Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-14

reading and thinking about. But this is Estate
socialism, this is "nationa1ism," If anyone
wants the technical name set to it. This is the
way out" which Mr.. Bellamy has suggested in
the opening pages of Looking Backward -
This is what the Nationalist societies are aim
ing at. This is simply the postoffice system,
and the Interstate commerce law, and several
other significant features of our present social
state carried out logically. After all, why not?
K.x
The millennium would be here tomorrow II we
could dispose of monopolies. and poverty, and
of despotism and war, and of all the other ills
which vex society, after the sorry fashion Of
the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims -
When that impudent little Jackdaw made off
with his turquoise ring, you remember how:
'He called for his candle, his bell and his
book" and proceeded to curse the undis-
covered thief with such an elaboration of in
genious and comprehensive malediction. that
one remembers that digest Of curses" in Iris
tram Shandy, at the end Of which, good Uncle
Toby, drawing long BREATH declared that he
wouldn't curse the devil himself with a curse
SO hard as that. The Cardinals curse discov-
cred the criminal instanter. The poor little,
rascally Jackdaw's feathers were turned the
wrong way. Nothing was left him but the
necessity of confession. A good round curse
would be a good plan, il It wonld work so
a candle would become useful articles in every
The Jackda,o of Rheims is published. with
pictures which are almost as good as the text,
by Raphael Tuck & Sons. We expect good
work from that house, but this is a better piece
of work than common. 1t Is pity that the
artist who made these spirited and fitting
pictures should not have his name upon the
title page. 1t is almost like having the pleasure
of reading the poem for the first time to find
it with such graphic Interpretation. From the
front cover, where the Jackdaw stands with
his bill in the air beside the red-robed cardinal,
to the back cover, where, with a halo around
his head, he is pictured as a saint in stained
window, the pictures are charmingly done,
everyone of them.
There is some difference between 1.-THE
Jackdaw Of Rhiems'' and '.The Recluse," by
William Wordsworth. One difference is that
the "Jackdaw" is about hundred times more
interesting. The interest of 1.-The Recluse" is
attached not so much to the poem, as to what
it tells us about the poet. 1.-THE Recluse,n
coming out now for the first time hundred
years after Wordsworth wrote it, affords text
for Prof; Minto's paper in the September
Ninetee7th Century on "Wordsworth's Great
Failure"
Wordsworth, it seems, was not contented to
to be poet of nature: he wanted to expound
"a final philosophy of life." He made a good
many attempts, and left some very dreary
poetry as the result but in this, his great ideal.
he failed.
1t was as a poet of nature that he succeeded,
and especially as writer Of short poems. And
yet he wrote some Of the longest pieces Of
poetry which any poet ever imposed on his ad-
mirers. So little are men conscious, some
times, of their genuine aptitudes!
WordSworth wrote verses for nearly go years.
But all that will likely last of his poetry was
written during tel years OF that time. The
consequence is that Wordsworth appears at his
bes: only in book of good selections. Such
book is better than the most comprehensive
Complete Works''-even though that include
the poem "On Wilkinson's Spade" Mr.. Rolfe
has made frst-rate presentation of Words
worth in his "William Wordsworths Select
POEMS" (Harper & Bros; j. r. Weldin & Coz.
This little book, with Its pictures by Abby and
Parsons, its paragraphs from Wordsworth's
autobiography, its quotations from Matthew
Arnold, and its careful annotating and editing,
is the very best shape in which the general
reader can have the work of this really great
poet
So
Perhaps it is the fault-inding spirit Of the
sandal Maker of Babylon which possesses
the critic as he reads Will Cartoons City Le-
gends Harper & Bros: ]. X. Weldin & COY.
At any rate, the pictures In the book have the
look of being clumsily done, and some of the
poems are not much better. "They pummel
each other rhythmically with the remaining
manuscripts. One of them 1.-THE manuscripts)
flies open and reveals still another dialect poem
upon still another humble subject This ad-
ditional calamity unnerves them, and they fall
into each others arms, sobbing POLITICALLY"
These poets have been comparing POEMS The
poems are in the book. The reader may ven-
ture, if he will. and see If the poems affect him
in the same unpleasant manner. Let US except,
however, THE SandalMaker of Babylon" He
is worth all the other people in the book