The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 24, 1895, Page 15

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1595. 15 Ch s lcashed E@f‘ ory-lovin 5 fl%n{ed%fl / /7 2 pmast - fis s P fian th s if Sofe Wi %)amfis Cowed, mi”e len == h —_— = eller wars Jetter Hlood @in us seas? Seas = = fisfémed ba?e - Mellila dar \fle:j%us T?i;i:avélmfly fhngjngh ‘ ‘fls u qugfigfmosuc s mplaony Af our sate he reanelh, reaaefil, afes s ¢ 2ined,, 3 reyhound moaneth When fhic master en have scen fim sfeal in lowly, Lick the islands® fé<t and fice, Ly an arm aboul us slowly, en firn emply fo his place -, lfi”e‘l\ungeved, w;itf:ug 2T Some hefo, ! & o nder sfgalirg, sl;efliné, ol ship vo ”fimrflke, as f ashamed Black men , brown men,uvzd,reVealmg 13 Vol one white man t be A '@@({lzfi\ onder, )}roud, defiant’, uc Tl Siirs Jord ly thafes all day; . eanelf, rkeePS away. daunless-souled, easure-hating ‘- od’s anetenl mold. named G and -sea-blown?-: agd relanl — - - -, yonder save our own'! - o ~vor]d waler nee a fi:’nenfuh {511 ship ran; e slorm king foo and cau @au%bf and laughed as laughs 2 man! Taughed znd held bor v s elden, olden high‘ sam-crest’ and free y l\{ ]nl‘, t,hoar and olden, °ome H er of h': O‘FSM@h méé“ : W, ffseas V en I6 mafi , and wanly molions \'E{se give back these sezs aézin. iz harp on his fuee. oT 5 SINging — e 33 . poer cowed wéaklin%g, 2k landsmen such as we: Kuund sloried sea-l{i%s fiam-whi&,slfim-bloww,saf sea. gr fnglandmsca tfi\mderf hs °rfi§%|‘fnd’s bold scamen, fen we b flwnd si:fihn r over, under, ed us back agzin! effer old fme %fl’n' e and sé:sses, Cloud fop’l towers, walls, distrust'; R’han 2ZIReSSeS | 20 wine and Just! Y, we ‘flave oceans! Fa;)«. ive uS ey, lohtrac . CaC NEW YORK STAGE GOSSIP, Rumors of a New Play by the Gilbert-Sullivan Combi- nation. RICEARD MANSFIELD ANGRY. A Revival of Paul M. Potter’s Success With Blanche Walsh as Trilby. NEW YORK, N. Y., Nov. 20.—“The fog is to blame for it.’ said Manager Oscar Hammerstein of the Olympia, as he sat him down on & pile of bricks directly under a poster which announced that the opening of the new playhouse had been postponed from November 18 to November 25. “It’s the great American climate getting a rise out of me because I have engaged so many European novelties to appear here. I thou ht I was prepared to fight all the elements; 1 was ready to tackle fire, water and the Police Commissioners- all at once, if necessary, and then this British fog had to come along and prevent the plaster from drying. I vowed from the first that I would open the building on November 18, and on that date it would bave been opened, sure enough, if it hadn’t been for that fog.” Hammerstein was really a pitiable spec- tacle as he spoke these words. Only those persons who have known this Napoleon of Harlem for years, and who realize fully how completely his heart was set nn open- ing on the day announced;can unaerstand what a disapporatment this postponement | V! has been to him. No matter what he does or leaves undone, Oscar Hammerstein is an interesting figure. He is easily the most interesting character in New York to-day, and when one remembers that six years ago Hammerstein knew absolutely nothing of the theatrical business his sub- sequent success seems little less than mar- Hemade his fortune as & member velous. \ of a blacking firm, and in the spring of 1891, as Harlem had no good con bination theater on the East side, he decided to build the Columbus. It was a success from the outset, and in less than a year the Harlem Opera-house was thrown open to theater-goers on the west side of town. Then Hammerstein thought ‘oat there was money in English grand | the Manhattan Opera-house, which is now | better known as Koster & Bial's. Mrs. | Bernard Beere, the English actress, opened the theater and scored a tremendous fail- ure. The season of English opera which followed lasted just a fortnight. A year later Koster & Bial and Hammerstein joined hands. The series of rows which led to Ham- merstein’s withdrawal from the firm are matters of recent stage history. He sold the building for $600,000, and on the morn- ing that he signed the final check in pay- ment of this amount old Mr. Koster dropped dead of heart failure. Hammer- stein makes no bones about declaring that | he has built the Olympia for the express purpose of cutting out Koster & Bial’s. Time alone can tell whether he will suc- ceed in fulfilling his threat, but to judge from the attractions he has engaged Oscar is making a noble effort in that direction. As be led into the broad promenade in the balcony of the music hall—the Middle- way Pleasantous, Oscar calls it—from which one can obtain a fine view of the stage, he dilated on the splendor of the at- tractions which were to appear there. I noticed that the railing was rather low, so I said to him: *‘Look here, aren’t you afraid that with such attractions on the stage some of your audience will be drawn over that railing and dash their brains out on the orchestra chairs?” “Well, if there’s any fear of that they | must nail thewselves down. Whatdo they expect for 50 cents? Parachutes?”’ | “One price of admission, 50 cents, will ad- | mit to the theater, the concert ball and the variety theater. In one respect the delay | in opening the house has proved a biess- | ing, for it has allowed Manager Rice to | have another week’s rehearsals of “Ex- ceisior Jr.” From the interior of the Rice company come all sorts of rumors of wars. It might have been expected that when Fay | Templeton and Theresa Vaughan found | themselves in the same company they would, prima donna like, endeavor to | make things pleasant for each other. On | the road these two young women have | been at it, hammer and tongs. Monday | night, however, was to decide as to which of them is to reign as popular favorite. If Miss Templeton does not make a big hit it | is not likely that she will stay on the stage el;f' long. The money which she inher- ited from Howell Osborne has made her in- dependent, and the strain of bringing her weight from 190 to 150 pounds in order to !ulbgu the terms of her contract with Rice has rather disgusted her with the obliga- tions of stage life. The poor deluded public has just been taken in once more. A notice was pub- lisned extensively last week announcing that Mansfield’s recent illness had de- prived him of his memory and he had en- tirely forgotten the words of his parts, The story was, of course, manufactured out of the whole cloth, but the joke of it comes in just here. Mansfield, knowing nothing of the advertising scheme, reaa the report in an evening paper, and imme- diately sat down to write an_indignant denial, He had just denounced the stor; spera, 80 he bought property on West hirty-fourth street, and on that site arose as an outrage when his manager, Will McConnell, dropped in and persuaded him that the story would prove of service to him from a box-office point of view. Then Mansfield calmed down and tore up his letter. Speaking of McConnell recalls a clause in the contract which he has just made with Mansfield. In one clause Mansfield agrees that no matter what his provocation ma: be he will abstain from making a_speec] to the audienee while he is under McCon- nell’s management. “I had to put that clause in,” explained McConnell. ‘““He’s forgotten his speeches, | you know, as well as his vparts, and he won’t have time to get letter-perfect in them both again before weopen. So I have advised him to stick to his lines and let me do all the extemporary talking.” The announcement that Gilbert and Sullivan have made it up and are hard at work on a new opera has aroused no par- ticular interest nmang the New York managers. After the failure of “Utopia, Limited,” two_years ago, both T. Henry French and John Stetson declarea that they would never touch another Gilbert and Sullivan opera. “Utopia, Limited” was the direst sort of a failure, but I sball always remember its first performance on account of a remark which Mrs. John Stet- son made in my hearing that night. This, by the way, is a genuine Stetson, although the point of it lies on the female side of the house. As the Stetsons eatered the tneater John was abusing some oneina loud tone of voice: “Idon’t like that fel- low, anyway,” he exclaimeda. ‘“He’s a white-livered man. I've no use for him.” My dear John,” said Mrs. Stetson, turning on him reproachfully, ““if you must talk about a man like that, do speak more politely. Why not be a gentleman and say | you do not care for Lim hecause he has in- candescent lights?” Here’s a piece of news. this season E. H. Sothern and Daniel Frohman will part company. The young | actor has the managerial bee in his bonnet, and is going to see how successfully he can vaddle his own canoe. There has been no quarrel between star and manager. The old partnership, which has lasted for eizht years, will broken simply because Sothern feels that he is now in a position to take care of himself. On the whole, it seems rather a foolish move for him to make; in a managerial way he will never be able to do half us much for himself as Dan Frohman has done for him. A year’s experience on his own hook, however, will probably bring the young man to his senses. I couldn’t help thinking as John Drew, Edwin M:tyo and others were praising Joseph Jefferson for his many services