The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 14, 1895, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY "14, 1895. 21 THE CALL continues to publish well-con- sidered articles in regard ewest and best books of America Neither time nor space useless and trashy pub! Itis with pleasure es that another days on Olympus” tion, and will appear Sunday. Harvey, of ‘“Coin’ fame, is maki the ons. uE CALL an- mentof “Holi- irse of prepara- probably next not cial School” stir than ever. For this reason his work are of sp time. WITH THE SCRIBES. est at thi A Department of Literary Ap- preciation. on Economic Reform and Other Subjects. Books le are rstand en were they to no means con- That in regard to | y than is the real majority must be con- ceded, but theirs isbut a brief day, after all, and even over them, in time, that subtle, intangible but powerful factor which we know as Public Opinion will assert itself as making for National righteousness. But the part which our growing litera- ture m’Are!orm will play in this coming crystallization of public opinion is one of suggestion rather than of formation. Whatever may be the influence, for in- stance, upen public thought of the many books that have grown up about that one entitled “Coin’s’ Financial School,” it i not likely that either it or they will make a lasting improssion upon public opinion. TI'bat factor in National life would, it was once predicted, crystal around the idea embodied in Bellamy’s ‘“‘Looking Back- | ward,” but it is doubtiul whether there are many people- who could to-day state cor- rectly what that idea is. A aveler From Altruria” has unquestionably set people to thinking, but a consensus of ne opinion of the principles involved ells” fine work wuulJ probably be | very diffieult to obtain. This is unquestionably a healthful indi- cation. Itis pre-eminently desirable that we should have an a ened public opin- ion on the burning questions of the day, but it is equally undes: le that any au- thor or any school of authorsshould set up a public opinionar Yet this is the on economics u sk rget that the field they s that of theory and spect han that of didact m, and y waste valuable time in fruitless endeavor to solve problems which have not even as yet been properly stated. Two small books on economic questions claim the reviewer’s attention this week. One of these, *“Looking Forward,” is by a local writer, who eviden: prefers to hide behind such incognito as obtains in the ini- tials W. C. In this little book the ve interest in a some- what antiquated cult, and his work is si ply an amplification, and local appl: 5 the principles that Fourier announced, sought to promulgate, and failed in the practical exposition of, a good many years ago. There are plenty of people living to-day who can remember the rise and fall in whish most writers | . Th this country of Fourier's idea. Horace Greeley was an enthusiast npon tkLis sub- ject and spent a good deal of time and energy and some mouey in the effort to establish associations or phalanges in different parts of the country. He was in- | terested in the famous Brook Farm experi- | ment_and sought to extend that work | elsewhere. ‘We reproduce to-day a letter | from Greeley upon the subject, in which he urges upon his correspondent the | establishment of a phalanx near Cleve- | land, Ohio, But Brook Farm was a failure, as all who have read Hawthorne’s “Blythedale Ro- mance” will recall, and so, also, were all | the similar enterprises based upon Fourier's teaching. Fourier’s idea had its foundation in a logic principle which he claimed to | have discovered, and its expression in an economic scheme which he believed to be | ix logical working out of all human prob- ems. z The idea which he claimed as his discov- ery was that the full, free development of | human nature, or the unrestrained indul- | gence of human passion, is the only pos- | sible way to happiness ‘and virtue, and that misery and vice spring from the un- | natural restraints imposed by society on | the gratification of desire. His endeavor was to show that the same fundamental tact of harmony obtains in society, in or- ganic life, in a word, throughout the | universe. | To bring about social harmony it was necessary that society should be recon- | structed, for, under the present social organism, innumerable restrictions were placed upon the free development of hu- man desire. The practical economic idea upon which this reconstruction of society was to be based was co-operative