at his home in Oak Park, Illinois. Mr. The Russiart Opera," will have a companion Cook came to Chicago in 1860. He was one of the volume ready next month on “ The Russian Arts," organizers of the publishing house of Ivison, the main object of which is to show how the soul Blakeman & Taylor, which later became part of of the people is revealed not only in their literature the American Book Company. For several years and music, but also in their iconography, modern he was a partner in the publishing firm of Jansen, painting, sculpture, architecture, and ornamenta McClurg & Co., later A. C. McClurg & Co. He tion. was a prominent member of the Masonic order, a on 432 [ May 27 THE DIAL 6 and wrote much of the Masonic law for Masons of Illinois. He was a trustee of Scoville Institute of Oak Park, and a member of the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution. A recent announcement of the Doves Press con- tains the following: “The Great War has not been forgotten' or forgiven,' nor is it even finished. But the first shock, which seemed to obliterate both Past and Future and to engulf all in one foul tri- umph of hate, is over, and both Past and Future re-emerge and re-assume their reign despite the inscrutable horror' of to-day. With this larger outlook Mr. Cobden-Sanderson returns to his first intention before the war, and will in the immediate future print and publish the · Lieder, Gedichte, and Balladen of Germany's supreme poet, Goethe, in honour of Germany's better past and in hope of Germany's still greater future when she shall have sloughed off the hate which, to-day, bedarkens both her and our Welt-Ansicht and World-Vision." A minor effect of the war has been the marked awakening of interest in Russian literature evi- denced by English readers. As one result of this, an attempt is being made by Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton, in a series of " Great Russian Fiction," to cover the whole range of Russian imaginative literature in a library of uniform volumes at a popular price. The following works will be ready immediately: “ The Captain's Daughter and Other Tales," by Pushkin; “On the Eve," by Turgenev; “ The Heart of a Russian," by Lemontov; Little Angel," by Andreiev; “ In Honour's Name," by Kuprin; and two of Gorky's works — “Com- rades” and “ Chelkash.” It is hoped to include among the later volumes some novels and stories by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Gontcharov, Korolenko, and others. One year of the Index Office, a corporation not for pecuniary profit, organized early in 1914 “ as a reference bureau and intermediary between libra- ries and the public, to perform, for a moderate charge, such services as libraries are not prepared to perform, namely, to index, compile, abstract, and translate such literary material as investigators need to have prepared for their use," seems to have demonstrated the usefulness of that institution, which at the outset was favorably noticed in these columns. In the initial number of its “ Reference Bulletin," lately issued, it gives some details of its first year's activities. Medical students and physi- cians have apparently been its chief patrons, and they have called for a number of bibliographies and abstracts on subjects interesting to them. It an- nounces its intention to publish “ Dementia Precox Studies” and occasional bibliographies on the sub- ject by Dr. Bayard Holmes. Bibliographical in- dexes and references fill six of the Bulletin's eight pages. In a recent issue of THE DIAL we noted the fact that the quarterly of Oriental study, “ Le Muséon," long published by the University of Louvain, would be carried on by the Cambridge University Press of England. The American agency for the publica- tion, as we now learn, has just been undertaken by the University of Chicago Press. Over two hun- dred pages of material for the third and fourth numbers of “Le Muséon " for 1914 are supposed to have been lost in the fire which destroyed the offices of the Belgian publisher in the early days of August; and one of the collaborators on the last number of the journal was taken prisoner in the war and died in a hospital. All supporters of Oriental studies will be glad to know that the first issue of this journal for 1915 will soon be published, with contributions from many well-known conti- nental and English scholars; and interest in a review published under such unusual circumstances is confidently expected to be shown by American scholars especially interested in these fields of research. One of the most striking and unaccountable instances of popular neglect of a brilliant writer is to be found in the case of Walter Bagehot. In the face of this neglect it is a bold, though a most com- mendable, enterprise to project a complete edition of Bagehot's writings. Such an edition, in ten volumes, edited by Bagehot's sister-in-law, Mrs. Russell Barrington, will be published next month by Messrs. Longmans. Much important matter is now reprinted for the first time, including the first two articles by Bagehot which appeared in “ The Prospective Review” in 1848, various pamphlets on political economy, a series of essays written in early youth, and a volume of selected papers from “ The Economist,” “ The Saturday Review," and “ The Spectator." The first volume of the new edition will include the memoir by Bagehot's life- long friend, Richard Holt Hutton, originally pub- lished in “ The Fortnightly Review and later reprinted as a preface to Volume I. of Bagebot's “ Literary Studies,” together with the second memoir by the same writer, contributed to the “ Dictionary of National Biography.” Mrs. Russell Barrington's memoir, which appeared a year ago, completes the series as Volume X. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. (The following list, containing 113 tilles, includes books received by THE Dial since its last issue.) BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. Spencer Fullerton Baird: A Biography. By William Healy Dall, D.Sc. Illustrated in photogravure, etc., large 8vo, 462 pages. J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.50 net. Rabindranath Tagore: The Man and His Poetry. By Basanta Koomar Roy: with Introduction by Hamilton W. Mabie. Illustrated, 12mo. 223 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25 net. John Huss: His Life, Teachings, and Death. By David S. Schaft, D.D. With portrait, large 8vo, 349 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.50 net. Forty Years on the Stage: Others (Principally) and Myself. By J. H. Barnes. Illustrated, large 8vo, 320 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net. My Life. By Sir Hiram S. Maxim. Illustrated, large 8vo, 322 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. $4.50 net. Alfred the Great, the Truth Teller, Maker of En- gland. 848-899. By Beatrice Adelaide Lees. Illus- trated, large 8vo, 493 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50 net. Paracelsus: The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim. By Franz Hartmann, M.D. Revised and enlarged edition; 8vo, 311 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net. HISTORY. Napoleon and Waterloo: The Emperor's Campaign with the Armée du Nord, 1815. By A. F. Becke, R.F.A. In 2 volumes, with photogravure por- traits, Svo. E. P. Dutton & Co. $8. net. 1915 ] 433 THE DIAL The Secret Service Submarine; A Story of the Present War. By Guy Thorne. 12mo, 190 pages. Sully & Kleinteich. $1. net. At the Sign of the Sword: A Story of Love and War in Belgium. By William Le Queux. 12mo, 187 pages. Sully & Kleinteich. $1. net. TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. Through Central Africa from Coast to Coast. By James Barnes; illustrated in color, etc., with photographs by Cherry Kearton. Large 8vo, 283 pages. D. Appleton & Co. $4. net. The Tourist's Maritime Provinces. By Ruth Kedzie Wood. Illustrated, 12mo, 440 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25 net. Alone in the Sleeping-sickness Country. By Felix Oswald. Illustrated, 8vo, 219 pages. E. P. Dut- ton & Co. $3. net. The Diplomacy of the War of 1812. By Frank A. Updyke, Ph.D. 8vo, 494 pages. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. $2.50 net. The Interpretation of History. By L. Cecil Jane. 12mo, 348 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.75 net. Captives among the Indians: First-hand Narra- tives of Colonial Times. Edited by Horace Kep- hart. “Outing Adventure Library." 12mo, 240 pages. Outing Publishing Co. $1. net. GENERAL LITERATURE. Mary Russell Mitford: Correspondence with Charles Boner and John Ruskin. Edited_by Elizabeth Lee. Illustrated, 8vo, 324 pages. Rand, McNally & Co. $2.75 net. Vanishing Roads, and Other Essays. By Richard Le Gallienne. 12mo, 377 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50 net, The Ballade. By Helen Louise Cohen, Ph.D. 8vo, 397 pages. Columbia University Press. DRAMA AND VERSE. Poems, By Brian Hooker. 12mo, 146 pages. Yale University Press. $1. net. The Lie: A Play in Four Acts. By Henry Arthur Jones. “Margaret Illington Edition." Illustrated, 12mo, 110 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1. net. Patrie! An Historical Drama. By Victorien Sar- dou; translated, with Introduction, by Barrett Clark. “ Drama League Series of Plays." With portrait, 12mo, 203 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. 75 cts. net. The Alcestis of Euripides. Translated into English rhyming verse, with explanatory notes, by Gil. bert Murray, LL.D. 12mo, 82 pages. Oxford University Press. 75 cts. net. The Smile of Mona Lisa: A Play in One Act. By Jacinto Benavente. 12mo, 34 pages. Richard G. Badger. 75 cts. net. Pro Patria: A Book of Patriotic Verse. Compiled by Wilfrid J. Halliday, M.A. 12mo, 220 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1. net. K'Ung Fu Tze: A Dramatic Poem. By Paul Carus. 12mo, 72 pages. Open Court Publishing Co. 50 cts. net. The King of the Jews: A Sacred Drama. From the Russian of “K. P.," The Grand Duke Constan- tine, by Victor E. Marsden, M.A. 12mo, 161 pages. Funk & Wagnalls Co. $1. net. * We Are Seven” A Three-act Farce. By Eleanor Gates. 12mo, 166 pages. New York: The Arrow Publishing Co. 75 cts. net. In the Midst of the Years. By John Wesley Conley. 12mo, 131 pages. Boston: The Gorham Press. $1. net. The Scales of Justice, and Other Poems. By Tod Robbins. 12mo, 46 pages. J. S. Ogilvie Pub- lishing Co. 50 cts. net. Tides of Commerce: School and College Verse. By William Cary Sanger, Jr. 12mo, 108 pages. New York: The Country Life Press. FICTION. The Story of Jacob Stahl. By J. D. Beresford. Comprising: The Early History of Jacob Stahl; A Candidate for Truth; The Invisible Event. Each 12mo. George H. Doran Co. Per set, $2.50 net. The Kiss of Apollo. By Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi. 12mo, 408 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.35 net. The Double Traitor. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. With frontispiece, 12mo, 308 pages. Little, Brown & Co. $1.35 net. The Rat-pit. By Patrick MacGill. 12mo, 320 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net. The Man Who Rocked the Earth. By Arthur Train and Robert Williams Wood. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 228 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.25 net. The Scarlet Plague. By Jack London. Illustrated, 12mo, 181 pages. Macmillan Co. $1. net. Jean Baptiste: A Story of French Canada. By J. E. Le Rossignol. With frontispiece in color, 12mo, 269 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. Merry Andrew. By Keble Howard. 12mo, 341 pages. John Lane Co. $1.35 net. Wolfine: A Romance in which a Dog Plays an Honorable Part. By X. 12mo, 345 pages. Stur- gis & Walton Co. $1.25 net. A Green Englishman, and Other Stories of Canada. By S. Macnaughtan. 12mo, 307 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.35 net. Victoria. By Martha Grace Pope. 12mo, 243 pages. Sherman, French & Co. $1.35 net. The Primrose Ring. By Ruth Sawyer. Illustrated, 12mo, 187 pages. Harper & Brothers. $1. net. PUBLIC AFFAIRS. SOCIOLOGY AND ECO- NOMICS. Some. Aspects of the Tarif Question. By Frank William Taussig, Litt.D. 8vo, 374 pages. Har- vard University Press. $2. net. America to Japan: A Symposium of Papers. Ed- ited by Lindsay Russell. With portrait, 12mo, 318 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net. The Trust Problem. By Edward Dana Durand, Ph.D. 8vo, 145 pages. Harvard University Press. $1.25 net. Government of the Canal Zone. By George W. Goethals, U.S.A. Illustrated, 12mo, 107 pages. Princeton University Press. $1. net. A Message to the Middle Class Mind. By Seymour Deming 16mo, 110 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. 50 cts. net. The Negro. By W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Ph.D. “ Home University Library." 16mo, 254 pages. Henry Holt & Co. 50 cts. net. THE GREAT WAR — ITS HISTORY, PROBLEMS, AND CONSEQUENCES. The Human German. By Edward Edgeworth. 8vo, 290 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3. net. America Fallen! The Sequel to the European War. By J. Bernard Walker. 12mo, 203 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. 75 cts. net. A Text-book of the War for Americans. Written and compiled by J. William White, Ph.D. 12mo, 551 pages. John C. Winston Co. $1. net. The Anglo-German Problem. By Charles Sarolea. "American edition.” 12mo, 288 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. net. The Fight for Peace: An Aggressive Campaign for American Churches. By Sidney L. Gulick, D.D. 12mo, 190 pages. Fleming H. Revelí Co. 50 cts. net. The Violation by Germany of the Neutrality of Bel- gium and Luxemburg. By André Weiss; trans- lated from the French by Walter Thomas. 12mo, 36 pages. Paris: Armand Colin. Paper. ART AND ARCHITECTURE. Sketches of Great Painters. By Edwin Watts Chubb. Illustrated, 8vo, 263 pages. Stewart & Kidd Co. $2. net. Hermaia: A Study in Comparative Esthetics. By Colin McAlpin. 8vo, 429 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net. The House That Junk Built. By John A. McMahon. Illustrated, 12mo, 188 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.25 net. Roma: Ancient, Subterranean, and Modern Rome. By Albert Kuhn; with Preface by Cardinal Gib- bons. Part IX. Illustrated, 4to. Benziger Broth- ers. Paper, 35 cts. net. NATURE AND OUT-DOOR LIFE. The Propagation of Wild Birds: A Manual of Ap- plied Ornithology. By Herbert K. Job. Illus- trated, large 8vo, 276 pages. Doubleday, Page & Co. $2. net. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles. By W. J. Bean. In 2 volumes, illustrated, 8vo. E. P. Dutton & Co. $15. net. The Call of the Open: A Little Anthology of Con- temporary and Other Verse. Compiled by Leon- ard Stowell. Illustrated in color, 16mo, 115 pages. Macmillan Co. 80 cts. net. Modern Tennis. By P. A. Vaile. Illustrated, 8vo, 301 pages. Funk & Wagnalls Co. $2. net. Castaways and Crusoes. Edited by Horace Kep- hart. Outing Adventure Library." 12mo, 294 pages. Outing Publishing Co. $1. net. Our Mountain Garden. By Mrs. Theodore Thomas. Second edition; illustrated, 12mo. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. 434 [ May 27 THE DIAL Yearbooks of the United States Brewers' Associa- tion, for the years 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914. Each 8vo. New York: The United States Brewers' Association. Confessions of a Clergyman. 12mo, 352 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. $1.50 net. A B C of Housekeeping. By Christine Terhune Herrick. 12mo, 122 pages. Harper & Brothers. 50 cts. net. The Nutrition of a Household. By Edwin Tenney Brewster, A.M., and Lilian Brewster, R.N. 16mo, 208 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1. net. Great Men and How They Are Produced. By Casper L. Redfield. 12mo,_32 pages. Chicago: Published by the author. Paper Electricity for the Farm. By Frederick Irving Anderson. Illustrated, 12mo, 265 pages. Mac- millan Co. $1.25 net. The Theory of Permutable Functions. By Vito Volterra. 12mo, 66 pages. Princeton University Press. Robert's Rules of Order: Revised for Deliberative Assemblies. By Henry M. Robert. 18mo, 323 pages. Scott, Foresman & Co. $1. net. R ARE books and first editions collected and arranged for people who are too busy to attend to the forming of libraries. Address E. V., Boston Transcript BOSTON, MASS. Your Manuscript The Gardenette; or, City Back Yard Gardening by the Sandwich System. By Benjamin F. Albaugh. Second edition; illustrated, 12mo, 138 pages. Stewart & Kidd Co. $1.25 net. Outing Handbooks. New volumes: Practical Dog Breeding, by Williams Haynes; Pistol and Re- volver Shooting, by A. L. A. Himmelwright. Each 16mo. Outing Publishing Co. Per volume, 70 cts. net. BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG. In Defence of Paris: An American Boy in the Trenches. By Captain Allan Grant. Illustrated, 12mo, 256 pages. George H. Doran Co. 60 cts. net. Miss Pat at School. By Pemberton Ginther. With frontispiece, 12mo, 323 pages. John C. Winston Co. 35 cts. net. Canterbury Chimen; or, Chaucer Tales Retold for Children. By Francis Storr and Hawes Turner. Revised and enlarged edition; illustrated, 12mo, 227 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. 75 cts. net. MISCELLANEOUS. The Limitations of Science. By Louis Trenchard More, Ph.D. 12mo, 268 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.50 net. Advertising: Its Principles and Practice. By Harry Tipper, Harry L. Hollingworth, Ph.D., George Burton Hotchkiss, M.A., and Frank Alvah Par- sons, B.S. Illustrated in color, etc., large 8vo, 575 pages. New York: The Ronald Press Co. $4, net. Rhythmie Action: Plays and Dances. By Irene E. Phillips Moses, B.L. Illustrated, 4to, 164 pages. Boston: Milton Bradley Co. $1.80 net. The Use of Money. By E. A. Kirkpatrick. “Child- hood and Youth Series." 12mo, 226 pages. Bobbs-Merrill Co. $1. net. What Should I Believe? An Inquiry into the Nature, Grounds, and Value of the Faiths of Science, Society, Morals, and Religion. By George Trum- bull Ladd, LL.D. 12mo, 275 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. $1.50 net. Growth of American State Constitutions, from 1776 to the End of the Year 1914. By James Quayle Dealey, Ph.D. 12mo, 308 pages. Ginn & Co. $1.40 net. Startling Incidents and Experiences in the Christian Life. By E. E. Byrum. With portrait, 12mo, 414 pages. Anderson, Indiana: Gospel Trumpet Co. $1. net. The Rural Science Series. Edited by L. H. Bailey. New volumes: Citrus Fruits, by J. Eliot Coit, Ph.D., $2. net; The Principles of Rural Credits, by James B. Morman, A.M., with Introduction by John Lee Coulter, Ph.D., $1.25 net. Each 12mo. Macmillan Co. A B C of Good Form. By Anne Seymour; with In- troduction by Maud Howe. 16mo, 111 pages. Harper & Brothers. 50 cts. net. Everyman's Library. Edited by Ernest Rhys. New volumes: Poems, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, with Introduction by Charles M. Blakewell; Of the Advancement of Learning, by Francis Bacon, with Introduction by G. W. Kitchin; Brand, a dramatic poem, by Henrik Ibsen, translated by F. E. Garnett; Travels in France and Italy, by Arthur Young, with Introduction by Thomas Okey; Heimskringla, the Olaf Sagas, by Snorre Sturlason, translated by Samuel Laing; British Historical and Political Orations, from the 12th to the 20th century, compiled by Ernest Rhys; The Subaltern, by G. R. Gleig; Windsor Castle, by William Harrison Ainsworth; The Story of a Peasant, by Erckmann-Chatrian, translated by C. J. Hogarth, 2 vols.; Tales of Ancient Greece, by George W. Cox; Rights of Man, by Thomas Paine, with Introduction by G. J. Holyoake; The Wars of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus, trans- lated by William Whiston; Tom Cringle's Log, by Michael Scott; History of the French Revolu- tion, from 1789 to 1814, by F. A. M. Mignet, with Introduction by L. Cecil Jane; De Bello Gallico, and other commentaries of Caius Julius Cæsar, translated by W. A. McDeVitte; Essays, by Thomas Carlyle, with Introduction by J. Russell Lowell, 2 vols.; The Life of Robert Browning, by Edward Dowden; Short Studies on Great Sub- jects, by James Anthony Froude, Vol. II.; Poor Folk and The Gambler, by Fedor Dostoieffsky, translated by C. J. Hogarth; Dictionary Cata- logue of the First 505 Volumes, arranged and annotated by Isabella M. Cooper and Margaret A. McVety; each 16mo. E. P. Dutton & Co. Per volume, 35 cts. net. to receive consideration of editors or dramatic producers must be professionally typed. Our references, the best known American writers-names on request. Special Attention to Out-of-town Authors Your Short Stories, Novels, Magazine Articles, etc., typed with one carbon copy and bound, soc. per 1000 words. Plays, Sketches, Scenarios, with carbon, bound, 10c. per typewritten page. Send by registered mail or express with money order. Send for “Marketable MSS" A booklet of information you need, moiled for 4 cents in stamps AUTHORS' SERVICE BUREAU 33 West 42nd Street NEW YORK CHANGES of ADDRESS SUBSCRIBERS to The DIAL who contemplate changing their addresses, either temporarily or permanently, should notify us promptly, giving both the old and new addresses, so as to insure their copies of THE DIAL reaching them without interruption. We cannot undertake to supply missing copies, lost in forwarding, unless we receive early notification of intended changes. THE DIAL, 632 S. Sherman St., CHICAGO THE DIAL A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information. THE DIAL (founded in 1880) is published fortnightly — every other Thursday - cxcept in July and August, in which one issue for each month will appear. TERMS OF SUBSCRIP- TION, $2. a year in advance, postage prepaid in the United States and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian postage 50 cents per year e ctra. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL. Unless other- wise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current num- ber. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of subscription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY, 632 Sherman Street, Chicago. Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. Vol. LVIII. JUNE 10, 1915 No. 696 CONTENTS. PAGE . A BULL IN THE EDUCATIONAL CHINA-SHOP. There lies heavily upon our table a pamphlet in a neutral gray cover, containing nearly a thousand pages - most of them in fine print, - and bearing the innocuous title: “Report upon the Survey of the University of Wiscon- sin.” This is not an ordinary official docu- ment; it is a most extraordinary one. May it long .remain unique! Democratic etiquette requires that public linen shall be washed in public. However decorous the arrangement of the clothes on the line, the tout ensemble is not inspiring. A considerable part of the “Survey" relates to matters of University housekeeping, - methods, accounts, forms, ap- pliances, machinery, statistics; all this is no concern of ours. The officials responsible for the undertaking are “the State Board of Public Affairs," composed of the Governor and other prominent citizens. Their concise report is a proper statement of the university's policy, record, and management; it is sporadi- cally critical, but sane in criticism and com- mendation. The facts speak adequately, and reflect the usual wisdom interspersed with myopic vision that makes educational history in this overgrown country of ours. The mas- sive bulk of the volume is the work of one William H. Allen, Ph.D., the official surveyor. The manner in which his inquisitorial task is accomplished necessitates a copious comple- ment of commentaries by various members of the Faculty of the surveyed university. The function of these commentaries is to set forth the versatile fallacies and to correct the com- prehensive distortions with which the "Allen" report is saturated. Thus denatured, the document to the discerning becomes inoffen- sive by becoming ridiculous; and yet it re- mains a tragedy in effect, a farce in execution. When Dr. Allen's methods are vivisected by shrewd and patient diagnosticians (whose services at the least deserve a national monu- ment) their barrenness is pitiable. A list of thirty-seven things which the dean of the graduate school of the much lauded University of Wisconsin is not expected to do, is gravely cited as a comprehensive arraignment of the A BULL IN THE EDUCATIONAL CHINA. SHOP 445 VERBOTEN. Z. M. Kalonymos 448 CASUAL COMMENT . 450 Fifty years of the “Fortnightly.” Laxa- tive literature.--- Travesty in the form of fiction.— The perils of playfulness.- A plea for the revival of a moribund art.- The book- reviewer's chief function.- The pride of authorship.- Obstructive library laws.- A new department of State archives.- A classic author in his own lifetime. COMMUNICATION 454 An Aggrieved Shakespearean Commentator. Charles D. Stewart. CROWDING MEMORIES OF A LITERARY LIFE. Percy F. Bicknell 456 JUSTICE FOR THE INDIAN. Frederick Starr 458 TAGORE: POET AND MYSTIC. Louis I. Bredvold 459 A SCIENTIFIC BAEDEKER OF THE WEST. Charles Atwood Kofoid 461 RECENT FICTION. William Morton Payne . 462 Miss Van Vorst's Mary Moreland.— Merwin's The Honey Bee.- Oppenheim's The Double Traitor.- Thorne's The Secret Service Sub- marine.- Le Queux's At the Sign of the Sword.—Mrs. Bradley's The Splendid Chance. NOTES ON NEW NOVELS . 466 BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS 467 Studies in Chaucer and his times. — “ The mystery and the miracle of vitality.” — - New light on the emotions.— Internationalizing the Monroe Doctrine.- A contribution to social betterment.- Wonders of the Rockies. - Health control in the Tropics.— Determin- ism and romance. - The universal appeal of great art.- Woman's place in modern prog- ress.- New edition of a handbook on India. BRIEFER MENTION. 471 NOTES 472 TOPICS IN JUNE PERIODICALS 473 LIST OF NEW BOOKS 474 . . 446 (June 10 THE DIAL 66 incompetence and negligence of that officer, the Allen report a rare and negligible patho- ' without evidence being presented that it is logical specimen, or is it a significant symptom desirable or practicable to do any one of the of a prevalent disease? How comes it that the thirty-seven things.” Had the dean actually legislature of a great State subjects its great- subscribed to these thirty-seven articles, it est institution to so unworthy and so futile would have been adequate cause in the minds and so expensive a procedure? Why should a of many to invite his resignation; and it is body of scholars be harassed by 50-page ques- fairly probable that had he been thus guilty, tion-sheets, and distracted by an impertinent these same "facts" of commission might have and aimless “Survey"? Why should a docu- been cited by another “Dr. Allen " as evidence ment more voluminous than President Stanley of the manner in which the dean wastes his Hall's great two-volume work on “Educational time. The justly despairing commentator re Problems” (to mention the most comprehen- sorts to the deadly parallel: “Using the sive of recent contributions to educational method of Dr. Allen, it might be said: (a) literature) be printed and circulated as Ex- No attempt has been made to determine the hibits A and B and C to Ampersand, of irrele- average size of shoes worn by professors”; vance and obliquity! or the relation of the color of their hair to That "something is rotten in the state of efficiency of instruction," or of the color of Denmark” is the ready conclusion. Well! their eyes to “efficiency in research," — or or “Yes” and "No." Anyone acquainted with other deadly sins of omission more than seven the uncritical manner in which decisive steps times seven. Under such irritation, sooner or of this kind are taken will at once relieve those later, even the academic spirit rebels. On responsible for the "Survey" of the charge of page 197 we reach the verdict: “ To resort, any lack of good will, of appreciation of the for once, to the vernacular, this is rot.” More higher education, or of good judgment in soberly expressed: “No statement of facts adjusting desirable ends to possible means. and no conclusion or recommendation of Dr. Off-hand, it seems a good thing to take stock Allen can be accepted without verification.” | and have an expert accounting. Such“ goods” “The intellectual life and the life of the spirit come high, but their higher sanction is Econ- are to Dr. Allen what a symphony is to the omy with a capital E. And there's the rub! deaf-mute or a sunset to the blind." 'The Commercial-mindedness has so insidiously survey of the graduate school has been mainly eaten its way into the judicial fibre of the directed to its clothes rather than to the living American mind, that its workings have become being beneath the clothes.” Mis-statement, untrustworthy. So when a plausible man mis-quotation, garbled reports, direct untruth- comes along with a plausible scheme to test fulness, insinuations, unwarranted implica- the higher education, and reform its extrava- tions, ignorant interpretations, mechanical gance, and tabulate it, and cost-account its manipulation of statistics, are all charged every item, and prune research and similar against Dr. Allen; and with a ruthless frank- luxuries, and introduce supervised instruc- ness, scathing in its charitable reserve, are tion, and bring the plant up-to-date, and scrap proved to the hilt. Even in the handling of its inefficient professors, one person in author- the naked sabre of statistics, the hand that ity is impressed, a few more are acquiescent,- wields the weapon receives the wound. “If and the scheme goes through. Of course there Dr. Allen's computations are correct, more should have been a watch-dog on the grounds than 90% of the teaching of the college costs to indicate the true character of the intruder; less than 42% of the salaries,” a reductio ad but there was not, because as a people we do absurdum. In fact, so ignorant is Dr. Allen not like alarmists any more than we like of the meaning of numbers that he converts a "knockers," and we prefer to take our fore- cold statistical statement that class-markings thought after something has happened. If the follow the law of distribution of averages into University concerned had protested, charges a deliberate intention on the part of the in of interested motives and a fear of baring the structor to repress talent. truth would have been promptly imputed. No But enough of this superfluous exhibition of one expected this kind of a survey; and it is the mischief that one stray bull in a china-shop only fair to admit that so extreme a genius can do (and be paid handsomely for his havoc), for blundering must be unusual. It is hard and to the point: Why are these things? Is luck that the result is as preposterous as it 1915] 447 THE DIAL turned out to be; but perhaps that is the own field he knows better; he does not count fortunate thing about it. If the Wisconsin all his promissory notes as equally valid assets: survey serves to prevent a similar profane he has a pretty exact notion of what he can invasion of sacred territory, and thus to guar- collect. antee the peace of the academic world for a And yet the mystery of these endless pages reasonable period, the Wisconsin sacrifice will of utterly useless misconstruction remains. not have been in vain. Yet it would be rash to Are our universities really to be threatened assume that this moral will be drawn univer- periodically by such futile absurdities? What sally; and once more, there's the rub! will our foreign critics think of us? It may be For down at the bottom of our hearts, where a joke at home, where we make allowances; convictions germinate, there is a suspicion of but it becomes a shame abroad, where it travels learning, which will not easily be uprooted. on its face value. And does any person in his We are practical to the point of obsession; senses really believe that the cause of higher which means that we lose sight of the most education, or any worthy cause whatever, can obvious practicality in the world, in that we be advanced by industrious ant-hills of such insist upon results and are impatient of means. petty, carping, querulous, specious pellets of But more than that: there has grown to im- inconsequence? Can the surveyor himself mense proportions the newer efficiency, that believe in it; or is it more charitable to regard puts forward method as a panacea, invents him as a fraud rather than a fool! If the 'perfect” systems, and is absorbed in mechan- | Wisconsin survey is to take its place in history isms and oblivious of purposes. It has made as an isolated case of an obscure mental dis- the business sense of the community, which ease, it does not much matter what the answer runs things, insensitive to values. This same may be. But if this sort of thing is going to business sense accuses the professor of a lack break out epidemically or sporadically, we of practicality, and entirely overlooks that all must find the antidote; and it may not be a this alleged efficiency of beginning on the simple matter. For the decision to have sur- stroke of the bell and quitting when the whis veys rests with a small group of men; and if tle blows, and using all the class-rooms all the they are susceptible to the wiles of special time, and reducing the cost of unit-instruction pleaders, there is little hope. It is well enough per student neurone, is just plain, bald, bare to point out that for any one man to frame assumption. There is not a fact or a shred thousands of questions, make hundreds upon of evidence anywhere to prove that the most hundreds of recommendations on any and important discoveries or the best educated every detail of a university's activities, deter- individuals come from institutions in which mining off-hand that a foreign language is these things are carefully looked into, and that unnecessary and so is military drill, that the the neglect of them or reasonable attention to president should not be a member of the gov- them has differentiated one type of institution erning body, what students should pay for from another. Then there is the peculiar in-board, how faculty meetings shall be con- fatuation with facts dressed in modern tabular ducted and doctor's dissertations written, and attire, which the tailor assures you is the so on endlessly,— that all this is a colossal “correct” thing. So the surveyor is con piece of impudence, which would indicate stantly insisting that he wants facts, facts, exactly the type of man you are dealing with. FACTS. But he decides what facts he wants; But the fact remains that when once the offi- assumption again. The size of the professor's cial inquiry takes this form, there is no ma- shoes is a fact, and is readily ascertained. It chinery available for stopping it, short of the has a glorious definiteness, and the curve of threat of resignation of the entire Faculty,- distribution would admirably prove that pro and who ever heard of professors acting col- fessors are not superior to, are not even differ- lectively? The law provides; the money is ent from other foot-geared mortals. The spent; and the report goes forth. relevancy of a fact, or the interpretation of a It would be possible to introduce a vaccina- fact, is to the practical man merely an opinion, tion campaign in any educational area in not to be seriously considered. And that is which the efficiency germ is likely to find a why he is so easily taken in by plausible pre favorable culture-bed; the operation has a sumption. He accepts labels for things, and a good chance of "taking” and conferring a record for the experience. Of course in his temporary immunity. The only permanent 448 [June 10 THE DIAL protection is in the way of a wide-spread and VERBOTEN. deep appreciation of the needs of the educa- tional provisions for public welfare. How- It is Sunday. We are five at dinner, talking of the sinking of the “Lusitania," and our ever spasmodic and uncertain our educational voices are subdued. One of us is a German, a efforts, they have proved adequate to safe- teacher of German, an interpreter of Germany guard cultural interests. The private institu- to America. Another is of German stock; his tions, with their capacities to mobilize their ancestors had come to the United States after alumni reserves, are fairly safe from attack. ²48, leaving a brother dead in the fight for The State institutions find their vulnerable freedom. The third is a Jew, German-born point in the legislative plexus. The demo- and wont on occasion to tell us that he was cratic test is a peculiar one: it insists that made in Germany and improved in America. The fourth is pure American, of Puritan stock, every proposal must be capable of convincing the dean of our group. He is old enough to a lay jury of its wisdom and necessity. The be the father of the oldest of us; his choice of mentality of that jury is the critical issue; us as table-mates we regard as a great compli- also the attitude in which it is encouraged or ment. We defer to him in all our disputes, to permitted to approach its authoritative dis his humor and to his experience. He is largely pensations. Political authority unquestion- German-trained, a great lover of Germany, ably includes the right to meddle with things particularly of Göttingen, where he had stud- imperfectly understood, and to override the ied; now and then he would tell us charming stories of his student-days. Of recent years it judgments of those by attainment especially was his custom to return to Germany every conversant with the delicate interests of the summer. higher education. Whether that dubious privi- This day our talk has been less certain and lege shall be exercised depends upon the less frank than is our custom. We have been practical conception of the purpose of the skirting the edge of the topic, dwelling on the political instrument. The responsibility goes pity of it. We all exhibit strain, as in a house back to the universities themselves. They of mourning; silences, eloquent with tension, must decide whether they have remained true fall too often. At the end of one of these to their trust, or in a spirit of compromise comes the voice of the Jew, low, but no longer hesitant, as if he has determined to cut through have bartered their birthright for a mess of our reservations. pottage; they must examine whether the con- “You know how I have always tried to ception of a university which they have de- explain, to explain away. But this time- fended has encouraged unwise interference, when read the paper I could n't believe it at and provoked the use of the legislative blud first, and when I found I had to I felt a rush geon. For there the efficiency promoters and of anger, I wanted to crush that submarine- the energetic grinders of axes and the childish captain in my two hands,— to break him in nursers of private grudges find sympathetic halves. At home I found my weekly 'Staats response. It comes with a sense of shock that Zeitung.' The next thing I knew half of it such undesirable forces should be able to on the floor under my feet, the rest twisted to pieces in my hands. I was crying assert their powers and weaken, even under- inwardly, God punish Germany!” mine, the foundations of our highest inter- In the silence that followed we could hear ests. Possibly this ponderous monument of the German's breathing. He opened his mouth the folly and the danger of such a policy may once or twice, but did not say anything. He lead the reflective to ponder. For the Allen was very pale. Finally he burst out. mausoleum, in view of the transitoriness of "You,- you! But what is the use! You mundane things, the epitaph is easy to select: do not understand,- you cannot understand. “Verily this is rot.” But as a constant re I know what you all think, you, my friends. minder of the watchfulness that is the price of You have thought it from the beginning. educational safety a more stable and a more Nothing that we may say or do will make you spiritual conscience and consciousness are otherwise, though we have pleaded an indispensable. After every political cam- conceded and humbled ourselves for your American friendship,- yes, even intrigued paign we learn that once more, and however for it. But you also are in the league against the election turns, the country has been saved. us, the chief bulwark of our enemies. Here The saving forces of the educational interests are you four - all German-born or German- will rally to the charge. trained,- yet I know from his silence that was 1915] 449 THE DIAL even Kurt here, who bears the name of an “Yes, Kurt, like a hungry man's when he's uncle who died for a free Germany in '48, eating, or better, like a child's, free at last even Kurt has condemned us. And Jacob,— from the restraints of school." you heard what he said. He forgets what his “I don't understand," said Kurt rather own people are suffering at the hands of the coldly. Poles and the Russians. He forgets that it " I'm afraid not. Perhaps I don't under- is also their battle we are fighting, quite as stand, myself. But man and boy, I have much as our own,- the battle of civilization known Germany for over forty years. I was against barbarism. And he wants us crushed one of the earliest of the Americans who went for a fair act of war! But, I ask you - over there to study, and I have been there what could we do? We are fighting for since repeatedly. I have seen the change of our national life, against overwhelming odds the old Germany into the new as it came. You alone in the centre of an iron circle of ene might sum it all up by the word Verboten. mies whose one grievance against us is that You see, the Germany I first knew was the we are prosperous and civilized. We did not Germany of your grandfather, Kurt, and it want war; we do not want war. We are the was n't very different from the Germany of most peaceful people in Europe, hard-work your great-grandfather,- a pleasant, sleepy, ing, studious, devoted to the ideal, to the bet-dreamy country, rather messy, very indus- terment of mankind. Our one crime — which trious, very pious, sentimental, and most you call militarism — is self-defence. Only awfully wordy. People were not concerned yesterday you took your ideals and standards about government, except when they made a from us,- from our educational system, from holiday and the guard turned out. Whatever our industries, from our arts, from everything. you called the form of government, there was You sent your young men to study in our uni a great deal of personal and social freedom. versities and to learn our ways. You copied | You went where you pleased, and did what our scientists and philosophers. If you had you pleased; you did n't have to have pass- been able, you would have copied our civic ports, nor get out of the way of the military. organization and social and economic methods. Life was easier than it was here, but essentially Your travellers and your scholars praised us by as democratic. You were certain, as, save for word and by pen. And now — what has hap- the wordiness, nowadays you can't be, of ex- pened? Have we changed over-night that you actly what people meant when they called should call us Huns and barbarians and Germany a nation of poets and philosophers. makers of war on women and children? It is Germans have always exhibited a curious as- absurd! We are the same as we always were; surance that the Lord is with them, and that the war has made no difference in us. We their will is His. It did n't particularly matter have broken no law. We have hurt none whom what they did,- they always had a system of we could save. We have merely defended our philosophy to prove that it was inevitable, that selves. You would allow a dog fighting for his the Universe meant that and nothing else. life against a pack of wolves greater freedom Think of Kant with his obligatory moral law than we have taken for ourselves.” within.' Think of Fichte with his metaphys- He rose and left us before we could stop him. ical demonstration that the German people After a pause the Jew said: “There is some were intended by the Lord to be a cultured thing in that. Our turnover has been com nation. What is the whole romantic movement plete. I suppose because the contrast between but an eristical exhibition of how the uni- the German at war and the German in peace verse conspires with the romanticist's whim- is so violent that both can't be real." sies? I remember reading an article by some “Hold on,” said the Yankee. “I am not American professor about the compensatory sure that the violence of the contrast does n't nature of ideas. I gathered that some sort of mean that both must be real.” law operates which keeps men neutralizing un- We looked our question. pleasant facts with pleasant fancies,- ideas “Well, here is what