The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1912-02-05
Kew AEHS 0F YESTERDAY
Yankee Wha Compelled England
70 Take Notice.

By & ]. EpNARDs


sly native ciiy ol Portland. ne,
hss been ihe Birth pisce 81 a good
mapy distinguished men. but OF an Of
hem / sometimes thiak am pfondesl
81 John Neal said Thomas = Reed
e me not long afler he had resigned
40m congress and taken up hls resi-
dance ia New York city Tor the piae-
tice of law
II sdrrose You have never heard oi
john Neal yet in be first hals OF the
nineteenth century he was Noiun
inous writer of novels. one oi the
leading newspaper editors of the
country. and a sympathetic adviser to
eli stN Cling onug writer's among
them hlsar Allan Pee And be Was
e pioneer of American l'1ters in hng
land lle was. III lact. the first
Amerie1B Who made an Englishman
read an American literary work. and
it IS because be sci out deliberately
TO DO this that am 30 proud of him
john Neal died in the centennial
year, at the ripe old age Of eighty
three but years before that had
come to be numbered among his
friends and from Ills own lips heard
how he set about making England
take notice of American writer's
When John Neal was young man
there appeared in one Of the Eng
Hsb quarterly reviews The now his'
toric question Who reads an Ameri-
can bcok2 That question humiliaied
many Americans aad it touched raw
spot in American life for more than
hall a century 1t made John Neal
especially angry By that time No
had written several works Of fiction
or semi.fction and Of biography and
50 quite naturally he felt very keenly
the slm implied in that British ques-
tion
Wen. several years after the qusS-
tion had been asked John Neal an
nounced to bits friends hat be was go
ing to England
What do you intend to do thereY
they asked him.
I am going 10 write as Yankee
something which will be published in
Great Britain ana which every body
who reads anything at all will be sure
to read, he replied
But have you enough money 70
live ON while writing and awaiting
/ publication Of your witings2 has
Friends asked anxIously
"l have replied John Neal. You
may he sure Chat IL will not be neees-
sary for me to borrow or beg while
am in England
So John Neal sailed away for Eng
land and snon after he got thare he
wrote a series Of articles what we
call personal sketches describing the
first Ave OF six American presidents
! These he offered TO one or two Of the
Quarterlles which were then the great
standards o. English critical lltera-
ture, only TO haYe them declined. AZ
last ho ycntfred Into the Office Of
blackwoods Magazine and offered mis-
: manuscripts. There they were speedi-
~ accepted and John Neal received
: what for that time was very hand
some check in payment for them.
Moreover, an England read those
sketches, it became widely known that
/ Yankee had written them, and John
Neal became a man of some literary
distinction Ard whenever he met q
E prominent Fngllshman who cungrato-
4 lated him upon hts magazine articles
e fhe would invariably reply in very
kindly way. Well, at last you English
people do read an American literary
work. and row that We have broken
the ice think tn the course Of timo
i you vii read many more Of them
In due season John Neal returned
i to The United STATES and was occupied
III f0r The resi- Of his NE IN literary
work. And think it ought TO be re-
i membered that It was John Nea OF
Portland. Me, who was The FIRST
+ American 70 compel the people OF
Great Britain to read an American
work Soon after that all England
wos reading The novels of Fenimore
1 Cooper
tCopyrlsst. i9fl by F. J Edwards All
Il Rights Reacrved3
Klled Lion VITA Pocket Knife.