The times., 1898-04-03

Songs From the Ghetto" by Maurice
Resented, which will be published by
Copeland & Day, labors under the dis
and although translation is published
with it. every one knows that a transla-
ton of poetry is very unsatisfactory un-
less made by a poet. Any one who
knows German, however, can, with the
help of the translation, disentangIe
enough of this Verse to make sure that
1t possesses a lyric charm of it's own.
and very great one.
A translation of the novel written by
Petronius, the historical character who
is the central figure In Quo Vadis.' is
about to be made by Harry Thurston
Peck and the book will be published bv
Dodd, Mead & Co. This fact will have
considerable interest for the admirers of
that popular work of fiction.
Theodore Watts. the English critic and
poet, recently published volume of DO
| ems. At about the same time he chang
ed his name to Watts-Dunton MANY
people wondered what this newness
meant but George Meredith said that
he thought perhaps Mr.. Watts did not
want 10 run any chance of being mixed
|
| lshed poems once upon q time
Admirers of Jerome K. Jerome will re-
| Joice at the news that he is about to
publish another volume of ESSAYS SINH
lar TO Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. -
| If Mr. Jerome will only write a few
| more books like the three which made
him famous, there are many people Ubo
Will pray that he may be forgiven all
ms sins, no matter what they are.
The Boollman for April devotes several
| pages to the consideration of Kipling's
american Notes" and seems ia seeI
| grieved that the youthful genius said CO
many harsh things about us 1t really
| seems as if Mr.. Kipling might be forgi-y-
| en- for that sin of his youth after eight
| years of the sort of work he has been
| doing, especially as the letters in question
| We're written for a paper in India with
| Whlch ne was once connected. and could
! never nave been circulated in America
| at all had not an INSCRIPTIONS American
| publisher issued pirated edition. one
| OF the things to which the Bookman oh
| Jects Is the pungent criticism which he
| made of our methods of stealine, hool-e
] from across the water: and If there is
| anything TO be said in defense of that il
| might be well to hear it, Another thing,
Whlch the young Anglo-lndian disl,ked
| was our dialect as he heard il in the
| streets We are apt to forget that when
| people travel through our land thew do
| not judge US entirely by the people of the
| upper classes-our best; they Judge rs
| by the average person they meet, and the
| result is not fiattering. OF course il NAV
| be argued that Kiplng had no business
! to write anything about us at all until
ne had lived in our country for years. but
| after all the books of travel that have
| been hastily written by Americans re-
| wiling the customs of other lands that
| charge would be slightly absurd Anotb
! er thing TO which much objection was
| raised at the time the american Notes.
| appeared was the ridiculous aspect which
| was presented when, with half the length
| OF the continent laid out in utterly unpro-
tected coast line and an infant navy.
| some American patriots boasted that we
| could whip the world. Within the last
! two years nearly every newspaper in the
| country repeated substantially the same
| arguments used by Kipling. to prove that
| such boast was ridiculous A man who
can. at an age when most of our vcuths
are IN college, sum up a situation in thai
mastery style, after hasty tour of oh
| SerVation, is entitled to more credit for
! his truth-telling than abuse for the man
| ner of it. Another objection of the Book,
man is levelled at a satire on the meth
| ods of journalism used by the New Yorl,
| World The absurdity of obiecting TO
| that is patent on the face of it.