Life — July 7, 1904 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

N The Silent Places, the narrative of an un- considered incident in the long annals of the Hudson's Bay Company, Stewart Edward White has told a thrilling story and has achieved a noble word-picture. No record of Arctic daring, no romance of trapper or ex- plorer which we recall has so broadly grasped and so worthily set forth the spirit of the North, silent, patient, impersonal, the earthly type of the unhastening, all-conquering cold of outer voids, which is the ultimate an- tithesis of God Himself. In the person of the hero of his new novel, The Light of the Star, Mr, Hamlin Garland has deserted the plains aud invaded the metropolis. This hero is a playwright who succeeds in revolutionizing the American stage, and a reformer in this line is so badly needed that one dislikes to discourage one even in fiction, but Mr. Garland has turned his back on the mirages of the desert, only to conjure up a less convincing mirage on the Rialto, The Light of the Star isa light that never was on sea or land. It is something of a surprise to meet W. A. Fraser, the creator of Mooswa and familiar of the Canadian wilds, in the betting ring at Saratoga! Nevertheless, Mr. Fraser is evi- dently as much at bome in the Grand Stand as he is in the wilderness, and his racing stories, published under the title of Brave Hearts, are exciting, as racing stories should be, and carry one to many tracks in many lands. The enthusiastic pursuers of “old time” matters, from pedigrees to warming-pans, will enjoy Clifton Johnson's volume upon Old Time Schools and Schoot Books, which is very profusely and very well illustrated, and is full of queer extracts from old text-books and queer customs from old days. Good contributions to the universal library of American types continue to come in. Fannie Hardy Eckstorm's The Senobscot Man is one of the new ones, and its stories of the lumbermen of the West Branch drive form a bit of Maine history and are told with a de- lightful blending of realism and imagination. Another contribution is W. R. Lighton’s Uncle Mac's Nebravty, This is a volume of stories told the author by an old prairie-land pioncer, whose actual existence is vouched for by Mr. Lighton. ‘The stories are typical and amusing and deserve their little niche in the gallery of the local colorists. The consumers of desiccated statistics, the breakfast food of political economy, can per- haps make a meal out of Wolf von Schier- -LIFE- brand's Russia; Her Strength and Her Weakness, The ordinary mortal, who, after all, only eats breakfast food when served with cream, and who shies at Olendorf English, will find the learned German's volume the first home thrust of the Russo-Japanese War. F. B. Kerfoot, The Silent Places, By Stewart Edward White. (McClure, Phillips and Company. $1.50.) The Light of the Star. By Hamlin Garland, (Harper and Brothers, $1.50.) Brave Hearts, By W. A. Fraser. Scribner's Sons. $1.50.) Old Time Schools and School Books. By Clif. ton Johnson. (The Macmillan Company. $2.00.) The Penobscot Man, By Fannie Hardy Eck- storm, (Houghton, Mifflin and Company. $1.25.) Uncle Mac's Nebrasky, By W. R. Lighton. (Henry Holt and Company. $1.25.) Rus: Her Strength and Her Weakness, By Wolf von Schierbrand. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, $1.60.) : (Charles Some Up-to-Date Letters. 'y Dear Grandfather: You are now approaching a time of life when it behooves you to look around and try to dis- cover what you are here for, Has your life init that purpose which justifies your being atall? Hitherto it has been lived in vain, Without the advantages of educational system, you have drifted along until your ignorance has become chronic. And yet, though much has been wasted, it is not yet too late. I enclose herewith a catalogue and scheme of the new college which I have just been graduated from, and which boasts an endowment fund of eighteen millions, In three years’ time I have become master of two hundred and eighteen studies, and I can play football in eleven languages. Will you not take the hint ? Your Affectionate Grandson, cur modern My Own Dearest Love: \ submit herewith a list of my annual expenditures, with the esti- mated rate of increase for five years to come, based on the reports of the heads of all the financial departments. Asa manof business, you will thus see what you are undertaking. I love you, of course, to distraction, but I must have a decent establishment, and I do not think it isunreasonable to figure on fifteen thousand dollars a year to start with, Can you suggest any way in which your present salary of eighteen hundred dollars can be increased ? If not, I fear we shall have to wait until our future happiness is insured. Your Heart's Darling. Dear Bridget : Can we not persuade you to come back to us? I will arrange to have fresh flowers in your room every day, and my music instructor will give you lessons once a week, You will have two kitchen helpers, and by our modern system of cook-books and card indexes, all you will have to do will be to sit in a plush-covered Morris chair, and dictate orders through a private secretary. Yours, S. Householder, Dear Sirs: Send me at once a fresh lot of sterilized novels, The last lot you sent hadn't been in the house a week before we had measles and neurosis, Yours, Booker, Dear Doctor : Can you take out my ap- pendix to-morrow, at one? Let me know definitely how many minutes it will take, as Thave an important deal on hand, and can't take up too much time, Yours truly, Dingus McMerger. Case. WH the ambulance surgeon had trephined the man’s skull, he saw, with the merest glance at the brain fibre, that he was drunk. Moreover, on closer inspection, he discovered that the skull had been trephined seventeen times previously, showing that drunkenness was habit- ual with the fellow. “This is a case for the police, not for us," said the surgeon, brusquely. (Dictated.) OLLEGE GIRL: Oh, how my watch annoys me, ticking under my pillow. Her Cuum: of those silent midnight watches? Why don't you get one 3 HAT’S the difference between a plain and a_ gentleman farmer?” “Oh, about ten thousand a year." WELL FIXED. “1 SUPPOSE YOUR HUSBAND PROVIDED FoR You BEFORE ME DIED?"* “COM, YES, ME MAD ALL MIS NINE Lives IN- surep,"?