to the American stage at the loving-cup presentation, of an actress who in her role of manageress has never received her due. I mean Rose Coghlan. Atthe present time Miss Coghlan is in hard luck. Her com- pany has gone to pieces; she herself is out of an engagement; her husband, John T. Bullivan, is playing in a cheap melodrama inorder to make both ends meet. ButasI sat there and heard this one lauded for do- ing this and that, or for doing something else, it occurred to me that Rose Coghlan should bhave had had some part in . fu At the end of | 1s eleven years ago now since this woman broke away from the Wallack stock com- pany and appeared as a star. During that time she has furnished the New York public with some of tho finest casts that have ever trod the metropolitan stage. ‘While she had the money she never spared expense in order to give a really first-rate production. Think of that great cast which she engaged to revive *‘Diplomacy” at the Star three years ago, and that equally dis- tinguished collection of actors who figured in her production of ‘A Woman of No Importance.”” I happened to see her salary list for one week while this play was on at the Fifth Avenue. It reached the grand total of $2500. The company with which Mr. Jef- ferson has been appearing here recently must cost him at least $99 99 a week. On the first performance of “A Night Clerk” at the Bijou, Cornelius Vanderbilt satin an orchestra chair, Itisa pity that Mr. Vanderbilt is not a dramatic critic, for he might have taken a more kindly view of the play than the other newspaper men did. ith the exception of “The Year One,” not a play this year has been so cor- dially roasted as “The Night Clerk” was. One newspaper snubbed Mr. Dailey for his excessive self-conceit by mentioning every person in the cast except the star, and then remarking in the last line of the arti- cle that ““the part of the night clerk was played by Peter T. Dailey.” But Mr. Vandaerbiit enjoyed every moment of it. I don’t think I ever heard a man laugh so long and so heartily in my life. Marguerite Lemon, the new soprano who made her ddebut in ‘‘Leonardo,” has re- ceived an offer to join the Bostonians. She is under contraci: to Manager J. C. Duff, but as he declared his intention of not holding her to her agreement if she wants to go Eliss Lemon will probably be seen here in **A War-time Wedding,’” when the Bostonians come to the Broadway after Christmas. The opening of the grand opera season has thrown the Broadway theaters into the dumps. Calve, Melba and Jean de Reszkeare once more th- lionsof the hour. The Calve craze promises to eclipse the Paderewski mania entirely this year. This singer’s first appearance in America in “‘La Navaraisse’’ promises to be the gala night of the season. John Drew still hankers after serious work. Heannounces that he will appear as Lord Clivebrook in a revival of Jones' *‘Bauble Shop” before he leaves the Empire to make way for Olga Nethersole. Speaking of Jones, the laywright, re- calls the fact that he has just petitioned the English courts for leave to drop the Jones from his name. In future he wishes to be known simply as Henry Arthur, At the Garden, where “Trilby” is run- ning once more, the Potter play seems to be renewing its original success. Blanche Walsh, the new Trilby. is the first actress to real]y grasp the meaning of the part. # LEsLiE WHITACRE. Miss Pritchard played in 1756 to the Ro- meo of Garrick, and her extraordinmary beauty made a great impression on the audience. Still she soon faded into ob- ssurivy, IN MEMORIAM. Jen Kirk, Poet, Drops a Tear in Honor of the 014 Cliff House. TaE CALL yesterday received a touching poem, which the author says, and un- doubtedly with truth, was written on the 13th of January, 1895, at the time of the fire which destroyed the old Cliff House. The name of this historic vlace servesasa title to the poem. Itis so simple, yvet so touching, this poem, that it seems to be worthy a place in the archives of the City: » THE OLD CLIFF HOUSE. Dear old house, thou hast fallen low, A heap ofdust and gray ashes light. Desolation has trailed her mantles o’er Thy lofty perch and sunny height. Thou art to-day but a smoldering plle, On thy cliff by the side of the sea— A tangled mass of pipes and bands, Red bricks a few, and a heap of debris. It would be difficult to find a finer flight of poesy than this. Mr. Jen Kirk, the author of this delightful production, was almost inexcusably remiss. It isstrange that he should have delayed so longin sending such a poem to the press. Or is it possible that this effusion has been sent to other newspapers ana has by them been “declined with thanks’? “Perish