The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-15
The Literary Outlook.
(BY HERBER BREWsTER)

What looks like the Beginning of a lit
erary controversy is contained in a re-
cent magazine article by Mr.. John Bur-
foughs on real and false natural his
tory. The writer's who have gone into
the field of nature are legion, but Mr.
Burroughs takes up only very few of
the most successful,s judged from the
sales of their books. To the surprise of
many he has strong terms of condemna-
ton for the most successful of all, Mr..
Thompson Seton. The veteran poet OF
nature, whose imagination must be pow
erful, says that Mr. Seton has surpass6 d
all the other writer's in imaginative lit
erature about animals Mr.. Burroughs
has studied life in the woods and in the
open for many years and he is unable
to discover the remarkable human intel
ligence which Mr. Seton represents in his
book. wild Animals Which | Alone
Have Known" is the revised title which
Mr.. Burroughs applies to the best known
book of that author.
Mr.. Thompson Seton says in capital
letters that his stories are true" writes
Mr. Burroughs in the Atlantic Monthly
andit is this emphatic assertion that
makes the judicious grieve True as
romance, true in their artistic effects
true in their power to entertain the
young reader, they certainly are: but
true as natural history they as certainly
are not. Are We to believe that Mr.
Thompson Seton, in his few years of
roaming in the West, has penetrated
farther into the secrets of animal life
than all the observers who have gone
before him? There tare no stories of
animal intelligence and cunning on re-
cord, that | am aware of, that match his
Gilbert White, Charles st. John, Water
loo, Wallace, Darwin. Jefferies. and 9TH
ers in England,-alI expert students and
observers; Bates in South America, Au-
dubon roaming the whole country; Thor
eau in New England; John Muir in the
mountains of California and in the wilds
of Alaska have nothing to report that
comes within gunshot of what appear to
be Mr.. Thompson Seton's daily expert
ences. Such dogs, wolves, foxes, rabbits,
mustangs, crows, as he has known, it is
safe to say, no other person in the world
has ever known Fact and fiction are
so deity blended in his work that only
real woodsman can seperate them.
For instance, take his story of the fox
Every hunter knows that the fox, when
pursued by the hound will often resort
- devices that look like cunning tricks
to confuse and mislead the dog How
far these devices are the result of cal
culation we do not know, but hunters
generally look upon them as such Thus
fox holly pursued will run through
flock of sheep This dodge probably de-
lays the hound a little, but ii does not
often enable the fox to shake him. Mr..
Thompson Seton goes several better, and
makes his fox jump upon the back of
sheep and ride several hundred yards
OF course no fox ever did that Again
TIE fox will sometimes take to the rail-
road track. and walk upon the rail,
doubtless with the vague notion Of elpd-
ing his pusuers. Mr.. Thompson Seton
makes his fox 50 very foxy that he de-
liberately lures the hounds upon the
long trestle where he knows they will be
just IN time to meet and be killed by
RAISING train, as they are. The presump-
ton is that the fox had a watch and a
time table about his person. But such
ere the ways of romancers. The incl
dent of the mother fox coming near the
farmhouse at night to rescue her young,
and, finding him held by chain, digging
q titAt anu but lug llc ttidiIs NuluhilS
she had thus set him free is very touch
ing and pretty, and might we'll be true
II shows how limited the wit of the fox
really is. But, finding herself unable
To liberate her offspring, that she should
then bring him poison is pushing the
romantic to the absurd In all the ami
nal stories of Mr. Thompson Seton that
l have read the same liberties are taken
with facts. In his story of the rabbit
Raggylug, he SAYS: Those who do not
know the animals we'll may think | have
humanized them. but those who have
lived so near them as TO know something
of their WAYS and their minds will not
think so" This is the old trick of The
romancer; he swears his tale is true. be-
cause he knows his readers wants this
assurance; it makes the thing taste bet
ter. But those who know the animals are
just the ones Mr. Thompson Seton can
not foot
Mr. Burroughs is rather severe There
are thousands of admirers of Mr. Seton