The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-12-13
HIS OWN REVIEWER

wrote a piece for the Independent mag
azine, I'm which he claimed tat au-
thors were the best reviewers OF their
own works. 1t WAS palpabl joke
on the part of Mr.. Lang, but II gave
the editors of the Independent an idea
and the result is a series of book re-
views written by the authors them
selves.
These reviews, as the Kansas city
Journal remarks, are not of much worth
as criticism, though none of the writer's
spares himself-some tearing their pets
TO pieces with almost malevolent hand.
But they are strongly interesting as
showing the state of mind in which the
books were written, the secret impulse
which caused the writing and the
sources of material
OF a number of these author reviews
in the last number of the magazine we
are attracted by Mr.. Thomas Dixon's
criticism of his story The One
Woman" He says he took the charac-
tiers from life. That has never been
doubted in the West. where the hero,
or villain, was personally known to a
good many people. The preacher so
cialist with whom the story deals held
n professorship In a Kansas college dur
ing the Populst-Socialist period. Mr..
Dixon has drawn him true to life and
has departed not at all from the facts
in his shameless abandonment of good
family. He says of the novel:
1.-The one Woman was written in
thirty days at white heat under a sin
gle overpowering impulse, hence its
strength and weakness. Had l laid it
aside for six months / would have cor
rected many of its faults. 1t is over
crowded with incident. Its emotional
development is too swift and intense.
The contrast between the flesh and the
spirit as embodied in Kate and Ruth
is too strong for the very young. l
would have cut the closing chapters and
ended the book with Gordon knocking
at Ruth's door the night he fed from
his new wife's home. All this and more
/ would surely have done had / held
the book out six months and carefully
revised II and in doing so l would just
as surely have made it in every way
weaker and more ineffective for every
purpose I had in view. AS II stands
the book is an authentic record of hui
man life in America today. I wish it
had been better written, 1t was the
best could do at the time, ! hope to
do better in the next"
The supreme thought which POSSESS
ed Mr.. Dixon was to show that social
ISM is sapping the moral fiber of the
American people and destroying the
thn IrtlI inT md
specious pleas for free love made by our
modern socialistic reformers,' says Mr..
Dixon, Il presented in TINS parable the
fact that monogamic marriage Is not
merely a dogma of the church, or con-
vention of society, but that it is eter-
nally fixed in nature and that he who
departs from it will come back at last
by the way of blood and tears"
Dixon leaves no doubt of the source
of his material. He says that a few
years ago the Rev. Frank Gordon was
brilliant minister preaching the wore
of God. To-day" he declares, 'he is &
socialstic bushwhacker in Chicago
preaching socialism with his new wife.
That the leaders of radical socialism
are the enemies of our family life is
plainly shown by their divorce court
records. Their savage personal letters
to me and their hysterical reviews OF
my book indicate that The One Wo-
man hit the mark"
1t will be remembered that the Rev
Frank Gordon killed the man who Sc
duced his new" wife away. Then he
went back TO his divorced wife who
stood by him through the trial and
finally overcame every obstacle in the
,w..ay of his liberty. Many people
thought this strained and unnatural
Mr.. Dixon says: II will risk my hope
of immortality on the assertion that she
is the normal woman. She could have
done nothing else than what she did
The world is full of such women" But
interesting beyond any mere assertion
is the following statement of facts not
unfamiliar to the readers of newspa.
pers:
'"The very tragedy she played was be-
ing enacted in Washington befor,
President Roosevelt while wa,
writing the story although / did no
know 1t until after the manuscript wa
finished. A man in New Orleans de
serted MS vile and children and wen
to the Klondike with his new love. o.
the way, in the freedom of the will,
North, his new wife smiled on anothe
man, and he killed the interloper. Sh
testified against him, and he was con
victed of murder. The deserted wifi
took her place by his side. and throug
every trial fought with desperation 10
his life. On the final appeal to tn
president she sat down on the steps
the White House. and for weeks mad
Mr.. Roosevelt's life miserable with h
piteous pleading"
Jap laborers want more pay becau'
sugar has gone up. They also want,
more when sugar was going down.
would serve these fellows right II 81
900 Chinese could be got TO compe
with them.