The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1898-04-14
BRANps CRITICISM OF QUO VADIs."
sRANua looNooLAar FOR ApalL


Mes, I've read it and when ] had
finished the miserable thing my
head felt as tho full Of wind and dish
water A critic is compelled to read
every book Of which 4 foolish public
makes fad, and In this era Of decadent
j literature and depraved taste the task is
usually equivalent to wading thro' a
miasmic sewer or hoodng it over an
/ improbable Sahara. II book is only
bad enough II is sure of popular sue
cess And Quo yadis' is the worst
Eofa an the iremediable tommyrot over
which an undiscrininRting public has
rayed. 1t does not even possess the
doubtful charm Of artistic immortality
-it sinks even below the usual level Of
insutferable imbeciIity Whore 1t Is
not morally corrupt and beastially bad
Iit is either puerile or blasphemous
"Quo Vadis" is a mental mooncalf a
chaotic ollapodrida composed Of the
intellectual fagends Of The universe
To the normal mind it Is neither enter.
tanning nor instructive. II is con
glomeration Of meaningless words, o
consatenation Of absurdilies, acotaclysm
Of hescienco and nonsense, 1t should
have been subjected to the Dluo-peneil
Of the snake editor then burned.
The story, which occupies more than
500 dreary pages, could have been bet.
ter told ia a dozen newspaper columns.
It Is a lingering agony long drawn our.
It is just such a book as Iwould expect
a Texas editor to write while enjoying
an attack Of the delirium tremens.
Bsading It were like seining the ATTAIN
tic ocean TO find q bullfrog or fishing
in one Of Talmage's idiotic sermons for
a nascent idea. The author isa Poland
er with the constructive ability Of o
candle,maker and the lawless imagina.
ton Of q pack peddler lie calls him
self Henryk sienldewicz That's the
way he spells it--when he wants to
pronounce it be fills his mouth with
hot mush then turns a series a sommer
saints The translation is by jeremiah
Curtin, who hid from The police in the
Gautemalan wildg while perpetrating
his crime against the English-reading
world Mr. Henryk sienkiewicz is an
innocent looking party altho Ono
Vadis" is not his first offense His head
resembles q long green Georgia water
melon that has been several times
plugged, but being nnripe had not
been pulled His characters are all
automatoms you zee the strings and
hear the creaking Of the pulleys as they
proceed TO cut fantastic eapers before
high heaven You no more expect to
meet one Of them on the street than to
see a wooden Indian in front Of tobac
co store hit somebody in the head with
IFS tomahawk When you read the
last chapter you expect TO see the
author take Of their legs, unscrew their
heads and put them away il O box with
grease paints
Quo Vadis is an alleged narrative
Of the time Of Nero but the author
evidently expended little time OF labor
acaualnting himself with the people
among whom bis scenes are laid He
reminds me Of that Dutch philosopher
who having never seen a lion, attempt
ed to evolve a correct idea Of one from
his inner consciousness and produced
a uongrel cross between a hippogria
and . nightmare His Nero resembles
the efstwhile emperor about az much /
as Catalins doe Chollie Boy Culbenon 1
while his early christians reminds me
81 a populist convention fl Kansas
About all chat the author has learned I
of ancient Rome 8 the names Of The
streets and the ro5ms N tathhouse
ind residence. ard thes Be repeats
with tho tiresome industry q pedant
q tie ergsrerlhng persistence of
7olI parrot ] had q hirs B nigger 2
.wab me 81 ID 8 vet towel white I
cad the work, and all got Ont Of il Il
vas q job lot of misiuformatioa and