The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 6, 1903, Page 7

THE SUNDAY CALL. A COANER_IN THE 7 BY ROGERT W.RITCHIE LITERARY. 1wo WWriters of the Slums slum litera- been in five ritable spirit ¢ vo; vea ely a pa wod people who in he writing of such ave it with a sigh and fields when the popuiar een satiated. True it is ne ess, that at r time in the t k writing has the other B 4 such ardent champions as sses right at the present time. onth there have ap- T wwe books upon the slums A. Riis' “Children of the Tene- me and Jack London's “The Peo- ple of the A he former is a coi- ection of short stories, the latter a vigorous portrayal of ugly facts. Both t has been which of the present-day at the old Rousseau idea of the >d of man has become rein- dred years of dor- or is it that the spirit ot into the channels there greater char century peoples than the works of Sir Walter Besant in England and of Josiah Flynt, nsend and the Jack Lon il give a juestions. who have devoted plifting of the s is pre-eminent e riters w T y s twenty-five the sore spots s gained a knowl whereof he writes . by no other man re of the slums Riis >m and under stands a ne eise the i Sub ' hemselves " espons for their pitiable he s with a to catch a N h ck and th h irn to the pure ‘ - Then he bega te . for these people - & ow he kn f the exis supported; he did scathing con- in general 1 were suffered machina- the world trutt transcripts from real lives of real people. Such a collection of short tales is his latest book, “The Ch he Tene ments Written « for the New York S ¥ , and for e Century Magaz se little stories are of a merit deserving the distinction of book covers. Some are pathetic, some in a humor vein, but re told with a simplicity which resses the reader ebove all of their truth. Since Jack London has sudden tured into the fleld of slum literature with “The People of the Abyss” he must naturally be subject to a com- parison with an acknowledged student of the poor such as Riis. Yet so few have the two in common that son is aimost defied has attacked his subject He is a strong man, a writer; perhaps he could not ach any subject with a whit less y than he used in climbing Chil- But his ardor in attacking of the East End of the great his namesake, is so strong as to his entire book with a very per- bige. He evidently knew that ng was all wrong in London there to prove it to himselt world es the great difference be- an ax Her tween London, the new writer on the slums, and Riis, the man of years’ ex- perience. Earnestly as Mr. London e e sought after the truth and diligently as he may have striven to get to the bottom of things, he betrays too ready a tendency to jump at con- clusions and draw deductions from the thinge which it his theory. Within the short space of & few months’ time, Lordon endeavored to familiarize him- ih the life to which Riis h.' Ce- study. Naturally, he his Whitechapel llke Bleecker street and em Square, but with his insuf- knowledge, London has gone to gths of making sweeping gener- ations upon soclal questions which & hes never voiced. .ondon approached Whitechapel with cjved ideas of the rights of the duties of governments, of his earlier socialistic studies. When he discovered s0 many thou- sands of creatures who did not enjoy these rights he attributed all of their wrongs to z decayed society, which he declares is only fit for the scrap heap. His marine fireman, who spends his earnings in beer, is not held to account per se for the life that is his, but is merely one of the unfortunate atoms ground to dust by this seif-same de- crepit machine of society. Riis has shown that -the hopelessly poor are stubborn in their wretchedness and neglect or even resent opportuni- ties for their betterment. To his eyes the degradation of the great cities’ poor ie due in great measure to an inborn disinclination to aspire to any- ted years of «d not know hi thing better. Listlessness is a parf of the character of the poor. It cannot be doubted that every cir- cumstance London portrays in his book is true. His work' should set strong men to thinking. But few will arrive at the conclusions which London sets forth so dogmatically. (Children of the Tenements; The Mac- Company, New York; {llus- ; price $1 50. The People of the Abyss; by the same publishers; illus- trated by photographs; price $2.) A Good .;h:;“hor