The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 17, 1905, Page 43

2 such a beautiful keep phlegm from the pez of t made for pachy- nt for tender whims istinctive indi- is to be in “the a gift course that one that here in of his world k what you owe to close your book the agem look around you v a few d m to stop asking how vou, and ask love them you willing to| he strongest thing stronger than blessed life-which m nineteen hundred image and brightness | Then you can love? of his book is called “A | Chrigtmas Giving and | * In this he speaks of | of exchanging presents day in the vear as “a cheer- | 4@ custom, or a futile old farce, ac- | g to the spirit which animates it e form which it takes.” The Ide-‘ which the name Christmas has put into | he tradition-old custom is “an unselfish inte: in the happiness of others.” For the most part Christmas giving “d wilh lttle wants, little joys, little tokehs of Bicndly feeling. But the feeling must be more than the token, else the gift does not' really belong to Christmas.” ““The finest Christmas gift is not the one that costs the most money, but the one thet carries the most love.” “Let the ves- to the soul that is al- | | set down as being a literal translation. i ATV ZAL AL T I - M— S— OUEEN 21X OF 1IX” # TBON THE STOXY OF THE SZ4G7C CLOAK i . I ILLUSTENTIONS FROM A COUPLE OF DELIGHTE FAIRY STORIEE, WHICH HAVE ML IN THE LITERATURE OF CHILDHOOD. L sel be of gold or of birch carry amessage i of you to-day because it is Christmas, and I h you happiness. And to-mor- row, because It will be the day after C I shall still wish you hap- , and &0 on.” first part of the book is "a dream bark, it led “The Christmas Angel.” Van Dyke joyously abandons anself to the spirit of Christmas as if yed Christ’s orders and children, and so he tale-wise; but mingled e method of the Apo- us seriously feel as if the cover from divine ing in a tale things un- ality. The scene and v 1s “the hour of rest in t vond the Stars.” ask the angels of each other, !l man be made like God?” The used a deep hush until a voice came ringing with the an- “Clear and sweet—clear as a ray sweeter than the smallest silver hour of rest— that T voice floating on the odorous and ent air. v it T know it, I know Man shall“be made like it, I God beca Kknc “But how do you know these things?" other ‘angels. hristmas angel?” said the first I was sent as the dream Id, 2 holy child, hlessed and to dwell in the heart of our y of Nazareth.” ng abstract from all sec- as one surely should In pages against no creed, nor doubt, ief, so long as these various g0d equal to the highest ideal , or knowing not God god of high ideals, it may vet be sonable at a dme of Christmas giving to give Christlans due precedence as merry Christmas. To give them first place seems part of the spirit of Christ- mas. The keeping alive of that spirit is partly their gift to the world. From a literary point of view a very pleasing ex- pression of the quality of the true Chris- tian spirit 18 In the following wverse, which, though not thus rendered in any of our versions of the Bible, I have seen It is beautiful, and in a variorum Bible that verse should hold a place. For the way of the wording of it appeals more to the love of language than even the excelient eentence in the King James version. To such of our Christian friends as this form of the sentiment may oe novel to let it be given, in the name of the Wworld ab- stract from sectarianism, as a tiny Christ-. mas gift expressive of appreclation of the true Christian and Christmas spirit in books and in life: “Now thanks be unto that God who al- ways leads us forth to trilumph with the anointed one, and who diffuses by us the m of God shall become. may | fragrance of the knowledge of him in I am thinking | iz L CHRISTMAS BOOKS. THE LOWER PICTURE IS FROM A VOLUME OF OF THE CHARM WHICH HAS SERVED TO MAKE MOTHER GOOSE A CLASSIC 3 every place.” (2 Cor., 2:14.) (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York; 75 cents.) New Fairy Tale in Clever Form| There are others—perhaps, but if | asked on my conscience as a reviewer in| regard to the season’s fresh fairy stories | I would feel inclined to answer the query | | by saying that “Queen Zixi of Ix” Is IT. | If any grown-up person wants a delight- | ful change off from reading all adult| | bratea | | | the main makers of | stuff let him or her be a child again for| the nonce and revel and grow wise over| the nonsense of this new work of L. Frank Baum, the author of the cele-| “Wizard of Oz, which scored | successes both in book form and on the| age. Then having thus improved your- | self you will know what to give to al good child—or to a bad one whom you| wish magically to transform into a quite sanely happy and obedient changeling | sent from y land. It has wonderful | plctures by Frederick Richardson. The | text and the illustrations mutually as- | sist each other so magically that the to- | tal effect may fairly be sald to be wizard | wand business. 