AMERICANS ALL
STORIES OF AMERICAN
LIFE OF TO-DAY
EDITED BY
BENJAMIN A. HEYDRICK
Editor "Types of the Short Story," etc.
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND HOWE, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY. N. J.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For permission to reprint the stories in this volume, acknowledgement ismade to the owners of the copyrights, as follows:
For "The Right Promethean Fire," to Mrs. Atwood, R. Martin and Doubleday, Page & Company.
For "The Land of Heart's Desire," to Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Company.
For "The Tenor," to Alice I. Bunner and to Charles Scribners' Sons.
For "The Passing of Priscilla Winthrop," to William Allen White and The Macmillan Company.
For "The Gift of the Magi," to Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Company.
For "The Gold Brick," copyright 1910, to Brand Whitlock and to The Bobbs, Merrill Company.
For "His Mother's Son," to Edna Ferber and the Frederick A. Stokes Company.
For "Bitter-Sweet," to Fannie Hurst and Harper & Brothers.
For "The Riverman," to Stewart Edward White and Doubleday, Page & Company.
For "Flint and Fire," to Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Messrs. Henry Holt & Company.
For "The Ordeal at Mt. Hope," to Mrs. Alice Dunbar, Mrs. Mathilde Dunbar, and Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company.
For "Israel Drake," to Katherine Mayo and Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company.
For "The Struggles and Triumph of Isidro," to James M. Hopper.
For "The Citizen," to James F. Dwyer and the Paget Literary Agency.
PREFACE
In the years before the war, when we had more time for light pursuits, afavorite sport of reviewers was to hunt for the Great American Novel.They gave tongue here and there, and pursued the quarry with greatexcitement in various directions, now north, now south, now west, andthe inevitable disappointment at the end of the chase never deterredthem from starting off on a fresh scent next day. But in spite of allthe frenzied pursuit, the game sought, the Great American Novel, wasnever captured. Will it ever be captured? The thing they sought was abook that would be so broad, so typical, so true that it would stand asthe adequate expression in fiction of American life. Did these tirelesshunters ever stop to ask themselves, what is the Great French Novel?what is the Great English Novel? And if neither of these nations hasproduced a single book which embodies their national life, why should weexpect that our life, so much more diverse in its elements, somultifarious in its aspects, could ever be summed up within the coversof a single book?
Yet while the critics continued their hopeless hunt, there was growingup in this country a form of fiction which gave promise of some dayachieving the task that this never-to-be written novel shouldaccomplish. This form was the short story. It was the work of manyhands, in many places. Each writer studied closely a certain locality,and transcribed faithfully what he saw. Thus the New England village,the western ranch, the southern plantation, all had their chroniclers.Nor was it only various localities that we saw in these one-reelpictures; they dealt with typical occupations, there were stories oftravelling salesme