Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-25
THE CRITICS REYIEW.


illustrated by Louis K. Harlow, published by
Little, Brown & Co., and for sale in Pittsburg
by H. Watts & CO., is pleasing alike to the
hand, to the eye, and to the mind. If 1t had
been badly printed and pasted into paper
covers, it would still have been worth reading.
If it had been foolishly written, still the pict-
ures would have made it worth owning. Even
with pictures of no consequence end text of no
value this handsome volume, with its heavy
paper, its broad margins, and its tasteful
covers, would have been an adornment to a
bookshelf. But author, and artist and printer
have dons their work we'll, and the result is a
charming book, ftly bound, and worthily Illus
| trated.
ST. Augustine is the town, and along the St.
| Johns river lies the country in which these
Florida days are fruitfully spent. The lights
and colors Of sky and sea. the flowers Of the
'land of flowers" old houses and headstones,
live oaks and cypress trees and lily ponds are in
the background, upon which pirates and
missionaries, nuns and natives, darkies and
| crackers" are sketched for our enjoyment
with pen and pencil.
''The Western sky throbs with an impalpable
dust of gold when the sun has set, and the blue
and cloudless day closes like the lid Of casket
| of Jewels upon the violet rim of the sea, and
| shuts out the light The crystal dusk grows
| cool and fresh before the stars come out" At
the old fort the coat-of-arms over the gate calls
up vision of the sentry who used to pace the
wall above it; the fortunes Of old wars come
pleasantly to mind in the quiet; the sergeant
drones his legends and stories of the past;
Ponce de Leon comes looking for an elixir not
to be expected, as to-day's fashion Is, in med
| icine bottle; De AyIlon sails merrily away with
his ill-starred cargo of frightened souls in en-
Elaved bodies; Pamphilo de Narvaez, "full
of zeal for his own gain and for the
| salvation of souls" summons the ma
tives to the blessings of the church
| Catholic having a sword in one hand and the
sacrament in the other; again the brave Sir
Francis, from the tall tree in Panama, beholds
both oceans. So the pages pass. The towers
of the old gateway, with the glow of the SUM-
set behind them, make fitting entrance into
the pleasant ways of this charming, leisurely,
delightful journey
-
Pictures and poems both entered into the
work of that man of genius at whom we get
| glimpses in Dante GdbrieL RoSSetH as designer
and writer (Cassen Co.; ]. R. Weldin & Coz.
This modest little biography is written by his
brother. It does not even venture to claim a
place among biographies but presents itself
simply as a bundle of notes. That is what it
is, SO far as form goes. 1t is, indeed, to be re-
GREETED that more was not attempted by one SO
| fitted to do it well. Rossetti left a good many
memoranda and letters, and out of them his
brother has given us whatever concerns his de-
signs and his writings.
There was much that was quite out Of the
common in this Englishman with the Italian
name. At the age Of fifteen he is writing
romance whose interesting hero is no less
parsonage than the devil himself. He has pre-
pared himself for this literary venture by a
singular course of reading. Peter Schlemihl,
the Bottle Imp, the Devil Stork, Melmoth the
| Wanderer and Manfred, he has summoned to
| aid him i'll conjuring the Prince Of Darkness.
Presently he begins to write poetry, 1.-THE
Blessed Damozel" which Kenyon Cox illus
strated so strlkingly several years ago, was
written in his nineteenth year, for little family
paper which circulated in manuscript around
| the evening lamp. The poetry was pre-
| Raphaelistic. some of it rather remarkably So
We have a shorter word for that to-day. We
say realistic" Rossetti is responsible for a
considerable measure of that peculiar strain in
poetry and fiction which is still a matter Of
curreut critical debate.
When Rossetti's wife died he took all the
poetry which he had ever written and had it
buried in her coffin. After several years he
took heart again. changed his mind about the
disposition of his songs and sonnets, had them
dug up and taken to printer. That Is some
thing to think of as one reads! Criticism,
chloral and insomnia shortened Rosserti's life.
Buchanan's Contemporary Reviet0 article on
''The Fleshly School of Poetry he took very
hard. The brothers notes extend from lS43 to
1882 A prose paraphrase Of 'The House of
Life" is added, and a picture of Rossetti ispre.
fixed.
In tasteful binding and good type comes
George Sands ConsueIs (Dodd, Mead & Co.
]. R. Weldin & co., This fine set of four
handsome volumes gives us this notable and
famous novel in beftting dress.
80
Four books which lie this week upon The
Critics table are meant for boys There are
few books of more importance than those
which are intended for that sort of constitu-
ency. Boys books ought to be stirring, manly,
helpful stories.
If the world could but go on in real life as it
does in the romances of Horatio Alger, Jr.,
what fine world it would be to live inl Luke
Walton (Porter & Coates, II. Watts & Col lis
Chicago newsboy. One day kind gentleman,
attracted by his b honest face, buys a two-penny
newspaper and pays him S., saying that he can
come around to bis Office the next day and give
him his "a 9S Of change This kind gentleman
who gets his change, of course, the next
morning-does not, unfortunately, figure any
further in the story. Mrs. Merton, however,
whom Luke drags out from before dangerous
cable car, makes him her errand boy, attendant
and confidential friend And as she is worth
about $500, 600 he is quite a useful friend
Finally the villain of the story, who has robbed
Luke's father and grown so rich and prosper.
GUS on the proceeds that be ventures at last to
run for Mayor of Milwaukee, is successfully
unmasked, and Luke gets the fortune which is
rightfully his The name Merton in the book
reminds one of Stamford and Merton" Nor
is the name the only reminder!
%xs
The trouble with books like Luke Walton,'
is not that they lack interest. The plot is in
deed quite thrillingI Nor is it that there is any
bad teaching. The moral is quite unexception-
able. The trouble is that they present ideas of
life which are altogether false. If credulous
reader were to imagine that there is such a
world within his reach as Luke Walton lived
in. he would find himself unpleasantly mis-
taken.
Such people as Mrs. Merton are as unlikely
upon this planet as the conventional dialect of
the California miner upon the lips of real men.
Kirk Monroe, in Golden Days of A9 (Dodd.
Mead q 90. j. II. Weloln 0 Coz pushes the
slang business to the very edge. Buck Fan
Shave would have 'weakened"-to use the local
phrase-ln the presence of Thirsty Thursron.
'.Golden Days" has a particularly gorgeous
cover and the name of Kirk Monroe IS one
which we see on the title page Of boys book
with the expectation of something good within.
In this case the expectation meets disappoint-
ment.
Storm Mountain (Porter & Coates, H. Watts
& Co. lis another book for boys. Edward s. Ellis
is the author The time is the days of the wars
with the Iroquois Indians. Talbot Frost the