The record-union., 1899-11-12

SACRAMENTO, SUNDA
London verancular, a .'swede-norer' g.
e., a "swede-gnawer'), "turnip-
muncher"
Kapustaik, "Cabbage-eater," a Rus
sian.
Katzaps. natives Of Western Russia
NJ. Jokai, the famous Hungarian poet
ana novelist, whose marriage at a
years OF age to a pretty actress Of % is
announced, was himself married for the
first time at %, and under the most ro-
mantle circumstances.
He had Joined the revolutionists, and
was taken prisoner and sentenced to
death. His bride, however, managed to
secure his escape by bribing the guards
with the money realized by the sale of
her jewelry Bride and bridegroom fed
into the woods and there, like the
Nbabes in the nursery story, lived on
blackberries and slept on beds of leaves.
When the danger was over they made
their way to Budapest
Jokai is the younger son of a Magyar
tended him for the legal profession. He
SHE'D at the law, however, and at the
age of II began a wonderful career of
writing. He was from the first liter
airy champion of Hungarian freedom
1t is said that he has written more
than $50 books. He cleared profit of
100000 by the publication of the great
edition of his works. The Emperor
Francis Joseph in 1897 made him a life
member of the Hungarian House of
Magnates.
Pittsburg Dispatch After the death
of his wife Poe was a frequent visitor
at the home of Mrs Shew, an elderly
lady and writer of considerable note,
who was much interested in Poe's lit
erary projects. During one of his Wis
it's Mrs. Shew persuaded him to drink
some tea in conservatory, whose open
windows admitted the sound of church
bells and gave him some paper, which
he declined, saying: II SO dislike the
noise of bells tonight I cannot write.
I have no subject am exhaust ed
Mrs. Shew then wrote, 1.-The Bells, by
E. A. Poe" and added, 1.-The bells, the
little silver BELLS On the poets fin-
ishing the stanza thus suggested, she
again wrote, 1.-The heavy iron BELLS
and this idea also Poe elaborated, and
then, copying off the two stanzas, head
ed it, by Mrs. NJ. L. Shew." Few peo-
ems have ever been written that con-
tanned livelier jingle than 1.-THE Bells, -
yet at the time they were composed
Poe was almost heartbroken over the
recent death of his wife; he was psn-
, niless, and the future seemed to hold
out nothing for him Many stories are
told of his condition when 1.-THE Ra-
ven" was written. some biographers
asserting that Poe was at the time on
. the verge of delirium. "Annabel Lea"
his other most famous poem, was. it is
said, inspired by his love for woman
whom he had known in his boyhood
The peculiar conditions under which
Russian literature has grown up have
brought out a close intimacy between
the political ideals of the cultured class,
on the one hand, and their fiction, on
the other Silenced by the censor. the
reformer is forced to call upon the novel
to convey his message This is the
characteristic feature of Russian let
ters. 1t involves point of view which
countries otherwise circumstanced may
find it difficult to appreciate, and that
accounts for the unusual seriousness
with which the educated Russian takes
his fiction.
i No nation has a theory of art 50
clearly defined, nor one so firmly i'm
bedded in the traditions of the intelli-
gent classes, as is the theory which
forms the underlying principle of Rus
sian criticism: and one of the essen
tial points of THIS theory is that book
of art must also be work of educa-
ton. Art for arts sake" is out of the
question in country where the poem
must take the place Of the editorial,
and where the story teller, who does
not make his fiction a criticism of life,
is looked upon as something like a pub
lie officer who betrays his trust
A literary creed such as this would
seem to be fataEto art, and the fiction
based upon it doomed to degenerate
into that species of sermon-novel which
is a bad sermon and a worse novel, YET.
so far as Russia is concerned, the
curse has turned out to be a blessing.
Sermonizihg is just what the censor
, will not allow: so the novelist must try
to make his pictures talk, to let life ex-
pose it's own wounds. For, like those
well-bred ladies of whom Thackeray
tells us that they did not mind looking
, at the trousers of hundreds of men.
though they would have been shocked
to hear the word uttered, the censor, as
rule, does not prevent subject of
the Car from painting Z, spade, but
he will not let him call it by its NAME
1.-The Younger Russian Writer'S" by A.
Cahan, in the Forum.