Life — June 19, 1902 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

WV E take up Conan Doyle's new Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, with the pleasantest recollec- tions of the celebrated detective, and lay it down with the shock of disenchantment. Sherlock Holmes's attraction lay in the novelty of the conception. His very affectations and absurdities added to the charm. But alas! to meet him again, now the novelty is gone, merely deprives us of a pleasant memory. (McClure, Phillips and Company. $1.50.) Another old friend reappears in Edward W. Townsend's Chimmie Fadden and Mr, Paul. Here the surprise is the other way. One is half prepared to find this second series of tales too much of a good thing, but there is so much real wit and genial satire beneath Chim- mie's slang that the reader's enjoyment is undiminished. (The Century Company. $1.50.) As often happens in similar cases, W. W. Jacobs's novel, At Sunvich Port, is hardly equal to his previous short story work. His characters are typical and his situations are amusing, but the story is patchy and a bit weak at the joints, Admirers of Mr. Jacobs, however, will find that it repays reading. (Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $1.50.) Ellen Glasgow's novel, The Battleground, is one of the best of the many pieces of fiction dealing with Civil War times and ante bel- lum days in Virginia. Her characters are very real, and her liter- ary style is excellent, The fact that many others have written upon the same lines in the past few years is the only drawback to an interesting story. (Doubleday, Page and Company. $1.50.) ‘The tragedy of a New England girl who marries a city youth of weak character and dissolute habits is told by Emma Louise Oreutt in Esther Mather. The author has evidently written sincerely and with some ability, but the book is hardly worth read- ing. (The Grafton Press.) The Meditations of an Autograph Collector, by Adrian H. Joline, is a delightful medley of gossip, reminiscence and commentary upon liter- ary, legal, political and other celebrities, fads in general, and autograph collecting in particular. ‘The book is instinct with the personality and wit of its brilliant author. (Harper and Brothers. $3.00.) Aright good story of mining life in the Cali fornia hills is buried in the text of Frank Lewis Nason's To the End of the Trail, When the author sticks to his story it is good reading, but his tendency to moralize and his commentarieson his own characters make his book assay less to the ton than might be. (Houghton, Mifflin and Company. $1.50.) J.B, Kerfoot. Unanimous. RIGGS: What was it that first prompted you to make love to Miss Goldstacks ? Gric I wanted to prove to my own satisfaction that I could really love her in spite of her great wealth. JENGEAND, the vanquished conqueror, triumphantly emerges from the Boer war, having been beaten in every battle, with the reputations of her leading generals looking like thirty cents—and the national debt looking like three hundred million pounds. She has ‘‘ muddled through’’ somehow. Kitchener can come back and be redecorated. School histories can be amplified by another chapter of the glory of the St.George’ Cross in South Africa. This ought to give an added quip to the Coronation. A GIRL goes up the aisle to be married. ~* be buried. A man to Ideal. \ RS. VAN ANTLER: She is a fine nurse, isn’t sbe? iv4 Mrs. Giutpace: Splendid. Why,I never have to see the baby from one week's end to the other. Live's PRESU-AIn FaRx, comicbooks.com