I mean. You've both in dreams, ideas in art and literature, ideas in read Bédier's collection of citations from the philosophy. They sort of balance our accounts diaries German soldiers are required to write with the universe, our wishes taking notes on - his Crimes allemands? I daresay your im the unseen and the non-existent for the visible pression was the same as mine: the general existing world's failure to pay. When roman- mood of Bédier's evidence implied more than tic idealism flourished in Germany there were the mere execution of the orders of the day'— hundreds of small states and an infinite deal a willingness, a kind of joy, a gloating." of local color. I suppose that the barren ex- “No, no," expostulated the German-Amer panse and logical rigor of that way of think- ican. ing, - a way of thinking which makes all 6 450 [June 10 THE DIAL things the same as your Absolute self,— was a “The new generation which had grown up compensation for the pleasant grubbiness and with it had grown up swearing, kicking the provinciality and disorder of the actual daily cat, getting drunk; the present generation is life. It is all the same in the Absolute.” doing the same thing on the battlefield — in a “But what has all that to do with the war more exaggerated way, but the same thing. and Verboten and frightfulness?" interposed The new art, the new literature, the new Kurt. eroticism and individualism, these are but the " Why, this. So long as the Kantian 'moral relief of swearing, the expression in idea of law' was 'within,' so long as the Absolute was these traits which the Prussified social and an obligation in idea, it was a word, an ideal, political order repressed in fact. Transcen- and conspired with the individual to keep him dental Egotism has given way to personal free, expanding his imagination and saving selfishness, to bumptiousness, to vanity; senti- him from provincialism. But thanks to Hegel, ment and piety to subtle brutality toward the word was made flesh and dwelt on earth; women and to formalism in religion; social the ideal became an idol." responsibility to intense individualism and “To Hegel?” rivalries, most marked, perhaps, in academic “Yes. Don't you remember the peroration circles. Year by year, as I returned, I found of his philosophy of history? It describes the these things intensified as the moral law' Prussian monarchy as Absolute Reason incar became more 'objective' and Verboten more nate,- identifies it with the highest perfection effective. Absolutism in fact had led to anar- which rational evolution, as history, could chism in ideals: Germany was swearing and attain. Conservative, orthodox, wordy, and kicking the cat and getting drunk to beat the pro-Prussian, Hegel is the real master of band. You know how the present generation Treitschke. Of all the consequences of his swears by Nietzsche. And you know — the teachings - and they are legion -- modern Schrecklichkeit." Germany is thus far the most efficacious. His “But,” interposed Jacob, "is n't Nietzsche way of thinking dominated Europe for two himself a cause of the Schrecklichkeit?” generations. It was the official philosophic "Nonsense. Nietzsche was nothing if not orthodoxy of my student days, approved by an individualist. He had no use for the State. the powers that be because it made them the If young Germany has turned to him, it is by Absolute's local habitation and name. It justi- way of compensation. Like the atrocities, his fied things as they were. It rationalized hold on young Germany's imagination is an acquiescence in Prussian aggression between effect, not a cause. He supplies young Ger- '60 and '80, and made easy the complete Prus many with what Mr. Robert Chambers sup- sification of Germany in the '80s. There had plies the shop-girl,- a vicarious realization of been, for various reasons, an interval of over repressed desire. The cause is the repression twenty years between my first and second jour exercised by the 'moral law within' turned ney to Germany. I have since returned there into an outer fact. The cause is Verboten." every summer; but the shock of that first re- Z. M. KALONYMOS. turn repeats itself. The picturesque dirt and the jolly disorderliness were gone; streets were clean and policemen plenty. The simplicity, the kindliness, and the democracy were gone; CASUAL COMMENT. the freedom of movement was gone, so was, FIFTY YEARS OF THE “FORTNIGHTLY," the really, the freedom of thought. The universi- review that professes by its name to appear ties and schools had been centralized; ad every two weeks, and did so for a year at its vancement was dependent upon a ministry to start, but has ever since unblushingly belied whom your teaching must be satisfactory; and its title by coming out monthly, have been if you were heterodox on any matter remotely rounded out with proper acclaim, and the connected with politics there was no hope for publication starts on its second half-century you. Everything else was like that, too, - the under notably favorable auspices. It is not, press, commerce, the church. And the police by the way, the first English periodical of its system,- passports, surveillance, reports! On sort to be guilty of a certain absurdity in the all sides you were hemmed in with taboos, and matter of title. There was, for instance, if you expostulated you were met with an “The Prospective Review," called into being inexorable Verboten. All you could do was to ten years earlier by James Martineau and swear — in the privacy of your bedroom,— to others, and not unnaturally made the target kick the cat, or to get drunk. Verboten was for some good-natured jibes by reason of the the moral law, the absolute reason, turned into contradiction in terms conspicuous in its a visible and audible fact. name. As the jubilee of the review now con- 1915] 451 THE DIAL ducted by Dr. Courtney is duly celebrated in in place of disagreeable truths and stern reali- the pages of that review, the reader is referred ties, and a general condition of self-complacent to those entertaining and instructive pages, sloppiness — these, or something like them, it to which it may be pertinent to add an appre- appears, are conspicuous among our faults ciative word concerning its editor by a fellow both as writers and readers and reviewers of Oxonian. In his “ Twenty Years of My Life" novels, and as citizens of a supposedly self- Mr. Douglas Sladen writes: “But of all the governing State. The quack-novelist finds five men who were at Oxford with me, no one has million mouths watering for his “mess of mil- been so prominent, then and now taken to dewed pap," and the quack-statesman easily gether, in intellectual circles as W. L. Court commands many more than five million elec- ney. Courtney was then a rather young New tive votes. Our people revel in sham, and College don, who had the distinction of being assiduously cultivate a squint to avoid seeing married to an extremely smart-looking wife. the truth. Dr. Edward Garnett's notable deliv. That would have been a distinction by itself erance of six months ago on American fiction in the Oxford of that day, for few were mar is made the text for some remarks not exactly ried in a way suitable to impress under- flattering to most of those who write, those graduates. Added to that, he cut the most who read, and those who review, our works of eminent figure in athletics of any don in fiction. fiction. Timidity and lack of discrimination Oxford. He was the treasurer of the Uni are charged against the literary reviews, of versity Boat Club, while the dons respected which the more respectable stand ever ready him as the ablest man in Oxford at philoso- to be the first to hail a perfectly well established phy. . . His influence on literature has been artist." The view of Mr. Bryan upon which immense. He has stood for the combination is premised so much of Mr. Wister's article of scholarliness and up-to-dateness. His own seems to us quite unjust and unwarranted, as books range from essays on the verge of fic are also his sneers at the very few American tion to some of the most important works on periodicals (most of which he mentions by philosophy published in a generation. Inci. Inci- name) that have at least endeavored to main- dentally, the creator of Egeria is our best tain discriminating standards in the appraisal dramatic critic, and a writer of plays.” of current fiction. Occasionally in his article, Noteworthy is the fact, vouched for by Mr. also, Mr. Wister proves that he is by no means Courtney, that his review has gained rather an infallible critic himself, -as in his aston- than lost in circulation since the outbreak of ishing remark about Mr. Galsworthy's “The the war and the consequent increased vogue Dark Flower." But, in the main, his whole- of the daily newspaper. Repeatedly, he says, somely harsh utterances ought to be, and must the “Fortnightly” has of late gone out of be, in some degree, tonic and bracing and print on the fourth or fifth of the month; curative. and a similar experience is reported by other London monthlies of like standing. Evi TRAVESTY IN THE FORM OF FICTION is a legiti- dently the daily journalist's snap-shot views mate variety of literary art, and is never liable of current events do not suffice for all readers. to the severity of censure visited upon travesty that purports to be history or biography or LAXATIVE LITERATURE is both a cause and an travel or some other species of serious prose effect of that general slackness and flabbiness composition. Nevertheless, when the novelist that characterize, in varying measure, the im- puts forth a burlesque or a distortion in such perfect human nature of us all. This atonic wise as to cause it to be accepted seriously as quality in American literature and life re- something other than it is, he is guilty of a ceives a sharp castigation at the hands of Mr. kind of disingenuousness, to say the least, that Owen Wister in an article entitled Quack may stir just resentment. Such resentment Novels and Democracy," which holds the place has already been noted in these columns on the of honor in this month's “Atlantic.” Espe- part of certain critical Irish readers of Canon cially severe is he upon those present-day Hannay's imaginative portrayals of life and fiction-writers of whom he selects Mr. Harold character in his native Ireland; and now there Bell Wright as a typical example, upon the comes to notice, in the Dublin “Leader," an five million eager readers of such fiction, and outspoken though not intemperate protest upon that far more inclusive class of Amer- against the caricatures that this popular writer icans whom our Secretary of State is thought (known to his readers as “George A. Birming- by Mr. Wister to represent. Slackness, heed- ham") has put his name to, more especially in lessness, happy-go-lucky muddle-headedness, some of his later books, as pictures of men and addiction to cheap sensationalism, a bland con manners in the land of the shamrock and the tent with sounding words and pretty phrases | shillelah. “Mr. Birmingham,” complains the 452 June 10 THE DIAL critic, “albeit guiltless of the coarse misrepre- term is used here without sarcasm), from sentations of the past, has contrived to revive whom better things had been looked for, most the expiring tradition of the Irishman in cap unexpectedly and surprisingly pounced upon and bells, with enough wit to entertain others this little alliterative effort, censured with and insufficient to discharge his own obliga- ponderous gravity the supercilious perpetrator tions. At the very moment when, having of so wanton an injury against a worthy indus- almost overwhelmed this preposterous tradi- try, magnanimously instructed him in his igno- tion, writers and dramatists and poets were rance that what he was dimly groping for in conspiring to replace it by the industrious his comparison was the sword and not the and attractive circulation of the truth, there plough, and delivered quite an improving lit- broke in upon their patriotic efforts Mr. Bir tle sermon on the usefulness and the dignity mingham's company of comedians. Their of agriculture. Not unnaturally, this stirred appearance was doubtless agreeable to Mr. a desire to take candle in hand, as was done by Birmingham's pocket, but it has been singu- Lamb on the occasion above mentioned, and, larly misfortunate for his reputation and for approaching the defender of the honest farmer, the dignity of his country's literature." Re to accost him with the gentle humorist's polite gret is expressed for “ the degradation of Mr. request, “Sir, will you allow me to look at Birmingham's art by the conscienceless de- your phrenological development?” mands of the English fiction market," and the writer laments the “long descent from The A PLEA FOR THE REVIVAL OF A MORIBUND ART, Northern Iron' to 'General John Regan,' and the art of reading aloud, was not long ago from so carefully written a book as 'The Seeth- persuasively made by Mr. Benjamin Ives Gil- ing Pot' to the pot-boiling comicalities of man, Secretary of the Boston Museum of Fine ‘Dr. Whitty.'” One can understand and can Arts, before a gathering of Massachusetts sympathize with a tendency to yield to the librarians; and his words have now achieved temptation to be highly entertaining and pro the permanence of print in the “Bulletin' portionately successful, commercially, rather of the Massachusetts Library Club. Mr. Gil- than to be less entertaining and less success man suggests that a “docent service” be ful; but the stern morality of the matter added to the public library's equipment, sim- teaches that 'tis a writer's perdition to be ilar to the docent service inaugurated at the popular when for the truth he ought to be above-named museum eight years ago and unpopular. since widely adopted in other museums both in this country and in England. Personal aid, THE PERILS OF PLAYFULNESS, whether of the free to all, in the appreciative study of its art pen or of the tongue, lurk unsuspected on works is furnished by the museum, greatly to “Set a watch, O Lord, before my the visitor's profit and pleasure; and it is mouth; keep the door of my lips,” should be argued that a similar docent service in the the humorist's constant prayer. Grown per- library, consisting chiefly of the viva voce sons who jest in the presence of children do so interpretation of great authors in their noted at their own risk. The comptroller of stamps, books, would help to make those authors, now at that historic party in Haydon's rooms, too much neglected, alive and real and full of whose “phrenological development" Lamb so meaning to the library-users. The details of earnestly desired to inspect, will stand as the the scheme would have to be worked out with type of man before whom it is dangerous to be thought and labor and the instruction of expe- other than altogether serious. Carlyle, it will rience. On this head Mr. Gilman says, among be recalled in this connection, had little relish other things: “It would evidently not be ad- for lighter humor of the Elian variety. To visable to add the duty to the burdens, already him Lamb's talk was “contemptibly small, heavy, of the library force itself. Readers indicating wondrous ignorance and shallow should in general be chosen from outside the ness," and there was a most slender fibre of staff as a regularly accredited corps of assis- actual worth in that poor Charles.” But be tants. To read aloud well is not a talent given tween Lamb and any Scotchman there never to many; and the choice of the corps would was much love lost. Not long ago there present difficulty. To those well fitted it chanced to be printed in this department a would afford a new means, if not of livelihood. paragraph ending with the phrase — not in- at least of adding to their earnings; but great tended to express an everlasting truth, but care would be needed to ensure that the reader penned in lighter mood and, moreover, put should have a good voice, a pleasant delivery, into the mouth of a hypothetical man of let. and an intelligent and appreciative grasp of ters — “the pen is mightier than the plough.” | the particular work to be read.” To his fur- An esteemed contemporary (the hackneyed ther pertinent remarks he might have added every hand. 1915] 453 THE DIAL “ It none. that this proposed docent service is but the Contrasting Meredith's dislike to be made the logical extension of the already tried and ap- object of gushing compliments with Dr. proved children’s-story-hour service, though Holmes's smiling submission to the same in- whether the addition is practicable or on the fliction, Mr. Sladen tells of a lady whom he whole advisable still remains to be shown. introduced to the affable American author, and who opened the interview thus: THE BOOK-REVIEWER'S CHIEF FUNCTION is re must bore you terribly, Dr. Holmes, to have viewing books — a useful platitude lost sight everybody who is introduced to you telling of by the would-be reviewer who writes essays you how they admire your books.” “On the or diatribes or sermons or rhetorical treatises contrary," was the gallant reply, “I can never or philosophical disquisitions in the guise of get enough of it. I am the vainest man alive.” reviews. A faithful portrait of the book, as On the same occasion, the English chronicler Mr. Robert Lynd emphatically insists in a adds, Dr. Holmes told him that he had been recent article on "Book-Reviewing” in “The unable to do any literary work (except his British Review,” is what is primarily de “Hundred Days in Europe”) for years, be- manded of the reviewer, not his personal cause all his time was taken up with answer- likings or dislikings as aroused by the author. ing complimentary letters. But, like a good portrait of a person, this representation of a book’s distinguishing quali OBSTRUCTIVE LIBRARY LAWS are worse than ties should be something more than an inven- The Illinois Library Extension Com- tory of attributes, a table of measurements, a mission calls attention, incidentally, in its rogues'-gallery record of individual peculiari. latest Report, to certain provisions of the ties; the vitalizing touch must make itself public library law of this State that might felt, the creative instinct should find play, advantageously be repealed or amended. For even in so seemingly mechanical a task as instance, under the existing law the largest reproducing in epitome the main features of unit that may levy a library tax is the town- a popular novel or a collection of essays or a ship; but there are seventeen counties in work of history. This vitalizing touch can in Illinois that have no township organization, many instances be attained by a discriminat and that have no villages large enough and ing use of quotation and anecdote, by a suffi- wealthy enough to maintain libraries, so that cient admixture of the concrete example with the inhabitants, outside the cities having pub- the abstractions of literary criticism. But lic libraries, are dependent on the very inade- above all, as Mr. Lynd well urges, let the quate travelling library system for most of reviewer present the purpose or motive of the their reading matter. A county library law book, and indicate as clearly as possible how is needed, and is asked for; also a law, analo- far that purpose has been attained. If the gous to that governing the township high author's object is to justify matricide, no mere school, which would permit adjoining town- iteration, on the reviewer's part, of the sacred- ships to unite for the support of a library. ness of the maternal relation, will constitute a This would especially aid villages situated in review of the book. In other words, a due parts of two townships and unable under pres- measure of self-suppression is of superlative ent restrictions to maintain any sort of public importance in book-reviewing, as in every library, whereas the combined resources of the other worthy form of human activity. two adjacent townships would suffice for the purpose. At the time of the issue of the THE PRIDE OF AUTHORSHIP shows itself un Report hope was entertained that legislative abashed in some authors, tries ineffectually to action in the desired direction might soon be conceal itself in others, makes the same at taken. tempt with better success in still others, and is entirely unknown to the remainder SO A NEW DEPARTMENT OF STATE ARCHIVES is few in number as to be virtually negligible. one of the by-products of militarism in Ger- Probably no eminent author has ever dis many. With characteristic thoroughness the played with more delightful frankness this government has organized a "film corps” to species of self-complacency, which after all procure cinematographic records of current need be no more than a certain legitimate and military operations. Though some of these desirable measure of self-respect, than the films will contribute to the edification of the amiable Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. A masses, as represented by the frequenters of characteristic anecdote about him is told by the moving-picture theatres, many will go to Mr. Douglas Sladen in his “Twenty Years of swell the “film archives," already numbering My Life” (which is reviewed on another more than two thousand“ reels.” This graphic page), and it will be new to most readers. I record of battles and other events and aspects 454 [June 10 THE DIAL of the war is a thing wonderful in itself, how vituperation, that he entirely fails to see the ridic- ever fraught with lamentable significance, and ulous straits into which his efforts are leading him. points the way to future and worthier uses of If he had any ability to read a line of Shakespeare the same method of preserving for all time this would have been impossible — even though he (barring accidents) history in the process of had never read the play. He says there is no excuse " for my taking making. Incidentally, the need will be em- Nerissa to be a maid " in the sense that I do. phasized of fireproof buildings for archive Let us refer him to “Familiar Talks on Some of purposes, unless some material indestructible Shakespeare's Comedies" (Boston, 1897). "Nerissa by fire shall take the place of the present | is a lady-in-waiting but somewhat kitchen-minded." inflammable film. Or again: “Nerissa, her lady-in-waiting, is quick- witted, kindly, and deeply attached to the sweet heiress, but throughout we feel her inferiority of A CLASSIC AUTHOR IN HIS OWN LIFETIME, nature to be greater than her inferiority of posi- President Wilson has the gratification of tion." Everybody knows that. seeing one of his carefully prepared and de True enough, Nerissa was a woman of quality, servedly admired speeches adopted for educa- but this did not prevent her from serving in such tional use as a model of choice English in the a position to the rich nobleman's daughter. As to public schools of Philadelphia. The address my excuse " for calling the woman of quality a in question is the one he delivered on the "maid," I must point out that it is Shakespeare who chose the word. Your critic is finding fault tenth of May before an audience of newly with Shakespeare. All his fine scorn must apply naturalized citizens in New York. From the to the Bard of Avon and not to me. reported utterances of Philadelphia school- He is equally wroth that I should call Gratiano teachers it appears that this action on the Bassanio's“ man.' He will not allow a nobleman part of Superintendent Jacobs has been heart to be so traduced. But look at the above lines, ily applauded. Cheerful acquiescence at the where Gratiano addresses Bassanio as “my lord.” White House is to be taken for granted, since Your critic evidently thinks that these words refer next to the writing of a nation's songs the to Bassanio merely as a nobleman, and that Grati- privilege of contributing to its school reading- ano was equally a lord. Does he not know that Bassanio took Gratiano along and paid his ex- books must be held in high esteem; and when the contributor also assists very conspicu- ture of the play that these two lovers, Nerissa and penses? In fact, it is necessary to the whole struc- ously in making that nation's laws, what a Gratiano, should be subordinate to the mistress and piling up of honors do we behold! master who were the principal lovers. Your critic not only does not understand the Shakespearean vocabulary but has no appreciation of the plot. Possibly, too, your readers would be interested COMMUNICATION. in the following. The critic says, in summing up his view of one of my solutions: “It is a pity that AN AGGRIEVED SHAKESPEAREAN our author has omitted to specify to an admiring COMMENTATOR. world in what respect a bullet or leaden messenger (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) of death is invulnerable and unconquerable.” The In a review of my book, " Some Textual Diffi- chapter he refers to, which occupies but three culties in Shakespeare," published in your issue of pages, is wholly engaged in showing, in as plain April 15 last, the writer repeatedly holds me up to English as I know how to use, that it is the air scorn for referring to Nerissa as a “maid " in the which is unconquerable, invulnerable. I would not sense of being a lady's-maid or household subordi think of making such a claim as he attributes to me. nate. If there is a reader of THE DIAL who does It would be ridiculous. Is not the following plain not know that this was Nerissa's position, let me English: “And so 'still-peering air' regards the suggest that before accepting the statements of atmosphere as always and ever the equal of these this abusive review he refresh his memory by leaden missiles of war leaden missiles of war — inconquerable, invulner- turning to some good commentator on Shakespeare able"? As I have said, the chapter dealing with or else by reading the play itself. The lines in this crux occupies but three pages, and it makes it question are as follows: plain that I am referring to the air as invulnerable, "My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours; even though the above quoted sentence were not You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid.” clear. Cannot your critic read the chapter he Shakespeare works by apposition - mistress - criticizes? maid. Now if, as your critic claims, Nerissa is In dealing with one of my notes on “ Hamlet," being referred to merely as an unmarried woman, this critic says: “We challenge Mr. Stewart to and if she is not a household subordinate at all, name a single editor, critic, or commentator who then we have got to take the word applied to gives the above paraphrase of the Captain's words." Portia in an apposite sense. We then have the He is referring to my own interpretation or para- lovely Portia being referred to as a “mistress” in phrase. This is a peculiar remark to make about that sense while she was as yet unmarried! a book whose only object is to submit original inter- As a matter of fact, your critic is so wholly pretations. In other words, I write a book on those engaged in finding fault with me, in four pages of famous cruxes which have baffled commentators for 1915) 455 THE DIAL nearly two centuries, and I submit solutions which Professor Neilson, of Harvard, whose "Cambridge" I think will clear up the difficulty. All solutions edition is recognized as the latest product of in the past have failed to satisfy, therefore I take Shakespearean scholarship, asked my permission, up the work. Necessarily, if I am to satisfy the through his publishers, to adopt my change in the minds of commentators, it must be with some new line in “Hamlet.” In rendering it as I do, and insight. It would be folly for me to submit any of according to the First Folio, I am differing with the stock theories which have all proved futile. every editor or commentator for two hundred And submitting such a solution I am met with the years. But if my explanation at last makes the challenge to show that any other commentator had sense plain, and it is gladly adopted, am I to ever submitted the same interpretation! I should refuse to do such work simply because it is “ pre- say not! It would be more in keeping for me to sumptuous” to differ with others? Such a work challenge Mr. Tannenbaum, the reviewer, to prove as this will never pay in money; and very slowly that anyone ever had. I do not understand the in fame. Criticism can neither hurt nor help the type of mind that feels called upon to write this author. CHARLES D. STEWART. sort of book reviews. This Mr. Tannenbaum, about whom I know nothing," challenges” me. Madison, Wis., June 2, 1915. Why challenge me? It is a critic's function simply to [After a careful perusal and consideration review a book. of Mr. Stewart's complaint about my review Besides convicting me of “unwarranted cock of his book, I can only say that I have nothing sureness” and “longwindedness" and "juvenility" to retract from my criticism. He credits me, and “contempt,” and using almost every sort of sarcasm and opprobrious epithet that could be quite incorrectly, with the statement that worked into a four-page review, he speaks of my Nerissa is termed a “maid” because she is "overloud thunderings in the index.” “As a matter unmarried. He continually speaks of Nerissa of fact the little book has no foreword or preface as a maid in the modern sense of the word or introduction of any kind. The index is simply because he opposes her to Gratiano as Bassa- two and one-half pages of alphabetically arranged nio's “man,” that is, servant. My objection to reference to characters and subjects in the plays. The review is very misleading; and it is so full Mr. Stewart's comments was not because he of error that I could hardly straighten it out in a refers to Nerissa as a lady's maid but because reader's mind if I were to take twenty pages of he speaks of her as a servant. On p. 300 I THE DIAL. The best answer I can make to the pointed out that Gratiano's word "maid” is critic's challenge is the following: The book bears not the same as Mr. Stewart's. In the passage the imprint of Yale and of Oxford, and is issued quoted by Mr. Stewart, “mistress” means a under the sponsorship of the Elizabethan Club of lady who rules or has control over a household, Yale. The Yale Press, of Yale University, gave the solutions three months of painstaking consid- not one who employs servants; and “maid” eration. It was referred to Yale by the most means a lady-in-waiting, a maid of honor. eminent authority at Harvard which had not yet Nerissa's service, like that of all maids of established its press. Previous to that, some of the honor, was only technical. Gratiano's ad- solutions had been favorably commented upon by dressing Bassanio as “my lord” no more Shakespearean authority in New York. And not proves he was the latter's “man” than Cas- one of these do I know personally, nor have I ever sius's addressing Brutus so proves Cassius met them. Your critic says, in accounting for my astound- to have been an underling. Bassanio did not ing presumption in explaining these cruxes, that pay Gratiano's expenses, Mr. Stewart to the I was probably led into it by “the ill-advised contrary notwithstanding. contrary notwithstanding. Moreover, Gra- flattery of friends." As a matter of fact I have tiano is not a nobleman, only a gentleman. lived for eight years three and a half miles from Again, if the air is the equal of the leaden even the smallest town on a lake in Wisconsin. I do not belong to a literary club nor have any invulnerable, I still want to know in what missiles of war in being unconquerable and literary associations; nor was I, during the time I was devoting to Shakespeare, in contact with sense bullets are unconquerable and invulner- anyone capable of advising me or offering me any able. Finally, Mr. Stewart very indignantly encouragement. And all the letters I received from maintains that I refer to one of his own inter- publishers in the east discouraged and advised pretations of a passage in “Hamlet” as if it against my attempting such a work. It was re were the interpretation of the commentators. garded as impossible; and a work that would pay This is perfectly characteristic of his method. no profit under any circumstances. I mention this As to that passage, this is what Mr. Stewart as showing how greatly a critic like Mr. Tannen- wrote: “According to the generally accepted baum can be mistaken in passing upon authors. As to my presumption in undertaking explana- interpretation, the Captain is supposed to be tions in which all critics have failed. The first saying," etc. If his paraphrase is the gener- solution which I made in “Hamlet” has already ally accepted one, it is not his, and I had a changed the text of that play. I refer to Polonius's right to challenge him to name a single editor, reply to the King in II., 2, 45. I changed the critic, or commentator who so paraphrased the wording in that line, explaining the reason; and Captain.- THE REVIEWER.) 456 [June 10 THE DIAL expected, he longed for the wider literary The New Books. opportunities of his native London; and so in 1884, with the sanguine outlook proper to his twenty-eight years, he returned to England CROWDING MEMORIES OF A LITERARY LIFE.* and began in earnest the pursuit of literature for a livelihood. Some idea of his educational As a magnet attracts iron-filings, so do some equipment may be gained from his own words men acquire a multitude of interesting little referring to that early time, words that make experiences that come to them as naturally and one envy the fulness and accuracy of his classi- abundantly as the filings to the magnet. Of cal and historical knowledge. He says: such men, in the literary walks of life, is Mr. Douglas Sladen, prolific and versatile author “As an author, I have found the education I of innumerable books, extensive traveller in was given and gave myself a very useful founda- tion. Those ten years I gave to the study of Latin all the continents and some of the islands of and Greek and classical history and mythology the globe, shrewd and humorous observer of were not thrown away, because I have written so men and manners, and everywhere and always, many books about Italy and Sicily and Egypt, in apparently, what in the expressive slang of which having the classics at my fingers' ends made to-day would be called “a good mixer." The me understand the history, and the allusions in the persons of note whom he has not met and materials I had to digest." mingled with might almost be said to be not Omnivorous and rapid in his reading, he had worth meeting, or such is the first impression been able at Cheltenham, according to his own received upon turning the very entertaining account, to read “every book in the College and, in no reprehensible sense, very personal library,” besides being (with a generous use of pages of his omnium gatherum of reminis capitals) “Senior Prefect, Editor of the school cence and anecdote, “ Twenty Years of My magazine, Captain of Football, and Captain of Life.” With almost excessive restraint as an the Rifle Corps," winner of "the prize for the autobiographer, he limits the systematic re English Poem” and many other prizes and hearsal of his own life to a few short chapters, four scholarships, and conspicuous in divers and devotes the bulk of his book to other peo other respects that need not here be enumer- ple's lives, or to some brief and characteristic ated. With such a start in life, how could he snatches of them as they have come into juxta- have failed to attain eminence? position with his own. And yet he is frankly It is in the anecdotal pages devoted to other though inoffensively conscious of his own men that the author is at his best; and the importance in the world wherein he moves, as temptation to quote freely from those divert- appears in such passages as this from his open- ing pages is irresistible. But their wealth of ing chapter: "At Cheltenham I was the most matter is such that the enjoyment of the book prominent boy of my time, and the prestige itself will suffer no appreciable diminution by with which I came up from school gave me a reason of this plagiarism. Opening the vol- certain momentum at Oxford. So I went out ume in the middle, here is what we find set to Australia with a very good opinion of Pub down in commemoration of the late witty lic Schools, of Oxford, and myself.” Henry Jeyes, journalist : His going to Australia was due largely to “ His reputation as a wit came up with him to his father's having a brother there, Sir Charles Oxford] from Uppingham. All Uppingham men Sladen, at one time prime minister of Victoria could remember how, when he was caught cribbing and afterward leader of the Upper House and with a Bible on his knee at a Greek Testament of the Constitutional Party in that colony; lesson, and his class-master had said to him tri- and it was in the course of that early Austra- umphantly, 'What have you there, Jeyes ?' he said, lian visit that Mr. Sladen obtained admission A book, sir, of which no man need be ashamed, to the bar and was appointed professor of and how when Thring, the greatest head master of modern history at the University of Sydney, in arithmetic for his Oxford and Cambridge cer- his time, had asked him how he came to be ploughed an appointment that came to him in conse- tificate, he replied from Shakespeare, 'I cannot quence of his having received highest honors reckon, it befits the spirit of a tapster a readi- in history at Oxford a few years before. But ness which Thring would have been the first to one year in this academic chair was sufficient appreciate. to convince him that it was not the seat exactly “Among the best things I remember him saying made to his measure. Though three volumes at Oxford are [sic] his definition of the Turks in of verse had come from his pen and enjoyed a great debate over the Bulgarian atrocities, as a as much local success as could have been people' whose morals are as loose as their trousers, and whose vices are as many as their wives.' And * TWENTY YEARS OF MY LIFE. By Douglas Sladen. four colored illustrations and twelve portraits by Yoshio it was he who said, 'I don't want to go to Heaven, because Gore (now Bishop of Oxford) is the only With Markino. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 1915] 457 THE DIAL Trinity man who will be there, and I'd rather be readability, and shopkeepers who catered for their with the rest.'” various sports bought the book to get addresses of In another chapter occurs a passage giving indignant at the Niagara of circulars which re- the eminent people, who were, many of them, very the origin of a noted saying that has even more sulted." significance now than when it was uttered; and the paragraph is interesting for other rea- Of that sincerest form of flattery which the sons also. Speaking of Mrs. Margaret Woods, work has received in its many imitations in he writes: different countries, including notably our own, “She was one of the few charming women that the complacent author rather strangely omits the monastic Oxford of that day contained. Her to make mention; but he calls attention to father, afterwards the famous Dean of West- some of the useful features that marked the minster, was master of University College; I used English “Who's Who” in his day, and that to go to his Socrates lectures. He was dissatisfied have since disappeared or suffered neglect, with the progress we were making, and boldly -- it "such as lists of peculiarly pronounced proper was very bold at Oxford --- charged us with paying names, keys to the pseudonyms of prominent too much attention to athletics, and it was then people, names of the editors of the principal that he made his famous mot, that he had never papers. He adds : Some of the real names taken any exercise in his life, except by occasionally were so unreasonable that people wrote to standing up when he was reading. I have heard that it was equally true of Mr. Chamberlain, but it know why they were not included in the lists was Dean Bradley who said it. The Bradleys were of pseudonyms; one of these was Sir Louis an excessively clever family. The Dean had a Forget." brother or a half-brother a great philosopher, a In his various wanderings Mr. Sladen has, don at Merton, and another, Andrew Bradley, a of course, visited this country more than once; Fellow at Balliol, who became Professor of Litera- | in fact, he has spent months at a time in Amer- ture at another University. I forget what his ica, and he knows our celebrities nearly as well. sister, Emma Bradley, did, but she was famous. as those of his own land. From his memories Three of his daughters, Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Birch- of our distinguished men we select a passage enough, Mrs. Murray Smith, are authoresses, Mrs. Woods being one of the best novelists of the day, concerning one of the most famous : and in my opinion the best of all poetesses in the “ Bret Harte, though he was such a typically English language. When Tennyson died there was American writer, spent all the latter part of his a movement in favour of her being made the lau life in England. I first met him at Rudolph Leh- reate, and no woman has ever had such claims for mann's hospitable dinner-table. No one could fail the post." to be struck with Bret Harte. He was so alert, so Curiously interesting and rather character handsome, and though his plumes - his hair was thick and sleek to the day he died were of an istic of puzzling human nature is the fact that exquisite snow-white, he had a healthy, fresh-col- Mr. Sladen, with so many other books of far oured face, and a slender, youthful figure, always greater literary worth to his credit, seems to dressed like a well-off young man. He re- take especial pride in his editorship of the first Who's Who” in its present form pay him at the rate of a couple of pounds for there had been an annual of that name in every hundred words. They used to say that the existence for half a century before he recog- Bank of England would accept his manuscripts as nized, in 1897, the splendid possibilities in its banknotes. He never failed to charm, whether he peculiar title. So great is his satisfaction in was telling some story at a dinner-party, or talking this product of his editorial industry that he to some undistinguished woman, young and beau- tiful or old and plain, who had asked to be intro- calls himself, on the title-page to his present duced to him as a celebrity - and a celebrity book, “author of 'Who's Who,'” and nothing Francis Bret Harte certainly was, for he founded a more. In fact, he devotes a special chapter to whole school in English literature." the history of “How I Wrote Who's Who.'” Very naturally and pardonably, a writer Among the interesting things he tells us about making such draughts on his memory as Mr. the planning of the work we quote the fol- Sladen, and writing so rapidly and copiously, lowing: commits minor errors of forgetfulness or of " The idea of adding recreations' to the more insufficient information. For instance, in the serious items which had been included in previous present volume, he makes John Hay “Harri- biographical dictionaries was adopted at one of son's Secretary of State," and, confusing two the councils of war which we used to hold in the partners' room of A. & C. Black, at 4 Soho Square. of our public men, of unequal prominence, he And for selling purposes it proved far and away refers to “the beautiful Viva Sherman, an the best idea in the whole book, when it was pub- American nearly related to the Senator-Vice- lished. The newspapers were never tired of quot- President.” Less excusably, he speaks of ing the recreations of eminent people, thus giving | Edward FitzGerald as 'unable to translate the book a succession of advertisements of its from the original" of Omar Khayyam, though 458 (June 10 THE DIAL FitzGerald's published letters contain fre Jackson's book worse than these — nothing in quent mention of his Persian studies under Armenia, Russia, or Congo that is more brutal Professor Cowell's encouragement, and he and cruel. Mr. Moorehead has not the pen of made some notable translations (not always Mrs. Jackson, nor her sense of art and style; literal, it is true) from Jámi and Attar as well but his plea for justice is as real, and his facts, as from Omar. many of them personally gathered at their The illustrations to the book, by the Japa- source, are convincing. nese artist, Mr. Yoshio Markino, deserve more Such things as he narrates are to be expected than perfunctory mention. Both his exquisite at the fringe of civilization. Men separated colored drawings and his oddly effective por from home and all restraints, men living as trait sketches are masterpieces in their pecu- traders or administrators under trying condi- liar kind, and would suffice by themselves to tions of climate and life, men whose daily life give character to the volume. Character, how- is in a sense piracy or exploitation of a differ- ever, seems not to be lacking to its author, ing people, men whose nights are filled with whose rambling but never tedious chapters dangers from savage foes, - such men will at will furnish more entertainment to the great times deal unjustly with natives. But Minne- public of “general” readers than almost any sota and Oklahoma of to-day are not the fringe other book of the season. of civilization. The men who there sin against PERCY F. BICKNELL. justice and decency are not outcasts, isolated and removed from proper influences. They are American citizens; they are men in business and professional life, - lawyers, real-estate JUSTICE FOR THE INDIAN.