The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 26, 1904, Page 10

A Fanciful Skit by Bernard Shaw rage 1 aga scintilating as- than me ituted. N If seriousl more impe mere is a fine 3 g in the and the that in ve- three parts: in whicn the is writing a at the a d, < sort al y y and a ph b principal expon S evolu views is John Tanner, Don Juan Ten- e is appended the re- dbook written by John find the pol- question as I concelve ndant to understand 1 disclaim the fullest his opinions and“for characters, pleasant They are =zll right 1 points of view. * * people who believe such a thing as an abso- t of view.” Mr. Shaw instead of following the ce of romancers of an- their hero is a man of genius and leaving his works entirely to the reader’s imagin- ation, he actually gives you the writ- ing, which is very naive and nervy, but it sounds all right from Shaw, The two main things which the revo- onary .thought of this modern Don n (note that he is not a Don Juan d sense, but a comparatively tame and pious person) deals with are property and marriage. In tRe epistol- ary preface this excuse for vagary was iven: “Every man who records his il- sions is providing data for the genu- ine scientific psychology which the world still waits for.” We are told that there is no future for men who are neither intelligent, nor politically edu- cated enough to be socialists. There is much about good breeding, and when Shaw uses the term “good breeding” he means eugenics. “.®* *.°® jif the Superbuman is to come, he must be born of Woman by Man's intentional well-considered contgivance. Con- viction of this will sma®h everything that opposes it, even property and mar- riage, * * when it becomes a fully vital purpose of the race.” The mating of uncongenial spirits would often be a cross productive of finer types, and, as marriage between such would be most unhappy, he would have for the nonce conjunction without marriage, but yet retain marriage for the sake of domesticity. Hence it would seem that the modern Don John Tanner would in the process of breeding the Superman eliminate jealousy from his make-up. The plan must surely involve the abrogation of that old Scripture that “love is strong as death, and jealousy is as cruel as the grave.” But probably we need never doubt that Nature intends rather to produce the Superman with mingled stupidity and jealousy rather than the superiative intellectual without it; so the John Tanner way to such general productign of the Superman will be barred by the jealous hand which will put the supersire up against the exter- minating gun, and, in order to make security doubly sure that no such types are brought forth, may shoot also the brilliant embryo and its matrix back to the chaos whence they sought to evolute; like Francesca, to love for- ever elsewhere, but not to rock the cradle here. The most uncompromising thing that can be said of the book is that it is exceeding full of cerebration. It makes you sit up and listen even when you don’t like it. It flashes, but it's flippant. In it"wisdom is twist awry to let have the right of way. Its purpose, if it has any, is too much =ubordinate to play, and it borders too close on the shocking and the ng that extraordinary be worth its creatior . Shaw would liance down to the of serving humanity in some p then might his evi- to keep his talents and his dight hid under a a nobler motive and more, both fo owr (Brentano's, New Y¢ “Magnefic North”’ an fllqskan Tale Tm: reading world believes that Jack London, he of the bone and blood in fiction, has a proprietary lien upon Alaska. I that land of the ice and the stalking death which . yielded to oung man treasures not of gold has h interpreter in fiction worth: until the present. Now comes a woman, Elizabeth Robins, with a ‘The Mag- not to con- jd with the young is ample room novel of remarkable netic North,” to di this literary fie ther for a div the skan bread that has hitherto b he whole loat to Londo: t n should be the north- lects so much personal ob- ern gold fields v of actual e servation e Magnetic North"” is r arkable than the fact that th omething which ust share honors with “The Call of Wilc or “The God of His Fathers. . Bigness is the first characteristic of Miss Robins' story that strikes into the reader’s mind. It is broad, it is full and deepg The novel is a- com- plete transeript from the living nar- rative of