The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 6, 1904, Page 5

A STRONG Ante-Bellum Novel sweep of events ‘The Red Badge vivid than Sin- 3 illan Company, New York; SRRy 2 BORGIAS in a Mystery Siory such a yarn as Archibald g Gunter delights in is osed Book,” a mystery liam Le Queux. Though the Guntherian, it must he popular wizard of g wker has more lit- - e e Mr. Le Queux, and this statement may be taken for what it is worth =3is' author, who styles himseif “Le or gumbot the leaves of this book with sc favorite essences, so th r wilt never live to laces of treasure which has revealed. Of course, then, a ¥ path of mystery and destruction ws through the Chevalier's tale of reading of this deadly book and the ntual uncovering of glittering gems. The shadow of the Borgias falls bliquely on every person implicated in hunt for their misbegotten pelf. A good story this, but one that suf- fers in the telling. The Smart Set Publishing Company, THE LAW of Black Vs. White EHERSG.\' HOUGH—he of “Mis- sissippi Bubble” fame—allows imself to wax exceeding melo- dramatic in his last novel, “The Law of the Land,” by name. This ele- ment, in conjunction with two other rehensible errors in good judg- m comes very near to spoiling the story. The author has chosen for the mo- tive a question which must be handled with very soft gloves under all circum- stances—the present day race problem in the Far South. Further, he has not approached his subject in an equal spirit of non-partisanship; in too many places the glaze of fiction runs very thin and impassioned argument betrays the opinions of the writer un- disguised. Of course, some of the greatest novels have been aimed at the correction of social wrong and it is considered well within the province of the st« y writer to turn his pen to this high aim, but it is a grave ques- tion whether or not Mr. Hough has shown good taste in thus running a rancorous probe into the very center of one of the sore spots of our national social structure. The major part of the tale’s action has for theater the plantation of one Calvin Blount, situated in the very Misissippi, whe man himself it the conspicu- ng but mis- siasts of the North, who urging the negro e in the Government, the blame for the con- ts in his novel. He hat such agitators have minds of Brown redi whites” protest de of the North: that false decree which is white; that inequality that lack of manhood is ood itself; that the absence of a can mean a home; that e of 2 home can mean a per- society.” Hough is evidently sincere in these sen ents and nothing of the poseur can be detected in his attitude. But in the working out of the clash between white and black in the story he in- tro es situations which certainly would well adapt themselves to the 10, 20 and 30 cent “home of refined melodrama.” A score of murdered negroes stark along the benches of their flooded meeting-house, with alligators rasping their grisly way across the slimy floor. (Green cal- cium and shivery music.) Or again, the booming of an African war drum in the canebrake and the chanting of barbaric tribal incantations by citizens of the United States, black albeit. This borders on the sensational, to say the least. (Bobbs-Merrill Company; apolis; illustrated.) RILDARE the Bowery Writer sit Indian- EADERS may remember the book, “My Mamie Rose,” which appeared last autumn with the name of a new writer upon its cover— Owen Kildare. The sub-title of the book was “The Story of My Regener- ation,” and it narrated the rise of the author from the depths of New York's slums to the clean, thinking like of one of the higher social order. A re- markable story was this, remarkable, too, the fact that it was written by a man who had not known how to spell or write his name until within a scant two years before the appearance of his first written words in print. Now, in the interval before the appearance of another novel from the pen of this self-purged, self-lettered man, there appears a small volume of his first fugitive writings, contributed *to the Sunday editions of New York papers when Kildare was feeling the first im- W " rr 308 HOUGH B svrrropor STHE LAKW “The Goeod of named. Of course this Owen Kildare made much of when first he began to tell of the lifé ‘that Be had lived in Bowery'dive and the Bleecker street ambling hole, and by certal of the ors and wr treated as a gifted fre er—a man to be lion- d double-lead- r all this well s that the man who had once booster” for a dance hall on Bowery had hard good sense to re His first papers—brief sketches of the life of the bmerged tenth”— have little of the self-conscious about them and much that betrays the dia- mond By comparing ts of Kildare's iterary finish and displayed in his subsequent book, Mamie Rose,” one can duce an interesting lesson in the normal growth of the art of written expressic Through all of these sketches there can be found the Kildare where the varnish of