* dealers, county officials, bankers, capitalists, Mr. Moorehead is a well known student of legislators; they not only know how to read American archæology, and most of his writings and write, they are respected, they attend have been in that field. To his efforts is due churches, they mould opinion, they are leaders the only department of American archæology in their communities. Yet, for the sake of in a preparatory school in the United States – money, they are blind to law, commit crimes. that of Phillips Academy, Andover. He has debauch and degrade their victims that they also for years been an active member of the may plunder and rob. It is a story so inde- United States Board of Indian Commissioners, scribably sad that it seems almost unbelievable. and in that capacity has visited many of the Nothing more clearly shows the breakdown of Indian reservations and has participated in our educational system, the failure of our investigations of conditions in them. The schools to develop moral fibre and to produce present book is a result of this latter activity. men, than White Earth and Oklahoma. Can The author calls it “a plea for justice," and we really see nothing but the dollar? Are we every reader will recognize the earnestness of without heart and conscience? Have we no the pleader and the urgency of his cause. sense of decency, and is individual honesty Thousands of Americans have been stirred by forever gone? The dreadfulness of the case is the reading of Helen Hunt Jackson's "Century not merely that there are thousands among us of Dishonor," that powerful appeal to con who do such crimes, it is that they do them science; most of those thousands have ex- without general reprobation and execration. pressed regret and horror at the story, and They are culpable; but the community that have then gone their way placidly, feeling that can be in ignorance, or being informed can there was no remedy for the matter, that the hold its peace, is equally to blame. We have damage was irretrievable, that all was past and spoken of White Earth and Oklahoma because what was done could not be undone. But the they are striking cases, which have been con- fact is that wrongs against the Indians have spicuous on account of investigations; but continued and still continue, and the well- they are only special instances among many. meaning thousands are as unconscious of them Injustice is the rule, and in every place where as they are of the happenings on Mars,— less we have Indians, Mr. Moorehead gives details conscious of them than they are of atrocities covering a wide field. He points out mistakes in Armenia or Russia. These same people past and present, and warns us of the future. shuddered over highly colored reports of We are threatened as a nation with a more Congo horrors, and contributed their dollars serious Indian problem than we have ever had. to aid “reforms” there, but were oblivious to The Indian to-day is being individualized and. the facts at White Earth Agency and in Okla- in the process, depraved and pauperized. He homa. Yet there is nothing in Helen Hunt has never been a pauper and a public charge; * THE AMERICAN INDIAN IN THE UNITED STATES, 1850-1914. he is sure to become so unless he is given jus- By Warren K. Moorehead, A.M. Illustrated. Andover, Mass.: The Andover Press. tice. He is to-day impoverished, diseased, 1915) 459 THE DIAL degraded. It is a suggestive fact that the Tagore has since translated a number of his Navajo are to-day the only considerable body representative books into English, in which of true Indians remaining who are in fair the finer harmony of prose has been rendered health and prosperity and with good outlook with a sensitiveness and refinement rare in our - if left alone. They are practically the only Western literature. But as a man he has ones who have been left to follow their own remained shadowy to us. And inasmuch as free and natural life. circumstances have made him in some sort an All writers draw a contrast, between the ambassador of the East to the West, we have situation of Indians in the United States and come to desire a larger body of biographical those in Canada. In what are they different? fact concerning him, as well as an account of That there is a difference proves that contact his place in the traditions of his own land. between two races does not inexorably lead to To fill this need we now have two biogra- such a condition as we have. Has the Cana- | phies: one by Mr. Ernest Rhys, a friend of dian white man higher ideals than we? Is he the poet, and temperamentally fitted to appre- more honest, more just? Or is it a mere ques ciate him; the other by Mr. Basanta Koomar tion of dollars, and is he less hungry for gold | Roy, a fellow countryman who is endeavoring than we? In speaking of Canadian policies to make his native land better understood in regarding Indians, Mr. Moorehead says: America. Both biographers have gathered “Mr. Duncan C. Scott, who holds the office in their information at first hand, and so have Canada corresponding to our Commissioner of made their books authoritative; but Mr. Rhys, Indian Affairs . . showed us a few thin pamphlets partly because of his style and partly because - all the regulations, laws, statements, methods of of his merely appreciative and interpretative procedure, etc., necessary in the management of rôle, has given no very definite outline to the Canadian Indian affairs. With us we employ character of the poet and mystic. Mr. Roy has skilled lawyers to fathom the intent of our legisla: been more conscious of the difficulties in inter- tors. They must delve into thousands of pages of conflicting laws, rules and statutes. And after one preting the East to the West, and has main- set of attorneys have presented their views, the tained a more critical poise throughout his mass of legal rulings is so enormous and compli- book. cated that other attorneys assigned the same task The impression we derive from Mr. Roy's usually arrive at exactly opposite conclusions from volume is of a personality of rich charm and those presented by the first corps! Mr. Scott also great activity. Tagore's varied career as man- informed us that when a white man marries an ager of his father's country estate, as poet, Indian woman in Canada, he has no part in tribal musician, essayist, dramatist, novelist, editor, or individual property. The government issues no deeds to Indians, but they live on their farms as do national leader, and finally as educator, seems All incentive to graft is removed. The to us too prolific and energetic to be truly simple, effective, Canadian management of Indian Oriental. Moreover, quotations from his let- affairs, compared with our ponderous, complicated ters prove him a keen observer and thinker, and ignorant handling of the same class of people with decided opinions on such dangerous sub- in this country, points a very strong moral.” jects as feminism, education, and the defects As a people we claim to excel in honesty and of Americans. 'Tagore is a voracious reader. in practical business sense. The condition of Every month he buys many books on litera- our Indians to-day gives the lie to both claims. ture, philosophy, economics, politics, sociology, FREDERICK STARR. and history. He reads them all.” He is not ascetic or soured. “He loves the world as passionately as a miser loves money." It is TAGORE: POET AND MYSTIC.* reassuring to the Western mind to find a spir- itual hero so human, a seer so practical and The award of the Nobel Prize for “idealistic literature" to Rabindranath Tagore suddenly To rehearse the main incidents in the quiet made him an international figure. At that time his work was scarcely known, except to a life of Tagore is not necessary; they have limited circle; the award was due, according jali" with Mr. Yeats's introduction. But in been known since the publication of "Gitan- to Mr. Ernest Rhys, to “a distinguished Swe- dish Orientalist who had read the poems in the full account of the poet's career given in Bengali before they appeared in English.” important points of contact with the romanti- Mr. Roy's book, it is interesting to look for * RABINDRANATH TAGORE. A Biographical Study. By Ernest Rhys. New York: The Macmillan Co. cism of Europe. Thus we read: The Man and His Poetry. By “ The realistic love poems of Tagore's youth Basanta Koomar Roy. With an Introduction by Hamilton W. Mabie. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. shocked many old-fashioned Hindu moralists, who SONGS OF KABIR. Translated by Rabindranath Tagore. With received them with disdain. They were up in arms Introduction by Evelyn Underhill. New York: The Macmil- against Rabindranath, thinking that he was likely our own. near. : RABINDRANATH TAGORE. lan Co. 460 [June 10 THE DIAL to demoralize the youths of India by the sensuous influence. "I am afraid," wrote Tagore, ness of his love poems and songs. They were " that the present-day civilization of Europe afraid that he was going to introduce the romanti- is imperceptibly extending the arid zone in its cism of the West, of Byron and Shelley, in India, social life. The super-abundance of luxuries and to depart from the classic serenity of Indian is smothering the soul of the home - home literary treatment of the human passions.” that is the very abode of love, tenderness, and In his love of nature, also, he wins at once beneficence - a thing that is, above all, most the sympathy of those who have been nour- essential for the healthy development of the ished on Wordsworth. How near he ap human heart. In Europe homes are disap- proaches the nature worship of European pearing and hotels are increasing in number.” romanticists may be seen from a letter written In a letter he once wrote that “as the streets in his youth from a house-boat on the Padma in the European cities are made of hard stone, River, where he was superintending his fath- brick and mortar, to be made fit for commerce er's estate: and transportation, so the human heart be- “ Truly, I love this Padma River very dearly, it comes hardened and best suited for business. is so wild, so undomesticated. I feel like riding on In the hard pavement of their heart there is its back and patting it caressingly on its neck. .. I no more like to take a part before the footlights or a single blade of useless grass to grow. not the slightest opening for a tender tendril, of the stage of publicity. I rather feel like doing my duty in silent solitude amid these transparent Everything is made bare and strong.” days that we have here. . . Here man is insignifi Contact with European civilization has, of cant, but nature great and imposing. The things course, had a liberating influence on Tagore. we see around us are of such a nature that one can But his true antecedents are members of the not create to-day, mend to-morrow and throw them great poetical and religious tradition of India. off the day after. These things stand permanent, In his poetry of nature he was deeply influ- amidst birth and death, action and inaction, change enced by the Vaishnava poets of the fifteenth and changelessness. When I come to the country- side I do not look upon man as anything separate Mr. Roy, “in the poems of Tagore the love and sixteenth centuries, even though,” says from nature. Just as rivers flow by through many strange lands, similarly the current of humanity, fervour of the Vaishnava poets fades a little.” too, is incessantly following its zig-zag path In his devotional and religious poetry he was through dense forests, lonely meadows, and profoundly influenced by Kabir, Chandidas, crowded cities, always accompanied by its divine and Joy Dev. In the translations which he music. It is not quite right to make the river sing, himself has given us of the songs of Kabir, the • Man may come, man may go, but I go on forever' fifteenth century mystic and poet, we find the - for man, too, is going on forever with his thou- same religious universalism, the same accep- sand branches and tributaries. He has his one end attached to the root of birth, and the other to the tance of actual life, as in the work of Tagore. ocean of death — both enveloped in the mysterious Kabir was a Mohammedan youth who was darkness; and between these two extremes lie life, admitted to discipleship by the great Hindu labour and love." teacher Ramananda, even though a Mohamme- Such evidences of parallel movements of dan, a weaver, a simple and unlettered man. romanticism in the East and the West seem 'Hating mere bodily austerities, he was no even more conclusive when we read that ascetic, but a married man, the father of a “Raja Ram Mohun Roy, the father of modern family -- a circumstance which Hindu legends India, introduced an age of reform in India. of the monastic type vainly attempt to conceal Well versed in the literature of the East and or explain — and it was from out of the heart of the West, he strove to unite the cultural life of the common life that he sang his rapturous of both for mutual benefit. With his towering lyrics of divine love." This disregard for the genius he handled the social, political, relig. letter of the law, however, is not popular in ious, and literary life with the hand of a India, and the religious songs of Tagore are “ The masses master. . . At his death, he left a unique not the songs of the masses. worker as his intellectual descendant, De-ben- have no comprehension of the Brahmo Somaj dranath Tagore, the father of Rabindranath." - the religious Unitarians of Hindusthan. . . Frequently Rabindranath Tagore is praised One might sing Tagore's religious songs to a for uniting the wisdom of the East and the Bengali farmer, but he would listen unmoved: West, and so being able to see the defects of and might even ask the singer to stop if he both. One begins to wonder if the whole happened to detect it to be a Brahmo song. national renaissance of India was due to The orthodox hatred for Brahmo disregard for European stimulus. Hindu mythology is very intense.” But the Hindus see that materialism and It is interesting to note from Mr. Roy's book luxury are dominant in our civilization, and that admiration for Tagore is much more criti- by their clear vision are defended against our cal and reserved in India than in England and 1915] 461 THE DIAL America. His countrymen admit his great core of thought accounts for the fatuity of our ness, but not that he is the greatest Bengali religious efforts, the charlatanism in our cul- poet for many centuries, as is sometimes ture, the restlessness and materialism of our hastily said. One literary Bengali in America life. "You people over here," Tagore once commented: “If Mr. Tagore had ever at remarked to Mr. Rhys, “ seem to me to be all tempted to write profound books like 'Raiba in a state of continual strife. It is all strug- tak' or 'Kurukshetra' of Nabin Chandra Sen, gling, hard striving to live. There is no place his lyric brain would have burst before finish for rest, or peace of mind, or that meditative ing even one canto of either.” Another said: relief which in our country we feel to be “ His love lyrics are poor imitations of the needed for the health of our spirits.” When poems of our Vaishnava poets of old, and his the Nobel Prize was awarded to him, he gave philosophy is the philosophy of the Upani- all the money to his remarkable school at shads. Let the Europeans and the Americans Shanti Niketan; but, overwhelmed by pub- rave over Tagore. But there is nothing new licity, he wrote, “They have taken away my for us in his writings." Tagore himself pleads shelter.” LOUIS I. BREDVOLD. guilty to dabbling with too many things : “I am like a coquettish lady that wants to please all her lovers, and is afraid to lose a single one. I do not want to disappoint any A SCIENTIFIC BAEDEKER OF THE WEST.* of the Muses.” Nevertheless “no other lit A telling example of the effectiveness of erary man in Bengal has done so well in so coöperative effort in book-making is given in many things. Even the most adverse critics the volume entitled “Nature and Science on of Tagore are bound to admit that he has the Pacific Coast," a well-balanced treatise by adorned every department of Bengali litera no less than thirty authors, each an authority ture by his transcendent genius." He has on the subject about which he has written. become a representative, especially in poetry, This handbook is planned for use in conjunc- of the Bengali renaissance which is saving the tion with the meetings of the American Asso- classical culture of India. “He was needed in ciation for the Advancement of Science to be India as Dante was needed in Italy, Shakes held in August of this year in connection with peare in England, and Goethe in Germany.” the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In seeking to define and estimate the signifi- The volume will, however, be of value long cance of Tagore for the West, it is interesting after the palaces by the Golden Gate have van- to recall that poetry had been drifting in the ished into memories, for it is an epitome of the direction of mysticism before Tagore became enduring natural phenomena of the West. known to us. “ These lyrics," wrote Mr. Though professedly written for the scien- Yeats in his preface to “Gitanjali,” "display tific traveller, it is not a technical treatise in their thought a world I have dreamed of all for specialists, but rather a presentation by my life long." Poetry had sought to become specialists, each of his own field, for the use a symbol, a musical suggestion. And so we and enjoyment of all the others. It is there- were prepared to understand an art which fore largely freed of technicalities wherever proceeds, not by definition and outline, after possible, and condensed to a minimum space. the Greek manner, but by suggestion and sym Would that all books of information were as bolism. But it is out of the question that the innocent of superfluous padding! It is rather main body of our poetry and art should ever a rich mine of information tersely told, with- become merely suggestive and mystical; the out effort to adorn or to exploit the resources hold of the Greek spirit on us is too great; l of this interesting land for the tourist or the Phidias and Plato make us afraid of intellec- prospective purchaser of town lot or orchard. tual twilight, of emotional dissipation. In one It seeks merely to direct the attention of the respect, however, the literature and life of the intelligent traveller to those physical features Orient are a deep challenge to our civilization. of the Coast which it may be worth his while “If I work in my garden and prune an apple to understand. tree," wrote Emerson, “I am well enough The range of information included in the entertained, and could continue indefinitely in thirty-one chapters may be inferred from such the like occupation. But it comes to mind that sub-titles as Professor Kellogg's “Burbank's a day is gone, and I have got this precious Gardens," an account of the constructive work nothing done." It is characteristic of our of this wizard among flowers and fruits; or civilization, however, that we continue the activity without reflecting upon its vacuity. * NATURE AND SCIENCE ON THE PACIFIC COAST. We are not happy unless active. Hindu Auspices of the Pacific Coast Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Illustrated. poetry should reveal to us that the lack of a San Francisco: Paul Elder & Co. book for Scientific Travellers in the West. A Guide Edited under the 462 (June 10 THE DIAL 6 Professor Teggart's “The Approaches to the RECENT FICTION.* Pacific Coast," an illuminating historical pre- sentation of the problem, both local and inter- Miss Marie Van Vorst is an accomplished national, of Oriental immigration; or Profes story-teller, and her large personal following sor Howard's Outdoor Life and the Fine attests the success with which she appeals to Arts," a sympathetic account of the utilization the popular taste. “Mary Moreland” is per- in this land of sunshine of the out-of-doors for haps the best example of her work, and it is plays, festivals, tournaments, and pageantry, easy to see why it must prove attractive to with a list of over fifty such occasions distribu- readers and hold their attention. Mary is a ted throughout the year. In "Literary Land- young woman of exceptional poise and marks of the Pacific Coast,” Professor Seward strength of character, employed as a stenog. retraces the footsteps of Bret Harte, Robert rapher by a Wall Street financier. For five Louis Stevenson, Helen Hunt Jackson, and years she has served him, and during all that Joaquin Miller. Other chapters deal with time he has been making more or less conscious “Mountaineering in the High Sierras," with comparisons between her and the nagging, legal and political developments, with the jealous, worldly woman who is his wife. When Spanish settlements and the old missions, and domestic ructions have brought him to the with the history of the Panama Canal. breaking-point, he determines to cut loose, and The main theme of the book, however, is appeals to Mary to go off with him. She Nature and her utilization by man; hence the almost yields, but is recalled to her better self discussions of mines and mining, of the petro- at the last moment, and declines to enter into leum industry, of irrigation and hydro-electric the illicit arrangement. She is torn by the developments, of the chemical resources and conflict between love for her employer and the industries, and of the exceedingly varied agri- promptings of a conscience which will not let cultural resources and activities. Various spe- her forget the sanctity of the marriage-bond, cialists deal with climate and its causes in and the social necessity of preserving even oceanic circulation, with the physiographic such parodies of the home as Maughm's estab- geography and the geology of the West, and lishment. She not only succeeds in resisting even with the earthquakes which San Fran- temptation, but she actually figures as a recon- cisco newspapers are wont to record — else- ciling influence between Maughm and his wife. where. Other chapters treat of interesting In the end, she comes to her own in conse- and significant features of the life of the West, quence of the wife's death in childbirth. A the fossil deposits, and the recent fauna and secondary plot is provided by the fortunes of flora of mountain and desert, of land and sea, a girl friend who has loved not wisely but too including a brief account of the Indian tribes well, and who is saved by Mary's influence of the Coast. Astronomical observatories, from making a still greater mess of her life. biological stations, and museums are de- The remaining characters of importance are scribed, and an exhaustive itinerary of scenic Romney, an invalid English man of letters excursions is mapped out. The work is illus- whom she serves for a time as amanuensis; a trated with well chosen half-tones, and is Colorado mine-owner who takes her into the amply supplied with maps for scientific de- bosom of his family, and her mother, an in- scription, with street maps of all the larger credibly vain, selfish, irresponsible woman cities, and with a railroad map of the country with a tincture of nauseating religiosity, west of the Rockies. whom Mary supports and almost loves despite The publisher has produced a book con- her sordid scheming and inhuman ingratitude. venient in form for the satchel or pocket, and All these characters are interesting, yet we artistic in typography and make-up. It is feel bound to say that not one of them appears destined to be widely useful, and is significant reflect them to us are separately brilliant, but to be a consistent creation. The facets which of the enterprise, progressiveness, and vitality of Western scholarship. are cut according to a plan which does not bring out a symmetrical design. This lack of CHARLES ATWOOD KOFOID. artistic co-ordination is also apparent in the * MARY MORELAND. By Marie Van Vorst. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. THE HONEY BEE. A Story of a Woman in Revolt. Ву A new drama by M. Leonid Andreyev, trans Samuel Merwin. Indianapolis : The Bobbs-Merrill Co. lated by Mr. Herman Bernstein, is to be published THE DOUBLE TRAITOR. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. this month by the Macmillan Co. It is entitled THE SECRET SERVICE SUBMARINE. A Story of the Present “ The Sorrows of Belgium," and pictures the recent War. By Guy Thorne, New York: Sully & Kleinteich. AT THE SIGN OF THE SWORD. A Story of Love and War devastation of that country. Its hero is said to be in Belgium By William Le Queux. New York: Sully & M. Maeterlinck, and King Albert figures as one of Kleinteich, THE SPLENDID CHANCE. By Mary Hastings Bradley. New the prominent characters. York: D. Appleton & Co. - 1915] 463 THE DIAL dialogue and the incidental matter, which that we respect him (as Hilda does) despite present us over and over again with features his profession, and the scene of the great fight which do not fit together, or are without for the international championship is de- adequate motivation. This element of incon- This element of incon- scribed with so much vigor and dramatic color- gruity is felt as a disturbing presence through- ing that it is one of the best things of its kind out the work. we have ever encountered in fiction. Hilda is The American business woman is again to even stirred to think of Moran as a possible the fore in Mr. Samuel Merwin's "The Honey husband, and the author's skill almost per- Bee," but this time she is presented to us in a suades us that we might contemplate without far more profound and subtle portraiture than dismay such a disposition of his heroine; but is within the range of Miss Van Vorst's powers. Hilda's practical good sense comes to her Mr. Merwin's previous performances in fiction rescue, and sets her to making a match be- have, indeed, given us no reason to expect from tween Moran and Adele, which is far more him so profound a psychological study and so fitting and reasonable. What contributes genuine a creation of character as he here materially to Hilda's decision is the memory affords us. There is no romantic glamour of Harris Doreyn, a man of large affairs who “The Honey Bee," and little sentiment, but had employed her many years before, whom there is a great deal of convincing truth, which she had loved, and to whom she would have is a much more preservative quality. Hilda given herself had he not been already married. Wilson, to begin with, is upwards of thirty, an When Hilda has cut herself loose from all age which does not appeal to the romantic these Parisian complications, she goes to Lon- taste, although it is the age found best worth don, and there Doreyn once more comes into while by many of the greatest novelists, from her life, making her realize that she has never Balzac to Meredith. She is a department man- really ceased to love him. He is broken in ager in one of the great New York merchant health, and his one desire is to see Hilda again, establishments, and she has made good in her for which purpose indeed he has come abroad. many years of service. A part of each year They enjoy each other's companionship for a she acts as a foreign buyer, and it is in Paris time, and Hilda, we are forced to believe, that we make her acquaintance, and pursue would in the end, had he lived, have defied the her fortunes during the year over which the laws of society by living with him openly, so time of the novel extends. Somewhat fagged, liberal an outlook upon life has she gained and feeling that she is going stale, she accedes from her Parisian adventure. As it is, she is to her employers' solicitations that she take a able to console his dying hour; whereupon she long rest, but, instead of employing her returns to New York and takes her business months of business leisure in a restful way, duties once more upon her shoulders. Mr. she remains in Paris, and falls into a set of Merwin calls his book “the story of a woman new associations and interests that take her in revolt," and we have seen that her revolt far out of her wonted habits of thought and carries her to the brink of the precipice. It is action, stir in her unsuspected instincts and morally inconclusive (like so much of life emotions, and give her rich new experiences itself), but, if we can only suspend the func- that broaden her character, and bring her to tion of moral judgment while we read, we something of that self-realization which is, or shall not lack for variety of entertainment and should be, the purpose of every human soul deep human interest. Hilda and Moran and worth saving to achieve. These experiences Doreyn are all genuine characters, and all concern a little group of people with whom make the strongest kind of an appeal to our Hilda becomes accidentally associated, and sympathies. from whom she learns to know aspects of life It is easy to be wise after the event, and any that have before been entirely unfamiliar. skilful practitioner in fiction could now pro- They include “Blink ” Moran, an American vide a prescient hero for a story of the great prize-fighter; Adele Rainey, a variety show Such a hero is found in Mr. Oppen- dancer; a weak and vicious youth who is her heim's "The Double Traitor,” which tells us dancing partner; and the illegitimate baby of an English diplomatic attaché who clearly child of a French danseuse, who is herself in understood, in the months preceding last the hospital. Hilda moves into quarters with August, what has since been so patently dis- these people, takes Adele under her protection closed, and who did his best to persuade a and the baby under her care — incidentally reluctant officialdom that Germany was about saving the life of the latter by hygienic pre to put into execution her carefully matured cautions and scientific feeding -and becoming plan for embroiling the world in strife. Fail- personally very much interested in Moran. ing in his appeal to deaf ears and the in- The author portrays Moran so sympathetically vincible prejudice of those who believed it war. 464 June 10 THE DIAL fill up. impossible for Germany to do exactly what she myself. The Johnnies only put them in to has done, Francis Norgate went to work on What he means is that he is not going his own account to save England from the to describe in detail, etc., but that is unimpor- worst consequences of that wanton attack upon tant. He certainly makes good his claim that civilization. Having himself been dismissed "this is a story of action.” Carey is an athlete from his post in the legation at Berlin, he with a game leg which unfits him for the active posed as a man with a grievance, and became service of his country. Consequently, he be- apparently the tool of one Selingman, the head comes a sub-master in a boys' private school of the German spy system in England. He kept by one Dr. Upjelly, who is in reality the seemed to be furnishing valuable reports to Graf von Vedal, a German spy of the most his employer, but they were framed only to resourceful and dangerous sort. The school is deceive, and, as the critical day approached, he situated on a lonely stretch of the Norfolk sought an interview with Mr. Churchill, found coast, and the enemy communicates with the in him a willing listener, and so impressed conspirators by means of a submarine which him with his revelations that an order was creeps up an inlet close to the establishment. given for the immediate mobilization of the When the story reaches its climax, the hero fleet. Thus does history become the handmaid kills Vedal, and then, aided by his brother, of fiction. The scene in which Selingman is who is a British naval officer, and by two boys finally trapped and marched off to the Tower, from the school, captures the German sub- after learning how successfully Norgate has marine by a ruse, kills its crew, and then, tricked him, is perhaps the most exciting that setting out for sea with the prize, intercepts we owe to the author, accomplished purveyor and torpedoes a German war-ship which is of thrills though he be. The private romance convoying a number of transports for the of Norgate and the Baroness von Haase (of invasion of England, sinks or puts to flight the the Austrian secret service) makes a very transports, and covers himself and his com- acceptable love-story, but its interest is over panions with glory. All the parties concerned shadowed by the great affairs with which it is in this exploit get commissions and Victoria so intimately entangled. This capital story crosses, and the hero gets besides Dr. Upjelly's should make many new friends for Mr. Oppen- step-daughter, who has given valiant aid to heim. the enterprise. Cheap as the story is in any There would obviously be something lacking literary sense, it is an undoubted thriller, and in these days in any survey of current fiction a notable example of swift melodramatic that did not include one or more war stories, action. and it is indeed likely that the war will be Mr. Le Queux, who writes "At the Sign of responsible for an output of fiction as far the Sword,” is a man of parts, favorably beyond that occasioned by any other war as known to readers of sensational fiction. The this conflict exceeds all others in magnitude. story is Belgian in setting, and takes us to the The last issue of THE DIAL contains the ap- early days of the invasion of that martyred palling statement that in Germany alone the country, whose glorious achievement in mak- closing months of 1914 witnessed the publica- ing the outcome of the war a foregone conclu- tion of one and one-half million new patriotic sion almost from the start saved Europe from songs. The inference from this as to novel- destruction, and won for the Belgian people a writing throughout the world simply staggers fame that will shine undimmed for many cen- the imagination. Upon the present occasion, turies to come. Aimée de Neuville is the aside from the ante-bellum invention just de- daughter of the richest man in Belgium, and scribed, we have something to say about three is wooed (and prospectively won) by Edmond new books of war-fiction, the first two of them Valentin, a young lawyer of little wealth but being what the British public knows as "shill- bright prospects. The villain is one Armand ing shockers," while the third is a far more Rigaux, an associate of Baron de Neuville in serious artistic production. large financial affairs, and in reality a secret Mr. Guy Thorne is the author of “The agent of Germany, preparing to betray Bel- Secret Service Submarine,” which tells how a gium into the hands of the enemy. He pays schoolmaster on the Norfolk coast saved En his addresses to Aimée, with the encourage- gland from a German invasion, and discom ment of her father, but they are loathesome to fited as villainous a conspiracy of spies as ever her, and she repels him with scorn. Edmond, existed even in the heated brain of a popular meanwhile, knows of Rigaux's double-dealing, novelist. Says John Carey, the hero, on page but a curious sense of honor forbids him to 147, “I am not going to describe everything I denounce his rival. When the storm bursts saw in detail. This is a story of action, and I upon his devoted country, he takes his place always skip the descriptive parts in books, in the ranks as an officer of artillery, while 1915] 465 THE DIAL Aimée hides herself in the family chateau on when she is attacked by croup. But McNare the Meuse near Dinant. The invasion of the sees that his love is hopeless when Edgerton Huns soon plunges her into the midst of the appears upon the scene, and gnaws his heart fray, and almost makes her a victim of their out in silence. The stage is thus set for the savagery, when the opportune appearance of real drama, which opens on the fatal First of Edmond saves her from the worst outrage, August. This prologue, although it occupies and puts a highly fitting end to the arch half the volume, keeps us impatient for the villain. After some days of storm and stress, appearance of the main theme, but it could not with a piling up of horrors, and a series of well be spared or even shortened. The tragedy hairbreadth escapes, the lovers make their that ensues is but one of millions bred of Ger- way to Ostend, and find a safe haven across the many's wanton onslaught upon the peace of Channel. We must quote one illustration of Europe, but it is set before us with such the author's vigorous hard-hitting: poignancy, such vividness, and such sympa- “ The sun had set, and the red afterglow — that thetic grasp that it is made a typical crystal- crimson light of war was showing in the west lization of the whole horrible meaning of the over where lay Great Britain, the chief objective great war. It takes us to the front in Northern of the Kaiser and his barbaric horde of brigands, France, when the invader has been driven hangmen, executioners, and fire-bugs — the men back from the gates of Paris. Katherine has doing the bidding of that blasphemous antichrist given her services to the Red Cross, and it who was daily lifting his hands to Heaven and becomes her fate to find Edgerton lying on invoking God’s blessing upon his hell-hound impie- the battle-field, to receive his dying words of ties." love, and to sit by his corpse in lonely vigil all It makes a spirited tale, colored throughout night long. The pathos of this scene is well- with romantic sentiment. Whatever Mr. Le nigh unbearable, and grips the heart as do few Queux cannot do, he at least can construct an scenes with which we are acquainted in fiction. effective plot, and carry it through with vigor But the lesson of life is that no grief can and variety. utterly crush the spirit of youth, and after Our remaining war novel is of a far more weeks of dumb agony made just possible to serious sort than the two just described, and endure by the routine of her ministration to belongs to literature as distinctly as they do the wounded, Katherine returns to her Paris not. It is entitled “ The Splendid Chance" lodgings, and learns that McNare has been and is the work of Mrs. Mary Hastings Brad- bereft of the sole joy of his life by a midnight ley, already well known as the author of a bomb from the skies that has made his little sterling historical romance, “The Favour of Peggy its victim. The two stricken mortals Kings"; an Egyptian tale of love and mystery, find what solace they can in their mutual sym- “The Palace of Darkened Windows": and in pathies, and Katherine accepts MeNare's numerable short stories. Mrs. Bradley's hero- escort to England, where they spend some ine is a typical American girl, and we first And one weeks in the peaceful Cotswolds. meet her as she embarks for Europe in the morning in November, when Katherine, after spring of 1914, with the intention of working a weary night, has risen before dawn, and in the art-schools of Paris. She comes from a climbed to the summit of a hill, life is sud- New England college town, and is filled with denly born anew in her, and the élan vital artistic ambition. Among her fellow-passen- asserts its mastery over her shattered existence. gers is an English army officer, Captain "Suddenly she felt herself strong and enduring, Edgerton, who cultivates her acquaintance, even as the earth was enduring, and in the ele- and gains with her a footing that promises mental clay her spirit burned with a new fire. .. romantic developments. This promise is later She felt glad. Life was not all horror while it held love and beauty, and love was not gone while fulfilled when Edgerton visits Katherine in memory lived. ... Her heart was not empty! It Paris, and friendship ripens into love. Mean- held priceless memories of love and courage. Bitter while, we make the acquaintance in Paris of that Jeffrey must be one of the martyrs in that Robert McNare, an American sculptor of struggle of the everlasting verities of freedom and genius, whose studio is just below Katherine's right against undying stupidities and cruelties, but rooms. McNare is the victim of an unfor- splendid for her that he had lived, that she had tunate marriage with a faithless wife, from known him, that they had loved! She looked out whom he is divorced, retaining custody of the over the world, fresh and beautiful, and though little girl who is all the world to him. He is a the irrecoverable beauty and freshness of her own life were gone, her splendid chance for perfect morose and unapproachable person as far as joy, she felt the indestructible forces of youth and women are concerned, but Katherine breaks life within her. And she knew that she would go down his defences when she devotes herself to on, and go on bravely and stanchly, not darkening Peggy, and saves her life one dreadful night a sad world with her grief, but drawing strength 466 (June 10 THE DIAL - from her memories, from her own soul, and from able to point to several writers of short stories on the strength of this nature, so impersonal, so en this side of the Atlantic who may challenge com- during, so free of beauty.” parison with any abroad. Among these latter high The chapter from which these quotations are rank must be given to Mrs. Katharine Fullerton made offers us at once the best writing and Gerould, whose second volume, “ The Great Tradi- the most vital philosophy of the entire book. tion and Other Stories" (Scribner), has now been published. It contains eight examples of short Nothing remains but a kind of epilogue in fiction, all but one bearing the same firm traces of which the two return to Paris, and discover masterly handling in much the same genre as char- that it is still possible for them, in companion-acterized the author's earlier book. The reactions ship with one another, to patch up their broken of persons of high intelligence and developed senti- lives, and be of some use to the world. ment are set before the reader's eyes recognizably ««You don't know how much I want to give. and with an admirable power of analysis. Lovers How much there is to give, she said chokingly. of literary art will rejoice at this new evidence of ‘Of all people in the world, I–I could begin Mrs. Gerould's skill. again with you. ... We've borne - enough of hurts. Mystery without murder implicit in the main There are other ways of helping - for us both. situation, and with a solution more carefully con- But don't go out to fight — with that hate in your cealed and less in the nature of things than in most heart! Not — not yet — not till they need you! books of the sort, characterizes "Pals First ” We'll help, we'll spend our lives in helping (Harper), by Mr. Francis P. Elliott. What ap- but let it be now for the little children, the home pear to be a young escaped convict and an old less ones — for Peggy's sake.... Oh, you'll stay? clergyman who has served a term in an English You'll stay with me?'” prison for proved manslaughter descend as tramps This is the deft and natural solution found by upon a southern mansion. The young man is the author for her extremely difficult emo- recognized by the old colored servants as their tional complication, and this is the ending of deception follows. There is an amazing lack of young master, and a highly elaborated scheme of a very tender, wise, and beautifully written good breeding in the supposedly cultured princi- story. WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. pals, but the story moves well and there is a sense of fun in nearly every situation. The European element in modern America is NOTES ON NEW NOVELS. widening our selection of literary topics. A few years ago such a book as Mr. James Oppenheim's One reads rather dejectedly the earlier chapters The Beloved " (Huebsch) would have been of Mr. John Corbin's “ The Edge” (Duffield), sus thought