This is not really the case, but it
logically might be. To a man daily familiar with the lurid incidents of
the _abattoir_, the summary extinction of a fellow creature (whether the
victim or the criminal) can scarcely seem a circumstance of so serious
moment as to another man engaged in less strenuous pursuits. WE do not,
and cannot, read many of the novels that most delighted our ancestors.
Some of our popular fiction is doubtless as poor, but poor with a
difference. There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In
every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.
There is ragtime literature as well as ragtime music for the many.
G----- is a man who had rather fail in a great purpose than not
accomplish it in precisely his own way. He has the courage of his
conviction and the intolerance of his courage. He is opposed to
the death penalty for murder, but he would willingly have any one
electrocuted who disagreed with him on the subject.
I HAVE thought of an essay to be called "On the Art of Short-Story
Writing," but have given it up as smacking too much of the shop.
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