Evening star., 1925-05-22

The death Of Herbert Quick in this
gard abroad, almost simultaneously.
| recalls to American observers the sin
gularly parallel careers Of these two
men Of letters. Quick wrote Of pioneer
days in the Middle West, and Haggard,
the Englishman, produced stories with
scenes laid among the builders Of
South Africa. Both were experts in
i. agriculture and contributed to the ad-
vancement of rural life and work.
A coincidence is suggested by the
ST. Louis PoSt-Dispatch in the fact
that two well known authors, English
and American, should have died
within five days Of each other. after
lives that were equally fruitful and
| wonderfully similar in product, both
literary and in the line of public serv-
ice." The Post-Dispatch adds that
| these two careers exemplifled
happy combination Of contribution to
romance, without which life would
lack one of its best savors, and the
| country prosperity, WHICH is the basis
| Of general well being" The useful
ness Of Quick's life also is emphasized
| by the Canton News, which presents
this estimate of his services: Farm
boy, teacher. lawyer, journalist, au-
| thor, editor and Federal official, he
contributed more to the betterment Of
| rural life than any other of his time.
| No other author has given us the
homely picture Of the Vests up
building to equal his. His help to
agriculture and its people was great"
X v
| HE didn't find his vocation until
late" explains the New York Times
in an outline of Quick's career. He
was Al when his first book was pub
marks Folly followed the next year
by The Hawkeye,' made his fame. In
these he puts flesh upon the dry bones
of documents and archives. These
books are crowded with life, charac-
ter, incident. with whole professions
of salient minor figures. They are
rich in natural humor. They smack
of the soil and the crops. Their home
ly fidelity and their breath of poetry
what a wealth of matter. with suf-
flcient art, the memory calls up" OF
Haggard's work the Times remarks:
at is doubtful whether kipling at the
height Of his popularity ever reached
an audience as large as that which
palpitated over King Solomon's Mines
and She the latter not inconceivably
immortal in more senses than one, on
her own modest level in literature"
Mr.. Quick is described as a "combi-
nation of the worker and the dream
err in a tribute from the Sioux City
Tribune, which observes: "Close
friends of 80 years ago would not have
been surprised had he attained fame
In the law or in politics, but they little
expected him to attract national at
tention as a writer of fiction" The
San Antonio News calls his a busy
and many-sided career, continuing:
"As a member Of the first Federal
Farm Loan Board he had much to do
with establishing that system, an un-
dertaking close to his heart. AS a
story teller he had few equals in his
day."
The Providence Journal believes
"Quick was engaged less with his
story than with an honest craftsman s
efforts to place his native country In
enduring record" The Chicago Daily
News praises his production of "a tri-
llogy based on Iowa history, thus set
ting an example of the use the novel
list can make of the excellent native
themes that are so plentiful
1.-The writer's of America, no less
than his public. are grieyed by his
departure" says the Kansas City
Post. He won real fame with his
stories because they were good stories
and because they were true to the life
they depicted" the Des Moines Trib-
une observes. IA genuine American
novelist, taking his theme from the
soil," adds the Oakland Tribune.
While Rider Haggard contributed