The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 25, 1906, Page 27

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 25, 1906. of between thods.” h repres sents the highly words vet final perfec- ical and spir- is the early archi at he admires mo s from the the coming hitects and othe®work te, sculptors and scholars *“When the revelation of urst on the people of Japan e race rose suddenly into splendid is the thue epirituaily In- ally Oriental art and for tendency he has only apathy The period of good s far as he can see, is over Japen. “The native attack on Buddh- sm two centuries ago was the beginning e restoration of Shinto was and the acceptance of n was its consumma- alty of our understanding the genius of Japanese art, he does not mean it is im- ible to judge it by Western standerds When these standards are “universal and nefther local mor special, Japanese art nds the test as well as that of our wn race.” As for the second interest, the lessons we can learn from Japanese art, just few indicative ones may be mentioned | Jyre. Cram’s high praise of Japanese do- mestic Interiors is suggestive on that line. He says from the moment one slips off one's shoes and “passes into soft light and delicate color, among the simple Japanese | s “Aunt Eleanor turned..sharply, lift- ing her eyebrows. Her own grand- child was a mystery to her” - “Mrs. Van Twiller is seldom offended by this brown-haired niece of Major Clendennin, with her rosy cheeks, her pretty, pointed teeth and her ever va- rying points of interest. She under- stands her, as she does most of us, whatever ‘our .mood.” “ Y, aid gently, ‘is hard to define, beca ke most principles, the greater we grow in knowledge of it, the greater and farther from us a | complete. knowledge of that principle becomes. . But the purity of an idea seems to me to be the idea of the thing as God first conc ed it "™ (James Pott & Co., New York. $1.50.) Volume Makes Plea for Family Life “Heart's Haven,” by Katherine Evans Blake, is a study of the Rappite religious communi The appeal of the romance is that the natural instincts of family af- fection are not to be put down in favor of the-ascetic theories of any religious sect, nor are ‘fam or prevented because ~of any soclal schemes to attain thereby a complete equality of conditions. The little valley of “Harmonie,” as it was called, where the communists settled, did not prove wholly har ious, nor did the home the enthust: hoped to found there become a true “heart’'s haven.” The value of the book will be to preach the beauty of the doctrine that family life is the natural treats and artist must exercise everything 1 to the at- ent of ect. is the fault eign pi that they 3 o realities and pres Is that were better sup- works are but groups A Japanese picture should to be a poem of form and color.” ugh, of course, Japanese archi- cannot be made a model for there are valuable suggestions to rom it. One of these, pointed m, is how finely bufldings of ay be made to fit their sur- In that way the architec- “acknowledges no supe- g could be more subtle than the relationship mples, the castles, cot- , and their matural sur- every line and mass the lete. The bulldings e a concentration and hills.” with environment is giving an example ple thatched farm- every province of are instructed that Japanese cture is ihe architecture of Buddhism and must be read in the light of this mystic and wonderful system. As for the relation of the idea of Karma to art in general the following extracts will give some sug- gestion of the book's interest in that explanation. This is about the mystery of art, of beauty, of taste, or liking and repul- sion without being able to give our- es good reason why: | The philosophy of the Bast gives a hint; ab- solute beauty is dual in its nature; mystical manifestation, through unconscious but inev- | fteble selection from myriad lives (forgotten yet operative), of the fallures that were par- | tial only, and therefore through process of s | jection and discrimination become visible ev dences of the best s0 far achieved. The best, not of one life, but of miilions; higher, there- | fore, than the best of one. Karma. In & way, yet a Karma that s aiways good. * * Also is it, in another aspect, mystical fore- knowledge of the final absolute to which we are all tending through incarnation and re- | incarnation. The mind * * * deals with those things fall within the span of a _single | life. * But in the second place, there e & su- perfor mind, a sublimated consciousness, that {is the concatenation of myriads of Incarna- |tions, * * * To it are added, life by life, | @Il that is precious and of moment in a se- | quence of existences. It is the source in man i of all imaginations, dreame and visions; of | aspirations end exaitations. * * .