industry. His co-operative scheme was most com- | prehensive. Socflet{ as a whole was to be organized on the lines necessary to give | full scope to co-operation, and to the harmonious evolution of human | nature. It was to be divided into | departments, or phalanges, each phalanx | about 1600 persons, in- | numbering | habiting a common dwelling and having a | certain portion of soil allotted to it for cul- | tivation. Out of the common gain of the phalanx a certain portion was to be set ide to afford each member a minimum | ibsistence. Any member of a group might vary his employment at pleasure, | and pass from one task to another as the ‘dvsne influenced him. Private property | | was not necessarily abolished, but abso- lute social equality was to be insisted upon. | Marriage was to be abolished and its place taken by a very ingenious but at the time | little understood and much condemned | system of license. | ~One phalanx was established at Conde | Sur Vesgre in Fourier’s day, but both it and subsequent attempts of the same sort | proved failures. We are indebted to Fourier for many valuable and sound ideas on the subject of co-operation. Indeed, he is justly entitied | to be called the father of the modern co- operative idea, but the principle involved in his once-famous “‘discovery’’ and the elaborate system he sought to base upon e eele Lhf0 L et N85 .,./é?" _rm«}é/ B PA GT Cconss K[ vl ap Zow, 2o @ LE finifierd v~e 2 TA < oéo{(fi(;#-z/ - % £ qu/?/‘,l(/uv\—&—v-« & rcinif. 7 Lo (oK »4/532&9 ZZe M&P‘M%L{%& ' oy e Gt el frraa b %}-cflw Comen im0 g o s WA:Q,WI%; Fo %z NI D ZLlp P2 Moécrz,,%i‘; s Re, o, %wawmfg ‘Qé © e TR FAC-SIMILE OF ONE OF HORACE | GREELEY’S LETTERS ON SOCIAL REFORM, [Reproduced from the original by “The Call's Art Department.] it have long since been consigned to the intellectual Tumber-yard of the race, 1t is, therefore, a somewhat curious cir- cumstance that an attempt is now made to awaken interest in California in this anti- quated fad. 7 The author of “Looking Forward” dedicated his work to a gentleman who | was first (in Sacramento) to give a_young lady o clerkship at a salary of $80 a| month, thus assisting a widowed mother and family. We hope the gentleman and his noble lady may be inspired to organize a phalanx for the Children’s Aid Society of San Francisco on the plan of Divinity, as interpreted by Fourier. The plan of social organmization which he elaborates is, as said before, an ampli- fied socialism. The author starts (with what seems an enviable fullness of knowl- edge) from what heis pleased to term ‘‘the Creator’s plan of reorganization.” He makes a mathematical division of the human race into groups and sub-groups, that, industrially speaking, shall balance each other, and sets them at work in various industries. The stimulants to well-doing under the new system are an elaborate series of emulations which would seem to appeal to the most trivial ele- ments in human_nature, but which the author deems sufficient incentives to right national life. These emulations are personal, collective and national rivalries, corporative enthu- siasm, elegance of exterior objects con- nected with industry, honorary distinc- tions, the charm of corporative uniforms, and a just and satistactory division of profits ~ to every person. The pivotal stimulant he makes “short periods for the exercise of all branches or functions, and with polite, affable and agreeable persons.” Such babyish motives as these does he apparently fancy lie at the base of right conduct in men _and women. Of mental, moral and spiritual motives of action he would seem to have no conception. Considerable space is given to an in- genious working out of the details of life in | the phalanstery, but the main idea of the little book is outlined in the dedication. | The author’s dream is to see a phalanx of children—some 2000 strong—established in this State. These children are to be reared in’ accordance with the latest approved scientific theories, educated in the best trained in a constant suc- industries. Some capital educational suggestions are outlined, in- terspersed with much that is fantastic and whimsical, such as the ascription to God of passional attraction, as the agent which he makes use of in directing the social movement, and in the government of his creations, and much similar nonsense which has no basis in scientific teaching or in economic experience. Just what is to become of the children reared in the phalanstery the author does not say. It