The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 26, 1905, Page 11

Phillpotts Writes Virile BOOK: t the background e, primeval” nite pl of insensibly the charac- aginative peo- Gloom book, but great pas- simple, 3 the de- itions ed or mis- oup of char- act rough the th th >d from a fift and devarts for s intensel: It sent a tremendous of the turmoil il the hearts y folk who ttle their dictates of gtill this man home. covered ion from h he r her s He app! e the same es, and S0 he s for her word This scene, the strong- cted in the old- e Redver’s, ent of the storm aring without. e soul of ciation, are The soul of the man the woman, after the der bare. Even then, moved by the earnestness of his simple, honest defense. stirred by the old love, she is moved to say that if he will give up the woman— “The Secret Woman"—she will forgive But he, ga¥%n the fire. hears g of her words because of a furi- ous blast of the storm rattling the win- and she, thinking he has heard and rejects, finds her generous love turned to hate. Then he in his turn makes his appeal to her, but she, nned into numbness by what she con- s his refusal, is apable of even earing his words. So they parted and 1gh the accident of nei the other the deép and terrible trag- dies of the book followed Into the life of Jesse Redvers. the of Anthony Redvers, comes love, W panes, hopeless love, is fatally en- with the jes of those v re close to ; and to the 8 Woman” comes evil love. or se craving of the animal for the book that is more than worth From the waste of novels with nothing deeper gking love and marry- is. It deals with problems ep and fundamental in the men and women in every If there is little of the , it is because thelr very , usurp the entire eanvas. On mechanical side, the book may be slow in the “getaway.” and yet proper appreciation of the state d with w is wife met the overy of the dereliction ef Anthony Redvers, it w necessary for the au- thor te lay in his foreground minutely and graphically. Thus it happens that considerable space is devoted, after the first dramatic instance is injected, with portrayals of characteristic phases of Devon life and ways, all, however, with the end to bring the reader into a close sympathy with the Jdeading forces of the book. Against a dark background, the character of Joseph Westaday, a lovable old spendthrift, stands out as one of the brightest touches. Among the other little touches that brighten the book are the descriptions of the natural beauties of Devon. With some- thing of the Shakespere method the author Has contrived to keep the forces of pature attuned to the action of his characters. The story opens in the hte bloom of spring and ends with the win- ter snows. _i'rh.: Macmillan Company, New York: cloth; 12 mo.; price $1 50.) I8 TarKington In Political Tales “T timee thus HE o'd timer, a lean, retired pantaloon. sitting with loose- Iy fire, * ‘Looking most need Th € of His wisdom to th2 back upon it all, what We politics” is more good men. :sands of good m are jn, and they need the others who are not if in. More how much wise does I would come they knew In this begin the k, “In the foreword 1" is, as its name might ed with politics. It is, llection of s short stories in which the material used runs the gamut from the Mayor and municipal b to the pe st ward I st im- port Booth d “citizen.” Tarki of interest, there is no ly a great ng and especially when in the poli- and received his material first ha By one of his characters, eulogized thusly Yet I j seem to keep out it. There’s a good many like me, ) r office or contract or You can put your finger hing except = the a pleasure know- hat vou've got more influence than but ut of nds itics is st can’t I belleve the most’ you ever it is b able to help your to get a 1 of the story honor in the book, “Boss Gor place gett.” of the sing fact play the game as know the game, with a miration for each other, and "B the ns grim enjoyme of th and of and counter that s - against the Th: idden chords of t, that writer knows well how to uncov Ay upon, here: Gorgett,” a despot ith a city 1 moist eve b s thumb, is shown fore the spectacle of young and ambitious man, howbeit somewhat priggish, pitilessly crushed by the machinations of a game for which he was too weak. The ' story ce ers around young Farwell Knowles, the reform candidate for Mayor, and the manipulations of Boss Gorgett that encompassed defeat a week hefore the election day. “The Aliens” - occupies the second place in the book, although it may weill have held the place of honor. It nto the freshly of a crowded “foreign ward material, and the story of the love of Pietro the chestnut vender fo; the waitress is teuchingly path After months of skimping and to lay aside a marriage port of five hundred dol- lars, the glad day at last comes. But electlon day is coming, too, and Pixley, Precinct committee man, would swing Pietro and his five Italian cousins and friends dnto the Democratic column. But Pletro is an ingrained Re- publican and refuses to be swung. The six votes are essentfal. They must be voted for his ticket or Pixley must keep them from the poils altogether. This he does in a way that reflects un- ring credit to executive genius, He contrives to shave a negro affected with smallpox escape from his quar- antined house and take refuge in the cellar where Pietro dw - Comes then to the scene an officer who calls for the Health Department and Pletro is put in quarantine for two weels, The day of the quarantine was to have been his wedding day. Between Pietro and Bertha arise great and unavoidable misunderstandings and finally Pletro is carried to the pest- house and there dies, without the lov- ers again meeting. And so Pixley saved l!'