5 The secondary title is “The Story of the Magic Cloak.” That cloak had the power and the will_to grant its wearer ons wish, and onfy one: If you wish for an hour or two to enter fairyland, al- though you may not, in reality wear ghe | cloak that could grant the wish, if you merely imagine the magic consumma- ticn and open up the book in the Tight spirit of willingness to accept transport, then, lo, you will be there. The magic cloak was woven in the fairy circle of Burzee at the command of the falry queen, Lulea. Her Majesty did this be-| cause of the suggestion of the sweet little fairy, Espa. It was Espa's love of unhappy mortals and her wish to make them happy which moved her heart to the proposal upon which the fairy queen and all the maidens of her court acted. The falry band did the work as a pastime—a delightful, novel Amusement. They wove the lovely fabric from a loom such as no mortals ever use. Each fairy carried in her hand a shuttle ‘“‘wound with glossy filaments finer than the finest silk; and the threads on each shuttle ap- peared a different hue from those of all the other shuttles.” Then they danced around the loom and flung the silver shuttles from hand to hand and the gos- samer-lfke web began to grow into a cloth of wondrous beauty. In the joyous work the Queen herself took part and wove into the fabric the golden thread wiiich gave the cloak its magic powers. This beautiful scene is pict in the frontispiece, showing the woodl: ‘moon- lit and the flower strewn sward, and the white wings of the fairies and their white arms gracefully weaving the magic web as all the while they danced. So, sud- denly, just by thinking of the lovely scene, you are in the transport by which fajryland is fully reached. Many were the wishes, some wise, some foolish, which the cloak granted to its various mortal wearers. It is the wish of Queen Zixi of IX that the tale is chiefly about, though hers was not the wisest wish.” She was a witch queen who had kept herself healthy and beau- tiful for over six hundred years. She lacks but one specially longed for bliss— a mirror in which she could see that ap- parently youthful beauty in which she appeared to the eyes of all other mortals except herself, To her own eyes the mirrors always showed her an ugly, iriveled old hag which the hundreds of vears had wrinkled. So when she heard of the magic cloak she wished to get it from its rightful owner, the Princess Fluff, to whom the loving fairy, Ereol, had. presented it. It was the minstrel, Quavo, who told his admired Queen Zixi about the power of the beautiful garment. The cloak belongs to Princess Fluff, 'Tis woven of some secret stuff, Which malkes it gleam with splendor bright, That fills beholders with delizht, Queen Zixi although a witch, was a kindly Queen, and her only unhappiness was the fate of having to behold her own ugliness whenever she looked into a mir- ror. When she heard of the cloak she coveted it. If she could possess it she would wish to see no more the provoking reflection of the face of an ugly old wo- man. She tried strategy, guised to the realm of the Princess Fluff and advertised thus: ‘‘Miss Trust's Acad- emy of Witchery for Young Ladies.” The scheme nearly” worked; but when she asked the f¥pils to come on a certain day each wearing her handsomest cloak, the Princess got wise and suspicious. After many futile other endeavors Zixi resorted to theft to obtain the coveted cloak. Then, madly rejoicing and arrayed in all the glory of the stolen treasure, she rushed to the clear cpystal spring in the woodland, so that she might see her beauty in that mirror. “But as she bent over the spring she gave a sudden shriek of disappointed rage; for, glaring up at her from the glassy surface of the water was the same fearful hag she had always seen as the reflection of her llkeness.” ““The magic cloak would grant no wish to a person ¥ho had stolen it."” It is not chiefly, however, this serious sin of Queen Zixi that the art of the book will be most widely useful in showing. Hers e just the exaggerated example to {llustrate the lesser faults the fairies like and punish. Few people steal; but the fairies know that everybody covets something or other they can't reasonabiy expect to possess. Zixi, after she got ‘wise, came across a gray owl sitting on a limb and walling dismally. “Why do you wail so loudly?’ she asked. ‘“‘Because I and went dis- We' will read it together in € Yes, do you send me a book ..~ " not a bargain book bought from a haberdasher, but a beautiful book, a baok to caress— peculiar, distinctive, individual : a book that hath first caught your eye and then pleased your fancy; written by an author with a tender whim, all right out of kis heart. athering dusk doth blur the page, awe’ll sit with hearts too full for speech and think it over.” Dorothy Wordsworth to Coleridge. EXTEACT FEOT VOROTHY WOEWSWCETHS. LETTIE the gloaming, and when the | cannot swim in a river like a fish,” an- swered the owl. “Why do you wish to swim?” she inquired. “Because I can’t,” said the owl, and buried its head under its wing with'a groan. (The Century Company, $150.) Christmas Books : For All Readers| In selecting a good story book to give | to the children at Christmas time do not | deny to “The Story of the Bible,” by Margaret E. Sangster, & chance in the competition. Of course you know if she undertook such a task she would do it well. Mrs. Sangster is said to have long contemplated such an appeal to children as part of her life work. The design was to bring the entire Scripture within the compass of a child’s interest and patience and to tell again the tales from Holy Writ so that our children may read and love them. The book has fulfilled a double duty; one to religion and one to literature. The author, who knows well whereof she speaks, says that it is a mistake to fancy that children do not enjoy good literature. “The child de- lights in brave deeds, in remance, in chivalry, in splendid diction and poetic style.” It is quite’a large book, of about | five hundred pages. It is dedicated to | Helen Gould, which is quite a triumph— worthy tribute to ‘“one whose unobtru- sive goodness strews flowers on many paths.” ket us glance within its pages here and there and see how Mrs. Sang- ster does things. In the story of creation she tells the | children that where this planet on which now we live goes round the great sun | there was only vast empty space, or | perhaps ‘a great lonesome mist, called | chaos, all strange, confused and dim,‘ Out of this chaos God created the heavens and the earth. To ereate:is to.amake | something and put it -where there used to | be nothing. Only God can do this. * * ¥ He spoke one word, gave one command, | and the darkness lifted like a curtain that is rolled up and disappears. He said let there be light and there was light.” This from the chapter called “The Lad- der to the Sky'': “Jacob gathered some loose stones that were lying about on the road and took them for his pillow and lay down and fell asleep.* * * In that sleep, dear children, Jacob had the love- lest dream ever given to mortal man. He dreamed that he saw a ladder which reached from earth to heaven; the lad- | der's foot was on the ground, but the top was lost beyond the sky; and behold! the angels of God were ascending and descending upon it."” From the story of Samson this: “We are to obey God in what we fancy little things. We are to choose good com- | panions, not bad ones. If sin gets hold of us it will treat us as the Philistines treated Samson. First it will blind our eyes and we shall not see how horrid it is. Then it will bind us in fetters of evil habits and take our strength away. Then | it will make us serve like slaves in a | prison house.” The truly discriminating will be much pleased with this from the story of Queen Esther. The undiscriminating always lavish their main, admiration on Esther and ignore the merits of Vashtl, over whose modesty. Esther’s boldness gained what, when you conscientiously analyze it, is rather an ignoble victory of a wo- man who was willing to take desperate | risks of being something much less than a wife. Would to heaven we had Vash- ti's own version of that little affair of feminine rivalry which has been told as an idyl by the partisans of Esther. Mrs. Sangster says: “I have always feit very sorry for Vashti and have much respect for her. She was a great lady, who had courage beyond that of most women of | her time.” This is from the ‘“Wonderful Deeds of Jesus”: “The Christ child coming to