the thought! It is inconceivable that any edi- tor could be so unappreciative. The poem continues: For hours the fires had smoldered unseen, But a breath of air sent them all aglow, Far out to sea went tongues of flame, Defying the surging waters below. The seals on their rocky home took fright As smoke and cinders around them came And quickly into the ocean plunged To watch from below the sheets of flame. ‘What a wide, romantic view of the situ- ation is taken in these two stanzas, as well as in the preceding one, where the poet alludes to the ‘‘tangled mass of pipes and bands,” doubtless making reference to the gas fixtures and water mains that were destroyed in the conflagration! What tender pathos there is 1n the line— The seals on their rocky home took filght! But let the singer sing on— The flag of our country no longer waves Over thy gay and festive halls; No more shall we hear the trampling feet Of the crowds that gather within thy walls. No smoothly chiseled brownstone front, No granite gray or massive walls; No mapsard roof, with tiles of slate, No cold, forbidding marble halls: No stately pillars, or portals grand, No frescoed ceilings, or tapestried walls; Yet kings and queens have deigned to stand In thy plain and unpretentious halls! Here sgenh the patriot as well as the poet. The “kings” and ‘‘queens” men- tioned were doubtless held in “‘full hands” in the great and majestic games of draw oker that were played in the historic old Euilding. Once more the poet smites his tuneful lyre: Thou wert our quaint, old-fashioned house, Built with timbers 50 strong and light— With old-time window-shutters green, And rustic boards, all painted white. What a picture is nere drawn by this romantic author! !.\'othing finer of its kind can be found in the whole range of literature. But the old Cliff House was a first-night attraction. as will be seen by this continuation of th: lyric: But all who came through the Golden Gate, And those who traveled the continent o'er, The thing to do first was to do the CIiff, See the lions and hear them roar. Far out below spreads the beautiful beach, Where the breakers cur: o'er the hard gray sand, Lemving ribbons of foam as they backward roll; £ver held In check by our Father's hand. There is a Tennysonian ring to the suc- ceeding lines. At least there seems to be an echo from that deathless fragment— Break, break, at the foot of thy clifts, O Sea. Here are our new poet’s words: Towering above hangs Sutro Heights, And at thy feet old ocean breaks. While just outside runs the sea's highway For ships that pass through the Golden Gate. But the closing lines are of niore than or- dinary merit for this sort of a poet. Hear the poet pour forth his soul in rhythm: Thy fame, old house, has journeved far Over continents broad and wide; Also In every isle of the sea Thy traveled patrons now abide. On thy sunny crag by the sea A palatial pile will bear thy name, But to us who loved the dear old house It will never be quife the same. ‘Written January 13, 1895. JEN KIBK. Here the spirit of the true poetis shown; he is faithful to the old love, even though the new be fairer; and in very truth he speaks the sentiment of many old-timers of San Francisco. They will never feel uite natural in the architecturally beauti- ul and palatial edifice that is about com- gleud‘ They will still yearn for the old 1iff House, with its rickety stairways, its timeworn and footworn floors, its smoke- marred verandah, its whitewashed walls and its generally dilapidated appearance. Mr. Kirk has performed a service for whicn aH San Franciscans and others interested ought to be grateful. The Acids of Fruits. The grateful acid of the rhubarb leaf arises from the malic acid and binoxalate of patash which it contains; the acidity of the lemon, orange and other species of the genus citrus is caused by the abundance of citric acid which their juice contains; that of cherry, plum, apple and pear from the malic acid in their pulp; that of gooseber- | ries and currants, black, red and whi from a mixture of malic and citric_acids; that of the.grape from a mixture of maljc and tartaric acids; that of the mango from | citric acid and a very fugitive essential oil ; that of the tamarind from a mixture of cit- ric, malic and tartaric acids; the flavor of asparagus from aspartic nclé. found also in the root of the marshmallow,and that of the SCATHING CRITIOUE ON AMBROSE BIERCE, BY WILLIAM GREER HARRISON. Mr. Bierce desires to be regarded as the sole standard for all that is chaste and | beautiful in literature. He has asked the world to so accept him. = Alas! alas! base suspicion has performed its deadly office and the