Life — June 6, 1901 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

& G Wy My, iy We THISTREVEREND GENTLEMAN HAS SOLVED THE PROBLEM. leaves the reader unenlightened but hoping for the worst. (Little, Brown and Company. $1. War's Brighter Side, by Julian Ralph, is a volume of selections from the pages of 7T’he Friend newspaper, pub- lished for one month during the occupation of Bloomfontein by Lord Roberts's army. Mr. Ralph was one of the editors, and Kipling, Doyle and many others were among the contribu- tors. Mr. Ralph's history of the enterprise is very entertaining. (D. Appleton and Company. $1.50.) It would be hard to find a more puerile and vapid story than John P. Ritter tells under the name of 7'he Cross Roads of Destiny, It is supposed to be a Venetian romance of the Fifteenth Century,and might catch the fancy of a backward schoolboy in his fifteenth year, (G. W. Dillingham Company. $1.25.) Melville D. Post's Duellere in the Hills is a fine little book. The story of a cattle deal in the hills of West Virginia is exciting, the characters well drawn, and the mountain mixture of philosoph nd tradition amusing and refreshing. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.) G. Bernard Shaw, critic, playwright and crank, has published a volume called Three Plays for Puritans, Mr. Shaw's plays, considered as reading matter, are but mildly interesting, but the three prefaces which the book contains are most diverting. Mr. Shaw turns himself loose in them, and not only confounds his critics but exposes the folly of his friends. (Herbert S. Stone and Company. $1.50.) Without a Warrant is an unlikely but absorbing piece of fiction by Hildegard Brooks. It gives the history of a kid- napping in the Georgia pines, and is warranted to shorten a journey or kill an afternoon, (Charles Scribner's Sons. 31.50.) Dr. John H. Girdner, a New York physician, rails at the short-comings of his fellow-townsmen in a counterfeit medical treatise which he calls Ner- yorkitis, According to him, this is a new disease, easily diagnosticated. The doctor's satire is a little bit heavy- handed at times, but there's no denying that he states some very hard truths. (The Grafton Press.) J.B. Kerfoot. 479 The Toilers. A Literary Extrava- ganza. (As the curtain rises, the slaeteseen to be filed with a vast throng of novel dete, hack writera, journallsts, ports, paragraphers and hangerson. Alt ‘advance to the front.) Guanp O} xa Cuorvs, We're a hardy band of workers, and we toil all day and night To supply the multitude with things to read. When it comes to filling space up, we are all of us “all right"— can write to order just the things you need : For we revel in the things you like to read. We spread the language thick or thin, to suit the public eye, And as for plots, we always have a store. We're up on what's been written, and to think we do not try— We simply revamp all the thoughts of Yes, we put new clothes on all the thoughts of yore. We work for cash or royalties, just as the case may be; The public dear regards us as ‘‘ hot stuff.” We're talked about and hawked about, and you will all agree We're up on every literary bluff: Our trade itself is nothing but a bluff. Ma! Hal Hal Hal We're a cluster of rare luminosity ! “Words, Words” is our motto, or bust. Ha! Hat We're all of us out for the dust. And we thrive upon For we are the writers who write, Emotions we love to incite. Hat! Hat “ads” and pom- posity! (The chorus marches -nid countermarches form: ing the dollar sign amid universal applause and Anally parte in the centre. A herald approaches, tearing a combination flagstof,, with the Engitsh and American flags waving together, and after Aim, clad in a costume of pure white, steps Henry James) Soxo or Mysetr. Henry James. I'm a solemn sight In my robe of white, Which all of you must endure— ‘Though you secretly sigh And wonder why— \ Because I'm a stylist pure. comicbooks.com