earth when the angels sang in the midnight and the Star in the East gulded the pli- grims to the manger was wonderful be- yond words. But yet more wonderful were the deeds of love and kindness that kept springing up like flowers in his earth- Iy path, after he began to teach and preach in the holy land.” The volume has twelve illustrations of Bible scenes in color. (Moffat, Yard & Co., New York; $2. « e e New York; “The Poet, Miss Kate and 1" is an at- tractive title that appeals, through one's intuitions, at once, but you can't help wondering why the third party isn't ‘“‘de trop’—and then you wonder which of the trio’is the third party. So, although the back is very pretty and dilatorily tempt- ing td look at, it is best to break into the book promptly and find out what it's| about. The third party, to wit, Miss Kate, is a horse, so that eliminates one uneasiness from anticipation. Next we want to know if the sex of the other two can, pair off properly. They do. The poet is a fine man, and the “L’ the teller of the tale, is Dorothy—Miss Dorothy. So!| that will do, and we can settle back pa- tiently and read on hopefully, awaiting developments between the poet and Deo- rothy. The author, who is Margaret P. Mon- tague, writes for all the world like a good and gayly correspondent who has millions ! of bright moments and billions of affec- tion to spend in writing chatty letters to you. Kate is a pet saddle mare that Do- rothy rides six miles to the postoffice every day through so picturesque a bit of country that the beauty of it makes her a prose poet all unconscious to herself and by so much a prettier so. So goes a summer, smiling with all the beauties of | rides and adores the wonders of 3’: 2:21. and the glory of the sky, and the balmy kisses of the air. Is that all’ the kisses she ever got, we ‘wonder? Let's hurry away over toward the end and find out: 4t o “Dorothy, why Dorothy!” the poet exclaimed, with a world of tender- ness in his voice. 1 said nothing, but slipped off Miss Kate beside him. “But who was hurt?” I asked, after a long time. | the most artistic “Only three people, none badly. You must have heard a very exaggerated ac- count of the whole thing,” sald the poet. * * + “Ang that is all. Only ths, through that long ride I woke fully to the fact that tnere are other things be- sides nature in this world that are need- ful to my happiness.” (The Baker & Taylor Company, York.) . Do not ever go downtown shopping with any despair In your heart about finding a nice, seasonable gift book so long as you can remember that there is such a one called “Romances of Old France,” by Richard Le Galllenne. Re- member In your quest that Le Gallienne was the fellow who wrote “The Quest of the Golden Girl,” and then you will be quite sure you are going after a good | attract | thing. It is a book which will the eye from the outside and satisfy It when it tests the inside. Decorated pages, pleasing type, eloquent words, and, if the double trope be allowed, both ringing and redolent of romance. Among the six of these romances of old | France the chief one is of Aucassin and | been | Nicolete, the old classic that has rescued from half ablivion to be now very much alive in French and in world | I will only hsve space to give | literature. you a glimpse. The course of true love is, of course, not going smooth for Aucassin; but his Nicolete loves as warm as he. She steals in the moonlight to the ruin- ous tower where her lover lies, and she hears him ‘“wailing within and making dole and lament for the sweet lady he loves so well.” Now behold what she | looked lfke as she went! She had kilted up her kirtle, “because of the dew that she saw lying deep on the grass.” “Her locks were yellow and curled, her eyes blue and smiling, her face featly fashioned, the nose high and falrly set, the lips more red than cherry or rose in time of summer, her teeth white and small; her breasts so firm that they bore up the folds of her bodice as they had been two apples; so slim she was in the waist that your two hands might have élipped her, and the daisy flowers that broke beneath her as she went tiptoe and | that bent above her instep seemed blafik‘ the | against- her feet, so white was | maiden.” And here's a part where the story goes too troubadour to hold itself from burst- | ing into song: Sweet the song, the story sweet, hearkens it, eath the sun So outwearied, so foredone, Sick and woful, worn and sad, healed, but is glad, 'Tis 8o sweet. ¥ 3 (The Baker & Taylor