{e precinet. It is a story pregnant with human interest, for it draws its material from the lowest order of cos- mopolitan life and records the intense human emotions and passions in simple, unschooled lives. It is the very oppo- site of “Boss Gorget ; it is the other end of the machine. There are four other stories in the \'u{ume. all treating of some character- istic phase of the “game” and all told with keen and sympathetic insight in- to the complexities of political life, (McClure, Phillips & Co., New York; cloth, price $1 50). ; Violin Lore By an Enthusiast IOLIN enthusiasts my' simply U revel in their native element, that - composite of love, reverence and admiration which' they bear for their chosen instrument, if they will but read “The Story of the .Violin,” by Paul Stoeving, professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music in Lon- don. The book is the fifth of a music story series ~imported by Charles Seribner’s Sons. It is a most concise 1 poered feet close to the | THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAYF CALL. (OLAGRE) QG 2z~ Y PHLLL DOTITS. AUTHOR OF CTHSE SECRET IWOATAN Boory A ) and while it will fasein- on the v ate players, it will doubtless have much of interest even for those whose profane hands have never known the Joy of a personal knowledge of the instrument. The author begins at:the very be- ginning and where. the real historical thread is broken he enlists tradition. In searching for the beginning of the violin family, he says: “It is like standing on a high mount trying to distinguish objects in the valleys and plains below over which evening has already rolled the thick white feather- beds for the night. Here and there a glimpse through the fog—a lighted window far, far away, where Tradition sits spinning her eternal threads, and that is all,” The volume is redolent of the musty past. . The bas reliefs of the Assyri- ans are gone to for first illustrations. Thence “to the lowly grandsire of the King of Instruments,™the ravanastron of India, the first bowed instrument. From there the story runs to the Arabian and European rebabs, the Welsh crwth down to the wonders of Cremona that “‘burst upon the world in a perfection which human wit has never since been able to improve up- on.” He says: [‘Theirs was ‘the robin’s song in March, ushering in the new spring; the lovely first-fruit of a new age, a new dispensation, a new spirit on the earth—not only the Spirit of modern musical art, but the spirit of a more enlightened, spiritualized humanity, of greater charity and gen- eral brotherhood.” And so on with all the romanticism worthy of the subject, until even the cynical layman who rmay come to scoff must remain to pray. The writer tells how the violin in its mission has pene- trated to the quarters of the earth, car- rying its sweet influence into the pal- ace and the hut, inspiring great minds to composition and thereby being the origin of much that is beautiful in the world rather than merely being the means of interpreting the beautiful. “It has the voice of an angel, yet ring- ing with the dear, familiar sounds of earth, with earthly passions, joys and woes and ecstacies. Intensely human and yet so superhuman that the soul is seized with hopeless longing to fol- low it, Yes, indescribably sweet voice, where thou endest, the music of the spheres begins. Or is it that, perhaps, which rises from the petals of flowers in wondrous exhalations, hlll-per!ume_ and half-melody, and, trembling in the sunlight, draws the bee the way to the honey?” And again: ‘“When the heart is so full that it cannot contain its full- ness’'any longer it flows over in tears or in melodies; this is the beginning of all true music,” . 4 He takes us wandering over Europe with the early minstrels and trouba- dours and says: “Had music been left entirely to.the learned who labored be- hind: gloomy cloister walls perhaps it would have come down to us like Chi- nese music, dried up, a mummy instead of a thing of life and beauty.” - The Intense love and reverence of the artist writer for his instrument is apparent in his description of a Stradi- varius: “Behold the T N Zaiivsran &if, 5+ A oR O SV TTL h p N i pressed a fur form as this”’ & "™ 7 - (Charles Scrfbner:& Sons, New York; tllustrated; price $1.25.) 