Life — January 19, 1905 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

80 THE LATEST bn 'WO collections of letters, the nat s) es of whose writers carry with them at least a presumption of importance, have lately been given to the public Thackeray's Letters to an American Family and John Ruskin's Letters to Charles Eliot Norton, Of t Ruskin correspondence is of infinitely greater moment. At best, the novelist and his w ese, the rk are independent the one of the other, and our interest in Thackeray, the man, is but a c iendly riosity aroused by the achievements of his genius, an interest which these bright and charmingly dash-away letters nce whet and I clp to sa and John k work, on the other hand, are singular able. From Ih Painters to Practerita, his labor was increas- inse Y ingly one of self-revelation, a passion- ate ¢ sunding of his own emotions, Hence these letters, written to his most intin mate friend, and covering a period of thirt two years, have a peculiar value, critical as well as explanatory The intimate converse with a mind at once so are sad reading, for sensitive and so ungoverned can be c than tinged with sadness, but they aid our understandi of Ruskin's writings by just so much as they reveal the writer. The favorite recreations of the anonymous author of Tie Martyrdom of an Empressseem to be the cultivation of royalty and flowers of speech. Year by year she grows more ambitious and more exuberant, until her latest vo Germ; Rex, iss ne, 1 biography of the present Emperor, called /mperator et ich a veritable jungle of bloom as to be practically impenetrable without a machette. Robert Herrick’s novel, The Common Lot, is another of his realistic studies nich deals, through the checkered and unfortunate career of a young Ch chitect, with the frank get-there-at-any-price material- ism of the day. There is a vein of seriousness in Mr. Herrick’s fiction, which is at once the basis of its very lively interest and the apparent source of the dry and too matter-of-fact direct- ness which is its chief drawback. LIFE The Tomboy at Work is a sequel to Jeannette L, Gilder’s reminiscent sketches in The Autobiography of a Tomboy, but is more specifically a book for yirls than the earlier volume, It deals with the author's experiences in Newt Jersey in the days when tomboys had a harder time getting an independ ent footing in the world than they have to-day In spite of the fact that the dialect dustry ha : s enjoyed no protective legislation, the local output is in- creasing, and this year exceeds the combined importations from Scotland and Devonshire, Ella Middleton Ty- bout’s Poketown People contains number typical stories of rural dar- keydom, some of which are decidedly amusing, but all of which demand enuine liking for this form of Albert Morris Bagby’s another e Manmy Roste, ample, is the story of a young man of fashion in New Yor! who, having employed a cook, finds himself possessed of a chaperon, philosopher and general manager. Rosie is a realistic figure, a befo" de wah house servant fallen upon evil d. in Seventh Avenue, and in her old age returned to power and her birthright. About half the book, and the better half, is in diale J.B. Kerfoot. sig : Fata taetes Bag Norton Seo) , Tinpe t Rex, By the author of The Martyrdom ¢ mpress, (Marper and Brothers. ‘ommon Lot. By Robert Herrick. (The lan Company $t.s0.) Tomboy at Work. By Jeannette Page and Compaay. $1.25.) etown' People. By Ela Middleton Tybout, the ye Lippincott’ Company, Philadelphia Ses (A.M Bagby . Gilder, By Albert’ Morris Bagby. SNAP SHOTS IN HADES PESTERING DEMONS, IS A LIFE INSURANCE SOLICITOR. caphone Orator : THAT FELLOW YOU SEK DOWN THERE, TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM THE PACK OF comicbooks.com