The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 5, 1905, Page 11

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. Extracts From Gorki’'s Book depths of crime and y me the sing- vagabond and the t of the Russian aksimovich Pyesh- the ‘whole worid by his Gorki urces at ren he has terer, efore he began to gs by th sands of peas- of the stocks £ slaves and of the repre- ted slave of the ear you speak I always 8 Malinin, smil “why you s A self S0 exasperated, re- r ything. It is impossible have no faith within emotional. Do you some s But it 2s not yet become has not yet con t s of your soul, st have felt it is way can I ex- the passion of your contradictions aimless justs.” e sllent. said Surkov, lift- staring at Malinin rchingly through his eyeglasses. That's all Go ahea head and I merely made this re- mark”— H'm Devil! Well, thank you for I am returning to the beginning. Akim Andregevich, look to this est f Russian poets—among sanitary He represents in himself ent {llus! is harmftul to croscopical, novitch! 1 was his mind s of a micro- ngement. This man sees soul of man. He he keeps mov same place sides; he fee but he cannot ded by his o other exclair 128 to at there i tion in thi 2 of yours.” serjously. lease, Akim here is inward yearns f mind has b le with his em that life is da ounds 1 life no balance in y orted thing nds ived in.strug- for broaden to li id its moans re of defeated he- nd call for ngeance! In the &tream of tears ere are also the tears of jc Th 1 life everything that man ma vish fo find in it, and in man is th er to create that which cannot be in life! This power is not suffi- ent for to-day, but in develon row! Life is beautiful, life is gnificent, an indomitable move- toward universal bliss and hap- Among 1 s, rec ment ¥ n 1 was 15 years oid my mas- illiterate peasant and drunk- an used to call me over and make me im hew the earth moves around ard, tell the s I,was proud of my knowl- edge then—there was nothing better than that in my life. And as 1 was telling him about the earth 1 was car- ried away with enthusiasm until I al-’ most forgot myself; I forgot who I was and where I was. But in the mo- ments of my greatest enthuslasm -my master interrupted me rudely and sneeringly and sent me off to feed the hogs. There were seven of them; they were enmormous and hungry and ter- ribly angry because of the darkness in the stall, They rushed upon me as soon as they smeit the feed, they threw me down and almost crushed me with their heavy bodies.” * * * “That will do! Oh, please, that will 1" cried Varvara Vasilyevna. Don’t be afraid! Don’t cry so loud- ly! Life is mevertheless beautiful! I have come from below, from the bot- tom of life, where filth and darkness reign supreme; where man is still half brute; where life is nothing.save toil for the sake of bread. There it flows on glowly, in a dark, thick stream, but even there priceless gems of mag- nanimity, of wisdom, of heroism glit- ter in the sun; and there is also love there, and beauty. Wherever there is man there is also goodness! It is in small grains, yes! But It's there! And not &ll the seeds perish; they will grow and blosfom and bear their fruit to life. Oh, they’ll bear fruit! They will! Be- lieve me that man bears God within him everywhere, and wherever he may be and whatever he may be he will re- main a man—superior to anything on earth! I have paid deagly for my right to believe this! Yes! But there- fore I have this right for all my life! a mon orders were to ‘kill all who ean talk” and in their carrying out, Lee and his Danites, with certain Indians they had recruited in the name of scalps and pillage, slaughtered over one hundred and twenty men, women and children and left their stripped bodies to the elements and the wolves. This wholesale murder was given the title of ‘The Mountain Meadows Massacre.’ Tiventy years later, in 1877, the belated justice of this government seated Les Meadows murders. This was in the day when the arm of national power was too short to reach them. Now. when it can reach them, the church conspires where before it assassinated and strives to do by chicane what it aforetime did by shedding blood. And all to defend itself in.the praetice of polygamy! That Mormen conspir- acy, whereof Smoot in the Senate is one expression (to become a political power), was not maide yesterday. It ol o hand, though at times he feels quite like the president of the road when he dispenses hospitality in the sand- house to interesting and éntertainifig tramps, the chief of whom is Stumpy. But most important of all is Bill, “the fugitive blacksmith,” who can, as Finerty says, “make annything out av annything.” Bill certainly is a true smith and is a real find in the world of letters. Bill is always Bill, no mat- ter how trying the circumstances may be. His vivid personality follows him whether he is running