alabaster god has become mere plaster of paris. That the idol should prove to be only commbon clay, not even fire-burned, is enough, but that he should undertake the duties of a pedagogue, forgetting those proper to the critic, shocks all sensitive natures. The province of the critic is large—the method, governed by well-established rules, is limited, and Mr. Bierce knows but ignores the limitation. The wit of the satirist is never forced. It is sharp, incisive, fatal. If Iam to suf- fer literary death let me perish by the thrust of the rapier in the hands of an ex- pert who remembers to be a gentleman, and not by the blow of a bludgeon han- dled by a yokel. A gentleman will kill you with a two-edged epigram: the novice will arm himself with archaic brickbats and obsolete phrases and pelt you with them. Ambrose Bierce is nothing if not a critic. He isnot a critic. In his latest ‘‘Prattle’” Mr. Bierce at- tempts to criticize “The Celtic Prince,” basing his so-called criticism on imperfec- tions in the construction of the lines. Had he been satisfied to confine his ““Prattle” to the construction of the lines he would have been within the limits of the art critical, but an innate depravity of taste compelled him to drop ths delicate foil and take up the broadsword and hack and hew the air. He objects to the titles of the characters in *‘The Celtic Prince”; says' they are bizarre (so is the use of that word). Here Mr. Bierce illus- trates his magnificent ignorance of Celtic literature. All the names used are legiti- mately used. How inconsistent Mr. Bierce is] He sets all rules aside and coins words to suit his humor. “Celticated to the Queen’s taste.”” How slangy Mr. Bierce is and how offensive to the Prince, who had no desire to please the Queen! That is the last thing any self-respecting Celt desires todo. How funny Mr. Bierce is! Mr. Bierce objects to the opening of a blank-verse passage with a couplet. How surprised Shakespeare must have been when he read Mr. Bierce’s objection to an opening couplet. Poor Shakespeare! Now that Mr. Bierce has condemned his very frequent method of using opening coup- lets and triplets, he must of necessity disap- pear from the memory of scholars. Mr. Bierce must pardon me if I prefer to sin with Shakespeare rather than to be virtu- ous with Mr. Bierce. Mr. Bierce admits that only five persons living to-day can write acceptable English blank. Of course he isone of the tortunate five, but with characteristic modesty he withholds all evidence of the fact. Mr. Bierce objects to the lack of varia- tion in the ‘“pause ceesural’”’ (modern, cesural). Permit me to remind him that variation in the cesural pauseis obsolete. Mr. Bierce works himself up to ahigh pitch of fury and unable to restrain his native vulgarity bursts into the argot of the ring and hurls sponges and things at the uniortunate Celtic Prince. These failing, he gathers up amphibrachs, iam- buses and anapests and flings them at the Prince, who good-naturedly laughs at the performance. Mr. Bierce expresses a wish that he were a fool-poet. He is. What a wonderful mastery of curious words Mr. Bierce possesses! In the single article now criticized appear the following dainty, chaste and classical curiosities: “‘Quitter,” “road pump,”’ *‘horse trough,'’ “hodge-podge,” ‘‘bloody sweat,” ‘“‘threw up the sponge,” “‘brute blundering,” etc. The use of these words is unworthy of so distinguished a scholar as Mr. Bierce and indicates that his wit is 1n irons and that he is content to play the part of a literary beadle. What will Haseltine, Carlyle, Macaulay, Paine, De Stael, Swift, Addison or Steele think of their degenerate brother? Mr. Bierce will doubtless be gratified by learning that I am the happy possessor of all his works and that I have read them with great interest. Since he did me the honor to criticize my bantling, the “Celtic Prince,” I must return the compliment and present him with a Roland for his Oliver. Iam not to be outdone in courtesy by Mr. Bierce. His ‘ Boldiers and Civilians” pre- sents an imitative quality suggestive of Poe, Prentice, Bret Harte and Mark Twain. There are many charming lines in the book, much delightful phrasing, but the work is cruelly marred by Mr. Bierce’s trick of adjusting a laugh to every dramatic crisis. His connection with the “Hangman’s Daughter” is apocryphal. What he did to the unfortunate giri 1 do not know, but the work, while well written by some one, is too gruesome, too su; gestive of the abat- toir to deserve long life. His- two books of humor, catalogued as ‘“‘comic,” were failures, and ZEsop having written fables, Mr. Bierce seems unneces- sary. His most pretentious work in verse is his “Black Beetles in Amber.” The title is very prefty and suggesis the poetry which should follow, but which is missing. Mr. Bierce has no right to object toa criticism of this volume. He has published his thoughts in the meter most convenient to his mood, but' he has had small regard lor'syntax and less for prosody. Mr. Bierce esteems names as important in versificdtion. I may be permitted, there- fore, to ask him why “Black Beetles in Amber” ?