that remarkable incident in the romance of our modern romance world, the Klondike gadd rush.. Rich in its significance of reality gnd stinet with the power that comes of the whole telling of a big story, “The Magnetic North” claim to co sideration as one of the really solid novels of the year. As comparison with Jack London's Alaskan stories is, of course, in the consideration of Mis novel, it is well to make outset so that suggested elements of contrast made manifest by closer view of the story’'s detail may comprehended. At first off this one fact appeals: that woman though the author is, her book has nothing of the womanly in its spirit. It softens noth- ing, skips nothin; the delicateness cloaks anything ith a veil of woman's finer sensibilities. *‘ The Magnetic North” is masculine to the core. It has to deal with men in a man's struggle. In this it yields nothing to the virulent man-strength of Jack London. The powerful masculine spirit of Mrs. Steel’s stories of the Mutiny is dupli- cated in Mies Robins’ book. In this element, subtle and difficult of exact definition, does “The Magnetic North"” differ from “The Call of the Wild"; the element of the heart. Jack Lon- don’s men are all bone and sinew, in- spired by London’s own characteristic concept of life as the eternal tooth- and-claw rending and tearing whereby only the fittest survive. London finds in man the animal ‘always, the spirit rarely. Miss Robins sees in her men of the north brutality, yes, but more: a fine essence of the soul, of the some- thing which we are, glad to believe makes man a little lower than the angels rather than a little higher than the anthropoid apes. London's stories are soulless; Miss Robins’ iswarm with trust in the God-given spark of ex- altation above the beasts given - to the creatures made in His image. Not all to the grim terror and .the blind fate of the great north is “The Magnetic North” devoted, nor is the spirit of the book that of ceaseless battling against the relentless hidden springs of relentless natural force. Man is not pitted against the white sllence, fighting for a foothold and a freehold. Bloody sweat does not reek from every page of the book. The story ie not about men made strange new creatures, half beast, in the strange land under the aurora, but on the contrary, it follows the fortunes of normal men who remain normal enough under the unwonted condi- tions of the new land, changing only as they fit themselves to their sur- roundings. There are tragic uplifts to the tale, but it is not all tragedy. The “colonel” from Kentucky, the “boy” from Florida, Potts, the Den- ver bank clerk; MacCann, the Nova Scotia school master, and O'Flynn, lawyer, of San Francisco—these are the five men, gathered from five cor- ners of the continent, whose fortunes are followed through Miss Robins’ tale. Thrust by the icy hand of win- ter into a cabin of their own building on the bank of the lower Yukon, these THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY AETHUR L. ATARC /707, o AUTHO® OF . ")EV SHARE OF LovEn - CALL.. WINSTON C. in these calumns ameng American readers of fiction than a s historical novels, the first of, the \ serics of loy t-for author of efore the da Lowis, the from his carly youth, finally enteri cver, the young officer belicved tha | and he resigned from the navy to verad crican cpics, “The Crisi ! copics sold ran hig one of the cruc:al he anthor 1s one of the younger sc d g | winston Churchill, WWhose Novel, “ The Crossing,” | Has Appeared, Makes WWriting Books His Business | HURCHIILL, a, review of whose latest novel, “The Crossing,” ot Swilay, has probably made other contemporary -vel,” suddenly placed this young man, not yet out “Richard C¢ s tweeniics, upon the high pinnacie of popularity, some wworihy When the second in Churchill | American novel.” s,” appearcd, the public ch into the thousands. ds i American histor great Now ¢ of publication. is present residence, Churs ng Annapolis in the class of ort storics soon won Chirchill a place on one of the big New wtion teas hailed by many as a lit- the fir hool of American #ictior vill was trained the field of his activities fay cl Join the statf of the Army and Navy Journal will ap- Nhis nanmie a more popular one W hen, five years ago, itics hoped 1o find in him “The Crossing.” an- t edition of wluch was conres rn November | for the navy Ifter graduating, how- wohere