The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 14, 1904, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY KS mance. evicted by a landlord. in a Lancashire cotton the loss of his right arm handicapped, he became successively a news: boy, a printer’s devil and an assistant letter He joined the Fenian Brotherhood and after five years was arrested and tried for treason-felony and sentenced to fifteen years’ In 77 he was released as a “ticket-of-leave” man, but, so far from taking any warning from this experience, he joined Parnell and other agitators and founded with | i\ them the Irish Land League. landed again in prison for short terms. carrier. penal servitude. THE life of Michael Davitt, whose book, i “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland,” has been noted in these columns, runs like a ro: | He was born in Ireland in 1846. At the age of 7 he had his first experience of being At 10 he was working mill, where he suffered in the machinery. Thus Several times he - Republicanism, the Ideal and Real N STEARNS is book, “True Re- which attempts a 1 and the ideal s and a prog- g deduc- ment of facts. g and publican- f in large ifest presence Stearns one by ration, f we as are roment some we have not, the Declara- lutionary ving t of the gov- retically correct, rists, but when in lusion the author n that for a perfect government by 3 turn to the rule one 1s at a loss to tion he holds of ideal o better example of chy than that afford- of public safety free gov & tyrann could be cited Accepting the fact, then, that our earliest practical opera from the ideal, the sZuthor proceeds to show the influences which have arisen to carry it farther away still. Class distinctions, inevit- 7 =ble always, have arisen. Our vaunt- ed "spirit of freedom from a strong . government has led to the little govern- mob violence tra- and the tions of this fact. Party machines have concentrated all individual ini- tiative in aff s ‘overnmenul in themselves; this “will pervert politics from a science to a trade.” Legisla- tive boodling follows as & direct re- sult of this conversion of politics from 2 science to a trade through the op- eration of machines. Since these things are—and incon- testably they are—the author would nave it that we meet changed condi- tions with changes ere we drift to- ward revolution. “The only logical remedy is to restrict the suffrage.” orhe author follows with a sketch of how the suffrage might better be ;-[fll;ed upon 2 higher intellectual ba- sis, even upon a modified property salification in the matter of munici- government. He condemns the {pation in any prerogatives of ip on the part of aliens yet ssimilated thoroughly. We must give up the principle of “condescend- = to the masses” in things political. aristocracy holding tenure on the t to vote is our hope of salvation. re these deductions logical, fol- 1 ng premise that al- ready we are suffering from having ded our political prerogatives to the fnachine—to the few; that it is the property class, the clique of the heav- fly invested corporate interests that controls our legislative bodies to the "r»nzun‘on of general interests? - In an appreciative review of the in- filuence of Alexander Hamilton in the shaping of the early republic, which, with a like study of Lincoln, closes = , Stearns allows himself to e this sir r ke. (Jefferson) knew that he was ct line of promotion and only to hold on in order reach the Presidency, from milton was debarred by his If the author had re- is history of the Federal he would have recailed ts of Hamilton's friends eeded in inserting the n of article II, clause § 'son except a natural born citizen, a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to sident.” Machiaveli though Stearns conceives Jefferson to be, that astute st man certainly did not have th or assigned him for “holding o (J. B. Lippincott Company, delphia; Russian Might Built on a Bubble HE irresistible pressure of new ideas beating eagerly where in China can have b one result, and that resuit will be a victory to progress and enlightenment.” This sentence, satis- g to the soul of curiosity about the ure Oriental hcme, stands out specially from a book of half a thousand pages, where- in a thorough student of Manchurian affairs endeavors to assist us to com- prehend something a complete thought regarding the Far East and what fate is now dramatic- ¥ engaged in fixing there. “Manchu d Muscovite” is the title of the book and the author is B. L. Putnam Weale. The work is made up mainly of let- ters from Manchuria which the au- thor was commissioned to write for some Far Eastern publications during mn of 1903, One of the first strikes the attention in these letters is the cap- nd one of the series. [ every- haif of our planet