Company, New York; $150.) If you carry a pencil wherewith you | can red letter your note book about| some simple and inexpensive but at the same time elegant and artistic Christmas gifts then be sure to so ru- bric the “Red Letter Library” prepared | | by H. M. Caldwell & Co. of New York | and Boston. There is a lopg list of cholce literature in these [ittle vol- umes, beautifully bound in either cloth or fine red leathér at 50 cents or one dollar. The idea is to present the m terpleces of the English language in form at a moderate These have short -introductory notes, well called “cameos of apprecia- tion.” -The range is now extending be- yond English literature to masterpieces of other tongues. The ones that I have by me are “L’Arlesienne” (the girl of Arles) by Alphonse Daudet, and the price. New | 1pert in the art of compiling, has got to- gether a collection of stories from many languages, called “The Wild Flower Falry Book.” It is very handsome, with | & number of colored pictures, and all its | pages decorated. One of these storfes is about “The | Brave Tin Soldier.” There were twenty- five tin soldiers once, who were all broth- ers, for they were all made out of the | same tin spoon. They were given to a lit- | tle boy for a birthday present, and he | stood at the table and set them up. They were all alltke, except ome, and he had only one leg. He was the one who had been left to the last, and then there was not enough melted tin to finish him, so | they made him stand on one leg, and this caused him to be very remarkable. | Onme day he fell out of a window, but | he was tao proud to ery out for help while he was in uriform. He went through { many adventures, always bearing himself with the like silent courage. When he was put in the fire and he felt himself melting away, he still remained firm with | his gun held to his shoulder. There is a love story mixed up with it which some- what mitigates the awfulness of his fate. (Dodd, Mead & C ew York; §2.) . . “Animal Heroes,” by Ernest Thompson Seton, is a handsomely gotten up book, with over 200 drawings. This work of the noted teller of animal storles will no | doubt please the boys very much, as the author has proved himself so successful |in that line by many ous books. Some of the stories in the new v ume have before appeared in magazines and | other periodicals. The word hero as here | used is defined to mean an individual of unusual gifts and achievements, whether man or animal. Every one of the stories is founded on the actual life of a veritabi animal hero. Most of the tales are com- posites, but ome of them, “Arnaux,” is very nearly historical. | Arnaux is the chronicle of a homing | pigeon. Birds of this type are not bred for style, but for speed and for their mental qualities. Arnaux was put to a severe test In his early youth in order that the slow or stupid birds among | whom he was tried might be weeded out. and was invested with the | of the Sacred Order of the High Homes | from a ship out at sea, which had broken | its shaft and was drifting helplessly. (Charles Scribner’'s Sons, New York; §2.) " A meritorious preparation for Chri t- | mas is a new edition of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol, and the Cricket on the Hearth” from the Baker & Taylor Company, New York. It is finely bound and printed and handsomely Miustrated by George Alfred Williams. The frontis- piece is done in colors, and there are | many other full page pictures. PR There is a new Uncle Remus book, called “Told by Uncle Remus”; being new stories of the old plantation. To mention | the name of Uncle Remus is enough to mmend the contents, and as for the pic- tures and the mechanics and material of the volume they are such as to make a very attractive book for gift purposes The first folio Shakespeare, printed by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, and giving each play In a little volume bound fn either cloth or Ump leather at 7 cents or §l, and each with an intro- duction by the editors, Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, will make a neat little remembrance for many a friend. “Poems” (selected) by John Greenleaf | for m \\‘hltuu: They are very Va.