Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-10
THE CRITICS REVIEW.


and the Companions Of the
Press Here and AbrOad-Whnt the
Writers and Reviewers Are Saying
Through the Magazines.
THE Sign of the Four, is the complete
novel in Lippsncotcs for February. The
author is A. Conan Doyle, son of the Doyle
whose drawings everybody knows, and author
of "Micah Clarke, which we noticed at some
length, and with as many commen6atory adjec-
tives as we could think of. a few months ago.
THE Sign of the Four is detective story on
decidedly original lines. 1t is written with all
the charm of style which made micah Clarke"
attractive, and is of most thrilling and persis-
tent interest. There is nothing more entertain
ing in the way Of fiction anywhere in our Feb
ruary bundle of magazines. Another good
thing in the current number OF Lipptn-
Watrous, of the Philadelphia Press,
on "the Newspaper and the Individual"
"The city editor" Mr. Watrous says, ''is the
man who says 10000 words about his neighbors
every morning. Good news is no news, and
most of the 10000 words are disagreeable ones.
1t is the city editors duty, then, before all men,
to be circumspect about the pains and penal
ties in such cases made and provided. The
news or telegraph editor says more things than
the city editor, but he does not say them about
his neighbors. He says them, as general
thing, about people who do not know he is say
ing them. The chief editorial writer says more
important things than either the news or city
editor, and says them in q more elaborately
disagreeable and authoritative way, but
he says them about a class of people
whose principal function in life is to
have things said about them; that is to
say, that callous and case-hardened class
known as Public Men, whom the laws and
the Con nstitution strip Of the right of self
defense, and who remind the quizzcal observer
of affairs in a free country of the rows Of
puppets at country fair, whom everybody has
the right Of peltinG at for cents pelt." The
saying Of disagreeable things, however, exposes
one to the dangers Of the law Of libel. Mr..
Watrous has his opinion Of this law, and the
opinion is not complimentary one. he calls
it tan engine for the oppression Of decent citi-
zens and conscientious journals; harbor of
refuge for the expert purveyor of filth in
journalism; a club in the hands of the bravo
and adventurer." His remedy is press CEN
sorship, with such discretion as is vested in the
License Court. This, he thinks, might bring in
little justice.
NJ EwsPAPERs Here and Abroad is the
subject of a thoughtful paper in the
North american Review for this month. by E
L. 6iodkin of the Nation. In France, he says.
the value of a newspaper is measured by its
editorial articles. The province of the paper
is taken to be criticism-criticism cast in the
finest literary form and concerned with the
leading men and movements of the day. News
is comparatively uncared for. French news
papers have no private wires running into their
Offices and pay no heavy bills for kilograms.
In England there is now pretty fair balance
between the imp ortance of ideas and of in
formation. The English newspaper is half
and-half. The American contribution to
the science or industry of journalism is
the work of the city and news editors,
whom Mr.. Watrous speaks of. These offices
belong here. The American citizen is so
hungry for news that he will even venture after
it into pages which certainly have nothing else
to commend them, like a starved man in a
tenth-rate restaurant. He is so anxious for
something to eat that he pays little attention
to the soiled table-cloth. Mr.. Godkln notes the
mutual distrust with which newspaper writers
and book WRITER'S and readers as WELL at pres
ent regard one another. Reading newspapers
units people for reading books. We need, he
thinks, a conversion of the newspaper into a
better channel of communication to the masses
of the best thought and most accurate knowl-
edge of the time" The protection and free
trade discussion, begun last month in the Re-
VielO by MI Gladstone and Mr.. Blaine, is con-
tinued in this number by Mr.. Mills.
of Texas, who replies to Mr.. Blaine.
Erastus Wiman has something to say
about British Capital and American Indus
tries" julius II. Ward has thoughtful pa
per on the position and opportunity of "The
American Bishops of To-day" meaning the
bishops of the Episcopal Church. Gail Ham
ilton in her crisp, decisive, and always attrac-
tive style, discusses Italy and the Pope" 1t
is needless to say that Gail Hamilton is on the
side of Italy.
THE FORUM for February completes the
eighth volume Of this indispensable journal
of debate. Every number of it for now these
many months has been thoroughly readable,
abreast and often ahead of the times, represen-
tative of everything that is going in cotem-
porary discussion. 1t has offered its pages
frankly to alb men who have opin-
ions upon worthy subjects. Its tone
as manifested n its papers,
has been manly, outspoken and commendable.
The variety of its contents is illustrated by the
current number. w. s. Lilly considers THE
Ethics of Property" General Francis A.
Walker has paper on Americas Fourth Cen
TNs
From Rome" discusses the real relation of
Roman Catholics to the civil authority in this
country, in an article which deserves careful
and wide reading Leonard W. Bacon COM
pares the progress of the Republican admins
tration with its broken promises, and contrasts
its interests in the Sunday school with its con-
duct of affairs in politics. Archaeology. law,
education. immigration, society and the drama
are accorded bright, profitable and fitting dis
cussion.
a NnREw D. WHITE resumes his New Chap
ters in the Warfare of Science" in the Feb
ruary Popular Science Monthly. with especial
attention to the relationship of Lots wife and
her pillar of salt to the current myths of other
peoples. The land question is still under dis
cussion. Modern railway bridges, Chinese silk
lore and chrysanthemums are set out with
illustrations. Horace White has paper on
Agriculture and the Single Tax" in which he
says There is no subject more bedeviled with
dogmatism than taxation. There is none in
which dogmatlsm is less helpful. The more
study one bestows upon it the less will he be
inclined to lay down inhexible rules While Jus
tice should ever be in the minds eye, yet our
conclusions must always be mainly expert
mental of all the dogmas OIL taxation. The
single tax on land is the most dogmatic, and
the one least favored by experiment, so far as
experiment has been made"
A.#
THE ATLANTIC for February is especially rich
in well-considered reviews of recent notable |
books. DR.. Holmes, in lover the Teacups"
takes his turn at the favorite amusement of
looking forward, and gets into the land of the
where the people breathe nitrogen,
and have all things in common on a very dead
level. Even the reformers are discovered who
want to 60 farther still. There are the Ortho-
brachians, who de claim against the shameful
abuse of the left arm and hand, and insist on
restoring their perfect equality with the right
There are the Isopodic societies. which insist