Going KNOW a little old Charles Major as she would a val- entine from an eighteen-year-old boy. lady by maiden sto She has seen fifty summers and away back in the twentieth she had her only little love affair. In her second maidenhood she lives in a hallowed memory of this love affair of thirty years gone by. Her faded cheeks will glow a trifie when she grows reminis- cent and she will simper a coy little simper when the tender passion is men- tioned. Next to discovering a 'new breakfast food or hearing of some heppy instance of two bleeding hea this little 0ld maiden lady would rathe read Charles Major's books than a thing else in the whole world. “They are just so lovely.” So it will be a red-letter day for the little malden lady when “A Forest Hearth” is put into her hands by some ill-advised but well meaning friend. For if ever there was a love tale pre- pared especially for single and senti- mental ladies of many summers, this is that one. To invalids taking the rest cure who must be shielded from excitement it must surely prove a gen- tle sedative. The growing girl of the household wiil be happy to have it read to her by the Iimpressionable house- maid. Given ten or a dozen lay figures teken from any dry goods emporium; fit to these the typical and time worn characteristics of the dashing hero, the lovesick heroine who has an obdurate parent—male or female; the crafty vil- lain with the rocks and the self-sacri- ficing friend who loves only too vainly, and Mr. Major is ready to begin. Set- ting is of mno great consequence—a baronial manor or a log cabin can be conjured into the piece with equal dexterity. The historical atmosphere need only be some other time than the present. Now, with everything ready, the story starts out and with a siow and graceful movement unwinds itself to the length required of the modern novel and then with a faint rattling of the cogs and wheels comes to a digni- fled end. Bullt to order is “A Forest Hearth”; Mr. Major alone knows who ordered it. This tale, according to the sub-title, is romance of Indiana in the thir- ties,” Rita Bays, the heroipe, who is “as sweet as the wild rose and as gentle as the soft spring sun” (now where have we heard that phrase before?) is disclosed, suffering from the brow- beatings of a dyspeptic mother. She lives in a cabin and is beautiful e'en as a child. Despite the choleric dispo- sition of her mother, Rita, for that is her name, waxes strong in years and understanding. She plays with a com- panion from up the river, who, in his youthful ardor, born of about twelve years' understanding, declares to her: “I want no better mirror, my little sweetheart, than your brown eyes; no prettier color than your rosy cheeks and glossy black hair, and no truer friend than your loving little heart.” Well, that precoclous phrase gives the whole thing away; of course, the little playmate grows stronger in his affections with the years. But there is a man twice the age of Rita who fain would clasp her to his bosom. So affected is he by her very presence that “his heart was fllled with joy, his face beamed with pleasure and his scalp Wi suffused by a rosy hue.” Alas, the race is not for him and the only thing he can do in the story is to give the hero an engagement ring when the time for that stage property is full ripe. But it is in order for a little excite- ment by the time chapter six comes around and so the town bully sples the hero ing the heroine with a soulful ss upon the banks of the Wabash. Being “not full but comfortable” at the time the town bully attempts a like court , when biff—he is spurned to the earth. Of course, he draws a knife and the hero would have been ignominiously skewered had not the beautiful Rita done what Clyde Fitch made Barbara Frietchie do—shot the dog. Then “the girl's face turned pale, the gun fell from her hands, her eyes cloged and she would have fallen,” etc., etc. So the changes are rung for 354 mortal pages of single leaded type. It is a sad failing of some authors not to know when to stop. Mr. Major forsook the law some three years back to ride into fiction full sail with the flood-tide of the romantic novel. It was a hit, that “Knighthood.” But now the tide has begun to recede and Mr. Major, with his eyes still on blos- soming chivalry, continues to write upon the pedestal “whence all but him have fled.” Success has been