The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-01-13
VERY MORAL IN BOOKS
WE WANT OUR FICTION JUST
RIGHT
Cannot Stand for Ladies With a Past
Save in Real Life = Everybody
Wishes to Know Whether the Mas
querader Is Moral or Immoral

1t would seem that as far as the lit
eratureIthat is, the literature of fic-
tion-is concerned we are becoming
very analytical in this country Not
content with enjoying a good story and
letting it go at that, the public wishes
to know exactly what the writer meant
what his ethical idea was, and whether
or not the book is really moral. It
would appear that the reader is not
able, unassisted, to tell whether or no
a book is moral, and the effort to find
out is very amusing. We seem to wink
at good deal that goes on about as
that is questionable, but lady with a
past in a novel fills us with horror, and
there are those who write long letters
to the newspapers to convince then.-
selves or others that there really was
no harm in her. So the fictionist has
not only to write a story, but to Tess
up what he meant by it and to bear all
the analytical expositions of what he
probably meant, of which the literary
magazines and editorial pages of pa
pers are often full.
When Rudyard Kipling wrote
They" and after it appeared in a
magazine last summer, almost every
body rushed into print to tell what he
or she thought he meant, and hardly
one dared to say he could not read
some beautiful mystic meaning into the
little story A brave soul or two ad-
mitted that Kipling may have been
having little joke with his public to
test whether or no it would rave over
something it did not understand And
rave it did. Kipling probably had a
good laugh if he read some of the ex-
plantations of what it was all about,
written by admirers who would not
even admit it was cryptic, but clear as
day TO the discerning. Kipling himself,
when asked, refused to explain He
probably thought it was his business to
write, not to furnish diagrams and put
wits into the heads of readers So he
maintained dignified silence, and the
letters anent his strange little story
are still being written. The same thing
was gone over again when Mrs. Hodg-
son Burnett wrote and published I'm
the Closed Room" Pens flew fast over
paper, and everyone wanted to tell
what 1T meant. presume Mrs. Burnett
also enjoyed herself. AT all events the
elect told what it was about and ex-
planned that it was wholly moral and
lnnocuous. That is the great point; we
insist upon having our fiction moral
and fit for the young person.
And now @The Masauerader." That
dramatic and improbable tale of the
absolute likeness of two men to each
other, and the pleading of the morphine
afflicted husband with his double to
take his place and give him chance to
go to the bad in his Ssway makes
very intense story. It was not so very
strange that the wife was deceived. as
"a rn i, l,11c Il
save at the dinner table or an occa-
slonai ball. OF course she and the sub
Stitute fall in love with each other. and
naturally, of course, the husband dies
and they are made happy. But the
public is now shrieking itself hoarse
asking: rs it morale" Everybody
reads it, but there are those of us who
will not lend it our commentator un-
til that vexed question of morality is
definitely settled. But who is to settle
it, The New York Times has been
carrying lengthy correspondence
about the ethics of it, and those who
have thoroughly enjoyed the book are
now trying to salve their frientened
consciences by explaining that of course
1t is moral, but this rather tentatively,
fearing that some great literary light
may come out and declare it very i'm
moral. Now this is all very silly, WHY
not admit it is a rafting good story
and stop there. 1t is not half as strange
as many things going on about us
hourly-nor as immoral
In life itself we can stand good
deal. but we want very proper persons
in our story, and even though we may
regard them as little doubtful, above
all we want to have the matter defined
In print. The lot of the writer is fay,
from the simple life at present. For he
has to be told in every paper exactly
what he meant by his story, and all
his bad people explained away until
he is not sure that he has not written
a Sunday school tract, But 1t shows
we are very nice people.