The Saint Paul globe., 1900-01-28
BOOKS OF THE HOUR
GIN GHOsTLY JAPAN" A WORK
WORTHY A MASTER OF LIT
ERARY CRAFT
ROMANCE OF OLD NEW YORK

Pleasing Story of Life In the Col
onial Days Well Drawn as to
Character and Not Wanting in
Dramatic Power-Reviews of New
hooks-Features in the Current
Ma agazines-Literary Notes.
"In Ghostly Japan" by Lafcadio Hearn,
lecturer on English literature in the
Imperial University of Toxic Little,
Srown 6 Co, Boston.
The passing reader has learned enough
of the personality of Lafcadio Hearn and
of his career as the adopted child of the
Orient to find interest in anything which
emanates from his pen. The serious
student of English literature knows him
as one OF the foremost masters of literary
art. This production sustains his high
position as poet and literary artist 1t
consists Of a series of fourteen essays
devoted to different aspects of Japanese
life. They are flowers of the native
poetry, and the literary vases in which
they are presented to view by the author
are of workmanship so delicate and so
fragile as to suggest in themselves the
Oriental rather than Occidental art.
The essay entitled Incense" reveals to
the Western reader the strange and
beautiful part which incense has always
played in the life of the Japanese people.
japanese life is spent amidst the perfume
of incense. 1t is found in the dwelling
mouse as well as in the temple, in the
nome of the peasant as in the yashilxi of
TIE prince. Its ubiquity makes clear the
love OF perfume which seems so natu-
raj TO race with whom the bud and
hover may be said to be omnipresent.
In Japanese literature incense Is spoken
OF as the message of earnest desire.
When the rich suddota wished to invite
the Budha to repast he made use of
incense. He was wont to ascend to the
roof of his house on the eve of the day
preceding the entertainment and to re-
main there all night holding a censor Of
precious incense. AS often as he did this
the Budha never failed to come on the
following day at the exact time de-
sired"
The psychic element is present
throughout this wonderful series of jap
anese sketches. Much of it will not ap-
peal to the imagination of the more prac-
t1cal Western mind, and some of it will
not enter at all into the Western compre-
hens1on, but no lover Of true poetry can
acqua1nt himself with the contents of
This beautiful volume, which is printed
on the finest of paper and superbly Illus
trated, without the keenest enjoyment.
fIn Old New VorI- >,
'In Old New York" Wilson Barrett and
ElWyn Barron. L. C. Page & Co,
Boston.
This book of unsuggestive title is a ro-
nance OF pre-Revolutionary Stimes. 1t
treats Of the Dutch era in Manhattan
at the period when old 4 K1ickerbocker
life and usages may be said to have
been passing away. 1t is the Transition
period and deals with the great netropo-
lis while yet it held but an unimportant
place in the life of the American colonies
With the village of Greenwich still in
existence and the beauties Of nature still
unspoiled life at the lower corner Of
Manhattan island in those days was a
healthfuf and almost a primitive life.
The characters which this collaboration
OF playwright and a novelist present
On the stage are well drawn and repre-
sent the characteristics of New York life
during that period quite naturally The
dramatic possibilities of the story which
is outlined can hardly be said to have
been availed Of to the limit, notwith-
standing that one of the authors has
his life associated with the drama In
dee6s the story is distinctly disappoint-
Ing in It's final outcome, and the ten
Aency throughout it is to transform one
who possesses many of the qualities of
the cad into hero. The real hero of the
story is treated with but scant considera-
ton, and he dies at the hands of the
chosen hero in a manner which would
today carry with it the stain of indeIible
coWardice to his slayer.
0ne of the most lifelike and interest
ing characters of the book from a his
torical standpoint, is the shrewd and
phlegmatic Dutchman, Evert Vanbergen,
possessing all the business faculty, COM
bined with slowness in speech and ac-
tion, characteristic of his race. He is
one Of the few even at that period who
have some Idea Of the wonderful possi-
bilities of Manhattan island as a center
of commerce, and INDUCES himself in the
apparently wild prediction that some
day New York may reach as high as
$4,000 population.
The book opens with a spirited scene
on the race course, in which the rivalry
between the native product and the rep
resentative of the mother country, end
in its inception. The race. is between an
English imported horse and Virginia.
bred animal, Black Dan. The colonial
horse, when on the point of winning, is
shot down, victim of the jealousies
and animosities which were then show
ing themselves. The owner Of the horse,
Jacob Wilbruch, is the real hero Of the
story, an Anglo-Dutchman, with all the
quiet and certitude of purpose of his pa
ternal ancestors. He is q gallant but
unsuccessful rival in the affections of
Louis Vanbergen, and his love Is made
of no value with the appearance on the
scene of a young Oxford graduate, son
of retired English lawyer, whose health
has forced him to seek home In the col
onies.
The view which the book presents of
the social life of the day, with its pas
sion for gambling and drinking, is drawn
with much exactness and fidelity Of de-
fall 1t brings into the foreground the
aristocratic tendency of the period and
reveals, beneath all, the working leaven
of American liberty The view of the
Dutch kitchen, presided over by the
wife Of Evert Vanbergen and her daugh-
Ter. the heroine of the sorry, IS refresh
Ing in the atmosphere Of Dutch thrift
md cleanliness which 1t exhales. The
social life of the day is comparatively
peaceful because, save for the trouble
existing between England and France,
there is naught to disturb the solitude of
the Manhattan Of that time.
The chief value of the book will be
found to lie in its historical character
and in the clear view which 1t presents
of one of the principal phases of life in
a community which is soon to become
practically the center of a worlds COM
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