Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-05-24
Mr.. Howells and Life
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

Washington, ID. C., May 2l.-~The
death Of William Dean Howells ends
life that ought keenly 70 interest every
American. MIR ffoweils lived through
large part Of the American story. Think
Of 4 man who was born in Ohio when that
was still wild country, who knew Ralph
Waldo Emerson IN his prime, md who
lived through the world warl
He witnessed the making Of nation
He saw it broken in civil war and made
whole again. Ic saw II grow from q
seantily peopied wilderness into one Of the
richest states in the world, welding q
power that every corner Of the world has
felt
The spectacle Of material development
that Mr. Howells saw was .st1pendo'ls.
But he was not much interested IN ma
terial growth lie was one Of those very
few Americans in each generation who
stand back from the pie-connter In
stead Of rushing in to get his sharc of the
wealth which the lusty young country
was creating, he spent his energies IN an
effort 10 interpret that young country 10
itself TIe added his iot to its intellectual
growth. while nearly all others were mere
1y making money. He tried 70 make our
national brain grow fast enough 10 keep
,iu with our national body. In seventy
volumes of novels, of criticism, and of
travel books, he set forth his vision of
America, and his judgment Of what was
good and bad in IL, and above all, he tried
10 teach his couutrvmen 10 look n hte
directly and not through rosy spectacles
of sentiment, illusion, and superstition.
He was perhaps the first American novel
ist 10 do this much needed thing. His
nreachment has been carried much farther
now by Others Beside the work younger
novelists Of real merit such "a Theodore
Dresser. Sherwood Anderson, James
Branch Cahell, Charles 9. Norris and
Willa Seihert Gather, the stories Of Mr.,
Howell's seem tirnid and conventional
Yet they are sincere and true rs far as they
go. Mr.. Howells may be bit oid-fash-
Ioned now, but he was literary radical m
his day. He fought the good fight with a
skiiI that any writer might envy And ~
the "Rise Of Silas i.apham, he wrote orc
of the greatest American novels
THE OLD wEw ENGLAND,
Mr.. Howells began his career just as the
0reat deYs IF Boston SIS sn intellectual
center. and of what might be called pre-
industrial America, were drawing 70 a
close In the old New England there had
grown ip real culture There vas nd big
business then. except the romantic one n
marine commerce III sailing ships. nc
old American stock still dominated New
FpoIand and 20 did the ideals that had
grown ont of the revolution and the franz
inv ~ the Constitution That old New
Fnolapd produced Emerson, q world
nhiIosopher. and Nathaniel Hawthorne, =
Novelist of the highest rank whom all
Enrore admired. and Thoreau, q'feer,
half-defeated genius who hss neverthe-
less heen recognized as q great man by al
the world.
Then came in rapid Succession the
o,.nin0 If the West. the Civil War, the
factory system and the hordes of immi-
granta The old New England was swamp
81 n the rush Of millions Of men mad for
rnoney Boston, ~ the intellectual
/ capltal ~ America. declined end ieilt II
+ depenerated into what one n IT. inhani-
! tants has described as A. a''lnwbTow town
/ with a hIghbrow reputation ne pup
i Iishjnr business moved to New ork-
AS always when men are making much
money, the intellectual life q The nation
declined The old New Engianders may
k.tso hrcr parrourninEed h some ways
but they took their intellectual lite serious
IL and valued their gifted men. In this rush
Z gf money y-fldAB4G N'lAeAA
Civil War, there grew Hp me present
tyncy,rop attitude toward literature
which is that II Is a thing n cheeF one liF
/ ,yIer .ad IA luli one to sleep. 70 occupy
+bo t;ne - IDLE women. II was then thai
troarice began 10 produce its enormous
,ro,, 81 heap writers, who fatter i,
y,aT,tv nv nainting il always as the great
ost and most civilized country on earth
,rbo wr,te alwavs IL the sweet and III,
beant,f,ll Il brave men and beautiful
ia4,as 81 hannv marriages. and biissfH
homes They leave out all the struggle p {
woe all the sordidness instead p