The record-union., 1897-12-06

which the many are searching. HIS
first experiment related to work IN the
West This volume is confined to ex-
perience In the East. Wyckon Is the
Young collegian who started out with
out a cent in pocket and worked for
two years as an unskilled laborer in
the far West to ascertain by actual ex-
perience the conditions and trials and
temptations Of a laborers life. The
Western experiences are to be made
public through the columns of "Scrib-
ners Magazine" next year. The pres
ent volume has this strong virtue, that
it is recital down to small details of
things as Mr. Wyckoff found them, and
not as viewed by him through the
glasses of pre-conviction, of theory or
notion. He assures us that he started
out as a common laborer with abso-
lutely 10 theories, nothing to prove,
but simply with the idea of present
ing the workers life precisely as he
found it.
From A. M. Robertson, 126 Post
street, San Francisco, we have
charming conceit for the holidays, In
the form of quarto independent sheet
calendar, entitled California Chinese
Calendar" Each month lis a page, and
each page is rich in pen and ink draw
ing by Solly Walter, the well-known
illustrator. All the sketches are taken
from life in San Francisco's Chinese
quarter. The work is very cunningly
done, ard is artistically credit to the
designer and executor. The sketches
are printed on tinted and very heavy
calendered paper, or, rather. boards,
and these are strung upon a silk cord
with an appropriate title cover. We
are thus given groups Of Chinese chill
| dren, merchants child and nurse,
| love scene in the quarter girls of the
| middle class, coolie women marketing
and at work, children at play, actors,
| styles of hair dressing, etc. The Cal
endar' sells at 80 cents
THE Voice of the Valley is a prose
poem by Yone Noguchi, with an intro
! duction by Charles Warren Stoddard
and an illustration by William Keith,
printed from photogravure on Japanese
paper. The volume is from the press
of William Doxey, San Francisco. 1t is
a very small book; there are but fifty
| one pages, all told In his introduc-
ton Mr.. Stoddard, the poet, says he
| had always believed that no man could
| do justice to the Yosemite Valley in
| written or spoken words. He had held
| that all the poet could do was to sug-
| geSt, leaving to the imagination to sup
| ply color. When he heard that Yone
| Noguchi had gone into the valley he
hoped this boy poet, whose soul lay
| bare and whose heart was naked and
| clean, would be able to strike a chord
that all the voices Of nature would
respond to, because he considers Yone
| Noguchi word builder of startling
originality and power, inspired by the
! charming audacity of innocence How
| far he has succeeded in realizing Mr.
| Stoddards hopes the volume will teSti-
! fy. Evidently that poet is not fully
| catisfied; clearly he never will be- Blu,
that he is surprised delighted and en-
chanted is proved by his writing the
introduction to the little volume. Mr.
| Stoddard apologies for the extrava-
| gances of his young friend. but he
praises his vivid imagination and poetic
spirit warmly, for he says: 'I glory in
the almost frenzied daring with which
| he has chanted The Song of Songs,
| which is Noguchi's."
Let us present a single page Of this
| poetic ecstacy, entitled Song of Day
in Yosemite Valley:
| u, thunderous opening of the unseen gate
| OF solemn Heavens eternal court,
| Ienold, clouds, tenants of the sky, sweep
| down from the Heavens unto a secret
| palace under the earth,
| Aye, mighty Yosemite-a glorious troop of
! - me unsuffering souls OF gods
| Marches on with battle-sound against the
unknown castle of hell,
| aye, a divine message of Heaven unto
! earth-the darksome house of mortals
to awake" ETC., etc.
The real wonder OF this little book is
the later pages, in the poem in which
the youth, unblushing and conscious
says: Il hail myself as / do Homer. -
| This is the Song of Songs to which
| Mr.. Stoddard alludes There are two
other poems in the small volume. One
the Hymn of Summer" is of all the
song of sweetness and true to poetry.