known - -~ “are (The Macmillan Company, New York; {llustrated; price $1 50.) A Holiday Tale Worth Reading HERE are only three people who Z can write darky stories worth the reading—Joel Chandler Harris, of course; Thomas Nelson Page, and Ruth McEnery Stuart. When any of these three give us 4 story of “cullud folks” it should be treasured, for time and circumstance are rapidly narrow- ing the sources of the good old planta- tion stories and the time will soon be whaen that type of our lighter literature shall be no more. By this token, there- fore, let Mrs. Stuart’s latest story, “‘George Washington Jones,” be given a handy place on the library table. Though a story of “a Christmas gift that went a-begging,” Mrs. Stuart's little tale need not be read before the Christmas gas gratg (there are no more yule logs). Like Dickens’ Christmas Stories, the tale will bear reading any day in the year. It is a simple little story that makes the reader feel better for having come across it. When an author is able to make the reader of many books keep in his mind for many days the nebulous image of a wide- eyed little darky with ideals then that author has not written in vain. This has Ruth McEnery Stuart done. George Washington Jones is little, orphaned and irredeemably black. His head is full of the grand tales told him by his grandfather of how that worthy was one time sent to a beautiful “fairy lady” as a Christmas gift long before the war. To the bright little head of George Washington there comes, there- fore, the brilliant idea of making a Christmas present of himself to some equally lovely mistress and thereby fol- low in the path of his honored grand- parent. But when the little nigger starts out to make of himself a “Christ- mas gi’,” he finds that in these de- generate days of ours little colored kids offering to give themselves away are considered beggars. How the little fellow suffered one re- buff after another until he was glad to nestle to the bosom of a kind old child- less mammy 18 told with words which leave but a narrow frontier between tears and laughter. Then of George ‘Washington's final triumph and of his service In the home of the old lady who was once the charge of that very idyl- Hc grandfather the details are re- counted. It is a trlumph for the reader as well as for George Washington Jones, for the reader feels as If the lit- tle kinky pate is next of kin before he fihishes with him. (Henry Altemus Company, Philadel- phia; illustrated; price $1.) Some Genuine Darky Poetry HAT heartfelt prayers of re- joicing are dally offered up on the high altar of song when we are told that the days of ragtime coon songs are numbered. For so many wearisome seasons now have doggerels about “Ma Pinky Baby” and “Ma Squash-nosed Sal” been roared from the vaudeville stage and bellowed EDITOR out over the jangling keys of our neighbor’s piano that Job's bodily dis- comforts haven't been a marker to the mental anguish that has been the lot of all right-minded individual “Al- most drowned out by this persistent howling of musical bosh, yet sounding with a pure, sweet note to those with ears attuned, have beer the genuine darky melodles of the darky poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Now we have another collection of his poems, pub- lished in an attractive holiday form, under the title of “When Malindy Sings.” Those of us who have had the rare good fortune to have lived down in the South, where the darky is still a darky and not a ‘‘culiud gemmun,” speak of the real music that there is in the hearts of the typical south of Dixie negroes. Their song is spontaneous, bubbling; their rhymes have often the ring of true poesy. To catch this ster- ling worth and give it to American literature at its real value is the work of Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Right well has he accomplished his task; but let us all hope that there remain yet a great many more songs for the young negro poet to sing. In the present volume there are twenty bits of verse ranging In senti- ment from rollicking banjo songs to pathetic reflectfonsg -upon the loss of dear ones. The darky's feelings lle very near the surface and Dunbar has deftly caught the strange blend of sun- shine and shadow which is the charac- teristic of his race. So few and so simple are the words necessary to ex- press the deepest