than on the watcr, ‘04. Thie succe York-monthlies. This 1¢ ! — | Te held until the press of literary work forced him to “go in” for book writing alone—a busi- ness perilous to any one save the most successful. e SN s s ¥ o SEEEE s five men grow to know one another now occupied with this biogray of goad old Virginia stock, ard has she 2nd th mselves to a pitiless degree of y during the long months of o0 know and to despise. A tion of the thor's arrative over to an almost day-by-day account of the life of these men in the big cabin and in their ions to the neighboring Indian = and the Catholic mission of Cross. ‘So searchingly does she lay bare the innermost natures of each of these five by recording every spo- ken word and every act that the read- er is made himself a th in this for- lorn circle and see; s with his own eyes, each individual bodied out be- fore him. Supremely interesting types are they; the ‘“colonel” with his big soul and broad mind, the “boy™ of youthful impetuosity, MacCann, the bigot, and O'Flynn and Potts, the two small, mean men of little heart. From the cabin the narrative car- ries to the terrible Yukon trail and records the battle with death that was waged by the “colonel” and the “boy” over that mile upon mile of fearful gloom and terror. A stirring, prick- ling narrative is this, tense with sus- pense and wire-drawn in interest. Then follow the scenes at Minook, the stampedes, the crush of miners on the river boat and at last Dawson. Throughout the whole of the story Miss Robins has caught the full, strong current of feverish endeavor, of reckless adventure and heedless destiny that marked the Alaskan gold rush as a thing of romance. Her book is both a ‘romance and a page torn from life; it has rich imagination and studious | faithfulness to actuality alike. " A remarkably powerful story. (Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York; price $15 A Mother-in-Law of Belted Earls uTHEY call me the most success- ful mother in New York,” writes the anonymous author of “The Highway"” as the opening sentence to her story. This is because she is “the mother-in-law of an Embassador, an Earl with old Elizabethan hous#s mel- lowing in the English sunshine, a brill- iant New York lawyer who may be- come anything—and is new rich and well born.” When she continues to say that once she walked barefooted in the furrows of the very field where she is dropping potatoes before her fath the secret is out and the reader not wonder that the author de- ciares her sense of humor to be aroused when she reviews the contrasts of past and present. A humorously satirical commentary upon American aristocracy is this rev- elation of a fond mother's successes, “The Highway.” Though the author feels that it does not jump with her de- sign to reveal her (or his) name, it is unfortunate that the credit that must accrue from so clever and so novel an effort as this must waste its fragrance on desert air. It seems very evident that the book comes from a practiced hand. So sharp is the analysis of the phases of life portrayed and so incisive the satire of its deductiops that, does the book come indeed from an untried writer, it will not be a strained prophecy to declare that the next effort will not be an anonymous cne. Since Life'sstartlingdiscovery con- cerning the authorship of the anony- mous “I—in which a Woman Tells the Truth About Herself,” which disclosed the fact that since the author could have been neither & man nor a woman, consequently suspicion fixed upon Mr. Bok of the Ladies' Home Jofirnal, this reviewer does not venture upon a de- finitive use of the pronouns he or she in reference to “The Highway's" crea- tor, but employs the, latter upon au- thority of the autobiographer only. “According to Mr. Herbert Spencer,” says the author, “‘each of us is the re- sult of environment. I suppose I am one of the exceptions which prove the rule.” That, indeed, seems to be the true explanation of madame's charac- ter—of hers and that of the class she represents. For had environment and heredity played an untrammeled part, from planting potatoes on her father’s truck farm in West Virginia she would have graduated probably to the dignity of the washtub and cook stove seven days out of the week, with a corncob pipe between times. Instead, wonder of wonders, she begins to get a train- ing in social culture out of the novels of Disraeli