New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-17
LITERARY NOTES.

startling are the revelations that sometimes
burst forth, IN the most casual manner. where
surprises OF the thrilling sort are least expected
as for example. in book review by Mr.. Ed
rnond C;osse That gentleman, having occasion
70 aIlude 20 the Sar Peladan the presiding
genius of the Rose CroiK" Salon. OF picturesque
memory reminds us how he. the Sar. used TO
address crowded assemblies of fashionable
ladies' in a robe Of astrachan and high white
chamois leather boots. under a pentacle Of fire.
ana interpret Babylonian mysteries in a loud
and terrible voice. What il the gifted oracle
doing now? He Is. Mr.. Gosse believes, trav-
eller in bicycles for a Toulouse firm.
Messrs Raphael Tuck & Sons announce
prize competition for collectors of their deco
rated post cards. There IS a long list of rules
provided. but the great point which Jumps to
the eve is that the object Of the competitor
must he to collect many he can Of these
post cards-that have passed through the mails
between March, 1902, and June, 1903. We
shrink from the heavy task of summarizing the
rules aforesaid. which make a most portentous
array, but it is easy to say good word for the
greater number OF the specimen cards which We
have received with the prospectus. These bear.
variOusy. quaint, pretty humorous designs
IN color. or reproductions from photographs Of
scenery and historic buildings The scope of
me series afnuSnslg suggests the pains taken
nowadays to accommodate the tastes OF those
countless individuals who dearly love fad.
Sir Mountstuart Grant DUFF. a mighty diarist
n ever there was one. has only had TO dip into
HIS voluminous pages TO find entry clearing
up the doubt still existing in some quarters as
10 the authorship Of that criticism in The
Edinburgh Review" which drew Byron so
effectively. Prefacing it with the remark that
sfa fR Of he
quotes from his diary for February %. 1871, and
sends 10 The Spectator this interesting frag-
lment: The Breakfast Club met at Pollocks.
and Lacaita told that Lord Brougham con-
fessed in his presence at Brougham Hail. after
denying IL for thirty years. thas he had written
THE article In The Edinburgh Review which
made Byron write English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers
In Seeds Of Aprirs Sowing" Cthe Saalfield
Publishing Company slender book OF verses,
Mrs. Adah Louise Sutton brings together a
number of rhymes about flowers. love and other
sentimental things. including the joys Of do
mesticity, babyhood and on. turning her lines
with creditable facility Here and there she at
tempts sterner motive. with results which
may be fairly illustrated by the following quota
ton:
ACROSS THE PARK.
Across the park see the lights
Spring up with many tv1nkiing spark;
Like elm eyes they CLEAN o nights
Across the Park
Beyond the boughs OF naked trees
That lift their branches. grim and stark.
The lights Of the great factories.
Across the Park
Wide goblin eyes. with laughter rife,
They glitter through the ICY dark:
Mad eyes that mock at love and life
Across the Park.
Nj ". J. Longs fascinating nature studies
cannot but appeal to the taste Of The Satur-
day Review critic, but that particular Eng
lishInan is grudging ever to writer hailing
from the United States He suspects IAN alli-
anoe between fact and fiction" and thinks that
in the frankly imaginative chapters Mr.. Long
misses the verisimilitude Of Mr.. Kipng's HUI
man animals by crowding an uncomfortable
amount OF local color into the talk Of the ami
mails. This is surely puerile. The critic ap-
pears TO think. further. that there is not suffi-
cient faithful observation i'm the sketches, and
this is a comment that Mr. Longs American
readers know is something worse than puerile.
And here follow some comparisons by the Eng
ushman: Among English writers natural
history-and il is their special Tirtue-the sub
ject has been treated if it had a sanctity
Of IT'S and fidelity comes first in the Writ
ues. To record wrong observation is to them
the lie in the soul. to invent a psychology
is a liberty: and it is this reverence for truth
in the observer that gives occasion to hot quar-
rels details, which 10 American would
seem ludicrOus and produced the criticism that
Whites 'Selborne was the dullest book
written. Even Burroughes always delightful
and on the songs Of birds astonishingly accur-
ate in description. thought first about the pretty
popular way to put the thing Thoreau again.
snimitable in the conveyance Of the philosophy
OF his life and the sense Of JOY in it. was a
more we should have known of Walden if
White had lived there year two and of the
Concord if Buckland had heen on it a week.
In spite Of this one may stiI prefer TO read
Thoreau: but naturalist a faithful oh
server OF the little things. cannot compare
the two men"
Mr.. Edgar Fawcett, who has not written much
81 late. is TO have a story I'm the Christmas
~Idppinoott.'' He calls it The Resurrection Of
Edith"
The latest instance of a hitch between State
and federal statute is supplied by the case OF
the author OF animal stories who has gone by
the names OF Seton and Of Thompson in various
mixtures BY this time every has been dill
gently instructed as 10 how the author of the
and a descendant Of an old English house Of
that name; how he was adopted by one Thomp-
son. Canadian, and how it occurred to him to
hyphenate the names. Mr. SetOn-Thompson.
sometime Mr.. Seton Thompson and sometime
Mr.. Seton then bethOught himself of the next
possible step. and persuaded the Legislature TO