Life — December 28, 1905 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

HE practice of cutting the fair fabric of a writer's work into mental dust-cloths is seldom good economy, until the fabric as a whole is inal purpose, from the outworn and past its and the volume of excerpts writings of Max Miiller, selected by his wife under the title of Life and publica- relative Religion, belongs to a class tions whose value is entirely nd whose moral sanction is open to debate. That the collection abounds in passages of broad-minded humanity and great beauty goes without saying, but so far from their collocation ex- pressing the spirit of the author, man of his sincerest admirers will feel that it “drowns his glory in a shallow cup.” Tt is so very seldom that a tale of high mystery and_headiong excitement makes its entire scheduled run without a breakdown, that those sional whirl pressure of us who enjoy an oc in fast fiction time must make some allowances for the structural weakness of imagination under excessive strain, William Le Quenx's novel of mystery, murder adventure, The Car's Spy, covers the first half of its course with the four-cylinder hum, and, although soon after the turn for home the valves begin to leak and last few miles on one and unmistakable it makes the cylinder, it is a captious reader who will not own up to a good ride. This book, by the way, is the first of an an- nounced series of “Red Novels,” to be issued monthly at 50 cents. It is well bound, printed in good type on cheap but satisfactory paper,and would read- ily pass as the six-shilling novel of commerce. With the publication of My Lady's Slipper Dr. Cyrus Townsend Brady breaks a long silence which only the insistent clatter of the presses has pre- vented from being eloquent. We knew, so to say, that something had stopped, but we did not realize what it was. Now we know that it was Dr, Brady. My Lady’s Slipper is an unhistorical romance, in which Louis XVI., Marie and Antoinette, Benjamin Franklin Commodore Paul Jones unite to give two hasty young people an opportunity of leisurely repentance. It is a pretty trifle, but, as some one has said, mighty weak diet for a grown man It is a long time since W. W. Jacobs has seemed so thoroughly and spon- usly his old self as in his new col- tane lection of stories, Captains All, Most of these stories are about sailors ashore, and most of the sailors are of that particular variety of good hearted chuckle-headedness which Mr, Jacobs delights in and which his Anglo-Stock- tonian humor has lime-lighted for our enjoyment. There are many readers who will be grateful for having had brought to their attention Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick’s novel, The Professor's Legacy, a story in which the fictional sentiment of the s is combined with the simpler real- ism and the more humorous insight of a later school. The plot is a variation of that old favorite of the mid-Vic- torians, the lovel marriage, after which an innocent game of cross-pur- poses leads to the desired and never doubted climax. The book is pleas: antly written and offers two things whose absence from current fiction is so widely deplored—a happy ending and a nice regard for the sensibilities of the young. Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer’s gorgeously appareled history of Ve port, Our Social Capital, is a resplen- dent quarto sartorially suggestive of the golden names that illuminate its text. It is bound in crimson and fine linen, beautifully illustrated with draw- and photogravures, not overly readable but not intended to be read It is a gazetteer deluxe for those who live in Newport, and for those: who would like to. J. B. Kerfoot. ings Lifeand Retigion, An Aftermath from the Writings af the Honorable Prifesior Mave Muller. By His Wile. “Doubleday, Page and Company. 1.50.) The Car's Spy. By William Le Queux. (The Smart Set Publishing ompany. oc.) My Lady's Slipper. By Cyrus Townsend Brady, Medes Mead aol Conpsoy” Sten) sf Captains All, By W. W. Jacobs. Scribner's Sons, $1.50.) The Professor's (Charles By Mrs, Alfred Sidg- wick. (Henry Holt and Company. $1.50) Newtort, Our Social Capital. By. Mrs, Joba ‘an Rensselaer. (J. B, Lippincott Com- pany, Philadelphia.) Pneumoniacs, COMMISSION of scientists ap- pointed to investigate pneu- monia, says the New York World, re- ports that nearly everyone has pneu- monia germs in their mouths during the winter months. The same paper quotes a Columbia professor as saying that sunlight kills the pneumonia germ within an hour, although it will live in the mouth for two week: Obviously public safety demands a new law providing that all persons shall keep their mouths open to the stn for an hour each day. This will provide employment for a large num- ber of sanitary inspectors, who would otherwise have to work. The law should provide that as there are a number of days when the sun refuses to shine, all persons must be inoculated on cloudy days with a preparation of bottled sunlight, steril- ized. (No. inoculated persons will get pneumonia. If they get wet, and sit in a draft, and end in the cemetery, that will be the inoculation didn’t “take.”) N —A limited amount of stock in “The Bottled Sunlight Company, Ltd..” is on sale for a short time. Get in on the ground floor. Bolton Hall. because Cn “THIS METHOD OF CATCHING A CAR,” SAID THE PERSON,“ THOUGH SOMEWHAT BIZARRE, WOULD BE MAKD TO FXCEL. ‘TIS PRRMAPS JUST AS WRLIL TMAT 1 DON'T CARE To RIDE VERY PAR." comicbooks.com