Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-03-07

books and by entertaining gossip
about authors, with pictures of new
literary celebrities, there is interest in
the experiment of the Baltimore Sun,
which has just established a thorough
going system of reviewing under the
direction of Guy Carleton Lee of Johns
Hopkins, aided by contributors from
40 other colleges, large and small, in
various parts of the country, Amherst,
Brown, Yale and Maine university fur
nishing the New York representatives.
In the field of science the merits of
such a method are obvious. AS the
Sun says
"A department of literary criticism
embodying the opinions of specialists
will have the weight of authority,
and, for obvious reasons, would be of
more value than the views of single
reviewer on the great variety of SUBJ
jects of which literature treats at the
present time. Books on scientific sub
jects, when analysed by writer's whose
lives are devoted to the study of sci
ence, take on a new interest"
In fiction, poetry and pure literature
in general, the advantages are not so
obvious, because these things belong
in the province OF the literary writer
quite as much IS in that of the pro-
fessor of literature. Furthermore, the
academic life, while it makes for accu-
rate knowledge, does not necessarily
imply the sort of ability required for
criticism, while the habit of daily lee
turing undergraduates is apt to breed
SORT of dull dogmatism which is very
funny VIXEN brought out into the light
of commor day. There have been
many queer instances of this, which
need not be dwelt on here. A minor
but pertinent case is to be found in the
comparison of two reviews of Mr..
Stedman's American Anthology, which
appeared simultaneously in two lead
ing reviews Tor January. One was by
Howells; the other by professor in
Chicago university. The mere liter
airy man wrote a vital, interesting and
valuable article, with the individual
flavor of the born writer. The pro-
fessor's review was dull, pedantic and
full of those false touches which in
stantly betray imperfect comprehen-
sion and sympathy. In the field of lit
erature it is doubtful whether the COL
lege faculties could better the work
of the professional critics. Nor does
classroom work, especially If it is
devoted to the correction of the Eng
lish of beginners, tend to develop a
broad and artistic sense of what Eng
lish should be. There is no pedantry
like that of your veteran teacher of
rhetoric, and as Mr.. Zangwill has put
it, the true aim is to write like a mas
ter, not like a schoolmaster. Often
this petty criticism oversteps itself, as
in the criticism which one of the Suns
academic critics makes on the Eng
lish of recent novel, "Eastover
Court House:
The window was the nearest object
on which to vent his anger. 1t reached
to the aoor and was his own. He
drew back his foot and kicked out the
lower panes one after another" Ac-
cording to the pronoun, it was Caring
toms anger which reached to the
floor, and was his own" and, as this
resulted in the spectacle of a gentle
manly and 'self-centered and calculat-
ing" (see page CD hero indulging, in
the relief afforded by kicking out"
certain unoffending panes (of glass p
1T is possible that the dimensions of
the anger are not overstated. Ger
tainly it was his own" both in origi-
nality and dignity of method and re-
suit"
Surely even freshman might know
that the window" being she subject
of the first sentence, naturally be.
comes the subject of the second, I'M
less there is evidence to the contrary.
With the psychology of the hero's ex-
pensive ebullition of wrath we have
no concern, but it is at least stated
with faultless clearness.
1t would be surprising If the imper-
ialistic movement in the Anglo-Saxon
world had no literary consequences.
and perhaps one of them is to be
AouAA AZ thC iASlcdStu disposition.
noted by more than one observer. to
pay more attention to English and
American books and less to those writ
ten on the continent. In reviewing
for the Baltimore Sun the craze for
European books which he thinks is
now declining, Guy Carleton Lee of
Johns Hopkins uniyersit. says:-
Not only the public was possessed
by this strange idea that the best
must perforce come of some other
place than Nazareth. 1t has been but
a few years since an admirable critic
Of literature in general published a
collection of literary essays, in which
he patronized Dickens, admitted that
there were some good points about
Thackeray, and went into ecstatic rap
lures over Tourgueneff and Tolstoi
Now, Tourgueneff and Toistoi have
merits. The former is unquestionably
the ADLER man OF the two; he has
power, earnestness and a certain fe-
licity in delineation of character; but
il may well be doubted IL, had Tour.
gueneff been plain Mr.. Smith and