The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-20

| be fed with it, and the purveyors of fiction,
| like expert cooks, are put to it to invent new
dishes. Some one concocts new and tooth
some appetizer, and straightway it becomes
| the fashion Then all the minor pastry
cooks roll up their sleeves and try 10 imi-
| tate it.
More than a decade ago the State novel
| became popular, and we had novels of Vir-
| ginia, Louisiana. Georgia, Kansas, Califor-
| nia-and through the States and Ter
ritOries. Then the race element was intro
duced in dialect form, and negroes. creoles,
| Hoosiers. Yankees, Cinnamon, Irishmen,
| Dagoes and Greasers all found themselves
| speaking strange and outlandish tongues in
the pages of fiction.
| When the confusion of tongues grew OPP
pressive, the great American business sense
| asserted itself, and men and women were
| revealed in fiction as affected by the Idols
of the market place" For a time the
broker was the reigning hero-cool re-
| sourceful and impudent. Then the miner
Goal, iron and gold) furnished melodra-
| matte element which was sure to eliminate
| in a strike We had these novels with every
| variety of background, from the oil regions
! Of Pennsylvania TO the wild scenery of the
Sierras. The crown and summit of this
| style in fiction was reached in the apotheo-
sis of the millipnaire-a strange, UNI
| COuth, but maStertul inquire VINO still sur
| wives, with all the shop-worn properties,
| in the gossip of yellow journals. On a
| higher plane the professions found their in
| yers, doctors, clergymen and gentleman
| burglars.
| monopoly of the center of the stage by the
| "old graduates" and soon every college of
| importance had its particular brand
| of story with the college colors on the
| cover and the time-honored local trad-
| told n freshmen word
| of mouth, embodied in heroes and herones
| clad in gorgeous contemporary raiment.
When the Present was exhausted the
| Past began to yield up its stores. The his
| torical novel ran like wildfire through the
| studies of ambitious authors. Any old
period and any old language filled the DILL.
| The critics could not say anything because,
| when they hurled historic accuracy at the
author. he or she replied with a new and
outlandish country that never was on sea
or land. The trick was too easy to learn,
Having exhausted all countries, races and
| times there was a lul while the poor, Griv-
| en- authors sought In vain for new fields.
Then kipling made the animals talk. That
| started the whole drove of them (who
might have learned it from Aesop), and
| animal books" were turned out by hun
| dreds With intellects that would have
| equipped Shakespeare, and sentiments that
would have graced Clarissa Harlowe. all
| the. beasts of the field and the birds of the
| air bounded flew into the arena. Men
and women who viewed with indifference
the troubles of their own children wept
/ over the sorrows of a NANCY dog and were
thrilled with the nobility OF a billy-goat.
The animal kingdom having ceased TO be
| of supreme interest, the vegetable king
| dom has succeeded IL. We are now in the full
swing and stir of the vegetable era OF fic-
ton. Wheat found its interpreter in Frank
| Norris. hemp in James Lane Allen, cab
bage i'm Miss Hogan. Tobacco has just been
exploited in Miss Glasgow's novel. 1.-The
| DeIiverance." 1t is related by direct de-
scent with several other fashions in fic-
ton: il is a Virginia novel, of the recon
struction era, of the cavalier race. with a
| dash OF negro and poor white. But these
| are all subsidiary TO the tobacco motif
not plug or fine-cut, or Wheeling stogfe,
| but growing tobacco in the field. before the
hail has perforated il or frost has npped it,
IL is for the most part unrelieved tragedy.
\ Blake of Blake Hall-one of the real
Virginia Blakes. who for two centuries
had lived on their own land and sat in
Iuxuriant idleness while 800 negroes farmed
twas compelled by force OF circum-
stances and a dishonest overseer To work
with his own hands in the tobacco fields
That is tragedy enough for any Virgins
novel. Now, Hanna Of Ohio or a Carnegie