impossible. It deals with a common girl, tained rather by the thought that the author has the daughter of nobody, and a young New England never been guilty of trifling with his readers than writer and poet just arrived in New York. Through * by any evidence of it at hand. The reward comes his love she finds herself at the end with her better after this preliminary lightness has been passed, nature and ambitions awakened, and entered upon for the book turns to an attempt to solve the bitter a career as one of the most popular of moving- problem which decent Americans confront who are picture actresses. The boy had to be sacrificed to trying to have children and bring them up accord- bring her to self-realization, and the earlier steps ing to right standards. As one goes on, it becomes in their intercourse are shown with a fidelity to fact apparent that the author is going down to the cause which would have startled an earlier generation. itself, and that he finds it in the lack of a religion “Spray on the Windows” (Doran) is a well that affords a workable rule of life seven days in considered story of life in a small English seaside the week. It can hardly be said that Mr. Corbin town, written by Mrs. J. E. Buckrose. It deals mingles his propaganda with his fiction without loss with the career of a girl who intends to bend life to the latter, but he has nevertheless written a book and love to her will, but who finds love too strong. that deserves reading. With the selfishness of youth, she plans to marry The problems arising from the passing of the well. Becoming the highly valued companion of old New England stock afflict the hero of Miss an old family friend, she somewhat artlessly en- Honoré Willsie's “Still Jim" (Stokes), who wishes gages the affections of the old lady's heir. But to marry and have many children for the sake of there has been a young neighbor, a man with whom perpetuating, with his family name, the ideals of fate has dealt hardly and unjustly; and love beck- the founders of so many of our best traditions. ons away from the ease she had longed for, and With this fundamental motive, Still Jim - the leaves her at the close of the book strong to work qualifying adjective bespeaks his reticence - out a worthy destiny as wife and mother. enters the United States Reclamation Service, and Mr. Richard Marsh writes good detective stories, there accomplishes noteworthy results, chief of but seldom stories of good detectives. In “The which is overcoming those qualities in himself Woman in the Car” (Lippincott) the officers of the which have retarded the realization among us of law, after spending three hundred closely printed the old ideals. The book is interesting in many pages in looking for the murderer of a prominent ways, with the element of romance well sustained. financier, have the questionable satisfaction of see- If American novelists have in the main fallen be ing the financier enter their office for the purpose hind their brethren of Great Britain, we are still of telling them their mistake. There are two other 1915) 467 THE DIAL Chaucer and his times. deaths in the progress of the tale, but the police BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. arrive at no result with regard to either of them, one passing as suicide and the murderess giving The Percy Turnbull Memorial Studies in herself up for the other. The story has all the Foundation in the Johns Hop- complications that the most exigent reader could kins University has brought demand. forth some admirable lectures on poetry As a thoroughly complicated mystery story, with since E. C. Stedman in 1891 delivered the the solution well concealed until near its close, when first of the series on "The Nature of Poetry.” the tangled skein is unravelled after the manner of Unfortunately, too few of these have been a complicated chess problem, “A Silent Witness (Winston), by Mr. R. Austín Freeman, is to be published since Jebb and Tyrrell followed highly recommended. It opens with the murder to the excellent example of Stedman in giv- which readers of such stories are accustomed, fol- ing a wider publicity to their lectures. We lowed by a suspicious death, and these in turn by are therefore very glad that Professor Kit- several calculated attempts upon the life of a young tredge, who lectured last year on “Chaucer English physician — of the rather impenetrable and His Times," has had his lectures published type usual in such cases. A fellow-practitioner, (Harvard University Press). There is no one but one in the field of medical jurisprudence, is the in America more qualified to speak on Chaucer brains of the case. with discrimination and lively sympathy. He Miss Carolyn Wells has turned her attention of has interpreted the poet in terms of the pres- late to stories of mystery, one Fleming Stone being ent without any suggestion of cheap populari- the M. Dupin of her narratives. “ The White zation. Chaucer moves before us as he did in Alley” (Lippincott) is the latest of these, and he that vital and interested age, pursuing his vast brings a murderer to book by means of a boy's mar- ble which, dropped from an attic, conducts him to specialty, the study of mankind; and he be- the missing corpus delicti. It is done with a quite trays in his work the artist whose great joy wonderful economy of effort, and little of the spec- was in his fellow man. Four works are taken tacularity usual on such occasions, but the story as up in considerable detail, -"The Book of the a whole suggests that Miss Wells will do better Duchess," "The House of Fame," "Troilus," when she becomes more accustomed to this sort of and “ The Canterbury Tales.” It is hard to writing; the machinery creaks a little here. say which of these is most successfully treated; An old fashioned novel in its length and particu- perhaps the lecture on "The House of Fame larity of treatment is Mrs. Kathleen A. Lund's is the least pleasing and that on “ Troilus " 66 Oliver in Willowmere" (Heath, Cranton & reveals the scholar's keenest enthusiasm. Ouseley). With the third chapter we are introduced Especially good, just to mention a detail or to fully thirty characters who play parts through- two, is the discussion of the naïveté of the out the story. Chief of these characters is a non- “Book of the Duchess conformist clergyman who for a time preaches to as being that of the a congregation in the fenland country of England. Dreamer (not Chaucer), who displays such The people of the book are well differentiated, and insight into the needs of a heart bleeding with many of them will constitute friends for the reader, grief that he has been accused by unsympa- coming as they do from all the walks of life in a thetic and undiscerning critics as being dull small English town. of comprehension instead of showing the “art- The protagonist of “ The Boss of the Lazy Y" less artfulness of a kindly and simple nature." (McClurg), by Mr. Charles Alden Seltzer, is a Troilus” is not merely “the most beautiful reckless, ill-natured brute to whom his father on long narrative poem in the English language, his death leaves his ranch on condition that the son as Rossetti termed it, but “the first novel, in show signs of amendment. To a young girl he the modern sense, that ever was written in the leaves the actual possession of the property, with world, and one of the best.” So the poem is the provision that it shall revert to her at the end of a year if the experiment fails. This is the basis considered as a tragedy of character growing for all that is worth while in the story, but it is out of the tragedy of situation, and especial complicated with a great deal of needless episode study is made of the three great characters, which hampers the plausibility of the whole sensa- Troilus, Cressida, and Pandarus, with the conclusion that something is amiss in this Grown persons as well as children will find inter- society with its code of love. When Troilus est in “ Pierrot, Dog of Belgium " (Doubleday), by has died, “the great sympathetic ironist drops Mr. Walter A. Dyer. Its hero is one of those super his mask, and we find that he has once more serviceable animals of Flanders, bred for use as a been studying human life from the point of hauler of burdens in peace, and graduated into the service of a small-gun battery when war broke upon view of a ruling passion (as he had done in his unhappy country. One may enter deeply into * The House of Fame'), and that he has no the feelings of a stricken people through this faith solution except to repudiate the unmoral and ful medium, and both the dog and his masters are unsocial system which he had pretended to up- impressively drawn. hold." "The Canterbury Tales" are treated tional yarn. 468 June 10 THE DIAL the emotions. and the miracle the mys- as a great drama in which the characters for forced to conclude," he tells us," that my pas- the most part determine the action and the sion for nature and for all open-air life, sequence of the tales. Especially is this seen though tinged and stimulated by science, is not in the Marriage Group, which begins with the a passion for pure science, but for literature Wife of Bath's Prologue and ends with the and philosophy.” His imagination and in- Franklin's Tale. It is rather remarkable that grained humanism, he adds, are appealed to no reference is made to Professor Frederick by natural history, wherein he finds some- Tupper's striking theory of Chaucer's use of thing akin to poetry and religion. It is, in- the motifs of love and the seven deadly sins in deed, the poetry and the humanism of the book binding these tales into a more complete unity that render it so readable and make it litera- than had hitherto been conceived of. A very ture rather than science. A reproduction of interesting bit of interpretation is that of the Mr. Pietro's bust of the author is shown in the lines at the close of the Pardoner's Tale when frontispiece. he suddenly and unexpectedly drops his cyn- icism and shows that he has not always been A notable new book by Dr. W. B. New light on an assassin of souls: Cannon considers the subject of “And Jesu Crist, that is our soules leche, "Bodily Changes in Pain, Hun- So graunte yow his pardon to receyve; ger, Fear, and Rage” (Appleton). As the For that is best — I wol nat yow deceyve.” result of an elaborate series of ingenious “A very paroxysm of agonized sincerity," to experiments, a distinct mechanism is estab- be followed immediately by "a wild orgy of lished for the emotional support. The adrenal reckless jesting.” It is strange! glands play a central part in it. It is a specific device for the intensification of energy, and the In considering what Tyndall has further protection of the organism when un- “ The mystery der extreme emotional excitement in urgent expressively denoted of vitality." tery and the miracle of vitality," situations. To a minor degree the same order Mr. John Burroughs says: “I have had a of process accompanies emotional excitement good deal of trouble in trying to make my in- of a milder range. Pain, hunger, fear, and born idealism go hand in hand with my inborn rage represent the situations of the struggle naturalism; but I am not certain that there is for existence or its incidents. It is in the any real break or contradiction between them, interests of these that the evolution of the only a surface one, and that deeper down the mechanism has proceeded. Adrenin increases strata still unite them.” Nevertheless, in the the blood sugar, hurries coagulation (a vital dozen chapters of his book, " The Breath of matter in the bloody business of fighting), and All these Life” (Houghton), from which these words gives spurt to muscular energy. are quoted, he makes no visible progress, and changes are detectable in the subjects of ex- citement -- both players and spectators - of doubtless did not expect to, toward establish- ing a connection between the two. The mys- a football game, as also in the "before" tery of life, defying all explanation on the and “after” of a severe examination. The part of scientist and naturalist, is his theme, mechanism is intimately psychic; the emotion from beginning to end, under slightly varying mals share a comparable emotional disposition is essential to its summons. The fact that ani- aspects, as it has already been his chosen topic is established. As the human mouth waters in some of his former writings. Citing with at the sight of tempting food, so also will the more or less of agreement or dissent such authorities as Darwin, Tyndall, Spencer, Hux- flow of saliva in a dog be stimulated only when ley, Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, Professor appetite is present. Contrariwise, nervous Haeckel, and, with a different emphasis, Pro- excitement stops the flow of the gastric juices; fessor Bergson (to whom he not very long ago the reality of nervous indigestion is adequately There devoted a cordially appreciative chapter), Mr. sustained by physiological evidence. Burroughs presents in highly interesting and are also illuminating side-lights upon the suggestive fashion a cursory view of the dif-physiological setting of the emotional states ; ferent methods of approach to this fascinating not the least interesting of these is that the and tantalizing problem, and, as was of course "emotional” defence of war has no exclusive to be expected, leaves us at last as hopelessly vantage as against other active rivalries, such and delightfully perplexed as we were in the as sport. The central value of this able volume beginning. The very breath of life to the lies in its correlation of the physiological problem is its insolubility. More than half changes; it thus gives a consistent interpreta- the charm of the book, for most readers, is ex tion of certain hitherto obscure mechanisms of plained in its author's prefatory confession of the emotional life. It is a positive and an his own attitude toward his theme. “I am important contribution. 1915) 469 THE DIAL the Monroe Internationalizing In recent years there has been and fragmentary all our philanthropy, even an increasing disposition among the best of it, how unworthy to be called either Doctrine. students of American foreign charity or justice, if by those noble words we policy to find fault with the Monroe Doctrine mean what our fathers meant, or what our as it is now interpreted; and some, even, are sons will mean by those or better terms describ- beginning to denounce it as an obsolete shib- ing the better human relations which are to boleth, the continued enforcement of which be. Instead of treating specifically any one by the United States alone is a wrong to the or several of the pressing social problems, the greater powers of South America and a con author chooses "another method of approach, stant source of danger to this country. Some hoping that we may get both unity and propor- demand that it should be abolished outright; tion into our study, and perhaps see some old others that it should be radically altered, and problems in a new light, if we take for our restored to its original character; still others, background the normal individual life, and, that it should be “internationalized,” and following it through from beginning to end, other nations be invited to coöperate with the try to determine what are the social conditions United States in the maintenance of the doc and social provisions which are essential at trine. Among those who advocate the last each stage to securing it.” This normal life he mentioned policy is Professor W. I. Hull of considers successively in its seven natural Swarthmore College, who has recently pub- divisions, the pre-natal period, infancy, child- lished a little volume of addresses entitled hood, adolescence, early maturity, full matur- “ The Monroe Doctrine: National or Inter- | ity, and old age; and that reader must be national” (Putnam), in which he maintains little interested in human welfare who fails to that the United States cannot expect to lay find the book full of suggestion. Its value to the foundation of permanent peace and genu social workers is beyond question. Dr. Devine ine justice if it continues to insist on an exclu finds time, amid his other activities, to edit sive responsibility for the doctrine. It is not “The Survey," as many readers already know, only foolish but wrong, he argues, for a single and his present volume is published by the nation to attempt to perform what is evi Survey Associates, of New York. dently a world-task. The rest of the world, we are told, has lost patience with our attempts As John Muir was known as the to square our practice with our political the Wonders of Father of the Yosemite, so Mr. ory, and it has become increasingly evident Enos A. Mills might fairly be that the logical solution of the problem is the called the Father of Rocky Mountain Park. assumption of the rights and responsibilities It is largely due to his untiring enthusiasm which the doctrine entails, by the entire fam- and perseverance that this magnificent bit of ily of nations and its subjection to the institu- mountain scenery has been preserved for all tions established at the Hague. There is much time as a playground for the people. In his in this suggestion that will commend itself to book, “The Rocky Mountain Wonderland” thoughtful men; but there are still many to (Houghton), Mr. Mills describes this region whom the idea will, as Professor Hull admits, of towering peaks, canyons, alpine meadows, appear to be little short of treasonable. forests, and lakes. But he does much more than this: his book is the record of one who Few writers on charity work A contribution has for many years lived on intimate terms to social have had so long and varied an with the Rockies and their wild inhabitants, betterment. experience therein as Dr. Ed and writes from the fulness of his knowledge. ward T. Devine, General Secretary of the The titles of some of his chapters suggest Charity Organization Society of New York the range of his knowledge and interest; but City, and either past or present officer in many they can give only a faint idea of the minute- similar bodies engaged in the relief of distress ness and sympathy with which he has studied and the amelioration of social evils. Thus his the life of the mountains, and none at all of book, “ The Normal Life,” speaks with a meas the charming simplicity and directness of his ure of authority that is none the less impres- style. He tells us intimate stories of Mountain sive by reason of its tentative, undogmatic Sheep, Grizzly Bear, Beaver, Silver Fox, way of presenting social problems and their Woodchuck, and Chipmunk; of the struggle possible solutions. He recognizes "how little for existence in winter snows; of the growth we have done as yet about some things, how and decline of forests and mountain lakes; of few are the consecrated workers, how limited the birds and flowers that lend music, color, our vision, how inadequate our practical appli- and fragrance to these high wildernesses; of cation of that admirable principle of coöpera- the eccentricities of snow-slides; and of a tion so constantly on our lips, how provincial hundred and one other things that make up the Rockies. 470 June 10 THE DIAL Health control The universal this mountain world of which most of us, even tion, and free will she puts by as carefully as those who have spent many seasons in the any Calvinist. That this law is beneficent in Rockies, know so very little. And to illustrate its operations, however things may seem, she his narrative, Mr. Mills has brought together proves as far as she can, and it serves to sup- a score or more of striking photographs of port as buoyant an optimism as can well be mountain life and scenery. Altogether the imagined. By the light of her faith she exam- book is a notable one. ines many incidents in her own experience, some of them trifles taken by themselves; and Scientific information for the passes from them to great sweeps of history, in the Tropics. experts and specialists in tropi- such as one finds in Gibbon, and to great cal medicine and sanitation has human institutions, such as the Church of grown with astonishing rapidity in the past Rome. The universe is her field, at last, and decade, and popular treatises on restricted everywhere is there evident to her eyes a great parts of the subject are available for the lay- power, not ourselves, working for righteous- man. However, no single book written from ness. Needless to say, the individual counts the elementary standpoint in simple concise for comparatively little in such a philosophy. form so fully covers the whole field as does Mr. But the writer's outlook is clear and hopeful, W. Alexander Muirhead's “Practical Tropical and the book is well written and entertaining Sanitation” (Dutton). The author has had a even when seeking most to be instructive. The prominent part in the practical administration translation, made by Miss Alys Hallard, leaves of the application of the science of preventive much to be desired. The work is dedicated to medicine under frontier conditions in the America, — “Country of New Thoughts." tropics. This probably explains the didactic tone of treatment, and the forceful presenta- "All great actions have been sim- tion as well as the minor omissions, imperfec- appeal of ple, and all great pictures are,” tions, and occasional scientific lapses. The great art. says Emerson, whom Professor book treats of the causes of avoidable tropical Edwin Watts Chubb appositely quotes in diseases, and their methods of social control, opening his “Sketches of Great Painters," a of mosquitoes and flies and the havoc they series of untechnical chapters offered by one play by spreading malaria, sleeping sickness, who, as he modestly explains, thought he and other forms of transmissible disease. The might, “knowing so little about art .. be able principles, methods, and official routine of to interest the ‘hoi polloi’ who know even inspection, disinfection, and police control are less." Accordingly he has set down the things diagrammatically outlined. Ventilation, the that interest him, and that will interest many protection of food and water, and the disposal others, in regard to certain masters, old and of refuse are discussed in an elementary way, modern, and their masterpieces. Appreciative and sanitary law and practice are fully elabo- comment, biographical information, and char- rated. The work is a valuable one for sani- acteristic anecdote, all find appropriate place tary constabulary, and for lay use by estates, in the fifteen sketches dealing with as many mines, and all commercial enterprises in the artists, not arranged in chronological or any tropics for popular instruction and social pro- other order, apparently, but introduced each tection. The reduction of the death rate as the impulse moved. Thus Raphael heads among European officials in West Africa from the list and Van Dyck stands at the foot, while 90 to 11.8 per thousand between 1896 and between them are scattered Millet, Leonardo 1913 by sanitary measures is a convincing da Vinci, Rembrandt, Whistler, Turner, Ti- argument for the utility of the methods advo- tian, Rubens, Corot, Michael Angelo, Rey. cated in this manual. nolds, Murillo, Velasquez, and Rosa Bonheur. The author has spent many hours in the chief Pierre (Mme. Favre) de Coule- picture-galleries of Europe and America, so Determinism vain does not give us a book of that his present work is no hasty production and romance. fiction in "The Wonderful Ro- of the moment. Gifted with a taste for the mance” (Dodd, Mead & Co.), but has availed | best in art, he renders intelligent aid to his herself nevertheless of her ability as a story readers in the appreciation of that best, and teller in bringing together all sorts of inci- does it in so unobtrusive and undogmatic a dents from real life, from history, and from manner as to ingratiate himself at once with religion, to show the world what enlighten the "hoi polloi ” whom, with humorous self- ment comes from complete acceptance of the depreciation, he hopes to interest. Eighteen doctrines of determinism. That we are under reproductions of well-known masterpieces are an immutable law, predetermined in its action provided, and the book is published in pleasing down to the minutest detail, is her firm convic-form by the Stewart & Kidd Co. of Cincinnati. 1915) 471 THE DIAL in modern progress. 29 Amid the welter of Feministic been available so long. Furthermore, why Woman's place literature, Mrs. Florence Guerin should our best publishing houses not adopt Tuttle's “ The Awakening of the plan of printing distinctly on the title- Woman (Abingdon Press) should take an page the number of the edition, with the date honorable place. Despite the continual striv- of the work's original appearance? Of course ing after phrasal felicities, and the rather pro we may usually turn the leaf over and find nounced oratorical style, there is so much this information in small type; but the more truth and such a degree of reasonableness in direct method has every advantage. it that it must do the cause good in quarters which have hitherto been impervious. The BRIEFER MENTION. chapters dealing with "Woman and Genius,' “Creative Womanhood," and "Motherhood" “ Outlines and Summaries" (Holt), a little man- are the least provocative of irrelevant objec- ual prepared by Professor Norman Foerster for the tions. The analysis of the conditions necessary use of freshmen in college, presents a formal and to genius is very good, but certainly many practical method of teaching students how to make The illustrative sympathetic readers will find the writer's analyses of expository essays. selection of Madame Montessori, Madame material is fresh and interesting, and the compiler's Curie, and Mary Baker Eddy as the three throughout. enthusiasm for his task is very clearly reflected greatest geniuses among modern women a “ Readings from American Literature” (Ginn), curious one." The Revaluation of Life” and by Mary Edwards Calhoun and Emma Leonora “ The Relation to Eugenics” are not so sanely MacAlarney, is a textbook combining both prose reasonable. The author makes the common and verse. It will be welcomed, as something that mistake of assuming that children, especially has long been needed, even though the idiosyncra- female children, have only one parent, a cies of the editors, and no doubt copyright difficul- mother; also that the father's relation to the ties as well, have prevented it from being as repre- child is nearly, if not altogether, a material sentative as many teachers will wish. The space one. She is also peculiarly responsible for given to seventeenth and eighteenth century writers seems proportionally too great, at least for high the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy that the school students; and several later writers who immense recent progress in eugenics is due to should be included in even a hurried survey of the work of women. The book has not been American literature are omitted altogether. But the sufficiently revised for perfect coherence; but selections are in general well made. it is on the whole stimulating, suggestive, and For children who find the transition from the distinctly worth while. rhythmic work of the kindergarten to the more elaborate folk and æsthetic dancing somewhat diffi- New edition Seven years ago the Rev. John cult, and consequently uninteresting, Mrs. Irene E. of a handbook P. Jones, D.D., produced an un- Phillips Moses has arranged a book on “Rhythmic on India. Action: Plays and Dances” (Milton Bradley Co.), usually good introductory book that is adapted to the needs of the primary school, on “India: Its Life and Thought” (Mac- playground, and gymnasium. Many of the rhymes millan). It was frankly intended for readers are from Mother Goose"; the others are all who were not familiar with the field, and was popular favorites, or else have been chosen because “based on thirty years of matured expe of their contemporary or nature-study interest. rience in the most interesting land under the Illustrations and music add to the usefulness of the sun. Naturally, the author's point of view volume, which has been prepared primarily to give was given by his life work; but he tried to be pleasure to active, healthy childhood. scrupulously fair, and has succeeded much The California missions have received their full better than many of his fellow workers. The share of attention during the past two years, owing first edition had four successors, and on the to the adventitious interest derived from the Pan- whole this popularity has been deserved. ama-Pacific Exposition. Accordingly, Messrs. J. Smeaton Chase and Charles Francis Saunders have However, we have one serious protest to enter: been at some pains to give a new turn to their the references to political India should have treatment of "The California Padres and Their been brought up to date in the issue of 1915, Missions” (Houghton). They begin with the per- lately published. It is simply absurd to print sonal contact with the traveller with each mission, in a book appearing this year the following and end with some personal reminiscence of one or statement about Lord Morley's famous reor another padre connected with the mission discussed. ganization: “Even at the present time the The volume is an intimate and sociable guide-book, Secretary of State for India has introduced a the material of which seems to be trustworthy, scheme which will add materially to the power excepting where it frankly gives rein to the imag- ination. The making of the book, including the of India in the conduct of its own affairs.' illustrations, is well up to the high standard which Similarly, there is no excuse for quoting the we have come to expect from the publishing house census of 1901 when the figures for 1911 have whose imprint it bears. 472 June 10 THE DIAL was « NOTES. the title “ Common Sense about the Shaw." The first work is an English edition of the study of Mr. A new edition of Messrs. Harper's ten-volume Shaw by Augustin Hamon, translated from the Encyclopædia of United States History” will be third French edition by Eden and Cedar Paul. issued at an early date. The denunciation has been written by Mr. Harold During the autumn a new edition of the works Owen, part author of the play “Mr. Wu." of Oscar Wilde, in thirteen volumes, will be pub- A new edition is in preparation of “ The Col- lished by Messrs. Putnam. lected Works of Aphra Behn," in six volumes, An English translation of General Joffre's book, printed by Mr. A. H. Bullen at the Shakespeare “My March to Timbuctoo,” with an introductory Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon, under the editor- sketch by Mr. Ernest Dimnet, will soon be issued ship of Mr. Montague Summers. More than forty by Messrs. Duffield. years have elapsed since the last edition of Aphra A translation by Miss Mary Blaiklock of M. Behn was issued, and that was merely a reprint, Romain Rolland's “Musiciens d’Autrefois,” will with no attempt at serious editing, omitting much shortly be published under the title of Some of her work, including all her poetry. Even in its Musicians of Former Days." incomplete state, the edition of 1874 has become Mr. William Lindsey's drama, “Red Wine of rare and costly. Rousillon," which announced by Messrs. The place of Belgium in the modern world of Houghton Mifflin Co. for publication this spring, letters is estimated in Mr. Jethro Bithell's study of will not appear until autumn. “ Contemporary Belgian Literature," which Mr. A volume entitled “ Citizens in Industry,” by the Fisher Unwin of London will shortly publish. The late Dr. Charles R. Henderson, will be published author traces the development of recent Belgian this month by Messrs. Appleton. This house has literature from about the year 1880—when a group also in press an account of “ Sanitation in Pan- of students at Louvain, including Emile Verhaeren, ama" by Major-General W. C. Gorgas. began the campaign for new ideals in the Uni- versity magazines - down to the present day. Ex- Others," a new monthly devoted to the interests amples are given of the best work of representative of poetry, will make its initial appearance this month. The editors are Messrs. Alfred Kreymborg authors, especially of the poets. and Walter Conrad Arensberg, and the magazine The latest number to reach us of “Special Li- will be issued temporarily from Ridgefield, N. J. braries" — Vol. 6, No. 4 (April, 1915) contains an article of some length, and rich in noteworthy In the immediately forthcoming volume, “The facts, on “ Organized Information in the Use of Japanese Problem in the United States," by Mr. Business," by Mr. John A. Lapp, Director of the H. A. Millis, the author discusses two phases of Indiana Bureau of Legislative Information; the question, - the admission of Japanese immi- grants and the treatment accorded those who are shorter article on “ Handling a Large Circulation in an Office Library,” by the librarian of the Pub- already here. lic Service Commission Library of New York City; " The Note Book of an Attaché," by Mr. Eric a fourteen-page "List of References on Municipal Fisher Wood, will be one of this month's publica- Accounting," and a page or more of names of tions of the Century Co. The author, who was bibliographies relating to municipal administra- studying architecture at the Beaux Arts in Paris tion, social work, the present war, and other when the war broke out, offered his services imme- subjects. diately to the American Embassy in Paris, and has The recent death in the Dardanelles of the prom- had several months' experience at the front. ising young English poet and critic, Rupert Brooke, A new poetic drama on the war has been written has naturally led to a decided general interest in by Mr. Stephen Phillips and will be published in his work. There will soon appear a volume con- book form by Mr. John Lane probably next month, | taining all the poems written by him since the under the title of "Armageddon.” The drama is in appearance of his 1911 volume. The new book three acts, with a prologue in which the shade of will be called “ 1914, and Other Poems," and will Attila is dispatched by Satan to take possession of contain a photogravure portrait. The five 1914 the Kaiser's person. The scene of the first act is sonnets will come first in the book; then a group laid outside Reims; that of the last in Cologne, called “ The South Seas”; then a number of with the Allied forces. “ Other Poems"; and then “ The Old Vicarage." Mrs. Ghosal (or Scrimati Svarna Kumari Devi), We may expect it to be followed by a collected the sister of Rabindranath Tagore, whose Indian edition including the poems, the book on Webster, romance "An Unfinished Song” was published in the critical articles, and the prose sketches which an English translation about a year ago, has trans were among the most charming things that Brooke lated another of her novels for early issue, under wrote. the title “ The Fatal Garland.” The story, which is “ State Documents for Libraries" is the title of illustrated by native artists, is written round some a carefully written pamphlet of 163 pages, form- events of Indian history of the fourteenth century, ing No. 36 of Vol. 12 of the “University of Illi- and contains much of Hindu philosophy. nois Bulletin.” Mr. Ernest J. Reece, of the Library An English publishing house will shortly publish School of that university is its author, and he has on the same date two books on Mr. Bernard Shaw, grouped his matter under six heads,- " The Field in one of which he is proclaimed as “the twentieth of State Documents," “ The Selection of State century Molière," and in the other denounced under | Documents for Libraries," " Description of State 1915 ] 473 THE DIAL • . Departments and Documents," "The Treatment of State Documents in Libraries," “ The Distribution of State Documents," and " Bibliographical Mat- ter.” The methods of distribution in our different states are fully described, and suggestions are offered for “a model law on printing and distri- bution.” All librarians are more or less tormented by the public-document problem, and they will welcome this able monograph on the subject. The “ Twentieth Annual Report of the John Crerar Library notes the unavoidable injurious effect of the war upon its activities, and yet chron- icles encouraging progress in growth and useful- ness. Additional room has been secured on the seventh floor of the building where the library is now situated, pending the erection of a building of its own, which the directors have decided not to begin until 1917. Unusually long, compared with that of other libraries, is the list of donors to the John Crerar Library for the year 1914; it fills forty-five double-column fine-print pages. А biographical notice of the late Eliphalet Wickes Blatchford, director from the foundation of the library, and since 1900 chairman of the committee on administration, is contained in the Report. An intimate picture of Roman social and family life under the Napoleonic régime is contained in “ The Patrizi Memoirs,” by the Marchesa Madda- lena Patrizi, translated by Mr. Hugh Fraser, which will appear shortly. The book is based on letters and diaries collected by the author through years of research in France and Italy and printed for family circulation some years ago. It is now pre- sented to the public for the first time, with an historical introduction by Mr. J. Crawford Fraser. The worst side of Napoleon's character is revealed in his treatment of the Marchese Giovanni Patrizi and his wife, who, as the Princess Cunigonda of Saxony, and cousin of Louis XVI., roused the worst hatred of the Emperor. The records serve to show that whereas the harsh treatment of those who were considered dangerous and recalcitrant Catholics was left to the officials, Napoleon himself made that of the Patrizi family his personal affair. We quote the following interesting paragraph from the London “ Nation”: “Sir William Robert- son Nicoll has not abandoned his project of writing a history of English periodical literature in the Victorian era. We have become so accustomed to periodicals that it is not easy to realize the extent of their influence on the world of books. They have certainly affected the development of prose style, something of the form as well as the content of our fiction is due to them, and it is through them that the greater part of our literary criticism has been introduced to the world. "If any one will run over in his mind the list of the most remarkable critical books of the last fifty years,' says Pro- fessor Saintsbury, ‘he will find that scarcely one in ten, perhaps not one in twenty, has had an original appearance wholly independent of the periodical.' • To write articles for money and books for love' is often a convenient arrangement, and not the least of the services of the periodicals is that they have enabled men of letters to gain a livelihood without sacrificing their independence.” TOPICS IN LEADING PERIODICALS. June, 1915 Actress, Ambitions of an. Margaret Anglin American Alaska, Freeing, from Red Tape. F. K. Lane No. Amer. America, The Duty of George Harvey No. Amer. American Citizenship. Theodore Roosevelt Metropolitan Anthony, Susan B. Anna H. Shaw Metropolitan Argonne, In. Edith Wharton Scribner Arms and Man. Henry W. Nevinson Atlantic Art, New Note in. Ada Rainey Century Australia, Wages Boards in. M. B. Hammond Quar. Jour. Econ. Austria-Hungary and Serbia: G. M. Trevelyan No. Amer. Baseball: The Ideal College Game. Lawrence Perry Scribner Borel, Pétrus. Arthur Symons Forum Boy Scouts, The. Cecil Price Hibbert Boys' Court of Chicago, The. Evelina Belden Am. Jour. Soc. Bridges, Robert, Poetry of. L. W. Miles Sewanee Bulgaria's Dream of Empire. T. L. Stoddard Century Business, American, and the War. E. M. Woolley Everybody's Business, Sticking to Old Ways in. Ida M. Tarbell American Business Conditions. Melvin T. Copeland Quar. Jour. Econ. Carlyle's Germans. J. M. Sloan Hibbert Celibate Women of To-day. Earl Barnes Pop. Sc. Character and Temperament. Joseph Jastrow Pop. Sc. China, Reform in. Frank J. Goodnow Am. Pol. Sc. China and Autocracy. J. 0. P. Bland Atlantic Christian Endeavour Movement, The. F. E. Clark Hibbert Christian Science, Method of. L. W. Snell Hibbert City Summers. Harrison Rhodes Harper Collegian, The Calumniated. Mary L. Harkness Atlantic Color Music as an Art. Edwin R. Doyle Bookman Conflict, Problems of. Evelyn Underhill Hibbert Dallin's Indian Sculptures. W. H. Downes Scribner Defence, National, First Line of. Perry Belmont No. Amer. Defence, National, Problem of. L. M. Garrison No. Amer. Delinquency: The Ohio Plan. T. H. Haines Pop. Sc. Democracy and War. W. J. Tucker Atlantic Drinkwater, John. Milton Bronner Booleman Duncan, Isadora, Art of. Sonya Levien Metropolitan “ Efficiency," Moral Failure of. E. D. Schoonmaker Century England in Wartime. P. A. Bruce Sewanee English, Teaching of. Burges Johnson Century Europe, Our Debt to. Theodore H, Price World's Work Exports " by Mail," Selling. W. F. Wyman World's Work Fertilization of the Egg. J. F. McClendon Pop. Sc. Fiji, A History of. Alfred G. Mayer Pop. Sc. France, As Witnessed in. Albert J. Beveridge Rev. of Revs. German Fighting Plans. Hendrik Van Loon Century German “Kultur." Percy Gardner Hibbert Germany's New Offensive. Frank H. Simonds Rev. of Revs. Germany under the Blockade. W. J. Ashley Atlantic Germany's Submarines. H. T. Wade Rev. of Revs. Gold and Silver Production, American. c. H. Haring. Quar. Jour. Econ. Good, Doing. May Tomlinson Forum Gothic Ruin. Maude Egerton King Hibbert Greek Tragedy, Revival of. Harrison Smith Bookman Hay, John, Statesmanship of. W. R. Thayer Harper Henry Street, The House on — IV. Lillian D. Wald Atlantic Hugo's Daughter, The Story of. Grace I. Colbron Bookman Illinois, Reorganization in. J. A. Fairlie Am. Pol. Sc. Income, The “ Why" of. Scott Nearing Am. Jour. Soc. Iowa, Reorganization in. F. E. Horack Am. Pol. Sc. Japan's First Democrat. Carl Crow World's Work Jewish Flight, The, to Egypt. Martha L. Root Rev. of Revs. Joffre, Foch, and the Army. E. V. Stoddard World's Work Justice, An International Court of. J. W. Jenks Rev. of Revs. Kaiser's Psychosis, The. A. M. Hamilton No. Amer. Kansas, Reorganization in. C. A. Dykstra Am. Pol. Sc. Krupps' Model Town, The. Robert Hunter Rev. of Revs. Life and Matter at War. Henri Bergson Hibbert Living, Soft, and Easy Dying. W. C. Johnson World's Work Lucretius and Tibullus, Studies in. L. P. Chamber- layne Sewanee “ Lusitania,” The “Titanic" and the. Charles Vale Forum McClure-Westfield Movement, The McClure Magazine in America, The — 'IV. Algernon Tassin' Bookman Markham, Edwin, Poetry of. Bailey Millard Boolcman Marlowe, Julia, Art of. William Winter Century Massachusetts and the Executive Council. A. N.* Holcombe Am. Pol. Sc. Mechanism, The Cult of. 'L: P. Jacks Hibbert Medical “Science," Modern - II. Helen S. Gray Forum Merchant Marine, The American. J. H. Thomas Century Mexico, Scenes in. Alice Cowdery Harper “Midsummer Night's Dream, A,” Workmanship of. Arthur Quiller-Couch No. Amer. Mind and Matter. C. Marsh Beadneli Hibbert Minnesota, Reorganization in. J. S. Young Am. Pol. Sc. Mississippi, Controlling the. George Marvin World's Work Morality, International. David J. Hill No. Amer. Motion-picture, The New. J. S. Hamilton Everybody's Negro-minstrelsy. Brander Matthews Scribner Nervousness, The Riddle of Metropolitan New York City, Civic Pride in. H.'w. Webber Forum . . . . . 474 June 10 THE DIAL . Novels, Quack, and Democracy. Owen Wister Atlantic Ohio, Taxation in. 0. C. Lockhart Quar. jour. Econ. Old Age. Robert L. Raymond Atlantic Oregon, Reorganization in. J. D. Barnett Am. Pol. Sc. Pan-American Financial Conference, The. A. W. Dunn Rev. of Revs. Panama, Administration in. G W. Goethals Scribner Peace, Permanent. F. E. Chadwick No. Amer. Peace Movement, Unifying the. F. H. Stead : Rev. of Revs. Phi Beta Kappa Society. J. M. McBryde, Jr. Sewanee Pigeons, Habits of. Elisha Hanson Everybody's Poetry, Eighteenth-century. H. A. Burd Sewanee Poetry, The “ Diabolic" in. Stephen Phillips Bookman Poetry, The Rebirth of. Horace Holley Forum Pork-barrel Pensions — IV. B. J. Hendrick World's Work Presidential Possibilities. Victor Murdock Metropolitan Prohibition, Nation-wide. L. A. Brown Atlantic Psycho-analysis and Disease. Max Eastman Everybody's Republicans, The Resurrected. Walter Lippman Metropolitan Ricardo's Economics. C. C. North Am. Jour. Soc. Riches, Ways of Acquiring. Waldemar Kaempffert McClure “Saloonless Nation, A, by 1920." J. S. Gregory World's Work Scandinavian Democracies, The. Infanta Eulalia Century Science and Industry. C. W. Super Pop. Sc. Scientific Management, Liberal Arts and. Grant Showerman Pop. Sc. Shakespeare Players, The.' o. i. 