2 Negro Problem Discussed the President of the United States gave an ordinarily simple White House “home luncheon” that has be- come ‘historieal. Whether Qe intended it so or not. President RooseVelt's invitation to Booker Washington to come around to lunch the next day, meet two or three people he ought to know and talk things over socially and as man to man, seems to have become a ghastly white milestone on a hitherto care- fully shadowed road. The next day and for days thereafter the country rang with comment on the President’s idiosyncrasy, to put it mild- ly—insult, to voice the sentiment south of the Mason and Dixon line. Now, a year after, we are given a volume begotten in fear and righteous wrath and worked out in the travail of intimate knowledge. The daily papers would give but one page;, the magazines but fifteen pages—and the subject was limitless—hence the vol- ume. “In the controversy precipitated by the luncheon at the White House and embittered by more recent procedures, the attitude of the South presents an element of the pathetic. The great world is apparently hopelessly against her,” says Willlam Benjamin Smith of Tulane University of Louisiana. This is the opening paragraph of “The Color. Line, a Brief in Behalf of the Unborn,” and all the remainder of the 276 pages of pleas and counter-pleas, statistics, histories and prophecies streams out from that ingenuous fount. According to Mr. i$raith that lunching together of two public men, each a leader, a reformer and a doer of great deeds in the eyes of the world; men of similar attainments and aims, though of dissimilar color and racial charac- teristics, opens the door to social equality and inevitable miscegenation and deterioration of the South. The women of the southland are not taken into consideration as responsible factors, “Many bright mulattoes would ambitiously woo, and not a few would win, well-bred women disappointed in love or goaded by impulse or weary of the stern struggle for existence. As a race the Southern Caucausian would be irreversibly doomed. No other con- ceivable disaster that might befall the South could, for an instant, compare with miscegenation within her borders —neither flood nor fire, fever, famine nor the sword, nor even ignorance, in- dolence nor carpet: y e e S denial 1 the negro, no abilities JOME twelve months or more ago ‘matter what his virtues or «~have promulgated, -baggery. Therefore . Marshal, and he had for his second wife a white woman who was equally well received because; of her brains, her grace, and her tactful reserve. But’ Douglass and his wife were an excep- tion and a Northern exception. We had been led to believe that a Southern woms an would allow herself to be hanged, drawn and quartered before consenting tc miscegenation, and that the un- countable ‘“bright mulattoes,” quad- roons, octoroons, etc., were largely due to a masculine color-blindness dating back some two hundred years previous to the White House luncheon and that the Southern Caucasian race—undefil- able in its motherhood—was unassail- ably safe. However, this proneness of the ‘“po” white trash” and the school ma’ams of the South to miscegenate is not the only awakening view of things that Mr. Smith of Tulane gives us. In his labor of love, to show the Independent, Nation, Outlook, Booklovers and other Nbrthern magazines the errors they he has compiled statistics to prove that the negro race is " inferior mentally, morally and physically; that it is incapable of bet- terment beyond a certain point, the negro child being quick and bright to puberty, and then, because of earlier closing of the cranial sutures, a prema- ture ossification of the skull takes plhce, preventing all further develop- ment of the brain—every negro retain- ing his childlike irresponsibility and immaturity ‘to the very end. There are statistics to prove also—in spite of the South’s previous plea of the whites being overwhelmingly out- numbered by the blacks—that the negro is a vanishing race. That it is constitutionally weak, and since being compelled to care for itself, instead of multiplying, is not even holding its own. {4) “The Doctrine of Life,” which is a careful analysis of the relations of morals of good conduct to spiritual life. It also contains an exposition ‘of the spiritual sense of the Ten Com- mandments. The book further con- tains the nine questions originally pro- pounded to Swedenborg by the Rev. Thomas Hartley, M. A., with the an- swers of Swedenborg. They relate chiefly to the Lord, the Trinity and the Holy Spirit. (The American Swedenborg Print- ing and Publishing Company, New York; 12mo. cloth, $1, postpaid.) While one needs more than the usual stock of optimism to! enthuse over a dictionary, if enthusiasm is ever to be excited by any work so prosy, it will surely be from the. new library edition of Webster's Standard Dictionary. It comes to Hhand all properly attested with the gold medal award of the St. Louis Exposition, bound in flexible leather, and is a fine example generally of the art of book manufacture. (Laird & Lee, Chicago, Illustrated. Price, $2 50.) A little drama In the original Span- ish from the pen of Pedro Calderon de la Barca, a celebrated verse writer of old Madrid in the 17th century, has been received. It is entitled “La Vida Ps Sueno” and is intended for ad- vanced students. Like most of the Spanish dramas of that time the treat- ment of the story is strongly religious. The author uses as a motif tHe ulti- mate control of the natural man through an appeal to his obligations to his fellow men, and shows the van- ity of indulging human passions and the necessity of meriting etexnal bliss. (American Book Company.) Among the thousands of amusing let- ters which enliven the monotony of the publisher’s existence came recently an undated request from a Western city, written, it goes without saying, by a woman, and expressed