newly acquired culture has not yet glossed over. “It was a swell place, all i, and “we beat the whole bunch”—then in the next breath he has caught himself nd swung to the other extreme of ma- chine-made phrases from story books about “misty vapors ascending from the fields” and such. Evervwhere the newly made man and budding writer is searching. trying after what is ap- proved and paring off that which re- mains from the. thought and habit of the old order of th 3 Were these the sketches of some one other than Kildare they would not hold attention for five minutes, for in themselves they have little worth. But as indicative of what per- severance and a powerful will for the best can unite to do for one from whom every joy of life had been de- barred by the circumstance of birth they have a claim to careful and ap- preciative reading. (Baker & Taylor York.) the was iters of New meant fattery of workm Company, New ENGLAND Writes Sweet Verse TAKE it as a personal grievance [ that a grudging publisher hasmade me wait these many months before sending me a copy of George Allan England's poems, “Underneath the Bough.” However, consolation comes in the reflection that poems gain littie enough recognition from reviewers, and that even though a tardy one, per force, this brief estimate of some ex- ceptional verse may lead others to read and be charmed. Mr. England's verse is not notable for originality, save in the realm of the bizarre. His poems of life and death, of passion, of pessimisti¢ re- flections upon the value of human en- deavor and human ideals, bear the in- fiyences of Swinburne, De Musset and even that Decadent of all Decadents, Paul Verlaine- It is as a stylist that England achieves high excellence. His sonnet forms, the ballad and the dif- ficult rondeau are made under his hand meore perfect in technique than a great part of the verse sung by contempor- ary bards. A certain musical lilt and barmony of lhy\lght with movement give to England’s creations the rip- pling, flowing movement that we look for in the poetic fantasies of Rossetti. OF THE LANG presence of incorporates poetic, for wonderfully imaginative. ould not let the poet's songs a burn The transitory glory of beauty youthful transports strikes from Eng- land, as from De Musset, a dele. The following, after Ronsard in the French, gives expression to the poet’s feeling: no Comé, sweet, awal N rat the & whether it to the day, e thine own. ince dawn g nee & And Death So, sweet, my d I bid thee, & Before Gather With time and fade away As droops at night the withered rose In addition to this dominanmt strain cf love and death t little volume verse incorporates some very sympa- thetic bits on nature. The presence of several translations from earlier lyric peets in the Italian, French and Span- ish adds to the bool worth. (The Grafton Press, New York; price $1 00.) may, CORELLYI'S “God’s Good Man” RHAPS a well known New Yorx book reviewer has approached the task of criticizing Marie Corelli's latest, “God's Good Man™ in a way the most practical if not the most orthodox. He handles the book in terms of bulk, as one would figure up- on a carload of potatoes or imveice a skipment of sheep. The story com- prises 523 pages of fine print, closely set, 450 words to the page, being the average arrangement; in some of t dialogues each of the interlocutors de- L~ers himseif of from 30 to 500 words without pause for breath; many of the author’s reflections upen life and things occupy space of a thousand words ¢r more. Titanic is a good word t> be used in summing up this effort. Need it be said that though I hav- had this book on my desk for thres weeks, a recent night of strenuovs reading barely sufficed to clos: the ten days’ effort at compvleting it—and that with several jumps over Miss Ccrelli's assertions of the ego, numer- ovsly bespattered through the narra- tive. This, with attention divided be- tween a dozen other books simulitane- ously, was wont to breed a siight prejudice, maybe, against “God's Good Man.” I am free to acknowledge the fault, but humbly enter the plea of extenuating circumstances before con- demnation is passed. Suppose you had to read “Tom Jones,” par %xamyln. in the intervals of preparing a legal brief for submission to court, or of tearing UPTON IINCLAE AUT708 OF S ANAS A5 prays sarcastica d from the hands of ti ul es garbled and the public wit on or v nm y that there is a piot and that it is one rich in incident. The author calls her work a simple love story and simple it is.' & rural community ia land is the setting and individuals, urban, = me rural, the person- The story differs from many of novels in that it burning mes:age for get- me of the wriier's Miss Corelll is a that to her literary styie Dy e lady who conceived izebub, finding 1 protection in a es the offensive New York; price $1 50.) WISDOM for All Sportsmen HE book “Guns, Ar niti 7 Tackle,” which is brought out Mac an's American 1's