Life — August 4, 1898 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BUT NEITHER ONE OF CS CAN DRAW!"? bearing of General Worth tn the engagement.” That ts called “boiling it down to bard facts” in some newspaper offices. Bat the Sun'y young man knew his business better than that. He reported Keller as saying: But, say! You just ought t» have seen my little Colonel! About all you could see of bim was his little goatee, sticking right out straight, # little xray bair under his campatgn bat, and the flash of hia sword, He headed the procession as Jong as he could. and, I tell you, it was amazing pleasant to bear him say every now and then: “Just keep steady now, boys! Shoot wh eee something to shoot at, and shoot quick ‘That touch of reality 1s worth a column of careless reporting. It Isn't padding, elther, and, {t conveys not only fact bat a distinct conception, of General Worth and a stdelight on Keller. you ‘THIS same ability to create a distinct impres- sion of @ character and a situation ts a valuable Hterary gift for a novelist. If you care to analyze the stories of Miss Wiikins tn the recent volume, ‘Silence, and Other Stories * (llarpery, you will discover that a large part of her equipment ts exactly that gift. But she adds to It the power of creating first the character and situation in her own imagination. She ts more than a mere reporter of what she has seen. This volume shows a lack of discrimination on. the part of Miss Wukins between what ts trivtal and uninteresting and what ts important. All the stories are written with an even literary skill, Her workmanship 18 always surprisingly deft, Bat some of the tales are not worth while; tn fact they are dull, But one story lke “ Eveltna’s Garden” redeems the whole volume. There ts only one thing to compare it with, and that ts Mawthorne. Droch, LOV ried. R of fifty is usually unmar- 87 Fate’s Will and Way. ATE hath more of will to wound us Than of way to bless; The hurt of “no” is always deoper Than the joy of “ yes.” To Short Story Contestants. LARGE proportion of the contestants to Lire’s Short Story Contest failed to enclose with their manuscripts the necessary return postage. These manu- scripts are now held in this office, and, if found unavailable, will be returned to the authors upon receipt of the stamps, if before September 1, 1898. The careful reading of so many storics necessitates some delay in making the awards, but the work is being pushed as rapidly as possible, and in a few weeks the result will be announced in Lire. Y wife always agrees with me.” “How on earth do you manage it?” “| first find out ber opinion.” The Cubans. HE latest impressions we get of the Cubans, whom we have beeo so much interested to free, are not par- ticularly reassuring. The accounts that come from Santiago represent them as profoundly lazy. Our informants say they won't work, and are not anxious to fight. They seem to have been greatly disappointed at not being allowed to sack Santiago, and at not being placed at once in charge of that city. We have not expected much of them. We ought not to expect much of people who have grown up under such conditions as they have had about them, and whose hebits of industry have been broken up as theirs have been by years of nomadic skirmish- ing. But modestas our hopes were, they have been somewhat disappointed. But if the Cubans are so much less effective as men und soldiers than we expected, what shall we think of the THIS ca] way OUT Spanish armies, that have made efforts apparently so tremendous to subdue them and have failed so dismally at it? The inefficiency of the Cuban is the measure of the worthlessness of the Span- ish authorities, We are ready to believe again all the stories we have been told, to the effect that the true reason why the Cuban insurrection was not sup- pressed was that it paid the military authorities in Cuba to keep it going for the sake of the rich harvest of stcalings it brought them. Byas much, therefore, as the Cubans seem not worth fighting for, by sv much does Spanish rule the more deserve to be driven out. If Spain cannot hinder her own sons from sucking her own life’s blood, what possible hope was there for Cuba, or any colony, under Spanish rule? It is another instance of driving the rascals out. Perhaps under fair conditions the Cubans may develop into something better,