The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 31, 1904, Page 7

THE SAN FRANCISCO. SUNDAY CALL. THE GROWTH Of Western Letters. EVERAL write for Bastern tic magazines have been : te e of late that there & true Californis s ettres. Somewhat hey concede that the spirit West has begun to make the rigidly exclusive circles T s and that it and invigorat- ature is a dis- r How long, . t before the Pacific of a literature i so com- ne of the v ded by’the N and i New York? jart of the f things' liter- » to those > are only ements s who have e growth rs out here in this word a cheering signifi- e. F £ have we of California time of probation the newness ke he trar ' ountry he ¥ as rawr tal days of gold has e to a culture which yvthing but of sterling rtured as !t is by the inspira- days that are gone etters is never the plo- goes t rth to spring up BT h he new border- vilization. It comes only after edges have been smoothed, ck wealth has been made e sense of estheticlsm has sway of things ma- olden Gate there are born inte re such as are First of all there f the new land tate to the ged nature false veneer has there been t primitive, the essence of a sen- this very nature extreme impuise ful element The deep acre of s is 80 power- Norris in “The sweep of the splintered fttimes ‘Pita f the . erfy 1 chant terature of a literature great two powerful leav- s they now do f the State thelr power haracter to the f Western letters. It is T nee to become for the Cali- t Harvard has been d salon of writers . begin to technical of esthetic &k a view to perfecting talent branches of literary e bufit up g writers n of the forgia's b B hiw time the U niversity of i Stanford have only just this policy of practical in- rd, which ovement, has both poesy and the each instance the in- * follows only after a thorough ar etics, the history of lit- erature e analyeis of standard tera In the hands of com- peter ctors these courses for writers: are made as thorough as the t f the st ! permit, and e res ’ have been justified he work of some of the univer- the University of of this policy recent time. Only ear or so has there to foster talent in the of re short = re at present no ass Beyond an ex- . aining in the values and theo- es rature there has been very udy for practical crea- lips of liter- few years past have ugh we are prone to to the late Frank Norris as a genius, his finishing have beern ry folk for the at Harvan mnd subsequent at- tachment to an stern house divides the nor Jac who has been at all times ( the one upon s hopes most un- as broken from aska and has uld a ed stead- there are e Charles, and ( e Bonner, who are compelling the at- f the ritics ung men Of poets there is Se verse has g to come— e mature poet; Her- whose didactic and . a = are of a high order, and 8 g, the to invoke remarkable “Testi- atest gc fraught with portent t Eastern is iNluminati: an literature claim tinet sehool of the is it because it nony of American of Californian en- e ; r f the esthetic. >— ESARHADDON, To'stoy’s Last Work. ‘“ v AND OTHER AWLES.” from the pen of the r of char- e great the pro- book both in > and England he relief fund ute by the re- v and Comel. s of Tolstoy's life and the ncorporated in this in the style of the TROFESHOK TORGE DDEREY orF TERATURE® CountTes <« ama L - meos great novelist. Mare of the nature of allegories: than tales are these, for in each the author points the moral with haracteristié didactic vehemence. The story of Esarhadden, the cruel’ Persian King, who is made to suffer the torture of his own captives By the power of a prophet, reveals Tojstoy's message on the sacredness of life in the following: “Have you now wunderstood,” con- tinued the old man, “that Lailie is you, and the warriors you put to death were yol dlso? You thought life dwelt in ;youw alone, but I have drawn aside the vell of the delusion and have let you see that by doing evil to others yvou have done it to.yourself also. Life is dne in theém all, and vou have in vourself but & portion of this common life. And only in that one part of life that is in you can you fnake.life bet- ter or worse——can you increase or de- crease it." The second contribution, “Work, Degpth and Sickness.” is & légend which th¢ author accredits to.the South American Indians. . It describes the thrée means which God has taken to make men more kind and brotherly to each bee other, and how long in learning the lessons. y in the very latest times a few have begun to understand that ht not to be a bughear for nd like galley-slavery for others, should be a common and-happy occupation, uniting all men.” The third contribution is in the man- ner of a folk tale. It begins as follows ‘It once occurred to a certain King that if he always knew the right time to begin everything, if he knew who were the right people to attend to and whom to avoid, and, above all, if he always knew what was the most im- portant thing to do, he would never fail in any -of his undertakings.” A hermit ipgeniousiy puts him in the b f of finding the answers for him- self. And the answers are these 1. There is only one time that is im- portant—now. It is the most important time, because it is the only time when we have any power. 2. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else. 3. And the most important affair is to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life. (Funk & Wagnalls, Philadeiphia; price, 40 cents.) PRODIGIES In the Eook World. have CCASIONALLY it befalls the counter works which stagger blase sense of ¢ appr ation; sst an alignme the acceptec even his at on. They defy clis: t all attempts or that categ viewed from o standards of esthetic fitness. They are wild, of the sedate e which seem to glory iy the fact that they cannot be given the to be sports nition of legitimate birth. Such are The Federation of Religions,” by Rev. Hiram Vrooman, and “Charac- ter, a Moral Textbook,” by Henry v um . position as The character of true litexature has always been conservative. It .has rarely admitted of the presence or books which are . confessedly self- or which bear all the ear- s of being revampéd from old 1. Moreover it is-especially chary of books which have any radi- cal religious lesson to teach or which lean toward a new and violent scheme of philosophy. Vrooman's book s self-serving and of an outre religious character: Varnum’s - is. revampeq from philosophy as old as the ever- lasting hills. Rev. Mr. Vrooman, who is the presi- dent of a society known as the Federa- tion of Religions, has written his book wity an evident view to proselyting, In fact he does not hesitate to state that if his propaganda, as expressed in his book, seéms acceptable to any reader, a life membership in the so- ciely may readily be obtained and that a life privilege to support the society with large or small contribution: be encompassed with equal 1t cannot be said that Rev. Mr. Vrop- man's work rises to the breadth ang, scope of a religious auto-psychic jin- spiration such as that of Mary Baker Eddy, but it is published by the same juspiration as that of the Boston sSeeress. The author poinis out in ‘he begin-, ning that the “Federation of Religions” seeks to draw a line of demurcation between religidus truths which are known and those founded ujon his- tariehl assertion, This imihediately thréwe: theitenets of his society into the reaim of the scientiuc ~nd ex lud s all elemnents of the speculative. ' ‘‘ ‘The Federation of Religions.' as it deveil- ops,” says the author, “will be quali- fied s0 it would seem. to bring the re- ligious world into consciousness of this division and then to organize for the overthrow of fanaticism, intolerance and bigotry and for the promqtion of religious unity those persons of every religious faith and nationality whose tirst sense of duty is to facts that are apprehended and whese submission to church or doctrinal authority s never such ag to cause disloyalty to what is known."” In following chapters the “author geeks to show what are actual phe- nomena and what doctrinal conclu- sions; how spirityal substance actu- ally exists; how ti# mind is a micrp- cosm, producing efl upon the emotional self and how it is able to diseriminate between spiritual phe- nomena and dogmatic philosophy. It is @ tortuous maze, this argument of the wpiter, and When foliowed to its conclusion it cannot be sald to be very illuminating. . (The Nunc Licet Press, phia. Price 75 cents.) Philadel- Henry Varnum's book on “charac- ter” is not a religious work saye that it inculcatgs some accepted réligious doctrines among its precepts. It is, on the contrary,'a unigue attempt to formulate a textbook of moral be- havior to be used as one would em- ploy Chauvenet's geometry or a Stite Series physical geography. One may turn to lesson number three, part one, and there learn that “trifles lighter than straws are ievers in the upbuild- ing of character,” or-that “the bad thing about a little sin is that it will not stay little”” This is all very well, but can moral philesophy be learned by rote? The compiler of the book has drawn his maxims from Solomon, Marcus Aurelius, Lord Bacon, La Fontaine and in fact every man who ever made a’ wise saw about anything; but he has seen fit to clothe the thoughts In his own words without 8o much as a sliver of compensation to the wise ones who gave them coinage. True, the book must be the result of long endeavor, but not fortunate endeavor. {Hinds & Noble, New York. Price $1 25.) LAST WORD : Upon Co-Education. HE majority of .thinking people z believe that the question of co- education is no longer a burn- ing issue, that the recent segregation f the sexes in some of the largest stern universities proves the experi- ment to have been not an unqualified success as being on the wane. Not so, vs Dr. Ely Van de Warker, Commnlis- oner of nools for Syracuse, New York, In a book entitled “Woman'’s Un- fitness