New-York tribune., 1901-07-21
CHE 2Getn'21o43k @riibmore.
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT-
SUNDAY, JULY p, 1901.

san Francisco Chronicle" to "'Fhe London
Times which we reproduce in another column
does more than correct the impression con
ycyed by a recent article dealing with Steven
sons life in the California city 1t suggests
the utter uselessness of those revelations"
which are al the time being offered TO the
public by friends or devoteeS of departed celeb
rites. Let Us suppose for the sake of argll-
ment that Stevenson really suffered the rebufrs
about which Mr.. Bell contrived to be so elo-
quent in The Pail Mall Magazine" Would
there have been any serious reason for the
commemoration of them in all the pomp and
circumstance of print? If the gallant ro-
mancer himself was inclined now and then to
look back with sorrow ut the hardships of his
earlier days, we may be quite sure that it was
weakness Of body that temporarily inclined
him TO morbid brooIing Once the fit passed
there could have teen no one gayer than
Stevenson in alludinS TO past troubles AS for
such an episode Mr. Bell dcscribed-for Mr.
Young authortativey to expose as mythical
Stevenson III his worst moments of depression
would have dismissed it as a trife. ANY man
worth his salt would dismiss it with the same
contempt. But copy must be made. the re-
yealers of important matters hitherto unpub-
iished" must have their little fling Such ut
any rate, would appear to be the case, though
we can't, for the life of us. see the necessity
Wv ordS are the medium for displaying
thought not the. thing to be displayed" These
particular words have not only a clear, but a
very familiar sound; one might even call them
trite. Yet in the essay on The Hunt for the
Word" which an anonymous author contributes
10 "Macmillan's Magazine" they come upon us
with a sense of rarity and freshness How
seldom do find in current literature any
evidence that the thought they express has
any influence whateverl The essayist himself
with justice tempered by gcniallty, neatly
gathers in the ScalpS of Il few of the more
conspicuous offenders against the law of lucid
ty which should govern the production of Eng
jish prose. He catches Mr. Marriott saying in
The Column'-a novel characterized by eccen-
tricities Of diction TO which we have before
this alluded-things like this: ITO her excited
Imagination the whispering laurcls were inim-
cal ana the column uprcared the stern moni-
tor Of an ideal slipping from her grasp"
That" says the essayist I'VE desire to state
nrutally. is not English, however one may take
IT, Tncre are hundreds of similar absurditlcs
n The Column" There are as many in the
writings of Mr.. Bernard Capes, whose amazing
style is also good humorcdly taken to pieces
'Macmillan's." Anectation and obscurity. in
act may be found anywhere ana 'thc pity
f it is that the men who run after these new {
INVENTIONS are men OF real talent" In that
act there lies the promise of better things
n their childhood they probably got over the
'roup and the munpS without much difficulty
Perhaps they will get over their literary {
nleasles in the same way
The Celtic language, il is said shows unmis-
taxable signs of revival in Ireland. All the