The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 20, 1898, Page 22

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, some measure of caution in their deal- ing with the Jews, and outrages of the kind portrayed in this novel could hardly | escape indignant comment. The scene is laid at Odessa, Where the people of the Ghetto, by many oppressive regulations, have been reduced to a condition of the direst poverty. But one man stands out from among them, a Nazarene named David Rheba, a silversmith of wonderful skill. His work is in demand all over Furope, yet he gains no wealth, for his earnings are all distributed among his needy brethren. A great passion arouses the soul of this man, and furnishes the keynote for the slender plot of the novel. He falls in love with a serf girl, Olga, the favorite of a ANOTHER BONAPARTE. *TH NAPOLEON—By Charles | Chicago: _Herbert S. Stone le by Doxey; price §150. le in every respect | ¥ to hold the reade: commencement to its in London, where a n orphan, is pictured to supplement a small in the law courts. The him and he n from The story iinst 1 live like for a few aves London tropolis, where of his pa- the Jew with her mistress, who. has a difficult request to make. She wishes the Jew to execute a crucifix for her, and here, in a passage of marked strength, the authore: cribes the awakening of these twin souls. “Olga touched Marya's arm and whis- vered ““Why should it pain to make him an our Lord Jesus Christ?" N is a Jew,' whispered Marya f the name is discov- | ipoleon Bonaparte, great-grandsen of the first i title shquld be to be ripe for a new bar- ruling In the b of course, not tell her and ¢ of in reply Olga drew in her breath and sighed. ‘A Je : “David heard the sigh and the words, d there went a thrill through his heart; he had forgotten in e whelming ecstasy which had laid hold of him at sight of her that she might be a Christtan. He turned now. and faced her with the thought in his soul. Do not shrink from me; thy Christ was a Jew She had risen from the stool, and was standing gazing intently at him, and he almost cried out for very jo for there was neither shrinking nor hoi | ror in her eyes; in her, as in him, love had overthrown all lesser things; they were man and woman made by God to be mate each to each; no creed, mo.ob- stacle set up by man could separate them one from the other; they had met b; perfect chance only to discover that they were one perfect' whole and that they had been so from all time.” True love could hardly be ‘more forci- worth read- | ply jdealized, but unfortunately the old arrant being | proverb holds true, and its course doés | not run smoothly. Olga’s master, who owns her in serfdom, » marry he rather result when eve of | is much love ook and the rious, them | y one > in the d in diplomatic naturalness makes teresting, and though story are dark an? 1 lay 1 the | all by its A ROMANCE OF THE GHETTO | ception to the course of events, and d for Pe: spite his wif protest has David sent = tt wonn. | to Siberia on the ridiculous charge of at- tempting to pervert a Christian. Considering that David was already married to the girl, this seems rather strong, but all things were possible in empire were | the Russia of those days. Powerful in- of ignorance, | fluences, set at work by a friendly Eng- the rule of the | lishman, suffice to obtain David" re- lease from life-long servitude, the wicked light from the m regenerated ) master, Michael Volkenoft, rope | out of suffering cometh strength to all 1 penetrated the T s of this vast | z 3 v cy the characters concerned in the little It is doubtful whether matters are |dram much better to-day, but at any rate pub-| It is a remarkably strongly written 1 has ght the Russian officials | story, and if the note of Russlan bru- s him that | great Russian lady. Despite the insuper- no less a perso able difficulties of creed, a great passion grandson by draws the two together. Olga comes to | takes strong ex- | relents, and | | tality is oppressive, the triumph of true | love provides a corrective influence, and we feel that even the tyranny of Rus- | sian officials cannot crush souls like | these. A CRITIC ON KIPLING. To the intelligent admirer of Mr. Rud- yard Kipling, the great charm of that writer's work is that it Is different from that of everybody else. Consequently it is with something of a shock that we find the New York Evening Post com- plaining that the author of “The Seven Seas” does not write like Wordsworth, or Tennyson, or Browning, or Lowell, or | Mr. Aldrich of Boston. All these poets | were young in their time, and their early | writings bore the marks of youth. But, says the critic, in the case of the Anglo- | Indian, “how few of the marks of the | poetry’ of youth are to be found in his | verse, so far.” “This deficiency, this peculiarity, what- ever it be called,” continues the critic, “glves Mr. Kipling a distinct place | among poets of his years. The usual order is, natural grace of manner first, delicate fancies to begin with, afterward the deeper breath, the firmer tread. Grace may live to put on strength, but can strength without grace acquire it? Mr. Aldrich (to put a case) in a juvenile poem wrote: | The lily swung its noiseless bell; | And on the porch the slender vine | Held out its cups of fairy wine. ;Nothmg