The San Francisco call., 1896-07-26
THE PROSE OF
LIE GqLLIENLE
A Series Of JouchiNg
Sketches
How Love and Beauty Made
Second Heaven on the
Seventh Floor

There is suggestion of Charles Lam in
Richard lie Galliennes Prose Fancies" Eee-
ond series). The playfulness and the fanlful
yet artistic use OF words constantly briB to
mind the charming Essays OF Ella" Thee is
also at times dignity like unto that of Ion
taigne Joined with the deeI feeling of Gwen
Me7edith's ''Nurse of an ailing world be-
loved Night" in "The Wanderer.' WthaI
there is a cheerful humor that is as drel as
Mark Twain's best.
These qualities, admirably intermitled,
have brought fame if not fortune to IsGsl-
lienne.
His efforts are not uniform, however. lome
of the sketches in the present volume sem to
be beneath the level OF this authors sluse.
This is notably true OF sThe Answer d the
Rose" In the light of present readlngit ap-
pears trivial and inconclusive. Yet thilvery
essay may be seized upon by the mystics II the
future-those dreamy priests Of literstun that
are common to all ages-and made to Spear
as the very keystone in the arch of u Gal
henne's fame.
But LIE Gallienne has enough wit and hthos
in the first sketch OF the present series, allied
"a Seventh story Heaven" ," to sweeten shuch
larger volume. 1t is almost impossible to
transplant Jest fr ON an authors page the
reviewers column without losing in sole de-
gree the original flavor. Passages of tentI-
ment or philosophy less sensitivei and,
like hardy shrubs, may be potted and haldled
exposed or exhibited at will for purpees OF
entertainment or establishment. Herethen,
are some thoughts from "a Seventfstory
Heaven;
The seventh story is at the top of ahigh
building in the customs-warehouse prt of
London, where the shops sell nothing bit oil
skins, sextsnts and parrots and whee the
taverns do mighty trade in rum.
1t was in this quarter for brief sweet tine that
Love and Beauty made their strange hohe, as
though pair of halcyons should choose toslest in
the masthead of a cattle-ship. Love and beauty
chose this quarter, as alas. Love and Beauti must
choose so many things-for its cheapness] Love
and Beauty were poor and office rents in thH quar-
ter uere exceptionally low. But what shoul Love
and Beauty do with Office? Love wasA poor
poet in need of a room for his bed and his rkmes,
and Beauty was little blue-eyed girl widowed
him.
1t was q shabby, forbidding place, glooAy and
comfortess as a warehouse on the banks Styx.
No one but Love and Beauty wonld have dfed to
choose it for their home. But Love and Beauty
have great confidence in nthemselves-a conidenc
curiously supported by hstory-and they never
had nom ents doubt that this place was good
as another for an earthly Paradise 81 Love
signed an agreement for one great room at tie very
top the very masthead Of the building, and Beauty
made it pretty with muslin curtains, fowsrs and
dainty max eshlfis of furniture, but chiefly with
the light of her own heavenly face.
Even in this celestial eerie these twoyoung
people had healthy sppetites, and so the Jared
forth TO obtain materials for their bosemian
supper. The poets purse was almost thmpty,
. but by pswning book that had been ent to
him for review the exchequer was replNished
to the extent Of acknowledgements.
The author admits that ordinarilt this
sum is rather light for an incursion of tie mar
kets, but ex plains its suficiency in tbs case
by the reflection that only the poor kIpw the
art of dining. 1t gives one good tastthn the
mouth to read OF that evenings shoppiIg.
You needn't wish to be hapBier and nerrier
than those two lovers as they gayly hastned to
that bright and coy corner Of the towi where
lovely ham-sud-be shops make glad tft faces
of the passers-by Oh those hams, witt their
honest, shining faces, polished like mahg hgany-
and the man inside so happy all day slicing then
with those wonderful long knives (whth, sf
course. the superior class OF reader has never
seem. worn away 10 a veritable thread, mers
wire, but keen Excalibur = And wha
artist was the carver! What true eye; wha
firm, flexible wrist-never a shaving of fat to'
much-he was too great an artist for that
Leaving the occupants of the seventh-stor,
heaven TO enjoy their repast let US hasten to
view of THE Burial of Romeo and Julfet' a
presented for the first time in a name
worthy OF that tragic event:
One morning of all mornings the citizens Q
Verona we're So artled by strange news Tragi
forceSi 70 Wnlcn they had been accustomed to pa
little heed, had been at work in their city durIn
the dark hours, and young Romeo of the Mont,
CUES, handsome. devil-may-care lad as they ha
known him. and little Juliet of the CapuIets ths
mad-cap, merry. gentle, young mistress, lay dea
side by side in the Church of santa Maria.
Three days the lovers lay in state in III
church and on the fourth by decree of tn
Governor oil the city they were carried throug
the streets in the eyes of all the people an
then buried together in the vault of the Capt
lets. During those days, before the entoml
ment, there stole a strange sweetness over til
city as though the very spirit of love ha
nested there and was filing the air with il
soft breathing. Men once more spoke kindl
to their wives, and even coarse faces wore
gentle light-just as sometimes at evening th
setting sun will turn to tenderness even blac
rocks and frowning towers.
In lighter vein is "The Great Merry-G
Round" Another hlmy yet entertainin
sketch is ''Tne Boom in Yellow" Carlyle
echoed in The Fallacy of Nation" and til
depth OF life's philosophy, with a yearning fc
the life beyond, is voiced in "The Greatness
Man" An uncanny description Of deatl
morbid enough to meet the requirements {
the most intense of the decadent school, is th
account of the passing of Jenny given b
scriptor in mis- conversation with LectoI.
The style of the book, its mechanical prs
duction, deserves word OF praise. II is
triumph of the bock-binder's art, JoAed TO
WELLS IRURY.
Prose Fancies (second serIes) by kitard y; L
GalienDe. Published by Herbert D Stote q Co.
Chicago; 200 pp.; 81 20.