and Augusta J. Evans; she learns: that her house in Fowlersburg should have a ‘“‘morning room” and a “drawing-room,” with draped dressing tables and chintz flounces. From strength to strength this ambitious lady advances. When she is left a widow, “land poor,” she flits to Eu- rope, the Europe of othcr “land poor” folk, and she vigorously fights a way into the uppertendom. For is she not not large estages in America? But the furfher record of this dar- ing and ambitious mamma must be left to the reader for his pleasure. To use a colloquialism. “bluff,” its uses and rewards, is the pitch note of the whole starv. Admirably does the dow- ager mamma sum up her philosophy of success: ‘Lhe true secret of power is to see vour actions in every light and then choose the point of view which you will stand by and from which you will cause others to see you. Success does not consist altogether in seeing, but in being seen.” (Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago.) Nancy Stair Has Real Rare Time HE willful woman is coming to the fore in recent fiction with no un- certain gait. As if woman was not in the main possessed of a will strong enough for every practical purpose and for some impracticable, the author folk are quite prone to hold up for our delectation the woman of ideas and action. When the author happens to be of the other sex weware just a trifle persuaded that her strenuous heroine is created in the spirit of vindication, if not glorification; if he be a man, then a touch of gallantry and some- thing chivalrous is manifest in his con- ceit. Mowever, the woman who rules is ever an interesting being in fiction as in fact, and we withhold no wel- come from Nancy Stair, the heroine who gives Elinor Macartney Lane's latest novel its name. Nancy is a Scotch lassie by adop- tion, but of somewhat uncertain breed in the first instance. Good Scotch scones and haddies seem to have in- spired in her a spirit as wild as the blasted heath o’ Forres itself, and from the tender age of 6 until she has at- tained unto the maturity of mother- hood in the last chapter this nerve- charged Nancy keeps things in and about Stair Castle in as merry a state of up-and-daing as any well condi- tioned young lady might be deemed capable. Lord Stair, who takes the little waif upon the death of her mother, for better or worse, is of the opinion that, like Mrs. Burnett's “‘Lady of Quality,” a girl should be all thews and spirit, so he proceeds to bring her up in the way a man child should go. iResml: a whirlwind of his own sow- ng. Besides the high science of forgery —when forgery seems the best way to right a wrong—Naney Stair Is gifted with the divine fire of poetry, knowl- edge of the law and a sublimated es- sence of the gentle art of lovemaking. With all these talents at the tips of her fingers and toes, like the respected dame of Bambury Cross, it is little wonder that the virile young lady of Stair Castle should have men fighting over her. Danvers’Carmichael and the Duke of Borthewicke are just spoiling for a set-to when the latter is mur- dered, and, of course, Danvers is held responsible. - Here at the climax of the trial Nancy's proficiency in forgery and Blackstone alike save the day and— “the story ends with the possibility of there being many of the name of Stair- Carmichael in the land of the years that are to be. Far-fetched though Mrs. Lane's story is in. many particulars, and ultra- forcible as the redoubtable Nancy may be in her wildest flights, the novel Is the antithesis of humdrum, and that is. a goedly number of credits in its behalf. ’ (D. Appleton & Co., New York: illu- strated; price, $1 50.) Lot il An Actor to All and Even Himself PECULIARLY difficult character to analyze is that about which W. E. Norris has written his latest novel, “Nature's Comedian.” There are in- sincere men in the world, lots of them, as there are insincere women; there are men whose conscious acts of de- ception and of equivocation are care- fully studied and planned for the ends in view; but the man whose insincerity deceives himself alike with others, and whose decelt is sul generis a thing of him so much a part that it is one with the sub-conscious self—this man, though not uncommon, is uncommonly subtle. He is inordinately selfish while believing himself- generous, cynically cruel even when giving of his prided kindness. Of such a man it is verily