\!xmu_n-[e wng H. M. Caldwell & Co., Boston, put out ther * flexible backs, meat prAt 809, pew edition of Dickens' “Christmas pictures, gilt topa and slik markers. Carol,” with illustrations by L M. (H. M. Caldwell & Co., Boston, New York.) . . Paul Elder & Co. have prepared for Christmas and New Year's day gifts a number of beautiful calendars and Christmas cards and book marks ranging in price from ten cents to a dollar. The calendars have very good selections from the words of great men to keep before us for ea¢h month in the | of nature | year. There is a calendar songs, an impression calendar, and a miniature calendar of homely maxims. Best of all of these I like the aspira- tions calendar. It begins with this from Robert Louls Stevenson: “So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others I would al- most say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has friend.” (Paul Elder & Co., Sen Francisco.) F RS No one would have suspected Max Nor- dau of writing fairy tales, for one would think that to that stern philosopher such | work would seem a trifling sentimental | thing suitable to an artistic temperament | that by its very genlus for imaginative | creation proved itself at least tending | toward ‘“degenération.” Neverthele: Nordau has done it; and if to be play- | fully, trivially fanciful, even to be! chummy with the little children, is to be tainted with the degeneration that causes genius, then Nordau is himself in that semi-insane class which he ap-| peared to belleve are alone capable of | doing anything other than most matter- | of-fact and prosy performance. His book is called “The Dwarf Spectacles and Other Fairy Stories,” and they were first told to his own little Maxa, from her | fourth to her seventh bifthday. So that | sounds very like the real thing in fairy storfes. Done by a learned and - very | clever man in his hours of leisure, and done out of love for an actual close-to- his-heart little girl; and this last is of = Gaugengigl and T. V. Chominski, which is fancifully bound in the shape of a great gold bell decorated with holly and a bright red ribbon. The pages are all dec- orated and the pictures are unustally good., To add to resentableness as a Christmas present it is beautifully boxed with the container decorat out with red holly and white mistl berries. is an elaborately . “Songs of the Open,” pretty tning, with the words and the music given on broad, beautifully dec- orated pa It is dome for: Dear wee children, wherever you are, Looking at blossom or bird or star, has room in her heart for you, in Nature And_ will teach k, too. you the songs her big The words of these | Mary Grant heridan, y { W. €. E. Seeboeck, and th s {by Enes Benjamin Comstock and George Markeley Hurst. It Is pub- lished by Rand, McNally & Co., New York and Chicago If you want something witty and suited to the merry mood, try “A Cor- ner in Women, and Other Follies," by Tom Masson, who is one of the bright- est writers on the staff of the eleyerest of comic papers, the New York Life. It is a handsome book with a cover de- sign by Charles Dana Gibson and a lot of other illustrations by a whole erowd of the talent. It is published by Mof- fat, Yard & Co., New York; $1 60. 239 v The local firm of Whitaker & Ray Company have for sale “The Only True Mother Goose Melodies,” being an ex- act reproduction of the text of the origtnal edition published and copy- righted in Boston in the year 1333. With an introduction by Edward Ev- erett Hale. o . A new, neat little book by Charles course always more inspiring than if the | W. Eliot, president of Harvard Univer- telling was for the indefinite, distant pub- | sity, is called “The Happy Life.” It is lic or other people’s little girls." It is a large book, well illustrated, and in it is called “Life and Death.” In its bright and happy life of swarms of ephemerae, it teaches the little children philosophy thus: C “When their little bodies covered the surface of the stream the wise raven sald to the mountain, the oak and the gen- tian: ‘A long life, a short life, matters nothing. A beautiful life, that is happi- ness.’ " e Esther Singleton, who is quite am ex- an address to young people who have !wud the period of childhood. He nature aspread around Miss Dorothy asi . o..ino twenty-one storiés. The last one | discusses life from the point of view {of the high worldly and scholarly ; final sentence, speaking of the brief but | philosophy, and then he makes his fin- | ale this: “In conclusion let me ask you to con- sider whether the rational conduet of life on the this world principles here laid down would differ in any impor- tant respect from the right conduct of life on the principles of the Christlan gospels. It does not seem to me that it would.” (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York.)