for Higher Coeducation,” he devotes 225 pages of closely printed matter. to the exposition of his opinions upon what he considers a very live matter. Even in his tardiness the doc- tor should be commended for his ef- fort. The author does, not claim that his common school commis- sioner gives him the strength tq, oppose the views of several worthy college presidents upon the matter of coedu- cation. Nor does he admit of ever having had the experience of a student in a mixed college, ~which certainly might have given him provocation for the expression of his views if anything was calculated so to do. He simply does mot, believe in coeducgtion and has reasons for his belief. He bages his clajm for a hearing ‘' upon the ground$ that the duestion has pro- gressed beyond the grasp of the edu- cator and i8 now in the province of the socfologist. The author is, then, for the timne being & sociologist. Upon four counts does Dr. Van de Warker indiet coeducation: It is bad for the college; it ls bad for the men in that college; it is bad for the women themselves; it is bad for society in gen- eral. Bad' for "the college is the com- mingling of the sexes because it gen- erates the commercial spirit in the management of the -institution, -says- the author. Business considerations have had more influence in founding the college for both sexes than any ofher factor according to Dr. Vam de’ ‘Warker. - This. 18 because the seg - simig and the selfish directors forced men and women “to be under teachil Stafl. 1his is very bad, says the author. But worse yet; these self-same com- merciglly _inclined directors ~ have actually wheedled young ladies into coi.eges of this sort in order 1o pay ex- pelipes - better. bor what? says the author. “_ne of the most alluring sides of a youLg woman's traits is her fondness for the society of the other sex. It is but natural that a college on the most liberal co-sex plan wouid attract the largest attendance of young women, not from any spirit of wrongdoing, simply in complianice with a physwlogi- cal iaw.” There stands the college woman re- vealed at last! But does the doctor's rule apply to the many who have be- come superannuated at schoul teach- ing and come to catch a ficeting draught from the font of knowledge ere Azracl cails? 3 Fearfully injurious to the male stu- dents is the system of cv-education be- cause they are so distracted from their rightful paths of duty. With these -ery uncongcjously alluring wonien students the men are so apt tp be engrossed to the ~ptire neglect of th studies. Either that or they aré Loorishiy im- poifte. Both extremes ave huriful. The author becomes mcie convincing when he deals with the phvsicai and sociological effects of co-educution. by the use of statistics he geeks to demon- strate that close application o the rou- tine of the classroom withoui fieguent rests is injurious to the health of any woman and calculated 10 Hw the s:eds of life-long misery.” ‘But ddide from this the moral effect of four years' study of the higher learning is delete- rious rather than beneficial, thinks the author. He believes that it ives the woman a dangerous egdism and feeling of mental superfority which admits of fio ultimate aim in life save matrimony or schocl teaching; a rather dispiriting outlook certainly. Even in the case of matrimony the YyOung person w hom Dr. Van de Warker pictures must find a man of an equally esthetic tempera- ment or there will be grave trouble. All in all, it cannot be said that the Syracuse school commissioner, laudable though his inspiration may be, has done more than to reiterate all the argu- ments which have been adduced upon the subject and added sowe which would have been best incorporated in a book of medicine only. (Grafton Press, New York.) MARGINALIA. Noting Authors’ Doings Perhaps the most pungent of last year's minor biographies was the “Life of Browning,” by the icano_ lastic Mr, Chestertan. It is one of those provok- ing books which stir up re.ders and get people talking about it. It is singu- lar how books on Browning multiply. More are published every year than ever before, Mrs. Machen's painstak- ing volume tracing @ll the references to ““The Bible in Browning” and the influ- ence of the Old Testament on th> poet’s attittide toward life came .ut at about the same time as the new edition of “Pippa Passes,” and these are hardly off the vress before a new biciraphy of Browning is announced. Fresh anec- dotes. of Browning come to ' “ht every day. He is more read now than ever before. At first only the cultivated knew his work: like all { -eat writers, he is becoming known to an increas- segrega-- ingly -large number of readers every, -+ tion plan was too’ costly ‘to maintain year. 3 . P Yo » ¥tk the same * “Optimism,” the recent book by Hel- en Keller, published by Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co,, is to be transiated into Japanese. The translator says that the essay will prove a great power among the people of that progressive nation, if it {8 once imroduced to them. The work has had a steadily increasing sale since its first appearance here, and is attracting general atiention. Some years ago a novel from the pen of a new man appeared under the title of “Jaohn Littlejohn of J.” and attracted considerable attention by reason of its historical verisimilitude and the rapid- fuy of its action. 