The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-12-13
MRS. WATTS LECTURE
Current Literature Discussed
By the Glass Yester-
day = Elsie Books
Weak.

Horace c. Waits residence, Clinton and
Madison avenues, were again thrown
open 70 the members of her class. 1t
was Mrs. Waits day, and She spoke Of
the current books in literature. Mrs.
Wait first touched upon her lecture Of
two weeks ago, when she had spoken of
the novel of purpose. Novels" she said,
might be divided into four classes, the
emotional. as, for example, The Chris
tian,' the fantastic, as The Prisoner of
zenda.' and Rupert of Hensau'; the
mystical, as sAylivin,' and the historic, as
The Adventures of Francois. by Dr..
Wier Mitchell. n some of Walter Be
SAINTS works.
Mrs. Wait then spoke Of the difficulties
under which an author must work., now
he must be both artist n artisan, say
ing, How can he learn? Did it ever oc-
cur to You that we have no school for
writer's? The artist has his school, the
sculptor has his. / claim the man who
writes a ook- a double genius. A book.
in the first place, like The works of Will
lam Shakespeare, must touch human ma
ture that make the whole world kjn,
then it will live. 1t must have not only
reality but ideality."
The lecturer then spoke of books that
were hits on the times. She did not be-
lieve that books written on provincial
corners of the globe would live long, and
from here went on to speak of the critic
isms on books, and how the majority of
these criticisms were made without thor
oughly reading the works. 1T is said of
one man in New York" said she, chat he
criticises best the books he has not read.
After all it makes very little difference
what the public say, the public cannot
kill a book.,,
Under the head of books which had fer
their purpose social reform, Mrs. Wait put
Walter Besant's "An Sorts and Condi-
tons of Men, the result of which is the
Peoples Palace in ondon George Ell
liot, she said, had also been classed as a
social reformer, but this, she thought,
was a great mistake, as one of her books
Romola) at least took her out of that
realm.
To Christmas books, or books suitable
for Christmas presents, Mrs. Wait also de-
voted a portion of her lecture. Among
these she named "Her Ladyship's Ele-
phant," by D. B. Wells, a new writer,
from whom the public will probably hear
more Mrs. Wait gave a brief review of
LIE OpClAltl6 Chapters u iIlS DOCK. saying
1t was a great hit, a remarkable book and
a good story, suggesting that if any of
the ladies present wanted to- see their
husbands or brothers laugh they
should present those individuals with
a copy for Christmas. A well
chosen book, she said, wa al
ways q suitable present for a man
STORY of a Railroad and ssTony Brown
were also Suggested for the same psr-
pose, or il the man was a student, Mar
ion Crawford's civilian Norris
There Is some consolation said Mrs.
Wait, lin not being great She was
speaking of Shelley and his poems, espe-
cially of those which had been brought
to light within the past few weeks, and
which she said it was a pity the poet
had not destroyed, as he had probably
never meant them fer the public, and
they were not like him. She also spoke
of other instances of the kind where old
papers had been brought out and pub
lished after the authors death.
Books for children" was the head of
another division of Mrs. Waits lecture.
You can teach children" said she. sthe
beauty of a book by giving them books
well written. People make a great mis-
take by putting old books in the hands
of children" Mrs. Wait here Illustrated
her meaning by the story of a young
girl who had lost all interest in books be-
cause She had read such old books as
a child. "A healthy girl said she,
"likes a boys book because it is full of
life and adventure" The speaker did not
think there is much healthy tone in the
Elsie books and recommends such books
as Men and Women" for the juvenile
mind.
In speaking Of art and artists of the day
the drawings of Philip May were specially
mentioned. and the paintings of Tissot,
especially, in the latter, with regard to
their rich coloring. Sergeant and Abbey
were also mentioned, and regret express
ed that they had gone to Europe. because
art was as much appreciated in America.
Mrs. Wait touched upon the death of
William Black and his works, and con-
Guided her lecture by reading a part of
Josephine Woodward's letter in last
Sundays "Tribune' on the sReporter,s
Opinion of the Gu Woman, prefacing
her reading with the remark thai in
amateur work it was hard to hear the
truth, but that a good, honest woman
wanted honest criticism. sor, If she were
silence.
After the lecture, followed a short dis
~cussion, in which the ladies asked ques-
ticns and gave experiences. One lady said
she really would like to know what books
were fit for children, as last Christmas
thirty-three books CAME into her house.
all of which she had to read before they
passed into the hands of the children.
With scarcely a single exception the en-
tire class agreed hat the Elsie books are
weak.
Mrs. Marian Leland concluded the after
Moons programme with an extract from
Richard Harding Davis work. There
Were Ninety and Nine in (which the
boy plunger'' realizes too late his mis-
takes. In this class OF work Mrs. Leland
is especially good, and in her portrayal
Of the characters she mentions one can
almost see them live again. During the
afternoon Mrs. Robert Lyle rendered an
excellent solo.
Refreshments were served, and the
ladies' went forth into the snow to meet
again on Monday next, when Miss Beas-
ton will take up the political side of cur
rent topics.
On the second Monday in january Mrs.
Wait will lecture on the Adventures of
Francois.
Among those present yesterday were
Mrs. Robert Lyle, Miss Louise Edge. Mrs.
Mrs. Miller. Miss Miller. Miss Mcbride,
Mrs. Mcbride, Mrs. S Williams, Mrs. y.
Wells Mrs. j. b. Pond. Mrs. Willard Fisk.