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easiest and most natural manner. This seems very like the perfection of story-telling. Each book is practically written twice over, but there is no careful polishing, and no lost time. The author is too busy a man, all his work being done at night, after office hours.

The rapidity with which Mr. Hudson composes is doubtless due in a great measure to his long training in newspaper work, and the easy, vigorous, clean-cut style is clearly that of the experienced writer for the press, to whom the necessity of doing work under pressure has brought the faculty of seeing things in ensemble, as well as the art of rapid arrangement and selection, and especially that of condensation. To journalism, also, is due his extensive acquaintance with contemporary life, which all of his books reveal. Having mingled for years with many of the ablest men of the day, seeing the inner machinery of political activities in all its various operations, knowing types of character as few besides experienced journalists can, it seems that his capital story-telling faculty is unmistakably wedded to an inexhaustible store of material for plot-weaving, drawn from actual observation.

It is probable that Mr. Hudson's present increasing personal popularity among metropolitan literary workers, most of whom he knew in his busy days of newspaper toil, is due quite as much to a recognition of these qualities as to his social qualifications, no small part of which are his bril

liant conversational powers. There can be no more charming companion than he easily found in any company of bright men. His personal appearance is attractive, and strangers invariably set him down as an actor, a conclusion supported by certain mannerisms and a habit of punctuating his conversation by dramatic gestures. Indeed, his whole habit of thought is dramatic, and it will not be surprising if he yet makes his greatest successes in this line of work. He is at present engaged upon a play, the title not yet determined, which is being written under commission for a leading actress.

Of Mr. Hudson as a friend, one would wish to speak with most warmth, for he is generosity itself; and while forming comparatively few close companionships, he makes of those few all the more delightful texture. He is not much of a club or society man, but stays close at home in the society of his charming wife, a lady of Halifax, N. S., whom he met abroad. They have no children.

Mr. Hudson is a passionate admirer and breeder of fine dogs, and owns the famous Irish setter champion Kenmore. Not more than forty-five years of age, with a salary that lifts his literary work above the plane of breadwinning, he is yet, as journalist, politician, yachtsman, dog-fancier, novelist, and dramatist, one of the busiest as well as the most approachable of men. ALBANY, N. Y.

George B. Gallup.

EMINENT GENDER.

Mr. Forrest Morgan thinks that the use of "their" as an epicene term for "his or her " is not only justifiable, but desirable. He recognizes the difficulty arising from the discord between the singular antecedent and the plural consequent, but sees no alternative except such atrocious inventions as "thon" or "hizer."

If there were no other alternative, I should agree with him; but I think there is a better

way of avoiding the apparent difficulty,-a way approved not only by the best grammarians, but also by the best writers.

A good pronoun to use in all cases where the gender is either doubtful or double is what is commonly called the "masculine" pronoun, he, his, or himself. Try it in the first sentence given by Mr. Morgan: "Then they had a delightful time reviewing the whole transaction,

each stoutly defending the course of the other, and severely blaming himself."

"Himself" will not only "do" here, in spite of the fact that one of the persons referred to is a woman, but it is elegant and classical. In this and similar cases the masculine form is said by skilled linguists to be of "eminent " gender, and as such it includes the feminine, and is practically "epicene." If any one insists upon writing, "Each stoutly defending the course of the other, and severely blaming themselves," I do not know that he can be restrained from doing so, but he will make that particular sentence contradictory. He will also, if consistent, have to revise many familiar sentences from King James' version of the Holy Bible. He will have to write, "Even a child is known by their doings"; "Every one of us shall give account of ourselves to God"; and "Train up a child in the way they should go." There is only one passage in the Bible, so far as I know, which accords with Mr. Morgan's view; that is in the third verse of the second chapter of Philippians: "Let each esteem other better than themselves"; and this will hardly avail much, as it has been amended in the "Revised Version" to read as follows: "Each counting other better than himself.”

In Macaulay's essay on Bacon, he writes: "A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his readers." In another place in the same essay, and when thinking of women, Macaulay writes: "A person who was ignorant of it [Latin] was shut out from all acquaintance with the most interesting memoirs of his own time."

Hawthorne put this sentence in the mouth of a woman: "I fancy that every person takes a peep into it .. in his moments of deepest insight."

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Emerson, in his essay on History, page 14, writes this: "describes to each reader his own idea."

I grant that Addison speaks of not blaming "any one for taking care of their health," but Addison's authority on such points has often been impeached. Mr. Morgan might have found a stronger ally in Mr. Ruskin, and probably, in company with Addison and Ruskin, he may safely indulge his preference for the plural form; yet he cannot persuade me that it is "the

duty of every lover of good English" to give this usage his support.

So far I have written only of those cases in which the antecedent merely involves two genders. There are other cases in which for a special reason the two genders are distinctly mentioned. In these cases the intention may be (a) to render it clear that both genders are included; or (b) to show that only one gender is to be understood, while at the same time the writer or speaker is ignorant which it is.