'Hatcher Sewanee Shetland, The Islands of. Maud R. Warren Harper Sierras, The, in June. Henry Seidel Canby Harper Slav Question, The Southern. N. D. Harris Am. Pol. Sc. Socialism, German, and War. M. W. Robieson Hibbert South Americans: What They Read. Isaac Goldberg Bookman Speech, Bar Sinister of. J. L. McMaster Sewanee State Government, Reorganization in. H. G. James Am. Pol. Sc. Summer Camp, The. Mary H. Northend Century Taylor, Bayard. Laura Stedman No. Amer. Torpedoes and the Lusitania. Waldemar Kaempffert Rev. of Revs. Treitschke and Hegel. E. F. Carriti Hibbert Turk, The Fate of the. H. G. Dwight Century Unemployment and Business. E. H. Gary Harper Unemployment in Chicago. C. R. Henderson Am. Jour. Soc. War, A “Teetotal." James Middleton World's Work War, Herd Instinct and the. Gilbert Murray Atlantic War, Meaning of the. Hermann Keyserling Hibbert War, Medical Aspects of the. F. H. Robinson Forum War, The Cost of the. Roland G. Usher Atlantic War, The Theatre of. Ernest Poole American War Contracts in the United States. C. F. Speare. Rev. of Revs. Warton, Thomas, Poetry of. Clarissa Rinaker Sewanee Wave Work on the New Jersey Coast. D. W. Johnson Pop. Sc. Woman and Education. A. H. Upham Sewanee Woman's Vote, The, in Chicago. H. S. Fullerton American Women and the Ballot. H. G. Cutler Forum Ypres, Day's Work at. Arthur H. Gleason Metropolitan Critical Essays of the Eighteenth Century, 1700- 1725. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Willard Higley Durham, Ph.D. 8vo, 445 pages. Yale University Press. $1.75 net. The Poets Laureate of England: Their History and Their Odes. By_W. Forbes Gray. Illustrated, 8vo, 315 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net. Representative Phi Beta Kappa Orations. Edited by Clark S. Northup, William C. Lane, and John C. Schwab. With photogravure portrait, 8vo, 500 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $3. net. Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands. Compiled by Clara Endicott Sears. Illustrated, 12mo, 185 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1. net. A Walk in Other Worlds with Dante. By Marion S. Bainbrigge. Illustrated, 8vo, 253 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $2. net. A Tale of a Tub. By Ben Jonson; edited by Flor- ence May Snell, Ph.D. Large 8vo, 205 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper, $2.50 net. A Neglected Aspect of the English Romantic Revolt. By G. F. Richardson. 8vo, 360 pages. Berkeley: University of California Press. Paper. Fifty-one Tales: By Lord Dunsany. 12mo, 138 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25 net. Oratory. By John P. Altgeld. New edition; 16mo, 43 pages. Chicago: The Public. 50 cts. net. DRAMA AND VERSE. The Man on the Hilltop, and Other Poems. By Arthur Davison Ficke. 12mo, 104 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25 net. The Unveiling: A Poetic Drama in Five Acts. By Jackson Boyd. With portrait, 12mo, 255 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.25 net. The Poet in the Desert. By Charles Erskine Scott Wood. 8yo, 124 pages. Portland, Oregon: Pri- vately printed. $1. net. Lovers, The Free Woman, They: Three Plays. By Maurice Donnay; translated from the French, with Introduction, by Barrett H. Clark. “Modern Drama Series." 12mo, 265 pages. Mitchell Ken- nerley. $1.50 net. The Contemplative Quarry. By Anna Wickham. 12mo, 40 pages. London: The Poetry Bookshop. Paper. The Old Ships. By James Elroy Flecker. 12mo, 32 pages. London: The Poetry Bookshop. Paper. Songs. By Edward Shanks. 12mo, 32 pages. Lon- don: The Poetry Bookshop. Paper. Spring Morning. By Frances Cornford; with wood- cuts by G. Raverat. 12mo, 24 pages. London: The Poetry Bookshop. Paper. Short English Poems for Repetition. By C. M. Rice, M.A. 12mo, 119 pages. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd. Paper. Visions of the Dusk. By Fenton Johnson. With portrait, 16mo, 71 pages. Published by the author. FICTION Jaffery. By William J. Locke. Illustrated, 12mo, 352 pages. John Lane Co. $1.35 net. A Far Country. By Winston Churchill. Illustrated, 12mo, 509 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. Empty Pockets. By Rupert Hughes. Illustrated, 12mo, 607 pages. Harper & Brothers. $1.35 net. One Man. By Robert Steele. 12mo, 394 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.50 net. The House of Merrilees. By Archibald Marshall. 12mo, 387 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.35 net. The Splendid Chance. By Mary Hastings Bradley. Illustrated, 12mo. D. Appleton & Co. $1.30 net. The Millionaire. By Michael Artzibashef; trans- lated by Percy Pinkerton, with Introduction by the author. 12mo, 244 pages. B. W. Huebsch. $1.25 net. The Brocklebank Riddle. By Hubert Wales. 12mo, 329 pages. Century Co. $1.30 net. Jim. By Reginald Wright Kauffman. 12mo, 413 pages. Moffat, Yard & Co. Time 0' Day. By Doris Egerton Jones. With frontispiece, 12mo, 377 pages. George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.25 net. Sundown Slim. By Henry Herbert Knibbs. Illus- trated in color, etc., 12mo, 357 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.35 net. Diantha. By Juliet Wilbor Tompkins. With frontis- piece, 12mo, 262 pages. Century Co. $1.25 net. The Lady Aft. By Richard Matthews Hallet. Illus- trated in color, etc., 12mo, 352 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. $1.35 net. Mountain Blood. By Joseph Hergesheimer. 12mó, 312 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.35 net. Hepsey Burke. By Frank N. Westcott. Illustrated, 12mo, 314 pages. H. K. Fly Co. $1.35 net. A Man's Code. By W. B. M. Ferguson. Illustrated, 12mo, 305 pages. G. W. Dillingham Co. $1.25 net. Mrs. Barnet-Robes. By Mrs. C. S. Peel. 12mo, 303 pages. John Lane Co. $1.25 net. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. [ The following list, containing 99 titles, includes books received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES. Twenty Years of My Life. By Douglas Sladen; illustrated in color, etc., by Yoshio Markino. 8vo, 365 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net. Ralph Waldo Emerson. By O. W. Firkins. With photogravure portrait, 12mo, 379 pages. Hough- ton Mifflin Co. $1.75 net. Ulysses S. Grant. By Franklin Spencer Edmonds. "American Crisis Biographies." Illustrated, 12mo, 376 pages. George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.25 net. HISTORY. The Riverside History of the United States. Com- prising: Beginnings of the American People, by Carl L. Becker; Union and Democracy, by Allen Johnson; Expansion and Conflict, by William E. Doda; The New Nation, by Frederic L. Paxson. Each 16mo. Houghton Mimin Co. Per volume, $1.75 net. Lee's Dispatches: Unpublished Letters of General Robert E. Lee, 1862-5. Edited, with Introduction, by Douglas Southall Freeman. With photo- gravure portrait, 8vo, 400 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.75 net. Hopi Indians. By Walter Hough. “Little Histories of North American Indians." With frontispiece, 12mo, 265 pages. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press. $1. net. GENERAL LITERATURE. The Breath of Life. By John Burroughs. With portrait, 12mo, 295 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.15 net. THE DIAL A Fortnightly Journal of Literary Criticism, Discussion, and Information. THE PITY OF IT! THE DIAL_(founded in 1880) is published fortnightly. every other Thursday — except in July and August, in which one issue for each month will appear. TERMS OF SUBSCRIP- TION, $2. a year in advance, postage prepaid in the United States and Mexico; Foreign and Canadian postage 50 cents per year extra. REMITTANCES should be by check, or by express or postal order, payable to THE DIAL. Unless other- wise ordered, subscriptions will begin with the current nunta ber. When no direct request to discontinue at expiration of subscription is received, it is assumed that a continuance of the subscription is desired. ADVERTISING RATES furnished on application. Published by THE HENRY O. SHEPARD COMPANY, 632 Sherman Street, Chicago. Entered as Second-Class Matter October 8, 1892, at the Post Office at Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879. Vol. LIX. JUNE 24, 1915 No. 697 CONTENTS. PAGE THE PITY OF IT! William Morton Payne 5 THE A. L. A. CONFERENCE. Arthur E. Bost- wick 8 CASUAL COMMENT 9 The consolations of literature.-An arrested auction sale of valuable autographs.-A new development in coöperative cataloguing.-The path to perfection.-Another word about the Widener Library.— The asceticism of art.- Seventeen selected candidates for the Hall of Fame. COMMUNICATIONS 12 The Growth of the Whitman Legend.” John L. Hervey. The Wisconsin University Survey. William H. Allen. A GREAT AMERICAN NATURALIST. T. D. A. Cockerell 16 THE “ MOVIES” OLD AND NEW. H. C. Chat- field-Taylor 17 FINDING ONESELF IN LIFE. Alex. Macken- drick . 20 SCORCHED WITH THE FLAMES OF WAR. Wallace Rice , 22 Hedin's With the German Armies in the West. - Fox's Behind the Scenes in Warring Ger- many.-Kreisler's Four Weeks in the Trenches. - Souttar's A Surgeon in Belgium.- Mrs. Clarke's Paris Waits: 1914.- Klein's La Guerre Vue d'une Ambulance.-Eye-Witness's Narrative of the War.-Miss Thurstan's Field Hospital and Flying Column. RECENT POETRY. Raymond M. Alden 26 Some Imagist Poets.- Fletcher's Irradiations. - Holley's Creation.- Masters's Spoon River Anthology.- Hardy's Satires of Circum- stance. — Binns's The Free Spirit. — Ficke's Sonnets of a Portrait-Painter. NOTES ON NEW NOVELS 30 BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS . 31 Two German apologists.— The story of a short-lived community.-Civic work of women in America.- Our literature estimated by a foreigner.— The development of an infant phenomenon.-An orator on his art.- Ger- many and the “Holy War." NOTES 34 LIST OF NEW BOOKS 35 The passion aroused in the German breast last August, when it became evident that En- gland, the old-time champion of the menaced liberties of Europe, had no intention of evad- ing its honorable obligations toward Belgium and France, and viewed treaties as being dis- tinctly something more than scraps of paper, was characterized by a peculiar form of petu- lance. We read with sorrowful amusement of the Kaiser's actions in casting off the various honorary distinctions bestowed upon him in happier times by the English government, and in thus reducing to a considerable extent the number of costumes in his wardrobe. A more serious matter was offered by the many Ger- man scholars who forthwith disclaimed any further membership in the scientific and lit- erary associations of the enemy nations, and flung back upon the donors their medals and degrees and official titles. While this act, also, was so childish as to be amusing, it had besides a very serious and ominous aspect, for it be- tokened a rupture in the intellectual common- wealth that was bound to work much mischief long after the warring peoples should have come to terms upon the battlefield. To many of us, this was the most harrowing thought of the war — the thought that the world's comity of intercourse in things spiritual, the strongest bond of brotherhood that civilization has estab- lished among men, was likely to be shattered as regarded the nation to which the rest of the world is in so many fields of achievement so heavily indebted. The thought weighed intol- erably upon those whom culture had broad- ened to world-mindedness, and who were brought by it to a more poignant sense of the meaning of warfare than is possible to the homme sensuel moyen who eggs on the com- batants from narrow motives of pelf or mis- guided patriotism. The thing was not without precedent. We recall the similar amenities which were a by- product of the Franco-Prussian War. We recall, for example, the case of Pasteur, who returned his diploma to the University of Bonn, saying: “Now the sight of that parch- ment is odious to me, and I feel offended at 6 [June 24 THE DIAL seeing my name, with the qualification of train, and constitute a force capable of ruling the Virum clarissimum that you have given it, world, directing it in the ways of liberal civilization, placed under a name which is henceforth an equally apart from the naively blind impulses of democracy and from the puerile velleities that object of execration to my country, that of would have it retrace its steps toward a past that is Rex Gulielmus." The counter was neat and definitely dead. My dream, I admit, is destroyed emphatic: “ The undersigned, now Principal forever. An abyss is dug between France and Ger- of the Faculty of Medicine at Bonn, is re- many; centuries will not avail to fill it. The vio- lence done to Alsace and Lorraine will long remain quested to answer the insult which you have a gaping wound; the guaranties of peace dreamed dared to offer to the German nation in the by German journalists and statesmen will be guar- sacred person of its august Emperor, King anties of wars without end... What we loved in Wilhelm of Prussia, by sending you the expres- Germany, its breadth of view, its lofty conception sion of its entire contempt. P. S. Desiring nothing more than a nation; she is at present the of humanity, exists no longer. Germany is now to keep its papers free from taint, the Faculty most powerful of nations; but we know how endur- herewith returns your screed.” ing are these hegemonies and what they leave It was Renan, however, rather than Pas behind them." teur, who carried off the honors in these At the close of Renan's correspondence with exchanges of diplomatic notes between the Strauss comes this melancholy refrain: great powers of European scholarship. His “France is about to say with your Herwegh: correspondence with D. F. Strauss offers a • Enough of that sort of love; let us try hatred for masterpiece of the delicate and deadly satire, a change.' I shall not follow her in this new course, the success of which may be doubted. France holds or caustic irony, which no stylist but a French- to a resolve of hatred less than to any other. In man could possibly have at his command. any case, life is too short for it to be wise to waste Commenting, nearly a year later, upon the fact time and dissipate energy in so wretched a sport. that Strauss had published the correspondence I have toiled in my humble sphere to bring about in a pamphlet, Renan said: friendship between France and Germany; if now the time to refrain from embracing' has come, as “ It is true that you have done me an honor which the Preacher says, I will withdraw. I will not I am bound to appreciate. You yourself have counsel hatred after having counselled love; I will translated my reply and included it with your two keep silent.” letters in a pamphlet. You have had this pamphlet How closely all these old matters are par- sold for the benefit of an establishment for wounded alleled in the present tragic hour is apparent German soldiers. God forbid that I should quibble upon a point of literary property! The charity to to every reader of the history that is now being which you have made me contribute is a work of made from day to day. The correspondence humanity, and if my feeble prose has been instru between Strauss and Renan finds its counter- mental in bestowing a few cigars upon the men who part in the letters exchanged last autumn looted my little house at Sèvres, I thank you for between Herr Gerhart Hauptmann and M. having given me the opportunity to conform my conduct with certain of the principles of Jesus that Romain Rolland. The petulant attitude of I believe to be the most authentic. But I must call German scholarship is once more illustrated by your attention to a delicate distinction. Assuredly, Professor Kuno Meyer, who has recently taken if you had permitted me to publish one of your such offence at some poor verses of anti- writings, it would never have occurred to me, German tenor contributed by an undergradu- in the world, to do it for the benefit of our Hôtel des Invalides.” ate to the “Harvard Advocate" that he has How profoundly Renan's nature was stirred held the University responsible for the “vile by the Franco-Prussian War, and how poig- poem,” and indignantly repudiated the plan nantly he felt the disruption of intellectual to make him an "exchange professor” in that comity that it inevitably entailed, may be seen institution for the coming year. His screed on many a page of his “Réforme Intellectuelle addressed to President Lowell speaks of “this et Morale," from which the above passage has gratuitous and shameful insult to the honor been translated. This is indeed a volume for and fair fame of a friendly nation," declares Harvard and its President to be “branded the present times, replete with wisdom, and infused with the noblest of feeling. We read before the world and posterity as abettors of in the preface: international animosity, as traitors to the sacred cause of humanity," expresses the hope “ It had been the dream of my life to labor, to that "no German will again be found to accept the extent of my feeble powers, for the intellectual, moral, and political alliance of France with Ger- the post of exchange professor at Harvard," many, an alliance that should bring England in its and voices his regret that he himself was ever never - 1915] 7 THE DIAL induced " to set foot in the defiled precincts of too keen a sense of intolerable wrong for a once noble university.” And the occasion for human intercourse until Time the Healer has this outpouring of emotion is nothing more passed." than the fact that an irresponsible student, in Viewed sub specie æternitatis, this is clearly a publication entirely controlled by students, an impossible situation, but it is one that will has written in a sense antagonistic to the Ger- prolong the tragedy of the present clash of man cause! Hinc ille lachrymæ. Was there arms long beyond the date of the formal treaty ever so amazing an exhibition of childishness of peace. It will take many years to bind up on the part of a man supposed to stand for these wounds, and bring either of the com- light and leading! batants to the standpoint of “malice toward Such matters are symptomatic of a breach none and charity for all.” But the intellec- which is not so much a rift within the lute as tual severance, we feel assured, cannot last an unbridgeable abyss-- and the gulf has been, forever; to believe that it will so last is to take if possible, widened by the attitude of the Ger counsel of despair and to reject utterly the man nation toward the "Lusitania" crime, unifying ministry of idealism to the over- frankly adopting and defending the Black wrought mind. Perplexed in the extreme Hand method of warfare, and openly exulting though the issue now be, the future, if far dis- in its ghastly outcome. The intensity of the tant, must bring a return to acceptance of the feeling engendered between Germany and the faith that in matters of the spirit all the races powers she has made her foes finds so many of mankind have a commonwealth of which the illustrations that it is disheartening to think franchise is offered to every sincere seeker of the legacy which her aggression will be after goodness and truth and beauty. Every queath to the coming generation. What hope indication of a return to the sanity of outlook can there be of a resumption of friendly rela in this vitally important matter should be re- tions either in the political or the intellectual ceived with generous hospitality as a welcome sphere when such a man as Professor von Ley- harbinger of the reconciliation that the future den of Berlin can utter such sentiments as must bring as an atonement for the distraught these : present. Some such indications are already at “No self-respecting German will ever consent to hand, significantly from German sources, and remain in any room of which an Englishman is the we trust that they may be multiplied before occupant. If the German can not eject the English- too grievous a period of estrangement shall man he will himself leave the room. We can not be have intervened. It is the socialist deputy expected to breathe the same polluted air as our deadliest foes, who fell upon us from the rear and Herr Haenisch from whom these hopeful in the dark. There can be no compromise on this words come: “There has been some talk that point. We have to swear a national vendetta in future German science and art must lead against the English never to rest, never to cease our their own life and that foreign scientific work preparations for another war, never to spare an effort until the last semblance of English power is should not be reviewed in German periodicals. destroyed, and there will be no rest or repose for This is sheer rubbish. After the war the any honest German till the British Empire has been nations will be still more dependent upon one swept into the oblivion of past history.” another than before, and without the fructify- The virulence of hatred found in this utter ing influence of foreign countries our national ance and in the famous Hassgesang is typical culture will wither.” And it is the “Frank- of the German attitude in its present aberra furter Zeitung" which asks editorially: tion. While opinion in the opposing camps “What sense is there in German professors de- does not go to such extremes, it is nevertheless claring that they will no longer collaborate determined on the question of future relations with this or that scientific institution in En- with the enemy. The French attitude is re gland ? Science and art have always appeared ported by Mr. Stoddard Dewey, who knows the as the common possession of civilized peoples, contemporary French mind in all its workings, and does not one injure one's own people and its in the following words: “Whatever may be science by sitting on the stool of isolation and the terms which France will have to accept or by breaking off scientific intercourse?” Such which will be imposed on Germany, all human utterances as these show that the seed is al- relations of Frenchmen with Germans have ready being sown of a future comity which it ceased indefinitely. . . Every French con should be the sacred mission of every lover of sciousness, erroneously or not, is filled with mankind to further in its growth. 8 (June 24 THE DIAL In April of last year, the German Shake- general and sectional meetings held in its speare Society celebrated at Weimar the birth well-appointed halls, but a large proportion day of the poet. It was an international of the delegates found accommodation in the gathering, with guests from many countries, fraternity and sorority houses, besides those England, France, and Belgium being among who stayed at the hotels and the few who pre- those represented. The delegates came to- ferred living in San Francisco. gether in the best of good fellowship, joined by There were the usual courtesies, of course. The University gave a reception in the unique the common bond of reverence for Shake- Hearst gymnasium; the City of Oakland en- speare's genius. They parted in joyous antici- tertained the delegates at a luncheon, and the pation of their next reunion, appointed for authorities of Mills College, among the resi- 1916 in the town of Stratford, for the tercen dential hills of that city, opened their fine tenary of Shakespeare's death. How that grounds for a lawn party. The exposition dream was shattered a few weeks later we all management welcomed the Association with a know. But that dream stood for an ideal too brass band, behind which its somewhat precious to be abandoned — the ideal of an amused, but very appreciative, members intellectual community of interest that rises marched to the Court of the Four Seasons, above prejudice, and knows no passion save where they received official welcome on a bronze plaque, and the freedom of the fair. that of devotion to the high concerns of the The meeting was noteworthy as being some- spirit. One of the privileges of mankind lies thing of a family affair among the members. in “beholding the bright countenance of truth No outsider, eminent or otherwise, addressed in the quiet and still air of delightful studies," it. Even California's lieutenant-governor. and it is intolerable to think that this privilege announced on the programme to speak at one is to be renounced because the fumes of anger of the sessions, was called away to Sacramento have dulled men's higher faculties. For a by urgent state business. None of the literary time, it may well be, such intercourse will be stars, of whom California has more than one held in abeyance, but it must in the end be in her firmament, intruded his presence or resumed, and those who speak the tongues of extruded his opinions. There were addresses on books and on printing by two New York- Shakespeare and of Goethe must come to real- ers not members of the Association — Henry ize that they cannot do without one another, W. Kent, secretary of the Metropolitan Mu- and that no people on earth can do without seum, and T. M. Cleland; but these gentlemen them. Let us pray that the day of that realiza-spoke as friends of libraries and lovers of tion may be hastened, and “the golden years books, rather than as outsiders. To make up return." Meanwhile, pending such consum for the absent statesmen and littérateurs, the mation, we can only say with Othello, "Oh, the Association listened to some of the best that pity of it!" its own members were able to furnish. Note- WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. worthy among the papers was a charmingly appreciative critique of modern poetry by Miss May Massee, editor of the Association's THE A. L. A. CONFERENCE. Booklist,” in which she showed that poetry is to-day coming into its own, if we are to The thirty-seventh annual conference of judge by the increased use and appreciation the American Library Association, just com of it by readers in our public libraries. Mr. pleted at Berkeley, Cal., has been marked by Richard R. Bowker, the veteran editor of all the advantages and disadvantages of a “The Library Journal," spoke on “ The Func- convention in an exposition year, near an tion of the Public Library," sketching the his- exposition town. The fair induces a large tory of the New York Public Library as a gathering, but it also distracts. Not all the typical example of library development -a librarians who registered as delegates spent choice perhaps not altogether justified, as few their time, or most of it, in attendance upon institutions can boast of so remarkable, varied, the sessions of the convention. In the election and interesting a history. The tendencies of of officers only 87 votes were cast, although modern library architecture were sketched, the registered attendance was about 700. The with pictorial illustrations, by Mr. Chalmers absence of a contest partly explains this dis- Hadley, librarian of the Denver Public Li- crepancy, but not entirely so. The atmosphere brary. The trend of branch library develop- of the meeting was perfect. The Univer- The Univer- ment, according to Mr. Hadley, is now away sity of California had opened its hospitable from the "butterfly type," with its book body doors to the conference, and not only were and adult and juvenile wings, about which we . 1915) 9 THE DIAL used to hear so much, and toward a rectangu by stressing the value of peace whenever it lar one-room arrangement, less formal and could do so in its activities. In the discussion more homelike. This is doubtless true, but it that followed, other members deprecated an should be noted that this arrangement is attempt to commit libraries in favor of any hardly suited for large city branches, unless movement, no matter how righteous, arguing the librarian is willing to exclude adults that their non-partisanship is their most valu- altogether from his ministrations. In such In such able asset and that departure from it in one branches we cannot yet do without a separate instance might make it difficult for them to children's room. For large central buildings resist taking sides in other questions. the speaker commended a kind of " loft" plan, An immediate result of this discussion was with few fixed partitions, and division of the dispatch of a message from the Associa- book-stacks into sections capable of easy ex- tion to President Wilson, conveying its sym- pansion and contraction. This type of library pathy and expressing confidence that what- is related to those with which we are familiar, ever course he might pursue in the present somewhat as the Japanese house with its crisis would tend ultimately to the establish- screens is to the familiar American home. It ment of international peace. While this seems is well exemplified in the new library of unobjectionable, some members expressed an Springfield, Mass., and we are likely to see a opinion that the message was capable of inter- further extension of it in the Cleveland build- pretation as urging “ peace-at-any-price," and ing, now planning, where the librarian is con regretted its form as an excursion beyond sidering the abandonment of the orthodox those professional limits which such a body as stack room, building his floors strong enough ours usually, with great propriety, establishes to hold book-shelves wherever he may want to for its actions and pronouncements. place them. Flexibility, however, is not the The local and travel arrangements for the only desideratum in a library, and we shall convention were carried out with unusual probably still continue to see buildings with smoothness, the former by a local committee fixed partitions. of librarians — the latter by the Association's Among the things done by the Association own travel committee. Most of the eastern for the improvement of library service delegates proceeded to the conference by spe- throughout the country were the appointment cial train from Chicago, in an itinerary em- of a committee to coöperate in the expansion bracing stops at Denver and Glenwood of the Decimal System of classification — a Springs, Colo., Salt Lake City, Riverside and step taken with the expressed approval of San Diego, Cal., for the inspection of local Dr. Melvil Dewey, the author of the system; libraries and incidental rest and refreshment. the extension of the schedule for uniform Altogether, the members have concluded statistical reports to cover the activities of col that neither the beauties of California's scen- lege and reference libraries; and the authori. ery nor the hospitality of her citizens have zation of a printed manual setting forth the diminished since their last visit, four years general rules, and especially the limitations, ago. ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK. under which loans of books between one library and another are carried out. The election of officers resulted in the choice of Miss Mary W. Plummer for president- CASUAL COMMENT. the second woman who has held the office. As THE CONSOLATIONS OF LITERATURE, like those head of the Pratt Institute Library School, of philosophy, avail but little against the and later of the school established by the New really serious ills of our mortal lot. Neither York Public Library, Miss Plummer has long literature nor philosophy can bake bread to been a conspicuous figure among librarians, feed a war-devastated Belgium or Poland, but and has exercised an undoubted and valuable what little a good book can do to render less influence on the progress of libraries in the intolerable the consciousness of the world's United States, her pupils occupying librarian- present wretched plight, seems to be appre- ships or other responsible positions in every ciated by not a few who are much nearer to state of the union. the seat of the hideous gangrene than we of The final session witnessed a plea for a more the western world. In a letter from Paris to active participation by libraries in pacificist “ The Book Monthly," of London, Mr. James propaganda. The speaker, Mr. George F. Milne says, among other interesting things: Bowerman, librarian of the public library at "Nearly every Frenchman who writes is at Washington, D. C., argued that the library, the war, or doing something for it other than as an essentially peaceful institution, would be writing. Bookshops which were closed when only adopting a measure of self-preservation | the Germans threatened Paris, have gradually 10 [June 24 THE DIAL re-opened and are doing some trade, but not far as has yet been determined, the papers very much. . . The Frenchmen and French seem to have come not quite regularly or women who must read, because reading is legally into the possession of Jacob C. Moore, part of his or her nature, are turning to the an early historian of New Hampshire, asso- old masters, to the classics, the old familiar ciated with John Farmer in the compilation faces in print. They are reading Molière, and of Farmer and Moore's "Historical Collec- Mirabeau, and Victor Hugo, and all the great tions," and this Moore left the material to his ornaments of their literature, including that son of the same name, who in turn bequeathed living master, Anatole France. They are it to a kinsman, Mr. Frank C. Moore, of reading for inspiration, of which they are Brooklyn, in whose possession a part of it was themselves full, and they are reading for the not long ago discovered by persons interested consolation which a trusty book is in an hour in such researches. Another portion seems to when somebody has lost somebody near and be held by another of the original Moore's dear. They are essentially a literary people, descendants in Montclair, N. J., though how the French, full of all the charm which we the division came about, and who is the right- associate with the pretty page of a good book, ful owner of the whole treasure, does not yet so scholarly in their knowledge, so adept at appear. To stimulate further curiosity as to using it, so logical and clear in their style of this collection of rarities, not by any means to writing and their manner of reading. They satisfy it, let it be noted that it contains, for combine poesy with pure reason, and the sun instance, a deposition before Governor Brad- shines through both with a quality which is ford and John Alden of New Plymouth, with alike clarifying and warming." From an the rare signatures of the Mayflower passen- other source of information, the reports of gers; twenty-nine autograph letters of Wash- the municipal lending libraries, it is learned ington; Governor Wentworth’s proclamation that Paris is reading many more books than of a day of thanksgiving for the capture of it read a year ago, even though its popula- Quebec, dated November 4, 1759; and a copy tion has been diminished by several hundred of the first publication of the Declaration of thousand persons. In the first four months of Independence in New Hampshire. The New this year the libraries circulated more than Hampshire Attorney-General's attempt to re- thirteen thousand volumes in excess of the cover possession of these precious papers is circulation for the same period last year; and most natural, and the disinterested outsider the quality of the reading is reported to be as must hope that he will succeed. creditable as the quantity. If the war is thus really turning the people, or even a small A NEW DEVELOPMENT IN COÖPERATIVE CATA- fraction of the people, back to the best things LOGUING, a branch of library work for which and the serious things in literature, it is ac- the Library of Congress has of late years complishing at least a grain of good to help done so much by its issue of standard cards offset the mountain of evil. ready for insertion in the card-catalogue, comes to public notice in an announcement AN ARRESTED AUCTION SALE OF VALUABLE that appears in “The Wilson Bulletin ” of AUTOGRAPHS and other kindred matter is one recent date. This is, in brief, to the effect of the recent events of interest to collectors that the H. W. Wilson Company, of White of literary rarities. The lately discovered Plains, N. Y., has added to its various pub- “Weare Papers,” lost for a century and com- lications now familiar to most librarians a prising a wealth of historical material of form of catalogue that can be used by almost great value, were to have passed under the any American public library, and is “practi- hammer - a part of them, at least - in Phila- cally the fulfilment of Professor Jewett's idea delphia early this month; but an injunction of a general catalogue of all the books of the stopped the sale, the proper ownership of the country." In this undertaking “ the work of papers being in dispute. "As is already known cataloguing each title is done once for all and to many, the Weare collection takes its name the entry preserved by means of the modern from Meshech Weare, first governor of New linotype slug. Each of these slugs contains Hampshire after the Revolution, and it is a line of type in permanent form, and these upon the early history of that State that these slugs can be assembled and reassembled an documents will be found to throw such light infinite number of times and in any form as probably to make necessary the re-writing desired. Stock catalogues are issued from of that history. As Americana of inestima- time to time, in standard editions of varying ble worth, their sale at auction would have sizes, and the library may purchase as many realized a very pretty fortune for the person copies as desired of the edition corresponding or persons now claiming their ownership. So I most closely to its needs, checking in them if 1915] 11 THE DIAL desirable the titles which the library has. It same negative answer. “Be not so active to is also possible for a library to have its own do, as sincere to be.” The charms of the sim- catalogue, by merely checking in one of the ple life have been glowingly depicted by stock editions the titles desired and sending many writers since Alcott's time, but those it in. The proper slugs can be withdrawn unsuccessful attempts, at Brook Farm and from their places in the central body of the Fruitlands, to perpetuate that life, still re- type, assembled, and if other titles are to be tain their interest and their pathos for us of added, slugs for these can be prepared from to-day. copy furnished by the library, the whole assembled in proper order and the desired ANOTHER WORD ABOUT THE WIDENER LI- number of copies struck off, after which the BRARY, a subject of unfailing interest to book- slugs are returned to their proper places." lovers and book-collectors, comes to our A manifest saving of time and money is thus attention in “The Harvard Crimson,” from effected, and one is spared the necessity of the pen of an unnamed librarian of promi- doing laboriously what already has been nence. Apropos of the approaching dedica- done, or is being done, or will be done, hun- tion of the new Harvard library building he dreds of times, by others. writes: “In the centre of the new building will be two rooms in which his [Widener's] own collection of rare books will be kept. THE PATH TO PERFECTION, as someone has Widener began to buy books while in college, said, leads through a series of disgusts. With and very soon became interested in the first Bronson Alcott one of these disgusts took the editions of the English writers whom he read. form of distaste for animal food; or so he He was especially fond of Stevenson, and tried to persuade himself and the world when the collection of Stevenson's works became he sought refuge at Fruitlands from the car- Widener's especial hobby. He had secured nal allurements of beef, pork, mutton, poul nearly every one of the Stevenson rarities, try, and fish. The story of that short-lived and a few others which his mother has since colony of vegetarians striving to attain to purchased for the collection make this by far high thinking by plain living and hard man- the most complete in existence. His first edi- ual labor is agreeably told by its founder and tions of Dickens, Thackeray, Tennyson, and some of his associates in “Bronson Alcott's other nineteenth-century authors were nearly Fruitlands” (noticed more fully on another as complete, and a large number of his vol- page), a book that offers many amusing or umes had autograph inscriptions of the writ- more seriously interesting passages for quota- tion. Here, for example, is a sketch of the books of English literature written in the ear- ers. . . He had a good many of the famous method by which mortal frailty and error are lier centuries. Caxton's ‘Royal Book,' the to be combated: “On a revision of our pro- four Shakespeare folios, Ben Jonson's works, ceedings it would seem, that if we were in the Beaumont and Fletcher, Florio's Montaigne, right course in our particular instance, the and Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' are a few of greater part of man's duty consists in leaving the more famous of these volumes which will alone much that he is in the habit of doing. be placed on exhibition next fall.” The loss It is a fasting from the present activity, sustained by young Mr. Widener's growing rather than an increased indulgence in it, collection in the sinking of the “Titanic, which, with patient watchfulness, tends to which at the same time cut short the life of newness of life. “Shall I sip tea or coffee?' the collector himself, is a disaster still fresh the inquiry may be. No; abstain from all in memory ardent, as from alcoholic drinks. 'Shall I consume pork, beef, or mutton!' Not if you THE ASCETICISM OF ART, the necessity of value health or life. 'Shall I stimulate with forgoing material satisfactions if one would milk?' No. Shall I warm my bathing depict with insight and power, whether with water?' Not if cheerfulness is valuable. brush or pen, some aspect of life as the ideal- 'Shall I clothe in many garments?' Not if ist sees it, is an ancient but an ever-fruitful purity is aimed at. Shall I prolong my theme. Dr. Earl Barnes contributes to “The hours, consuming animal oil and losing bright Popular Science Monthly" for June an arti- daylight in the morning?' Not if a clear cle on “ The Celibate Women of To-day," in mind is an object. 