The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-11-23
OUT AND ABOUT.


The poorest thing about it is it's name.
which is both weak and vague and,
what is worse, conveys no idea as to
the contents of the volume. Yet these
thirteen stories of bush and convict life
in Australia when parts Of that island
were used as penal settlements by the
English and of modern English life,
are among the most original and Wig
orOus of the year.
Mr. Hornung is the Bret Harte of
Australia, and in making this com
parison it must be taken into account
that the Australia and the California
Of 40 years ago had several points in
common. To both came hundreds of
reckless Adventures and criminals,
who pooled their vices for the com
mon woe as freely as they sometimes
lavished their earnings for the com
mon happiness. In both society was
equally heterogeneous, shifting and
experimental; the country was wild
and unsettled, and justice was print
tive and ill-regulated. Over it, in the
case of both, the imagination of a later
day has thrown veil of picturesque,
romantic charm, fOrgetful of what was
raw and brutal and low in 1t. and re-
membering only its keen zest, its high
courage and the splendid lawlessness
of it all.
Mr.. Honung has, of the two, the
poorer material His heroes are not
such gentlemanly villains as those Of
Mr.. Harte, nor do they evince the
youthful optimism of the Californian
miners of AZ, and their immediate sue
cessors. The two are birds of the
same feather but the English bird
shows his hard luck in q certain be-
draggl ement of plumage which his
American confrere, as a rule, not hay
ing been behind prison bars, however
much he deserved to be, has escaped.
There is something meek and penftent
about the one, while the other is iaunty
and cool to the last.
Mr. Hornung is the superior of Mr..
Harte in point of sentiment He is
also more dramatic. In humor he is
MS superior. There is a depth, a rich
ness of emotion in his work. that sell
dom ever reveals itself in that of the
American There is a tang, d grim
sincerity hard, cynical transparency
about it, that is sometimes almost bru-
tai IN its intensity, yet is entirely sane
and honest.
These stories are so fresh, so strong,
so artistic, that none who enjoys the
short story at its best should pass them
2y The book is on sale by Putnam,
Davis Il Co.
Miss Aus der Ohe, who has been play
ing in New York with all her old-time
success, has achieved something al
most more marvellous than her surerb
rendering of the Brahms concerto. No.
TO be too mysterious, she has been
Photographed, and the result is a Dor
trait really artistic and charming Con-
gratulations!
No one suffers more at the hands of
the photographer than Miss Aus der
Che, and perhaps this fact may ac-
count for her liberation of the photo
graphic libel that was exploited at the
festival. No one realized that il was
hideous nightmare of a. picture bet
ter than the lady herself
She spoke about it once quite frankly
and effectively, as if it were a third
person, laughing gayly at the thought
OF its impossible ugliness. Then, 81 am
always like that, she said THE
knowledge that I am going to be pho
tographed seems to make another
person of me. When l sit in the pho
tcgrapher's chair I know that 1 am not
myself. l cannot for the life of me look
or feel natural. [ always grow rjrId
and sit like an image, staring into va
cancy, without a thought in my head,
or an emotion-except that 1 am thor
Oughly miserable
Perhaps the New York photographers
are more ingratiating than those of
Berlin and Vienna; perhaps Miss Aus
der Ohe has learned to bear the rigors
Of the Photographic chair more physlo-
Il gically-and hygienically; perhaps the
art Of photography is farther advanced
in the new world than in the old. Al
I'll events, Miss Aus der Ohe has tri-
umphed, and is entitled to the glad
hand from all her friends on both sides
of the Atlantic.
Monday afternoon the newly
formed Shakspere Club of the Classical
high school held it's first meeting in The
lecture-room. Mr. c. e. Burbank, who
teaches Shakspere in the school, gave
brief address on Literary interpreta-
ton" and afterward read the first
scene of Hamlet A constitution was
then adopted and the meeting was adj
journed until Dec. 3.
The same refinement of taste which
characterizes Mr. Burton Holmes lee
lures is displayed in the booklet which
advertises them. Nothing pretter of its
kind, is likely to be seen in Worcester
this year than this little fabricated
brochure, with its bald, poster
like prints and its fascinating margi-
nal sketches.
Miss Mary Johnston, whose novel,
Prisoners of Hope" has attracted so
much attention, comes of a Scotch
Irish family, being lineal descendant
of one of the thirteen apprentices who
closed the gates of Londonderry in the
siege of 1858. She is related to Gen.
Joseph e. Johnston of the confederate
army in the civil war Her father was
a major in the same army. After the
war. he resumed his law practice in
Virginia, where few years later his
daughter Mary was born. Much of
her life has been spent in that state,
although she has lived at various times
in Alabama and New York, and is now
living in Birmingham, Alabama.
OF herself, Miss Johnston says: 'sMy
life has been that of most young wom-
en- of good family and fair advantages,
only differing, perhaps, in that, having
lost my mother nine years ago and be
ing the eldest of six children, l have
had upon me the care and responsible
ity of a large household"
She has always been an omnivorous
reader, but she wrote nothing until
some four years ago. Then, for her
own amusement, to beguile the tedium
Of a winters invalidism, she began to
write, chiefly verse. Prisoners of
Hope" was begun two years ago.
Mrs. Annie Seward of East Booth
bay Me-, is visiting Mr.. and Mrs. e.
]. Seward at II Melville street.
The Lend-a-Hand Club of the First
Unitarian. Church will hold a fair on
the afternoon and evening of Friday, !
Dec. 2. In case of a storm, the fair |
win be continued ON SATURDAY. after |