The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 18, 1906, Page 27

THE SAN FRANCISCO ‘CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18. 1906. Pt AC- RANKLY FOSTEE N AUTHOF OF "THE or TVE e GIOEGE B CHEITTIAN i FINALITY naliorof FHOIT NEW EDITION OF “THE CONQUEST OF <= ~ Slyriftia A FINE EXAMFLE OF FIOWING WELLS, - - = > ZITVERIJIDE, ~> CALIFOEN/A = RBID AITEEICA * of Elaborate Work of Criticism of Christianity and Picture From ‘‘ Conquest of Arid America.”’ finality’ who does not is one who knows God In one for whom Jesus is the , determines’ his rela- God.” nteresting item In the book is lar's view of progre: place as to the great »—making it much d force “The new more blological than me- asizes the dignity and \ner as against outer cause, faces the idea of tele- me is one of the “Decennial etion of the first | ten the University of Chi- | cago’'s existence. The author promises ano volume to continue the prog- | ress of his constructive criticism. e says in justification of criti- of religions held unassafl- , s an item worth culling: we have often said, the as- ption of the inspiration of the text attered, definitely and irre- sbattered. Out in the wilder- st now blaze out a path orns by means of criti- work were reviewed whelly complete naturalism of the coldly critical sclen- i tific mind which the suthor deprecates almost as much as he does what he cousiders exaggerated supernaturalism it would probably be to s: Though it is claimed the author finds affirma- tive answer to the great ry indicat- ed by the title of his book, yet that afirmative answer seems incompatible the &4 from the standpoint of that fon, or definition, ve answer to the | he is no more than the unique and su- Ipe.—)nlve religious genius of world's history it would alwa; sible, and even probable. that the pro- thority-religion; belief is & bar to progress ple of evolution he holds r cess of evolution would produce a r it by the coming | greater. P of is the way be secks| On the other hand. if examined to express the golden mean: “Super- {es from the viewpoint of a believ- n alism excludes development—th element of truth in naturalism; natural- ' deity of the son, the book would look fem excludes eternal values—the ele- | like lifelessly cold criticism; for the ment of truth in supernaturalism; sci- | Johannine representation of Jesus is of erce requires the former, religion the |ome who, using the splendid symbolism er” of a fountain of living water, promised ght after thie he asks: “Does the | to quench the thirst of the soul that of development, the golden mean | panteth after God as the hart panteth between supernaturalism, which abso- | for the water brooks. with all the mi- R are issued to com- | with a doubt as to Christ's deity: for if ' the | be pos- | in Christianity as founded on the | Chicago Press, postpaid.) e g e CONQUEST OF THE ARID SECTIONS OF AMERICA enlarged and well very deserv Arid America, ew, n o that this revised edi need extended men brings the history i the story of arid to date. There is an ich * and the act of J story of the Newl does not revision b he is a remarkable bit of history, a worth most for Mr. Smythe says of his revision: pe the book will be of value to book writing a Jus e and nd to those interested in Ameri- resources and institutions gener- but most of all I hope it will be e practical use to the men and women who are seeking homes under the blue sky of the West.” In part fourth, called “The Triumph ment,” there is a chapter “preparing homes for the people,” nse projects the Government has under- taken to make homes by irrigating arid lands. The book is very valuable and interesting as a history of irrigation, but it is much more than only such a istory—it a remarkable study in iology and a most unusually practi- 1 ¢ene. It takes for its specific e power of co-operation in s velopment—showing how union of ef- fort for the accomplishment of big pur- poses not only works out material mar- vels of prosperity, but develops & more civilized type of man by the sheer ne- cessity of the harmony which the work imposes upon all the community. The volume closes with a bsautiful lit- tle eesay called “Man’s Partnership With whole book if for no other purpose- than to prepare yourself fully to appreciate the force of that four-page essay. The on which describes many of the i w topped mountains upply of water to i la The conduct- the wells are the work s partnership with God. n in water. ompany, are seen the which furnish t the o New York. SAN FRANCISCO WOMAN IN TRANSLATOR’S ROLE h most palpitate are peautiful of all.” iled from eloquently of the Italian book, b _under the-English tle of “The Soul of an Artist” has been authorizedly translated by Miss Eliza- beth L. Murison of San Francisco, makes up just the dozen words which most'ade- quately