Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-14
TOO MANY HEROES
SPOIL THE NOVEL
YOUNG WOMEN CLASH IN
THEIR IDEALS
Compromise Produces Wonderfully
and Fearfully Made Object, Unlike
Anything in Heaven, on
Earth or Anywhere

A novel wrought out of real life and
containing only situations evolved from
actual happenings is to be the achieve
ment of three young women of Glen
dale. They will pool all their expert
ences, especially the romantic ones, and
stirring up the mixture, they expect to
derive a product that will be something
new and realistic. The Joung women
are Miss Ella Cordey, Miss Julia
Schultz and Miss Ethel Wightman.
Miss Cordey is a former school teacher
and all three have taken literary
flights of more or less Importance.
Miss Cordey is the originator of the
plan. According to her most modern
novels miss their mark because they
have their only basis in imagination and
are constructed without a proper re-
gard to 'antecedent probability" The.
only way to evolve really natural
situation, says Miss Cordey, is to
ground it on basis of fact. Her first
plan was to establish a literary labora-
tory where men and women would live
out the plots of stories under close
scrutiny and then have their expert
ences woven into a novel, Finding it
impossible to do this she and her two
friends decided IN the plan of writing
a novel which would be a composite of
experiences and typs of character.
Types Are Important
The types Of character are considered
of even more importance than he plot
and it is here that the blending of diff
ferent species will take place. The hero
will be made up of all the traits of
character which the girls have observed
in really nice men, and he is to be a
paragon, but not so much of a one that
he will not have some of the traits
which make even nice men human. The
villain will, of course, be real vermil-
lion devil and will Je no gentleman in
any sense of the word. he hero is to
be so beautifcally goo, and the villain
so shockingly bad that they will stand
out like a hero and a villain never did
before.
But, sad to relate, Ill has not gone
smoothly in the creation of the hero.
Although every effort has been made to
manufacture him on strictly impersonal
lines, each writer keeping her own
temperament in the background, three
very different heroes emerged from the
mill, when the three ;ample delinea-
tions were prepared upon which to
complete the heros character.
Qualifications of Hero
Before describing the hero, the girls
agreed upon certain conditions which
should have contributed to the forma-
ton of his character. Here they are:
1. He came of family once rich,
but now in ruined circumstances.
2. He is we'll bred, graceful and at
tractive.
3. He is fanciful and imaginative and
writes verse.
Within these rather wide limitations it
is not to be expected that anything very
definite could be turned cut, and moth
ing very definite was turned out. In ad-
dition to this the three heroes were so
widely different that th9y never would
be able to live in the same house to-
gether, to say nothing of being melted
down into one.
Miss Mordey is decidedly an impress
sionist. She is dark, impulsive and de-
termined, doing things sweepingly, and
objected strongly to the heros verse
writing proclivities. But the other
girls overruled her.
Miss Schultz is of the clinging type.
She has fluffy yellow hair, with pretty
little ringlets, and just adores really
nice men. Miss Schultz was RESPONSE
BILE for making the hero rite verse.
Miss Wightman is naively insouciant,
but also is an impressionist. She has
big blue eyes and laughs in a girlish
way, and as might be expected her
hero is a very boyish chap, Now, when
it came to blending the three heroes,
the trouble began and the girls spent
many sleepless nights in an attempt
to solve the difficulty.
One Woman's Hero
Here is Miss Cordeys hero:
Harold entered the room. He stood
a moment under the glare OF the light
before he saw Mildred. AS the girl
looked at him and was held moment
by his penetrating eyes, she was stirred
by that strange thrill of mastery which
a woman feels when looking for the
first time into the face OF strol g
man. In the unshaded brilliance Of
the light, every line of his face and
figure stood out clearly In the single
quick impression she felt rather than
perceived the details that were flashed
upon her. The stern, almost forbidding.
and yet boyish face, clear cut and un-
compromising, the straight line OF
black hair, brushed across the high,
white forehead, the firm, well-centered
figure, its muscles tense even when re-
laxed all came to her in single over
powering impression. She stood con-
fused a moment before she could speak
"'Is this Mr.. Kenwood?' she said.
I was not expecting you so SOON
"His face relaxed as he replied, and
Mildred recovered from her confusion
as she sat facing him and listened to
his eager recital Of Clarice's troubles
and the account of the Mumford case
His voice, deep and vibrant, and those
fascinating eyes held her as he spoke"
How Another Sees Him
Miss Schultz achieved the following:
"HarOlds form lowered above that
of the man beside him as they stood to-
gether and waited for Williams 1t was
the first time Ruthford had had an
opportunity TO scrutinize the young
man closely. He noted the unruly
wave of brown hair. the strange, sub
dued yeaIning In the eyes that seemed
TO always be looking over and beyond
! their human limitations and 10 see
something of the yelled infinite; he
saw the face, sharply outlined In pro-
file, pale, almost ascetic the face OF
dreamer lover poet: and yet