New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-28

Do truly good boys boast aloud that they are goode
Is not the condemnation Of Jack HOrner spoken IN
good boy; do we not know instantly that ne 3
But our poet has not left TO Us any possible
DOUBT IN the matter he Is man OF few words.
INTELLECTUALLY quiyers from end 70 end-wfth the
almost w0r5 BY OF wa4 SN d5S 5d -is may ~ .@A ss
First Of all We told that he little and
merely that he small Of stature That would
be no reproach- and our author does not employ
the glorious possibilities language
He was little in mind IN spirit and in abilities
JACK The poet viii not dignity him By he
name OF John-a name which has been held BY
martyrs, by saints This is cruel blow. but the
poet is inexorable, and even this is mild compared
So We come again TO that terribly suggestive
his Christmas pie a dish which above al others
N tne wore sno1-d De SWeelened and naloNed oy
from all kin and from al friends He uagnfaes
them unworthy OF him On. the horrible The
hideous: the narrowing blindness Of This sslf-ds-
eepIlo1! II IS ne VINO IS unworthy Of them. and
ne VIII not see! he VII not see
IKE resistIess torrent he put in his thunS,'s
Why should he nv 70 extract plum from his pie
feat We might well be puzzled at this. did not
a homely saving among speakers Of the English
say OF clumsy person that his fingers are AZ
words do We gain from this, No one would Try
10 20? O9Ae d pun lol g gS VIII M no mes mes
stroke, does the poet inform Us that Jack Horner
Then consider the bad manners implied in his
OF thumb IN eating a pie pie should %
eaten with a knife and a fork not with thumbs
with fingers Nor has the oft LIBERATED state
rnent that fingers made before forks any
bearing pOetcal and ethical qualities OF this
passa ge OF literature And here again our under
standing Is assisted by another writer and less
a writer than the greatest OF all English poets.
past. present or TO come For be says: II thol
never saweSt good manners, then thy manners
must be wicked. and wickedness Is sin, and sin il
damnatiOn
Can there be more or worse than this? Have ~
depravity OF Jack Horner can drag him. Alasi Va
never fathOm the abyss 20 which the soul may
be drawn by such evil living and evil thinking
There is more. II not worse. We allowed 70
pause only for instant contemplate ths
blindness the wilful ignorance the abandOnmeut
the helpless faulty OF tnar exclamation What a
good boy am T. and then the terrible end -
For have imagined you saying all along. How
do know that the self-esteen OF Jack HOrusr
utterly grOuudleSSt How Go know but. N
OF good such as were caDaoie OF developing and
How do We know How do We know An
friends. IL IS not after all in what this posrn
proves that its power lies. bur IN what Il does
prove Think OF IT, think OF it. you who capa-
bic OF better things, -Four u-rlC lines have %
The master whose hand wrote this work knew
when 20 speak and when 10 be silent And now
the silence comes We Know no more or JACK
HOrner. he never made himself felt IN the great
world He stirred the uoet 90 no further celehra-
ron OF the evil OF the good thar was IN him
IL Is as II the earth had opened and closed upon
him as ha uttered those words Il the very walls
had shut In about him and penned him IN that
cCruer forever II the end
Oh. friends, there may De prout m the evu AZ
well in the good Nav not We ourselves y
made better through the warning which the poet
has held before IN rhe uusDeaSao fate OF thia
pitiful OutCast. Jack Eornerf