1t was in the days when the historical novel was some- thing less of a rarity than it is to-day, and a second story from the same hand was expected in g short time. However, the author, George Morgan, was of ex- actly opposite mind to most of those who make a success with thelr first plece of long fiction, and until now he has not been heard from. His new story is of very much larger proportions and more elaborate workmanship than its predecessor, and, in fact, has been in writing for seven years. Its title has not yet been announced, but it wiil probably be “The Issue.” It will be pub- lished by the J. B. Lippincott Company late in February. The first book presented to tHe new $260,000 Carnegie Library at Louisville, Ky, was Dr. W. J. Holland's '‘The Moth Book.” It was the gift of R. W. Brown, one of the trustees of the insti- tution. By a singular coincidence Dr. Holland is director of the Carnegie Mu- scum at Pittsburg. - He was former chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania, “The Moth Book" 1s a popular guide to a knowledge of the moths of North America. There are forty-eight plates in color photography and numerous other illustrations repro- ducing specimens' from various public and private collections. Thomas Hardy's historical drama, ““The Dynasts,” will be published at once by the Macmillan Company. Though complete in itself, it is designed ultimately to form one of a trilogy, of which the second play or part will cover the zenith of Napoleon's power. and the third his decline and fall, with the restoration of equilibrium of the old dynasties. The enactments in the present volume begin with the threat- ened invasion of England and end with the deaths of Nelson and Pitt and the stultification of the Wuropean coalition by the triumph of Napoleon at Aus- - terlitz. Nothing else that could have hap- peéned would have called attention to the beauty of Mr. Zangwill's story, “Merely Mary Ann,” as its dramatiza- tion has done. This is one of the novel- ettes in Zangwili's latest book. “The Grey Wig," where its exquisitencss and delightful, kindly realism were lost sight of. The story ends like life. while the play has a conventional ending. ‘“Merely Mary Ann” is one of the most touching and human ‘tales Mr. Zang- will has yvet written. A strange and romantic story i back of the publication in the February Scribner's of an article on Charles Keene as an etcher. These original plates were thought littie of by Keene, and were given to a friend with instruc- tions to destroy thcm. They were lost for years and finaily were fo.nd. It is the unanimous opinion of experts that it would be a crime against art to destroy them, so a limited number of sets have been published, and they show Keene among the great etchers of his time. Among the books which are coming into larger demand on account of the lively interest in the Russo-Japanese imbroglic f# Mrs. Ethel Colquhoun’s vivacious account of journeyings in Japan, Korea and from Vladivostok over the trans-Siberian railroad. Few books give equally vivid pictures of actual scenes and dajly life in these countries, and the publishers, A. S. Barnes & Co., ind an increasing appre- ciation _of the author’s timely sketches of the East. The recent death of General James Longstreet has recalled sharply the famous controversy which concerned General Longstreet's military actions and his subsequent attitude with re- gard to the Union. It was only the oth- er day that the book of another famous Southern Confederate general aroused fresh discussion by partisans on every sidi nd not & few readers as a resuit turned to the pages of General Long- street’s own parrative, “From Manas- sas to Appomattox,” in which he re- views the campaign in which he was a participant. That valume, long ago rec- ogn as one of the most striking as well as awthoritative of books relatin, to the Civil War, has been in continu demand since itg first publication, and its publishers within six months have added another to the numerous editions called for. This new edition General Longstreet thoroughly revised a short time before he was taken ill, and it his last words on the subject. GRINDINC... P % TOLSTOT ,_AUTROR oe ‘ESAR HADDON FRom JuGEND “Do publishers read unsolicited man- uscripts?”’ asks a writer in the Phila- delphia Inquirer. Doubleday, Page & Co. own up to reading 589 novels alone in eight months. The five hundred and seventieth was published. It is Aquilla Kempster's love story of India. “The Mark,” but “The §70th MS.” would be quite as enticing a title. NOTICES In Briefer Form. A San Francisco writer, Eugenia Kel- logg. has published a little book of stories and sketches under the title of “Poccalito, 'a Tale of Telegraph Hill,"” which may well sarve to while away an idle half-hour. The fact that the author prefaces the book with a recommenda- tion from Joaquin Miller and that she graciously throws in her picture with every copy sold does not make for an additional value to the purchase. Joa- quin’s florid recommendations are too common to be of value, and one should not have to know how the author looks in order to appreciate her writings. “Poccalito,” the longest and the best sketch of the collection, s, as Its sub- title denotes, a story of San Francisco's Latin quarter. It purports to be a page from the life of a poor, misshapen littie fellow who is one of many in & crab fisherman’s family, and not blessed with many joys of existence. The local color is well drawn, but the ending of the tale is too obvious—too much of the Litte Nell type of pathos to be effec- tive. Another fault which characterizes this and the other tales of the collection lies in the author’'s too riotous use of language. The evident attempt at strength through the use of unusual words and euphonious combinations re- sults in pronounced weakness. (The Unknown Fublisher, San Fran- cisco.) Among the many recent books upon the mechanical and scientific achieve- ments of recent years none are of mor interest than Beckles Wilso: “The Story of Rapid Transit.” In this re- view of the methods the twentieth cen- tury man uses by which to propel him- seif over the world and to make dis- tance a word only of relative signifi- cation, the author brings forcibly to the mind of the reader the marvelous strides which have been made in motor propulsion since our ancestors were went to go abroad. Beginning with the slowest of slow coaches, traveling over the worst of roads, he introduces the reader to its successors, better and quicker coaches running over improved roads; then to the primitive tramway, with its odd carriages traversing wooden or flat iron ralls and propelled by horses: next to the innovation of steam drawn car- riages and the steam railway. Steam- boats were a natural outgrowth of the steam ailway, «nd the telegraph, the telephone, the bicyclé and the motor carriange but various developments of the necessity for greater dispatch of passengers and information. The later forms of fast vehicles. the bicycle and motor carriage, represent the determination of the individual to be independent of .he corporation and to enfoy swift travel wherever his In- clinations or his necessities lead him to go. The street railway, with its most prodigieus development in extent and adaptability to public needs shown ip the Upited States, has been everywhere aceepted by the great cities, but, judg- ing from the past, has not yet been brought to the efficiency that is to be looked Yor if the progress of the future is to compare favorably with past de- velopment. (DI.’ Appleton & Co., New York; illus- trated; price, $1 00.) “¥ow to Make a Flower Garden™ is the title of the latest nature book to he published by Doubleday, Page & Co. The title is the only faulty part of the book, for the text tells, not how to make a tiny garden spot in one corner of the yard, but how to study the hab- its and beauty of the flowering things, £0 g® to surround your home completely with the most beautiful of adornments —that of nature itself. The book is a compilation of the con- tributions of many professional and _ematéur gardeners upon every subject concerned with the successful propoga- tion of flowers, shrubs and landscape trees. Some tasty sugeestions are made upon the subject of the beautifying of colorléss lawns and bleak country homes. The discussion of the blending of colors and follage is indulged at length. Besides these. the book is made artistically perfect by the liberal use of remarkably effective photographs of flowers and plants. (Compiled and published by Double- day, Page & Co.; price, $1 60.) AMERICA’S Place in Literature. GEORGE E. WOODBERRY, pro- fessof of literature at mbia University, and established by hi¥ many writings as an author- fty, upon American letter®. shows the high order of his critical skill by judicial and unbiased view of the worth of beiles lettres upon this side of t Atlantic, which he expresses in his re cent book, “America in Literature To the ardent admirer of some Ameri- can masterpieces in the fleld of litera- ture it will appear that Professor Woodberry has been too niggardly of his appreciation. Some crities who have come before with rather fu blown conceptions of what American letters are worth will take exception to the Columbian professor’s estimate. To the fair-minded student of Ameri- can literature it will appear, however that Woodberry's deductions more nearly characterize the true esthetic worth of what our writers