The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-28
POLITICIANS WARP
IT TO CONAN DOYLE
His Popularity as a Novelist
Does Not Help Writer Who
Is a Candidate.
Special Foreign Service.

ment at the hands Of critics so kindly
ever since he created Sherlock Holmes
that 1T must be rather a disconcerting
experience for the author to see him
self roundly abused and his opinions
rldlculed as he has had to several times
or late. But when the erstwhile DR.
Doyle decided to run for parliament as
Conservative, he hardly could have
expected that even their admiration for
his writing would prevent Liberals
from doing their best to bring about his
defeat either by discounting the sound
ness Of his judgment in matters po-
itical or attempting to disprove the
accuracy Of his statements. AS a mat
ter of fact, Sir Arthur is at present be-
Ing taken to task for his views as Sc
Verely as If he were just an ordinary
candidate, and not distinguished au-
thor, an acknowledged patriot and a
khlgnt- And 1t cannot be said even by
an unpreJudlced observer, that the Gre
ator or Sherlock Holmes" has had the
pest OF 1t so far in his bouts with po-
htlcal critics As was mentioned in
these letters, when Sir Arthur, who is
standing for the Hawick boroughs. de-
scrlbed the condition Of that constitu-
ency as one of depression, a local Lib
eral newspaper pointed out that the
deposits in the local savings bank at
Hawick last year were in excess of
those or any previous one, adding rath-
er maliciously, that DR.. Doyle would
nave more trouble in explaining this
fact away than he did in explaining the
return of Sherlock Holmes"
The author, however, came back
promptly in a letter written at the
Athenaeum club, Pail Mall, in which he
declared that he believed more money
had been deposited at Hawick for the
simple reason that the people saw hard
times ahead of them. But this is not
considered especially convincing. More
over, Sir Arthur was incautious enough.
In the same letter and apropos of the
present tariff discussion, to touch upon
the state of the wooden trade in this
country, of which Hawick is one Of the
centers. He remarked that Great Brit
ans export of woolens outside the en-
pire was only about $35, 100000. This
statement has been attacked with vigor
Dy well known ex-member of parlia-
ment, who quotes the Board Of Trade
returns to show that instead of $685.
OOO,00O worth of woolens going outside
the empire, only about half that amount
Is going to the empire, while nearly
$tOO.oOO,OOO worth actually is going to
foreign countries. DIR. Doy1e's critic
says: This Is surely a very serious
MEASUREMENT on the part of a public
man" Another declaration of the
knights on the subject of imports re-
Gently has been compared somewhat to
It's disadvantage with official figures.
and the tart comment added: This
method simply shows Ignorance"
When Mrs. John Oliver Hobbes',
sCraigie is at home in the Isle of Wight
she generally is able to work practical
~ undisturbeds but her house near
Hyde Park Is too easy Of access by
the novelist's friends to give her much
chance of being. alone when she is Gin
town." Mrs. Craigie spends a good deal
OF time in London, and so for weeks
she has been looking for a "work-
shop" where she. could sport her oak"
and be unmolested. Now she has
found such a retreat. To Londoners 1t
is secret which may be revealed here,
however, that by special dispensation,
the author Of Some Emotions and a
Moral has justarbeenr permitted to
take chambers in THE Albany" Pic
cadilly, the historic apartment house
hitherto exclusively a bachelor retreat.
These she willtuse as a den The Al
Nc1hy las OCCAA q POPuIdI place
with authors. Hall Caine had cham
bers there, and, to go farther back.
both Byron and Bulwer-Lytton lodged
in the famous apartment house. 1t
was, In fact, from the Albany that
Lytton is said to have written to his
wife in the country that he was "alone
with solitude" When his better half
paid him surprise visit, however, she
found him with piquant young Wom-
Z; IT,, II
Among the socalled passive resist
ers''-that is. noncomformists who OBJ
ject to paying taxes for having their
Children educated in Church Of Eng
land schools-at a London police
court this week was Rev. Silas Hook
Ing. Mr.. Hooking is a Methodist cler-
gyman, who, however, has no Charge"
at present, being occupied entirely in
writing novels that sell like the pro-
verbal hot cakes. This reverend gen.
tleman may, perhaps, be described as
the most popular author in this
country. His romanceS-in which re-
hgion plays rather a prominent part
are not literature, and a leading West
End bookseller announced the other
day that he never had been asked for
one of them, yet 1t Is stated that Mr.
Hocking's outpourings sell steadily at
the rate of 1000 volumes a day, and
a year or two ago his publishers an
nounced that 1,093,1S5 copies of his
works had been disposed of.
Although at home public men gener-
ally talk readily enough for publica-
ton, In this country 1t is a rare thing
for real authority on any subject to
consent to an interview unless a fee
Is forthcoming. The practice is called
to mind by the fact that Sir Charles
Villiers Stanford who is professor Of
music at Cambridge university, re-
Gently told a newspaper man who
wanted him to talk that his fee was
200 guineas, or $1,000. w. G. Grace,
the cricketer, demands $500 for an in
terview, and the rates set by w. s..
Gilbert and Sir Robert Ball, the as
tronomer, are nearly as high. Sir
Charles Dixie, NJ. P, feels that his
spoken opinions are worth from $50 to
$500.
From st. Moritz comes word that
Hall Game, who fed to the Riviera
recently to recover from nervous
breakdown, is decidedly better. The
novelist, however, is not yet up to do
ing any literary work, and the ap-
pearance of his new novel, "The Prodi-
gal Son." is likely to be delayed for
1 To xUhiI0