away from a charge of murder, making a new leg out of a carriage wheel spoke for Stumpy, herding sheep and fighting tbe loneliness that drives herders crazy, or making a home for the wife that is the apple of his eye. All of Stewart's characters are homely people, selected from the hard working element, but none of them lack tenderness and humor and the wit that is guaranteed to cure a fit of the blues and banish dull care. Stewart himself has been an engraver in Chicago for twelve years and dpr ing that time has not neglected an Op- pertunity to study human nature. His family wanted him to be a clergy- man, but he objected and started out in quest of adventures. He found them and plenty of misadventures, too, but it was this very thing that turned his thought toward letters and that gave him the ability and power to write with truth and vitality. (The Century Company. Price $130.) i B ) “Thoughts” Are Artificial. CO.\'CEIVED in a spirit of distort- ed, misdirected iconoclasm is the ““Thoughts of a Foel,” written by Evelyn GCladys. In much of its twaddle it is strongly reminiscent of the “essays” of Gelett Burgess, a vain, labored attempt to invest super- ficiality with substance. Occasionally, when the high pressure tension for epigram and aphorism is relaxed, a chapter is preduced that is worthy of reflection, but it happens so rarely that the work as a whole suffers the tone of the baser half. Yet it is to be re- gretted that this writer, apparently well able by intelligence to do good work in this line, shéuld not have de- voted her energies, if it is a her, to- ward such saner satirical,. if bitter, flights, as the chater entitled “Ostra- And in this right 1 nave auotner ngnt —to demand that you, too, believe as I do, for I am the true voice of life, the harsh cry of those that remained there bel: They have let me off to you to bear witness of their sufferings! They, too, want to rise—to self-con- sciousness, to light, to freedom!” gy e Confessions Of Mormon Danite UST at the present time, when the Jpr(—ss and the public of the entire country and in fact the world, are deeply concerned with the records of the impeachment proceedings held be- fore the bar of that august body, the United States Senate, to remove from his high place the Mormon Reed Smoot, there comes to hand a unique book of considerable interest, and of consider- able worth for the sidelights which it throws upon early Mormonism. It is ““The Mormon Menace: Being the Con- fessions of John Lee, Danite,” with an introduction by Alfred Henry Lewis, the well known author. The period covered is from 1837 to 1857. According to Mr. Lewls’ preface the book is.the authentic confession of John Lee, written by the latter when he was in prison waiting execution for his participation in the historical out- rage known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. Lee's confessions were pub- lished a few months after his death, but were at once bought up by the Mor- mon church, and the plates destroyed. The copy from which the present work is republished was one of the few that escaped destruction. Mr. Lewis frankly states that his motive in fathering the bovk is three-ply: to withstand the Mormon church as a political] force; tc limit its spread as a so-called re- ligion; and to buckler the mothers and daughters of the church “against an enemy whose advances are aimed es- pecially at them.” Mr. Lewis wastes ro words in geiting to the marrow of his subject. The opening paragraph to his introduction summarizes the matter succinctly. “Almost a half century ago, being in 1867, John Doyle Lee, a chief among that red brotherhood, the Danites, was ordered by PBrigham ¥oung and the leading councilors of the Mormon church to take his men and murder a party of emigrants then on their way throush Utah to California. The Mor- v- & /'A‘-.D' o?}%d 7 Jl/ffiof P jrjfifi‘fiv Dkt G (lm% on hig coffin and shot him to death roe his crimes.” ; It was during the long years fol- lowing his arrest and execution that Lee wrate the story of his life, giving among other matters the story of the church ‘of Mormons. from its incep- tion to the time when he, Lee, was executed for murders committed un- der the direction of the gover powers of the church. It is the writ- ten word of a hard, calloused man, singularly unimaginative, with a streak of ignorance in his make-up that rendered him an apt tool to the slavish submission demanded by the Mormon church. There is no evi- dence throughout the entire three hundred and fifty pages of the “con- fession” of any shred of soul or scruple of conscience on the part of Lee. He tells of his participation in iniquities through his obedience to the orders of hi¢ superiors with calm dispassion. He makes no mention of ever having been assailed by any men- tal doubt as to the right of his course. He was in all respects just of that