Life — October 28, 1909 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

[' is only a few years—no longer ago in fact than the recent recrudescence of the three-volume novel—since all the recognized authorities on literary embry- logy and evolution were pointing to the short story unit of our time, as the one literary discovery and achievement of the nineteenth centur: and as the probable medium of imagina- live expression of the near future. And ents as the fictional in view of these formal pronounce and of our rather general acquiescence in their validity one is moved to ask— just a little shamefacedly—what under the sun has happened? Is the short story experiencing what Wall Street would call a healthy reaction after a phenome- the astronomers would say, in aphelion? Or has it, to adopt the the Washington correspondents, honorable Dut undersalaried official appointment in to accept a highly paid job with trust? nal rise? Is it, as language of resigned an order the magazine W read on the Resemblance outer cover of A and Other Stories, by Clare Benedict, that “the success of Miss Benedict's stories, as they have ap- peared from time to time in the leading magazines of the country, has led to their collection and publication in book form." at this sentence on the matter? For simple statement Now, is it not possible t throws som ht it not only contains a of unquestionable facts, the unquestioned acceptance of a hi questionable basis of jud but it implies hly nent. It seer to take it for granted that good magazine good stories—worthy of preservs and capable things) of withstanding the test of prox- to each thar of proximity to articles on the early Hal the la Asiatic ex ploration, And as a matter of fact it is just this test that Miss Benedict's stories refuse they were doubtless all that siories are ion (among other imity other as well as Rennaisance and est to endure. Encountered singly, is claime for them, But stood up in a row they instantly appear for what they really are —nice little skeletons of situation. nicely covered with the flesh of fiction: each with a neat little heart or a nice little Lrain of its own, but with never a robust trace among them of any other organs whatsoever, PaESe is, however, one among the number of recent volumes of short stories that would, in the days of the a a boom, have received considerable atten- tion and aroused even more considerable This is a collection of tales of the Philippines, by Rowland Thomas, whose Fagan was the dark horse in Collier's short-story contest some years ago. The book is called The Little Gods, and its component stories have that ring and resonance, that self-com pleteness, and that confidently implicd— but that bespeaks the writer who sees the life around him in short stories rather than he who sees short the life around him. And from this distinction, in the final analysis, spring all the law the prophets. Mr. Thomas® little gods are the gods of things as they are; and the cult of his worship of them is neither a cult of fatalism nor of cynicism, but of an ancestral worship of our common hu- manity 7 stories in Arthur Morrison's Green Ginger belong in an entirely different category, but have an excellence and a merit of their own, They are not, Morrison's stories at unspoken—judgment stories in and in one sense, Mr. all, since they have been gathered—and no small part of their value lies in our feeling that they have been gathered— from the gossip and the tavern talk and the uncrystallized folk lore or rural Eng- land. Ws his studies of the city underworld of London and of the country underworld of Essex. And these tales—told many a time, one imagines, with a broader accent and a less hilarity re of his all know Mr. Morrison through seemly gleaning rather than of his invention They are instances of yokel humor passed through the alembie of the author's ap- preciative interpretation. F short Engl'sh has also HOPKINSON SMITH plished a volume of—well, of poor the is in terms of preci- sion), under the title of Forty Minutes Lats. These. stories as froements. fraements of fiction as F. Hopkinson Smith, W another stories (how hopelessly lan, however, are not so much much fragments of and not so h. being quite matter, places them hors con- cours in the present discussion J. B. Kerfoot. and Other Stories. by Puteam's Sons. $1.00. Rowland Thomas. $1.00, Arth <Compory. tes fate. by F. les Scribrer's Sons. le by Brown & Co, Hopkinson $1.50. men—good com- you get into their like until Morality ORALITY’S boundaries are fixed by geography, Like fashions in hairdressing, clothes and orthography ; An American scoundrel as likely as not Would be highly respected if born Hot- tentot. Peculiar proclivities, termed by us bestial, Are very good form in a high-class Celes- tial; While fair Saxon ladies whom think undressed Would by—let us say Fijis—be thought irks. quite oppressed We admit it is difficult, strange and con- fusing To find we should praise where we have been abusing; But murder and bigamy, When viewed in right seein nice! Some error was birth In selecting the spot for most mortals on earth Were we praise w As ir sinning! October 11, 1909 KNICKERBOCKER, JR. (draw- ‘© tng @ long breath): ah! So delightful the peace, tranquillity and re city after H-F! nakedness, vice, latitudes really hour of made at the east doubtless ‘d be winning— islackaday—we are chidden for just or west, pose of this anci IND may govern matter, but imag ination is a poor substitute for a square meal. Said a sorrowful spook to his wid: “You don't love me as much as you did!” “You forget,” said his frau “T can see through you now, From the tips of your shoes to your lid.” comicbooks.com