Life — April 26, 1894 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

- LIFE: SURPASSING MODESTY. HOW A LITTLE BOY WENT TO THE BAKER’S FOR HIS MOTHER. “TTELL me not in mournful accents ‘That sweet modesty’s no more, That the maidens of the present Are not like the maids of yore. "Tis slander, false and cruel Ne'er could maid more modest be Than a damsel that I lately Ata dinner chanced to see. ** Which part of this chicken,” quoth I, “Will your hunger best appease ?” And she hung her head and answered : ‘Twill take—an ankle, please.” J. P. Lyons. FAIR WEATHER VIEW OF “KATHARINE LAUDERDALE.” HE easiest thing to say about an author who writes a great deal is that his latest book is not the equal of certain of his previous works; the particular one which a reader or critic selects for this com- parison is always the book which happens to have left the most vivid impression on his mind. Now a vivid impression depends on so many things—on health for instance, on the pleasant surroundings, on the hour of the day, or the weather. That is why such comparisons are usually worthless. What does your Ny opinion that “Mr, Isaacs” is a far \\ better novel than “Katharine Lauderdale” amount to, when your friends know that in the ten years between the two you have not only grown older, but have lost your dearly beloved. wife, or failed in your political ambition, or developed a persistent gout in your left foot ? Neither is it of any more significance for Lir < = critic to say that for him “ Katharine YM ANA a far better novel than “Mr. Isaacs" or any other novel Mr. Crawford ever wrote— pt perhaps “ Saracinesca” and “The Tale of a Lonely Parish "--just because, the sun is shining when he writes after a week of snow and rain, and the birds are chirping in the square, and a bit of blue sky shows tremulously over the cornice across the street. The only safe thing, it seems, in judging of books, is to know why you like or dislike them, and leave comparisons alone. * . . OU do or will like * Katharine Lauderdale” no doubt because it is so thoroughly a modern story—and yet conscious of a dignified past, which is an inseparable part of comicbooks.com