His short stories include: _The New Little Boy_ (July, 1911,
_American_), _That Day_ (September, 1911, _American_), _The Pick-Up_
(December, 1911, _Everybody's_), and _Gideon_ (April, 1914,
_Century_). The last story stands out. It can be compared without
disadvantage to the best work, or all but the very best work, of
Thomas Nelson Page, it seems to me. And from the reader's standpoint
it has the advantage--is this not also an author's advantage?--of a
more modern setting and treatment. Mr. Hastings is, I have been told,
a director in over a dozen large corporations. Let us hope that his
business activities will not keep him too much away from the
production of literature--for to rank as a piece of literature,
something of permanent literary value, _Gideon_ is surely entitled.
ALEXANDER JESSUP.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
_Alexander Jessup_
THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839)
_George Pope Morris_
THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844)
_Edgar Allan Poe_
THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844)
_Caroline M.S. Kirkland_
THE WATKINSON EVENING (1846)
_Eliza Leslie_
TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES (1854)
_George William Curtis_
MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME (1859)
_Edward Everett Hale_
A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS (1861)
_Oliver Wendell Holmes_
THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (1865)
_Mark Twain_
ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE (1885)
_Harry Stillwell Edwards_
THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR.
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