* We may if we like call it the immortal The J 5 Rk | that o soul, apanese * takes any subject, however outwardly commonpiace, and { then applies to ft three Jection, | emphasis, ideslization. Almost he chooses the essential lines, | stress on those that play into his hand for jLeauty, * ¢ * and then either, aa we should | cay, by the exercise of his infallible good taste, or. as he would say, controlled by that mysti- cal elder memory. that tests all things by the standards established through myriads of for- <4« Mrs, Van Twilller” lusion that so far as in- are nothing | n an ex- on paint- too much is com- he goes on to translate his chosen s into terms of the beautiful. (Baker & Taylor Company, New York. 60 ilustrations. $2 net) in Second Edition on,” by Lillie Hamilton ued a few months ago, has so well that the publishers report i nd edition is in general demand | throughout the country. It is very pleas- {ant light reading with which to amuse lan idle hour or two. The people who | meet at Mrs. Van Twiller's are interest- | ing, and as for herself, she is delightful. | George Leake, whom the author repre- ! sents as telling the story, says of the | hostess of the salon: ‘‘Then, too, I hoped | that Aunt Eleanor would go upstairs and | | that I could have Mrs. Van Twiller all | to myself. For I, too, was tired, and the only joy of that is the happiness of get- | ting rested again. I know of no place in | the worid where this happiness is so | complete as before Mrs. Van Twiller's | fire when she is alone with you.” | In the group of people who meet at the salon is a fine old professor who al- | ways has the wise and kind word to say | and who, “generous in all things, was never so generous as when changing his | mind”’; & Miss Van Auken, “who always | had a tendency to color the common- place”; a Mrs. Clyte, “who is always careful, even at Mre. Van Twiller's, about | what will give her too Intimate an air | with those with whom she converses,” and “for all the superb poise of her head, | she has, when she speaks, the look of | a child who is venturing on dangerous ground”; an artist named “Brushes,” who steps back and with half-closed eyes watches people; and a very likely young woman whom they I ““the major's niece,” who sometimes so frankly wants to know things that the more worldly wise ones have to somewhat unfrankly dodge the issue raised by her questions, These people discuss brightly very varfous questions. Some pretty love stories run through the records of con- versations. One of these love affairs accomplishes cuite a change in the kind of light that ‘shines from the eyes of the young artist, Brushes: from being critical it becomes appeal- ing. Another one is Leake's, the pain of which was that for long he suffered from a case of misapplied jealousy. The nature of the love which the old professor bore for one of the ladies is what will keep the reader guessing nearly all the way through; but in the end the puzzle is romantically ex- plained. N FROM RECENT DEALING WITH THE | STUDY OF SAPANESE ART. — and the best thing for human happiness. The story opens by recounting how often have the dreamers of mankind fan- cled they could create a little paradise by banding together a community of people where the ties of spiritual brotherhood would make all equal, where neither pain | nor care, hatred nor struggle can enter. | One of these dreamers, and a most mag- nificent one in bigness of physique and of heart, was George Rapp, a weaver of Wurttemberg, Germany. “His was the vision of a religious commonwealth, which was to be the nucleus of a new kingdom of heaven upon earth, when Christ shall come again to reign over men.” At the close of the eighteenth century he brought a colony over sea and they settled in a little valley in Pennsyl- vania, and some years after they moved to Indiana. One of his disciples was a German nobleman, Laurence von Koras- sel, Count of Rosenthor. He was an as- cetic enthusiast, but his wife, who was an American woman of vivid and joyous temperament, twice rebelled against the strange doctgines of the religious com- munists. These rebellions are types showing the book’s intent, but there were more conflictg In the hearts of the other char- acters caused by the like attempt of the rules of the community to restrict the natural instincts. When George Rapp made his first disciples they were living in family life, but after they had developed a strong feeling of what they thought was spirituality in the expectatien of Christ's speedy return to the earth, the strictest celibacy was made one of the rules of the community. The unmarried were taught that it was holiest to remain in celibacy, and to those already married their ties be- came merely nominal. Shortly after the founding of the colony Laurence's wife bore him a beautiful boy who had an infantile will of his own which would not be balked. Katherine Blake does some good work describing how the at- tempt was made to separate this child and mother. The idea of the