is, however, a curious ex- perience with trainers of the young and one worth considering in_this connection, that what are known as institutional chil- dren—children reared exclusively in public institution e not an unqualified success in the world. They are less equal to hold- ing their own, leéss adaptable, less self- reliant, less able to live and to work alone than are children who have the ordinary training of home and school life. If the whole world were subjected to this institu- tional training it might, it doubtless would, yield better results than the present system. Human companionship and interde- pendence are of all things desirable. But the objections to such co-operative experi- ments as we have thus far had are those that must obtain against ali sporadic at- tempts in this line. The affiliated men and women, while protesting against the evils of competition and the competitive system, are themselves but a competitive unit. Altruria, Utopia, the Phalanstery call the community what we will—does col- lectively whatevery individual is doing sep- aratelyv—competes in_the nearest market with all who come. It is the fact that the underlying principle of such communities is wrong that breeds the individual wrong- doing and consequent dissensions which sooner or later rend these bodies and cause the enterprises to fail. The co-operative principle is correct, but co-gperation for competition is a curious countradiction of terms. Another gnide-book to economic felicity is a publication by The American Humane Education Society. This book consists of a number of prize essays on “The best lan of peacefully settling the difficulties etween capital and labor” and ““The best plan of preventthg poverty and relieving the poor.” Judging from these essays ‘“the best plan’”’ is many-sided. One writer speaks in disparaging terms of com- pulsory arbitration and advocates the adjndication of difficulties between capital and labor by the usual processes of courts of law, The next writer has much to say of the evils of co-operative enterprises and sees in profit-sharing a solution of all labor's difficulties, and a third essayist presents a plea for compulsory arbitration and argues strongly for both co-operation and profit- sharing. Z . If 1n a multitude of counsel there is wisdom the reader of this little pamphlet will have quite an assortment of recommendations from which to se- lect that which seems to him _ wisest. Boston, Mass.: The American Humane Education Society.] A Life of James G. Blaine. The principal fce\ing produced in the reader by Gail Hamilfon’s “Biography of James G. Blaine” is one of disappoint- ment. There is a certain degree of interest attaching to all human life. The biography of a Hottentot villager might be made a work of moment. That of a great states- man, whose period of activity extended over a crucial epoch in a Nation’s ex- istence, should be a study of life itself for the reader. But with an abund- ance of material from which to draw, and with one of the great- est and most magnetic personalities this century has seen for a subject, the biographer yet fails to show us the man. The book bears internal evidences of having been made to order. There isa brief history of the Galbraiih and the Blaine families, and a chapter devoted to the early education of the hero of the book, but 0 loosely is the work done that one must needs wade through pages of irrelevances, almost of incoherencies, to get a few bare details of Blaine’s youth. Thereare a great many letters in the volume that are of interest and value as showing us intimate glimpses of the statesman, but even these are frequently presented in such a manner as nearly to defeat the end they are designed to serve. They are given piecemeal; oftentimes the recipient 18 designated merely by an initial, and in some instances letters which are not from but about Mr. Blaine are inserted with no clew as to who the writer is or for whom the communication is intended. All this makes_difficult and not particu- larly satisfactory reading, and even the great interest attaching to Mr. Blaine him- self does not extend in the reader’s mind to the uninteresting comments of unknown arties upon the circumstances of his daily ife. The letters, however, constitute the sole value of the book, and ive some welcome glimpses at the home life and surround- ings of one of the most notable of Ameri- can_statesmen, The last chapter of the book is written by Harriet Prescott Spof- ford. [Norwich, Conn.: The Henry E{;II