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The Commoner
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Difference In Fiction.
A'sldo from mere differences in the
llfo and customs depicted, almost all
roaders have notedoctaln almost in
definable differences in the essential
motif, stylo, and thought of British
and American novollsts, apparently
-marking two distinct national schools
of fiction. Somo of these subtle and
less evident differences were lately im
pressed upon Mr. W D. Howells in
reading Mrs. Humphry Ward's latest
story, "Eleanor," and after much an
alysis of this book and others ho con
cludes that the main characteristic of
British novelists is" breadth of treat
ment, while the dominant note of our
own novelists- is depth. When Mr.
Howplls uses the latter word to char
acterize the American novel, ho is re
ferring to the classic novel of Haw
thorne and other writers of interna
tional and assured reputation, not to
what ho regards as tho ephemeral work
of the "matinee school" of "Janice
Meredith," "Richard Carvel," "The Re
demption of D&vid Corson," and other
novels that hnve lately . supplied the
voracious appetite of our new reading
public. Mr. Howells thus explains his
views about British breadth and Am
erican depth, writing in the North
American Review (July):
?'I. confess that the effect of the
breadth I have felt, or seemed to feel,
in" Mrs. Ward's work was such as to
make rae discontented with the depth
that I remembered in the best Ameri
can work, as if this wore comparative
ly a defect, since it was necessarily
narrowor. It was only by reflecting:
that our depth was the inevitable im-
plication of our civic. and! spclacondi-'
tions that I was consoled, andr restored
to something like a national 'selff-re1-spect.
To put it paradoxically, our'
life is too large for our art to be broad.
In despair at the immense variety of
the material offered it by American
civilization, American fiction must spe
cialize, an turning from the super
abundance of pharacter it must bur
row far dpw.n .in a soul or two.
"Men may invent almost anything
but themselves, and it was not be
cause Hawthorne made himself psych
ological,' but because he was so, that in
.the American environment he bent his
vision inward. H1b theory was that
our life was too level, and. too open
and too sunnily prosperous for his art,
but it was an instinct far subtler than
,,this belief that be obeyed in seeking
(INGE IN A LJfE TIME
. often enough todoomethlng8.1t'flOltonenouKU
"w to boy a wagon if you buy the right kind. The
ELECTRIC "wacon
lo8to that long under ordinary conditions. First tho llfo
fo
nP u watrnn ilnnnrwln nnnn f.llA ivhnnlfl. Tills OnO ifl
equipped with our ElcctHe8teolVKccl,with8tra git
or Btaggfir spokea and wido Urea. Wheels any height
from 21 to CO in. It lasts becauso tiros can't got looso. no
ro-sottlng, hubs can't crock or spokes becomo looso, f oi
loos can't rot, swoll or dry out. Anglo steel hounds.
THOUSANDS MO W IH DAILY USE.
Don't buy a wagon until vou ret our f reo book, rnrm BaTlns."
KLEOTJtlO WHEEL CO.. llox 238. QHtncy, Jlla.
HUTIPHREY'S COLLEGE
Humpliroyu, Mo.
lias recently como nndor tho management of
tho "Inlorstato University." It .will bo reor
Knnizod into a "Colloglnto Itopubllo" Each
student will bo a citizen of this Hpubllo. Ho
will tako part in its govornmont.
A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE
Its industrial features constitute a BusinosH
Entorpriso. Each studont becomes n partner
and shares dividonds to tho extent of what ho
pays in ovor his annual tuition.
A COLLEGE FAMILY
Earnc3t onorgotic boys and girls without
moans enn becomo membors of tho College
Family after tlioy liavobeen ouoyoar in College,
andbavo provon themsolves worthy. It aims
to help ovory boy and girl who wishos an educa
tion to gain ono through its Industrial oppor
tunities. FREE TUITION
.A Froo Tuition is offered to ono student from
ovory town from which fho studonts como.
.Autumn omostor begins Septombor.6, 1001.
Address nil inquiries to
: u J G. RODGER, President.
V' SURE TO ASK
"'The Kind of Coffee When Tostuiu Is Well
- Made.
' "Three great coffee drinkers wore my
old school friend and her two daughters.
They are always complaining and tak
ing medicine. I determined to givo
them Postum Food Coffee instead of
coffee when they visited me, so without
saying anything to them about it, I
made a big pot of Postum tho first morn
ing, using four heaping teaspoons to the
pint of water and let it boil twenty min
utes, stirring down occasionally.
Before the meal was half ovor, each
ono passed up tho cup to be refilled, re
marking how fine tho coffee was. The
mother asked for tho third cup and in-
Juired as to tho brand of coffee I used,
didn't answer her question just then,
for I had heard her say a while beforo
that she didn'fliko Postum Food Coffee
unless it was mbro than half old-fashioned
coffee.
