The herald., 1897-05-09

And hnd my rest.
But when the dusk filmy veil was wea
Ing
Back came the dove to seek her nest.
Deep In tho forest where her mate VI
grieving-
There was true rest
Peace. heart of mine! no longer sigh
wander;
Lose not thy life in fruitless quest
1here are no happy islands over yonder;
Como home and rest.
From the Rev. DR.. Henry Van Dykes
''The Builders and Other POEMS"
WHEN PEGGY COOKS
When Bridget rises In her might
And takes herself to sudden flight,
Then Peggy enters the domain
Where Bridget erst was wont to reign.
To rescue us from hungry plight
She plunges in unequal fight
With pots and pans, while with delight
And pride, watch and grow quite vain
When Peggy cooks.
How daintily she moves and light
i know whate'er she does is right
And wholly free from mar and stain.
And yet-and yeti find I'm fain
To dine down town upon the night
When Peggy cocks.
In reference to lately published an
ecdote of Campbell. one is reminded O.
Walter Scott's story. when I repeat
ed 'Hohenlinden' to Leyden. he said
Dash 1t, man! tell the fellow hate him
but, dash him! he has written the fines
verses that havs been published these
fifty years I did mine errand as faith
fully as one of Homer's messengers, and
had for an answer. Tell Leyden that
detest him.bu know the value Of his
critical appreciation
FICTION FIENDs
There are few things more alarming
than the prevailing craze for fiction.
While all admit that novel reading helps
the Imagination in a very proper and
necessary way. and that a high grade
of fiction, especially that which we call
historical novels, will always be av-
proved and commended. it cannot be
denied that the habitual reader Of sto-
ries. good and bad, Is lost to all that is
best in literature. He gets nothing for
all his outlay of time, not oveii tile L.~t
that is in the books themselves.
One librarian tells of a boy who aver
aged a novel a day. of the Optic or Alger
class. Another dicloses that he has
never known a case of improvement.
when once person has become a victim
of the novel "Once the habit is formed" !"
says he, "it seems as difficult to throw
off as the opium habit" The New York
Nation has some very pointed remarks
on the subject, a portion Of which We
herewith produce:
Nobody can stop the reading of f1c-
tion, but we can do something to prevent
the flourishing of fiction-fends. Every
where fiction furnishes the great bulk of
popular reading. The public library in
Salem, Mass. with all the noble literary
traditions of that town, reports S4 per
cent as the proportion of fiction circula
ted last year. In Carnegie Free Library,
situated, as Mr.. Stevenson points out
lin the heart Of Presbyterianism.' in
what is largely residence city. with a
university, three theological semina-
ries and excellent public and private
schools, the percentage of fiction circula-
ted is still higher-90 per cent. in fact.
indiscriminate novel reading. is the
thing to aim at. 1t is unfortunately true
that there are thousands Of readers to
whom a novel is a novel. and one is as
good as another. They do NO, crave the
vicious or the suggestive In fiction
they scarcely recognize these or any
other qualities when they meet them
but they love to surrender themselves
in complete vacuity to any kind of tall
that will keep them from thinking TIL,
thing they need to be saved from is thei
dead monotony Of Indifference. By {
blow on the head, If necessary, they mus
be given the idea that one novel--on'
piece of writing is better than another
They may have to take it on authorit.
at first and find out the reasons VIII!
later. Therefore we think it highly de
sirable that public libraries should be
gin giving them this blow on the head
It might start obscure, but in the end
salutary trains of thought in their mind
II all libraries were to follow the exampl
Of the Carnegie free library and say tt
them, mo, madam Cor sir). we have no
the immortal works of Fleming or Cla.
or Southworth, but we can give yo'
Scott, or Hawthorne, or Thackeray.'
MAURUS JOKAI
For more than fifty years Mauru
Jokai has been famous. He is now some
what over seventy, and still vigorous
In the Hungarian revolution Joliai wa
q leader and popular idol He has him
self written about his infatuation wit
politics. He says:
"Well, confess 1t 1 must, have
sweetheart for whose sake I have bee
unfaithful not only to my wife but t
my Muse also-a sweetheart who has ap
propriated my best ideas an
whose slave I was and still am. Ofte
have wasted half my fortune upon he
and rushed blindly into misfortune I
please her. For her sake have patient
ly endured insult, ridicule and reprobs
ton. For her sake have staked life an
liberty. Now II she had been
pretty young damsel, there might haN
been some excuse for me. But she We
a nasty, old, painted figurekead of
beldame; a flirting, faithless, fickl
foul-mouthed, scandal-mongering o
liar, whom the whole world courts, wi
makes fools of all her wooers ar
changes her lovers as often as 81
changes her dress. Her name is Polite
and may the plague take her!"
In the last number of Cosmopolis NJ
r. Nisbet Balm writes at some leng
Of Jokai's life and work in literatur