commu- nists was to rear all the children in A paragraph in the book gives a com- bined criticism on a certain type of Jovers and of invalids: “Lovers (my friend, Mr. Sedgwick, does not yet realize) have some of the lessons of invalids to learn. Too much fuss bars out sympathy, and centers the atten- tion on personal idiosyncrasies rather than on the source of-pain or possibil- ity of remedy. The art of pleasing is certainly not Mr. Seldgwick’s.” One of the best passages Lillie Ham- fiton French favors us with is in the chapter called “The Major's Nlece on Purity.” That very frank young wo- man imperatively asked of the men and women who had been discussing some subfect In the salon: “What do you mean by purity, any- way? I'm so sick of the word. £ the people when they use it never meke you feel purity at all.” one common nursery, with a view to insuring absolute equality of condi- tions. The mother was not allowed to nurse her own child, but might nurse the child born of some other of the women. Leah, Laurence's wife, re- belled against this decree, and her strong willed infant would have none of this communism of maternity. He g0 into a paroxysm of angry re- Jection when offered the very fairest of alien breasts. It took all the masterful power of Father Rapp, as he was called, to final- ly break the soirit of this mother and make an obedient convert of her. Then for long she was under the dominance of the spiritual leaders, and even taught the other women to submit to the strict rules and crush down their instincts of wifebood and motherhood. She lived almost as a pun, completely DNDR rji= Ly 7 ¥ separated from her child and her hus-)ica. One excuse for this omission of | East Yankees. The story of the amus- band. Then her second rebellion came. She tried to call her husband back to her in the old sense of real lover, made an appointment with him' to meet her in ‘secret, and, as the aseetic Rappites ‘expressed it, tempted him. In the vio- lent windstorm of that night the wo- man was killed by the falling timber of the community's pleasure park. The superstitious Rappites believed that she was. struck dead by the judgment of heaven's wrath. The boy born of this woman becomes the hero of the story, and he and his sweetheart, both brought up in the Rappite ‘community, have to pass through the ordeal of natural instinct rebelling against restrictive communal rule. Out of these opposing forces the novel is manufactured. The final chap- ter takes for motto that tolerably well- known expression of faith from John Burroughs: The stars come nightly to the sky; The tidal wave unto the sea; Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, Can keepy my own away from me. (Bobbs-Merrill Company; Indianapolis, Indiana. $1.50.) Brief Essays That Deal With Prayer A little book of 175 pages, called “The | True Doctrine of Prayer,” is written in the form of brief consecutively connected | essays about that act of entreaty to the Supreme in which the author firmly be- leves, not only as to its subjective but also its objective effects. It is by Lean- der Chamberlaln, the president of the Evangelical Alliance of the United States. In the foreword by Dr. Huntington, of Grace Church, New York, it is said: ‘“Gladness goes out of religion just in provortion to the rate in which we lose faith in prayer. It is impossible to serve happily a God with whom we are not on speaking terms.” The exposition of the power of prayer and the finding of its true doctrine is based on a study of the “word’s prayer,” which Christ taught his disciples. This is taken as the norm, and no prayer is deemed a true prayer which does not conform to its ideal. So it is argued that all true prayer is answered; for it is to be remembered that in that prayer we ask before all else that God's name be hal- lowed and that his will be done. Speaking of the praver for forgiveness, the author says: ‘“Forgiveness i{s so pro- foundly ethical that it cannot be con- summated save as fhe ethical conditions are actually supplied. No cne can really forgive his debtors unless those debtors repent.” He quotes with approval the rabbini- cal saying “In prayer a man always unite himself with the commun- ity.” This age of strenuous appeals to civic righteousness should surely ap- prove of that. It gets its Christian sanction from Jesus, having taught us to say ‘‘Our Father,” not “My Father, when we pray. In illustrating one of his points about the right spirit of praying he tells a story of a Scotch lad who was set to tend the sheep while the rest of the family went to church. He wanted to pray even as they in the house of wor- ship, from which his occupation barred him; but he did not know how to do it. So he just prayed the alphabet, and asked God to arrange the letters into the right words. Talking about: that well-worn objec- tion. to prayer, namely, that the universe is governed by fixed and -unchangeable