thoughts. Witness the following stanza from a little poem entitled “The Memory of Martha.” “Down by de road de shadders grows, An’ oh, but hit's moughty lonely; Seem lak de ve'y moonlight knows, An’ oh, but hit's moughty lonely! Does you know I's cryin’ fu' you, oh, my wife? Does you know dey ain’t no joy no mo’ in life? Arn' my only t'ought is dis, Dat I's honin’ fu’ de bliss Fu' to quit dis groun’ o' worriment an’ strife. < Not the least of the poetry in the negro songs lles in the delicate nature thoughts. The plantation darky, liv- ing ‘“next to the ground” day in and day out, is ever ready to catch the glint of the leaves and the shine of the grass. Here again it needs no ponderous ‘Wordsworthlan stanza to clothe the thought. Writes Dunbar: “Willer boughs a-bendin’, Hidin’ of de sky, Wavin' kin' o’ frien’ly Ez de win’ go by, Elum trees a-shinin’, Dahk an’' green an thick; Seems to say, ‘I see yo' ‘Wadin’ in de crick.”” (Dodd, Méad & Co., New York; dec- oratlons by Margaret Armstrong; price $1 50.) WO of our San Franecisco literat! Rattling Story of a Carnival T have harked back to the good old days of the earliest story tellers to find the form for a tale upon whiech they have collaborated. “The Relgn of Queen Isyl,” by Gelett Burgess and Will Irwin, has the old stilted pro- logue and high sounding chapter head- ings of an eighteenth century romance, but sparkles with the most up-to-date slang and Is replete with modernisms which are more startling in contrast to their archaic setting. Again, like some of the old Italian romances the book contains tales with- in a tale. Upon the skeleton plot of a carnival queen of San Jose, who was spirited away upon the eve of her coro- ration to have a pretender sit upon the throne of mirth, the two authors have - stretched a web of stories from the mouths of the principal cL.racters which divide the honors of interest on the part of the reader with the thread of the main narrativ There s enough mystery to the royal abductfon to satisfy the most invet- erate reader of Anna Katherine Green and the tales recounted by the news- paper special correspondent, the pro- fesslonal spleler and the rest are breezy and new. The book is a good one to pick up for an hour while dinner is being prepared; it will give you =omething to laugh about and make the meal the more pieasant (McClure, Phillips & Co., orice $1 50.) Ualuab?j!?ds to Linguists New York; WO valuable textbooks for stud- mts of German and Spanish have lust been published by the Ameri- can Book Company. They are “Mon- santo and Languelller's Practical Course In Spanish,” edited by Freeman M. Josselyn, and “Grimm’s Kinder- und Hausmarchen,” edited by B. J. Vos. For many years Monsanto and Lan- guellier’s has been one of the most suc- cessful Spanish grammars before the public. It aims to make the basic prin- ciples of Spanish grammar familiar to the student by constant practice and repetition in Spanish, and to this end the Spanish examples are made as nu- merous as possible. The advance in lingulstics, and the new rules of accen- tuation promulgated by the Spanish Academy, have made a revision of the book necessary. The original form of the work has been retained so far as possible, but such grammatical state- ments as needed change have been re- cast. The Spanish text is presented in accordance with the latest rules for orthography and accent. The German tales need no introduc- tion. There are no others which from the day they were published to the present time have so steadily retained their hold on childhood. Their interest and their simplicity render them par- ticularly suitable for elementary read- ing. ICRARY Good Magazines, for Christmas CLURE'S Magazine for Decem- M‘w. in harmony with the gen- tleness of the season, moderates a Mttle its strenuous, battering-ram tone of the last few months. It is, In fact, decidedly Christmasy, with its beautitul illustrations—many in tint— and amiable fiction; and is all aglow with the spirit of truce-time. For the strenuous reader, however, there are articles by Ida M. Tarbell, Ray Stan- nard Baker and otherg The Booklovers’ Magazine for De- cember rounds out its first year with the Christmas number, and appears with a new and exceedingly beautiful cover. The general feature of the former cover-scheme—that of a leather bound book—is retained, but the design is entirely different and