The Portland daily press., 1900-07-19

Cdppou ny d ldCk Oh UdcG, OI VI VttSUo, III
the choosing of a pseudonym.
Once in while one comes across a
capital thing in literature which has not
been heralded, written up, nor talked
about, and yet it deserves the best that
can be said OF it. For instance, Mr..
Elwyn Barron's Manders is story as
charming and unusual as Trilby, but it
has made no such sensation with the pub
lie. And now have pitched upon as
bright and clever and entertaining a
novel rs Red Portage, and without the
glazing faults which make that much
admired work so unsatisfactory to me.
My 'fnd'' is a novel entitled The West
End, by Percy White, whomeyer he may
be. Never a word, so far as I know, has
been said in praise of this book, and yet
1t is as delightful a tory of English life,
society and manners as one need desire,
and recommend it unhesitatingly as
one of the very best works Of fiction OF
the season. Perhaps am no judge but
try it.
To the music lovers who can remember
the days when the Mendelssohn Quintette
Club of Boston stood for all that was
best in this country, at least, in the direc-
tion of chamber music, the Recollections
Of An Old Musician, by Mr. Thomas
Ryan, of this organization, will be a
real pleasure.
Mr.. Ryan, whose father was a soldier
IN the English army, begins his narrative
with his first impressions upon landing
in Boston, and his engagement as
fautsst at the Washington Street Theatre
at salary OF seven dollars a week. This
occurred in the year 1S45.
SIN moments of quiet abstraction, -
writes MIR. Ryan, Il call up and dwell
upon every past event from boyhood to
the present. I begin, perhaps, with sail
ing on the ship, my landing, my first
theatre employment. I pass on to the
formation of the Quintette Club, it's first
concert in Boston, the Jenny Lind visit,
the various orchestral experiences, the
opening Of the sBoston Music hall; our
clubs first trips and of New England and
to the West; my first sight of great Chi
cago and romantic California, Honolulu,
New Zealand and the other Australian
colonies; the return to glorious America,
the year with Madame Nilsson, and so
on, " until enc has a delightful history of
the music Of this country for the past
fifty years, its opponents and its patrons.
For myself, have read Mr.. Ryan's
book from beginning to end with unf1ag
ging interest, and have enjoyed i'm
mensely looking over the nearly fifty fine
Illustrations mostly portraits OF the
! famous musicians who have been listened
to in this country with great delight dur
ing the last half century, and of the men
who promoted the musical progress of
! America.
Perhaps there is no one better fitted to
write popular history of musical Boston
than Mr.. Ryan, and the musicians, &C
tors and actresses of whom he speaks, he
knew personally and intimately which
gives what he has to say an added charm.
1t would be quite impossible TO give this
interesting and beautiful volume too
much praise.
Among the new books from the pub
fishing house of Messrs. Doubleday,
Page & Company portland: Loring,
Short q Harmony, are Stanford Stories,
Tales of a Young University, by Charles
K EFleld (Carolus Anger) and Will II.
Irwin; Besieged by the Beers, by E.
Oliver Ashe, NJ D.; and Spencer and
! Spencerism, by Hector Macpherson.
The undergraduate is coming to the
front as far as fiction is concerned. There
ara stories of Smith college, stories of
Yale, Harvard and Princeton stories, and
now the Pacific Coast University of
/ Stanford rushes into print with volume
of sketches Of very creditable quality,
while the spirit and tone, the general
trend is quite like that of the Eastern
Co educational institution.
The stories are fresh and young, slangy
and wholesome, and prove that youth is
youth, and the same hopes and fears,
ambitions and failures loves and hates
wait alike upon the adolescent of the
Pacific Coast, and the youngster of Ssstern
and rock-bound New England The
chief difference is in the climate, which
means much, and n the more picturesque
setting of the romance and reality of uni
versity life in California, where at
! Christmas the odor of orange blossoms
and Oleander mlngleS With The scent OF
roses and violets, and the girls wear their
flmy organdies about the garden walks
with no fear Of a rude breath from old
Boreas.
In the first of the Stanford Stories,
Midsummer Madness, no wonder young
Van Dyke, who is from Montana, =
quite loses his head in making love to
/ q nrettv los AnreIes oirI nv mama
Dolores, as they stroll, in midwinter,
among the roses, or the girl, in her white
dress, stands at her gate against a big
clump Of flaming poinsettias Otherwise
the stories are quite like other college
sketches, and are chiefly interesting for
their local color.
DR.. Ashe's 'Besieged by the Beers is
! q diarr of life and auents in Z i'm ho,.lor-