her hands
the AK and the rifle were not strange to
them; she spun and weaved and sewed and
cooked; the physical strain upon her was
proportionately as great as that on the
man: and in addition she kept the home
she educated her children, she preserved
ideals in danger of extinction on the from
tiers of civilization.
1T was thus I'm the colonies; 1t was thus
in the early days of the Republic; it was
thus on the great plantations of the South
in the days before the war Their chate-
LANES were not mere idle grandes danes;
they were also capable administrators, law
givers, busy rulers of domains that had to
produce everything that goes TO the main
tenance of material life. The Kentucky
woman of the two decades before the war
was the apotheosis of her frontier ances-
tress-hence her dignity. her fortitude in
adversely. her unfiinching courage in the
face of ruin. The mettle of her pasture
was superb
And nOw?'
I'VE are still a Nation of pioneers develop
ing our hard-won domain. and woman's ma
terial help is still needed. The moment for
her undivided devotion to the spiritual mas
not yet come"
But we surely have leisure class now,
jority?
THE very existence to which that class
is condemned in this country proves my
thesis. There is no place yet I'm this country
for q leisure class because we have nothing
for 1t TO do. That looks like a paradox,
but it is true. Compare the services rem
dered by this class in England with the mar
row opportunities IL has here. Over there
they have settled down; they can afford to
do without the material help of a number
devoted to the things of the spirit; they
can afford to desiSt long enough from their
own work to listen to them. Here If man
have no need to work he must needs be. to-
tally idle because the rest of us could not
spare the time to attend to his words, even
il he should have something to say that
was worth saying.
And the women of this class?
"They do what they can in the circum-
stances. But their own idle men have no
need of their aid, and the rest of us have
busy women to help us. They are active
in charity, they patronize music, literature,
the drama-not always wisely. perhaps, but
with energy; for the rest their opportunity
has not yet come"
"And MEANWHILE"
1.-The relation will remain the same for
the mass of US, in fiction as i'm life. Woman
will continue to keep alight the torch of
the spiritual while doing her share of the
material work. And when the day comes
when not she alone. but the man as well.
shall have leisure to turn to matters of the
spirit they will work side by side in the
higher realm, as they have worked in the
lower field