New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-05-14

American authors appear to be of small i'm
portance in the eyes of the new editor OF The
London Academy" THE United States" We
informed by that journal, has developed
mary qualities that are entitled to be described
as magnificent but among them is not to be
numbered the art Of writing either prose or
verse. Not that, by any means, we wish to de-
preciate the many eminent essayists, historians
and VeTSifers who have sprung from America
Many of them are in a high rank, but not one
has been absolutely supreme
AS for the question of current poetry and
poets, 1.-THE Academy" says:
Wordsworth used to say that great poet must
make and educate his own audience The herd of
minors, so loudly exalted, owe their popularity
mainly to the fact that they not pioneers but
but echoes only. The true voice appears but seldom
and when it does appear is so strange and new
But If the owner Of it be true poet, then slowly
t1tory IN the world Of art Looking back at the his
tory OF literature, how easy is it to see that
years and that the period between looks now like
s ara waste though at the time it produced in
fned they We're going down the ages to Immortality
MI. Kipling has been chanting the praises of
the motor car before the Automobile Club of
South Africa-partly on the ground that
transportation was civilization" The motor
cars, he believed, had passed beyond the stage
bate:
Those cars, thanks to the extended mechanical
he spoke With ' sad Sa 9 Scarcely more
difficult TO manipulate than a of razOrs.
bacE tey hey eo9d go out S
days week. and he credbIy Informed that
Legend of the broken-down car being taken home
by the broken-do horse would very rapidly
take its place with the legend of the mother-in
law and the legend of the clearinghouse cat.
Let them be warned in time. They were being
borne the greasy flood Of success towards
unromantic ard certain goals. they enjoyed 4
good reputation In Il very little time they would
De discarded and lad aside as civiltzing agent,
a moral force, Of the dynamic factors of the
great march of progress All men would speak
well of them, and the waters of success would
close over their heads, and with them the darker
waters of responsibility, until the alrshlp came
into existence and they would ind their president
leading the AerOplane Club of Capetown in CIRCLES
like a lot of blessed doves, around the roof or
the Standard Bank of South Africa
Mr.. Kipliny and Mr. Bullen have just been
reproved for displaying in the new edition Of
1.-THE Cruise of the CachalOt'' profound igno-
rance of Herman MeIville's South Sea fiction.
Apparently neither writer has heard of "Moby
pioneer in the description of South Sea whaling,
from the seamen's point of view. one or their
critical countrymen goes SO far as to say that
Melville did it better.
The autograph manuscript Of SCOTS ballad
sold at auction in London. This Is what Scott
wrote in his diary concerning it:
The air of Bonnie Dundee" is running in my
head to-day. 1 wrote a few verses or II before
Clavers leaving the Scottish Convention Of Estates
1GS-S9. wonder if they are good; An, poor WIN
t-rsklne thou cQuIdst ana woulqst nave t0id Ne
r. But there, though he has taste too. there is a
little of the Big Bow-wow about it. Can't say
what made me take a friSk 50 uncommon or late
years to write OF free will. l suppose
the same impulse which makes birds sing when
the storm has blown over
COOD NIGHT