The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-05-13
The L~iterary'Ou

One OF the May magazines mas
the danger OF infringement OF ccasE3-3l
bv publishing a revised set o. rules Ioi
the game OF ping-pong. Several weeks
ago TWO books on the subject We're pup
1isbed and the sponsors OF one began suit
against the other for infringement OF
convrigbt. II seems thai the name
."ping-pong was copyrighted, but whoth-
er the protection OF the law will extend
itself TO one publisher 10 the exclusion
OF all others remains TO be seen.
stewart Edward White, author of me
Westerners" and The BlaZed Trali,
has recently left New York for his home
in Michigan. Mr.. White has been spend
ing the entire winter in New York, Where
he has mingled ping-pong with story
writing. but when the signs OF spring De
gan to come. he heard the woods "a call-
ing" Every summer Mr.. Nhlte goes
North, either 10 an unfrequented secLtoh
of upper Michigan or to the HUDSON ods
Naturally enough, he writes
we'll Of the woods and its people. Is
-Blazed Trail recently published mas
called forth the most enthusiastic praise
from many Well known writer's ana
critics.
Mrs. Humphrey Ward has completed
a new novel and by the time IhiS mas
gone through the process OF serlallzatoh
another will have been prepared. Lazy
Roses Daughter is the title OF the pres
ent story, enough OF which has not YET
appeared to judge Of its character, save
that it is English.
John Morley Will have his Lie OF
Gladstone ready for fall p%ubllcatlon,
and at the same time another hrln VIII
bring out Bismarck's letters to the hrst
German Emperor. Maurice Hewlett
hopes to complete a new novel, 1he
Tuscan Crown before the close OF the
year. "
.Omar Khayyam, Jr.,' is a very clever
trayesty on the verses Of the Persian
poet. by Wallace Irwin, a young journal
ist of San Francisco, who may be re-
mcmbered as the author of The Love
Sonnets of a Roodlum.' The book has
lust been published. 1t is illustrated by
Gellett Burgess. Here are sample verses
from the collection:
What though Gorgona at the Portal
knocks
And charms the squamiest Serpent in
her Locks?-
| wear tobbachanalian Wreaths OF
Smoke.
And there are more Perfectos in the
Box.
Al, Love, tn Invisible Buskin at the
Gate
Illumes your Eyes that languored gaze
and wait,
And in their Incandescence seem to ask
The World-old Question:: rs my Hat on
S~traight?'
XIV.
A Grand Piano underneath the Bough,
A Gramophone, a Chinese Gong, and
Thou.
Trying to sing an anthem off the Key
O. Paradise were Wilderness enow!
Cecil Rhodes probably appeared as a
character in more novels than any one
man of his time. Morley Roberts took
him for THE Colossus Anthony Hope
FOR THE God in the Car" Kipling as the
personification OF much Of his impeIlai-
istic doctrines, and many other we'll
known writer's described the great Rhodes
under thinly yelled DISCUSSES in their
books.
Apropos of the Shakespeare-Baconian
controversy, a citizen of an interior town
in Ohio suggests a solution. He says
that an amateur company gave a per-
Torrance of Hamlet in the local theater
recently and he thinks that if the graves
of both Shakespeare and Bacon were
opened to see which one turned over the
great problem would be solved at once.
Here is a Commen of q New York edi-
tor which should be read by all interest
ed, not only in the publishing of books,
but also in the writing Of them.
For many months past he says, "a
publishing house (Which shall be I'M
named here has been sending us week
after week piles of bound volumes Of the
most varied kinds, protesting to contain
fiction, or poetry, or theology, or what
not. We nave looked into them all, at
first with the expectation of finding some
thing worth reading; in the end with the
hope Of finding out why in the world they
were published. They are all absolutely
hopeless and impossible from any literary
standpoint. The authors may nave been
misguided into the belief that any one
can write by the rate at which books are
produced nowadays; but they furnish
proof in black and white that some peo-
pie cannot write. 1t would have been a
mercy to them if some firm, but kind
critic had taken them in HAND and per
suaded them not to publish, even if they
must write. 1t would nave saved their
readers pain, and the reviewers, too, for
it is not pleasant to crush down ambition
for fame, or even the yearnings for
wealth. The publishers readers must be
a more than charitable lot; it is hard to
say what stuff they would reject If they
accent this pprh9nS tho oirc1o IF oocl
authors friends is large enough to alb
sorb an edition. Some of the books have
apparently passed through more than
one. 1t may be that these authors have
discriminating friends, like the wealthy
Boston merchant with a literary daugh-
ter. She wrote novels and had them pub
lished, and then her father bought UP the
edition and stored it in the cellar in one
Of his warehouses. Her collected works
were all found there when he died. But
what has a reviewer to do with this