Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-25
AMERICA MAY HAVE
A SHAKESPEARE
H. G. Wells Believes We Viii
Develop Great Author.
DECLARES POE Is UNDERRATEI

/ English Novelist Thinks Time Is i.ipe
/ For an American Dickens - Finds
| Our Women Doing Noble Work For
Betterment of the POor-Does Not
1 Believe In OsIerism.
| In his entertaining occupation of sci
entifically examining the cogs and
crank shafts of time and of noting the
drift of the universe, II. @. Wells, the
brilliant English novelist, has found
| opportunity to make u flying tour of
| the United States for the purpose of
writing series of articles on The
| Future In America" for Harper'S Mag
| aZine.
Mr.. Wells is described by Langdon
| Smith, who interviewed the novelist
for the New York World, as follows:
Under forty years OF age, he is still
| n slender and delicate man, with a
broad brow and n face full of redec-
ton. His clear blue eyes CLEAN as he
talks. His opinions upon all questions
are lucid and entertaining. In short,
he looks the quiet, transformations man
Of genius that be is
So far as his impressions of America
go Mr.. Wells thinks the skyscrapers
are not necessarily ugly and may even
be graceful, and in speaking of Amer
lean houses he said:
Il noticed a very pretty thing about
your American architecture in the sub
urbS and throughout the country. 1t
was the presence on almost every house
of little piaZZas, 1 believe you cali
them, supported by pillars. Its effect
is charming"
Mr.. Wells went on to say he had not
been upset by the scramble for wealth
which so many Englishmen have found
in American life. He thought such
conditions natural and to be expected,
for Mr.. Wells is not at all Il believer in
the development of leisured class.
Mr.. Wells paid the following tribute
TO American women.
Il must say they are doing great
good work in other directions. It is
quietly done, but it is great neverthe-
less. There are many hard workers
among them in behalf of the poor.
Miss Jane Adams in Chicago is do
ing wonders with the Hull House
among the poorer people, and yCur
tiles here in New York are spleE4iGly
looked after by wealthy and charita-
bly, disposed women
In speaking of American literature
Mr. Wells said he thought the time was
ripe for an American Dickens. and in
the future the conditions might easily
develop a Shakespeare and Il Milton.
The greatest poets, he said, did not
necessarily come from the nonworking
classes.
Shakespeare was poor man who
wrote for his bread; Milton, as every
one knows, was not only poor, but
blind as well; Burns was plowman,
and many other English writers, nov
elists as well as poets. We're poor men.
1 believe that when the poet is born he
will work out his destiny on that line.
whatever his fate or his fortune may
be.
You have had many poor men over
here who have been great writer's.
There is one man in particular whom l
believe to be sadly underestimate in
this country That Is Edgar Allan
Poe. He is known quite as well in
England and France as in America.
You seem to have taken sort of aver
sion to him over here. | can account
for it in 10 other way than through
what has been said about him by Ru-
fus W. Griswold. the custodian of his
effects after death. Griswold said Poe
was a drunkard. and that seemed TO
settle it with the American people
Perhaps he was. but that fact should
not be connected with what he has
written
at what age do you consider writ |