estimate the peculiar quality of the book’s beauty. The soul of a true artist is nothing if not sensitive, and “Those stars w thought the most That sentenc this book, which is an effort to portray | one, shows forth in thoughts writ down somewhat journalwise the sympathetic feeling of a human heart for the all- ! vibrant life of the universe, finding. as ! truth of what would be the frank con: no doubt the Creator does, that the throbs of pain as well as the thrills of pleasure all work for the of that sensitiveness without which there is no soul worthy of the name. Let us continue the quotation which | the , began with the illustration beauty of the palpitating stars: greater part of men suffer it is because they do not feel enough. They feel pain, which is a low grade of sensibility, about and do not feel beauty, which is its cor- onation.” ““The world is hateful’ says the skeptic of the arid heart, ‘because I have suffered.’ No, the world is beauti- ful because all sorrows lend themselves to & plan Infinitely ideal.” Could we select from anywhere in so few sentences such a full explanation of the puzszle, and so satisfying an answer to the seeming cruelty of the Seripture which revresents God as the maker of all things—both of gladness and of sad- ness. ‘‘Behold, I-have created evil,” saith tne Lord. The author of this book, who goes un- der the nom de plume of “Neera,” is In private life Anna Zuccari, wife of Signor Radius. She is a “Florentine by birth, a Milanese by choice,” and a nov- elist of much note in Italy. Though fiction, it is intended to show forth the fessions of the thoughts and feelings of a genius of the Italian ‘stage. Eleonora Duse, the great Italian actress, is pre- sumed to be the prototype, though the author does not say so. | tion, which is done into smoothly flow- It i1s worth while reading the| | potent when it comes in author is one who sseks for hidden “good | everything.” und a sermon in stones, and books in the running brooks. A striking sen- tence in that essay i that “above all other sections arid America i the God- remembered land.” Now to the man who did not seek good in everything and ser- mons in water the waste desert of Amer- jca seemed the “land that God forgot.” Smythe sees the matter differently, and eloquently speaks forth his faith. He says in reverent interpretation of God's | intention in leaving a portion of the earth | | arid: “Some one has said that God never made a world. He started several, in- cluding the one on which we dwell, but that he depends on man, working in partnership with him and in harmony with the laws of the universe, to bring the world to” compietion.” ‘There are conditiops in arid America which make men peculiarly conscious of their part- nership with God or Universal Purpose. They seem, indeed, to*begin where God left off and to go forward with the actual material creation of the world.” Of the stimulus in the work of oon- quest of aridity, he tells us there are countless instances of men who came | from stagnant communities and settled !in such places as Riverside, Cal, and “developed into scientists of the most , practical sort.” Consider this culling: | “Irrigation, for example, is a religious rite. Such & prayer for rain is intelligent, | scientific, worthy of man’s divinity. And it is answered.” | Pitly illustrating these beautiful ideas there is a picture of an artesian well, a | splendid fountain springing up to quench | the thirst of an otherwise arid region and he certainly has| ing, beautiful Engiish, is the work ofa Sen Francisco woman. So it has the ap- peal of close-homeness, which is always combination with merit. After reading the book it is easy to understand and appreciate these words from the translator's pref- ace: “The labor was undertaken in a dark hour to lay the ghost of a haunting sorrow; for ‘Anima Sola’ is the out- pouring of very name a promise of sympathy, and | perhaps of comfort.” | | A passage which tells of the girl's resolve to become an actress expresses a high ideal of the histrionic gt: “Suddenly I decided upon the theater. ‘Was not that my way to console, to do good? Ought every one to work out his righteous impulses in one way, or not rather each one according to his own means? To give a piece of bread is perhaps more meritorious or more profitable than to give a ray of light, & livelier pulsation, a smile? * » o When 1 broke the divine bread of my art to & bungry public who went away happler and better, nobler and purer, was my work wholly different from hers who reaches to the poor clothes wrought by her own hands? * s = I have but a soul, ardent, vibrant, and I open this up to those who are cold in their inmost being. I give love, faith, interest, which solaces, exalts and re-creates.” A small division of the journal, called “An Idyl”"—a