NEW YORK, August 1891.
From The Pall Mall Budget Gazette.
"The Americans are saying, by the way, that they have
discovered a Rudyard Kipling of their own. This is Mr.
Richard Harding Davis, a volume of whose stories has been
published this week by Mr. Osgood. Mr. Davis is only
twenty-six, was for sometime on the staff of the New York
Evening Sun. He is now the editor of Harper's
Weekly."
That is me. I have also a mother and sister who once
went to London and what do you think they first went to see,
in London, mind you. They got into a four wheeler and they
said "cabby drive as fast as you can," not knowing that four
wheelers never go faster than a dead march — " to — " where do
you think? St. Paul's, the Temple, the Abbey, their lodgings,
the Houses of Parliament — the Pavilion Music Hall — the
Tower — no to none of these — "To the Post Office." That is
what my mother and sister did! After this when they hint that
they would like to go again and say "these muffins are not
English muffins" and "do you remember the little Inn at
Chester, ah, those were happy days," I will say, "And do you
remember the Post Office in Edinburgh and London. We have
none such in America." And as
they only go abroad to get letters they will hereafter go to
Rittenhouse Square and I will write letters to them from
London. All this shows that a simple hurriedly written letter
from Richard Harding Davis is of more value than all the show
places of London. It makes me quite
proud. And so does
this:
"`Gallegher' is as good as anything of Bret Harte's,
although it is in Mr. Davis's own vein, not in the borrowed
vein of Bret Harte or anybody else. `The Cynical Miss
Catherwaight' is very good, too, and `Mr. Raegen' is still
better."
But on the other hand, it makes me tired, and so does
this :
"`The Other Woman' is a story which offends good taste in
more than one way. It is a blunder to have written it, a
greater blunder to have published it, and a greater blunder
still to have republished it."
I suppose now that Dad has crossed with Prince George and
Nora has seen the Emperor, that you will be proud too. But
you will be prouder of your darling boy Charles, even though
he does get wiped out at Seabright next week and you will be
even prouder when he writes great stories for The Evening
Sun.
RICHARD.