so good of the kind is to be | found in all Kipling.” Once upon a time Dr. Watts of plous memory wrote: | Let dogs delight to bark and bite, | For God has made them so. Let bears and lions growl and fight, For "tis their nature to. But, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise; | Your little hands were never made ! To tear each other's eyes. | | Now, it can be said with absolute as- ‘surance that there is “nothing so good of the kind to be found in all Kipling.” A little further on we come upon a re- markable accusationp ‘‘The. very images under which he (Kipling) renders his in- frequent observations of natural phe- nomena indicate the subordinate part na- ture plays in his verse. Take this, for ex- ample, from ‘The Last Suttee’: All night the red flame stabbed the sky With wavering, wind-tossed spears. It is accurate, it bites in the fact; but the murderous metaphor bespeaks & writer absorbed in the play of brute force and crime. acteristic of Kipling. There is nothing in him of the contemplative spirit. He rides reeking over the plains, and sails the seas chafed and angry, here and there affixing an epithet as he goes, but too impatient to wait for nature's ora- | cles. They are not given to those who travel express.” B There is certainly something entranc- | Ing in the image of Mr. Kipling sailing, | the stormy Atlantic in a fast liner and dropping epigrams overboard as he goes, or careering through the jungle hurling | short storifes right and left through the open windows of his express train. The only trouble about it all is that Mr. Kipling has too much consideration for his ' publishers and his public to waste precious copy in that way. WHAT THE. BLIND READ. With the close of the first twelve months the Free Circulating Library for the Blind has issued a report of its opera- tions. From a collection of 50. vol- umes, fairly representing = lterature's wide range of subject and of form, it re- ports that its patrons choose relatively few books of fiction; that more Interest shown in poetry, and that religious works are in large demand. In so unique a record can we not find revealed, all unconsciously, the world of dreams in which these sightless readers live? Other men and Women on the aver- age choose fiction, leave religion for a Sunday afternoon and poetry for odd mo- The instance is char- ments. They read as much religion as they do because the Sundays are so many and so long, and they have opportunity for very little verse. But the blind ap- pear to have chosen the religious and the poetic before the books of fietion. It Is not the lives of men and women, thelr loves and hates, their intrigues and their marriages, their adventures and thelr courage that attract them. Those Who cannot see live In a shadowy world, apart; and the dreaming poets and specu- lative writers appeal to them—the men of thought, whose activity is in the same sphere with their own. They, too, may rhapsodize In thought about the unseen lark whose melody comes to thelr quick ear; they, too, in the darkness of their affiiction can find it easy to wonder about that other world, which gains with them no unreality and remoteness in conception because it is unseen. And the vivid imagination which pictures other scenes and times, and glves to fiction some of its fascination for those who see, is lost on them, since they cannot know the greatness of its conquest. Not In activity but in descrip- tion is their grandest fiction. THREE LIVELY BOOKLETS. SHANTY TOWN SKETCHES—By An-| thony J. Drexel Biddle. Philadelphia: Drexel Biddle. THE WORST BOY IN THE SCHOOL—By Michael J. A. McCaffery. New York: G. W. Diilingham. _San Francisco, The Emporium Book Department. THE SECOND FROGGY FAIRY BOOK By Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. Phila- delphia: Drexel Biddle; London, Gay & Bird. The tone of “Shanty Town Sketches” is fairly indicated by their title; humorous skits and dialect sketches in prose and rhyme have been reprinted from newspa- pers and magazines and will help to make an idle hour merry. How the worst boy in the school came to be the best iIs told by Mr. McCaffery in easy, flowing verse, and the story of James Grey will appeal to lads who like their moral lessons served up with good paper and dainty flustrations. Little Effie’s adventures with frogs and butterflies is a happy effort of Mr. Bid- dle's. The childish fairy tale is simply told, and many a little one will fall asleep hoping to dream of the heroine’s roam- ings. Appropriate large type is used and the illustrations, by Anne Pennock, would alpne suffice to make the book en- ticing. WOULD YOU BE A MILLIONAIRE? THE ART OF GETTING_ RICH—By Henry Hardwicke. New York: The Useful Knowledge Publishing Com- pany. If you want to be a millionaire you have only got to step up to a local book- store and expend 50 cents in the purchase of this paper-covered volume. It {s much easier and cheaper than outfitting for the Arctic regions and decidedly better than life-long drudgery in a business office or store. The author, acting on Lord Bacon's proposition . that = “history makes men wise,” tells us first how other people have been in the habit of getting rich ever since the world began. He deals with the state of commerce durlng the Middle Ages and then gives us details about the manner in which