The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-15

graceful forms and piquant faces reign
and the seriousness of life, the near
ness of God, the approach of death and
the possibilities of Immortality, things
to be feared, thoughts of which are ter
ribIe to the light and irresponsible and
the impure hearted are forgotten"
Strong language this, and deserved ac-
cording to the judgment of many
theater-goers who cannot conceal their
establishment at the vogue of plays the
writer has we'll described above.
Take st. Paul alone; the writer does
not remember one straight play that
has appeared here this season. We
have had a riot of comic opera; lights,
mechanical effects, and spectacular
merit, have made successful presen-
tations of trash and of Stiffness which
would not be tolerated were it not for
the show girls" with short skirts The
writer in the magazine referred to
does not put the blame on the public,
as do many, but upon the managers
who are responsible for staging all this
nonsense. The latter claim that the
public wants it. How do they know
that the public would not patponize
high-claSS and decent plays? They
certainly never will find out unless they
stage them and test the people. Per-
sons of refinement have almost given
UP going to the theater; there is moth
1ilS W see DuI GOTHIC opera ana musical
comedy - so-called - and these they
have no use for.
The writer mentioned seems to think
that more idea of art on the part of
managers and less rush for dollars
might result in the elevation of the
stage. But managers care very little
about art and the outlook is not cheer
ing.
Mr.. E. F. Benson, writer of "Dodo"
by which he is chiefly known to fame,
has been in this country for a week or
TWO, and gone back to England to
write a wonderful book about New
York which is not calculated to endear
him to the inhabitants of that metrop-
oils. He calls his book "The Relent-
less city, and the poor overworked
smart set comes in for good drub-
blng. Perhaps if Mr.. Benson had been
taken up as some titled-and untitled
-Engllshmen have been, he would not
have been so ready to find fault. APP
parently We must feed writer's or eX-
pect them to turn upon us.
The recent onrush of new vitality in
our native literature has been noted by
a Wlde-awake observer in Albany, who
writes thus is the Argus:
Ihere is new force in American
fiction. 1t has been labeled in sarcasm
the Chicago novel; In the autumn
output of the publishers this new force
is dominant feature It dwarfs the
pretty stores of modern society and
ancestral cities, and the historical nov
els fitted to fashionable period, with
a big, American sky scraper' outlook
on today in this land. 1t seems to
mean a new intention in American lit
erature. And this new force
is worth watching"
1t is being watched. Hamlin Gar
n
with his remarkable reflection of the
life of Western mining camp Marie
Mannin9 with her Judith of the
Palms." wherein she has caught the
humor and the tragedy of life in the
desert and on the sheep ranch; Will
liam X. Lighton who, in presenting
an entirely different aspect of the West
In his 1.-The Ultimate Moment" brings
nome a truly American conception of
what life should be, and many others,
IKE Norris, Tarkinton, White, Eliza
beth Higgins-all writing direct from
life with genuine heartbeat in all
that they do. Truly the new force is
worth watching.
Frederick Trevor Hill, author of "The
Web" which appears in book form
after a successful serial run, was at
one time law clerk in the late Col.
Robert G. Ingersoll's office, and as
managing clerk helped him In many i'm
portant cases. Mr.. Hill is still a young
lawyer-certainly not over-old, for he
was once a classmate of Robert w.
Chambers-and is we'll known in his
profession, though better, perhaps, as
the author of several authoritative
books on surrogate law. His previ-
ously published volume of short stories
was not only entertaining, but they
gave a remarkable insight into the
ways of the law that few people real
lie. 1.-THE Web" is the story of law
yer, big hearted man, who stands
out clearly against the tangled back
ground of shifts, evasions, trickery, po-
litical pull" and absolute dishonesty
which sometimes complicate modern
legal procedure; altogether a strong
novel, and great advance over his
former work. 1t is published by
Doubleday, Page & Co.
Prof. William H. Pickering, OF Har-