The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-03-17
The Literary Outlook.
(BY HERBER BREWSTER.)
NOTES FROM THE CEN
TIRY COMPANY.

What looks like the Beginning of a lit
erary controversy is contained in q re-
cent magazine article by Mr.. John Bur
1oughs 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 a very few of
the most successful, 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 SURPASSED
all the other writer's in imaginative lit
erature about animals. Mr.. Burrougl,s
has studied life in the woods and in the
open for many years and he is unable
TO discover the remarkable human intel
Hgence 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.
MIR. Thompson Seton says in capital
letters that his stories are true writes
Mr.. Burroughs in the Atlantic Monthly,
and 1T 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 are no stories of
animal intelligence and cunning on re-
cord that nm aware cf fhat N, , tc(, 1,;c
Gilbert White, Charles st. John, Water
loo, Wallace, Darwin, Jefreries, and 9th
ers in England,-all 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
CT 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
a 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
to devices that look like cunning tricks
to confuse and mislead the dog. How
far these devices are the result of cal
c%ulation we do not know, but hunters
generally look upon them as such. Thus
a fox holly pursued will run through a
flock of sheep This dodge probably de-
lays the hound a little, but it does not
often enable the fox to shake him. Mr..
Thompson Seton goes several better, and
makes his fox jump upon the back of a
sheen and ride several hI,n1ra6 vor1c
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 vag notion of elld-
ing his pusuers. Mr.. Thompson Seton
makes his fox SO 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 a
PASSING train, as they are. The presump-
ton is that the fox had a watch and a
timetable about his person. But such
are the ways of romancers. The incl
dent of the mother fox coming near the
at night to rescue her young.
and, finding him held by a chain, digging
a hole and burying the chain, thinking
she had thus set him free, is very touch
ing and pretty, and might we'll be true.
It shows how limited the wit Of the fox
really is. But, finding herself unable
to liberate her offspring, that she should
then Drlng MN poison is pushing the
to the absurd. In all the ami
NAL stories of Mr.. Thompson Seton that
I have read the same liberties are taken
with facts. In his story of the rabbit.
he says: Those who do not
the animals we'll may think I have
them, but those who have
lived so near them as to know sometime
CT their ways and their minds will not
think So This is the old trick of the
romancer; he wear 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 arc
Just the ones Mr.. Thompson Seton can
not fool"
Mr.. burroughs IS rather severe. Their,
are thousands of admirers Of Mr.. Seton