'Shall I teach my chil- which he essays some adequate answer to the dren the dogmas inflicted on myself, under question, "Why do so many women elect to the pretence that I am transmitting truth?' walk through life alone?” In recounting the Nay, if you love them intrude not these be- compensations of celibacy he takes occasion to tween them and the Spirit of all Truth.” say, aptly and well: “Our real living is never And more questions of like sort, with the in the mere possession and use of things, but 6 6 12 (June 24 THE DIAL in what we think and feel about them. Lower Thomas J. Jackson, soldiers; Rufus. Choate animals live in facts; man lives in his ideas and Thomas McIntyre Cooley, jurists; Sam- and ideals. All life's values must be found uel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Jay, and on the way; when we arrive we are always in Alexander Hamilton, statesmen; Charlotte danger of becoming unconscious and so losing Saunders Cushman, actress. what we came to get. This is why art and lit- erature have always had to find their charac- ters in the struggling classes, the poor and the COMMUNICATIONS. rich. The smug middle classes and the com- fortably rich have the facts of existence; but THE GROWTH OF THE WHITMAN “LEGEND." they do not know it. The universal contempt (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) of those who know for such unconscious living A few evenings ago I attended the annual ban- finds expression in the terms bourgeoisie, phil- quet of the Walt Whitman Fellowship of Chicago, istines, and bromides. On the other hand, held upon the anniversary of the poet's birth, struggling and self-conscious groups always tion," and its banquets are projected and carried May 31. The Fellowship is not an organiza- attract and interest us. Bohemia is poor; it out with as few formalities as possible. If you lacks the facts of property; but it has the are a "kindred spirit” you are welcome. Upon most alluring of all festivals and immortal the occasion referred to something like 350 men banquets. Who, that has a soul as well as a and women falling, supposititiously, in this classifi- stomach, would not turn from a banquet of cation, sat down to the banquet. It is manifestly facts at twenty dollars a plate, with dull un improper to allude to anything Whitmanic as a consciousness of life in the people, to a group “ function "; so it may be said that these affairs, of dreamers and wits with very modest fare, originally very limited in scope, have within the and twenty-dollar talk at table? ... The past few years assumed quite imposing propor- tions. poet Dante illustrates in his own life the rela- There was an extremely interesting programme. tive value of facts and dreams, of living life directly and living it vicariously, to a singu- known names, and Walt was The list of speakers included numerous well- “ considered " in lar degree.” All this, with more in the same various aspects by various devotees. Also, poems vein, is everlastingly true, and no wise person were read or recited which were offered as typical would have it otherwise; although at times, products of the “ products of the "new poetry," whose pedigree - in the unreasoning hunger that will occasion it need not be inquired too closely how — was ally assail even the best of us, it is a little asserted to trace back, in the direct line of descent, to the Camden bard. dismaying to reflect that by no possibility can we continue to have our cake if we insist upon Listening attentively to everything that was presented, I could not but marvel at the rapid eating it. growth of the Whitman “legend.” While Walt died as lately as 1892 — but twenty-three years SEVENTEEN SELECTED CANDIDATES FOR THE ago,- it is apparent that the day is not far dis- HALL OF FAME of New York University are tant when he will assume an aspect almost mythi- cal. That the number of Whitman fans" is announced by Chancellor Emeritus Mac- steadily increasing is evident; but that their con- Cracken, chairman of the Hall of Fame Com- ception of the poet is as nebulous as was the mittee. More than two hundred names were classical conception of Homer, the banquet made sent in by that portion of the public inter- plain. In no other way can their enthusiastic ested in this quinquennial ceremony, and acceptance of and applause for the most gro- from this number the hundred electors ap tesque assertions about him be explained. pointed for the purpose chose seventeen, If Walt's own word is good for anything, he which it will be their further duty to reduce sought to inculcate nothing so much as tolerance. to five next September, there being but five “ There is room for everything in the Leaves,” he said. And when somebody asked him, “Even for tablets available every five years for perpetu- Matthew Arnold 9” (who was almost his greatest ating the fame of illustrious Americans. In aversion among his own contemporaries) he re- the preliminary list place has been found for turned: “Yes — even for him!” But, listening but one author, and even he might, through to the “interpreters ” who held forth from the some unwisdom in the ultimate selection, be speakers' table, I gathered an overwhelming im- cast out. Here is the list, which will not be pression of the most fanatical intolerance. Broad- new to all readers : Francis Parkman, author; sides were poured upon all sorts of hated objects, literary, social, human and divine. The vocab- Mark Hopkins, educator; Alice Freeman Palmer, teacher; Horace Bushnell, preacher for the strongest epithets, and the stream of de- ulary of objurgation and contempt was ransacked and theologian; Joseph Henry, Benjamin nunciation foamed and lashed about every obstaele Thompson, and Louis Agassiz, scientists; in its path. And draping it all was what I have George Rogers Clark, Nathaniel Greene, and previously referred to previously referred to -- a series of depictions of 66 1915] 13 THE DIAL the poet himself, as distinguished from his ideas devoted friends gravitated around him; that all and his influence, that was so compendiously un his wants were sedulously fulfilled; that he had veracious as to make anyone who really knew the the best medical attendance procurable; that he facts stare in undisguised amazement. had a nurse and a housekeeper to care for him; While not occupying the chief position upon the that he lived in a house that was his own property list of speakers, undoubtedly the most eagerly and for years had been; that he was buried in a anticipated orator of the evening was a gentleman mausoleum which he had himself caused to be with a wide reputation as an advocate of “the constructed for the Whitman family, at a cost, I new freedom” in what might be termed its most find it stated, of some $4000; and that his execu- ultra phases. Gifted with a voice of plangent tors, “ much to their surprise," found, upon his resonance and with marked forensic ability, and death, that he had a balance of several thousands throwing himself ardently into his subject, he of dollars to his credit in a local bank. delivered a discourse that enraptured the vast The orator to whom I refer was either ignorant majority of his auditors. That it did not particu of these facts, or else, for purposes best known to larly enrapture me was, I suppose, because it himself, he not merely ignored but perverted them presented to me a Whitman that I failed to recog in order to draw a picture of a persecuted man, nize; for the speaker seemed to possess almost upon whom no ray of sunshine ever fell and who encyclopædic ignorance of Whitman the man and died a pauper in the blackest woe. At the same of the forces and the environment that produced time, this orator declared in accents that made the him. chandeliers vibrate, that the purpose of his re- Among his statements, for instance, were these: marks was to elucidate the sacred cause to which That Whitman was born in poverty, never went Whitman devoted himself and all his works — the to school in his life, was almost wholly without exposition of the Truth, with a capital T! means of literary culture; that his career was one “What is truth?” said an historic inquisitor unbroken struggle against want and discourage ages ago, when in doubt regarding an Immortal ment; and that he died in a hovel, in poverty Personage. None of us can be too certain. But and despair.” The facts are that the family into Walt, we may take it as assured, is destined to be which Walt was born was not poverty-stricken; one of our immortals, and the facts about him are that Walt himself enjoyed more schooling” than on record. That is, some of them are - there are did many another young American of his time others which, for reasons of his own, he chose belonging to the social stratum of which he was a carefully to suppress. Perhaps what we do not part; that he began work in a newspaper office know and never can — notably, of the veiled while in his early teens and for years remained a period” — would be of great help to us in our member of the “fourth estate"; that he was also efforts to unriddle the enigma that, in many ways, a school-teacher for a number of years as a young he presents to us. But what we do know is easily man; that his early literary efforts were accepted ascertainable, for there is a whole library of the and published in what were then the leading “ documents in the case.” journals of the metropolis, and some of them Walt himself, with his unique insight into so appeared in book form; that he was at this period many of the peculiarities of what he was fond of a frequenter of the theatre, the opera, and the referring to as the human critter," libraries, and came into contact with a majority monition that it would be wise for him to avoid of the literati" and the “intellectuals” best identifying himself with clubs, fellowships, et worth knowing; sported a silk hat, a boutonnière, cetera, whose avowed purpose was the dissemina- a cane, and affected the appearance and the habits tion of his doctrines. Some clairvoyance seemed of the carpet knight rather than the shirt-sleeved to warn him, and he steadily refused to give them protagonist of the “open road.” his personal sanction. He had, to be sure, his own Furthermore, we know that later on he for a little private cénacle, whose incense he found very considerable time enjoyed a government clerkship grateful; but the spectacle of the Browning and at Washington which left him much of his time to Shakespeare societies caused him resolutely to dispose of as he pleased; that, from the date of keep within its confines. He preferred to “ leave the appearance of “Leaves of Grass," while he it to the Leaves," — in which he was not mis- had a hard fight for recognition as a poet, he was taken. At the banquet, however, the “Leaves " nevertheless never without prominent advocates, were not conspicuous. Only one of the speakers eulogists, and“ promoters"; that a constantly incorporated any of them into his or her dis- growing band of enthusiasts gathered around him, course; and the table in the anteroom where they with unfailing support, both pecuniary and moral; were on sale seemed unattractive to most of the that edition after edition of his poems was printed banqueters. and bought, and that individual pieces appeared We may say confidently of Walt, however, that, in many of the leading magazines and newspapers, while he chose to maintain an almost sphinx-like while he was also called upon to compose and de reticence regarding certain phases of his career, liver special effusions at notable public gatherings those which he did desire recorded he wished set and celebrations; that he had a strong following down with complete veracity. Only recently I overseas, and that within his own lifetime the have completed my reading of the third and latest translation of the “Leaves” into foreign lan volume of Horace Traubel's bulky series, “ With guages was being taken up. Finally, we know Walt Whitman in Camden,” and all are replete that during all his last years a group of the most with injunctions to alter, expurgate, suppress, or " had a pre- 14 [June 24 THE DIAL veneer absolutely nothing. Nevertheless, the evi is the “ living being beneath the clothes " in the dence is that Walt's “legend” is growing like graduate school? some tropical parasite, that within no very long The plagiarism of one thesis is admitted by time it will so obscure his true proportions as to the university on page 356 of the report. render them imperceptible save to the student and Of a second thesis, the fact that it was “ap- the historian. Creeping all over the surface of proved by the editor of the series in which it was this colossal rough-hewn monolith will be an in- published" is cited as contributing evidence of its sidious growth of “interpretative” fable and quality. The university comment did not state to falsification effectually hiding the reality from the educational world that the editor in question view not only hiding, but defacing and defiling is also the member of the faculty who approved it. That, during his lifetime, he was the victim of the thesis and who also was joint author. much misapprehension and misinterpretation is a Of a third thesis, Professor Hanus of Harvard commonplace of Whitman history — in which, wrote: " It is not a strong presentation. On a scale however, he differed not at all from a host of other of 10 I should mark the thesis 67/2, it being under- great poets and innovators. That his posthumous stood that a thesis graded 5 or below would not fate will be similar, in degree if not in kind, there be accepted.” Of this same thesis a Columbia is every reason to believe. professor wrote: “I should not accept it with its JOHN L. HERVEY. present organization." Both letters were written Chicago, June 14, 1915. to the university, page 357. In support of the quality of work done by a fourth thesis writer, who specialized in experi- THE WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY SURVEY. mental psychology and education, it is stated on (To the Editor of THE DIAL.) page 357 that he “now occupies an honorable The article in your current issue entitled "A post in an eastern university.” The "eastern" Bull in the Educational China Shop” is enter is Ohio, and the “university” is an institution taining. Will your readers care to have three or that is not considered a university by readers of four facts which will help furnish a frame into THE DIAL, or by the Carnegie Foundation, or by which to fit permanently your picture of the Uni- the Ohio legislature. The work of this specialist versity of Wisconsin survey? in education is minor extension work. The questions of which you speak as harassing Of a fifth thesis, page 358, Professor Reeves of were submitted to the faculty after conference Michigan wrote to the university: "6 being fail- with university officers. Including space for ure and 10 excellent I should rank the thesis not answers, they took 39, not 50 pages. Of them the over 7." Professor Jenks of New York Uni- president wrote: “These questions will give an versity would have accepted this thesis, “ with, opportunity to the members of the faculty to pre- however, the condition that it be rewritten.” sent their cases fairly.” Of a sixth thesis, it is admitted that one chapter You quote the following statement: “ The sur was taken bodily from an English work. This vey of the graduate school has been mainly di- chapter is said by the university to be an “ annex," rected to its clothes rather than to the living although it is the next to the last chapter, with being beneath the clothes." The survey of the nothing whatever to indicate that it is not an graduate school and graduate work showed the important and integral part of the thesis. The following: Flaunting plagiarism; slovenly work university world was not told that the conclusions manship and unscholarly writing; lack of orig- in this thesis and the greater part of the work inality; lack of purpose and application; lack appeared in a thesis accepted by the University of of opportunities for specialization; presence of Paris in 1876. graduate students in freshman and sophomore In defence of a seventh thesis, the university classes, including nine students who were doing comment, page 355, says that if the material col- exclusively freshman and sophomore work; in lected and used by the author " existed for any ability of candidates for a Ph.D. degree to read similar period of mediæval history, it would be foreign languages on November 1 coupled with deemed worthy of publication in critical editions." certification of their ability to read foreign lan The university world again was not told that the guages a fortnight later; lack of plan for re period for which this material was collected was search; failure of many departments to develop the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, in absentia graduate work; the fact that of 389 and that it consists of 35 letters from southern students enrolled as graduate students 163 had farmers. There is evidence of the use of only a faculty connection; that of these 389 only 50 small part of even this very small amount of were doing exclusively graduate work and that material. What the farmers were asked, whether of these 50, 34 had faculty connection; lack of they wrote that they had no time to answer, or supervision; specific instances of graduate work could not remember, or whether they wrote facts that was of grammar school grade, high school worth while, was not recorded. The other ma- grade, freshman and junior grade; the fact that terials upon which this thesis is based have been a master's degree is given by several departments culled over for the most part by several other merely for a fifth year of study without speciali- writers. If American scholarship were to be zation; the university's endorsement of Ph.D. gauged by this quality and quantity of work, no theses after glaring defects had been pointed out one would be attributing the revival of learning by the survey. If these are the “clothes,” what to the introduction of research methods. 1915] 15 THE DIAL you said page 163: Will your readers also wish to know some of result in 2% excellent, 2% failed, 23% good, 23% the 37 things which “ the dean of the graduate poor and 50% fair." After showing that this school of the much lauded University of Wisconsin statement did not apply to the university, that is not expected to do"? First, will you permit the principle was not at work at the university, me to quote the statement from my report to the the survey listed certain defects, page 485 — inter effect that these facts were not cited as evidence alia. “Where attention of supervisors should be of incompetence or negligence of that officer, as directed to quality of instruction this bulletin On the contrary, my report reads, directs it to distribution of marks.” “ The appli- The above list is given not to raise cation of this principle is not only unfair to indi- question as to whether the dean is doing all that vidual children but inhibits where the university may reasonably be expected of his office, but should stimulate the determination of teachers to whether the university at present is expecting produce excellent results out of seemingly difficult enough of the deanship of the graduate school." or even seemingly hopeless material.” “ It leaves Who of THE DIAL's readers needs to have evi no hope that a whole class may be brought nearer dence presented that it is not “ desirable or prac a standard of excellence than was ever done be- tical to do any one " of the following among fore." “ Interest is diverted from the work the the 37? child does to the marks other children have re- 1- To have or act upon, further than through ceived.” Instead of convincing a teacher that the private conference, knowledge as to effi percentage of failures or poors in her subject ciency or inefficiency of instruction in should disappear as the quality of her teaching classes attended by graduate students. (No. improves and the size of her classes decreases, the 11, page 161.) bulletin declares, page 10: “If the teacher has 2- To supervise research by graduate students to do only with small classes the results of several or to have current evidence that research years' marking, or of several classes in the same is being supervised or how far it has pro subject in the same year, should, when put to- gressed. (No. 12.) gether, be similar to the marks of a larger group 3 — To read theses offered toward advanced de given at one time." grees for any other purpose than to see Finally, your readers may wish to now that that they fulfill the mechanical requirements although the survey set out to be coöperative, as to form. (No. 15.) although every statement was sent to the uni- 4— To require an examiner appointed by the versity for confirmation or conference so as to dean to participate in an examination for a secure agreement as to fact, and although agree- doctor's degree to read the thesis offered. ment was easily reached with respect to early (No. 16.) sections until the university discontinued confer- 5 — To have information at the dean's office as ence with the survey, the following changes were well as in the departmental offices as to made after I left the state without submitting qualifications of graduate fellows. (No. 25.) | them to the board of public affairs, or the uni- 6 — To have any record of examinations for mas versity regents, or the advisory committee or to ter's and doctor's degrees except the ex me: Sections publicly agreed to by the university aminer's certificate that the candidate has last October are now excoriated. Ninety-eight or has not been recommended. times my name is used in the first five pages, and Will your readers wish to know the statement 259 times in the first 25 pages of the university which drove the university to vernacular and to comment. Sections clearly marked as written by furnish the epitaph for the surveyor's mausoleum? others are first called mine and then personally The statement which is called “rot" is this: So attacked. One important section written by a long as 183 different standards, unchecked and former faculty member who had been for several unsupervised administratively are employed. years in the division which he reported upon, was in judging students' work .. the testing of work never shown to me, was written by arrangement cannot be well enough done.” Will you invite with the dean, and yet now for publicity purposes readers of THE DIAL to write you in case they is first called mine and then bitterly criticized with do not find this statement rot? If it is rot, then such expressions as “unsympathetic," “ desire to a very large number of the faculty are guilty of injure," " grossly unfair,” etc. writing rot because they wrote to the survey pro- Will American scholars who do not accept testing against present conditions where work plagiarized theses, who do not assign work for that is graded “failed” in one class would be graduate students that can be done by a clerk called “fair” in another. who has never gone to high school, who do not One other illustration may help your readers. approve warmed-over, long-winded, disorganized You state that “so ignorant is Dr. Allen of the lectures, who are incapable of telling untruth or of meaning of numbers that he converts a cold sta- intimidating truth, accept ex parte criticism of a tistical statement that class-markings follow the work in which 600 faculty members joined, or law of distribution of averages into a deliberate will the 600 be given a chance to tell their story as intention on the part of the instructor to repress they have told it in the survey report? talent.” As stated on pages 484-485, the purpose WILLIAM H. ALLEN, of the bulletin on class markings is “to convince Joint Director, University high school teachers that year in and year out of Wisconsin Survey. with students as they come proper marking will Madison, Wis., June 17, 1915. 16 June 24 THE DIAL The Nebo Books. When we compare the results item by item, it is impossible to give Baird a second place. Agassiz came with a great European reputa- A GREAT AMERICAN NATURALIST.* tion, was a fascinating and picturesque char- acter; Baird was a plain American, hard- A number of years ago, one of the Wright working and modest. "It is impossible to re- brothers was making an aeroplane at Dayton, sist the appeal which Agassiz makes to the Ohio, when an old man, a neighbor, stopped imagination, and we would grudge him none to remonstrate with him. What a pity it is," of his fame; but after all, Baird deserves a he said, “that a clever young fellow like you much better place in the minds of his coun- should so waste his time and money." Mr. trymen than he has ever held. Individually Wright pled, in self-defence, that he really and as a nation we need to cultivate a better expected to get practical results, when his old appreciation of good work done in unsensa- friend interrupted, and in solemn tones ad- tional ways, and a readier recognition of monished him: “Young man, let me tell you native American talent. this: if anyone ever makes a flying machine After the death of Professor Baird plans that will fly, it will not be anybody in were made for the preparation of a biog- Dayton!” raphy, but for various reasons the work was The Americans are often accused of being delayed until it seemed in danger of being a boastful people, who like to hear their eagle abandoned. Baird's daughter, Miss Lucy scream; but a close student of our history Baird, was keenly interested in the project, may find evidences of an excess of humility and had accumulated much valuable material, which has been positively harmful. Quite in but her death in 1913 left everything unfin- the spirit of the old man of Dayton, we have ished. Miss Baird did, however, leave instruc- been slow to recognize scientific ability, not tions to her executor to see the memoir merely in its incipient stages, but even after completed if possible; and fortunately at this the work has proved its worth. Thus it hap- juncture Dr. W. H. Dall, on being appealed pens that the name of Baird, a truly great to, consented to undertake the work. Dr. man judged by the quality and quantity of Dall of the U. S. National Museum, eminent as his accomplishments, is practically unknown a naturalist and keenly appreciative of outside of a comparatively small scientific Baird's character and labors, having worked circle. Student and teacher at Dickinson Col- under Baird for many years, was in every lege, Carlisle, Pa., he was gratefully remem- respect the most suitable person to write the bered by his old pupils and associates; but a book. More than occupied with his own im- recent graduate of that institution assured portant researches, for the completion of the reviewer that he had never heard the name which even the long life we all wish him must of the naturalist. He was the creator of the be wholly inadequate, it was no small thing U. S. National Museum; yet the visitor to to turn aside and undertake the preparation Washington finds neither statue nor inscrip- of a voluminous biography. Yet it was abun- tion on the grounds to commemorate his work. dantly worth while, and we cannot be suffi- At Woods Hole, Mass., where he founded a ciently grateful that the record has been made great laboratory for the study of marine life, in an adequate manner, before it was alto- and where he died in 1887, there is indeed an gether too late. appropriate tablet on a large granite boulder; Dr. Dall has not attempted any elaborate while more recently a bust of Baird was or complete analysis of Baird's scientific work, placed in the American Museum in New York which stands as published, and can be re- City. viewed in detail at any subsequent time. He Agassiz and Baird belong to the same gen- has rather chosen to present to us the man eral period, and were variously associated in himself, the manner of his life, his friend- much of their work, Yet why is it that ships and ideals, the growth of his personality, Agassiz is everywhere remembered, while and all those intimate things which if not told Baird is forgotten or was never generally by those who knew him, could scarcely be known? In many respects their labors ran parallel: each founded and developed a great impression we get is that of wonder at Baird's known to posterity. Perhaps the strongest natural history museum, each published great early maturity, his surprising ability as a contributions to American zoölogy, each in- zoölogist when little more than a boy. This spired and taught numerous young men who have since continued the work they began. was well understood by his associates, and by the various eminent naturalists of the day A Biography. By William with whom he became acquainted. Thus, at Healey Dall, D.Sc. Illustrated. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippin- the age of seventeen, he discovered a new . * SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD. cott Co. = 1915) 17 THE DIAL bird, and wrote to the celebrated ornithologist regulates her family well (myself included) and Audubon : her daughter is the cleanest and most neatly dressed “You see, sir, that I have taken (after much child in town.” hesitation) the liberty of writing to you. I am The daughter, Lucy, then about twenty-three but a boy and very inexperienced, as you no doubt months old, was passionately fond of Natural will observe from my description of the Flycatcher. History, admiring snakes above all things." My brother last year commenced the study of our How Baird, beginning as curator to the Birds, and after some months I joined him. He Smithsonian Institution, built up the U. S. has gone elsewhere to settle and I am left alone." National Museum, and did many other things To which Audubon replied: in the service of science and of his country, “On my return home from Charleston, S. C., must be gathered from the book itself; which, yesterday, I found your kind favor of the 4th while it chronicles Baird's life, is necessarily instant in which you have the goodness to inform also to a large extent a history of the progress me that you have discovered a new species of fly- catcher, and which, if the bird corresponds to your of American zoology during a large part of description, is, indeed, likely to prove itself hitherto the nineteenth century. undescribed, for, although you speak of yourself T. D. A. COCKERELL. as being a youth, your style and the descriptions you have seut me prove to me that an old head may from time to time be found on young THE “MOVIES " OLD AND NEW.* shoulders!” The bird proved new, and was subsequently of 1893, Edison's Kinetoscope, a contrivance During the World's Columbian Exposition published by the brothers Baird. In 1846 Baird married Miss Mary Church- for showing photographs in motion to one person only for about thirty seconds at a time, ill, who, though herself no naturalist, sympa- thetically supported all his endeavors. An old later, Sir Augustus Harris installed Robert was displayed to the public. Three years servant who was with Baird for nearly forty Paul's “Theatrograph” at Olympia, a ma- years was able to say that he never saw either chine fundamentally the same as the Bioscope one angry. kindly tolerance and her father's sense of the of to-day. Contemporaneously with Mr. Paul's kindly tolerance and her father's sense of the efforts, French inventors were developing the value of time, Miss Lucy Baird set down the Cinematograph, a machine which was installed following story, as she got it from Mrs. Baird at the Eden Musée, New York, during the herself: autumn of 1896. “At the time of his courting, he was exceedingly busy with his college work and also studying very Only nineteen years have passed, therefore, hard. After he became engaged, he was anxious since the theatrical début of the motion pic- of course to spend his evenings with his fiancée ture; yet to-day the business of purveying and yet did not feel that he could take all that motion pictures theatrically to the American time from his studies; so he fell into the habit of people is computed to be the fifth largest in- taking a book with him in order that he might dustry in the United States. Nearly a million carry on his studies and still have the pleasure of people of all ages and of both sexes attend sitting in the room with her. Being an early riser daily the moving-picture theatres of Greater and often taking long walks with his class, making New York alone, the attendance throughout collections, my father would be apt to get drowsy the other cities of the country being propor- towards the end of the evening and was apt tionally universal and no hamlet too small to towards its close to fall asleep over his book; so when the hour arrived at which my mother knew be the home of a "movie" theatre. Indeed, he expected to leave, she would wake him up and the motion-picture play,- or the photoplay, send him home.” as it is technically called, — far more than the Baird himself, in a letter to Professor Dana, stage play, has become the amusement of the thus describes his wife in 1850: nation. Beside the circulation of a photoplay “My wife is a daughter of Gen. Churchill, that of a “best seller," or even that of a popu- Inspector-General of the Army, and a first-rate lar ten cent magazine, becomes insignificant. one she is, too. Not the least fear of snakes, sala Surely, such a power for good or evil should manders, and such other zoological interestings; not be scorned by those having the welfare of cats only are to her an aversion. Well educated the people at heart. Better would it be to and acquainted with several tongues, she usually exclaim: “I care not who makes the laws of reads over all my letters, crossing i's and dotting the nation, if I may write its 'movie' plays!” t's, sticking in here a period, and there a comma Indeed, the photoplay offers to the writer his . . In my absence, she answers letters of corre- widest means of artistic expression. spondents, and in my presence reads them. She transcribes my illegible MSS., correcting it withal, A Handbook Devoted to the Appli- cation of Dramatic Principles to the Writing of Plays for and does not grudge the money I spend in books. By Howard T. Dimick. Ridgewood, In addition to these literary accomplishments, she N. J.: The Editor Co. * PHOTOPLAY MAKING. Picture Production. 18 [June 24 THE DIAL as Mr. To the word artistic,” exception will exception will play making, those who are deft in that art doubtless be taken by those who are in the being too busily engaged in reaping the rich habit of deriding the "movies” as vulgar harvest their skill has brought forth, to find clap-trap, too crude and garish to be consid the time in which to initiate the public into ered artistic; yet these scoffers seldom, if the secret of their success. Yet to the rule that ever, attend "movie" performances and there books on the “movies” are valueless, there is fore know little of the possibilities of this new the proverbial exception; since in “ Photoplay form of theatrical art. Scarcely eighteen years Making," by Mr. Howard T. Dimick, many old, it is only within the last five years,- it sane ideas are set forth, albeit in a somewhat might almost be said within the past year, - cumbersome way. that the photoplay has been developed into the "From the drama of the stage,” says Mr. multiple reel play, or the feature film, so Dimick, "I turned to that of the screen, after called. Previously the slapstick farce, or the an experience as writer and critic of plays. crude melodrama in a single reel, was the As no record of his experience appears in that offering. Now the filmed novel or stage play, vade-mecum of successful endeavor, “Who's presented by actors.of established reputation, Who in America,” and as his book is pub- has relegated the one-reel film to the second lished in Ridgewood, New Jersey, it is easy to class theatre, and raised the price of admis- suspect Mr. Dimick of kinship with the Rob- sion in the better class of movie" play- inson of the comic weekly quip. Howsoever houses from five and ten cents to twenty-five that may be, he has profited well by his and fifty cents,— even in some instances to experience as "writer and critic of plays," the regular theatrical prices. This raising of the real value of his book lying in the emphasis price has raised the standard of production, he lays upon the similarity between the photo- the public naturally being unwilling to pay play and the stage play. Indeed, funda- fifty cents for the former five cents' worth. mentally they are the same, their construction As in the case of the regular stage, the mana being governed by precisely the same laws; gers seek plays that will appeal to the public, for though the technical methods of the two for without popular plays the “movie” indus- arts may differ considerably, “yet,' try would cease. Prior to the advent of the Dimick acutely observes, photoplay, thousands wrote for the regular dramatic principles of both forms of theatri- stage, while only tens succeeded in getting cal exposition are identical.” their plays produced. Tens of thousands The stage play appeals to the ear as well as write for the movies now, and again it is a to the eye; therefore conditions that are sup- case of the survival of the fittest, the man posed to exist before the commencement of a without the dramatic sense having no more play may be set forth by dialogue. In the chance to succeed as a "movie" playwright photoplay these conditions must be shown in save in that the volume of production is infi- action; but in the construction of his play nitely greater — than he had as a writer for the photoplaywright (if one may be pardoned the regular stage. the use of the word) is bound by the same With such a bait to dangle before the eyes dramatic laws as govern his colleague of the of literary aspirants as the sure attainment of regular stage. The dramatic action in both successful "movie" authorship, the corre instances must be logical, and must proceed spondence schools, manuscript readers, and from understandable causes to effects that literary advisers have been reaping a rich seem so inevitable that they appeal sponta- harvest. Small wonder that a considerable neously either to our sympathy or our risibil- literature upon the art of writing photoplays ity. Indeed, unity, sequence, cause and effect has sprung into being, with the object of ap are as necessary in the one as in the other, pealing to the legion of men, women, and and also atmosphere and characterization, children who aspire to get rich quickly in the The stage dramatist has the benefit of dia- “movies." logue, but is hampered by the restrictions One of our comic weeklies recently pub- which stage appliances impose. The photo- lished a quip to this effect: “Jones.- I un dramatist, on the other hand, is unlimited derstand Robinson is making a good living out scenically; but is limited in utterance to the of the short story. Brown.- Why, I heard he sub-titles and spoken titles he may flash on had never had one accepted. Jones.- He the screen. These, however, must be used has n't; he's writing articles on how to write sparingly, the ideal photoplay being under- them for a correspondence school.” If the standable, like the ideal pantomime, without word “photoplay” be substituted here for be substituted here for a single explanatory word. “short story,” Robinson becomes the type of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero calls drama "the man who gives instruction in the art of photo- | art of compressing life without falsification," to *1915) 19 THE DIAL -an apt definition which Mr. Dimick perti- the regular drama, is the improvisate char- nently qualifies in so far as it relates to photoacter of their dialogue. Should the play- drama. . " The complete play,” he says, “is wright of the regular stage turn his scenario, not in its ultimate analysis a 'mere screenful' or outline of his play, over to the stage man- of life. It is or should be m'a screenful' ager, with no dialogue written except impor- of art with the likeness of life.” tant lines, which the very blocking out of the The task of the photo-dramatist, however, play called forth; and should the stage man- is far less arduous than that of the stage ager read it to the company, scene by scene, dramatist. In both instances dramatic sense and impress upon its members the various is required, but the stage dramatist must pos characters they are to play and the situations sess literary sense as well. Although both they are to unfold, but leave to their readiness must think dramatically, the dramatist who of wit the extemporization of all dialogue, writes stage plays must clothe his thoughts in except a few vital lines absolutely necessary language that will characterize not only the to the unfolding of the story, wë would then persons in his play, so that they appear real, have in nearly every essential a Commedia but must unfold the story in a way that the dell'Arte as it was written and produced in audience may both understand and enjoy. It Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth is this literary aspect of the stage drama centuries. which makes it the superior art, for in other Now in the production of a photoplay this respects photoplay making and stage play is precisely the modus operandi. That dia- making are governed by the same fundamen- logue obtains in the photoplay may astonish tal laws, the play in both instances being the uninitiated; yet not only do the actors constructed in practically the same way speak, so that the effect of moving lips may through the preparation of a scene plat or be registered, but they speak lines which re- scenario. flect both the character and the situation they This word, which calls to mind the Italian are portraying. These lines, though impro- Commedia dell'Arte, recalls also the striking vised while a scene is in rehearsal, are impor- resemblance this popular entertainment of the tant to the effective registration by the renaissance bears in several particulars to the camera of the action, for they enable the photo-drama of the present day, not only in actors to be “in their rôles," as the French its construction, but in the manner of its pro say, much more effectively than if pantomime duction. Indeed, it might almost be said that alone were resorted to. Moreover, moving- were the camera work eliminated, the photo- picture actors seldom play without an audi- play of to-day would become peripatetic ence, particularly in the exterior scenes of a Commedia dell'Arte, the one appreciable dif- play, while during the taking of the interior ference between the two being the fact that scenes there are usually a few interlopers or the scenes of a Commedia dell'Arte were acted fellow actors in the studio, to witness their upon a stationary stage, whereas those of the histrionic efforts. Hence the repetition of a photoplay take place wherever the imagina scene which the camera registers becomes not tion of the dramatist elects that they be a rehearsal, but a performance. Again, the performed. rapidity with which a scene is made by a As in the Commedia dell'Arte, the dialogue competent producer,- often with but one re- of the photoplay scenario is unwritten, except hearsal, seldom with more than two or three, in the case of passages which emphasize vital - brings the "movie" actor into close pro- points of the story. In a Commedia dell'Arte fessional kinship with the Commedia dell'Arte these were called the doti or dowries: in the performer, of whom Luigi Riccoboni says in photoplay they are the “spoken titles” his Histoire de l'ancien theatre italien (1730): “leaders,” and are flashed on the screen. The “ To a comedian who depends upon improvisa- construction, however, is so similar in both tion, face, memory, voice, and sentiment are not instances, that a photoplay producer could enough. If he would distinguish himself, he must possess a lively and fertile imagination, a great take the average Commedia dell'Arte scenario facility in expression; he must master the subtle- and "film" it almost without alteration, his ties of the language too, and have at his disposal method of rehearsing his company being so a full knowledge of all that is required for the like that of the corago or stage manager of different situations in which his rôle places him." Italian Improvised Comedy, that it is difficult In all except the phrase "he must master to believe the technique of photoplay acting the subtleties of the language,” this state- is not a direct inheritance from that of the ment applies with equal force to the actor in Commedia dell'Arte. the Improvised Comedy of the Italian renais- The similarity between these two stage sance and the "movie" actor of to-day, only forms, which distinguishes them most from those actors who possess “a lively and fertile or 20 [June 24 THE DIAL imagination, a great facility of expression, ing and spontaneous way of the Commedia and a full knowledge of all that is required dell'Arte actors, as described by Riccoboni, for the different situations in which their Garzoni, Barbieri, and other contemporary rôles place them," being effective histrions in admirers of this forgotten art. Thus it would the movies. The slow, studying actor, whom appear that there is nothing entirely new the stage manager can by patience whip into under the dramatic sun, not even the "movies." a part, or the actor who depends upon read- H. C. CHATFIELD-TAYLOR. ing rather than acting for his effects, will fail ignominiously before the camera. Indeed, this new histrionism calls for precisely the qualities of which Riccoboni speaks, with the FINDING ONESELF IN LIFE.