New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-16
THE SHORT STORY.
Ho7r II Is Written by Some CIeUer
Americans.

lIfErID IN BONE BY InOInas NeIton fdEc
illustrated. limo. PIP A4 Charles scri6ners
Sons
TIE FAITH OF MEN. AND oTTIIZR STORIES
by Jack London Emo pp. 2oS The Macin1!!aA
Company
THE WATCHERS Or THE TRAILS So A Book 2,t Of
many illustrations by Charles LIVINGSTON Bun
The American short story has been generously
coddled The American editor has put it. with
an aTniable flourish, before the American critic,
and between them they have persuaded the
American public TO regard this object Of their
admirfng solicitude with increasing favor.
Incidentally. the English have been telling us for
a number of years that it is only from man
like Kiphng that they expect work so good
as that with which our magazines are filled
and Kipling is a Colonial! Well, it is all very
gratifying. no less TO the reader Of the American
short story than to the writer Of it But having
come upon more collections OF short stories in
the mass of fiction before US than We have ordi-
narily encountered at this season Of the year. We
have looked them over with special interest, and
from a selection OF them have drawn certain
conclusions They are not the conclusions to
which we would be led by a survey Of the Amer
team short story as st has been written by long
line of authors from Hawthorne. Poe and Bret
Harte down 10 the popular magazine filters OF
the present day. They refer 10 the latter busy
contributors alone. We have found ourselves
wondering. IN short, just what the writers OF the
moment are doing 10 Justify all the kind things
that have been said and that are still being said
about their dealings with one of the most diff
cult OF all the literary arts.
In the first place. they are preserving their
Americanism, a point which, frankly. leaves the
disinterested reader little dubious as to whether
he Is satisfied not. IT is good thing TO have
our social life in its many phases interpreted TO
us CT first hand. so 10 say, by writers who really
know whereof they speak, and founding their
stories on observed phenomena, give us at least
one Of the things most Indispensable to good nc
ton. namely truth. At the same time. this
fidelity TO nature this Spartan resolution OF the
author TO keep his eye the object, provokes
fear that he may presently suffer complete
atrophy OF the imagination. We hasten TO pro-
test that we are not thirsting for Enthusiastically
1t must be faded taste. indeed, that can find the
pleasures Of the imagination only in the tall
stories. The imagination may be wreaked with
tremendous effect upon themes not in the least
far fetched, as Balzac, for example. proved over
and over again. What troubles us about many
an American short story is that imagination
conspicuousIy fails. within it. TO perform its APP
pointed Office and to turn the commonplace to-
ward us with its face illumined This posture
of affairs might be illustrated by the citation Of
scores OF recent stories. but it is more conven-
lent TO confine the discussion to the books emu
merated above
Mrs. Freeman has Imagination. At all events,
she sees further into one of those New-England
domestic problems which she is fond of COM
memorating than would be possible without the
aid of the imaginative faculty But Of the
formative influence exerted by the imagination.
of the quality distinguishing the creative artist
from the skilfu analyst she gives at least in her
latest book, no sign. The story that gives the
70 her Of r1ar
The Givers," offers perfect case in point. How
sympathetcally she worms herself into the sim
pie souls of her villagers how delicately she
hits off the minging of the petty and the good
in every one Of them; and with what judgment
she puts the finishing touch to her little COM
edy-just the touch to appeal to the sensitive
and sentimental reader But with what an at
mOsphere Of utter unmportance does she en-
velop the whole business! Pervid eulogists have
a way OF limiting owlishly that merely for their
art" Mrs. Freemans stories are the finest
things since Maupassant's. We wish We could
see II in that way. AS a matter of fact while
Maupassant not merely gave hostages to fort
une through his frequently too morbid choice
Of motive, but failed to approve himself quite
the miracle Of craftsmanship which his head
long admirers call him, the author of The Civ
ers" is far from rising his artistic plane. In
fnitely finer in texture as she is she wants his
power of turning an episode in human life into
a work of art.
Mr.. Thomas Nelson Page provokes somewhat
similar reflections He writes a good short
story. short stories go. He has the knack Of
interesting his reader and giving the latter some
concern as TO how II is all going to come out"
Until the end Of the horse race in the story lead
ing OF in his new book, Bred in the Bone" is
reached. IT is impossible avoid taking a certain
interest in the proceedings. But we look for
something more than the ordinary narrative gift
in the short story-f we are taking the short
story form OF art with any seriousness
We look for individual impression, for a
charm separating the work from other compost
lions, even from other compositions by the same
author. Mr. Page tells US, instead the kind Of
story that goes In at one ear and comes out at
the other a story without an atom OF distinction
II is not that the thing is without vtality-it has
that-but that 1t is no better and no worse than
the unnumbered stories which are being set
forth year after year in unnumbered periodicals
II suffers, too, from the fact that 1t does not
contain. in anything like convincing measure
that absolutely faithful laual coloring which
sometimes goes so far 10 carry a piece Of fiction
Through. Mrs Freeman's New gland types
and scenes may be commonplace. sometimes, to
the point of aching dulness. but at any rate
they are eloquent Of New-England Mr. Pages
short stories are Of the South, but they never
bring unmistakable atmosphere of the South
10 consciousness. They read. curiously as
though written from the outside; the types in
them smack Of convention. We fancy that this
is not altogether Mr.. Pages fault All the
Southern novelists have for years been painting
the gentleman Of the South. his wife his chill
oren and his systematically loyal darkies in
more or less theatrical fashion until II has per-