The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-07-05

lac AANOA1C AVA u ACNSOlldUlC uuulUGE "a
years. All this begets timidity, and
timidity Is a leech at the throat OF
originality.
Let us examine the canons which
govern the "~aristocracy of American
letters" Originality, except in the
mildest form, Is prescribed. what
never has been done never can be
done" may be said to be the motto Of
American literature.
The second canon is firm adherence
to the most curious convention that
has e been insisted upon in any
country-that this world Is not as 1t is,
but as it ought to be. The sole taboo
Is not sex by any leans Many anoth-
er tendency Of the human mind, many
another exposition of life, must be for
ever ignored and denounced. Whether
or not this convention originated with
certain men, powerful in shaping Amer
lean literature, who had seen nothing
of the world, or whether there vas a
deliberate concerted attempt on the
part Of the literary powers to make
American literature refined" aristo-
cratic, undemocratic, a rarefied thing
in the third stratum above mOrtals,
it would be hard to say. The result,
however, it may be observed here, is
not ~aristocratic, but distinctly middle
class. 1t is the expression of that
bourgeoisie which is afraid Of doing
the wrong thing, not of the Indifferent
%aristocrat; of that element which dares
not use slang, shrinks from audacity,
rarely utters a bold sentiment and as
rarely feels one. 1t is as correct as
Sunday clothes and as ~innocuous as
sterilizcd milk. but it is not aristo-
cratic. The natural result Of its sue
cess is that American writer's feel no
necessity to sec the world. Too much
knowledge, indeed, would upset the
prescribed poise, and they spend their
years comfortably describing the little
life about them, adding nothing what
ever to the knowledge of mankind.
Their utmost range is after dialect
/. e., illiterate phrases-and local color.
They mildly interest people who are
used to them and "a get nothing else.
A third canon, which is indeed but
a part Of the second, is that fiction
to be INSTRUMENTATION literature
must be anaemic. VigOr, vitality, rich
ness, vividness, audacity Of thought or
phrase-any quality, in short, which Is
distinctively American-must be weed
ed out, bleached out, of the ambitious
author, would he receive recognition
as an American of letters. Here, again,
if they are trying to be aristocratic
they are making a curious blunder.
The qualities / have enumerated as
anathema distinguish the missionaries
of all nations, and, as your true demo-
close relationship between the high CIV
ilization of the old world and the SUI
perb A~mericanism which laughs at an
Gent forms and superstitions, goes its
own gait with apologies to no one. Our
literature fairly represents the bour-
geois spirit of Europe, but it does no
represent the United States in any
thing but matter of a sort.
A fourth canon, still to subdivide the
second, is what might be called the fe-
itch of the body. Magazine editors, their
confederate publishers, their writer's
and readers, defy the body, grovel in
the dust before II. 1t never has done
and can do no wrong. At all events it
must be protected at every hazard and
cost. Let the brain rot. The brain is
invisible and insignificant. Let the
mind close it's doors to the best Of
literatures, to the immensely of life,
but let it keep it's physical framework
even as a little child. That the body
was materialiZed for no other purpose
in the world than for reproduction and
as a tangible expression for the
mind, and that the mind is given us
that we may put into it all the knowl-
edge that can be found in this world.
has never occurred to any Of these
teachers.
A fifth is that sleep must not
be disturbed nor even the nerves it'll.
lated. Some years ago there was an
institution in New York known as 'Un.
cut Leaves" Before it's ~assemblages
authors read stories, articles and poems
designed for the magazines. The tick
cts sold at a high price; the gather
ings were attended by the demifashion,
able. At one time they were almost
as notable as Bagby's Monday Morn
ings. A young author who had not
made her debut in the magazines, but
had attracted considerable attention,
was, with rare audacity, invited to
read, but with prudent reservation she
vas asked to submit the manuscript
first. The story the writer selected
wa ~impeccable in its morals, but II
was extremely though briefly tragic,
and its climax was rather terrible. 1t
was submitted and returned, kindly
and politely, with the excuse that there
might be sensitive ladies present
whose nerves would be distressingly
Affected" The obvious reply that
women whose nerves were in q deli