approaching ooking ov tion of the He wrote it “Dalny the Doomed.” That bodes well for our author's pro- ficie ¥ in prognostic art and we wake up a bit to behold what further the pages of the book prophesy. The fates having used his finger in- dicatively, infallibly, might do so again. The view of the book in brief is that the attempted extension of Russian empire into Manchuria is buiit mainly on “bluff”—t the Japanese, alive and alert, remarkably so, were away in the lead of the whole world in be- ing aware of that biuff and that they “called it.” There may have been a time when Russian opportunity for dominance in the Orilent was at an invitingly open door, but that time is now dead and past—the opportunity lest by the Slav's backwardness. Weale believes that ideas have sped into Manchuria which make the Rus- slan position an impossible one, that the once impending doom of the Anglo- Szxon in the Far East is averted by the Japanese coming to the rescue. The rightful future of Manchuria is to be colonized by the Chinese, with commerce open to all nations. Man- churia is to be the best source in the Orient for lumber, wheat and gold. Japan will have the casting vote in the Manchurian settlement and she Wwill send into it the Chinese students she is now training in Tokio—the cor- nerstone in their education being the “Anglo-Saxon idea filtered through Japanese brains.” The writer smiles at the idea that it is the question of Korea which is about to be decided; “it is the fate of the Far BEast.” There s a good summarizing of Man- churian history in a part of the work called “The Prologue to the Crisis.” In regard to the Manchus, of whom we have heard so much, it is interesting to note that they rose to supreme power in the Orient because they were nerved to conquering courage by a Chinese treachery done centuries ago. The first great Manchu was Nurhachu, of the sixteenth century. His sire and grand- sire were slain by connivance of the Chinese authorities. Nurhachu swore he would sacrifice 200,000 Chinese in honor of his father's funeral. He be- queathed the feud to his sons’ sons, un- til the race grew strong by warlike re- sitance. A time came when the Chi- nese imperial troops, unable to cope with their bandit rebels at home, made an alliance with their old enemies, the Manchus, to help down the bandits. Dorgun, the Manchu regent, did jt. ‘When the deed was done the Chinese politely thanked the Manchus with a “we need you no more; now you may 80 home to Manchuria.” Dorgun an- swered something in Manchu which CALL. W \’:,M ;‘ ; =5 \‘\Jg‘\‘u' FaE D BROTHR, FHOTOT COURTES p{y OF JRPER was equivalent to the concise French, g suis, J'y reste.” So he stayed in z, and ever since the Manchu dynasty has ruled over the Chinese— and evidently from this story by di- vine right. In the “Prologue to the Crisis” occurs this prophecy: of th he cutting of th e first h in 1891 near was really the official ope of a question which may yet make Russia bleed to deatt Further on in the book the Ru s’ attem d “con- quest by railway” is well told and the reason f f v pointed out. It is 2 too costly hin Russian string through a w rness that cannot be Russianized. Chinese cunning, Chinese preponderance, Chinese deadly cheap competition, even just Chinese “vis in- ertiae,” make the plan impossible. The aut gives a good account of the uselest f the Russian financial scheme w to assist the “con- quest by lls it “the traveling > redeem the and the swift cashing pr els all hoped- for outreach of sianizing of M Slav credit or Ru ) {llions by fixi financial system. The lly its nimbleness rut make: tive, and spot coin might as naid for the goods, or 80 soon after for the suspected paper. light thrown on t corruption of methods of doing business—the the bar ed demands by of- E rcentages on contracts— good reasons for Russian faflure besides defeat in war. There is a story of an American firm losing many thousands on a big hay contract be- cause they refused te pay an unjust commission to the officials who passed judgment on the quality of the hay. The fortifications of Port Arthur are described as being well nigh impregna- ble, and there is supposed to be a great trap in their arrangement in which to catch the enemy just when he thinks he is about to be successful. Contrast- ing with the details of cannon sites and carnage preparations there is an ac- count of a lavishly projected church at Port Arthur, over which is to be the cross of the Greek Christian church. This brings us to think of one of the most puzzling features of the great struggle for supremacy in the Far East. Is the triumph of the cross of Christ much concerned in the matter? Are the Japanese, by outdoing the Rus- sians in practical righteousness, really more Christian than those