New-York tribune., 1902-07-01
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MORE REFLECTIONS BY MAX o'RELL.

TWEEN Ytfe ny YoT NJ An i Some Little Problems Of
Lothrop Publishing Company.
The vivacious Franco -Enelishman who writes
these observations on men and women refuses
TO apologize for his ungrammatical title, which
he thinks conveys something picturesque and
cosey which would not exist in the correcter
forms. 1t conveys the unpretentious aim of his
book, he says which in truth develops an enter
tanning but not very deep philosophy Max
ORell is at home in France England and
America, and he is fun of comparisons. France
is the happy country, for reasons which have
been amply developed before, the cheerfulness
and intelligence and simplicity of the people;
but is not the author ignoring what has fire.
quently been brought to notice in recent
years when he extols the attitude of the French
toward alcoholic beverages to the great dsad-
vantage of the Anglo-Sax The increase Of
drunkenness in France is fact that has per-
picked publicists who are not beguiled by the
cheerful picture of the humble citizen and his
wife at the cafe
He has his opinion of the modern young
man, who is conceited. assertive. blase. In
America he is pretty bad, as he is in France
and England; but American women are about
the best to put man in his proper place" He
admires in America, not the inventions and
discoveries. but those thousand and one little
devices which add much comfort to everyday
HE; and he cannot sufficiently praise the gen
eral intelligence of the people. The American
memory amazes him. He buys a railroad ticket
and the clerk observes that five years ago he
sold him to Oberlin, Ohio. You go into
an American hotel and ask if Mr.. John Smith
is there. psf" says the clerk to a hallboy;
go and see if $40 is in" He watches hotel
clerks sort hundreds of letters into boxes with
70 he baS
boys outside a hotel dining room receive five
hundred hats in rapid succession handing them
back without once making mistake. But if
you live in London hotel year the elevator
attendant will ask you every time. ''Whatfloor?'
The dream of a country without tips he found
rudely shattered in America soon as he got
to a place where he had to stay week; and
thereafter he "insulted" every American of
whom he expected a service. You find the GUS
tom even in the Antipodes. He says:
I once gave a copper TO an Australian native
Sir" he said, lit Is not coin of my color
want, it's of yours.
l like a good repartee. I gave him six
penny piece, and l never saw such a beautlful
set of teeth in all my life.
Max OReIl has much to say about women
and the relations between men and women. He
tells us the kinds Of women men do not like;
they the kind that after them; and the
acrid and assertive women. We all know of
Madame de Stael; but who on earth ever
heard Of Monsieur de Sta9l? Those women are
extinguishers Of and Stunned by them.
Those who please them are the bright pretty
and piquante women.e who say and do such
things as other women would dare say or
do; and the sympathetic women who admire
them and love them as we'll their company.
The finest old ladies he knows are those of
America, France and Italy; in England and
Germany the woman who has passed fifty years
OF age seems to apologize for daring still to be
alive. AS to the behavior Of men to women
he holds to the elder belief that in France and
America is to be found real politeness to
women and the more real is in America THE
most common of American men could teach a
good lesson tc the men of the world" even in
cluding the French who author is afraid,
live a little on the regulations of their i.nces-
tors in the times of Louis XIV and Louis XIV.
But the women in America take advantage OF
their position:
1 know Englishman who has to go to
America business once or twice every year,
and who sternly refuses TO allow his wife to ac-
company him
why don't you let her go?" 1 once said to
MY dear fellow" ne replied lit would spoil
her entirely. Women have Unborn in them
power of imitation which is most dangerous
] don't want my wife TO to America and
see women boss men they do there"
Well said !. yes, men are very polite and
reSpectIui 10 women IN lne Onittd states.
Polite! respectful he calculated; poor
devils, they are abject. absolutely abject"
But this author sure that Europe is des
tined to be conquered by the American woman,
as she is eXerting an enormous in
huence on Paris society; while he sees many
proofs of her influence English society. He
has not. may note. lost his power of writing
amusingly and of hitting the mark frequently
with clever phrase. 1t may be that this book
is Of a little thinner dilution than the books
that first brought him to the public view; but
there is much in Tween You an T. that will
entertain and prove quOtable