The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-04
Yone Noguehi in the Critic.

NtiS 1NO5 eSiti III thS StitiC.
 I P to 1895, novel writing was N( not looked upon as a re- M spectacle profession The pub lie would not permit it to be called a gentleman's work. It was regarded as an unpardonable diversion of unworthy prodigies. The authors were accused of being a demoralizing influence. However, the fault may be with them, since they indulged, often provokingly in the depic- tion of the lower class of women. The geisha was their favorite heroine. am told that Ogai Mori was often warned by his Surgeon-General (Ogai was a higher army doctor) that he would shorten his dignity by his novel-publication. There is no place like the Japanese army where even an ill-fitting dignity is necessary. Once for some years Ogai stopped writing, seeing himself in danger of losing his place. What a prejudicel But happily such thing couldn't happen today when the invasion of western thought has clear ed 1t off Authors have come to command respect. They couldn't make living by writing only twenty years ago, but today
 
 the public demanded for literature of any sort having tremendously increased. They will put a price on their writing, counting the pages, if not the words like Ameri- cans. Nearly all the young students turn ed to writers at once Hence the overflow of novels in 1899 and 1900! Not one in a hundred had literary merit-too often, alas. they verged on the coarse and the scandalous. The books were hardly pie young writers tender brains know? The gentleman above thirty-five would not be- stow even a glance upon their work. Where Is the human interest,"" he would sterniy demand. Our Japanese woman rarely reads. The books circulate only among the students, who are glad to be imbecile. They lost the public respect at once which they had gainted after the hardest battle. You will see no more of literary events today. Commercialism has destroyed everything. And the well established authors, like Tsubouchi, Koyo, or Roban, did not come to the rescue in the crisis. For the last three years the public are denouncing the modern novel. So it is in America. isn't 1t? Japan is also floating up and down on the worlds current.
 The literary newspapers have been growing in power for the last ten years Soho Tokutomi is the most prominent figure in the field. whose artistic writing, sensible conception, and frequently witty reporting are nothing but the best liter ature. Minoru Kuga, of the Nippon Ca newspaper), is not without honor; his rigid style has been a tonic for the young CT minds. Now the intellectual Japa- nese are welcoming the newspapers with a greater respect than they ever showed bfore. permanently forsaking the feeble speculations of novels. And the students of serious bent are turning to scientific study. to real experiment. to practical works. Their eyes are set upon the spheres of social philosophy, physical analysis. and exact evidence. There has been no time in the past thirty-six years when there was exhibited such a serious thirst for western intellectual books.
 And the public discovered only year or so ago that the reading of western novels was the very way to feed their minds spiritually They are ready to ad- init their immeasurable superiority to the native writing. Their translation has as- | tonishingly increased with the downfall of