some modern fortunes have been made. He mentions such well-known names ‘Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould and Russell Sage. An astounding fact, showing the aggregation of wealth in New York, is that 125 per- sons now hold between them a sum of $500,000,000. The last portion of the book is full of sound advice for intending capi- talists, and doubtless a rapid increase in the ranks of the wealthy will follow the circulation of this volume. FOR LEISURE MOMENTS. GEQRGE_FOREST—By Waverly Greene. New York: G. W. Dillingham & Co. THERE IS NO DEVII Junurus Jo- Chicago: Rand. McNally & Co. The most remarkable thing about the first of these papqr volumes is its binding, a bright sage greén, evidently suggested | | | Without thee, love and UNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1898. by the name of the author. ‘‘George Forest” is a novel with a.purpose, and like most works of this character, some- what dreary reading. Mr. Greene's fad is temperance, and he urges that drunk- enness should be treated in its early stages as a disease, and checked before the vice has time to control the will of the victim. The famous Hungarian novelist Jokai does not, of course, appeal so strongly to English readers as to his countrymen. There are many peculiarities in his style which will not bear translation, but still Mr. F. Steinitz has given us a very read- able rendering of the romance “There Is No Devil.”” As the book is clearly print- ed and published at the low price of 2 cents it should find many readers. TO-NIGHT. (From the Greek of Sappho.) Like a long draught of rare old wine The kisses of thy mouth; That soft low sigh—so like a sob— Breathes of the balmy South. One rapturous hour of thy embrace, More worth than wearf years— ife would be Eternity of tears. Then silent lie within my arms, Oh, lean upon my heart! To-night, my love, we'll happy be— h, God! how soon we part. One silken curl has blown across Thy passion-crimsoned cheek, Thine eves are like the waves at night So dusky, dark and deep. A mad desire possesses me— ““The boon for which I sigh?” To hold thee ever to my breast And in thy smile to die. Thy milk-white arms they clasp me close, Thy warm breath fans my cheek— What care I for the fates' decrees— For fame or fortune's freak? One glance from out thy dusky eye Outweighs all other odds; To-night, my love, we'll happy be, To-morrow—to the gods! LITERARY NOTES. Sir John Lubbock’s forthcoming work is to be called “Buds and Stirpules.” For the last twenty years, it is reported, Alphonse Daudet never made less than $20,000 a year from nis work. No book is more eagerly awaited than Zola’s “Paris.”” The English edition is to be ready about the middle of Feb- ruary. Richard Le Gallienne is coming to this country to lecture. It is likely that for some years he will make his home in New England. The Academy of London jauntily says that extravagant fun is out of date, “ow- ing, probably, to the surfeit of it which the enterprise America has offered.” For the Jewish World = Zangwill has written a new serial, the title of which is “Maimon the Fool and Nathan the ‘Wise.” It is one of the Ghetto series, the scene being laid in Germany. Liliuokalani’s promised book, which is to be entitled ‘“‘Hawaii’s Story, by Ha- waif's Queen,’” is said to be written with “admirable good temper,” and to contain some arguments of exceeding adroitness. The Northampton Free Library (Eng- land) refused “The Beth Book" a place on its shelves. When the chairman of the library was asked why, he con- fessed that he had not read a line of Sarah Grand. Rudyard Kipling does not mean to work at all during his present South African trip. He is accompanied by his father, as well as by his wife and children. His next book of short stories will not appear until next autumn. The different appeals which Sienkie- wicz's novel (“Quo Vadis”) has made to English and American readers is surely not a little curious and suggestive. We happen. to know that the sale of “Quo Vadis” in this country has amounted to abou cople: 100,000 copies have been sols emy (London). In March next a new collectionof stories by Stephen Crane is to be published. The title will be “The Open Boat,” the name of the first nine tales of adventure, five of which will be Mexican and Rio Grande border sketches. George Meredith has finished three “Qdes in Contribution to the Song of French History.” The poems are enti- tled “The Revolution,” *Napoleon,” “Alsace-Lorraine,” and they will appear in the numbers of Cosmopolis for March, April and May. Longmans, Green & Co.'s announce- ments for February are “‘Shrewsbury,” a novel by Stanley Weyman; Beatrice and Sydney Webb's “History of ‘Trades Unions,” and Dean Farrar's “The Life Story of Aner.” This is an allegony, Bunyanlike in its directness. E. L. Voynish, author of a successful novel called “The Gadfly,” is said to be contemplating a journey to Austria to get color for a novel of contemporiry life there. He intends, it is added, to spend some time in that country and make a careful study of his dramatis personae and thelr environment before putting pen to paper. Roberts Brothers of Boston are the publishers of Franklin K. Young's “The Grand Tactics of Chess.” This is an ex- position of “the laws and principles of chess strategics. Systems .of chess play