The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-02


sleeping in the lower berth here. and you
can just push him over and get in
there"
In about a minute Kipling had aroused
the whole carful of people by his shouts
and kicks at the man who had tried to
push him over.
Sir Gilbert Parker has had TO postpone
the dramatization OF The Right of Way
on account of parliament meetings. but ne
expects TO have the play ready for next
season. William Faversham will enact
the part of Charley Steele in the Ameri-
can production
Hearts Courageous is another popu-
lar novel soon to appear in a stage YER
sion.
angus McNeHI,'' whoever he may be,
has written a book of biting sarcasisrc on
on 1.-THE Egregious English"-the answer
of Scotchman TO THE UnsDeakable
Scot" He has considerable irony for
English fiction.
After much patient thinking" writes
this author. 1.-The English have come 20
the conclusion that there is but one
branch of literary art and that its name
is Fiction. The high priest and the high
priestess who serve to the right and the
Hall Game and Marie Corelli. Each of
them wears a golden ephod. with a
breastplate of jewels arranged TO spell out
the magic figures. One Hundred Thou
sand All the other priests of the taber-
uacle look with awe and envy upon these
two, because the other priests breast
plates have hard work to spell out fifty
thousand. and some of them do not even
achieve one thousand five hundred. Burnt
offerings OF Game and Corelli therefore
fill the place with SAVIOUR. A pair of sor-
rier writer's never was on sea or land
Everybody knows it, nobody denies it,
/ and nobody seems sad about it. The six
shilling novel is an established English
| institutions. Game and Corelh are its
prop and stay, and the rest do their best
to keep in the running and pick up the
minor money bags.
THE perusal of six-shilling fiction is
practically a sort of mania. 1t has seized
in its grip the fairest England has to
show, particularly matrons, the younger
women and stock brokers. For the Eng
! lish woman the daily round would lose
its sadness did she not have handy the
newest six-shilling novel by Mr.. Game,
| Miss Corelli. or the next literary bawler
/ in the market place. From
/ morning till night many English women
/ DO little but read this precious stuff.
| What they get out of it amounts in the
/ long run TO hysteria and anaemia. 1t
/ brings about a general deadening of the
mind and a yeneraI jaggedness of the
| emotions couple with an utter inca
| Dacity to take any save an exaggerated
view of the facts of life. Discomfort,
| establishment. EMU, boredom, i'll temper
a sharp tongue, and cynical spirit are
! other symptoms which the six-shilling
| novel is prone to evoke. The habit is
| worse than opium or hasheesh or tea
cigarettes. It is just the devil, and that
is all you need say about it. The per-
sons employed in the opium traffic are
supposed to be very wicked. To my mind,
the persons employed in the fiction traf-
fic are as wicked as wicked can be When
the foul disease began first to make its
ravages obvious, there were not wanting
persons who would have checked it and
provided for it, These persons squeaked
somewhat. and nothing more has been
heard of them. So the thing goes on IN
restrained, and even applauded by press
and pulpit alike, and the English woman
has become a confirmed, inveterate and
incurable fiction-reader. If a man have
an enemy to whom he would do an abid-
ing injury. let him persuade that enemy
to obtain the six most popular six-shill-
ing novels of the moment, and read them
through. If the mans enemy sticks 10
his bargain-at which, however, he will
probably shy in the middle of the second
volume-the chances are that he gets up
from that reading a broken and spirit
less man. His brain will be as soggy as
a sponge full of treacle, and his vision
as unreliable as that of the aIcoholist
who always saw two cabs, and invariably
got into the one that was not there.
Seriously, however, what is there
about this English fiction-or. for that
matter about Scottish ffction-that men
and women should buy it and devour il
to the exclusion of all other literary
fare? 1t is ill-written, it is not original
it is not like life, it is not beautiful. il
is not inspiring, it does not touch the pro-
. found emotions, it means nothing, and il
ends nowhere.
Some months back a considerable
hubbub arose in English literary circles
because NJ Jules Verne had been saying
to an interviewer that the novel as g
form of literary expression was doomed
and would gradually die out of popular
favor. 1t is safe to say that, in the eyes
of sundry critics of pretty well every
nationality, the novel has been doomed
any, time this last fifty years. Yet the
novel comes up smiling every time, Sine,
it was reduced in price to six shilling.
in England it has undoubtedly deterior
ated, not only as a piece of writing, bu
also in the matter Of ethical intentions
So long as il remains the prey of som,
of its latter-day exploiters, so long will
it continue to deteriorate. So long a.
the English mind continues to be feebl
and unwholesone, and to yearn for arti
: fetal thrills and undesirable emotions
so long will English fiction continue to b
OF its present deeadent quality AS tn
I capitalist says, it is all a question o
supply and demand. The great aim o
writer's Of fiction, or at any rate o
. 80 per cent of them, is to pro
duce an article that will sell. You mus
q turn out what the public wants, and
! ! win assuredly buy it. The knaclx of hit
4 ting the public taste looks easy to &C
= quire, and the fictionist strives after
with all his might. Many are called {
make fortunes out of underwriting; fey
7 are chosen But nobody can exanin
. the work of those few without perceivin
e that for veal or woe-principaIIy 70
= woe-they know their business.
e ''Of course. it goes without saying tina
s a very considerable amount of fiction
t published in England which is lust a
e mild and just as innocuous as Time
f milk. To this pulling variety Of fictior
however, the English do not appear to b
V very greatly drawn. It crops up wit
v great regularity every publishing season
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