of a century have produced than any which have Dbeen expressed. The author gets at the root of things by & close study of the dominant in- spiration in the works of Emerson Hawthorne, Longfeliow and the 24 the ante-bellum school of brillia he England writers. In their respective works he finds that it is the spirit of Old World lterature, of the classicism of the sighteenth or the r the early nineteenth cen finding vent under America feels that theirs was a colonial dependence upon the thought of Eng- lish, German and French schools and even further back into the classics. Amerioa had not then nor has it now developed the inspiration for a pure American independence of spirit in lit- erature; such can only be born when the profound convulsion of thought Is wrought by some great national crisis er a great national movement. “They d&id not slight the Americaa material in thelr age,” says Woodberry fn defining this dependence of the standard American authors upon Old World thought, “rather they clung to ft with unhappy temacity: but their power to deal with it—and this is & more important because more compre- hensive debt than any obligation for theme or atmosphere—they obtained from thelr education in the old human- itles. ®* * * This anclent and rich literary past was the source of our artistio tradition and the sense of its dignity and preciousness Was always great in the scholars among our Wwri- ters, and nearly all of them were schol- arly men. They lived habitually in it, they learned from it, they emulated its works. In other words, they had the academic mind. They were but par- tially naturalized even in the country in which they were born; they were sharers in the cosmopolitanism of the modern world, and it was forced on them by the state ®f American cul- ture.” Not only does Woodberry maintaln that our American literature is of gratted stock, but he shows that its unfortunate sectional character has done much to hinder a full truition. The moral and intellectual clefts in national lite have united against a unity of spirit which might be productive of & national literature. The South is apa- thetic; the West is yet too busy with material thing: geographical and racial limitations maintain everywhers to the hurt of a unification of thought. The years alone can overcome thess hindrances to a common school of lets ters. Bryant, Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell and Poe—to these alone will Woodberry ao- cord the honors of literary mastery To each of these he devotes a measure of caretul analysis. In each instance he endeavors to trace to its sources the compelling influence which moved the author to write as he did. Bryant, that first of the circle of New England poets whose name has grown far too dim to-day, receives from the author fulsome meed of praise. His heritage from Puritanism, hls primitive liberalism made him, says Woodberry, the Druld sage of early verse. “The hills and skies of Berk- shire had roofed a temple for him, and the forest aisled it, and wherever he moved he was within the divine pre- cincts. Eternity was always In the same room with him. It was this sense of grandeur in nature and man, the perpetual presence of a cosmic relatiom that dignified his verse and made its large impression. Emerson, upon the other hand, Weod- berry depicts the pure radioal, the leader in the revolt for freedom of re- ligious thought, whose indifference -te the views of others was only equaled by the adherence to his own. Him he calls “the gift of Puritanism upon the altar of man.” To Longfellew he credits much more of worth than has been usually the portion. Patriotism Is the leading attribute which Woodberry awards to Longfellow: patriotism and the bles * gift of writing songs for the people. When “America in Literature” has been read through with understanding the impression remains that the author has covered all the essentials of the subject in & thoroughly impartial man- ner and oresented a vic- of our liter- ature which, far from being discour- aging, should elicit all honor for what has been achieved. Professor Wood- berry's work is a just tribute to the worth of those few men of genius whom we have bad. It points the way to & national literature more full of promise. (Harper (7 Bros.,, New York; price $1 50.) —e New Books Received. A SOUTHERN GIRL, Stanton Winslow; Whitaker & Ray Company, San Francisco; price $1 25. THE THREE SCHOOLMA ' AMS, William N. Holwa M. A. Donahue & Co., Chicago; illv ted. THE WORLD DESTROYER, Horace Mann; Lucas Lincoin Company, Wash- ington, D. €. THE DEF E OF THE CASTLE, Tudor Jenks; The Mershon Company, Rahway, N. J.: illustrated: price $1 2. CALIFORNTA AND THE CALIFOR- NIANS, David Starr Jordan: Whitaker & Ray Company, San Francisco; illus- trated; price 50¢ (new edificn). LATIN GRAMMAR, George M. Lane; American Book Company, New York. HOMERIC STORIES, Frederick A. Hall: The American*Book Compaay, New York; illustrated