The San Francisco call., 1895-12-15

THE CALLS book-reviewer has received
an invitation from the Society of the Phil
istines to meet Stephen Crane. author of
''The Black Riders and Other Lines" and
1.-The Red Badge of Courage at dinner
which the Philistines propose to give him
at East Aurora, n. Y, on the evening of
December 10.
East Aurora is suburb of Buffalo. n.
Y, and is noted as being one of the leading
dairy centers of the Empire State. 1t is
also the home of Mambrino King, very
celebrated horse. The cheeses of East
Aurora and the fast-trotting offspring of
Mambrino King are disseminated over a
wide range of these United States.
4 X 4 *
Physicians will be likely to cry out
against Ouida's last novel, Toxin" which
being interpreted means poison, and they
will be justified in their remonstrances.
The book is not strong in its denouement,
and the improbability of the poison
scene Is so great that the volume will fail
of its purpose, which seems to be to cast
aspersions upon men in the higher walks
of physiological research.
X X X X II
OF late East Aurora has sprung into note
as the birthplace of that very lively, albeit
somewhat anomalous little periodical, the
Philistine, whose seIf.appointed task it has
been to camp upon the trail of literary
humbuggery, cant and pedantry OF every
sort, and to harry the soul thereof with ex-
ceedlng industry. This is greatness to
which East Aurora was not born, and
which she never achieved; it was thrust
upon her, ana no voice from out her citi-
zens has yet been heard to say how she re-
CARDS it. Now, to the cheeses, to Nam
b-ino King and to the Philistine is to be
added the ineffabe glory of this banquet
to stephen Crane, auther of 1.-The Black
Riders, and Other Lines" Verify, the
cheese presses of East Aurora run over!
Il Il y
The1e are many reasons why we should
Joy to attend this banquet. Like the great
Dundreary, we are fond OF cheese. We ad-
mire great horses. We love the Philis-
tines, and there is that which we would
fain ask of Stephen Crane. We should
like to know why, among the "other lines"
Of MS recent volume of tin-de-siecle verse,
he has in some places as many as five
words to a line when three would have
SuIHCeQ anu NOulu nave DeeH more eco
nomieal OF ink; why, on some, pages, he
com mits the wild extravaganza of thirteen
lines when one, printed very black, could
have been made big with meaning (think
of the impressive, pregnant silence of that
blank pageD and the book had thereby
been bukier; and why, on certain several
occasions, has Mr.. Crane been guilty OF the
Grass scleciSm OF a rhyme!
More and further, when the banquet was
drawing to its convivial height; when, big
and little, the Philistines were in genial
mood, we would PROFOUND, 'across the
walnuts and the wine" that vexed ques-
ton of tie mob, "Why Philistines?"
K X X K 4
But certain pediments-the fact that
our own few and feeble lines have not
fallen upon atfiuent places, and the absence
of a competing railroad to East Aurora
render our attendance of dubious probabil-
ity. However, on the evening of Decem-
Der 10, we shall turn our eyes away from
the Golden Gate and search the sunrise
skies for roseate tinge suffusing the cir
cumam bient ether at about the meridian
of East Aurora