The herald., 1897-11-27
FRIDAY MORNING CLUB
MRS. MORRIS CoHN'S CLEVER
PAPER
"Types Of American Men Portrayed in
Fiction"-"Quo Vadis" and the
"Christian" Reviewed

The auditorium in the Owens block
was packed yesterday for the Friday
Morning club meeting. The book com
mittee had charge of the day, and g
particularly interesting program was
presented to which Mrs. Margaret Col
| lier Graham, Mrs. Ernest X. Foster
Miss Mccullough and Mrs Morris Cohr
contributed.
Mrs. Graham read brief estimate OF
"Quo Vadis.' She said that as it was a
historical novel, it could not represent
the highest art in fiction, but it was
nevertheless, wonderful achievement
presenting a graphic picture that car
never be forgotten. of Rome as the au-
thor imagined 1t in Caesars time. But
he has not left any vivid sense of the
triumph of Christianity over paganism
or the reasons therefor.
In closing Mrs. Graham stated her be-
lief that "Quo Vadis" is one Of the nota-
BILE books of the past year, without being
great novel. save as all conscientious
work Is great. 1t affords the best por-
trayal Of the Emperor Nero to be found
in literature. 1t is impressive and pow
erful. but 1t Is not convincing.
Mrs. Foster read a paper, written by
Dr. Dorothea Moore, on Hall Gaines
1.-The Christian" DR.. Moore's paper
maintained that art deals primarily with
certain kind Of fixity, and that prob
lem novel was a weariness to the flesh,
unless it showed some solution Of a
problem of soul or sense. To show what
real Christianity would suffer in modern
life, Hall Caine challenges criticism at
the start by attempting to prove that q
Christian life in London is an impossi-
biiity.
With this in view the author creates
a puppet, John Storm, fanatic, devotee.
ascetic and impassioned lover who flies
from one hysterical reform to another.
and to any woman who thinks she knows
her own kind, Gloria is the most remark
able being ever created.
The book offers many mistakes as to
the life portrayed, and is nothing but
a theatrical dream, full of peculiar and
insidious vulgarity in attitude, rather
than word. 1t is false coin and will not
pass in the world of letters.
Miss Mccullough read an instructive
review of Domestic Service" by Lucy
M. Salmon.
The last paper of the morning dealt
with types of American men as por-
trayed in fiction, and the subject was
handled in thoughtful and thoroughly
able manner by Mrs. Morris Cohn, who
showed, not only that she has read
widely and we'll, but that her mind has
assimilated its literary nourishment.
Touching first upon the conditions,
physically, commercially and geo.
graphically of the past and present in
America which must, of necessity, have
influenced national development and
temperament, Mrs. Cohn then proceeded
to detail. Taking different authors she
sketched in the types they have por-
trayed in their books and in several in
stances quoted from them to more clear
ly show her meaning.
The types that can hardly be called
such Of foreign writer's, as those Of
Dickens, Thackeray, Bourget, and Kip
ling; those of some one locality, as Bret
Harte's, Hamlin Garland's and Hopkin-
son Smiths characters, were touched
upon, and then the more general types
of Henry James,, William Dean Howells,
Brander Mathews, Balestier and Haw-
thorne, were compared and contrasted
at some length and in most interesting
manner.
Mrs. Cohn summed up by saying that
while the American character might be
a composite of all the elements that have
gone to make up our nation, we still have
acquired a character of our own; we
have profited by the examples of others
and we have been putting forth efforts
to improve ourselves in our own way,
and in time will produce the truest man,
hood the world has ever seen.
American men now display the truest
toward women, very different
from the obsequious ceremony observed
among foreign men toward women of
their own rank. An Americans chival-
ry extends to all women and is something
very different from the sham affair
which consists of an excess of Difference
and much bowling and scraping to ac-
quaintances and an utter lack of polite
ness to women who are estrangers-much