story of first love, is very ' Jack London stored his mind with the | maps of ° pretty, and on page 85 there is a scene which an artist of the brush might well translate from a word picture into a beautiful painting upon canvas—of a youth and development | “If the | The transia- | lonely soul, and had in its | the candle-end before me, with his eves following the lines as I read, which I did neither rapidly nor easil 2 ut from which there came to me such an ecstacy of pleasure that it was like a revela- tion.” Celestial interchange ntiments. ' Ang this, too: To shelter me beneath the mighty wings Of God's forgiveness ! (Paul Elder & Co. publishers, San Francisco. $1 50 net.) SRy WEEN WASHINGTON GLADDEN’S | NEW BOOK OF ESSAYS | The title of Washington Gladden's new | book, “The New Idolairy,” means, as | might be easily guessed, the worship of money: | Mammon, the least erected spirit from heaven, . ! 1t is a collection of papers upon such subjects as “The Church and the Na- | ton,” “Religion and Democracy,” “The | Ethics of Luxurious Expenditure,” | “Standard Oil and Foreign Mission {ana, as everybody might have expected, | “Tainted Mgpey.” The term | money” is one which makes you think of | Washington Gladden right away, and it 1s mot improbable that an exposition of the Congregational minister's views on | that subject is the motive of the work. { It will be remembered that he was the | maintainer of the minority view in the Congregational church on the subject of tainted money, he holding that such money should not be accepted by church, and the Prudential Committee of the Ameriean Board of Foreign Mis- sions, which is a Congregational mission, that tell that was legally his without Inquiring into the ethics of how he got it 3 magasines, and opinion was strongly di- | vided. A good brief statement of Glad- den’s side of the question may be had from these words in his new book: “Is it not plain that an ipstitution which ac- cepts subsidies from notoriously iniqui- tous sources, by this act virtually re- signs the privilege of bearing testimony against such iniquities? into partnership with extortionists and corruptionists in the business of educa- tion, we must in comfnon decency refrain ‘from turning round and abusing our part- ners. * * For much of this money, un- der all sound ethical standards, must be considered as stolen money. And do our churches and colleges need to be told that the partaker is as bad as the thief?" In his chapter on “Religion and Demoe- ! racy”” he explains that the reason why it | is reasonable to dread a umion of the church and state. It is that there is no eccle: ticism on earth to-day that is not a mere fragment—a sect. “And it 1s evident that the state can have noth- ing to do with these contending sects. They make for division rather than unity; the state cannot recognize any of | these.” *“What might be true if the | church were one I cannot tell.” (McClure, Phillips & Co., New York; $1 20 net.) BRIEF GLIMPSES INTO THE REALM OF LETTERS The February number of the Crafts- Henry Meade Bland of San Jose. It views that picturesque character and i writer in his three roles of ‘‘traveler, | novelist and social reformer,” and has | the advantage of being done by a man i who can get at the individuality of his subject from the “viewpoint of a per- sonal friend.” It is an interesting es- | timate of this i writer who has done some Strikingly good work at story-telling which is probably but a promise of still finer | work to come. First Bland gives us an outline of the early adventurous career incidents that make his realistic de- . scriptions come to his pen—his ! training on the San Francisco Bay as a pirate chaser, as a sailor on the ocean the | | overruled his protest, as they thought it right to accept any money from a man | That subject was pretty well threshed | ! over last fall in the daily papers and the | When we enter | jman bas a study of Jack London by! vigorous California | tumble struggle for existence. Mixed with the training he thus got to make 1 A was the mental exercise of ng what his nature craved from the Oakland Public Li- speaking in the Henry Clay De- ty and writing short stories Bland says that some e of London's style came from “arlyle, and some of from the perusal .of Iyric. quality its Poe That peet g W jar feature applies the theories of ilosophy of life on ich creative fiction is perhaps the most interestl the article calls attention struggles of primitive lifs came to be symbolic to the young writer of the _struggles of the medern social world. He read the same meaning into the modern struggle that he saw in the an- cient.” inheritance.” This London ic athetic estimate is given of s famous study of the morth- The Call of the Wild™: t is the greatest of the stories deal- ing with the primitive, and