Mr. Copeland's Lecture.

A very large audience listened to Mr. Copeland's lecture last evening on Mr. Hardy, Mr. Kipling, Miss Jewett, Miss Wilkins and other writers of the Short Story. The lecturer began with a few words upon the theory of this form of literary art. The conte, as the French call it, the short story, as we call it, has not flourished and does not flourish in England. English writers too often make their tales seem like chapters from a three volume novel, or at least like awkward attempts at the novellete. They should, on the contrary, restrict the time of the story to a short space, and nothing like development of character should be attempted. Conspicuous examples of the best sort of short stories observe this unity of character and give the reader a glimpse, a sketch, an episode, rather than any essay toward elaborate portrayal of persons or events. Thus, Mr. Hardy has been less successful in the tales entitled "Fellow Travellers," "Interlopers at the Knap," and in others that might be named, than would have been expected from a writer of his imagination and other rich gifts. Mrs. Oliphant, Mrs. Walford, and even Mrs. Gaskill have written stories after the manner of the novel-chapter already referred to, and only Mr. Kipling, an Anglo-Indian, and Stevenson, a Scotchman, among contemporary British writers have had uniform artistic success in this sort of work. Guy de Maupassant is the master of contemporary French authors in the conte.

American writers, said the speaker, have worked the richest field in the short story. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page and Mr. Joel Chandler Harris are well known southerners, and Mr. Harding Davis has made a national reputation for himself which is perhaps a little in excess of his merits. "Gallegher" is on the whole his best achievement, and his early stories are in general his best. Miss Jewett and Miss Wilkins are in Mr. Copeland's opinion at the top of American writers of the short story. Miss Wilkins is undoubtedly the more dramatic of the two, but equally without doubt Miss Jewett writes a better style and gives a larger, wiser, truer view of New England country people and New England country life. The lecture was followed with a reading of Miss Jewett's story entitled "Fame's Little Day."