Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-02
THE CRITICS REVIEW.

| OUT Oh our part VI the WOElu ny atcdu ant
lightning. The kind of life which most Of us
live might better be styled ''The Hurried Life .
The symbol of leisure is picture of serene
and comfortable man in sleepy hollow chair
in small clothes and powdered wig, with slip
pers on his feet, and a book upon his knee. A
| man in derby hat, with frock coat closely but
4 toned, with trousers turned up for fear of mud
running to catch an escaping cable car, stands
better for this generation.
Nevertheless we like to read about the old
days when leisure still abode among men.
More pleasant perhaps than ever, by reason of
| contrast, are the pages which men of leisure
wrote in their leisurely way in praise
of quietness, peace, contentment and
serenity. Especially pleasant are such pages
| when they are enlivened and adorned with pic
lures as Mr.. Abbey and Mr.. Parsons have pic
tured them in The Quiet LIE (Harper & Bros.
], r. Weldin & co.,. Between the handsome
covers of this stately book the lover of poetry
and of pictures will tind treasures of both. An
drew Marvel, Abraham Cowley, Winthrop
Mickworth Praed, Alexander Pope and Thomas
Randolph furnish the verses to which Austin
Dobson supplies q prologue and an epilogue.
"Quince" and the Vicar we like the best
when all is charming-both for the text and for
Mr.. Abbey's sketches Among Mr.. Parsons
drawings we know not where to choose. These
everywhere graceful, fitting and beautiful. 1t
is not likely that any book of this season will
equal 'The Quiet Life" in permanent artistic
value.
So
Mr.. Philip Hone, of the city of New York
was so enamored of the quiet life that at the
age of 40, having by that time made as much
money as he needed, he retired from business
and proceeded henceforth to enjoy himself like
a cultured, broad-minded public-s pirited and
genial Christian gentleman. He went to Eu-
rope, and returning bought the finest house
which stood in those days--the year was 1920
within the municipality of New York. Here,
beside the City Hall Park with its fence of
wooden palings, oentered all that was best in
the town life of the time. The most notable
men and women of the social, political and lit
erary world, as it was then, were guests Of
Philip Hone, Once he was Mayor of the city.
He founded the Mercantile Library. He was
member of the board of trustees of all the
worthy institutions, charitable and literary,
which New York had. He devoted himself to
making the very most of his lite: he improved
all the opportunities which were offered in his
generation. He saw everything that was worth
seeing, and knew everybody that was worth
knowing Once he ventured away out here,
Drawing the dfscomforts of the Pennsylvania
Canal, and spent day looking about Pitts
burg. He thought that Pittsburg was the most
progressive, go-ahead, business-like town ne
had ever SEEN That was in 1847.
Philip Hone began in 1927 TO keep diary
When he died. in 1851 this careful record filed %
quarto volumes. If Mr.. Chauncey Depew should
keep a journal of his daily life, and it should
be published in the year 1850, it is easy to i'm
agine what picture it would be of the last
half of the nineteenth century. In The Diary
Of Philip Hone (Dodd, Mead & Co., H. Watts
& Coy we have just that sort of record of the
men, women and events of the first half of this
century.
And here beside it is the journal of Marie
BdShkirtseF (Cassell & Co., II. Watts & Coz.
The reviewers have described it accurately
Since the journal of Henri Frederick Amiel
no such singular and notable autobiography
has been put in print. We read what Philip
Hone wrote to learn history; we read Marie
Bashkirtseff to learn Marie Bashkirtseff. She
is as interesting as the heroine of any novel;
and here is the complete story of her life
Everything, everything, everything" as she
says, from beginning to end.
1t was not quiet life. 1t was as full as it
could be of emotion, ambition, stir and nervous
strain. 1t was SO unquiet that it hurried itself
to close, untimely, simply breaking down un-
der the tension.
Mrs. Serrano has managed the translation
admirably. This is how Marie Bashkirtseff
would have written in English. The publishers
have bound the book in pretty and delicate
covers. There is not in any literature any book
quite like this, in its persistent introspection
and its frank confession. 1t is worth every
body's reading. Indeed, everybody seems to be
reading it. The first edition was published on
November 16, and second edition
on Monday, the 18th.
ks&
Saint Theresa (Roberts Bros, H Watts &
Coy seems at first a strange biography to read
except for contrast-just after reading the
journal of Marie Bashkirtseff. But the un-
likeness is not so great after all. The times
we're quite different in which the Saint and the
Princess lived. the environment was wholly
unlike. but if Marie Bashkirtseff had been put |
1T the right age into convent of Augustinian |
nuns she might have been another Theresa |
At least the two girls were quite alike in the |
girlhood part of their lives.
Mrs. Bradley Gilman has given us very |
pleasant story of Saint Theresa, who proves to |
have been a real flesh and blood person,
and not at all to be classed with |
St. Margaret and the dragon, the old Spanish |
,own of Arila, the traditions idols and Gus
toms of its people. The pretty little, self
wllled Theresa growing up in the midst of it,
made the beginning of the book, That is
pretty picture of little Theresa, aged Z, taking
her younger brother by the hand. and the two
toddling off in what they supposed to be the
irection of Africa, to be martyrs! And the
heritage of stones and sods built in the back
yarden, which fell SO unfortunately when the
aims descended and the foods came; and the
,ovels which the little girl used to steal ont of
he library downstairs and read secretly after
everybody was asleep, fearing lest her father I
hould find her out; and the young lady's ha-
red of pious books, and her fondness for
these come charmingly into the
ages of this little book.
This is the way to write tho life of saint.
saint Theresa is as real in this delightful ac-
cunt of her as Saint Anselm and Saint Fran
is in the pages of Dean Church and Mrs.
)liphant. This is better than ton of Acta
anctorium. Only there is not nearly enough
+ it!
Saint Theresa mad perfect genius for loving
eople. That was the secret of her influence,
/ is always a delight to read about such people,
he Abbe Constiltip (Dodd, Mead & Co., H.
Watts & Coz was that sort of saint. Every
ody. however, in that charming story had an
bundant measure of that genius for loving
eople.
What an altogether pleasant thing it is to
cad a book once in a while in which every
hing is just exactly right That is the sort of
ook which LudoVic Hatevy wrote when he
-rote ''The Able Constantin." This little story
the best love story ever published in two Ian
uages, French and English. There is nothing
sweet, pretty and satisfying anywhere. And
{ last it comes in worthy shape, in fine, clear
ipe, on heavy paper, and with excellent and
elpful pictures.