the color a warm, rich crimson, with gold letter- ing. A minlature of Van Dyck's cele- brated painting of “Baby Stuart,” produced in colors, appears as a medal lton in the center of the cover surround- ed with a wreath of holly. The Christmas number of the World's Work interprets timely phases of our national and insular develop- ment, and rounds up a year of distinct magazine achievement. Of vital sig- nificance is Sereno S. Pratt's article, “Who Owns the United States?” In which concrete facts and figures show the centralization of our fmancial power and how all the wealth of the country is In the control of compara- tively few people. The second of the serfes of articles on “The Postoffice and the People,” by M. G. Cu , shows how and why our postoffice nade- quate, and how it is the true and per- manent postal scandal. With “The True Character of New York Publie Schools,” Miss A. M. Shaw begins a series of first-hand studies of American s. Her first article, which is pro- illustrated by photographs taken lly for the World's Work, by facts and figures conditions tizen should khow. scho fuse! especia shows that every Latest Books Just Received OF THE ABYSS, THE PEOPLE Jack London; The cmillan Com- pany, New Y price $2. CHILDREN OF TH NEMENTS, Jacob Riis; The Macmillan Com- pany, New York; illustrated; price $150 THE SPIRIT OF THE SERVICE, Edith Wood; The Macmillan Company. w Tork; illustrated; IMY'S WILL, Mabel Os- Macmillan Com- 1strated: price $1 50, OF PERILLA, The John Corbi Duffield & C New York; illv THE LOST KING, Henry Shackel- ford; Brentano's, New York; fllus- trated e 51 GEORG /ASHINGTON JONES, Ruth Mc Stuart; Altemus Com- pany, Philade ; illustrated. HALF A DOZEN HOUSEKEEP- ERS, Kate Douglas Wiggin; Altemus Company, Philadelphia; ilustrated; price $1 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ISYL, Gelett Burgess and Will Irwin; Me- Clure, Phillips & Co., New York; price $1 25 THE PLANETARY SYSTEM, F. B. Taylor; published by the author, Fort Wayne, Indlana; illustrated. JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY IN PROSE AND PICTURE, John A. How- land; Handy & Higgins, Chicago; lllus- trated and decorated; price $1 50. GRIMM'S KINDER- UND HAUS- MARCHEN; American Book Com- pany, New York; price 45 cents. MONSANTO AND LANGUEL- LIER'S PRACTICAL COURSE IN SPANISH; American Book Company, New York: price $1 26. THE LIFE OF A WOODEN DOLL, Lewis Saxby; Fox, Duffield & Co., New York; illustrated; price $1 25. RHYMES OF REAL CHILDREN; Betty Sage: Fox, Duffield & Co., New York; fillustrated by Jessle Wlilcox Smith; price $1 50. EAST OF ASIA, North China Her- ald, Shanghal; {llustrated; price $1 50. KUTE KIDS' KALENDAR, F. M. Goodrich; Dodge's, Stationers, San Francisco; lllustrated; price 75 cents. ADVERTISEMENTS. & 2" A RomMANCE oOF IT T3 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE: *‘The Lions of the Lord' is an im- B 4 | mensely impressive story. Without X| . affectation, without strain, without cari- ) cature, it affords a picture of the fight Y into the wilderness, and of the men who. ’0‘ couverted that flight inte a purposeful 1 and ultimately triumphant comquest, 4 which has not hitherto been equalled.” ) . X z THE BOSTON bt TRANSCRIPT: * “ Heretofore no novel has dealt o vi- tally with the history, the scenes, and the characters of Mormonism, and no pred- ecessor has so clearl; struck the keynote of its comedy as well as its fearsome tragedy. Joet Rae, the hero, is one that may not soon be forgotten.” o e e N r T e 0 S FERRFRA ARSI RE S ST TR EEREER THE LIONS orF THE LORD By HARRY LEON WILSON AUTHOR OF “THE SPENDERS” LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY, BOSTON L ERERRFEFFRE R RS S E e e R THE OLD WEST ST. LOUIS REPUBLIC: “The reader who begins “Ths Lions of the Lord" will certainly finish it. There's & tragedy at the close, the in- exorable tragedy of Joel Rae's life, but there’s also one of the prettiest of love- story happy endings, fn which a dashing cowboy plays Young Lochinvar ta a way to make you want to jump up wd whoop harrahs for him. The plot is adexirably constructsd, and there is real vitality in the people.” ER L AR PHILA. PUBLIC LEDGER: “Certainly much has been written re- garding the Mormons, but no writer has ¥ ‘before turned out a book which so clev- Ko erly combines hi 1 record with fi well-written fiction * Postpaid, §1.30 | EA