true that, All the world's a stage And all the men and women merely players. The heré of Norris’ novel, Mr. Harold Dunville, is a fair type of this dis- agreeable zpecies of humankind. At the hands of the author he is. made no less interesting, however, than re péllant. A study of ene character and alone is the veteran English nove latest book. By vrord and deed, secret communings and open dissembling is Harold Dunville well called “Nature's Comedian,” made to reveal his inner- most self to the reader. From the standpoint of literary workmanship, rris’ analysis of this character is complete and artistically wrought. Through the various chameleon-like changes of heart that this moral weathergock experiences, or, bétter, in- dulges Himself with, the writer has not missed a shadow of meaning or drop- ped a line of significance. Whether or not this perfect portrait will please must depend upon the taste of the r in the matter of this intensive of fiction writing—the style that little of incident to the support interest. Harold Dunville is an actor of no little worth on the stageé and af consummate skill when off. We are when he is just y successful first introduced te hi drawing to a h season and wone he can hide imself on his vac th; Miss Lorna Fitzwalter, his leading s devoted lover, ma Chance, in the guis A sudden death, calls Dunville from' Lon- don to his old hume in Kent and there he believes that he falls in love with a little rosebud of atry girl who, lter, loses her en the third ung ) e Gardiner, rich, worldly wise world-stale The reader cannot conjure up a dilemma more perplexing than was that of the hero But the "hero takes a course which the reader might well eschew From love to politics the change made with results little more encour- aging. People begin “to find out,” the hero last of all. At last the author has his creature creation take a Eourse vainly, melodramagic, vainly propitiat- ing. Hareld Dunville dles, true to his nature, in a foolish self-sacrifice, which y be lauded in the papers for a day —and then forgotten. Above the superficiality and the triv- ialities of Harold Dunville’s character there may be found by those that are kind 'an element of tragedy all-suffi- cient In extenuation. After reading ature’s Comedian” we mgy wejl be moved to add to the Litan “From our own unconselous conceits and the tricks of our vanity, good Lord, deliver us 3 (D. Appleton & Co., New York; price $1 50.) ® . Dogears Turned on Light Fiction VELYN BYRD,” by George Cary Eggleston, is the last of a tri- logy designed to bedy forth the true character of old Virginia's sons and daughters. “Dorothy South,” the first of the three, was a picture of the F. F. V. as they existed before the Re- bellion; *“The Master of Warlock” caught the Confederacy at its full tide of success when Southern valor bid fair to accomplish Southern hopes. “Evelyn Byrd"” reflects the tragedy of the Confederacy’s crumbling and the heroism of endurance that supported the . wearers and supporters of the gray in the dark hours. But the author is too greatly carried away by the fascination of battleflelds and the revival of historical controversies upon maneuvers and counter-maneuvers to give individual attention to the thread of his narrative. “Evelyn's Book,” which commences at page 329 and ‘ Junson for nigh a hundred pages with the story of her life, “written - for Dorothy and nobody else,” is certainly a clumsy piece of workmanship and gives the novel a most distorted bal- ance. (Lothrop Publishing Company, Bos- ton: illustrated; price $1 50.) Henry and Hora's “Modern Elec- tricity,” published by Laird & Lee, Chicago, has been prepared with great care, and is a practical encyclopedia of all that the electrical engineer, artisan, apprentice or student may de- sire to know regarding electricity and its applications. Without sacrificing clearnesg or accuracy, the information has been simplified so that even the be- ginner can acquire a complete knowl- edge of the fundamental principles and uses of this mysterious force. Every formula is explained in the simplest manner possible, and the pro- cesses of arriving at resuits have been carefully demonstrated mathemat Nfimerous questions and answers, t gether with practical examples, warked out in every detail, make it ur ¥ valuable not only to the skilled man, but to all those who have n 1 the advantage of a thorough e upon