—why not in ambergris? Why not “‘Blue Breeches in Pawn’’ ? or “Black’ Beans in Batter’’? . These titles would ex- press the sentiments in Mr. Bierce's poems equally with black beetles, etc. It would be silly, however, to quarrel about the title of a thing which is in itself of no value. There is a superabundance of what Mr. . Bierce calls ‘“no thought” in his “beetles”—some wit, and a total absti- nence from all that constitutes standard English. Mr. Bierce can wed vowel and cucumber from a peculiar poisonous ingre- | consonant, but in verse he cannot do him- dient called fungin, which is found in all fungi, and is the cause of the cucumber be- ing offensive to some stomachs. It will be observed that rhubarb is the only fruit which contains binoxalate of potash in conjunction with an acid, Beet root owes its nutritious quality to about 9 per cent of sugar,which it contains, and its flavor is a peculiar substance con- talning nitrogen mixed with pectic acid. The carrot owes its fattening powers also to sugar, and its flavorto a Feenlilr fatt] %z ts flavor an oil; the horseradish derives blistering power from a volatile acrid oil. The Jerusalem artichoke contains 1434 per cent of sugar and 3 percent of inulin (a variety of starch), besides gum and a pecu. liar substance to which its flavor is owing; and, lastly, garlic and the rest of the onion family derive their peculiar odor from a yellowsh, volatile .acrid oil, but they are nntritious from containing nearly half their weight of gummy and glutinous sub- stances not yet clearly defined.—From Chemistry of the World. self justice. His prose is strong, sound English, even when archaic, but his verse, apart from its aggressive and often point- less wit, is mere curds and whey. I presume the versification of a satirist is as subject to rule as the verse of the ordinary poet. Applying the rules of prosody to Mr. Bierce’s more pretentious works I find that he quite frequently ignores them, but worse, he ignores the legitimate meaning of words and cripples them — or attenuates them to suit his lame or overlapping lines. I note also that in his three greater poems he attempts a very poor imitation of the “Iliad,” while in his Vaudeville verse the use of what he calls “bald bilious prose” is quite common. Speaking generally, his verse has the exactness of the carpenter’s rule—it has body without soul. Through all his lines there runs a melancholy spleen and a vindictive sigh of regret that he cannot tear the world to pieces. There is not an original line in the volume, but there is a vast waste of vower. He dons his camisade to war upon a butterfly and trains his columbiad upon a midget. Withdraw from his lines the names of the persons abused and what isleft? Mr. Bierce has furnished the an- swer, ‘‘A metrical hodge podge.” The tone of his verse is hard, having a general resemblance to that fraud among min- erals—mica. His dramatic effusion at the close of the book cannot be rezarded seriously; there is nothing to criticize, because there is nothing in it. I presume it wasintended to be a sort of literary puzzle. The epitaphs are mere headstones. Mr. Bierce opens his book with the “Key Note” in dactylic measure and in- forms his readers: ‘I dreamed I was dreaming,” etc. The alliteration seems to have enchanted the author, for he repeats the thought in five of his verses. I hope it will not offend Mr. Bierce if I say that ‘‘dreaming a dream’’ is a very ordinary affair and in the present instance is sug- gestive of 3 night with Edgar Allan Poe and a morning’s dalliance with the insidi- ous cocktail. Mr. Bierce, however, “drops into prose” in his tenth verse and gives us this line: “And all shapes were fringed with a ghostly blue.” This1s plain, ordi- nary prose. Let Mr. Bierce apply his own rules to this lineand I think he will be honest enough to confess that it is not poetry. The Convicts’ Ball—also in dactylic measure—gives us astheninth line: “‘The ball is free’ cried Black Bart, and they all,” which is not dactylic and is a pentameter. In the same poem he offers as pcetry the line, ‘“Twas a very aristocratic affair’— bald, bilious prose. Again on page 1453 “He said, Since the mountain won’t come to me.”” Surely