made famous by Morphy, de la Bourdon- nais, Philidor, Deschapelles and others are explained, and in the work there are 300 diagrams. It is announced from London that Mr. ‘Wheatley’s edition of “The Diary of Sam- uel Pepys” is approaching completion and that the ninth and concluding volume may be expected some time this year. Among its features will be fac similes of the original shorthand that Pepys used in setting down his famous jottings, an ex- haustive index, a series of studies on Pepys and a discriminating collection of what may be called Pepysiana. Longmans, Green & Co. recently re- celved the following letter, which will ex- plain itself: “— ——, Brooklyn, N. Y. Dec. 18, 1897. “Dear Sirs: I am informed that you are the publishers of the works of a cele- brated scholar named Ibid. Can you give me some information respecting the same, as to what the works consist of, price, etc., and oblige, faithfully yours “(Rev.) — —. B g During 1897 the number of books pub- lished in England was 7926, an increase of 1353 over 1896. Of this total, says the Publisher’s Circular, 6244 were new books and 1682 new editions. Nansen’s “Farthest North” was one of the greatest successes, the greatest among books of travel, while “The Life of Tennyson” led the biogra- phies. Following close upon the heels of this came Captain Mahan’'s “Life of Nelson,” which “was at once hailed as the standard work on its subject, and its reception in England was certainly none the less warm because it happened to be written by a foreigner.” The Messrs. Putnam’s Sons announce the following works for the spring sea- son: In the Little Journeys Series “The Homes of American Statesmes bert Hubbard; “Bird Studies liam E. D. Scott; “Open Mints and Free Banking,” by Willilam Bough; ‘“Republic- | an Responsibility for Present Currency Perils,” by Perry Belmont; the third se- ries in the History of Religion, “Jewish Religious Life After the Exile,” by the Rev. T. K. Cheyne; ‘‘Renascent Chris- tianity: A Foregast of the Twentieth Cen- tury,” by Martin Kellogg Schermerhorn; “Led on Step by Step,” by A. Toomer Porter; “Reminiscences of the Old Navy,” by Edgar Stanton Maclay; the fifth volume of “The Life and Reminiz- cences of Rufus King,” by Charles R. King; “The Writings of James Monroe,” edited by S. M. Hamilton Tradition, History and Art,” by the Rev. W. W. Seymour; “Coffee and India Rub- ber Culture in Mexico,” by his Excellency Matias Romero, and “A History of the Parish of Trinity Church, -New York,” complled and edited by Morgan Dix. 'The Cross in Willlam Le Queux, whose permanent residence is at Leghorn, and who has Just taken up his usual winter quarters in a flat on the Promenade des Anglais at Nice, i3 at work on a. new novel, en- titled “Scribes and Pharisees,” a story of literary London, which will be issued €arly in the spring, though a French version of it will appear in January as a feullleton in several French newspapers in Paris, Nice and Lyons. He is also v\"ritmg a series of ‘“Stories of Monte Carlo,” His novel, “If Sinners .Entice Thee,” now running serially in the Golden Penny and the New York Truth, also deals with life at Monte Carlo, and W.'Xll be issuey Messrs. F. V. White & Co. in the vear. Another book of g!er.ul_}eheQ?:i)‘:’s‘ ln\(hc coming season will ed Man,” v aring sertally In the Tater. ., . “PPearing SMALLEST WATCH IN THE WORLD. HE smallest watch in the world is at present on exhibition in a show window in Berlin. It is the latest triumph in the art of watchmaking—that art that has made such wonderful progress within the past decade. The lilliputian timepiece was made in Geneva. Following aré given some of the tiny dimensions of its works. The diameter of the little watch less than half an inch. measurement 4137 inch. Its thickness is three millimetres, or -1182 inch, being but little more than a tenth of an inch. The length of the minute hand is 2 4-10 millimetres, or .09456 inch. That of the hour hand is 1 3-10 millimetres, or .05122 inch. The entire works of the tiny watch comprise ninety-five individual pieces, is The exact is 10% millimetres, or tracr 528 of wateh. Exact Size of Fifty Cent Pece. and its exact weight is 14.3499 grains, or, according to the metric system, 93 centigrammes—Iless than a single gram! After having been wound up with the diminutive key the watch will run for twenty-eight hours The main- spring when run down has a circum- ference of .13396 inch. Its weight is 38 milligrammes, or .5902 grain. s The weight of the forr main wheels, with their springs, is 42 milligrammes, or .6468 grain. There are thirteen cogs on the little cylinder wheel, which has a circumference of 2 millimetres, or .0788 inch, and weighs .75 milligramme, or .01155 grain. The balance has a circumference of 3.57 millimetres, or .140658 inch. In one hour it completes 18,152 revolutions, traveling a distance of 9842 feet 6 inches. The most delicate tools and measur- ing instruments were made specially for the construction of the lilliputian watch. The preliminary work in the making of the timepiece was very ex- pensive, and the selling price of the watch:is comparatively low, being:$1250.- Words by, HARRY_ B. SMITH Andante religioso (chimes) Lh. .5 Music ‘by VICTOR HERBERT /L") 0 ~— ten - der, a—— SemEE it 5 _— T A VWl W S j aui, to care, And it bringse to the wear-=ry