Life — April 3, 1902 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

A War of Words. T is a peace-loving age in which we live. Dueling is out of date, prize- fights are frowned upon, street-riots have lost their popularity, and even football is held by some torpid souls to savour unduly of the battle- field. No weapon ie left to the belligerent save the pen, and it is wielded with an asperity which forces upon us the conviction that people hate each other as cordially now as they did in less gentle days. There is something painfully inglorious in this shedding of ink. Not even the visible en- Jjoyment of the combatants can ennoble the “ desperate and glee- ful Sighting” which never brings victory or defeat. When Mr. Lang wrote a critical study of Tennyson, he manifested, apro- pos of “The Princess,” a lack of enthusiasm for “advanced” women, a distaste—not hard te understand—for the phrase “Woman Question,” which is in itself unlovely, and which he averred has pro- duced “many disputants, inevitably shrill.” The harmlessness—one might al- most say the tepidity—of these re- marks did not prevent them from firing the soul of a New England lady who conceived that her sex had been slighted. She, girding on her armor, has rushed into print, and showered reproaches upon Mr. Lang, whon she describes picturesquely as “ rearing, screaming, and frothing,” in his mad hatred of “educated women.” Mr. Lang, delighted at the charge, finds it worth while to deny it; to explain that, so far from rearing, screaming, and frothing (accomplishments RECENT FICTION, WILD ANIMALS THAT HAVE KNOWN ME. DEPRECATORY. Blanager: 1 CAN'T PAY BALARIES THIA WEEK. Actor; wot 1 wvst Live! Ol, Now, DON’T GET FULL-HEADED!”* for which he sighs in vain), his words were “bland and respectful ;” and that, so far from objecting to educated women, he would like the New England lady to be better educated than she is,—to know, forexample, that the person whom she calls Neitzsche “preferred to spell his name other- wise.” It is all very amusing. Mr. Lang is plainly enjoying himself. ‘The New England lady is perhaps—though this is doubtful— enjoying herself. The public is enjoying them both. But the true gods sigh for the wasted words, for the strife that can bring no noble ending. Foun Resi \gnes. Repplier. Obstacles. “ ‘OW, my dear, marry him. He is old, it is true, but he has money.” “ Bat, mamma, the man may live for months !”* Personal Notes. N XT year Sarah Bernhardt will begin another series of farewell visits to this country. ‘Andrew Lang recently took a well-carned vacation and spent several hours not writing anything. comicbooks.com