The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-07

X
az bidding his little girl cease her play
| and tell him whence she had her black
| eyes when
Fathers eyes are granite gray,
And your mothers. Barbara,
Black as the obsidian stone,
With luster all their own.
How should one so small as you
| Learn to chose between the two?
What Barbara had to say to this puz-
zlng question we have no means of
knowing for the scientific poet proceeds
to analyze her and tell her history much
as il she we're in very truth a fragment
of "grt to gray" or the 'obsidian stone"
and tells the wondering little maid:
Deeply hidden in your eyes,
Undeciphered histories,
Craven In the ages vast,
| Lie there to be read at last:
Craven deep, they must be true
| Shall L read them unto you?
| We will not attempt to follow the
reading, but if DIR. Jordans poetry be
taken as an indication of the spirit of
the scientific muse, it seems probable
that some modus viverdi may be agreed
upon between her and the classic tune
full nine and the future may not therefore
be wholly void of poetry as has been pre-
dicted by some enthusiastic and unpoeti-
cal scientists.
Jerome X. Jerome has come to the aid
of the London Chronicle in it's complaint
OF too much style in modern literature.
Such complaints are the most hopeful
indications that the era of vagueness.
artifciality and affectation which none
but the greatest writer's of the present
day have escaped, and even in their case,
not wholly. is on the wane. II the reader
wishes to know what we mean by the
charge let him take down one OF the ear
lier and greater English classics of a
century or two ago, for instance, Addi-
son and read 'TheVision OF Mira 'or the
| Coverley papers. or consult the poems
of Burns or Cowper or Wordsworth and
then compare these in point of simple
| ity and directness with the magazine
writers of today whether in poetry or
prose, but especially in the former. AS
Jerome says, for an authors meaning
to be plain to an averagely educated
reader is sufficient to stamp him as be-
ing outside the pale Of letters. A folly
always increases until it's own weight of
absurdity topples it over and brushes it,
and 1. for one, am glad to see that the
nonsense has reached decaying stage.
The great authors always wrote 80 that
| child could understand them. Style
in it's true sense simply means the indi-
viduality of the writer shining through
his words. There is no such thing as
good style or bad style. Good style in
one man becomes intolerable affectation
in another; our shallow critics have
talked about it as though it we're de-
Unable quantity. They might as well
urge folks to adopt style in faces or
| voices"
AS the time for the opening Sept. 49,
draws nearer it is becoming more and
more evident that the Atlanta Exhibi-
| ton is to be one we'll worth the pleasant
trip southwark to see it. The Cotton
Exposition of 1882 was quite success
and no one who visited it but felt amply
repaid for that glimpse of "the Chicago
of the South" and the excellent showing
of Southern products in the Exposition.
But the Cotton States will not be left
alone to make the Exhibition Of '95
success, and from present indications
the Atlanta Exposition of '95 will be as
much an advance over that of '82 as the
Columbian Exposition was over theCen-
tennial Exposition. or course it will
not compare with the Columbian Expo
stion, as it's scope is much more limit
ed and not tenth part of the outlay of
the latter will be expended on Atlanta's
display of the products, arts and indus
tries of the South. The United States
Government. while not taking much part,
will still have some representatives, and
the artists of the Capital will be special
ly we'll represented. about thirty of their
paintings udNluk OCCh oSSOPbOds
500
With the great harvests throughout
the West and the -four mills of Mime
apolis turning out 5000 barrels of flour
weekly it would seem as if it were about
time to quit talking about hard times.
NON
Mark Twain, after making and losing
about a million dollars in business and
literature, has started out on a lecture
tour which will circle the globe with
fun and incidentally put money in Marks
empty purse In his "Innocents Abroad"
Mark and his companions objected to
mummies two thousand years old and
demanded of the attendant that he show
them some "uice fresh corpses." 1t
might go hard with the veteran humor-
ist were his audience TO object to his old
Jokes and insist on his "trotting OUT
some new ones or refund their money.