law, he contends that “there is no de- cree older than the decree of prayer.” He finds some excuse for the feelings of some men which hold them back from prayer; but he has no tolerance for that “apatny to which the soul consents.” And no soul, he says, can truly pray un- less he loves God. He clalms that as touching prayer no man lives to himself alone. “No man has a right to disqual- ify himself from prayer. He is answer- able for the resultant loss to his own soul. He is also answerable for holy Interests beyond his merely personal realm.” He teaches the doctrine of ceaseless prayer in the same sense that prayer is 2 state, as character is a state. He well explains that prayer is something more than simple asking, or a mere appeal to power. Finally, I will quote you Henry Ful- ler's unigue, one-suit prayer: = “Lord, grant me one suit, which is this: Deny me all suits which are bad for me." {Baker & Taylor Company, New York. §1 net, $1.08 postpaid.) ¢ “Who's Who" Appears With More Names The new editlon, namely, the fourth of “Who's Who in America,” is out, and although no more bulky than its pred- ecessor it contains 346 more names. Since the inception of this work in 1899-1900 the number of names have increased from 8802 to 16.216. In the preparation of such a book the wirk of selection is equaled in difficulty by the task of elim...ation. These thousands are selected out of the eighty millions, not because they are the best, but because they are the best kaown. If anybody notices some one who is left, out whom he thinks ought to be in, or any name in that he thinks ought to be left out, then the editor requests for the real or apparent error the same leniency which was asked by the Nevada saloon-keeper, who put up the sign: “Patrons are requested not to shoot at the plano player. he's doing his best.” The work is certainly a wonderful plece of condensation as a “blograph- ical dictionary of notable living men and women of the Unfted States.” It was established in.1899 by Albert Nel- son Marquis, and is now edited by John ‘W. Leonard. While it Is especially a brief biography of the living, the pres- ent volume holds those recently dead in" their right alphabetical place, with a short reference to the former vol- umes of “Who's Who." This is a val- uable addition. To give the address of all those living was a difficult feat. The chlef feature wherein the present volume eycels its predecessors is in the more complete balance between the various classes of the notables. The commercial, financial and industrial people are better represented. The one, and only, excuse put up for items of inaccuracy or incomplete- ness is that many males and females (but especially the latter) are reticent about the date of their birth. The blame for this is definitely fixed upon the famous Dr. er of the awful Os- lerism - scare. ho would have be- lieved the terrorism of the reign of Oslerism would extend even unto those who are ranked as who's who in Amer- ‘ should | date of birth comes from a lady phy-, sician. It reads: “For business rea- | sons I withhold the date of my birth, as I look younger than I am. Sinee Professor Osler’s attack upon all of us who are over forty, I think myself more than justified Another bit of gossip about the new volume which may be of passing inter- est concerns a “certain woman jour- nalist, who sent in the name of a cer- tain man with a brief statement of claim to eligibility which did not strongly appeal to the editorial judg- ment. In a week or so a letter came from the lady requesting that a data blank should be sent at once. as she had agreed to get him into ‘Who's | Who in America’ and write his ske[ch; for at purpose for twenty-five doi- lar: The editor adds: “The reply to that letter had ginger in It, but no data blank.” (A. N. Marquis & Co., Chicago. $3.50.) Origin of Masonry | by J. G. Swinnerton Whitaker & Ray Company of San| Frangisco publish a littie book ecalled | “The Origin of Masonry,” by J. G. Swinnerton, who, in 189, was directed by the then master of the Morning Star Lodge to investigate the subject. This recent publication embodies the answer Wwhich was made in the' form of three addresses to the brethren. The first two chapters discuss how the order did not originate. This is inter- estingly done as a method of clearing the ground for the author’s conclusion. The summing up of the first address is: “I conclude therefore 1. Freemasonry was not founded by Jacques de Molai while a prisoner in Paris; 2. It was not a revival or o continuation of the sup- pressed Order of Knights Templar, and has no relation to it in any way: 3. It did not originate from the building of the Strasburg Cathedral.” In the second lecture the prevalent idea of its being a modernized order of Rosi- cruclans is emphatically dismissed. The notion that Masonry did come from this Order of the Rosy Cross is said to| | bave been derived for the