Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-02-17

|
zines, he adds, the case is scarcely bet
ter. They, too, are infected by the
journalistic ideal:
"The newspaper is the Characters
tic voice of the age; and the age can
not have two characteristic voices. |
And the success of the newspaper, it's
enterprise, it's dashing invasion of
fields beyond its legitimate sphere, |
have compelled the magazines, each |
in greater or less degree, so to mod |
ify their contents as to meet this |
novel rivalry They try to handle |
timely subjects, to treat topics of the
day, to discuss burning questions. Such |
things are impossible to the literary |
spirit; but writer's are not lacking, and |
their work is often masterly-on it's |
own plane, which is that of the news |
paper Important uses are served; |
but they are not literary uses. Fic |
ton does not escape the infection; the |
class of stories which is upon the |
whole most acceptable in magazines |
has to do with current domestic and |
social problems, and with the dramas
and intrigues of business. The in |
terest is sustained, the detail is vivid |
| ly realistic, the characters are such as |
you meet everywhere, the whole |
handling is alert, smart, telling, up-to-
date; but where are the personal
touch, the atmosphere, the deep be-
meath deep feeling, the second sight, |
the light that never was, on sea or
land, the conservation, and the poets
dream? What has literature to do
with these clever stories? You may
read the entire contents of magazine,
and all the articles seem to have been
the work of the same hand, with slight
variations of mood; and next week,
how many of them all remain distinct
in your memory? The market-garden
cart has come to market, drawn by
neat and serviceable nags; but Pc
gasus is aloft yonder above the clouds,
where he belongs. Everybody can
write nowadays; but the literary ge.
muses. are as rare as ever and never
before had such difficulty in getting
hearing. The newspaper spirit has
banished them, and has closed above
us the gates of the spiritual plane"
In fact, laments Mr.. Hawthorne, we
are so preoccupied with other matters
that we do not desire literature, al
though 1--WE need it profoundly" And
he believes that the inevitable swing
of the pendulum will bring it back in
due season. He continues in this OPP
timistic tone:
There are already symptoms, II one
will give heed to them of discomfort
with the dollar as the arbter of human
life, of WEAKNESS of wars of traders,
both on the floor of change, where
the dead are suicides, and on the field
of battle, where Japanese and Russian
peasants kill one another in behalf of
rival pawnbrokers. There is a long
ing to re-establish humanity among
human beings, both in their private
and their public relations; to turn from
the illusion of frescoed and electric
lighted palm-rooms, and to open our
eyes again to the Delectable Noun
} tains, with their sun and moon and
} stars. The premonitions of such
change are perceptible; and, along
with them, timid putting forth, here
and there, like early spring buds upon
: the bare boughs of winter of essays,
sometimes in fiction, sometimes other
wise, which possess quite a fresh aro-
: ma of the spiritual genius. Some OF
, them arrive from over seas, some are
of native culture. They are at the
, polar extreme from the newspaper
!, fashion, and for that reason the more
significant They have a strange gen.