concisely in the following words: “I want an interest- ing book to read. Please send me one. If 1 don’t like it, I will send it back.” Perhaps the day will come when pub- lishers will have “sample departments,” where fragments of books will be sub- mitted to women, with fac similes of cover, etc., from which the ladies may choose volumes for their libraries as they now select materials for their gowns. It is a painful, because an un- familiar, experience to a woman to buy anything that she cannot “send back™ if she changes her mind after she has ordered the goods. All dry goods houses recognize and submit to this idiosyncrasy on the part of women, and since books are read by women in America far more than by men, possi- bly the sale of books might be in- creased if there were not such an alarming finality in their purchase that a woman stops to think before invest- ing. That remarkable little book on “Op- timism”—the life creed of its still more remarkable writer, Helen Keller—con- tinues to excite comment, both in this country and in England. Its publish- ers, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., state that its sales were larger in 1904 than in 1903, the year it first appeared. “Op- timism” is the inspiration of a poem by Richard Watson Gluier in the January Century apropos of a copy of the book sent him by Joseph Jefferson. Bookmaking in the United States has been prosperous and increasingly ac- tive, according to the careful statistics gathered by the Publishers’ Weekly seem, live In cities: and there seems to be a tendency cityward among authors living in the country, especially after they have made a ten-strike. The city affords lectures, eoncerts, drama. so- clety and the . fellowship of kindred spirits—all sources of inspiration. Still there is a great deal to be said for the other side. Witness the famous au- thors living a rural or semi-rural life. There is inspiration in nature— in trees, flowers and birds, of the un- sophisticated variety not to be found in ecity parks. I don't know what I should .do without my daily stroll in the country.. Perhaps the ideal resi- dence is in a small town near a citv. which in a measure combines the ad- vantages of both.” A third printing of “Mysterious Mr. Sabin,” by E. Phillips Oppenheim, is annofinced by Little, Brown & Co. A Chicago critic warns persons against reading this novel of love, intrigue and adventure at night, saying: “You can’t sleep till you have read it all, and then you are certain not to sleep at all.” On the other hand, a discriminating New York reviewer asserts that “Mys- terious Mr. Sabin” is the kind of book “to make a man forget to grumble over rapid transit that is not rapid and ferry connections that do not come nect.”, Cyrus Townsend Brady gives some interesting war statistics in his new book, “The Conquest of the South- west,” which the Appletons publish this month. “We paid,” he says, in speaking of the conquest of Mexico, “about $180 for each square mile of territory, or $32 for each member of the popula~ tion to-day. It will be safe to call it $170,000,000 in all. “It has been estimated that the cost of the Revolution was upward of $170,000,000. We paid France for the Louisiana purchase $15,000,000. The price of Alaska was $7,200,000, and the Philippines cost us $20,000,000 im cash to Spain, besides the terrible ex-~ penses of the war. ‘“‘Suppose,” he continues, “convinced that we must have this (Mexican) ter- ritory to round out and complets our national domain, that we had gone te Mexico and offered her twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five or even one hundred millions of dollars! We would have been greatly the gainer from a flnan~ cial point of view even if she had dee manded the highest figure.” Charles D. Stewart's book, “The Fugitive Blacksmith,” will be pub- lished by the Century Company Feb- roary 18, It is interesting to know that this man of 37 has held steadily to an ideal of authorship since boy- hood, though a wandering life was forced upon him for many years. For the last twelve years he has beem an engraver in Chicago, part of the time an official of the Photo Engravers’ Union. \ Hall Caine, whose latest book “The Prodigal Son” was published late in the fall by the Appletons, was recently acked to put the gist of his book in & few words. “What is the great underl:‘n‘ mo- tive?”” he was asked. “Do we get our deserts,” replied the author. “The parable of the Prodigal Son is the most human and beautiful of the parables of Christ, but, perhaps, it is also the most perplexing. Has it ever occurred to you to ask yourseélf vhat would be the result if its incidents ‘Which being the'case, Mr. Smith of and produced in its number of January were transferred to real life and its * Tulane begs that no undue encourage- ment to live, no revivifying injection of sturdy white blood be made probable. The black is dying, let him die, for the good of posterity. ¥ “The Color Line” is most readahly depicted. There is no doubt of its sin+ cerity and authenticity, and the possi- bility of its giving its readers many vital facts they have not hitherto known. (McClure, Phillips & Co., New York.) i v iy Briefer Mention. BOOK of considerable interest fl to churchmen is the new trans- lation by Rev. John Faulkner Potts of “The Four Doctrines” of Swedenborg, the first volume of the American. Swedenborg Printing and ‘Publishing Soclety’s new edition of Swedenhorg’s theological works. The advent of the new book brings up the question as to the place held by Swed- enhorg in the history of theology. Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish nobleman, scientist and philosopher, born January 29, 1688. He die¢ March 29, 1772. During the period of his scientific activity he was considered one of the ablest and most prominent men of his country, was a trusted counselor of the King and a friend of well-known scientists of that day, such as Linnaeus, Polhem and others. His selentific. writings, principally on physics, anatomy and physiology, were voluminous and were far in advance of his time. But Swedenborg’s claim to distinction lies in the fact that he claimed to have been the divinely chosen and prepared instrument through which the inner or heavenly ‘meaning of the word of the Lord was revealed. Swedenborgianism, as pro- fessed by Swedenborg's followers, is based on the beliefs of Swedenborg's claims to have witnessed the last judg- ment, or the second advent of the Lord, with the inauguration of the i the new system of doctrine promulgated by Kim and _derived from the Scriptures, into the true sense of which he was the to be introduced. . The four doctrines embraced by the book are: (1) “The Doctrine of the Lord,” which s a careful analysis of ° 28. The total output of new books and new editions advanced from 7865 in 1903 to 8291 in 1904, an increase of 426; but the increase in new books alone was much more marked, being from 5793 to 6971, or 1178, while the new editions fell oft about 750. This is a fairly favorable showing for the mental fertility of our writers and the demand for their pro- duct. Sir Willlam Magnay has laid the scenes of his new romance of adven- ture, “A Prince of Lovers,” in Walda- via and Beroldstein, names which hide the identity of two of the many independent German states which ex- isted for the greater part of two cen- turies, after the close of the Thirty Years’ War. Sir Willlam Magnay Is favorably known as the author of “The Red Chancellor,” and other novels. “A Prince of Lovers” will be published In March by Little, Brown & Co. -Literary Notes. ’ANCY STAIR.” by Elinor Macartney Lane, Is being ‘dramatized by the author in collaboration with Paul M. Potter, whose work in dramatizing “Trilby,” the former great success, is well known. According to the present plans the play will be put on at the Hud- son Theater March 13 and Mary Man- nering will play the title role. Re- {3 teaching were accepted as an example of conduct among men? If a good father could so spell a son by over- indulgence what would be the comse- quence? If a son, after wasting his substance In riotous living and coming, down to the condition in which ‘ne man will give unto him,’ could return; home and be completely fo:given and' taken back into the full enjoyment of the position he has forfeited, what| would be the effect? If an elder brother who has lived a righteous life could be superseded in the end by a ycunger brother who has lived an evil life, what would be the result? Would, not the social order be disturbed? ‘Would not all the ordinary laws of life be violated? Could law and order be maintained in a community in which such things were possible? Im short, would not clvilization be reduced to something like chaos?” Dr. Louis Livingston Seaman will have almost as many cases of cham- pagne at his disposal at the !svln‘ Club in London any time he chooses to drop jn there as there are newspaper eo ondents in Toklo. . Four months ago, when Dr. Sea- man was in the Japanese capital, he made four attempts to enter Port Arthur. Then he returned to Toklo! and wagered a case of champagne with all comers that the redoubtable of the year. hearsals will begin next month. and the tykers, and so confident were some of play is expected to go to London in the" fall season. Curiously enough, it was not Mary Mannering, but Maude Adams, who was the first to perceive the full dramatic possibilities of the book. Some one sent her a copy for Christ- mas and ‘she read it and promptly wrote to Charles Frohman that she had discovered the material for a great play. The manager was delighted in turn and delegated” Frank McKee to find a dramatizer. The latter discov- ered that Paul M. Potter was in New York and willing to undertake the task, " and the matter was promptly settled. The title' role should be a success. Nancy, the heroine, has been deseribed _by the ctitics as “the adorable. spoiled. magnificent gnid." “Is‘a city or a country residence the more congenial to the literary tempera- ' ment?”’ was recently asked Elmer Hiliott Peake, author of “The House of ' Hawley,” which the Appletons publish o differ, of course,” answered - Mr. “Most authors, it would THOUGHTS FOOL—Evelyn “E. P. Rosenthal & Co., Chicago and man has won every bet, as thur did not surrender until of January, 1905. This ‘ninor incidents that Dr. Seaman fail- ed to mention in his book “From To- ¥io Through Manchuria With the Ja- panese,” which has just been ed by the Appletons. Books Received. ‘ v Society, New York. Publishing . WINNOWINGS FOR "-fi: BIRTHDAY—BY Agnes Mawson: D. App & Co., New York. 2 OF A Gladys; ondon.