New-York tribune., 1910-10-09

thoughts do 1hlS, we fancy, Is the leell1g
of most of those who have any real experience
of print
Some if not all. of the women who write
novels have doubtless been eXasperated by
reviewers who have laid stress upon their SEX
Now, if Or. Emil Reich is to be believed, not
only their sex but the question as to whether
they are married or not must be taken into
consideration. Writing in BLACK and White
he declares that "of women the majority Of
nOyeliSts, at least in England and America,
are spinsers,'' and he proceeds to speculate
as to whether spinsters are really capable Of
writing on what forms the staple of Il novel,
as life" 1t is Il tremendous query, on which.
Of course. lacking DR.. Reich's courage and
oracular authority. do not venture to say
Il word. We cite instead, 4 few of his lumi-
nous observations:
Is a spfnster likely TO portrait young. passion
ate women and strong, harshly crystallized men
as well? She has never lived them; and shall
she yet be in a position to fathom them? Life
comes from life only. In order to un-
derstand the great religious ethical imperial
problems of this country, one must have wal
lowed in experience and rolled in facts of i'm
mediate contact with them. Short of that there
is nothing but Byzantine cOurt-talk.
SpnSterS paint, as rule. angels or devils only.
However. real men and women are neither
angels devils only. but a mixture of both.
The true heroine of is her
daughter: and the true hero, her There
ought to be a Society for the Suppression of
novels written by spinsters
Surely DR. Reichs suggestion will be acted
upon at once. and he we hope, will be elected
president OF the society. We are sorry for the
spinsters. 1t is Il tragic thing TO have 10
choose between wallowing and being sup
pressed
The French novel is in bad way. 1t hasn't
killed itself by being "scrofulous'' and getting
itself printed ''On dull gray paper in blunt
type" No, according to the Paris correspond
ent of The Pail Mall Gazette" one out
standing cause of the trouble is 1.-The failure of
the novelist to march with humanity" Every
body who is not riding in an automobile is
going about in flying machine or looking at
somebody else up in the Clouds and when, for
Il moment, the French reader seeks immobility
and repose he is obliged TO buy newspaper
because his literary cOuntrymen Will not sup
ply him with aerial novels. Hitherto we have
been reminded. in season and out of season,
how much better some things were done in
France. but the French romancer has been
caught mapping. While Kipling and Mr.. Wells
in England. Frederick Palmer and divers
others in America, and d'Annunzio in Italy,
have all made of the flying machine in
fiction. their Partisan rivals have stodgily
stuck TO what we have heard scornfuly de-
Scribed as their blooming triangle" 1t is said
that neither booksellers nor publishers are
making any money and that authors are grad
Ually drifting toward the Assistance Pub
Ique." Memoirs are popular, and so are scien-
title books and volumes of travel, but only few
nOvcIiSts hold their own, and they include the
makers OF the thrilling romdH- fcuHlcton which
runs in the daily paper The book review is
pretty nearly extinct Altogether, France is
m the verge Of 4 crisis