the ect in a technjcal scho (Price, se 5 30; cloth, ‘31 “Pamela - Con by Frances Aymar_Mathews, is not a book to be read in any place outside of a summe hammock. Under the severe ish glow of a library lamp Congreve” would shrivel into insignificance o t Dukes and ‘Lore powder puffs and typed properties of the gay London kind of a tale. Pa daughter of a smuggler who early makes a vow grim justice the man sponsible for her father barmald ina country inr to the dizzy heights of at Covent Garden Theater i with all milords ar fops of the city at her shoe ), buckles Dots of joys for Pamela. but does sh bring to justice the wicked lord, h father’s murderer? Read the book and see—but don’t read it Sut of a ham- moek or a steamer chair at best (Dodd, Mead & ¢ New York - lustrated; price $1 50.) Anne Virginia Culbertson has added to the rich lore of Joel Chandler Ha ris' “Uncle Remus” storles by her ume, “At the Big House.” Her < is doubly - interesting from the t that many of the stories there corporated are, according to the or's preface, of direct Southe extraction. It seems that Br'e was quite the idolized trickster Cherokees as stories of his “goings . from Indian sources have everything in common with Uncle Remus's standard stock Miss Culbert s tales are told in an inimitable » djalect, impr with homel m and with rich racy humc ome are narrat Aunt ‘Nancy, a typical “foh-de-wah mammy, Oth gathered fram the Southern Ind are put into t mouth of Aunt rony, who has Creek blood in her veins. The picture of th old plantatic house, the weird and hailf comical, the natu the unnat the - an the old mammies, with gled ich man creatures with more t man intelligénce—all this mear y a happy half-hour for tidrer and grown-ups alike. E, Warde Blaisdeil has. made thirty-two. most. ludi s illustrations for the book, of which six- teen. are in color. (Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indian- apolis.) In “By S of Love \ Marghmont has turned ou his semi-annual productio breathless, reckless fict story has to do wi \r - cah who' obtz a co : a small province in Turk hoping there to estab an industrial com- munity whi y eav g spot for a possi - he whole countr n- cession s working t > blunders th table £ love that for the sons of Ada e catspaw, for a par good cal ‘March- A. Stokes Company. $1500) n piled contains the Hyatt, ver a hundred of clocks from all and -English in- upon old moss- of f charged w artled into t t that Carpe from sundials for strong a call for us ks as our forefathers the stone h (Scott - Thaw Company, N price $1.) “The Foolish Dictionary,” by “Gideon Wurdz, one of the brighte 1 humeor bo that has appear: n many a da: Surprising in its pl upon words and its inimitable appl tion of slang to pseudo-serious uses this rarely brililant lttle potpe of satire, wit and humor rwn"-“d'w laugh in nearly every page. Wits only this single example: HOCK: To “soak” what we least need. In Germany they generally “Hock the Kaiser.” (Robinsen-Luce Company, Boston; illustrated.) Another “funny book,” mot quite so original nor so sparkling.but-thoroug! ly clever, is “Tomfoolery,” by James Montgomery Flagg. Limericks such as Mr. Flagg contributes to Life and illustrates with his 0dd pencil are the food fc aughter offered in “Tom- foolery”; where some of them fall a bit flat Mr. Flagg’s cartoons serve to keep up the tension om one's risibilities perfectly. (Life York.) Publishing Company, New e A e Booksk;eceived THE CROSSING—Winston Chu ill; the Macmillan Company, New York; {llustrated in color; price $1 30. THE QUEEN'S QUAIR—Maurice Hewlitt: the- Macmillan Company, New York; price $150. THE FLAME GATHERERS — Margaret Horton Potter; the Maemil- lan Company, New York: price $130. THE SIGN OF TRIUMPH—Shep- pard-Stevens; L. C. Page & Co., ‘Bos- ton; price $150 HEMMING THE ADVENTURER— Theodore Roberts: L. C. Page »} Boston; illustr price $1 D 0 SUFFOLK—Anna L. C. Page & Co., Boston; E Farquhar; price $150. THE ALTERNATE SEX—Cha Godfrey Leland: Funk & Wagnalls New Y price $1. 4 T AND LITERATURE OF BUSINESS—Charles Austin Bates; the Bates Advertising Company, New York. THE EVOLUTION OF CLIMATES —Marsden Manson; reprint from the American Geologist, paper. THE HEART OF ROME—F. Ma- rion Crawford; the Macmillan Com- pany, New York: reprint in paper; price 50 cent BUILDING LAWS. OF HUMAN CHARACTER—William H. McCar- thy; published privately; price 35 cents.