In cases of the first sort ( a ) the Bible inclines to use the plural form of the pronoun; thus in I. Tim. v. 16, we read: "If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them." This, however, is corrected in the revision. In Num. vi. : 2, occurs this passage: "When either a man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite." The force of this example, however, is broken by the return to the singular form in the next and subsequent verses, “When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto the Lord: he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink," etc.

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An example of the last case mentioned (b), where one of the two genders mentioned in the antecedent clause must be excluded from the consequent, is this: "Either Mr. or Mrs. Brown (I've forgotten which) called this morning, and when Mary told that you were not in, left card, and went away." This is much more puzzling than any of the sentences given by Mr. Morgan, for if we use "him," and "he," and "his," we determine the very question at issue; and it would be still worse to say, "Either Mr. or Mrs. Brown ( I've forgotten which) called this morning, and when Mary told them you were out, they left their card and went away." In cases of this last sort, the sentence had better be recast, e. g., "Either Mr. or Mrs. Brown called, and when Mary said that you were not in, left a card and went away."

What I have written has been with no desire to criticise Mr. Morgan's interesting article, but simply to help any writer that may have been perplexed in similar cases. For the solution of the problem I have tried to give, I am

indebted to no less an authority than Professor F. A. March, who many years ago, in a very kind letter, gave me my first lesson in "eminent gender."

Having now read both sides of the question,

let each reader "take due notice," and govern himself, him- or herself, hizerself, thonself, or themselves accordingly.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.

Harlan H. Ballard.

SECTIONALIZING LITERATURE.

The rumor that a great magazine is to be established in Chicago as a rival of the Century, Harper's, and other metropolitan magazines of the East, for the encouragement of Western literature, suggests the query, What is Western literature? Is there in literature that variable quality which gives it a local individuality, or entitles it to a local appellation? What are the conditions that subdivide a national literature into sectional literature?

If by Western literature is meant the productions of writers who live in what are known as Western states, there may be some reason for starting a great magazine with multiplied pages and wide borders to admit the work of these writers. The demand and supply of literary productions are greatly disproportionate; and numerous as are the pages that each month are thrown out over the land from the greapublishing houses, there are still countless pages of highly commendable literature that must be denied service to the world because of full supply. In this view of the case, a new periodical which will afford writers in the West an added chance for remunerative work, and put before its numberless readers the productions of men and women who make literature, will be a welcome thing to at least one class the writers. But if the definition of Western literature is that literary product which is colored by local conditions of nature, of human habit, of scene, or of development, the necessity for the new vent is questionable. The producers of literature having merit which earns reward can find purchasers in the present centres of literary art, where it would find a wider audience and better appreciation.

But what is Western literature? Is it a liter ature which deals with the prairies and the lakes, the farm and the village, the growing metropolis or the wide sweeping Mississippi? Is it a literature which has the flavor of the soil rather than the perfume of the drawingroom or odor of the college? Is it the literature of struggle rather than content, of the cowboy and miner rather than the bulls and bears of Wall Street, of work rather than rest, of half-developed culture, immature social life, unshaped individuality? Yet all these conditions are found in the East as well as in the West, in the North and in the South. The local colorings which nature gives to literature are not bound by geographical lines. The forms of speech, the individuality of thought, the art of expression, and the logic are little circumscribed by the natural conditions which surround the writer. The literature of any section owes its individuality more to the writer than to the local conditions. If the national literature is to be subdivided, the basis of that subdivision would naturally be personal rather than local. We should have Lowell literature, Holmes literature, Hawthorne literature. There is no doubt that there is such a thing as American literature as distinct from that of other nations; but when the effort is made to subdivide American literature in this modern day it is from a false basis, with unphilosophical lines. Swift interchange of residence, close connection in point of time and distance, has united the East and West, the North and the South, and the present rapid transfer of all forms of social, moral, and educational development from one section to another are rapidly making it more and more

impossible to preserve these sectional differences of development, which in a newly settled country might result in an individuality of literature.

The formative influences which determine the culture of the New Englander have diffused themselves over the whole nation, and types are becoming less local and more individual. The New England maiden lady is found in New Hampshire and in Indiana, in Boston and in Chicago, in Haverhill and in Louisville. The New England Yankee plies his trade far west of the Mississippi, and drives his close

bargains at the foot of the Rockies as well as at the foot of the White mountains. The Pennsylvania German has founded his habitation on the Ohio and on the Missouri; he abides alike in the mountain fastnesses of Pennsylvania and in Colorado. The educated New Yorker lives in New Orleans, and Pittsburgh and Birmingham show kindred types and parallel conditions. What, then, forms the basis of the subdivision of American literature?

ELKHARDT, Ind.