* added requirement that the actor must pos Every lover of reading knows something of sess a face which in the technical language of the anticipatory pleasure in opening a book the movie studio “registers ” effectively; the title of which suggests a purpose, points a more than one actor who succeeded because of moral, or adorns a promised tale. In the title his good looks on the regular stage has failed of President Wilson's little volume, “When in the “movies,” because his features do not a Man Comes to Himself,” we have just such photograph well. a pledge of a book with a serious meaning. A distinctive element of the Commedia dell'. Some books make their appeal with an entirely Arte was characterization, as exemplified by impersonal authority, as though claiming to Pantalone, Arlecchino, Brighella, Pulcinella, be regarded as emanations from the collective Scaramuccia, and their merry mates, each pic- intellect of the race, and bringing with them turing the local characteristics of some Italian no suggestion of self-revelation. Others, again, city. These were set characters, one or more seem to require for their interpretation and of whom appeared in every comedy, the plots complete comprehension the conception of a being constructed around these known and known or unknown personality behind them. popular rôles. Although the “movies” have In this latter category we must class the book not accepted this plan of construction in its now under review; and we trust it may not entirety, it nevertheless obtains, a series of seem an intrusion into the privacies of a life plays having been constructed around popular if we assume it to be something in the nature characters, such as Bronco Billy; while John of an apologia pro vita, a glimpse of the inner Bunny and Charley Chaplin might with con workings of an heroic soul, a laying bare for siderable verisimilitude be dubbed the Panta our instruction and edification of the manner lone and Arlecchino of the movies,” the parts in which its writer has escaped from the they have invariably filled being certainly sim- stifling atmosphere of littleness and self-seek- ilar in conception to those that bore these ing into the upper air of universal aims where names in the Italian Improvised Comedy. our souls have sight of that immortal sea Indeed, although the drama of to-day un which brought us hither." consciously owes much in the way of construc The parable of the Prodigal Son has ob- tion to the adept dramaturgy of those nimble viously suggested the title of the book; but Italian actors who, schooled by experience in the author in the first few pages has made stagecraft, developed the Commedia dell'Arte, clear what much requires to be kept in mind, or professional comedy, along lines that were that it is not necessary for a man to have wan- followed by Molière and Goldoni, the “mov dered into “a far country” or to have been ies” have revivified the most distinctive char reduced to coveting “the husks which the acteristics of that popular drama of the swine did eat" before reaching the point renaissance. where he must come to himself, if his life is The very word scenario used by the actors not to end in failure. The emotional upheaval of that period survives to indicate the photo known as “conversion " has become so soiled play, which in form differs from those Italian by the ignoble uses of a cheap evangelicalism scenari that have been preserved to us only by as to have lost credit in the world of sober the addition of camera directions, such as judgment; but that some analogous change of "close up," " back to scene, cut," "fade," attitude towards the mystery of existence and etc., all of which are called forth by the tech the meaning and uses of life must precede the nical demands of photography. Although entering upon his highest inheritance, is what sprightly Arlecchino and roguish Brighella do every man in his heart probably believes. For not prank in the "movies" in Bergamask even among those spiritually "impotent folk" attire, their ectypes are there in modern garb; who, as the author remarks, “never come to while the actors who extemporize their lines, * WHEN A MAN COMES TO HIMSELF. By Woodrow Wilson. nimbly play before the camera in the rollick New York: Harper & Brothers. 66 1915) 21 THE DIAL themselves at all,” who can say how many re-born not once but many times if we are to there are who are quite aware of the necessity expand to the full circumference of our being. for this change, and who may have waited While there are undoubtedly many to whom long by the pool of Bethesda for the coming the initial awakening arrives gradually, like of the disturbing angel that they might be the the return to consciousness of a healthy first to plunge into its healing waters? The sleeper, to most of us it comes with more or spiritually “blind and halt and withered” less of a shock; to some with the force of a belong to all classes of society, and are to be mighty rushing wind; to others with only a found among the wise and prudent, and in the gentle “click” indicating that a corner has very household of Mr. Worldly Wiseman of been rounded, an important point passed, a the town of Morality. Indeed, that this “com new outlook gained. But every man who has ing to oneself” is as necessary to the man of experienced the change and realized the genius or to him who instinctively prefers to altered perspective in which the world is seen, walk in the paths of rectitude and veracity, as and who has received the gift in the spirit of to the wayward child of humanity, is the les true humility, will expect further revelations son which this book seems to leave with us. and adjustments and will not be disappointed. Where one is in complete agreement with Each recurring “coming to himself" will take the main conclusions of an author, and in the place with less shock and more and more fre- deepest sympathy with the spirit of his writ quency, until in a real sense he comes to him- ing, it may appear ungracious to select points self at the opening of each new day. in detail with which to disagree. As honest On many other points most readers will find criticism, however, is the proper function of themselves in absolute agreement with Mr. the critic, we must join issue with Mr. Wilson Wilson. That “men come to themselves by in one of his dicta where he affirms that the discovering their limitations no less than by coming to oneself is "a change reserved for discovering their deeper endowments," that the thoroughly sane and healthy and for those “Moral enthusiasm is not, uninstructed and who can detach themselves," etc. Judging of itself, a suitable guide to practicable and from observation and experience, one might belasting reformation," and that “if the reform tempted to think that complete sanity and sought be the reformation of others as well as perfect health sometimes act as a bar to the of himself, the reformer should look to it that oncoming of the great change, and positively he knows the true relation of his will to the prevent a man's coming to himself. Might it wills of those he would change and guide,” not even be said that a little defect in health or these are aphorisms of inestimable value for a slight touch of insanity sometimes provides the clarification of thought and the guidance the conditions under which the change is most of the social reformer. The idea, too, that man likely to take place? The psychological mys reaches his highest degree of individuality tery which surrounds the motions of the spirit in proportion as he identifies himself with his is as inexplicable now as it was to the apostle community, was surely never more happily who said: “By grace are ye saved and that expressed than in the following epigrammatic not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” For sentences: “A man is the part he plays among upon whom does the gift seem most readily to his fellows. He is not isolated. His life is descend? Does it not come most frequently made up of the relations he bears to others — to those who are conscious of having lost some is made or marred by those relations, guided thing of that healthiness and sanity which re by them, judged by them, expressed in them." sult from complete adjustment to outward “Adjustment (to those relations] is exactly conditions ? May it not be that here again the what a man gains when he comes to himself.” intellectual and emotional invalids or sinners Would it be possible to find a more felicitous may have at least an equal chance to come to elucidation of the antinomy which accepts themselves, with those who have observed all Society as an organism yet insists on main- the laws of mental and emotional hygiene? It taining the individuality of the man? is, at all events, a more cheerful and sustaining "And so men grow by having responsibility belief that the change is not reserved for the laid upon them, the burden of other people's thoroughly sane and healthy; as there are business.” In these words we seem to feel the so few who can truthfully be so described. inner spirit of the distinguished writer of this We believe we interpret the author's conclu edifying little book. That the burden our sions aright in assuming that he regards the great civic chief is at present bearing may coming of a man to himself not as a single and react in the manner he obviously desires, will final transaction, but as a process, which hav- be the sincerest wish of every reader of "When ing begun will be repeated as life unfolds its a Man Comes to Himself.” hidden potentialities; and that we must be ALEX. MACKENDRICK. 22 [June 24 THE DIAL Frenchmen, whatever the reason may be." SCORCHED WITH THE FLAMES OF WAR.* Again what we should call British self- Of all who have gone forth to write of the respect and independence he characterizes as present war for the purpose of influencing bad breeding : the opinion of the world, Mr. Sven Hedin is “Of the prisoners, it was said that there was a the most eminent. Educated in Germany in great difference between the British and the his youth, preserving through life an honest French. The former would stand with their hands love for and admiration of its people in peace, in their pockets and a pipe in their mouth when the recipient of many honors and much ap spoken to by an officer, and a salute was only plause throughout its empire, he was allowed elicited by a reprimand. The Frenchmen, on the the widest latitude by no less a person than other hand, always salute the German officers the Kaiser himself for the acquirement of without being told, and this is probably due to such knowledge as would most convincingly inborn courtesy which ºpervades the whole nation." their inherited military spirit and to the trait of present the cause of the German Empire to the neutral nations. As in so many other Mr. Hedin met and talked with the Kaiser cases, he has made over his own into a Ger- three times during his stay in Germany (from man heart, and his large octavo volume con- September 14 to November 12, 1914), and tains no criticism of the Germans that is not presents this portrait of him: wholly favorable. As in so many other cases, « The talk of the Emperor having aged during too, he is not satisfied to record merely what the war, and of the war with all its labors and he sees, though he more than once professes anxieties having sapped his strength and health, that to be his object; he argues from his own is all nonsense. His hair is no more pronouncedly experiences and observations to sweeping gen- iron grey than before the war, his face has color, and far from being worn and thin, he is plump eralities, denies all atrocities, and leaves the and strong, bursting with energy and rude health. German soldier with a clean bill of moral A man of Emperor William's stamp is in his ele- health. It may be remarked here, for the ment when, through the force of circumstances, purpose of clearing up a great deal of muddy he is compelled to stake all he possesses and above thinking in such matters, that so-called nega all himself for the good and glory of his country. tive testimony of this kind is not testimony But his greatest quality is that he is a human at all. Mr. Hedin offers no contradiction, as being and that with all his fulminant force he is humble before God." an eye-witness, of the cases set forth in the Bèdier and Bryce reports, buttressed as they Mr. Hedin has convinced himself that this is are by extracts from the diaries of German a holy war, in which the Kaiser, like Gustavus: soldiers; he is content to present himself as a Adolphus before him, is holding up the arms witness in the spirit in which the twenty of Protestantism - against what, one does friends who had not seen the Irishman steal the not quite make out. After a detailed account pig contradicted the ten who did. This is not of the celebration of mass near the front, he writes: to be held as vitiating the force of his actual observations; a traveller of the first distinc “ Perhaps one ought to . . realize what Swedes tion and trained both to see and to write, his and Germans have in common. At one time we book is authoritative within its limits, and its gave each other the best and noblest that we pos- sessed. The Lutheran faith preserved by the faults are those of prejudgment and of mass sword of Gustavus Adolphus was the seed and psychology. But even these prejudices are life germ which has given birth to that Germanic interesting in the record, as when he notes: culture which to-day is fighting for its existence. “I was told that the wounds of the Germans None of us can escape the responsibility for the heal better and quicker than those of the inviolable preservation of the common heritage. Our German brethren are now shedding their * WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST. By Sven Hedin. Authorized translation from the Swedish by H. G. de Walter- heart's blood in a cause which in equal measure storff, Illustrated. New York: John Lane Co. concerns themselves, and for which Sweden's BEHIND THE SCENES IN WARRING GERMANY. By Edward Lyell Fox. Illustrated. New York: McBride, Nast & Co. greatest Kings gave their all and their lives." FOUR WEEKS IN THE TRENCHES. The War Story of a Vio France is held to be the victim of a specious By Fritz Kreisler. Illustrated. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. and inhuman diplomacy -" surely one can- A SURGEON IN BELGIUM. By H. S. Souttar, F.R.C.S. Illus not with self-respect refrain from loudly con- trated. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. PARIS WAITS: 1914. By M. E. Clarke. Illustrated. New demning the policy which alone is the cause York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. of it all.” The use of Turcos and Gurkas and LA GUERRE VUE D'UNE AMBULANCE. Par l'Abbé Félix Klein. Illustrated. Paris : Librairie Armand Colin. Sikhs brings forth objurgations -- the actual EYE-WITNESS's NARRATIVE OF THE WAR. From the Marne Turks are not mentioned. One of the inter- to Neuve Chapelle: September, 1914-March, 1915. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. esting ways in which Germany is having the FIELD HOSPITAL AND FLYING COLUMN. Being the Journal cost of the war defrayed for her by her ene- of an English Nursing Sister in Belgium and Russia. By Violetta Thurstan. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. mies is worth setting down in full : linist. 1915] 23 THE DIAL “ Nothing is taken away off-band. All will be wantonly burned houses; and in the para- made good to the owners after the war. graph immediately following he describes a terms of peace will contain a provision to the Prussian officer's bomb-proof in the trenches effect that the defeated side shall pay the amount as filled with loot from a neighboring chateau of every receipt or voucher (bon) representing the - the sort of thing that Mr. Hedin gave us value of the things requisitioned during the mili- his assurance was not done. Mr. Fox was on tary occupation. The individual is not to suffer the firing line during an English charge, and direct, but only as a participant in the misfortune which falls on the country as a whole. It is the was mightily moved to take an active part in duty of the State to make good the people's per- the fighting, being completely carried away sonal losses when the State is incapable of pro- by the excitement of the moment. His ac- tecting the property of the individual against the count of the defeat of the enemy must be enemy. And if the invading power is defeated given : in the war, its just punishment is that it must “I began to notice then, by craning my head make good the losses of the sufferers." from left to right, that the red wavering lines of This reads fairly enough, but it must be fire, which had a way of rushing at you and van- remembered that there is nowhere in the large ishing to appear again further back, was [sic] volume any hint of anything but German vic- slower now in appearing after it lost itself some- tory, complete and absolute. The French who where in the mud, and then it became even slower in showing itself and finally when it came, you accept the German vouchers, having no choice saw that it had disintegrated into segments, that in the matter, are to look to their own govern- it was no longer a steady oncoming line, rather a ment for repayment for the supplies they are slowly squirming thing like the curling parts of forced to give its foes. The Hague conven some monstrous fiery worm that had been chopped tions are not silent on this subject, but as Mr. to bits and was squirming its life away out there Hedin observes, “In more than one respect on the mud. And it dawned upon you in horror this war has demonstrated the impotence and that the fiery red lines had been lines of men, futility of all conferences and conventions of shooting as they had come; and that, when one Geneva, The Hague, and other places, bearing line had been mowed down, another had rushed names which now have an empty and illusory up from behind, so on almost endlessly it had seemed until they became broken and squirmed sound.” It is well to have a categorical state- like the others had done, into the mud, and came ment of this sort from such a completely And the spell that you had been held pro-German source. After noting the trench in was broken; and you remembered that there warfare in northern France, and getting to was a God, and you thanked Him that your hands Antwerp just after its fall, Mr. Hedin re had found nothing with which to kill." turned home. He had been under French fire (It could have been wished, when Mr. Fox and the British naval bombardment of Ostend, came to write, that he had remembered that had been entertained by numerous royalties there is also syntax in English.) He, too, like and high dignitaries, and his tone is that of a Mr. Hedin, visited the prison camps in Bel- man who thoroughly enjoyed himself. gium, and noted that the British did not Mr. Edward Lyell Fox did not have so salute German officers; also that when he elaborate a social experience with German asked an English marine how he liked it there, notabilities as Mr. Hedin, but his opportuni- though an officer stood beside him, the En- ties for gaining knowledge were almost equal glishman answered, “Rotten." The fighting and of much the same nature. His book, in Poland was even fiercer; and the battle of “Behind the Scenes in Warring Germany,” is Augustowo Wald, at which Mr. Fox was pres- written with less reserve and more energy, ent, affords him material for what he calls describing conditions on both the western “the first complete account of a great battle front in autumn and the eastern in winter, in that has been told in this war.' As recorded, the form of special correspondence for Amer it was one of those overwhelming Russian ican periodicals. Mr. Fox is much more defeats that have characterized the eastern guarded in his statements about German pro- fighting, an army of 240,000 men being com- ceedings which have not fallen under his own pletely obliterated by General von Hinden- eyesight, - as when he remarks in this con- berg. The last chapter in the book shows, nection: "Were every American who believes with photographic reproductions, that En- these Belgian stories, to live with the German gland possessed accurate military maps of soldiers as I have, and to know them off duty, Belgium,-proof to the Germans that Great and to watch them in the trenches, he would Britain intended the invasion of that un- be utterly at sea. The stories of Belgium do happy country; and equal proof, from the not agree with the men of the German army." other side, that the British were aware of This is brought out by nothing more than the Germany's dishonorable intentions in that accusation that the home-loving Teuton has | regard. no more. 24 June 24 THE DIAL From September to December, 1914, Mr. appliances. Madame Curie was in Mr. Sout- H. S. Souttar was attached to a British hos tar's hospital with her wonderful apparatus, pital corps and not under the personal escort and the King and Queen of Belgium were of exceedingly polite German officers with the frequent visitors. limitation of experiences thus implied. In Mr. Fritz Kreisler, the eminent violinist consequence we are given in his book entitled now touring the United States, was for a “A Surgeon in Belgium " a record of personal month on the Austrian firing line, took part experiences. After discussing the rules of the in several engagements and a long retreat, Geneva Convention the author says: was wounded in the leg, and honorably dis- “ It is, after all, possible to fight as gentlemen. charged from the service as no longer phy- Or at least it was until a few months ago. Since sically fit for its hardships. His brief account then we have had a demonstration of scientific' of “Four Weeks in the Trenches” corrobo- war such as has never before been given to man rates those given by many others, regarding kind. Now, to wear a Red Cross is simply to the ease with which a man of refinement slips offer a better mark for the enemy's fire, and we back into the barbarism of war, with its at- only wore them in order that our own troops tendant dirt and filth and lack of everything might know our business and make use of our aid. A hospital is a favorite mark for the German regarded as humanly decent. A week or two artillery, whilst the practice of painting Red of marching under heavy equipment brought Crosses on the tops of ambulance cars is by many him into unexpected health and strength, as people considered unwise, as it invites any passing in so many other cases. His musical ear aeroplane to drop a bomb. But the Germans have enabled him to be of service to his army, for carried their systematic contempt of the rules of it detected the differences in the sounds made war so far that it is now almost impossible for by shells before attaining their maximum our own men to recognize their Red Crosses. Time height and after they had begun their de- after time their Red Cross cars have been used to scent. "Apparently," he writes, “in the first conceal machine-guns, their flags have floated over half of its curve, that is, its course while batteries, and they have actually used stretchers ascending, the shell produced a dull whine I was at Furnes two German spies were working accompanied by a falling cadence, which with an ambulance, in khaki uniforms, bringing changes to a rising shrill as soon as the acme in the wounded. They were at it for nearly a has been reached and the curve points down- week before they were discovered, and then, by a ward again." Confiding his observations to ruse, they succeeded in driving straight through his commanding officer, “it was later on re- the Belgian lines and back to their own, Red Cross ported to me that I had succeeded in giving ambulance, khaki and all.” to our batteries the almost exact range of the Later he cites another instance that fell Russian guns." Interesting as this is, it seems within his personal knowledge: a poor use to put a great artistic talent to. Several instances are cited of the men exhibit- “But Ypres gave us yet another example of German methods of war. On the western side of ing a simple humanity toward their enemies, the town, some distance from the furthest houses, notably in a case where a Russian officer and stood the Asylum. It was a fine building arranged his orderly came under a flag of truce to in several wings, and at present it was being used plead hunger, plead hunger, "offering a little barrel of for the accommodation of a few wounded, mostly water which his companion carried on his women and children, and several old people of head and a little tobacco, in exchange for the workhouse infirmary type. It made a mag some provisions." The response was gener- nificent hospital, and as it was far away from ous, though the Austrians were themselves on the town and was not used for any but the pur- scant rations, Mr. Kreisler's “ proud contribu- poses of a hospital, we considered it safe enough, and that it would be a pity to disturb the poor tion consisting of two tablets of chocolate, old people collected there. We might have known part of a precious reserve for extreme cases. better. The very next night the Germans shelled Mrs. M. E. Clarke has done nothing more it to pieces, and all those unfortunate old creatures than record the state of feeling suggested by had to be removed in a hurry. There was a sense the title of her well written book, less barbarity about such an act which could only Waits: 1914," during the fearful days of the appeal to a Prussian." German advance, and by the respite that came The book is both witty and wise, and the in September when the French pushed their work of a man who can write excellent En adversaries back to the Aisne. Of the re- glish. It contains a number of suggestions treat immediately before, she writes: of a professional sort, such as the establish- “I never realized how ill men could be from ment of hospitals in the country for the better sheer fatigue until I saw a Seaforth Highlander treatment of city dwellers, and records the and a Rifle Brigade man utterly prostrate in a results of the use of the most modern surgical | French hospital after that awful retreat on Paris. 1915) 25 THE DIAL ar- They had marched twenty-five miles a day during proud of the excellent work accomplished four days, with practically nothing to eat, and through its Ambulance Corps in France. fighting all the way. . . They had been in hospital Out of the obscurity thrown over the work ten days when we found them, and they were still unable to stand on their feet, although, beyond and France has come from time to time the of the British expeditionary force in Belgium fatigue, there was nothing the matter with them. They craved food, rest, and forgetfulness of all writings of an official eye-witness,— brief and they had seen. Their pity for the Belgian refugees which are for the most part from the accom- well worded accounts, sometimes picturesque, was very real, and whatever English soldier you meet it is always the same: they will never forget plished pen of Colonel Ernest D. Swinton. those heart-rending scenes of mutilated women These have been collected into a volume, "Eye- and children, burning villages, and roads stream- Witness's Narrative of the War," which ing with frightened groups of human beings needed this presentation of them since the seeking safety by walking away from their own exigencies of daily journalism have often led dwellings into the unknown. Above all, they will to omissions large and small. The accounts never forget or forgive the Germans for driving here given run from the victory of the Allies the women and children before their guns as pro- on the Marne to the British advance at Neuve tection for themselves against the fire of the Allies. Even the laconic Highlander talked about that, Chapelle last March, the selection of the two and the Rifle Brigade man became eloquent." events giving form to the narrative. As an Though the book makes no pretence to con- example of the information given, the follow- secutiveness or literary form, it will stand as ing statement concerning the event last named may be quoted: a psychological cinematograph of the feelings of a great capital in a great historical crisis. “One wounded Prussian officer, of a particu- M. l'Abbé Félix Klein will be remembered larly offensive and truculent type which is not as the author of several books which have uncommon, expressed the greatest contempt for our methods. * You do not fight. You murder,' been translated and sold widely in America. he said. “If it had been straightforward, honest He has also travelled and lectured exten- fighting, we should have beaten you, but my regi- sively in this country. Thus it was not inap- ment never had a chance from the first; there propriate that he should attach himself to the was a shell every ten yards. Nothing could live American Ambulance Corps in France as its in such a fire.' chaplain. His new book, “La Guerre Vue “ This feeling of resentment against our d'une Ambulance,” is in the form of a diary, tillery was shown by several of the prisoners. running from the third of August to the last Gratifying as it is to our gunners, it is an exhibi- day of December, 1914, in which he sets down tion of a curious lack of any judicial sense or the actual events of each day with related even of a rudimentary sense of humor on the part impressions and observations. Here is con- of the apostles of Frightfulness. It was the firmation of Mrs. Clarke's record from an Germans who prepared an overwhelming force of artillery before the war, and they were the first independent source: to employ the concentrated action of heavy guns “Il ne leur est permis de parler des faits de in field warfare. When the tables are turned and guerre qu'apres quinze jours écoulés. Ce n'est they have their first taste of what we have so often pas, jugent-ils à bon droit, désobéir à cet ordre eaten they actually have the effrontery to com- que de nous confirmer, pour les avoir vues de plain. It also especially galled our prisoners that leurs yeux, les atrocités des Allemands en Belgique, they should have been captured by the British, et notamment, le fait très souvent renouvalé, who, they had been informed, were very inferior chaque fois, semble-t-il, que c'était possible, — de enemies." placer devant eux les enfants et les femmes, au It was this battle that at last disclosed to the moment du combat." British the only secure method of advancing, There is also the protest, not uncommon in and they immediately set about securing the either France or Britain, against the use of necessary enormous quantity of heavy ammu- similar devices: nition. The book pays full credit to the Ger- Rien, pas même le sac de Senlis, qui a donné man efficiency and personal bravery, and lieu, rien ne justifie de pareilles explosions de some informing letters secured from prison- fureur. Je sais bien que les atrocités allemandes dépassent, cette fois, toutes limites, et qu'elles ers about the pinch of poverty are of especial interest. revêtent souvent un caratère général, officiel, qui en augmente singuliérement la portée. Mais quoi ! Miss Violetta Thurstan, an English trained n'est-ce pas cela même qui prouve l'infériorité de nurse attached to the St. John of Jerusalem l'adversaire? Loin de nous, à jamais, l'idée de Red Cross, went to Belgium almost immedi- nous abandonner à la plus monstrueuse des ému- ately after the invasion of that country, re- lations !” mained there until the Germans deported her The impression given is vivid and sincere, and her assistants after subjecting them to and the United States has occasion to feel needless and gross personal insults, and from 26 (June 24 THE DIAL Denmark passed to the Russian Red Cross at them; and for this reason it is a cause for the flying column detailed to the front. Her satisfaction that there should be initiated a experiences were thrilling in the extreme, and “New Poetry Series,” designed to represent were borne with that high spirit of valor the work of the latest generation in small, which characterizes the English gentlewoman well-printed volumes, modestly priced. The at her best. Wounded at last and soon after first title of this series is an anthology repre- stricken by pleurisy, she has occupied her senting the "imagist" poets, through the col- convalescence in writing the account of her laboration of six of them, with a preface experiences. Her book, "Field Hospital and setting forth their principles. Flying Column,” fully bears out the dictum Unfortunately, when one seeks to ascertain that no autobiography is dull. Interesting as the principles of any sect from its leaders, the narrative is, still more interesting is the one is likely to be puzzled by the way in which personality of the author, which may be they revert to obvious matters on which it is judged in part by the following extract: difficult to believe they have any peculiar “ War would be the most glorious game in the claim. A Mormon, on being pressed for such world if it were not for the killing and wounding. a statement, will not mention polygamy or In it one tastes the joy of comradeship to the tithes, but will tell you that his Church is full, the taking and giving, and helping and being characterized by its belief in the coming of helped, in a way that would be impossible to con the kingdom of God on earth — something ceive in the ordinary world. At Radzivilow, too, which you supposed you had always believed one could see the poetry of war, the zest of the yourself. A Seventh-day Adventist will not frosty mornings, and the delight of the camp-fire at night, the warm, clean smell of the horses speak of the Sabbath, but will say that his tethered everywhere, the keen hunger, the rough one passion is liberty of conscience, as if this food sweetened by the sauce of danger, the riding were a new doctrine made for the times. It out in high hope in the morning; even the return- is much the same with the modernist poets. ing wounded in the evening did not seem altogether The preface before us tells us that the princi- such a bad thing out there." ples of the Imagists are five: to use the lan- No idea that the pacifists have advanced is guage of common speech, employing the exact more convincing than that of making peace as and not the decorative word; to create new interesting as warfare; once this is accom- rhythms, not to copy old ones; to allow abso- plished, the vastest of all human evils will lute freedom in the choice of subject; to probably disappear. present an image as distinguished from vague WALLACE RICE. generalities; to produce poetry that is "hard and clear”; and to practice concentration. Now apart from the matter of the new RECENT POETRY.* rhythms, it is obvious that these principles In a roughly convenient fashion, one may are the commonplaces of English poetry since classify all contemporary verse in two grand the days of Burns and of Wordsworth, when divisions, according as it represents the fol- they are not the commonplaces of good poetry lowing of poetic tradition or the distinctive of every age. If we look for interpretations resolution to be new. In connection with the of them in the anthology itself, the matter can second group, no one interested in the subject hardly be said to be cleared up. For instance, can fail to be aware of a considerable amount Mr. D. H. Lawrence gives us the following of very interesting experimentation by cer- images in a poem alluringly called “Illicit": tain of the younger poets, analogous in a more “ You are near to me, and your naked feet in their than superficial way to the various modernist sandals, And through the scent of the balcony's naked timber schools of painting. Even if we have serious I distinguish the scent of your hair; so now the suspicions as to the probable value of these limber experiments, we should try to understand Lightning falls from heaven, Adown the pale-green glacier-river floats An Anthology. “New Poetry A dark boat through the gloom - and whither! Series." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. The thunder roars. But still we have each other. IRRADIATIONS: SAND AND SPRAY. By John Gould Fletcher. “New Poetry Series." Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. The naked lightnings in the heaven dither Post-Impressionist Poems. By Horace Holley. And disappear. What have we but each other? New York : Mitchell Kennerley. The boat has gone." By Edgar Lee Masters. New York: The Macmillan Co. If these verses were not the product of one SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE. Lyrics and Reveries, with Mis- cellaneous Pieces. By Thomas Hardy. New York: The Mac- who not only is bound to employ the exact word, but who is under no obligation to make THE FREE SPIRIT. Realizations of Middle Age, with a Note on Personal Expression. By Henry Bryan Binns. New York: use of any rhyme whatsoever, we should be B. W. Huebsch. tempted to assume that the interesting words SONNETS OF A PORTRAIT-PAINTER. By Arthur Davison Ficke. New York: Mitchell Kennerley. “limber" and "dither," applied to the light- : * SOME IMAGIST POETS. CREATION. SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. millan Co. 1915) 27 THE DIAL ning, were suggested by the rhyme. Being No wind; forbidden this hypothesis, we hesitate. As to The trees merge, green with green; A car whirs by; the lightning's being reported as naked, when Footsteps and voices take their pitch we should hardly have thought to ask that it In the key of dust, be clothed, this may be attributed to a subtle Far-off and near, subdued. sympathy with the illicit nudity of the feet Solid and square to the world The houses stand, and the timbers. But all this is so far from Their windows blocked with venetian blinds. being new that it was keenly and legitimately Nothing will move them.” parodied by Mr. Owen Seaman, years ago, in By far the most effective composition in the his ballad of the nun who anthology is Miss Lowell's picture of the bom- “passed along the naked road, bardment of a continental city — presumably The road had really nothing on.” Rheims; but this does not even profess to be Turn now, for further illustration of our more than cadenced prose, and is printed principles, to some of the poems contributed accordingly. by Miss Amy Lowell, who before this has A second issue of the “New Poetry Series " done praiseworthy work in poetry, and note is made up entirely of the imagistic work of images like these: Mr. Fletcher; and exhibits, for the most part, The “ Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper the qualities that have been noticed. Like draggled fly's legs." following sketch is of some special interest as attempting the same sort of impression as that “ Why do lilies goggle their tongues at me When I pluck them; familiar in a certain type of painting, strewn And writhe, and twist, broadcast with spots of prismatic color: And strangle themselves against my fingers? “Over the roof-tops race the shadows of clouds; My thoughts Like horses the shadows of clouds charge down the street. Chink against my ribs And roll about like silver hail-stones.” " Whirlpools of purple and gold, Winds from the mountains of cinnabar, Is this exactness? Is this to be concentrated, Lacquered mandarin moments, palanquins swaying hard, and clear? Well, one may not be sure and balancing how the words are used. But to those familiar Amid the vermilion pavilions, against the jade balustrades. with the history of English poetry it looks Glint of the glittering wings of dragon-flies in the very much like a reversion, suggestive at light: times, and not without charm, to rather crude Silver filaments, golden flakes settling downwards, and youthful forms of the old method of the Rippling, quivering flutters, repulse and surrender, “conceit.” Not to seek further light on the The sun broidered upon the rain, The rain rustling with the sun. theory of the poems, we may note that their chief values are of the same character as “Over the roof-tops race the shadows of clouds; Like horses the shadows of clouds charge down the those of a painter's jottings and sketches in street." his note-book, - oftentimes suggestive of the materials for an interesting bit of color or of For this little volume Mr. Fletcher, like the composition, still unformed into any signifi- editor of the anthology, has written an in- structive preface, explaining something of the cant whole. Here, from the work of Mr. John Gould Fletcher, is a view of London from a doctrines of his group. It is more frank than 'bus-top: the other, but singularly full of misstate- ments. In the brief space here available one “Black shapes bending, must be dogmatic; hence it can only be Taxicabs crush in the crowd. The tops are each a shining square, shortly observed that the art of poetry in Shuttles that steadily press through woolly fabric... English-speaking countries is not in a greatly backward state; that the poets have not at- “ Monotonous domes of bowler-hats Vibrate in the heat. tempted to make of their craft a Masonic secret, declaring that rhythm is not to be “Silently, easily we sway through braying traffic, analyzed ; that it is not true that each line of Down the crowded street. The tumult crouches over us, a poem represents a single breath; that every Or suddenly drifts to one side.” poet of eminence has not felt the fatiguing And here, from Mr. F. S. Flint, is a sketch of monotony of regular rhyme and constructed houses at night: new stanzas in order to avoid it; that Shake- speare did not abandon rhyme in his mature “ Into the sky period (that is, in lyrical verse, which is ap- The red earthenware and the galvanised iron chim- parently the only kind under consideration). neys Thrust their cowls. Of course, if the reader is disposed to question The hoot of the steamers on the Thames is plain. these denials, we cannot claim to have offered 28 (June 24 THE DIAL proof,— he can only be referred to any schol-inventor who was bitten by a rat while dem- arly authority on the matters concerned. But onstrating a patent trap; a woman who took if a preface like this is a specimen of the morphine after a quarrel with her husband; actual information at the disposal of the another who died in childbirth, the event hav- imagists, one can only say that their practice ing been foreseen by her husband; a boy may excel their theory, but that the latter is who was run over while stealing a ride on a beyond hope. train; another boy who contracted lockjaw Mr. Horace Holley has collected a number from a toy pistol; a woman whose lockjaw was of poems which he calls not imagist but“ post- due to a needle which had pierced her while impressionist.” In form and manner they she was washing her baby's clothes; a citi- resemble those we have been considering, but zen who fell dead, presumably from apoplexy, are less sensuously colored and decidedly while confessing a hidden sin to his church; richer in intellectual substance. One called a trainer who was killed by a lion in a circus; “In a Factory” rather strikingly represents a greedy farmer who died from eating pie and the social aspect of the poet's thought: gulping coffee in hot harvest time; a rural Smoky, monotonous rows philosopher who was gored by a cow while Of half-unconscious men discussing predestination; an innocent man Serving, with lustreless glance and dreamless mind, who was hanged on a trumped-up charge; a The masterful machines; These are the sons of herdsmen, hunters, courtesan who was poisoned by an Italian Lords of the sunlit meadow, count; and a prohibitionist who developed The lonely peak, cirrhosis of the liver from over-drinking. The stirring, shadow-haunted wood,- Enough - though the half has not been told. Of mariners who swung from sea to sea In carven ships Under most of these tragedies lurk a grim And named the unknown world: pathos, and an irony due to such causes as the Hunters, herdsmen, sailors, all total misunderstanding by his fellows of the By trade or chase or harvest life (and often the death of the ghostly Winning their substance Rudely, passionately like a worthy game speaker. A really remarkable series of char- With a boy's great zest of playing. acter-studies, though the half would be much O labour, better than the whole; but for poetry - cui Whoso makes thee an adventure bono? Mr. Masters has shown before this that Thrilling to the nervous core of life, He is the true Messiah, he knows what verse is; how then can he per- The world's Saviour, long-waited, long-wept-for." petrate, and endure to see in type, trash like this: Finally, for our group of modernists, we may note the “Spoon River Anthology” of “If even one of my boys could have run a news-stand, Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, which might be called Or one of my girls could have married a decent man, I should not have walked in the rain the reductio ad absurdum of certain of the And jumped into bed with clothes all wet, new methods, such as the abandonment of Refusing medical aid.” conventional form and the fearless scrutiny (In passing, note this method of suicide, per- of disagreeable realities. here, to be sure, of the vaporings of some of haps the most original, because the most indi- rect, of those described in the collection.) It our imagists, but a stern virility to which one can only be because he was resolved to por- might warm were it not so deliberately un- lovely. The contents of this “anthology” is tray – in the words of one of his own char- acters — a a series of monologues d'outre tombe, sup- wingless void Where neither red, nor gold, nor wine, posed to be spoken by the inhabitants of the Nor the rhythm of life are [sic] known." Spoon River cemetery, who one by one tell us something of what they did and felt while In two or three of the monologues only is the living, and in many cases how they met their rhythm of life heard sounding underneath the end. Whether Spoon River is meant to be tragedy - as it always is in actual poetry and viewed as typical of Illinois villages — for it real tragedy; in the words of Petit the Poet: appears to be in the vicinity of