Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-03-19
An Ingenious
Critic
By HARRY VAN AMBERC

At college my essays were always Sc
lected to be read before the class, and
was made editor of the university
magazine. This led me to choose lit
erature for my profession. l naturally
| looked to the author whose works were
| at that time considered the acme of
| literary method as my guide, and moth
| ing less than the field he occupied
| would satisfy me- There must be no
| plot. Plots were for dime novels.
| There must be nothing demonstrative.
| for l and the school / proposed to en-
| ter considered that lin typel to be
gush and fit only for those who cannot
| appreciate what is high bred. What
| l aimed at was delineation of charac-
ter, proposing to take my heroes and
| heroineS apart, examine them through
| microscope and put them together
| again. stamping them with my own
| imprint, just as an eminent chemist
will give a certificate for a brand of
soap.
| I had written several novels in this
vein and had attracted the attention Of
! the critics and persons of refined lit
erary taste. Unfortunately l had no
| fortune. and | found it improbable to
write for the few But l would not
lower my standard AS to my charac-
! tiers, they must needs be high bred
! persons. for met no others. Not one
| of those | met in society would show
any feeling. and ] found myself de-
| picting those who were moving about
| on Lfe's stage. not as human beings,
| but as social automatons. Neverthe-
less the critics and my clientele stood
by me, and l was pleased, though tinan-
| cially it didn't pay.
One day while travelling on a rail-
road train l noticed young girl in
the seat before me. She could not have
| been more than seventeen years old,
was plainly dressed and appeared to be
a model of simplicity. What was my
establishment to see her take from her
! satchel copy of my last novel and
begin to read it. | wondered how
person so low in the human scale could
be interested in the philosophic deduc-
tons she would find in my work. l
leaned forward and asked:
] "Can you recommend the book you
are reading?"
! SCI? Recommend it? It's everything
to me-
GLOW is that?"
'Tm in the story"
"Youw
eyes. l don't know how the author
J got hold of my case. but he did some
how or other. He's given it perfectly,
only he gives a great many reasons
for my doing things that | never had
at all. 1 suppose he made them up.
skip them"
ooh, you do? What causes you to
think that the author gives your own
story?''
| "Why, it's as plain as day. There's
Mrs Jarvis. She's my stepmother.
| Papa does whatahe can for me to make
| her treat me nice. But she won't, and
| sometimes he looks so tired and worn
| when she snaps at me-just like Mr..
Jarvis in the story-that l put my
arms about him and kiss him and say,
! like Marjory in the book, Never mind
me, papa. dear, SO long as she don't
scold you"
l was interested. OF all my stories
this one was the most human. l had
been told by my admirers that in it
had not done myself justice.
slave you read any of the authors
other novels?" asked.
GIVE tried to. After I read my own
story in this one 1 got the books out
Of the library. one after another, but
they were all Greek to me. l suppose
like this one because it is my own
! story"
"What else is there about you in the
book?''
"Well, for one thing I know Edith
bingham. She's just like Edith in
the bOok-a society girl-always going
about with her nose in the air. She
| talks just such unintelligible things as
Miss bingham. She's never going to
marry, she says, but devote herself to
some high moral purpose-you know,
the girl in the book is going to do that
but she can't find a purpose high
enough for her, so she only talks about
it with young men of superior type.
That's like Miss bingham too"
who is your favOrite authorw /
! asked the girl.
''Mr. Dickens"
remembered that Mr.. Dickens had
not in all his books drawn the char
| acter Of more than two or three per-
sons in high life. l had reversed the
order. had not drawn but one char
acter out Of high life, the one this lit
tie girl had assumed to be herself. I
wondered what would have become of
my literary fame when my hundredth
birthday would come round.
! The train was approaching my sta
| ton, and as l gathered my belongings
| / said to the admirer of my story:
''Thank you very much for telling
me all about the book. know the au-
thor intimately. l shall tell him all
you've said about it, advise him in fu-
| ture to write about all kinds of per-