The New York herald., 1922-09-03
HRONICLE AND
COM NJ E N T
By ARTHUR BARTLETT MAURICE.

lean hotel where a certain literary
Bohemian atmosphere was to be
found. William Dean Howells dined
there occasionally, thereby. giving
the establishment tone of dignity.
Thomas Janvier lived there at one
time and used it as the background
of number of his stories, calling
it the Casa Napoleon" which of
course was not its real name.
Richard Watson Glider was seen
there from time to time, and Frank
r. Stockton and James Huneker.
In the late '90s it became the
headquarters of group of the
younger writing men, conspicuous
among them the late Josiah Flynt,
Willard, the Cigarette" Of Tramp
ing with Tramps," and "The Auto
biography of Josiah Flynt."
IN the '90s Washington Square
was the center of the writing
activity of New York. The pictur-
esque contrast between the Bel
gravia of the north side and the
proletaire of the south side was a
favorite theme of the story spinners
of the day. About the time that
the decade was passing out Frank
Norris was living in the Judson,
working on "The Wolf" which was
to complete his Trilogy of the
Wheat-the earlier books having
been "The Octopus" and "The Pit
but which he did not live to
finish. Also in the Judson Jesse
Lynch Williams lived in the middle
'90s. About the dawn of the decade
Robert W. Chambers was living in
the old Benedict. on the east side
of the square, and used the build
ing as the background for "The
King in Yellow" book which has
apparently been forgotten but which
for sheer delightful terror has few
equals in American literature.
A MOTHER aspect of the literary
a New York of the '90s: What
were the books that were be-
ing read and discussed as a month
or so hence people will be discussing
Mr.. Lewis's "Babbitt" and Mr..
Hutchinson's This Freedom" and
Mrs. Wharton's "Glimpses Of the
Moon" and Mrs. BurIett's Robin"
and Mr.. Bachelors Poor Richard"
and the rest? 1t was rot until late
in the decade that the American
novel began to swing into its own.
In the early years of the period peo-
pie were awakening to Rudyard
Kipiing and were talking about
some really very clever, detective
stories that were being written by
young Englishman by the name
Of Conan Doyle. In the middle of
the decade overshadowing all other
books was George Du Maurier's
'Trilby." Other novels have sub
sequently achieved far greater sales,
but no other book within memory
ever created such furore as the old
Punch artists tale of the Paris of
the last years of the Second Empire.
The hypnotic Svengali caught the
popular imagination, and as a term
became part of everyday speech,
and occasionally on Fifth avenue
one saw young men walking arm in
arm dressed to real or imagined
resemblance to Taffy, the Laird and
Little Billee.
THOSE were the years when peo-
= pie were also reading Ian
Maclaren's "The Bonnie Brier Bush"
the kailyard school was then in
high favor-and Hall Gaines THE
Manxman' and Anthony Hopes
THE Prisoner of Zenda." which, it
self an heir to Stevenson's Prince
Otto" and remotely to Eugene Sues
The Mysteries of Paris" was to
father any number of romances
dealing with imaginary kingdoms
or prineipalities in the Balkans. In
the middle of the '90s the Amer