who name the Name in prayer and bow to the symbol of the cross? Will the victory of the Japanese be a ‘setting back of the advance of Christianity, or but, by checking the Slav, make swifter way for the Saxon to set the seal of a high- er Christian ideal on the awakening soul of the Far East? The author is certainly of this opin- ion. Nor does he hesitate to invoke the god of battles in behalf of the Japanese armies now striving in Manchuria. (The Macmillan Company, New York; price $3.) Mrs. Whittaker With Her Vanities DELIGHTFUL little comedy of human nature, refreshing in its simplicity and atmosphere of sweet living, is John Strange ‘Winter's latest story, “The Lit- tle Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker.,” In these days of the novel of matrimonial infelicity, of divorce, of the rotten- ness of the moral fabric of social life, such a wholesome reflection of pure home life as that of Mrs. Stannard’s book brings a happy lift to our pes- simism and makes us believe that all's right with the world still. Ye Dene is a home among homes and its people are of the salt of the earth. At the age of 20 Regina—Whittaker to be—gazed at herself in the glass and questioned, “What shall I do with myself?” Again ut 30, Regina—still ‘Whittaker to be—looked at her round, pudgy face in the mirror and ques- tioned it on the same score; still the irterrogation remained unanswered. Then, as if becoming Whittaker at last had caused to bubble the springs of inspiration, Regina determined that the emancipation of her sex was her sacred endowment of duty and she became a remarkable woman forth- with. The two little Whittakers were allowed to grow strong and weedy at their hearts’ own promptings, for Re- gina was president of the Society for the Regeneration of Women. Papa Whittaker was nothing else than “Dear Alfy” and that only during spare moments, for Regina was on a dozen committees. She had answered the question propounded to the mirror on that twentieth and thirtieth year. Then came the disaster. “Dear Alfy” had bought a golden bracelet surreptitiously; he had been kept many evenings downtown at his office; he had dined at the Trocadero with an unknown of darkly designing counte- nance. Regina’s sispicion waxed into certainty. She was losing Alfy. Then did the president of the S. R. W. be- stir herself, for it must be through her alone that the black and somewhat corpulent sheep be led back to the fold. To the doctor she went that she might reduce her waistband to its erstwhile lissomeness, the dressmaker was importuned for something artis- tically adequate with which to gird that reconstructed waist, the hair- dresser, the masseur, the milliner were commanded to practice their finest handlcraft. At last from the chrysalis of her strenuous devotion to womankind emerged Regina, a woman regenerated, to find that she still pos- sessed “Dear Alfy” and something more—true womanliness. About this slender thread of in- cident the author has constructed a delicate web of true comedy. Not only do Mrs, Whittaker's little vani- ties touch a sensitive chord of humor in the reader, but the complacent de- votion of Alfy himself, offering incense before the presiding genius of his hearth without ceasing, has something of the Noddy Boffin about it, delight- fully reminiscent. Jule and Maudie, the two girls, reveal themselves com- 7 pletely when ‘“‘poor mother” is their comment upon Regina both while she is a woman' 'of affairs and during her distressing period of mental and phy- sical reorganization. Through the entire story the charm of the home is felt convincingly. Either over the salmon at dinner or around the library lamp at night we see the members of the Whittaker family exchanging little tendernesses, doing kindly little offices—those small amenities which make the home a bright and cheerful abiding place. Had John Strange Winter's story no other charm this alone would make it pleas- urable reading. (Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York; price $1.) Beyond the Hen of Verne’s Wildest The lunatic, the lover and the poet Are of imagination all compasct. with the restriction born of mea- ger knowledge. The great bard knew not Willlam Hawley Smith, else would he have included this gen- tleman, author of “The Promoters,” in his category as one apart from the three others. “The lunatic and Mr. Smith, the lover and the poet” should that line read did but the laws of meter permit of such interpolation. The shades of Captain Nemo, ot Phineas Fogg and all the rest of Jules Verne's galaxy of immoirtals must un- cover before the overwhelming pres- ence of Goldsby and Starleigh, “the promoters.” For theirs is not to sail 20,000 leagues under the sea, nor yet to journey to the moon; theirs is to move the