The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-14
TEN WHO MAKE rIAGAZINES.

be painting even tolerably well if they
had been turned loose in picture gal
lery with canvas and a box of cOlorS
instruction in fiction writing would
improve the mediocre and perfect the
good: it would not. of course, make
the hopelessly bad even mediocre.
know of but one example Of my theory,
and a fairly good example it IS. Guy
de Maupa6sant was taught to write by
Gustave Flaubert. For years he was
not permitted to publish, and his crude
efforts were torn up time and again,
but finally he sprang alarmed upon
the world. Flaubert used to talk to
him somewhat like this: You see that
cab horse across the street; there is
just one word in the French language
to describe his attitude. Find it,
If we young writer's who are CROP
ing away in the darkness Of our own
ignorance could only go to a Flaubert
and have our manuscripts torn up, If
we could only be made to find the one
word, there would be fewer books in
the world, but believe there would be
more masters of technique like Guy de
Maupassant."
Arnold Not Forgotten.
'The fourteen years which have
elapsed since Matthew Arnold's
death" writes Mr.. Herbert Paul in the
English Men of Letters Series, "have
added greatly to the number Of his
readers, especially the readers of his
poems. No poet of modern times, per-
haps, no English poet of any time, ap-
peals so directly and so exclusively to
the cultivated taste of the educated
classes. To say that a classical edu-
cation was necessary for understand
ing him would perhaps be to go too
far. But a capacity for appreciating
form 10 OH o.. VII
and the beauty Of words, is undoubt-
edly ESSENTIAL. 1t may be said of Mr.
Arnold with truth, and 1t is his chief
praise, that the more widely mental
culture spreads, the higher his fame
will be. He was not indeed, a pro-
found thinker. He did not illuminate,
like Wordsworth, with a single flash
the abysses of mans nature. and the
inmost recesses of the human soul
He was not as Plato was, a spectator
of all time and all existence. His aim
was, as he said Of SOphocles. to see
life steadily and see it whole. But
he saw it as scholar and a man of
letters. He interpreted greater minds
than his own. He almost fulfilled his
ideal He knew, so far at least as the
Western world is concerned, the best
that had been said and thought in all
ages. Next to Milton, he was the
most learned Of English poets.
Townsend in Another Vein.
E. w. Townsend, of Chinmte Fad
den fame, has just completed a novel
| of Western and New York life, which
Will be published in book form early
next month. The story is quite diff
ferent from anything which Mr.. Town
| send has done heretofore, involving a
| set of people who win out in the sturg-
| gle for wealth in the West and come
to New York to live. The financial
success of the principal Western
character is clouded by an Injustice
to the family of an old friend, so that
/ the play Of conflicting emotions
throughout the course of the story
makes worthy subject of treatment
In the study Of character. Those who
have read the entire manuscript say
that the picture Of life in New York
! city is unusually good. This Judgment
is just what one would expect from
Mr.. Townsend. The novel ought to
have a considerable sale.