fanatical, ignorant, servile type which permits itself to be molded into putty by the hand of a master, and which in other systems under absolute direc- torate would pull the trigger or throw the bomb of the assassin and take the results with stoicism. According to his own words, Lee proved himself a faithful executioner when the powers ordered it. As one of Brigham Young's Danites, or Avenging /Angels, he was bound to put to death whom- soever he was ordered to. Connecting this history of the early Mormon church- with the Mormon church of to-day, Mr. Lewis says: “In the old time the president of the church was the temporal as well as the spiritual head. No one might doubt his ‘revelations’ or dispute his com- mands without being visited with pun- ishment, which ran all the way from a fine to the death penalty. When out- siders invaded their regions the Mor- mons, by command of Brigham Young. struck them down 28 in the Mountain had its birth in the year of the Ed- munds law and its drastic enforcement. In that day, black for Mormons, it was resolved to secure such foothold, such representation in the Congress at Washington, that, holding a balance of power in the Senate or the House or both, the Congressional Democrats would grart the Mormons safety for their pet tenet of polygamy as the price of Mormon support.” Mr. Lewis cites the several well-known instances when one man held the deciding vote in the Senate. It is a book frankiy one-sided against Mormonism and yet one which any fair-minded person might read with considerable profit. (The Home Protection Publishing Company, New York: price $1 25.) Stewar Has Rollicking Wit HF! craze for short stories has heen so pronounced of late that many a writer of experience finds it more profitable to devote his time entirely to ghert stories, strung out in Arablan Nights fashion. Such s the case of “The Fugitive,” a strong, cleverly - written story by Charles D.. Stewart He begins it by declaring that the Finerty household, like all Gaul, wae divided into three parts, and then and there invites one to step in and make a visitation. The story really is a story within a story and the double thread is handled in a cunning fash- fon. Finerty, of quaint and comfort- able philosophy, is only a railroad cized.” It is the one chapter in the book that does not lose itself in the maze of its own.vague and shadowy grasping at vague and shadowy con- cepts. There is a chapter on “Free Love,” which starts out weli and then shoots off at a tangent and leaves the ques- tion in the air. Beginning with the temper of an .ronical questioner, it concludes with the attitude of a con- fuser, to no special advantage, as the reader jis. not sufficiently impressed with the logic to attempt to carry the argument through in his own mind, if indéed he were able. As one example of the somewhat nar- row, and limited deoth. of the writer's argument when anxious to point an es- pecially ' pertinent and “fresh” view- point, the following may be given. It is taken from a ch'apter‘enll!led “What Can You Expect,” whefein thte author endeavors to,convinee that the tend- eney of the times is socialism, an- archism, trade-unionism and the like are due to the false standard of ideals held up before the younger genera- tion. Examples are given, such as Moses and Jesus and historical figures such as Cromwell and John Brown, and the faw in the ideal show up—ac- cording to the iconoclasm of this writ- er. Washington is taken up and then follows this paragraph: A “Can we afford to parade our na- tional heroes as examples to our work- ing classes? Do we not already see the insurgency that such ideals as ‘Washington had instilied in the breasts of our humble classes? George Wash- ington {s our great national hero. But suppose we were to reheaise his his- tory in brief, onfitting his name and the glamour that we associate with it, what would, wegthink of ‘such a man t6°day? Given a commission in his Britannic Majeésty's colonial army, he defaulted a his. King over s0 sordid a trifle as s duties, He became commander-in-chief of an army that was in rebellion against the crown under, ‘'which He Had been ex- alted. His triumph consisted in dis- obedience to law, and he became the father of h h revered by school childrer ary when at'@ate does not fall 5n Sunday, and on July 4, m it dees not rain. With such ideals there is no wonder that some Americans follow his ideals. The life of Washington was one of disobedience and on to his King. The. very act of gathering his army was treason. His ‘triumph was by breaking the law.” This I1s high argument. This facile phrasemaker would set up the dogma bo that all laws must be bad or indifferent, wh Siberian or tyrannical red to, good, er Draconian, as the laws of Geotge the —. Truly this thing of young writers pelting at pyramids in s g public eye the apparently d of ‘‘clever’” becomes