earth, twist the poles out of shape, make mountains into subter- ranean peaks and toy with rivers as with the stream from a garden hose. Listen: 'm going to change the location of every zone on this globe! I'm go- ing to change the climate and rainfall on every foot of ground on the whole earth’s surface. I'm going to readjust GHUS saith Shakespeare, but it Is e I HENRY SAUVAGE LANDOR, author o * the book of travel in the Malay Islands, — “The Gems of the East,” recently published by Harper & Brothers, is Savage Landor, the English man of letters. Mr. Landor was born at Florence and received his art student. Mongolia, Tibet, northern Africa. ward unknown lands. bidden City.” man to reach both sources of the Brahmaputra River and his thrilling experiences of imprison- ment and torture in Tibet are narrated in his book, “In the Forbidden Land.” with the allied troops to Peking in 1900 and was the first Anglo:Saxon to enter the “For: education there and at Julian’'s in Paris as an a grandson of Walter } | 1 His career as a traveler began with a tour through Japan, China, Korea, South | SAmerica, With the true gift of the ex: | plorer, Mr. Landor soen turned his steps to- | Australia and | He was the first white He marched ¥ - — — - the ocean currents and tides, turn the the remote dawn of classic literature. trade winds in new directions, make The gjeat epic, “Parzifal, itten in high lands into swamps and deserts the early thirteenth cen vy by into gardens of the Lord!" Thus Wolfram von Eschenbach and the di- speaks Starleigh on page 10 of “The Promoters” after having had but one drink—and that a short one—since the story opened. That this miracle is to result from the simple trick of firing 10,000 13-inch guns simulta- neously from a flat plain in Western Nebraska the reader soon learns. This act will serve to “kick™ old earth off his balance just as a shotgun “kicks"” off his feet and the cataclysm scheduied above will then overtakes all tenets of physical geog~ raphy of all time. Now as an opening chapter to a tale this first installment of Mr. William Hawley Smith’s book certainly has merit of unusual eorder. Even the most blase reader will find himself pricked on to a reading of the second against the possibility of missing something that will happen to the ringed Saturn or the third satellite of Jupiter therein. He finds the second equally as startling; how Nova Zem- bla is to be platted into town lots, Lake Albert Nyanza made a summer resort and Cuba converted into a deep sea aquarfum. The third chapter, even, keeps up the strain with promo- tion schemes such as the world never heard, dollars many as star dust and power f{llimitable—then the story snaps, drops down to something below mediocrity and tralls away to the 367th page of flub-dub. It is as if the author had been hoist by one of his own cannons for three chapters of Inspired flight in the mists of fancy only to fall sickeningly into a slough of the commonplace. (Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago; {l- lustrated.) Light Reading for Spare Moments ET us hope, for the peace of mind £ of Stephen Conrad in this life and his salvation in the hereafter, that as the prototype of his “Second Mrs. Jim” there is no avenging Mary Bass, with her tub of dirty suds for obnoxious visitors and her maledictions for the author. For, though Mrs. Jim's oracular disquisitions have not the rare flavor that comes of a cabbage patch, they are very much of the Mrs. Wiggs’ Wiggsian, and if no downeast step- mother arises in her wrath to accuse the author of meddilng in her private affairs we may credit him with rare good fortune. At least let us hope that Conrad's worthy optimist will not dis- pel all illusions before the bar of a Po- lice Court, as did Mrs. Rice's. This “Second Mrs. Jim"” is quite the genial philosopher that Mrs. Wiggs showed herself to be, but of a far more subtle strategy and polished flnesse of action. Where the mother of Europina was wont to fight it out along her ac- cepted line if it took all summer, the astute stepmother in Conrad’s little book achieves quick success by meth- ods almost Machiavelian. No more di- verting piece of maternal maneuvering could be found in fiction than that ex- hibited by Mrs. Jim when she desired to break Jimmie of tobacco, nor can one withhold an admiring smile for that crafty lady’s manlpulation of James senior in the matter of the de- tails of the honeymoon to the circus. Mrs. Jim is a diplomat rarely precious. Of homely saws and quaint aphor- isms *“The Second Mrs. Jim"” has a plenty. Though this sort of thing has been David Harumed and Eben Hol- denized nigh to extinction, Conrad has put into the mouth of garrulous Mrs. Jim some Yanktown-on-the-Pike bon- mots that may easily bear quotation. “There's