Knox College “ Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth, and Peoria — or to be a place peculiarly Courage, constancy, heroism, failure - accursed, doth not clearly appear. In either All in the loom, and oh what patterns! Woodlands, meadows, streams and rivers - case it furnishes an extraordinary study in Blind to all of it all my life long. mortuary statistics. From the first half of Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus, the volume, or thereabouts, there may be Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick, culled such characters as these: a person who Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics, was hanged for highway robbery and murder; While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines!” a woman who was slain by the secret cruelty All this formless, blundering, but seriously of her husband, the details not revealed; an purposed writing, under whatever name it 1915) 29 THE DIAL goes, is of value to the thoughtful reader for “ And as the smart ship grew inferential and negative rather than positive In stature, grace, and hue, In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. reasons. Practically all the compositions at which we have been looking fail to meet the “ Alien they seemed to be: No mortal eye could see eternal test of poetry: they would perform The intimate welding of their later history, their function, express their image or their thought, as well in prose form as in verse, “Or sign that they were bent sometimes better. What does this signify? By paths coincident On being anon twin halves of one august event, Their prefaces do not tell us. The real char- “ Till the Spinner of the Years acteristic common to the group is the delib- Said “Now!' And each one hears, erate abandonment of faith in a type, a law, And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.” an ideal — call it what you will — to which the fleeting momentary experiences caught up The title poems of the volume, called “Satires by the poet are to be referred, and of which of Circumstance," are brilliant ironic sketches his dependence on a persistent form, a stead- in precisely the mordant manner of Mr. ily flowing, ineluctable rhythm, is but a sym- Hardy's most disconcerting prose narrative. bol. Some will eling to form, but throw away Quite as keen, and perhaps even more finely the idea for which it stands; some will cling balanced in respect to comedy and tragedy, is to beauty of detail, but abandon beauty of the neighboring dialogue between a buried the whole; some will keep their sense of the woman and some one digging on her grave. type, the law, the idea, but throw away out- At first she imagines it to be her lover plant- ward form, just for the zest of difference and ing rue, but the answer comes, “No, he novelty. When they abandon all — faith and wedded another yesterday." “My nearest form together, then we have a complete and kin, then?” “No, they are saying, "What instructive pathologic specimen of the process. use to plant flowers?'” “My enemy, then, prodding maliciously?” “No, she thinks you What remains may be called poetry, but it prodding maliciously?” is a poetry like that religion which has aban- no more worth her hate." “Who is it, then? doned both religion's ritual and its faith. “Your little dog, my mistress dear." "Ah, Mr. Thomas Hardy is of those who keep the one true heart left behind—I might have ritual without the faith. In other words, known." But the dog answers: whether in prose or in verse, he holds to the “ Mistress, I dug upon your grave traditional forms of his art despite the hope- To bury a bone, in case I should be hungry near this spot less and unbeautiful creed which is familiar When passing on my daily trot. to all his readers. In his early volume of I am sorry, but I quite forgot verse, the “Wessex Poems," he somewhere It was your resting-place." expressed himself to this effect: that life It seemed well to paraphrase the greater por- would be more tolerable if we could believe tion of this little narrative, not merely for the ourselves to be in the toils of a malicious sake of brevity, but to exemplify the fact that power, bent on causing suffering, it would this is a type of composition, again, which at any rate be a more rational state than to does not lose its essence when transferred to feel that our suffering is without either pur- prose. The verse points it, to be sure,— gives pose or meaning. In later years, as every- finish and consequent satisfaction; but the one knows, he has achieved the satisfaction spirit is not that of poetry, because the spirit merely dreamed of in the poem referred to, of poetry is never that of mere negation. and come to something like a solemn faith in And this is true of a great part of Mr. Hardy's a Power not ourselves that makes for un- verse. But there are plenty of exceptions, as righteousness. This gives a kind of ideality in the poem on the “Titanic,” where, as we to his pessimism which is quite wanting in the have seen, a big and looming imaginative con- insignificant disillusioned ghosts of Spooncept rises from the very ruins of faith. River. His recent volume of collected poems In marked contrast to all these modernists represents this in many a passage, but in none is a new volume of poems representing the so nobly as in the lines on the loss of the spiritual philosophy of Mr. Henry Bryan Titanic" (called “ The Convergence of the Binns. Some of the verse seems modern Twain"): enough, to be sure; some of it is in vers Well, while was fashioning libre; but Mr. Binns is not under the illu- This creature of cleaving wing, sion that he is contributing, in these irregular * The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything forms, to the normal evolution of the poetry Prepared a sinister mate of the race. He values them, sagaciously, For her - so gaily great only as means of expressing certain personal A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate. “realisations,” — such as, in some cases, recall 30 (June 24 THE DIAL the ecstatic utterances of seventeenth century and that of his environment come out with mystics like Traherne. From “High Noon, some vividness, and the poet is not afraid to for instance, is this: heighten these with homely and humorous "See the sun atop, crowning Noon's height, realism, as in this admirable quatrain, from Level beneath him the round world! Sonnet 5: Level lies earth beneath and takes to the brim “ Heaven knows what moonlit turrets, hazed in bliss, Her full of him, ere, tilting to East The light begins spilling. Saw Launcelot and night and Guinevere! I only know our first impassioned kiss • While Noon's now at full Was in your cellar, rummaging for beer.” Brim-high with this effulgence of light, But of this distinctness there seems not to be Who has heart, - come, drain it! Who has faith, let him drink!" enough. At least one is not without fears, Of conventional forms, there are many son- though the painter does live and grow nets in the volume, but in this form Mr. Binns throughout the sequence, that he sometimes draws from his portfolio a sonnet on things tends to be didactic and unimaginative. His in general, which might have been written by happiest vein is perhaps exemplified in cer- tain verses in the four-foot measure, which poets in general, as distinguished from him- has often been proved to have possibilities for self. Nevertheless, there have been few more the combination of thoughtful epigram with successful experiments in this difficult type in recent times. Mr. Ficke uses the English lyrical feeling. Of this character is the fine conclusion to the title poem: or Shakespearean form of sonnet, with a vivid sense of its characteristic movement, which “ Whatever of myself I win is less generally understood in our day than Out of my peril or despair, With all the inseparable kin that of the “Italian" form. Even Shake- And pilgrimage of life, I share. speare seems frequently not to have troubled “ Alone in the light the skylark sings to make his final couplet more than a tag or And sets us singing in the gloom: appendix to a lyric already complete in twelve I, also, on victorious wings lines. This tendency Mr. Ficke avoids with An instant overleap my doom: skill. The movement and unity of his lyric “And though I know not how, I know may be represented by the rapturous love- As Earth, whereof we spring, is one, sonnet, Number 20: So every spirit's overflow Replenishes the common sun.” “Ah, life is good! And good thus to behold From far horizons where their tents are furled The Emersonian flavor evident in these lines The mighty storms of Being rise, unfold, is still more noticeable in the lighter vein of Mix, strike, and crash across a shaken world: Good to behold their trailing rearguards pass, “The Scolding Squirrel." There remains And feel the sun renewed its sweetness send space for only two or three stanzas of this: Down to the sparkling leaf-blades of the grass, Squirrel, squirrel up in the tree, And watch the drops fall where the branches bend. While you jerk that tail at me I think to-day I almost were content I mock at you and blithely dine To hear some bard life's epic story tell,- On the other fruit of the pine. To view the stage through some small curtain-rent, Mere watcher at this gorgeous spectacle. “ All about me for my food But now the curtain lifts:- my soul's swift powers Drops the wisdom of the wood: Rise robed and crowned—for lo! the play is ours! What a thousand pine-trees think Is distilled to be my drink. ... RAYMOND M. ALDEN. " An ever-living tide of mirth That flows for aye about the Earth Begins to sing its song in me, NOTES ON NEW NOVELS. Squirrel, underneath your tree.” The author of " The Hat Shop," Mrs. C. S. We return to America for a volume which Peel, seems to promise a work of the same kind should have found earlier notice in these col in her later novel, “Mrs. Barnet Robes (Lane), umns, Mr. Arthur Ficke's sequence of “Son but there is considerable difference. The titular nets of a Portrait-Painter.” Mr. Ficke's work character is deserted, with a small daughter, by in the sonnet has won many a friendly word the gentleman she loves, and after hard work before now, and the new collection marks establishes herself as a dressmaker of fashion. progress in his art. The sequence is a genu- He marries in his own class after a time, and his first child is a daughter. The narrative divides ine one, with dramatic values over and above itself fairly between the two girls, who meet with- the lyrical ones, such as every such work must out knowledge of any relationship, but with have to give it unity. Unfortunately this recognition of an unusual personal resemblance. element is not developed as effectively as the The marriage is unfortunate, and the legitimate opening portion of the series gives warrant daughter grows up in an atmosphere of tragical for hoping. There the character of the painter misunderstanding, while the other develops in a . 1915 ] 31 THE DIAL humbler walk of life into a happiness entirely mysterious “Pax” of his narrative an electric normal. It is a study of environments, thoughtful lever which shifts the earth's axis, and promises and carefully considered. to twist it further around if the nations do not Such a book as "His English Wife" (Long- stop fighting. It is an absorbing tale, made plaus- mans), translated by Mr. A. c. Curtis from the ible in the face of evident difficulties. German of Herr Rudolph Stratz, is bound to have Mystery, complicated by theosophy, makes " The more than fictional value at the present time, Brocklebank Riddle (Century Co.), by Mr. written as it was before the outbreak of the war. Hubert Wales, a puzzling story indeed. After a It was widely popular in Germany, and has man's wife and his partner have seen him die, reached a second edition in England. It describes and one of them has seen his body cremated, he the difficulties attending the married life of a appears at his office. The situation becomes more young German officer and a young English girl and more strained when a woman whose husband whose father was born in Frankfort. It is just has disappeared without warning comes to inquire to Herr Stratz to say that he has contended after him. Brocklebank himself is puzzled, but against the usual impulse to set one's countrymen dismisses all thought of anything supernatural. a pace or two forward while the foreigner takes The last pages of the book solve the riddle as two steps to the rear. The capture of English ingeniously as the earlier pages proposed it. trade by Germany, one of the industriously ex- ploited fictions of the time, bears no small share in the story. BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS. James Hay, Jr., has brought the " temperance" tract fairly up to the compass of a novel in " The In General von Bernhardi's Man Who Forgot” (Doubleday). The protagonist Two German “Germany and England” (Dil- apologists. has steeped himself in drink until he emerges lingham), the erstwhile lion of from his last debauch absolutely forgetful of his militarism roars you as gently as any sucking past and with no clue to his identity. Determined dove. Americans are sufficiently familiar to overthrow the Demon Rum in revenge, as well with the doughty general's stout defence of as for the benefit supposed to enure, he enlists war as a biological necessity and a moral and the resources of two millionaires whose sons have turned out drunkards, organizes a nation-wide political tonic. They will now be amazed to demonstration at the Capital, and secures thereby learn from this little book, which is intended the adoption by Congress of a constitutional for American consumption, that the author amendment forbidding the importation, manufac never meant to say the things one finds in his ture, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Incidentally earlier volumes, or that somehow, as the Ger- he gains a desirable wife and comes to a knowledge man Chancellor implied of his own unlucky of his earlier life; but the propaganda, as usual scrap of paper" phrase, he "had his fingers in such books, outweighs the romance of the tale. crossed” when he did say them. War is here Mr. Jack London seems determined to prove justified only when peaceful means have that fiction can be stranger than fact, in spite of failed, and of course Germany had exhausted warring Europe's example to the contrary, and all such means last summer before the plunge “The Scarlet Plague” (Macmillan) is a doughty was taken. The earlier Bernhardi had the effort to that end. By a world-wide epidemic, merit of candor; the present Bernhardi is an humanity is almost obliterated from the world, unpalatable mixture of disingenuousness and and the few who outlast the scourge are selected naïveté. He is disingenuous in attempting to without reference to the survival of the fittest. The story is placed in the mouth of a former pro- explain away his own sincere utterances, and fessor of a Californian university, transformed he is naïve in supposing that people will be into“ a dirty old man clad in goatskins.” Mankind fooled by that attempt. Like most of the is placed at the foot of the ladder once more, to German apologists, including even the dear. begin a toilsome ascent, and the grandchildren of departed Dr. Dernburg, he grievously under- the survivors are depicted on the plane of the estimates the intelligence of the American Digger Indians. It is difficult to be sympathetic public. The book also comes at a most inop- with such a story; the realities are sufficiently portune moment, just when pro-Germans in ghastly nowadays. this country have been doing their best to dis- Civilization is at present so shaken by calamity avow and forget Bernhardi and all his ways.---. that cataclysmic stories seem necessary if fiction A somewhat better statement of the German is to make itself as absorbing as the daily news case is to be found in Dr. Paul Rohrbach's paper tale of slaughter and destruction. Accord- Germany's Isolation ” (McClurg), which has ingly, Mr. Arthur Train has written “The Man Who Rocked the Earth” (Doubleday) to show been well translated by Dr. Paul H. Phillip- son. that science may still have a few things up its Nevertheless, readers of the same au- sleeve to add to the horrors of daily living; but thor's “German World Policies” (reviewed he reconciles his readers by invoking this awful in THE Dial for April 15 last) will be dis- power on the side of peace. He makes the old appointed. The book, though written for the dream of Archimedes come true by giving the most part before the present struggle began, 32 (June 24 THE DIAL of women a short-lived was evidently composed in the shadow of com diaries, including the bits of journals kept by ing events. The tone is aggressive, and even two of the Alcott girls, Anna and Louisa, menacing; it fairly vibrates with the note of with other contemporary records, have been approaching conflict, thus unconsciously fur- diligently searched and judiciously utilized nishing interesting testimony to the state of by Miss Sears, who has also added, by permis- mind of some observant Germans in the sion, Miss Alcott's ever-entertaining “Trans- months before the war broke out. An intro cendental Wild Oats," and has given in an duction and a final chapter have been added appendix the very interesting “catalogue of by Dr. Rohrbach since the opening of hostili- the original Fruitlands library,” about a ties. In the latter he appears as an apologist thousand volumes brought from England by for all of his country's acts: Germany was Alcott and his friend Charles Lane, and de- not the assailant, the Kaiser strove almost un scribed in “ The Dial” of that time as "con- duly to keep the peace, the invasion of Bel- taining undoubtedly a richer collection of gium was justified because England violated mystical writers than any other library in Danish neutrality in 1807, etc. Yet the sig. this country.” Views of the Fruitlands house, nificant admission is made that it is difficult exterior and interior, with portraits of the to think of “a phase more favorable to the Alcotts and other inmates, are abundantly German cause than the present alignment of supplied. To readers of discernment the book Germany's forces and those of her opponents.' will commend itself as a veritable treasure. The book closes with the inevitable denuncia- tion of England as the one unpardonable foe. The most recently published The stereotyped nature of German thinking on Civic work volume in the “National Mu- the war has scarcely ever been more patheti in America. nicipal League Series" (Apple- cally revealed than in this volume by an ton) is Mrs. Mary Ritter Beard's “Woman's intelligent publicist whose mind in normal Work in Municipalities.” The original plan times has not lacked proper elasticity. of the author was to present simply a col- lection of readings illustrating the various From the early summer of 1843 phases of her subject. It was found, how- The story of to the following mid-winter, a ever, that there are not in existence docu- community. little company of " consecrated mentary materials adapted to the purpose, cranks," as they have since been called by the and consequently the chapters of the book irreverent, strove to realize the higher life and were written out by the author herself, with to set an example to the rest of the world by free use of passages from reports, correspon- practising, on a farm at Harvard, Massachu- dence, newspaper comment, and other scat- setts, the principles of strict vegetarianism, tered “sources.” The result is a volume brotherly love, simplicity and sincerity, and covering every important aspect of the civic other virtues — with next to nothing in the work of women in this country in the past way of material resources whereby to prevent quarter-century, notably in relation to educa- this life of the spirit from becoming as inde tion, public health, recreation, housing, cor- pendent of the body in actual fact as it was rections, the social evil, the assimilation of in ideal and aspiration. But the rigors of a races, and public safety. The fourfold pur- New England winter proved too severe a trial pose of the book is explained by the author of their faith to these apostles of “the New to be: (1) to give something like an adequate ness," in their linen tunics and canvas shoes, notion of the extent and variety of women's and unsustained by more invigorating diet interests and activities in cities and towns, than a fast-diminishing ration of barley; and without attempting a statistical summary or so the high-hearted enterprise of ushering in evaluation; (2) to indicate, in their own the millennium on a regimen of cereals and words, the spirit in which women have ap- water came to a premature end. “Bronson proached some of their most important prob- Alcott's Fruitlands” (Houghton) rehearses (Houghton) rehearses lems; (3) to show to women already at work the pathetic tale of this adventure in spir- and those just becoming interested in civic ituality. Miss Clara Endicott Sears, a matters, the interrelation of each particular dweller upon the hill overlooking the scene of effort with larger social problems; and (4) the undertaking, has compiled, in a spirit to reflect the general tendencies of modern of mingled “pity, awe, and affection," this social work as they appear under the guidance account of the “Consociate Community Consociate Community” of men and women alike. It may be said that, founded by Alcott, with his long-suffering in the main, these praiseworthy objects are wife and his four daughters, and a half-score accomplished. Information concerning the of more or less earnest and ascetic souls from civic activities of women, in smaller towns no different quarters of the globe. Letters and less than in the great cities, is brought to- 1915] 33 THE DIAL gether from widely scattered quarters, sifted, by the hexameters of Virgil when six weeks digested, correlated, and presented in form old, to know one forgets how many languages both unassuming and convincing. And the at five, to have written a play in Esperanto at temptation (which must have been strong) so four, to have kept a carefully written diary to stress the part played by women in civic from the age of two, and to have convinced betterment as to produce an incorrect impres "an old-fashioned Professor at five that she sion has been resisted. "knew all the famous myths handed down by the Grecians, Romans and Vikings, etc., etc. Of considerable interest for the After reading the pages which tell of her Our literature estimated by opportunity it gives of seeing knowledge of Latin, another "old-fashioned a foreigner. ourselves as others see us is the Professor" is tempted to suggest that if this little book on "American Literature" (Double- (Double- little girl really knows Latin it is a pity that day), by Professor Leon Kellner of the Uni she was not called upon to read the proof of versity of Czernowitz, translated by Miss this volume and correct the sad blunders in Julia Franklin. Professor Kellner's estimates Latin words and sentences which have passed of the greater American writers and their unchallenged the eyes of her mother, who works are, on the whole, those with which we taught her the language and wrote the book, are familiar; though it seems strange, for and of Professor O'Shea, the general editor of example, to find no mention of the Harvard the series. The average parent who reads the Commemoration Ode” when three of Low book will scarcely conclude that the kind of ell's lesser odes are praised. The peculiarities education which it describes is either natural of the work are found chiefly in the attention or desirable. And yet Professor O'Shea boldly bestowed on authors who, at home, are consid-challenges comparison of the book with Rous- ered “minor,” but who to the foreign observer seau's “ Émile," claiming for it a style fully as are especially significant. Eugene Field and attractive as that of the French classic, and C. G. Leland are each given as much space as the advantage of being an account of what has Bryant; and the former, who is highly praised, actually been accomplished, rather than an almost as much space as Whittier. Emily exposition of what an educational theorist Judson, H. C. Dodge, and A. W. Bellow are thinks desirable. “ It is not beyond reason,' among the names which appear in Professor he adds, "to expect that the present volume Kellner's book, and are not commonly found will do for the practise of teaching at home in native histories of our literature. For these and in the school what 'Émile' has done for judgments of a distant observer, even those the theory of education.” Prophecy, of course, which seem most erratic, there are conceivable can be met only with counter prophecy; but reasons which the American student would do the style of written books is open to inspection, well to ponder. Statements of fact are mostly and Professor O'Shea will search long for a accurate, but unfortunately the book abounds disinterested and competent critic to agree in crude misprints of proper names which with him in the dictum that the style of this might have been avoided if translator or volume is on a level with that of Rousseau, or proofreader had been even moderately famil- of any other fairly competent master of iar with American literary history. Typical French prose,— an instrument of expression of such blunders are “ Hannah W. Forster which no other modern tongue equals save in (p. 9), “Quabi” (p. 21), “Natty Bumppo” | very rare instances. (p. 33), “Duyckink ” (p. 147), “ Edgar Allen Poe” (p. 159), “The Facts in the Case of M. The noblest of the arts, in the Waldemar” (p. 165)— the last evidently the opinion of the late Governor result of a double transliteration. On page Altgeld, is oratory. A new 47, “Expostulation” and “Massachusetts to printing of his little book on Oratory," Virginia” seem, either through an error or which originally appeared in 1901, now comes through awkwardness of the English sentence, from the press with this year's date on its to be credited to Bryant. title-page. In discussing the principles of public speaking the author falls little short What is “Natural Education”? The development of poetic fervor in praise of the oratorical gift. of an infant If we are to accept the view of Oratory," he declares, “is an individual phenomenon. the mother of Miss Winifred accomplishment, and no vicissitudes of for- kville Stoner, Jr., whose account of her tune can wrest it from the owner. It points daughter's training is published under that the martyr's path to the future; it guides the title by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, in the reaper's hand in the present, and it turns the “ Childhood and Youth Series,” it is a “natu face of ambition toward the delectable hills ral education” for a girl to be lulled to sleep of achievement. One great speech made to An orator on his art. 34 [ June 24 THE DIAL . an intelligent audience in favor of the rights NOTES. of man will compensate for a life of labor, will crown a career with glory and give a joy “ The Hope of the Family” is the title of a that is born of the divinities." Like Demos- novel of the present war by Mr. and Mrs. Egerton Castle, announced by Messrs. Appleton. thenes, Mr. Altgeld makes "action," or deliv- ery, the first, second, and third requisite of Early in September“ Jane Clegg," the first oratory. Admirable, and not exactly to be play by Mr. St. John Ervine to be published in this country, will be issued by Messrs. Holt. expected from an effective public speaker, is his insistence on literary excellence as a prime during the Great War," by Mr. Archibald T. A volume of " Sonnets of the Empire before and essential of good oratory. “Literary excel- Strong, will soon come from the press of Messrs. lence is the robe of immortality without which Macmillan. no speech can live." True, but many an un- A new edition of an early volume by Mr. Have- literary and even illiterate harangue has lock Ellis, "Affirmations," is promised for early wrought powerfully upon its hearers. Not publication. It will contain an important new without autobiographic interest and meaning preface written by the author. is the following concerning the orator of Germany's Violation of the Laws of War," a unselfish purpose: “If he would reach the report prepared under the direction of the French highest estate possible on this earth he must Ministry for Foreign Affairs, is in train for early stand resolutely with his face toward the sun; publication by Messrs. Putnam. and when the cry of oppressed humanity calls A play of old Japan, entitled “The Faithful: for sacrifice he must promptly say, 'Here, A Tragedy in Three Acts," by Mr. John Masefield, Lord, am I.'” The greatest orators have not is announced. The period chosen is that of the seldom been the champions of lost causes, as beginning of the eighteenth century. the writer notes, and “defeat is often the Before the end of the month the fourth volume baptism of immortality.” A lofty idealism of “Glimpses of the Cosmos,” the series including reveals itself on almost every page of this the collected essays of the late Lester F. Ward, remarkable little treatise, and nowhere more will be published by Messrs. Putnam. This vol- ume will contain the contributions the author clearly than in the assertion that “isolation is the price of greatness, and the stars are all made during his prime — from his forty-fourth to his fifty-second year. the friends an orator needs." The book is Mr. Frederic Harrison has collected his scat- issued by “ The Public,” Ellsworth Building, Chicago. tered writings on the relations of Germany and Britain, covering a period of fifty years, in a The short monograph by Dr. C. volume to be published under the title of “The Germany and Snouck Hurgronje, of Leiden German Peril." The book is divided into three the “ Holy War." University, entitled “The Holy sections, the first entitled “ Forecasts, 1864-1914," War: Made in Germany" (Putnam), is in- the second “Realities, 1915," and the third tended to clear up misconceptions as to the “ Hopes, 191—." nature of a jihad or "holy war." Following An anthology entitled “Literary California," the coup d'état by which Germany dragged made up of selections in prose and verse from hesitant Turkey into the war last October writers identified with the Pacific West, is an- came the proclamation of the jihad, by which nounced for early publication by Mr. John J. New- Germany hoped to incite all Moslems to a begin of San Francisco. The compiler is Mrs. Ella Sterling Mighels, author of “The Story of the general attack on Great Britain and France. Files.” Biographical sketches and portraits of That the attack failed to ensue is now a matter the writers represented, bibliographical data, and of common knowledge. Dr. Hurgronje ex a full index will add much to the value of the plains the reasons, and shows how German work. expectations were based on ignorance. AC- A new series of biographies is in prospect, the cording to Islamic doctrine, no wars are per project being the joint venture of Messrs. Henry missible except those against the infidels, and Holt & Co. and Messrs. Constable & Co. of every such war is a jihad. But modern Turkey London. It will be entitled “Makers of the Nine- is mainly made up of Christians, and, con teenth Century," and will be edited by Mr. Basil versely, the majority of Mohammedans are Williams. Each volume is to contain the life of a citizens of other countries. not man or woman who has had an influence on the only is there no political unity in the modern century. The three titles scheduled for publica- tion this fall are, John Delane," by Sir E. T. Moslem world, but even the Caliphate or Cook; “Abraham Lincoln," by Lord Charnwood; central religious authority of the Ottoman Em- and "Herbert Spencer," by Mr. Hugh S. Elliot. pire is no longer recognized. Hence the mis- Biographies of Cecil Rhodes, Victor Hugo, Lord calculations of Germany in trying to revive a Shaftesbury, and General Lee are in preparation. mediæval institution so hopelessly out of place Bulletins of the far-away Philippine Library in the world of to-day. make their rather belated appearance in our office Moreover, 1915] 35 THE DIAL an or- from time to time, giving information chiefly as to recent accessions, with occasional items of wider interest, as, for example, in the October issue, a brief history of the library from the formation of the American Circulating Library Association of Manila, in memory of American soldiers and sail- ors killed or wounded in the Philippines ganization from which the present one had its origin — down through the transfer of the insti- tution to the government in 1901, its incorporation with the Bureau of Education in 1905, its trans- formation by legislative act into its present con- dition (except as to fees) in 1909, and the entire removal of fees last July. In that and the fol- lowing month about two thousand cards were issued, two-thirds of them to Filipinos. In the reading-room the proportion of native readers is between seventy and eighty per cent. Publication of a second series of classics in science and philosophy has been begun by the Open Court Publishing Co. The first series, en- titled “The Religion of Science Library," was begun just after the World's Columbian Exposi- tion held in Chicago in 1893. Its purpose was to put the study of religion on a scientific basis, and was the direct outcome of the founding of the Open Court Publishing Company by the late Edward C. Hegeler of La Salle, Ill. He was very much interested in the Religious Parliament idea, the first meeting of which was called the World's Congress of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893. This series deals largely with the philosophy of religion. It now numbers seventy volumes. The second series will consist of reprints of classics marking the historical development of science and philosophy. The first volume of the series is still in preparation; but the second volume, made up of “ Selections from the Scottish Philosophy of Commonsense," has just appeared. In thus mak- ing available in convenient and inexpensive form the classics of philosophic thought, the publishers are rendering a service that should be widely appreciated. The Lonely Way, Intermezzo, Countess Mizzie: Three Plays. By Arthur Schnitzler; translated from the German, with Introduction, by Edwin Björkman. Modern Drama Series.” 12mo, 323 pages. Mitchell Kennerley: $1.50 net. Processionals. By John Curtis Underwood. 12mo, 273 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. The Judge: A Play in Four Acts. By Louis James Block. "American Dramatists Series." 12mo, 119 pages. The Gorham Press. $1. net. FICTION The Miracle of Love. By Cosmo Hamilton. 12mo, 325 pages. George H. Doran Co. $1.25 net. Pieces of the Game: A Modern Instance. By the Countess de Chambrun. With frontispiece, 12mo, 259 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.35 net. Five Fridays. By Frank R. Adams. Illustrated, 12mo, 339 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. $1.25 net. Accidentals. By Helen Mackay. 12mo, 320 pages. Duffield & Co. $1.25 net. The Auction Mart. By Sydney Tremayne. 12mo, 341 pages. John Lane Čo. $1.25 net. The Enemy. By George Randolph Chester and Lillian Chester. Illustrated, 12mo, 362 pages. Hearst's International Library Co. $1.35 net. Come Out to play. By M. E. F. Irwin. 12mo, 304 pages. George H. Þoran Co. $1.25 net. PUBLIC AFFAIRS.-SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS. America and Her Problems. By Paul H. B. D'Estournelles de Constant. With portrait, 12mo, 545 pages. Macmillan Co. $2. net. The Japanese Problem in the United States. By H. A. Millis. Illustrated, 12mo, 334 pages. Mac- millan Co. $1.50 net. Street-Land: Its Little People and Big Problems. By Philip Davis. Illustrated, 12mo, 291 pages. Small, Maynard & Co. $1.35 net. Population: A Study in Malthusianism. By Warren S. Thompson, Ph.D. 8vo, 216 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper, $1.75 net. The Orthocratic State: The Unchanging Principles of Civics and Government. By John Sherwin Crosby. With portrait, 12mo, 168 pages. Sturgis & Walton Co. $1. net. Nationalization of Railways in Japan. By Toshiharu Watarai, Ph.D. 8vo, 156 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. Paper, $1.25 net. THE GREAT WAR — ITS HISTORY, PROBLEMS, AND CONSEQUENCES. The World in the Crucible: An Account of the Origins and Conduct of the Great War. By Sir Gilbert Parker. With portrait, 12mo, 422 pages. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. The Great War: The Second Phase. By Frank H. Simonds. With maps, 12mo, 284 pages. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25 net. The Note-book of an Attaché: Seven Months in the War Zone. By Eric Fisher Wood. Illustrated, 12mo, 345 pages. Century Co. $1.60 net. Cartoons on the War. By Boardman Robinson. Illustrated, large 8vo, 75 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. Field Hospital and Flying Column: Being the Jour- nal of an English Nursing Sister in Belgium and Russia. By Violetta Thurstan. 12mo, 184 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1. net. Eye-Witness's Narrative of the War: From the Marne to Neuve Chapelle, September, 1914- March, 1915. 12mo, 303 pages. Longmans, Green & Co. 75 cts. net. DECORATIVE ART. The “ Studio " Year Book of Decorative Art, 1915. Illustrated in color, etc., 4to, 239 pages. John Lane Co. Paper, $2.50 net. Inside the House of Good Taste. Edited by Rich- ardson Wright. Illustrated, large 8vo, 155 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. $1.50 net. Making Walls and Ceilings. By H. D. Eberlein. Illustrated, 16mo, 59 pages. McBride, Nast & Co. 50 cts. net. PHILOSOPHY. Goethe: With Special Consideration of His Philos- ophy. By Paul Carus. Illustrated, large 8vo, 357 pages. Open Court Publishing Co. $3. net. Ventures in Thought. By Francis Coutts. 12mo, 248 pages. John Lane Co. $1.25 net. German Philosophy and Politics. By John Dewey. 12mo, 134 pages. Henry Holt & Co. $1.25 net. Selections from the Scottish Philosophy of Common Sense. Edited, with Introduction, by G. A. Johnston, M.A. Open Court Series of Classics of Science and Philosophy.". 12mo, 267 pages. Open Court Publishing Co. $1.25 net. LIST OF NEW BOOKS. [ The following list, containing 59 titles, includes books received by THE DIAL since its last issue.] HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. Writings of John Quincy Adams. Edited by Worth- ington Chauncey Ford. Volume V., 1801-1810. 8vo, 555 pages. Macmillan Co. $3.50 net. A History of England and the British Empire. By Arthur D. Innes. Volume IV., 1802-1914. With maps, 12mo, 604 pages. Macmillan Co. $1.60 net. The History of England from the Accession of James the Second. By Lord Macaulay; edited by Charles Harding Firth, M.A. Volume VI., illustrated in color, large 8vo. Macmillan Co. $3.25 net. The Evolution of a Teacher: An Autobiography. By Ella Gilbert Ives. With portrait, 12mo, 188 pages. The Pilgrim Press. $1. net. My March to Timbuetoo. By General Joffre; with Biographical Introduction by Ernest Dimnet. 12mo, 169 pages. Duffield & Co. 75 cts. net. DRAMA AND VERSE. Paradise Found; or, The Superman Found Out. By Allen Upward. 12mo, 99 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. A Bit o' Love: A Play in Three Acts. By John Galsworthy. 12mo, 84 pages. Charles Scribner's Sons. 60 cts. net. 60 36 [June 24 THE DIAL I Eye-Witness's I 8vo, Narrative of the War From the Marne September, 1914, to Neuve Chapelle to March, 1915 Crown 8vo. 312 pp. $0.75 net This volume contains all the descriptive accounts by “An Eye-Witness Present with General Headquarters," issued by the British Press Bureau up to the end of March, 1915. The narra- tive as a whole is not only an illuminating commentary on the operations and achievements of the British Expeditionary Force, but may be said to constitute "& very valuable contribution to the history of the war, and as such is worthy of a permanent place on the library shelves. Longmans, Green, & Co. Fourth Ave. and 30th St., New York I I BOOKS OF REFERENCE. The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. By L. H. Bailey. Volumes II. and III.; each illustrated in color, etc., 4to. Macmillan Co. Per volume, $6. net. Instruction in the Use of Books and Libraries: A Textbook for Normal Schools and Colleges. By Lucy E. Fay, M.A., and Anne T. Eaton, B.A. 449 pages. Boston Book Co. $2.25 net. An Italian Dictionary. By Alfred Hoare, M.A. 4to, 798 pages. G. P. Putnam's Sons. $12. net. List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with Index to Authors and Titles. Large 8vo, 39 pages. Washington: Government Printing Office. Paper. A Dictionary of the Choctaw Language. By Cyrus Byington; edited by John R. Swanton and Henry S. Halbert. With portrait, large 8vo, 611 pages. Washington: Government Printing Office. MISCELLANEOUS. To-morrow's Topics. By Robert T. Morris, M.D. In 3 volumes, with frontispieces, 8vo. Double- day, Page & Co. Per volume, $2. net. My Shrubs. By Eden Phillpotts. Illustrated, 4to, 132 pages. John Lane Co. $3. net. The Red Laugh: Fragments of a Discovered Manu- script. By Leonidas Andreief; translated from the Russian by Alexandra Linden. 12mo, 192 pages. Duffield & Co. $1. net. Naval Occasions, and Some Traits of the Sailor- man. By "Bartimeus." 12mo, 295 pages. Hough- ton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. Beliefs and Superstitions of the Pennsylvania Ger- By Edwin Miller Fogel, Ph.D. Large 8vo, 387 pages, Philadelphia: American Germanica Press. LONs of Hair. By Franz Nagelschmidt; translated from the German by Richard W. Müller, M.D. Illustrated, 12mo, 171 pages. William R. Jenkins Co. $1.50 net. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Pamphlets 4-20. Washington: Published by the Endowment. Paper. Thoughts on Business. By Waldo Pondray Warren. New edition; 12mo, 260 pages. Forbes & Co. $1. net. The Care of the Teeth. By Charles A. Brackett, D.M.D. 16mo, 63 pages. Harvard University Press. The Business of Trading in Stocks. By "B." 16mo, 188 pages. New York: Magazine of Wall Street. $2. net. The University of Hard Knocks. _By Ralph Parlette. 12mo, 135 pages. Chicago: Parlette-Padget Co. $1. net. The Untroubled Mind. By Herbert J. Hall, M.D. 16mo, 96 pages. Houghton Mifflin Co. 75 cts. net. English Diction. By Clara Kathleen Rogers. Part I., The Voice in Speech. 8vo, 123 pages. Boston: Published by the author. $1.25 net. Home University Library. New volumes: A His- tory of Philosophy, by Clement C. J. Webb; Milton, by John Bailey; Political Thought in England, by Ernest Barker; Belgium, by Ř. C. K. Ensor. Each 16mo. Henry Holt & Co. Per vol- ume, 50 cts. net. A New Book of Patience Games. By Ernest Berg- holt. Illustrated, 12mo, 120 pages. E. P. Dutton & Co. 50 cts. net. mans. CATALOGUE of New Exhibition of Por- traitures of James McNeill Whistler. ARRANGED in chronological order. SIX of the illustrations not before repro- duced. Sixteen items listed for the first time. Notes of a bibliographical nature appended. NINETY copies only for sale, printed on Japanese paper, numbered and signed, at Four Dollars each. GEORGE P. HUMPHREY Rochester, N. Y. For Twenty-Five Cents You can buy a whole half-year of a first-class magazine. The Book News Monthly The Baedeker of Bookdom Containing the Completed Story THE TAMING of ZENAS HENRY THE POET IN THE DESERT By CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD A series of poems with the atmosphere of “The Great Amer- ican Desert." The thought is pantheistic and revolutionary. For sale: In New York - The Masses Bookstore, 87 Greenwich Street; Mother Earth, 20 East 125th Street; and Brentanos. Chicago-Walter Hill, Marshall Field Building. San Fran- cisco-The White House, and Newbegins. Price, $1.00. One of the most choicely entertaining books of the year, a novel that retails for $1.25 a copy. Send thirty cents and we will include with your six numbers the issue for June, in which will appear the first account of the Southern California Exposition, with a selection of rarely beautiful photo- graphs, picturing San Diego at its best. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Books from His Library, FIRST EDITIONS of His Works, MANUSCRIPTS, Autographs, Relics, and other STEVENSONIANA. CATALOGUE in Preparation-Sent on Request. C. GERHARDT & CO., 120 East 59th St., New York ADDRESS THE BOOK NEWS MONTHLY PHILADELPHIA, PA. 2156 - = 118 ID:000020201418 051054 v.58 Jan. - June 1915 The Dial Browne, Francis F. (F route to: CATO-PARK in transit to: UP-ANNEX Idg. 8/7/2005,8:13 - L A000020201418 407