New Fields For Novelists

Thf división of the enrth arnons; oontemporary uoveltsts has iiot as yot inclnded Greeniaml, where soroe new writnr can Jay the cene of a story in whieh the heroiuo will wear sealskin tronsftrs and oahn her troubled heart with rnighty drafts of train oil. Keithor lias any novelist seized upou China, wbcre freal Chinga may yet be done by ;t sfory teller wbo really knows somethingc; th at modem anrl mnltitndinons Fphi;;., the Cbiiiaman. Bnt witli theise oxceptiona thex'e is very littJe desirable territory whicb is not pre-empted. This of conrse greatly hampers new novelista who are compelled towrite navels denling only with English men and women at home. Enpland is the common possession of every body, and even the American writer who doea notwish to imítate eitherMr. Harto or Mr. Ho wel Is is oorapelJed to lay the scène of liis stories in London or in some one of t!ie many Jittle English coionios to be lound in continental oities. The Englisb novelist who wishes to writeastory oharaoterized by some little novel ty is red deed to inventingDodosor other falraloun ereatcres, an attempt which fails moreftBiuently than it sucoeeds. This state of thina ia so plain to every writer that I wonder thafcto cno has rnshed i;i to occupy the Groenland or the Chinese field. A Green land story would at once attract attention beoanee of its novelty, and we wlio havo never been to Greenland could warmly recognize the truth of its locií! color, and tha profound knowledge of Eskimo oharaoter shown by the writer. An advanced Eskimo maiden with a wild desire to wear petticoats instead of trousers apd to drink tea instead of train oil could hardly fail to charra the reader. I am afraid, however, that the advanced Eskimo maidwonld not survive jeyond the first four or five chapters, 'or I understand that whenever an Esdmo woman exhibita symptoma of advanced thinking sho is hnruediately set adriffc on an ice