Mr. Bierce did not expect any one to regard this line as poetry. In “‘One of the Saints,”” page 179, line 14, Mr. Bierce says: “When told that Madam Ferrier had taught”—this is in pentameter. Yet he sticks a pyrrhic in the second foot; and in the twenty-third line, which is in disyllabic feet, he throws in a light com- pany of spondees. Lightness and vivacity characterize tri- syllabic measure. Read Heber's line, “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,” and compare it with the leaden movement of Mr. Bierce’s dactylic verse. In his lines on ‘“An undress uniform,” on page 107, Mr. Bierze undertook to form a new or Biercine measure in the first two lines, then gave it up and resumed the dactyl. *“The apparel does not proe claim the man”’; this is underdone prose, having no known meter. ‘‘Polonius lied like a partisan” has the air of an iambic tetrameter, whilst the third and fourth lines suggest a trisyllabic measure. *“The Perverted Village,” line 22. And rather than come back prefers to dfe. Only the very largest caps would even suggest that this line is poetry. It cone tains the necessary ten syllables—that is all. On page 87, dedicated to Dan Burns, there is a line: “Though really 'twere easy to conceive” Mr. Bierce must have bad the “O'Reilly” in his mind when he used the word really as a trisyllable. By common usage really has only two syllables. Mr. Bierce gave it three to help out his feet. On page 143 Mr. Bierce refers to ‘“The mammoth squash strawberry all the year.” Here he gets between the devil and the deep sea. To get even the semblance of rhythm he throws the accent on the sece ond syllable, and thus is guilty of a mis- pronunciation. On page 111 Mr. Bierce makes ‘‘hair on’’ rhyme with ‘“baron” and ‘“once” with “wince,” and later, on page 152, “‘air” is made to mate with “‘Mayor.” In his “Transmigration of a Soul” Mr, Bierce sings: «“But spare the young that proselyting sin, A toper’s apotheosis of gin.” Where did Mr. Bierce get the word proselyting? Was not proselytize good enough? No scholar would take such liberties with Madam the Verb. Again, “resurrected”—would any scholar use such vile trash? Could not Mr. Bierce remem- ber that the word “resurge” (to rise again, not to raise up to new life) was at his dis- posal? Again on page 49 Mr. Bierce uses the word ‘‘porrect” in the line: The long spear brandish and porrect the shield. As’an adjective formed from the past participle of the Latin verb ‘‘porrigo™ Mr. Bierce might have used it, but its use asa transitive verbis simply an outrage. On page 135 Mr. Bierce affirms: “The two'll affine And In chemical embrace combine,” Mr. Bierce uses the word affine asa sub- stitute for combine. Affine comes from the French affiner, and is a verb transitive, meaning to refine a metal, and has no such meaning as affinity. That fact should have been known to Mr. Bierce. In the “Mackaiad’’ Mr. Bierce tells us “and science said that the seismic ac- tion,” Is this poetry? No, it is pov- erty-stricken prose. He follows with the line: ‘Was owing to an asteroid’s Impaction. “Impaction’’—impact with what? Im. paction literally means constipation. Con- stipation in an asteroid—what stuff! I presume he meant impact—a sharp blow, but that would have broken his metrical legs, and therefore he did not useit. It may be asserted with some show of reason that Mr. Bierce suffers from a mental im- pacticn—as expressed in the quotation: “Should the ‘cause of morbid action be impaction of feces * * * they must * * * be exercised or urged along the bowel by prudent force.” “Black Beetles” reflects no credit upon its author, and adds nothing to the liter~ ary wealth of the world. Forty Thousand Dollars for Charity. The will of the late Mrs. Charlotte C, Gittings was filed, in the Orphans’ Court for probate on October 29. The will, which is quite voluminous, makes these bequests: To the Union Protestant Infirmary, $10,000; to the Boys’ School, St. Paul parish, $5000; to the church, tiome and infirmary, $10,000, for the purpose of endowing a ward.of five beds as the home may direct; tothe vestry of S8t. Paul’s parish, $5000, the interest to ‘be added to the principal for ten years, and then the income of the entire fund to be used; to the trustees of Ritchie Memorial Church, Claremont, Surrey County, Va., $5000, the interest to be divided between Martin’s Brandon and Southwark parishes, and if the latter parisn be divided then the treasurer of the division to which the Ritchie Memorial Church belongs; to the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, $4000; to St. Paul’s parish, additional, $1000, one-half each to the use of St. Paul’s house and the guildhouse.