A. P. Kent.

STATEMENTS THAT MISLEAD THE INEXPERIENCED.

Within a few months there appeared in the columns of a first-class and widely-circulated newspaper a story, the principal character of which was a woman left unprovided for, to battle her way against adversity, and shelter and feed two helpless children. On reaching the last extreme, and after a season of tears and despondency, there came to her aid a happy thought. Rising from her knees, she, who had never attempted anything in the way of literature more ambitious than the essays of her school days, set to work on an absorbing story. She wrote all night; and when morning came took the finished sheets, neatly tied with a "blue ribbon," to an editor, who proved to be also a philanthropist, for, after kindly pointing out some errors, he accepted and paid for the story. From that time success was assured. There was no hint that the pen was not equal to the task imposed upon it, as a means of living.

But, suppose the essays at school were admirable, and that they had been written with ease, the writer was now virtually inexperienced in any composition, and had attempted writing of a kind altogether new; while the tale was planned, written, and copied with a rapidity that would daze the best of story-writers. The first

effort, it will be observed, found publication; those following were better, and reward was speedy and sure.

Later, a reputable and well-known journal contained the story of how a girl of sixteen was enabled to help her benefactors. Deprived of schooling, because the friends who had taken the orphan to their home in the South were, through misfortune, poor, she was yet a great reader; and, ensconced one day in a windowseat at her favorite occupation, chanced to overhear the, to her, startling fact that the home must be lost through inability to pay off a mortgage of a hundred dollars, due in a few weeks. At the same moment, in picking up the paper that had fallen from her hand, our heroine by a fortunate coincidence noticed the offer of a prize of one hundred and fifty dollars for the best story sent to that publication before a certain near date. Slipping away to the attic, she selected a story from some rolls of manuscripts secreted in an old trunk, copied it in two days, mailed it, and in the course of three weeks had the pleasure of receiving an express package containing the amount (in ready money) that had been offered as a prize. She stopped on her way from the office and paid off the mortgage; then, taking the freed papers, with the

remaining fifty dollars, went home and presented them to her astonished, but happy, friends.

Now, it might be supposed that the very glaringness of the improbabilities belonging to accounts like the above would prevent the doing of harm, were it not for the knowledge of some exceedingly erroneous ideas that exist concerning authorship. An able editor of a church weekly complains of the constant receipt at his office of contributions from young writers who do not know the first rules of composition. Many of these articles, he says, have not only not been revised, but they have not been even read by their authors after they have written them for publication.

They who are without experience are easiest encouraged. And it is not to be wondered at that, without just standards, and with loose notions of the labor requisite, such individuals are readily led to undertake tasks for which they have no fitness, only to meet with disappointment. The country is flooded with notes of the

quick successes and fabulous pay of authors that are known, with recitals of fame and fortune instantly won by imaginary novices. There is, besides, a further temptation at present in the popularity and commonness of writing, when everybody that one has heard of irrespective of previous literary effort is heralded as contributing, or about to contribute, to the press.

The truth is, that while valid encouragement is proper, there is quite too much of that which is a false showing. Really, the world is not dying to hear what the callow youth has to say; the way of the writer is not one round of happiness, nor is poverty always conquered by the pen. It is better to understand that the honors, emoluments, and pleasures are the results of the bit of advice, Work and wait. And it is to be regretted that so wide-spread is the opposite influence, deceptive as it is apt to be to the uninitiated.

NEW DOUGLAS, Ill.

Emma E. Volentine.

HOW A BOY BECAME A REPORTER.

"How to Get Work as a Reporter," in THE WRITER for November, recalls the experience of a young man in New York. He had a common-school education, and was working in a stone quarry office, answering call bells-salary, three dollars a week. This sum did not pay for his bread and butter. He studied shorthand. After a few months' persistent work, this lad could write more than a hundred words a minute. An editor employed the boy as an amanuensis. Dictating editorials was merely a fad with this editor, and occasionally the amanuensis was given an opportunity to try his own hand at an editorial paragraph or the doctoring up of a news report taken from another paper which was to appear as a special despatch. The lad did the work well. The editor thereupon re

sumed writing his own editorials, and gave his clerk a position on the editorial force. At the

age of nineteen the shorthand writer had charge of the Wall-street department of a New York daily, reputed to have the best "street" news of any in the city. This boy secured from three to six columns of news daily, having to furnish a fresh batch of copy for each of the three editions of the paper. This duty was faithfully and satisfactorily performed by a minor, who had but a limited education and the ability to "rustle," as Westerners call it. One day he "beat" all the big dailies in securing a most important news report. The leading paper of the town then secured his services, and has since paid the youngster a liberal salary.

The point which I wish to emphasize, however, is the fact that this young man's ability to write shorthand moderately well was the key which gave him an entrance into an editorial sanctum and helped him obtain a handsome

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