Life — October 20, 1904 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

T was not to be expected that Alfred Henry Lewis, after the success of his political biography, Ze Boss, should abandon so ex- cellent a literary graft, and his new book, Zhe President, is a political novel on similar lines. It shows us Washington through the eyes of a complacent cynic; its love story is worthy of Quida in her palmy day Lewis's own patent—a cross between Edmund Spencer and Thomas Carlyle, The most 1 markable feature of the buok is that anything so bad should be so readable. its style is Mr. Sabrina Warham is a novel for the leisurely and the serious-minded. of an isolated portion of the English coast, slow of movement, lighted by no gleam of humor or touch of comedy, never vivid, yet convincingly lifelike, Its author, Laurence Housman, man of feeling rather than artist, has set out the lives of his characters and the atmosphere of the environment from which they sprang, with a genuine, a loving and a somewhat plodding excellence, It is a sombre tale If Sabrina Warham appeals to the leisurely, her Miller's Rosade/ can appeal only tothe idle. Rosabel isthe offspring of a mésalliarce, abandoned in infancy by her mother and raised a barmaid, Later on she is introduced into what, in such stories, passes for London society, and succeeds in preventing the hero from marrying her mama. By an oversight the book has been bound in red cloth instead of yellow paper. The Diary of a Musician, which Dolores M. Bacon modestly claims to have ‘edited,” is an amusing skit on the “artistic tempera- ment.” Indeed, it is more than this, for it is frequently an effective interpretation, and while we laugh at the hero's unconventional incunsequences, we nod acquiescence over the underlying touches of nature. It must be re- membered, however, that the diaries of Hun- garian musicians are not pabulum for prudes, With qloubtless the best intention in the world, Mr, Stephen Jackson has done us small service in selecting the Arthurian legends as a subject upon which to practice realism, His Magic Mautte is both coarse and clumsy,-and an hour with him at Arthur's court will leave a taste in the mouth that only a little Tenny- son ora bit of Mallory can remove. Rolo Ogden's life of William Hickling Prescott, the historian, written for the Ameri- can Men of Letters series, isan intimate and effective piece of biographical writing of the less formal order. Of technical analysis and literary criticism the volume is innocent, but Prescott’s character was lovable and his life -LIFE- inspiring, and Mr. Ogden has set both before us with unaffected sym- pathy. Jess and Co, isa new booklet by Mr. J. J. Bell, of Glasgow, dialec- tician and discoverer of “Wee Mac- greegor.” Jess, who speaks English and whose presence north of the Tweed is not explained, has married a carpenter who neither speaks English nor carpents, and Jess and Co. is the history of a reform administra- tion, J. B. Kerfoot. The President. By Alfred Heary Lewis. (A. S. Barnes and Company. $1.50.) Sabrina Warkam. By Laurence Housman. (The Macmillan Company. $1.50.) Kosabel. By Esther Miller. (The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.) The Diary of a Musician, Edited by Dolores Matbourg Bacon. (Henry Holt and Company. $1.50.) The Magic Mantle and Other Stories. By Stephen Jackson. (M. S.Greene and Company, $2.50.) William Hickling Prescott. By Rolo Ogden. (Houghton, Miflin and Com- pany. $1.10.) Jessand Co, By J. J. Bell. (Harper and Brothers, $1.25.) - EAR EDITOR: Permit me to express to you my appreciation and thanks for article, “Lire and the American Girl,” by “Cosmopolitan Reader,” in No. 1144. Every sentence is a hit. [ think you can do lots of good by following it up. Yours faithfully, SAN FRANCISCO, Oct... E. A. Denicke. Dear Lire: It strikes me that the ‘*Cos- mopolitan Reader” must have gotten ‘the worst of it” in something more than a *joke” played upon him by a “silly woman," to write such an article upon American women, Persovally, I think Lire will stir up some discontent where none existed, unless the sub- ject be treated hamorously, when the question is asked, “Are Three American Women Out of Five Disappointed in Their Husbands ?” But don't, Mr, Cosmopolitan, belittle American woman just because that question is asked. Men are food of their clubs the world over, and isn’t it rather contradictory to say they spoil their women and go to their clubs? When do they have time to do the spoiling And above all things, don't suggest that too much deference is shown women, That is impossible. It raises man to respect woman, and it elevates woman to know she is respected. The French may have their ‘love ” It is too often disastrous. ** Worship” is better—it KATY-DID TIME, presupposes respect, and I understand that is an unknown quantity in France, except upon the surface. Intellectually, woman /s the equal of man, but unfortunately she has not alwaysthe stick- at-it-ness and balance to make her brains show, It is this very uncertainty that makes her so charming. Far be it from me to imply that the Amer- ican woman is perfect. We all know she has her faults, but is anything perfect in this world ? The writer has spent so much time becom- ing ** Cosmopolitan,” that he has not studied our women sufficiently to know that they do not “take seriously” all the jokes about poor misjudged man, Let me assure him this is true, incerely, PUILADELPHIA, Oct., 1904. FR. AMEN! Amen! to “Cosmopolitan Read- er” on page 302. Lire, “do let us have fewer poems on girls.” If you will, I will promise to sub- scribe again, but this year we fave had hugs and kisses and girls enough to make a sur. plus even for a college paper. Yours truly, New York, Oct. 5. Unlimited. as HE automobile millionaire has been convicted several times of manslaughter, but he has bought him- self off and still pursues his way."” “Yes. He has the courage of his convictions."* comicbooks.com