Library under the gen- editorship of Caspar Whitney, is of meaty things for all followers the gun and rod. The practical and the theoretical matters , of small game shooting, the teachings of experience in handling the rifle either at the target or in the woods, and the latest wisdom culled B the modern Izaak Walton are herein garnered into isfying storehouses of facts. At first off Captain A. W. Money, who has, according to his own word, burned more powder and shot more g. contributes e review of “The Shot- gun and Its*Handling.” Incidentally Captain Money confesses to having been twice shot through carelessness and hav inadvertantly put sho himself into three men and two boys during the course of his cacgeer as a sportsman, so the first and foremost law he gives voice to in reference to handiing 2 gun comes with authority. “Let any amount of game escape sooner than run the slightest risk of blinding, maiming or killing 2 human being.” Captain Money draws interesting comparisons between the class_of shooting done by Engiishmen and Americans. Over in the tight little isle a sportsman has his pheasants reared by hand, or by a complacent hen, rather, fed and counted by a careful gamekeep and shot per schedule at an estimated cost “of $§5 a bird. In this country the veriest shaver shoots his rabbits and squirrels fancy free and therefore when he grows to manhood he outpoints his English cousin at every turn, accord- ing to this autherity. The plentiful quantity of our game and the free- dom allowed to those wishing to hunt it account for our superiority in marksmanship. Two articles on the rifle, the prac- tice and theory of its use, by Horace Kephart and W. E. Carlin, seem to to give every possible crumb of infor- mation concerning that valuable arm, even down to the algebraic determina- tion of its trajectory of fire. In dis- cussing the killing power of bullets Mr. Kephart comes out strongly for the “soft nosed” variefy in“that such guarantees a more certain meortality than the high speed, hard missiles. For devotees of the gentler art of John Harrington ground Keene dev Keene es has “Peter and this abridgment of it to fit the appreci- ation of little readers is a cc able work. Dana Estes & Co ton publish the bool. mend- f Bos- “Puss in the Cormer” is a picture book for very young readers—a puzzie took in fact. Many elders who remem- ys of lying comfortably on ch and working out t picture puxz: the back ola “si Nicholas™ s for the young- sters at home. Dana Estes & Co. ¢ Boston are They also the people who bring out “Chat terbox,” last but not least in consi eration. This old standby defies re- view; sim; “Chatterbo: and like the sign on the patent breakfast food box—'mough sai Lee & Shepard of Boston have In their ext ist of holiday books many th: have a strong appeal 18, little In “Jason's Quest” D. O. S. Lowell has retold the ever new story of the Golden Flesce in the hap- piest manne; Spirited iMNustrations serve to make the book ome of double value for children. “Jack Tenfleid's Star,” by Martha James, Is a boy's story of achievement under difficulties ery good and not & bit after the man- ner of the Sunday school book. “Mak- ing the Nine™ is the athletic young- ster’s particular prize. Though this is primarily a story the author, A T Dudley, has incorporated in it some sound technical advice oh the great game which will not be spurned by any a2mateur batsman or “empi New BooKs Received THE COMMON LOT—Robert Hi rick; The Macmillan Company, New York: lustrated; price $1 5 THE MASQUERADER — Kath, Cecil Thurston; Harper & Bros., York: illustrated; price §150. JAPAN—AN INTERPRETATION— Lafeadio Hearn: The Mac an Com- pany, New York: price $2. LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE—W. J. Rolfe; Dana Estes & Boston; price $3. JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA, Volume VIII—Published by Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York: sold only on subscription. LITTLE ALMOND BLOSSOMS— Jessie Juliet Knox: Little, Brown & Co., Boston: illustrated: price $1 0. CHATTERBOX FOR 1%04—Dana Estes & Co., Boston; illustraied: price $1 25. IT ALL CAME TRUE—Mary F. Leonard; Thomas Y. Croweil & Co., New York: illustrated: price 0 cents. LITTLE. METACOMET —Hezekiah Butterworth; Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York: illustrated; price §0 cents. THE PRINCESS THORA—Harris Burland: Little, Brown & Co.. Boston; ilustrated; e 31 50. THE CLOSED BOOK—William Le Queux: The Smart Set Publishing Company, New York. COMRADES IN ARMS — General Charles King: The Hobart Company, New York. OLD ENGLISH BALLADS -Wii- liam Dallam Arms. the Macmillan Company, New York: Thumbnail Clas- sics series: price 23 cents. STORIES OF THE GOOD GREEN WOODS—Clarence Hawkes: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.. New York: illus- trated: price §0 cents. DOROTHY'S SPY — James Otis: Thomas Y. Croweli & Co. New York; illustrated; price 60 cemts.