Publishing Company. For sale by the J Dewing Company, San Francisco.] Jargal. _ Those who delight to study the first budding of genius as manifest in the youthful works of great men, will find a good opportunity for that exercise in “Jargal,” a romance written by Victor Hugo when 16 years of age on a wager that he would write a volume in a fort- night. Itisa work full of encouragement to the youthful author, for as the boy who wrote this romance afterward became the man who wrote “Les Mise- rables,” there seems no reason why almost any writer might not become great by fol- lowing the simple ruleof patience, practice and perseverance. ‘Jargal” is a romagce of the negro insurrection in San Domingo. The hero is a negro of wonderful strength, genius, power and goodness. He loves the ldaughter of a French planter and wooes r in serenades by singing ex- quisite love songs of his own composition. To the other negroes of the island he is almost a god, and he leads them in the insurrection for liberty with the ardor of a martyr, the skill of a siatesman, the devotion of a hero and the | chivalry of a knight errant, closing his life and sanctifying his abnormal love by an act of self-sacrifice worthy of a seint. The exuberant creative power which in aiter years was to produce that marvel of a reformed crimmal, Jean . Valjean, is crudely manifest in this boyish conception of the San Domingo slave, but there are none but the faintest hints of the genius that was to be unfolded later. The romance has its only value in the fact that it furnishes a starting point from which to | measure the extent of Hugo’s development from boyhood to manhood. In all other respects it is as useless to literature as any blood-and-thunder romance of the day. ‘Jargal,” by Victor Hugo, illustrated; G. W. Dillingham, New York; paper covers, 50 cents.] The Private Letters of a Frenchwoman. The foibles of society are a fruitful source of inspiration to seribblers. Shoot- ing folly as it flies hasitself become a folly. Almost every one who wields a pen sooner or later tries his hand at the gentle game of pricking every airy bubble that shows itself floating on the light winds of fashion and disporting amid the sunbeams of social life. Of those who write, some are wise and some are foolish; | some preach sermons and some are | more flippant than the society they seek to satirize while they amuse. ble to get up enough interestin her to care where she came from or what becomes of her. [New Yorl W. Dillingham.] THE DIsAGREEABLE MAN.—By A. 8. M. The title to this book is an obvious piece of claptrap, probably originating with the | publisher, who had in press a book of the | same size entitled “The Disagreeable ! Woman.” “The Disagreeable Man'’ is an | unpleasant tale of a blind girl married to | a negro of whose race she is ignorant. She thinks him a sort of Caucasian Apollo. She regains her sight, and he leaves her before she sees him. Another lover appears, whom she calmly marries, although there is nothing to show that the air are not fully aware thatthe dusky r\usbnnd still lives. There is » great deal of sensuous love-making in the book, and a very funny feature of the work i author’s frequent lapses into erudition of the strangest sort. Albinoism, the personal habits of half a dozen famous authors, the nature and cure of rheumatic gout, the status of the femaletpopnlation of Massa- chusetts, are some of the queer subjects which she Jeaves her narrative from time to time to discuss at considerable length. [New York: G. W. Dillingham.] & ® Passion’s DREAM—A TRAGEDY.—A narra- tive cast in dramatic form and done in verse blank as a dead wall. The authoris | W. Boyd Sample. [New York: G. W.| Dillingham.] | FoorsaLL Axp Love.— A story of the Yale-Princeton game of '94. College sto- ries are in vogue at present, and we shall undoubtedly hear a plenty of them. The present tale, by Burr W. McIntosh, is ROBERT BRIDGES (DROCH). [Reproduced from an engraving in John Wanamaker’s Book News.] To the lighter and more flippant class of social satirists belongs the author of “The Private Letters of a Frenchwoman.” These letters are ot the air, airy; they picture the American woman as a phan- tom made by midnight moonlight shining | aimly on a miasmatic fog. The tenor. of the volume may be fairly inferred from the subjects treated. These are: “Di- vorcelets,” “Will the Kiss Become Obso- lete?” “Qld Men’s Darlin%s,” “Love in the Twentieth Century,” “The Woman’s Men,” “The Cynic in Petticoats,”” **Arms and the