is the most popular of his books. It stands as the most sympathetic treatment of dog life to be found in literature. In it the most vigorous qualities of London's style stand out clearly—rapidity of move- ment, suggestiveness, | of words, great humanizing power, music.” An interesting item in this connec- { tion is that we are told that London | will write a new story, In which he describes the wild dog’s regeneration into the dog of civilization. { A somewhat strange feature.in Jack | London's personality, Which it might be interesting to philesophize over, is that he, of all men, should be a soclal- | ist. Weo are told that he has in him the feeling of natural fitness for life's con- | test and love of it in the primordial | sense of the tooth and claw struggle. Having so much of that inborn guality to hold his cwn in the rough-and- | tumble of catch who can, it seems to | make his advocacy of soclalism a fine | example of altruism—for it is usually | a thought—by those who prefer the | ndividualistic struggle for existence. | that 1t is the weak who want the reign | of soclalism to come—those who feel themselves unfit for the stern struggle for the survival of the fittest. It ap- parently indicates a generous nature which would give an advantage to oth- ers which he, individually, has no ' need of | | . The following description of a maiden |is taken from cholfce Gaelic literature. | How much of its original beauty it has jost in the process of translation Into | English only those who thoroughly know both languages can measure. Certainly the thought as conveyed in the trans- | Jation suggests that in its native suiting of sound to sense it is a beautiful word | pieture of a very fair maid. It is from | the poetic remains of Egan O'Rahilly. ! “a poet,” says its editor, Rev. Patrick | 8. Dinneen, “‘genuinely Irish.” And this: “nor are there many poets gifted with a more subduing pathos or a more en- chanting melody: GILD NA GILE The Brightness of Urighiness I saw in & lonely pain. Melody of melody, her speech not morcse with cryn-.lno'x crystal, her blue-aye tinged with 2 reen, {Tuv'nunnd ruddy struggied in Ber glowing cheeks. Plaiting of plaiting 13 every halr of her yellow locks, immmdun-nhdm«wbym-wml sweeping, | An ornament brizhter than glass on her swelling breast, Which was fashioned at her creation in the world above. ' Oh, folly of follies for me to go close to her! By the captive I was bound fast a captive. . From the press of Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago—New York, we are in i receipt of a new, large, engraved. up-to- | date township and railroad map of the i State of California, size 33x39 inches, : scale eighteen miles to the inch. Printed in which i on the same sheet are large-scale inset | “San Francisco and vicinity,” ! “Los Angeles and vicinity.” and “San i Diego and vicinity.” All cities. towns. | villages and postoffices are properly lo- ! cated on the map and the relative im- just beginning to learn north of Japan, as an investigator of | portance of places is shown by the size | the soul of the reason why those stars ' tramp life by actual experience of ac- of the type. Counties are printed in which most palpitate are thought the 'companying the brake-beam riders, as colors. Mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, | In that scene _a stolter on an ocean liner, as a secker reservations, deserts and valleys are dis- of gold in the Klondike, as the victim ' tinctly shown and named. The offic’al most beautiful of all Neera says: “T asked him to let me read the whole of an unjust jailment, and generally as !in Southern California. In the distance ! poem. He handed me the book, holding ' a thorough tester of the rough and iGovernmmt survey base and meridian lines .and township and range numbers £ | may of Londomn's It was thus he @ifted into his | a powerful use | D M e L ey are gives. A list of the railroads In the State is printed o e face of the map, and each road is designated by & number. so that it can easily be traced throughout its emtire length. Persons interested in Califernis in any way will find this map very complete and useful. The maps are large and clear, printed on the finest map paper. folded to convenient pocket size. Price 25 cents. . Within the last few days there has been visiting our city a young man from the mountains of the Middle West, Mr. Clarence E. Eddy of Roosevelt, Idaho. He is a mountaineer in more senses than one, for in addition to being a successful prospector for gold in the rugged hills, he dearly loves the peaks of Parnassus. He came here partly to investigate the work that our literary peopie are doing. He is especially interested in our poets. He has written poems himself In an ama- { teur way, and so he feels a kindred with them of such gifts as Joaquin