o as. in these “though (E. P. Rosenthal Price $1 50.) able sobriquet done at times, & Co.,, Chicago: PSS Mention. Briefer WEN JOHNSON, author of “Ar- rows of the Almighty,” which c enjoyed some popularity, has written another book, taking for his theater of action the old familiar Paris during the old familiar Revolution. The citizen and the citizeness, the aristo- crat and the Bastile, the Carmagnole and the Tuileries, are all here omce again, in the usual blend. The great difficulty in an author whese powers are unquestionably not of the great- est, in taking up a theme of this char- acter is that a man named Dickens once wrote a book called “The Tale of Tweo Cities™ in which this theater of action was exploited in a manner so graphic, so prégnant with human ac- tion and passion, so live with under- standing of the heart of the mad, many-headed Parisian meb, that it leaves the ambitious neophyte a tre- mendousily difficult fleld. in which to Stir up interest anew. However, Mr. Johnson has probably not intended to be hung up on the wall for Inspection alongside of Dickens, and is probably content that his little novel fulfills; as indeed it does, the place ever open for & heart story, al- though it ends, as this one ends, with one young life snuffedout by the blade of the guillotine. On the eve of revolution, in 1792, one Barabant finds himself in Paris. He encounters one: Nicole, a flow girl, who straightway falls in love with him, but, for a considerable space denies her love even to herself. The revolution breaks out. In the somewhat custom- ary fashion both Barabant and Nicol although active partisans of the re- public, are, by the machinations of certain evil wishers, thrown into prison to wait their ride in the tumbrils to the guillotine. The fatal day ap- proaches when they are to go forth. But Barabant is aheaa of Nicole on the list. Whereupon Nicole, by art and bribery, prevails upon one Cramoisin, in charge of the dea to exchange her name with her lo Then, with the aseistance of an abbe, who is also awaiting his turn, ¢y are wedded, with Barabant ignorant of the saeri- fice she has made. Her name is called and she goes out and meets the death in his place, happy in t_at she dies as his wife. Before his turn comes, Robes- pierre has fallen and the Reign of Ter- ror is at an end. In the epilogue is disclosed Barabant, many years later, full of riches amd titles znd honors, high in the graces of the Emperor. To a party cf gay friends he is made to say: Dame, yes! 1 you believe it of me? At twenty-five I wept because 1 could not die for an idea!™ ly did Nicole rest upon him. On the whole it is a pretty little work, without any pretension to great- ness. The character of cole is the best thing in it. and next to it, the character of Dessonville. For those to whom the crash of the guillotine and the mas®acres of ths Reign of Terror can still awaken Interest, the book should prove a pastime. (The Century Company; ..ew York; cloth; price $1 50.) “A Short History of Oregon,” com- piled by Sidona V. Johnson, is a small volume which in view of the coming Lewis and Clark exposition appears at a timely perfod. It is toll in an easy flowing narrative style, without undue enlargement upon any one period or circumstance, and is rather a running commentary upon the Listory of our northern neighbor from the first dis- coveries of her coast line by Bartoleme Ferrelo In March of 1543 to the present time. There are six gemeral subdivi- sions: discovery, expioration, settle- ment, government, Indian . wars and progress. ‘The chapter on discovery gives the layman whose history and geography have grown somewhat rusty a com- prehensive birdseye view of the early navigators to whose intrepid hardihood was due the opening up of the Pacific Coast line, dwelling especially upon the search for the Northwest passage and the early inland explorations of the Hudson Bay Company. The section on exploration deals with the Lewis and Clark expedition sent ont by President Jefferson shortly atter the date of the Louisiana Purchase to follow up the Missouri and penmetrate te the Pacific Coast by way of the Co- lumbia, exploring the great northwest territory which the latter drained. The expedition set forth from St. Louis on May 14, 1804, arriving there again upon September 25, 1306, marking, in the words of President Roosevelt, “the be- ginning of the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our na-\ tiogal boundary te the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country, in- cluding the present States of Oregon and Washington, was a fact of im- mense impertance in our history, first giving us our place on the Pacific sea- board, and making ready the way for our ascendency In the commerce of the greatest of the aceans.” The book iz wall illustrated. (A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago.)