Woman,” ‘ Professional Love- makers,” “Summer Morals of the New York - Girl,” “Elimination of the Old Maid,” “After the Bicycle Girl, What?” “Garden Parties or Flirtations al Fresco.” If these topics are attractive to any one then to that person will the volume be attractive, for, while it is not witty, it is written with a light and gay persifiage that will well amuse a summertime idleness. [“The Private -Letters of.a French- woman,” by Claire Foldairolles, G. W. Dillingham, New York.] Guide to Hawail, Henry M. Whitney of the Hawaiian Gazette has put out a new and revised edi- tion of his valuable guide to the Islands. The book is an epitomeof all that the tourist wants to know in order fully to see the land “where ’tis always afternoon.” Again in Hawail. This is a thin volume of republished let- ters written from Honolulu by Julius A. Palmer Jr. to the New York Evening Post. Captain Palmer is intensely pre- judiced against the existing Government Author of ‘William Xope Harvey, ¢“Coin’s Financial School.” of Hawaii, and correspondingly unable to see any future for the Islands save in the elevation to the throne of the ex-heir- apparent, Kaiulani. His létters are mere arraignments of the Dole Government, and are written with a heat that does notin- spire confidence in the justness of his esti- mates. Nevertheless, they Eresent a side of the subject in hand that American people are interested in knowing, and while we yet await the history, by an impartial observer, of the past three years in Hawaii, it is not quite fair to condemn Captain Palmer’s work as certain too-zealous annexationists are inclined to do. [Boston: Lee & Shep- ard. For sale by Doxey, S8an Francisco.] Recent Fiction, , THE DISAGREEABLE WoMAN.—It hardly needs the author’s acknowledgment of the fact to attribute the inspiration of this book to Miss Harraden’s “Ships That Pass in the Night.” The source of the taleis obvious. But while the disagree- able man of Miss Harraden’s story is a liv- ing human creature whose personality we recognize, the human pathos and kinship of wirose life we feel, the disagreeable woman of Julian Starr’s tale is merely an indifferently ~well constructed puppet, whose origin is perfectly patent he author pu?la a string and she j}:xks. He shrouds her in mystery that is wholly un- celled for, From first to last it is impossi- fairly well told, with capital illustrations by B. West Clinedinst, and decorative de- signs by Will Philip Hooper. There are numerous grammatical lapses in the work, pardonable, perhaps, in a college-bred | author, but the description of the football | game is the perfection of technicology. New York and London. The Transat- ntic Publishing Company.] A MopERN PHARISEE.—A novel in which the author, Edward de Brose, attempts to work out a social problem. The critic by the author is forewarned not to read the book, and the adviee is sound enough to be passed on to the general reader. [New York: G. W. Dillingham.] Periodicals. THE LARK.—Of all the small, intimate publications just now claiming attention, perhaps the one least understood is the queer little San Francisco monthly called The Lark. There are really people who persist in taking The Lark in a seriousness; who see in its quaint illustrations subtleties of sar- casm, of caricature and of occultism that would, doubtless, amaze the projectors of the litile sheet. To these minds the light- est notes The' Lark utters are fraught with deep significance. It seems incred- ible to these minds that a publication should exist that stands merely for the joyousness of life, to sing a song, to catch a sunny thought wupon the point of a pencil and transfer it to paper —to provoke a tender smile over what is tender and joyous in this world, which some people would have us_believe is wholly dark green and bright yellow. /These are some of the things The Lark lives for and they are worth while, after all. Drollery and fun, innocent mirth, are sides of life we are wont to make too little of. We should thank Bruce Porter and Gillett Burgess for bringing them home to us, once in a way, in their quaint little brown paper wrapping. THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL REGISTER.— The Register for July presents a rich table of contents. Lafayette’s visit to the United States gives a subject for the leading paper, and closely allied to it is one by Rear- Aamiral Roe on “France’s Interest in America.” NEW TO-DAY. Dpholsery Dt SECOND FLOOR. 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