Miller and other of our experts in verse. As he is very ardent and still quite a young man, who knows to what extent his emulation ad him up the heights? He has pubiished a i book of his poems. He is a rrespondent of the Salt Lake Tribune, and he is owner and editor of the Thunder Mountain News. The two California writers he seemed most interest=d in are George Sterling and | Louis A. Robertson. He is an euthusias- | tic admirer of George Sterling’s long poem, “The Testimony of the Sun: He is a man intensely interested in the mys- | teries of life, and his one regret abaut the “Testimony of the Suns” is that It does not convey to his mind and heart some more definite answer to his longings to read the riddle of the verse. Un- der the spell of that desire he quite | earnestly and eloquently addresses the California poast. | I here give you the words of his ap- peal, not $nly because it has local inter- est, but because the young mountaineer expresses in it a universal heart cry; we | are all of us always beseeching the poets to unvell for us more of the great mys- tery of life and lift our spirits closer to the truth: TO THE SINGER OF THE SUN& Ob. mighty singer, ball to thee, But canst thou see beyond the bars? Or_speak that Nameless Mystery t reign: h beyond our utmost stars? [+ ind an end of spa or ful dream is this, or w we see God face to face If mind sbould cross the vast abyse?® We know His suns and systems flame Beyond all methods to compute THl mystery withou: a name | Looms on our minds and we are mute. Ther lle the secrets mone shall see While yet they breath s mortal breath To know that Namejess Mystery Were dread Insanity or Death There may it be that weary souls Wil find at last & resting-place, ere God’s Infinity enfolds Infinity of ®ime and space. and_strong ot No clarion note so clear As is this mighty vo And neer Defore has Ascended nearer the Oh_ beckon on sweet rays of dawmg | “On, Muse arise and sing agals. | We crave from Thee the mystery, The music of the d Amen. | Readers of literary gossip may have forgotten, though it was made known at the time of the great success of “Quo Vadis,” that Henryk Sienkiewics spent some time in this country. He was one of a little band of Polish patriots, among | whom were Mme. Modjeska and her hus- | band, Count Bogenta, who bought & ranch in California and started what might be | called a Polish Brook Farm. It was a co-operative soclety, but as all its mem- bers were geniuses, it suffered for want of practical management Sienkiewics | aia not stay very long in this country, but went back to Poland, where he pub- | 1tshed a few short stories with America |as their background. “On the Fleid of | Glory,” just published, is, however, his | irst complete novel for six years, the fact that a second large printing was required before the date of publica- tion indicates that he has met lost his hoid on the American reading publie. . . The following poem is one from the many in a book of 3% pages made up of the collected writings of Eliza A. Otis (Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis), which have Deen assembled, groufed and edited by { her husband. In regard to this work, the Los An- | geles Herald says: | “With all the love and wealth of af- | fection which her husband, General Har- rison Gray Otis, lavished on her, he bas |taken in hand this delightful duty, and | with infinite tenderness and cafe B¢ has | garnered the sheaves of flowers of Bis dead wife's intellect, and has grouped and arranged them. No human being | coul@ have done this so well as he has together, he and she worked on the same newspaper, in the same office, surrounded by the same atmosphers of thought and feeling. He knew what her hopes and ‘deslrel and aspirations were, and he pem- etrated the depths of her heart and was !co.nmm of her wishes:” | BLUEBELLS (1384), Bluebells. bluebells, biucbells. blow! Ring ‘your bells and ring them lowj From your hearts let music leap— From your chambers where asieep ! Where the Make a cover for their feet; Where glad bird-song on the ear Falle in Dotés most sweet and clear. Bluebells, bluebells, biuebells. ring! While your perfumed tcngues you swing, Pour your music low and sweet | Round about our passing feet and | Veice of praise from . | Although the publishers of E. Phillipe | Oppenheim’'s new novel, “A Maker of History,” printed a first edition of the | book as large as the combined editions iotmmnollkm-vfi-v reorders from booksellers necessitated a | second printing almost immediately. In | “A Maker of History,” this favorite Eng- ) lish novelist has scored his greatest suc- {cess and many of the critics agree that xhuhhbeumrymuhr. .. Imm—ch | Canet i Thy i lAm | To aive. Human ! ‘@From “The Scul of an Artist.” B Itallan, tradsisted by Miss Hlizabeth L. |son of San Francisco)