Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-04

though still Virginian, is not what you
might call sectional or local. 1t is pri-
marily a love story, but a love story
interviewer with the sterner questions
of the day, which are rife just now
from one end of the country to the
other. In my novel a young clergy
man and an idealistic Jew work Shout
der to shoulder in the effort to uplift
humanity, and in it, also, I aim to
voice the protest Of the great educated
classes against the encroachments and
tyrannies of the two forces between
which they stand-capital and labor
1t is to the treatment of subjects of
this kind that the fiction of the day is
undoubtedly tending, which marks
new era in the evolution of the Amer
lean novel, south as well as north"
Killing a man was never regarded a
joke in the Western country, and the
western man, at least as I knew him,
was about as far removed from the
grOteSque clown of magaZinedom or
the stage as day is from night; yet men
once went armed in the west, and
sometimes the reckleSsness of disgrun-
tied, self-disguised,' desperate men,
mostly sullen or excited by whisky, led
to fatal shootings. 1t was not popu-
lar sport or pastime to kill men, and
those who did so made no overwhelm-
ing majority of the population, any
more than they do today in the eastern
cities. But even allowing for the folly
and inaccuracy and exaggeration of
common estimates, the truth remains
that to the average American the west
ern cow puncher the plainsman, the
border dweller, remain figures of a ro-
mantle interest; and underneath the
erroneous, and in spite of the spurious
ideas regarding them there was enough
Of the real fighting man, the warrior,
the armed hero, who has always been
the darling of the pOpulace from the
Crusades down, to warrant the invest
ing halo, even though at times the
latter was a trif1e large and ultra bur
nished. There is no doubt that the
finest body of light cavalry the world
ever saw could have been recruited
from the young cattlemen Of the west
ern American plains twenty years or
so ago. They were hardy, tough, en-
during, used to rough living and hard
riding, needed small outfit and little
sleeping gear. and were acquainted
with violent deeds and daily perils
Moreover, they had a compact, port
able and efficient arm, which with each
and every man was familiar, and with
which many were highly expert.
From THE American SiX-Shooter,"
by Emerson Hough, in the Outing
Magazine for January.
The American husband is the model
Of the other nations, they praise him
sometimes they ridicule him-for his
indulgence of his beautiful and gifted
wife. AS a rule he gives her all the
money he can, he loves to see her Law
ishly dressed; he let's her run" her
own life to suit herself, and makes al
most no demands in his own home,
says a writer in the January Apple
tons. AS much as he can in proper
ton to his income does he permit her
to be free from the burdens of work
so she may have more time to amuse
herself or instruct her mind as she
chooses. His daughter he treats with
even more indulgence than his wife.
1t was this indulgent attitude of
American men that made wOmen'S col
leges possible in this country. Our men
realized that women had minds and
souls and that they were thirSting for
education, so they fastened to aid
women in supplying this want. They
supplied it so well that there are many
who go so far as to assert that the
American woman has a corner on
American culture. Her husband from
his early manhood is so busy in pro-
viding her with every means to acquire
this culture that he has no time to
spend on it himself. For this reason
many claim that the American woman
in general intelligence outstrips her
lord, who knows little but his business.
Any publisher will tell you in proof of
this that it is the approval of the Wo.
men of the country which makes the
''big sellers; that to be a paying bust
ness investment the magazine must
cater to the women. 1t is the women
of the country who read The men
read the newspapers and the articles in
the magazines which their wives rec
ommend to them