Century dic- | | tionary. Swinnerton is_glad to repert | he finds no foundation for this, as he feels 2 fine scorn for the Rosicrucians. He investigates the probability of the Masons being a descent from the Eleu- sinians, and while he acknowledges he would be proud to trace the relationship }he does not find it positively. As he puts | it en page 40 it would not, however, be | historically safe to deny it. Some of the | best pages of the beok are about the city of Eleusis and the Eleusinian mys- | tertes. | The conclusion of the whole matter is that Masonry had its origin “in the ne- cessities of the human race,” and the obelisks of Egypt are supposed to give | evidence of very ancient origin of the brotherhood that bequeathed its prinei- ples to modern Freemasonry: from cent- uries before the time of Solomon. (Whitaker & Ray Company, San Fran- cisco. 7 cents.) R AR Lumber Industry on This Continent The editor of the Americar Lumber- man, James Elliott Defebaugh, has writ- ten an elaborate four-volume “History of the Lumber Industry in America,” which the first volume is now out from the publishers. It is a much needed ad-| dition to our industrial history and it can be depended upon that it speaks with authority—as the American Lumberman s the leading publication of its kind. | Nearly half of the first volume is taken up with Canada. The portion concern- ing the United States covers such sub- jects as forest resources, public land pol- icy, forestry and forestry reserves, tariff legislation, lJumber production and foreign trade. The portion of the- present volume which will probably prove of most con- sultative value as coming from an expert in that line of business is the one that takes up the subject of our forest re- sources. That is, of course, one of the big economic questions of the day: to what extent are we being recklessly spendthrift in the cutting away of our great forests. The author gives his reasons for a ten- tative estimate of the standing ~timber in the United States somewhat higher than is given by other authorities: but ‘while he is not dogmatic in his state- ments he makes out a case which leads to the belief that a timber famine is not imminent, although he concedes that the time is already with us when the forests must be conserved if we are not to go through the experience of European coun- tries and be obliged to enter into costly experiments in forest planting. (In four volumes, bound in half leather, cloth sides, gold stampings, gilt top, 50 pages. American Lumberman, Chicago, publisher; $3.50 a volume.) Basketry, Modeling and Paper Weaving Quite a list of collaborators contributed to make a good thing of the little book on “Basketry, Clay, and Paper Weaving,” which is published by Whitaker & Ray of this city. The authors are Arthur Henry Chamberlain, A.M., Ella V. Dobl Jane Langley and Harry D. Gaylord. 1 is on' fine paper and the {llustrations, showing how the work is passed through the various processes and giving samples showing the beauty of the finished product, are very clear. In the foreword to the teacher, it is explalned: ““While the work herein presented is based upon the experience of a considerable number of years, a distinct effort was in the summer school of Throop Polytechnic | Institute in 1500—an effort looking toward a partial solution of the problems of the forms of handiwork desirable for the ele- | mentary school to be administered by the regular teacher.” “In every instance the work has been actually performed by the children.” (Whitaker & Ray Company. cisco. 50 cents.) Gossip of Authors and Their Books The many friends and admirers of our famous short story ‘teller. Jack London, may get a good laugh by read- ing the following bit of news from the East, showing how this athletic writer and adventurer literarily, {f not literal- 1y, “got it in the neck” from the down of of | San Fran- | be withdrawn ing circumstance was published in the Boston Transcript: here are cemsors of literature, it seems, even in Connecticut. Word comes by telegraph from Derby Neck that the works of Jack London are to from cire tion and that the ban is also to be placed upon magasines that print his articles and stories. ‘As Jack London publicly an- nounces he is an anarchist,’ say the authorities, ‘the Derby Neck Library has ordered h!s works withdrawn from eirculation and advises all lovers of their country to cease buying his books or magazines that publish his stories.” Poeor Jack London Louis 'Alexander Robertson, the San Francisco author, who wrote the poem “By the Western Shore.” “Dead Calyp- so” and the poem called “Weary,” is now having his works prepared for pub- lication by A. M. Robertson of this city. | One of his ardent admirers, the success- ful mining prospector and amateur poet, Clarence E. Eddy, who is editor of the Thunder Mountain News. Roosevelt. Idaho, pays this tribute to our local poet: id give