Speaking last night in the Living Room of the Union on "The New England 'Character' in American Fiction," Joseph C. Lincoln declared that, despite many statements made twenty-five years ago to the contrary, New England was still an excellent field for writers. Mr. Lincoln also told many amusing stories illustrating different sides in the character of the Cape Codder.

"When I first wrote to the Union announcing my subject," said Mr. Lincoln, after he had been introduced by H. H. Faxon '21, "I intended saying that I would speak on the New England character in American fiction. On thinking it over, however, I was horrified at the extent covered by that subject, and so I hastened to put character in quotation marks. This materially changed the nature of my talk, for as you know, much may be done by the change of even a letter. This was brought home to me by a heading in the paper of the small town where I lived. The heading was on an article announcing the retirement of an aged car conductor, and ran, 'Pinched Tickets for Twenty-five Years'--which may have been true but was careless.

Cape Named by Discoverer

"Cape Cod was so called," said Mr. Lincoln, "because of a vow by the discoverer of it that he would name the place with the name of the first fish he caught off its coasts. It's rather lucky for the inhabitants, by the way, that he didn't catch an eel." The first town settled was Eastham, and the first inhabitants came from the Plymouth settlement. But it is Mr. Lincoln's theory, based on deduction, that the settlers came by sea. For we are given to understand that our Pilgrim Fathers were men of commonsense and piety, and according to Mr. Lincoln, no one of commonsense would even attempt the Cape Cod roads, and nobody could possibly navigate them and remain pious.

"The men of Cape Cod," continued Mr. Lincoln, "have always been sailors. It was a Cape Cod captain who brought into Boston the tea that provided for that city's famous party, and our navies in 1775 and 1812 were largely officered and manned by men from the Cape. But the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, the days of the clipper ships, were the days of Cape Cod's glory. Boys went to sea at the age of twelve, and often became captains before they were twenty-one. A man who was in Rio de Janerio in the Fifties once told me that of the fifty-six ships he once saw flying the American flag in the harbor of Rio, forty-eight were commanded by Cape Coders.

Born on Cape

"Of course," Mr. Lincoln admitted. "I was born on Cape Cod, and it is said of such that he knows three things: first, that Cape Cod is the finest place in the world; second, that its people are the finest in the world; and third, that he is the finest of them all. But all the same, these old seamen were great characters. They didn't do any flag-waving, they didn't make the eagle, scream. They were sturdy, dignified and fond of having their own way; a phrase coined some years ago just fits them--100 percent American.

"One serious point I wish to make," the speaker concluded. "New England is not barren as a background for writing, and those of you who go to it will find the characters there examples of commonsense, Americanism, loyalty and a love of those principles on which America was founded.