two times to get a man to agree to \hings, an’, of course, after he's agreed to 'em it's a poor stick of a woman that can’t hold him to 'em. One of the times is when he's just married. ‘That does for young married men. The other time’s when he's courtin’. That's the time to get things out of widow- ers.” Thus speaks the oracle. And yet again on the subject of marriage per- tinently thu “If a man is henpecked right he don’t know it, an’ thinks it's fun.” (L. C. Page & Co., Boston; price $1.) To the much that has been written in the last year concerning Parsifal, Mary Hanford Ford has added with her book, “The Legends of Parsifal.”” This little work, thoroughly schelarly and written with the sureness of knowl- edge, has interest for all students of literature as well as for lovers of the opera, in that it follows the history of the Grail legend back to its Inception in rect inspira of Wagner's m: plece, is outlined at 1 author with comparative anal of the German cycle and of its com- panion, the Galahad theme of Ar- thurian legend. Very carefully does she emphasize the d e of moods in the two epic hat of Parzi- fal the myst . that of Galahad the religious. Wit keen perception of the esth of the Grail theme er study by a well of the powerful spiritual influence exerted to-day, as of old, by the story of the mystic eup. Caldwell Company, New resume Ashmore codifled might be a Ruth term expressive enough and compre- hensive enough to characterize “X Dictionary of Etiquette,” W. C. Green's red book on social good form. All “Talks to Girls” and “Ready Helps to the Helpless” of all the ladles’ magazines of these fifteen years passed are herein Incorporated in ready ref- erence for the use of those who would know the Intricacies of polits society. “CANE: A cane is the correct thing for a man when walking, except when engaged in business. It should be held a few inches below the knob, ferrule down, and should. like um- brellas, be carried vertically. “REPORTERS: If such is the wish of the family of the bride the best man attends to the reporters (at wed- dings) and furnishes them with the name of the groom, bride, relatives, friends, descriptions of gowns and other suitable things to know.” These are good things to know. No household is complete without “A Dictionary on Etiquette.” (Brentano’s, New York; $1 25.) price the Bohemian Club, his name because of incor- A member of who withholds some right stinging criticism porated, has brought out In paper cov- ers reminiscences of the early days of the organization in the form of the jinks invitations issued by the sires of the seventies. Many of them are sparkling with epigram and the true Bohemian wit which the compiler mourns in a foreword as having de- parted from the halls of present day Bohemia. (Paul Elder & Co., price 75¢.) San Francisco; After a period of three years a new, long novel by the author of “Sir Rich- ard Calmady” is announced for publi- caticn. “Sir Richard Calmady"” had the rare distinction of meeting with an ex- cellent sale the first year, while the second year’s sale surpassed that of the first, This was due to the strong and enduring lines on which its bid for popular favor was based. It possessed a striking and powerful plot; it was written in masterly style. Mrs. St. Leger Harrison (“Lucas Malet™), the “aughter of Charles Kingsley, possesses «ntellectual and literary ability which places her among the very foremost women novelists of the day. The new novel, to be published in the autumn, by Dodd, Mead & Co., is to be called “The Paradise of Dominic.” Two new English books published by the Macmillan Company show how deeply the British are agitating the subject of a tariff. A large volume en- titled “The Return to Protection,” by Professor William Smart of the Uni- versity of Glasgow, enters extensively into the principles of a protective tarift, retallation, dumping, and preferential tariffs and their price. Lord Avebury’s volume on “Free Trade” is a full and informing statement of the present po- sition of British commesce, and an able argument zgainst the reversal of the present British system. ‘Whether Queen Elizabeth was a vain coquette, or worse, is debated by Mar- tin Hume in two chapters that he has added to the mew, edition of “The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth,” which McClure-Phillips will bring out in the fall. The first issue of this book treat- ed the ‘“‘courtships” merely from a po- litical viewpoint. These added chapters, containing the original decuments un- earthed by Major Hume, are in re- sponse to the demands of curious read- ers who realized that the author, in charge of the Elizabethan state papers at the Brifish Museum, must be able to throw new light on Elizabeth as a wo- man no less than as a Queen.