After breakfast I told her that the
coffee she liked so well at breakfast was
pure Postum Food Coffee, and the reason
she liked it was because it was properly
made, that is, it was boiled long enough
to bring out the flavor. I have been
brought up from a nervous, wretched
invalid, to a fine condition of physical
health by leaving off coffee and using
Postum Food Coffee.
I am doing all I can to help the world
out of coffee slavery, to Postum freedpm,
ana nave earned tne gratitude of many,
many friends." Myra J. Tullor, 1023
Troost Ave., Kansas City, Mo.
the, subliminal drama. . Hawthprne
waq. .romantic,, hut .our :ro.alists who
hayeoUowed him have- been of the
.same; 'instincts and hayo dealt, mainly
With- the subliminal drama, too In
their books, eo faithful to the. effect of
our every-day life, the practical, con
cerns of it are subordinated to the
psychical, not consciously, but so con
stantly that their subordination has
not been a matter of any question.
Tho usual incidents of fiction have not.
In tho best American novelists, been
the prime concern, but the subliminal
effect of those incidents. Love itself,
which is tho meat and drink of fiction,
is treated less as a passional than as a
psychological, phenomenon. Long ago
the more artjstic of our novelists per
ceived that the important matter was
not what the 'lovers suffered or enjoyed
in getting married, or whether they got
married at all, or not, but what sort
of man and maid their love found
them out to bo, and how, under its in
fluence, the mutual chemistry of their
natures interacted. All the problems,
in any case, are incomparably simpli
fied for the English novelist by the
definite English condition. One can,
no longer call them fixed; but they are
still definite, and in a certain way
character proceeds from them the
character cf gentleman, a business
man, an artisan, a servant, a laborer.
Each of these has his being in a way
so different from the others that he is
a definitely different .creature; and
when through some chance, some per
verse mixture of the elements, the
conditions are traversed, and the char
acter bred of one shows Itself in an
other, it has a stronger relief from
the alien background. But, ordinarily,
the Englishman feels, thinks, and acts
from his claqa; when you name his
class- you measurably state him; and
you have rather to do with what he
does than with "what he is. The result
in fiction Js a multiplicity of incidents
and persons; you have breadth rather
than depth. Even in so psychological
a story as Mrs. Ward's fMIrcella' the
definite conditions account for so much
that it Js, after all, a study of inci
dental more than a study of motive."
A fundamental difference between
English and American lifo, says Mr.
Howells, may perhaps be indicated in
the fact that tho dialogue of EngllBh
novels deals? with incidents while Am-
firionn dialnrno Jfoalswlfh Infor-oafs
I Ho thus elucidates his idea:
"Their (the British) denser life, we
will say, satisfies them with super
ficial contrasts, while in our thinner
and more homogeneous society tho
contrasts that satisfy are subliminal.
This theory would account for their
breadth and our depth witllout morti
fying the self-love of either, which I
should like to spare in our case if not
in theirs. Our personality is the con
sequence of our historic sparsity, and
it survives beyond its time because the
nature of our contiguity is still such as
to fix a man's mind strongly upon
himself, and to render him restless till
ho has ascertained how far all other
men are like him. We are prodigiously
homogeneous, though in the absence
of classification we seem so chaotic.
We shall change, probably, and then
the character of our fiction, our art
of representing life, will change, too.
Very likely it will become more su
perficial and less subliminal; it will
lose in depth as it gains in breadth.
As yet, its attempts to be broad, to be
society fiction, have resulted in a shal
lowness which is not suggestive of
breadth.
"The English are less apt than we
have been to carry a story abroad,
and to find in an alien setting terms
more favorable than those of home
for the subliminal interests. This may
be because they inevitably carry their
civilization with them in all possible
details down to the emblematic bath
tub, while we find that we can get on
abroad fairly well without steam heat
and exposed plumbing, and the Ameri
can order which they stand for. We
are, in fact, far more easily detachable
from our native background, and blend
far more readily with the alien atmos
phere, than the English, so that I
think if an American family as near
ly as possible corresponding to the
Manisties had been set down in the
air of Rome, they would have lost
thoir native outline more. The thing
is hard to say, and perhaps I shall
come as near to suggesting it as may
be in noting the impression that tlie
cosmopolitan Englishman gives, of be
ing more English than if he had never
left home; whereas, the cosmopolitan
American really ceases to be Amoricari
even if he does not become anything
else." Literary Digest.
30 mffimW)
DAYsUKJ9LB
Trial IStuSF
fkeeRHkHHT
I58SIKfIMI
p0ggg
50
Styles
At WHOLESALE
PRICES!
If yonr dealer does not- handle
MONAHCU MALLEABLE IKON
& BTEEL ltANOES. w. will ihlp
wis urai onu vnjorvii irom jour com
muniiraiuie wuui.ESALE
FIUCE; txrat Ton from
110.00 to 2i.0O.
