The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

THE FINEST SIDE OF "THE SUN" 403

does charming work, and will probably long remain in
position as a dainty but not suggestive or formative
writer. Aldrich is very slight. John Hay easily won
whatever name he has, and it will easily pass away.
Henry James the younger is one of the rising men, the
youth of literature.
But of all these there is not one who has yet discovered the stuff out of which the kings and princes, or
even the barons, of literature are made.
Harte, having written his most famous short stories,
had come East. Howells, then thirty-eight, had published three or four novels, but "The Rise of Silas
Lapham " was ten years ahead. John Hay, then on
the Tribune editorial staff, had written his "Pike
County Ballads" and " Castilian Days." Henry James
had put forth only "Watch and Ward." To these
budding geniuses the general public was rather inclined
to prefer Augusta Evans's "St. Elmo," E. P. Roe's
"Barriers Burned Away," and Edward Eggleston's
"Hoosier Schoolmaster."
Notwithstanding the expressed doubt as to Harte's
fecundity, Dana admired his work and printed his
stories in the Sun for years afterward. Late in the
seventies he bought Harte's output and syndicated itprobably the first successful application of the newspaper syndicate system to fiction. About the same
period Robert Louis Stevenson's earlier successes, such
as "The Treasure of Franchard" and "The Sire de
Maletroit's Door," were having their first American
printing in the Sun, their original appearance having
been in Temple Bar and other English magazines.
The files of the Sun for 1891 contain writings of
Stevenson that are omitted from most, if not from all
of the collections of his works. These are parts of his
articles on the South Seas, an ambitious series which
he was unable to finish. Some of them were printed