FICTION, AMERICAN. 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1900. 217 



The War of 1812 has thus far been but scantily 

 treated by our novelists. Mr. Brady has dealt 

 with the subject from the naval point of view, 

 and Mr. Altsheler with the war on land in A 

 Herald of the West, one of the best books of that 

 able novelist and student. This period, however, 

 appears to be doomed to neglect for the present, 

 since the civil war is plainly to be the next episode 

 in our history to be romantically treated. The 

 laek of a really great novel of the greatest of our 

 crises has long been felt, but it was not until 

 1900 that Mr. Altsheler produced his In Circling 

 Camps, evidently the forerunner of a large class 

 of books of its kind. The twentieth century, 

 however young, already feels its distance from 

 the happenings of the nineteenth; sufficient time 

 has now elapsed to allow of judicious, impartial, 

 and final dealing with an episode that long was 

 a tender subject on both sides of Mason and 

 Dixon's line. Historians and novelists will not 

 succeed each other here, but will proceed abreast, 

 and perhaj s we shall thus obtain a truer knowl- 

 edge of the methods of the latter, and of their 

 value as teachers. 



No fear of wounding sensibilities still raw, of 

 arousing prejudices hardly quieted, held back our 

 novelists in the case of the war with Spain. It 

 has inspired already one notable novel, but only 

 one, Mr. John Fox, Jr.'s, Crittenden, a book breath- 

 ing a fine and sturdy patriotism, celebrating, above 

 all else, the crowning good that war is supposed 

 to have brought us the lasting union of North 

 and South, of the Blue and the Gray, the birth 

 of the nation's confidence in its insoluble soli- 

 darity. 



The novelist as teacher and interpreter that 

 seems to be the immediate future of our fiction. 

 National history, national character, national life, 

 national problems these are to succeed the " prob- 

 lem " novels, " psychological " studies, and " sex " 

 discussions of the immediate past. The improve- 

 ment will be undoubtedly great, for it will aid 

 us to " find " ourselves, and, having found, to 

 know and understand. The modern novelist no 

 longer wants to be an idle entertainer; and there 

 be many who are willing to be informed while 

 finding pleasure. The scientific historical method 

 allures them not, theology undisguised does not 

 attract them, and psychology and economics, like- 

 wise social studies, can not tempt them. To them 

 the novelist may act as interpreter of the wisdom 

 and knowledge of the day, giving a new function 

 to his art, but assuming also great responsibilities. 

 Technique, already much neglected, will run a 

 parlous danger at his hands, for he may forget 

 art for the sake of usefulness. This, however, is 



question of the fufure, \vhich only the future 

 answer. 



Greatest among our national problems is prob- 

 ably that of the negro, not as a dweller on planta- 

 tions, a picturesque, light-hearted feature of South- 

 ern scenery and life, nor as a source of folklore, 

 but as an unassimilated lump in the social body, 

 a possible danger that should be turned into a 

 source of economic strength. Nearly half a cen- 

 tury ago the negro inspired the most popular 

 American novel ever written. Will his new con- 

 dition appeal to another writer, and will that 

 author's influence be as great as that of the 

 " little woman who made this great war," as Lin- 

 coln said? Will he be a member of the race? Al- 

 ready it has its prophet, laboring indefatigably 

 for its advance, but he is not a novelist. Thus 

 far the negro has shown no remarkable aptitude 

 for letters. He has produced two or three writers 

 of dialect verse and prose, the latest of whom 

 is Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt, linked to the race 



;<j 



by but a single drop of blood. But his first novel, 

 The House behind the Cedars, is not a striking 

 performance in workmanship or meaning. Mr. 

 Chesnutt should confine himself to the short story, 

 which introduced him to the American public. 



The Chicago school, which is devoted to the 

 study of present-day social and economic condi- 

 tions, has not yet found its prophet. Mr. Robert 

 Herrick's The Web of Life, published in 1900, is 

 one of its best products thus far, but the very 

 complexity of the subject dealt with threatens to 

 dissipate the strength and resources of the authors 

 of this school. Thus far they have confined them- 

 selves to reporting the things that are, with their 

 inequalities and apparent injustice. The seer is 

 still to come. Meanwhile this school will probably 

 devote itself in the immediate future to the 

 preaching of the gospel of the new Christian so- 

 cialism of the West, of which Prof. Herron is one 

 of the chief exponents. 



FINANCIAL REVIEW OF 1900. While 

 there was an absence of serious political tension 

 between the European powers during the year, 

 there was more or less of financial derangement 

 at the chief foreign centers, resulting at intervals 

 in comparatively dear rates for money. The war 

 in South Africa, which had closed the gold mines 

 in the Witwatersrand district, deprived Europe 

 of a supply of gold which for the year previous 

 to October, 1899, had amounted to about $70,- 

 000,000. The war involved increased expenditures 

 and consequent large borrowing by Great Britain, 

 and rates for discount at London were maintained 

 at such figures as almost constantly to draw gold, 

 or at least to threaten such withdrawal, from the 

 Continental centers. These centers, it may be 

 noted, were insufficiently supplied, and in order 

 to protect their stocks of gold the Banks of France 

 and of Germany from time to time resorted to 

 measures which tended to keep discounts firm at 

 Paris and at Berlin. These monetary conditions 

 were somewhat intensified early in the year by the 

 discouraging reverses suffered by the British in 

 South Africa. Even after the capture of Pretoria', 

 the Transvaal capital, and the occupation of Jo- 

 hannesburg, the gold-mining center, and of Kim- 

 berley, the diamond field, demonstrations by the 

 Boers were vigorous and annoying, indicating an 

 indefinite prolongation of hostilities, the constant 

 menacing of lines of communication, and the post- 

 ponement of the resumption of gold mining. 

 Though in October Gen. Roberts officially an- 

 nounced that the war was practically at an end, 

 it appeared evident that the pacification of the 

 conquered territory would be greatly delayed, and 

 that until this should be effected there w r as little 

 prospect of relief to the financial markets of Eu- 

 rope through the receipt of gold in any .considera- 

 ble volume from the Transvaal. Consequently. 

 these markets would be compelled to rely for an 

 uncertain period upon other sources for their 

 much-needed supply of gold. 



The disturbances in China, the outgrowth of at 

 least three years of antiforeign agitation, which 

 followed efforts by the principal European powers 

 to enforce important territorial concessions from 

 that empire, likewise had an unsettling effect upon 

 the finances of Europe, and at one time serious 

 political disagreements were threatened. The con- 

 cert, which was early established and which en- 

 abled the chief European powers and the United 

 States to adopt measures for the effective relief 

 of the international legations and the occupation 

 of the capital of the Chinese Empire, was, how- 

 ever, happily preserved. At the close of the year 

 it appeared probable that the punitive policy 

 which had then been unanimously agreed upon 