?-Freight pild 400 tttlej. Sent
HIKE Uandlcme Catalogue nlth
vhoteaalo prlcel and full particu
lar. Malleable Iron RangoCo
13V) Lako St., Buuvor
Dam, Wis.
(Tttccntlr at St. Louli, Mo.)
DO NOT CRACK NOIt WARP.
A Floating Hotel.
..The talk about a floating hotel, to
b'e towed out from the Battery every
night and brought to the dock- in the
morning, which has filtered through
tlie newspapers during every hot spell
in recent summers, is at last to be
realized. MV. John Arbuckle,, who
has had the plan under consideration
for several years, has bought some
fine ships and brought the scheme so
near to completion that it will be
launched soon it is to be hoped before
we have a repetition of last week's
heat. The details were fully told in
Sunday's Eagle. The boats, or hotels,
will leave the Battery in the evening,
return in the morning, and will make
over Sunday cruises to nearby points.
, Ample provision seems to have been
made against accident and for the
preservation of the decorous conduct
which is essential to the success of a
DO IT NOW
Uuy this Hay
Press now and
niwvf t,n linw fannrtiov With . llt.l,. rL j. hi ..
as lone aa you are likely to need a press. Makes even
bed compact balta. Eaiytofeed, easy to litudle at work or
atwwwua V l t7a WftUUt
-Lmm -ja
K?A?T rrriu lun Linarr mujrr'"a!v?
..i v ai tnm nnu nunac runrn tiw
"Fl V? BALING PRESSES made ta 88
rtyle. JUrgMt feed hole. Madoalmoet entirely
otaUet. LlrbUat bat itronteJt. Illustrated catalotrna frwj.
CMLUHS PLOW C8.. IMS Htmpshlra St.. Qulncy. lilt.
WANTED
Some republican who thinks the
country prosperous to BPBUY
FARM LAND AT IESB THAN
IT SOLD FOK A FEW YEARS AGO.
Address
JAMES BAIRD,
Salem, Illinois.
scheme of this kind. No liquor will bo
sold on the boats and other provisions
have boon made, calculated to insure
quiet and good order. With thousands
of people sleeping 'on Goney Island
sands last week and many more thou
sands tossing at home, unable to sleep
on good beds, in spacious rooms with
large windows, it would seem as if
this project would meet an existing de
mand. But much will, of course, de
pend upon the management and suc
cess cannot be guaranteed in advance.
It should be primarily a device to en
able those detained in the city to se-
cure a good night's sleep when the heat
denies them that luxury on shore.
Therefore, it should not be a picnic
with late hours, music and other noises
to disturb the people who seek these
boats for rest. There are abundant
resources for merrymaking on shore.
No addition to them is needed which
the beaches will not supply on the
mere suspicion of a demand. But
there is no way of insuring refreshing
sjeep to thousands in the city who
would be glad to pay for that privilr
ege. Mr. Arouciue's is tne only pro
ject before the public likely to meet
that demand. If it keeps strictly to
that one purpose it ought to prove a
boon to thousands who now swelter
helplessly through at least two or threp
weeks of tho summer. Brooklyn
Eagle. i
Outing for the Poor. .
It is not alone the rich and the well-to-do
who are planning to go into tho
country this summer. The poor aro
going, toohundreds of them. . More
over, they are not to be taken in char
ity, but in neighborliness. In other
words, the settlements are to tako
them.
Time was, mot so very many years
ago, when the poor of this city had no
thought of it summer outing. If, by
any chance, such a favor was extend
ed to them through the kindness of
some benevolent person, It bore tho
obvious aspect of charity. With- the
institution of the settlements, how
ever, there has come about a. new con
dition. It is not a change which tho
obtuse can easily understand, for ib Is
a spiritual rather than a material dif
ference. It lies here: The summer
outings given to the poor of Chicago
this summer will be extended as hos
pitality from friends to friends, and
those who receive this hospitality are
placed upon the same footing as all
other guests and expected to give of
their loyalty and good will, their tal
ents and services, just as the members
of a house party would do.
For example, the Chicago commons
will establish Camp Good Kill at Irv
ing, 111., as in former years. . As soon
as the heat of the summer has made
itself assertive thirty boys will bo
taken to the camp for a fortnight. At
the conclusion of that period another
detachment of thirty boys will be in
vited, and, after throe detachments of
boys have each enjoyed thoir two
weeks' visit thirty girls will be taken.
The camp will be kept open for twelve
weeks, and the boys and girls who
visit there will each pay fifty cents for
their vacation. They will also help
with the housework and will be ex
pected to assist in amusing each other
and to look after any who ar6' not
strong or "who are shy or unused 'to
the English, tongue. By such reciproc
ity, is this hospitality placed on a -higher
and more neighborly plane than the