Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-30
THE CRITICS REVIEW.


cess. The Tariunian Age, Or. Arnold Of
Rugbys Befween Times, Feet Of Clay,
/ Wine Ghostn Of Bremen and Other
Books.
Wfsh Gauge and iSaodtloa0 II. B. Lippineott
4 Coz b. Watts & Col is collection Of law
stories by Judge Tourgee. "Gauge and swal-
low" are firm Of attorneys, in whose Office the
teller Of the stories, whose part in most of the
plots makes thread through the book, Is en-
| ployed as clerk In such an Office. ''where the
crookedest things in the world are made plain,
even If they are not always made straight
there must be almost as many stories hidden
away in tin boxes as Inspector Byrnes has in
his remarkable journals. Judge Tourgee writes
under stress of an imagination urged and
guided by experience. The stories are all in
teresting They are Of great variety; love,
fraud, spirItualsm. forgery, mines and rail-
roads. mysteries and surprises. rogues and
heroes play their part in the pages of this en-
tertaining book.
Another book of short stories is that which,
under the, title Taken AIfvs (Dodd, Mead 4
Co.; ]. R. Weldin q Col stands last in the ser
les Of 'sThe Works of E. P. Roe" The stories
are ftly prefaced by the title essay in autohiog-
raphy, which Mr.. Roe contributed some years
to LtppiacotpS, and which he entitled, repeat
ing acontemptuous phrase of Matthew Arnold's
"A Native Auth or Called Roe" After all is
| said, e. p. Roe must be confessed to have
won success And success means that the
books which he WI ote commended themselves
to a very large number of our fellow citizens.
mo critic, !" he says" has ever been so daft as
| to call any of my books classic.r But a great
many classics have had fewer readers. Mr..
Roe appealed to the average mind. Thereis
such sort Of mind. 1t does prefer
barriers Burned Away to "Marius
the Epicureann 1t is more interested in
E. P. Roe than in George Meredith. The
average mind is made that way. Well, because
we are cultured shall there be no more cakes
and ales Mr.. Roe addressed his books to the
largest audience in the world, and the audience
were pleased, and gave him their applause, and
no number of his books could weary them.
They were not classics . but they were good,
straightforward. carefully written. helpful,
wholesome, and uplifting books. They at
tracted readers, and they did the readers good.
The short stories which are collected in this
book are Of piece with the rest They have
the faults and virtues with which Mr.. Roe's
friends and critics are familiar. In our own
oDinion-but this is only the opinion, we fear,
of An average mind, they are well told, worth
telling and worth reading.
~
One who permits himself the bad habit Of be-
ginning books in the Chinese way, at the end.
will be somewhat surprised by his first glimpse
at The 76rsU6ton Age. (Lee Shepard; ]. r.
Weldin d Co.. The book ends with list Of
cosmetics. Signor Mantegazza, in the original
Italian Of which Mr.. Nettleton gives Us here
translation, set down the names and charac-
teristics. poisonous or otherwise. of noless than
260 recipes for making ones self beautiful. 1t is
not cosmetical hypocrisy only, however, which
is assailed IN this fierce little book. The good
Signor begins with the harmless, necessary cat,
whose deceitful conduct excites his condemna-
tion, and goes on, from the hg-leaves Of Eden
to the compliments of polite society, to objur-
gate even the whitest kinds Of lies. He
is sort of Carlyle in Italian. THE
Tartufian Age" the writer himself confesses.
"cannot be popular. cannot be written except
with one-half INK and one-half tears and gall"
Signor Mantegazza has but poor opinion Of
the world in general. He says. without any
appearance of haste, but as deliberate 1udg-
ment, that all men are liars.''
@sR
The last volume in the series OF 'The Worlds
Workers. tells of the good work of DR.. Arnold
Of Rugby (Cassell & Co.; ]. r. Weldin & Coy.
Rose. E. Selfe is the author. Out of the his
torical material to be found in the works of
Stanley and Hughes, she has selected that
which in brief space shall tell us most about |
lently done. The schoolmaster, the teacher |
the publicist, the writer, the friend. |
the man, all the sides Of Arnold's |
father, are delineated as well as could be done /
in such brief space. Anybody who writes with |
any sort Of appreciation of man like Arnold |
is sure to write something both interesting and |
helpful One cannot getnear to such charac- [
ter without getting inspiration, nor describe /
him without inspiring other people. The in
dividual care of Arnold for his boys, q care kept |
~, IN he fofo h.1rda nfn
wider cares, is perhaps the characteristic of his
work ct Rugby which is most emphasized in
this book.
A graceful little book in pretty covers with
pretty verses between them, is Walter Learned's |
BetsOee7l Times IF. A. Stokes & Bro: J. r.
Weldin & Coy. The rhymes are neatly turned.
The subject is an old one which even
the poets can never wear out. the pages
are easy ana pleasant ,itt,a 70 read; mol much is
dashed on impromptu between times" They
are pretty lines for fans, and albums, and fly
leaves, and the margins OF letters, and the 14th /
of February. Mr. George Parsons Lathrop !,
contributes graceful and friendly preface. \
At the end OF the book are several tfanslations i
from the French.
It looks for a good while. as the book goes
on, as if Feet of Clay (Dodd. Mead q Co.; H.
Watts & Coz were going to be a very unpleas-
ant story. Indeed, after all is told the story is
not particularly cheerful. The scene is in the
Isle of Man. The hero, George Pennington, is
the individual who has the misfortune to have
''feet of clay" There is great deal that is
good in him, balanced by so much that is
selfish, mean and dishonest, that the reader is
almost sure that he is going to turn out wholly
bad. and make wreck of 1t, and wreck several
other livese with his. Pennington is indeed,
mean fellow until the very last chapter. He is
as selfish as Tito, as despicabe land in some
what the same way as Dean Maitland He is
forAI ca.1 hof
friend. Finally he allows another man to 60 to
prison in his stead Mrs. Barr has made him
out so low-down, that it is with rather un-
pleasant surprise that the reader is told at the
end that instead of getting his head shot of in
India, he is wounded just enough to give en-
to the cheering nurse who proves to
whom at last he marries, and turns out quite a
decent fellow The value of the book is in
creased by the plsasant-looking picture Of Mrs.
Barr which fronts the title-page.
wilhelm Hauff who wrote The Wine Ghosts
Of Bremen (White and Allen; ]. R. Weldin &
COL is described in Mr.. Fletcher's sprightly
and entertaining preface as having once held
the position Of editor Of a paper with a re-
name. The paper was published in
Germany. and the name, being translated was
Morning News for the Educated ClassesIn
What sort Of editor Hauf made we are not
but we have here an opportunity of
exercising our own Judgment as to the sort of
pleasant writing which he was able to do. |
In Bremen. beneath the Rathhaus is the
Rathskeller. And in this cellar are
great casks of wine with dates upon them
reaching back into the early years of the
eighteenth century Twelve Of these casks |
bear the names Of the Twelve Apostles,
BacChus has q vault all to himself. So has an
other mighty barrel named the Lady Rose. The
teller of the story sleeps one night in this an
cient cellar, and Is present at a mighty reVel
where the jewellers are the WORTHLESS, after
whom the casks are named. They tell some