you The wreath that oft too ove That I can On, singer o Accept whil Nearly every one has the blues once in a while, and some people have it—or them—nearly alwa. It therefore be- comes of curfous interest to know what is a good, high-sounding scientific name for this common affiction. It will seem more dignified to many to know that when they feel blue there is something really the matter with them more than imagination. Let such remember that the name of the ailment is “splanchnic neurasthenia™; and notwithstanding the fact that it seems usually to be caused by untoward outward events, such as the failure of a business ven- ture, the unkindness of one's sweet- heart, or the dismalness of an unshiny day, the true origin of the ill is inter- nal and an affair of matter, not of mind, the new thought people to the contrary, notwithstanding. The reason of this splanchnic neurasthenia is the conges- tion of the intra-abdominal veins due principally to lack of tonicity of the ab- dominal muscles.” For the explanation and treatment of this disease the California Medical Journal for February mentions very fa- vorably a book by a San Francisco phy- cisfan, Dr. Albert Abrams, who entitles his book “The Blues.” The first edition has been out for some time, but now that the second edition has been re- quired it is well to call attention to it, since it has the sanctron of the organ of the California Medical College. The blues are awfully bad things to have, and if we can help fight them off by uniting against them the forces of tha new thought advocages and the regular medical profession it will ve a good work, for the biues are among that class of serious things to which the playful answer to the riddle of the uni- verse—to monism, idealism, material- ism, or to the row between the spirit of Christian Science and the substance of the Materia, Medica—to “Iif it's mind it's no matter, and if it’s matter never mind" ecannot successfully be given to drive dull care away. Godspeed to the book if it will send away the blues from any heart—no matter whers resides the originating cause thereof, be it in head or stomach or in cruel out- ward circumstance. The California Medical Journal says of the work: The object of this book, according to the author's preface, is to direct attention to a 4 and heretofore ibed variety of nerve exhaustion, whi has designated splanchnic neurasthen The comgestion of he intra-abdominal veins, due principally to lack of tomicity of the abdominal muscies, i3 given as the cause of this condition, and ths Tesults are manifested by periods of nerve de- pressiof. commonly known as “the blues.'™ The author’s style is at once entertaining and convincing. his reasoning sound and logical, It is seldom. indeed. that such a practical treatise on a medical subject is presented in such an eminently readable form. .. . The resignation of George Burman Fos ter from the professorship of the phil- osophy of religion in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago is to be demanded on account of his denial of miracles and his declaration that the evi- dence of immortality is insufficient. Rev. John Roach Straton, pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Chicago, said yesters day: Henry Harland. (Died December 21, 1908.) BY CHARLOTTE BECKER. Ome who Was aye in love with life lies dead— A Plerrot of the pen. whose happy wit Gathercd its store of fancy exquisite In green old gardems, where the sunbeams spread. Down terraced ways the drowsy lizards treads: And where he watched the golden finches Mt Through trellised vines, by scariet bios- soms lit: Or drank from fountains, myrtle garlanded. Sparkling with youth, his tales gay. whimsical, Enchanted-wise set memory astir Unto the tume of some forgotten dance, Ana lead—although the leaves of autums all— Through paths of rosemary and lavender, Back to that far-off country of Romancel .. P - “The time has come to demand that the men wha are teaching that what Christianity has believed from its founda- tion is false and incredible should be dis- missed from the school. It is outrageous for them to accept our money and then teach the young divinity students that the foundation of the Christian religion is unsubstantifal.” Charges will be pre- ferred against Professor Foster.—Bostoa Transeript. .. “The Gambler,” by Katherine Cecil Thurston, which is still enjoying a tre- mendous vogue in America, is soon to be brought out in England by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. It is learned from the Harpers that the sales of “The Gambler™ are expected to equal, if not to surpase, those of “The Masquerader,” which was accounted a phenomenal success.—Harper Bros.' Literary Gossi) P g “Barbara,” who wrote “The Garden of a Commuter’'s Wife,” is now known to ba Mabel Osgood Wright. The Macmillan Company announce for issus this spring a new book from her pen—“The Garden, You and L™