New-York tribune., 1907-12-29
ENDING GS.

If is not necessary 10 20 into the merits Of
the Quarrel between the author of noyel ana
the slramatist who turned II into Il play over the
latter's alteration of the story from one with
an artistic 10 one with Il happy" ending in
order TO observe how necessary both these de-
vices are TO the writer's of the best sellers. If
every piece of fiction ended in a land overflow
ing with milk and honey should become
cIoved with such sweetness. and even the in
cenuity with which the author plucied his hero
and heroine out of the pitfalls which he had
digged for them would not reward US for OBJ
serving a progress whose finish was foreor-
dained and inevitable. But all know
there is a gamblers chance that we may shed
tears at the end. and human nature likes that
gamblers chance. This incident shows that 1t
is lust as easy to conclude a fiction one way as
the other: it is the writer wills, and that
is why il is worth while 10 find out whether
you are going to reach In the end the senti-
mental reward of contemplating hard won
bliss or the loftier self-satisfactlon OF APPROX
ing art and art aches.
Indeed. the principles involved in construct
Ing modern masterpiece are not so different
from those practsed in the now despised dime
novels of a generation ago. Then the hero went
about with his life in his hands; now he goes
about with his happiness in his hands. Then,
despite all his reckeSSneSs, he used TO demon
strate through many moving tales that his life
was lust as safe in his hands as the ordinary
mans life would he in the care Of Il life insur-
ance company; now he shows that notwith-
standing his characteristic reckleSSness his hap
piness IS Just as safe in its exposed position
as it would be if left in the safekeeping of
Upton Sinclair or William j. Bryan. But our
| ancient writer of blood and thunder WAS not
so unwise as always 10 extricate his hero or
heroine from the everlasting succession of peris
that made their lives hardly worth the 10 cents
that the rehearsal of them cost. Precious as
is human life in fiction, now and then he slew
a hero. and it was always that possibility which
carried his readers on. Now, the average
hero or heroine is just skilful at defying
unhappiness as then he or she was at defying
DEATH but ever and anon the precious happi-
ness is lost in the last chapter and the interest
is thus preserved.
Don't think because the settling of the West
has made the Indian, the train robber the
highwayman, the cowboy and the bad man
seem little remote and uncOnvincing that the
modern hero or heroine is not surrounded with
danger. Where the older members of the breed
bore charmed life' through many chapters
or 1t might be volumes, today they must bear
a charmed happiness" TO escape in the last
chapter from art and heartaches. What of
Indians, bad men and the other gun carrying
gentry? Good sirs the modern parsonage of
fiction usually fatally married i'm an early chap
ter lives In constant peril OF the divorce court
The Other Woman or the Other Man constantly
imperils his or her happiness. Think of those
| insdous hazards that everlastingly encompass
| them-the stenographer, the actress, the di-
vorcee, the affinity. the artist, the actor.
the man of the world, the glittering millionaire.
Only person with charmed happiness can
escape from such a maze of dangers yoi,
watch with quiyering sympathy the other
woman and the other man in their machina-
tions; the hero or the heroine scksns unto
death; the baby comes-that reconciltr from
the heaven of fiction; the beloved chin dies.
and you wonder whether each of these ha Spen-