New-York tribune., 1902-07-09
MAGAZINE NOTES.
GLIMPSES OF ENTERTAINING PAGES IN
THE JULY NUMBERS.

The place Of honor in "The North American
Review" this month is given to brief paper on
THE Storage Battery and the Motor-Car," by
Mr.. Edison, and if We are TO believe what we
are told, that this is a utilitarian age, innumer-
able readers will promptly absorb themselves in
this contribution. They might well do so. Mr..
Edison on such a theme is bound to be inter
esting. We have read also with much appreci-
alton Mr.. Cramps article on THE Steamship
Merger and American Shipbuilding." But We
have found ourselves wondering if a great many
readers would not skip" these two valuable
papers and plunge into Mrs. Edith Wharton's
criticism Of what she calls THE Three Fran
cescas." She deals. of course, with the three
plays in which Mr.. Stephen Phillips Signor
dAnnunzio and Mr. Marion Crawford, respec-
lively. have followed in the footsteps Of Dante.
It is extremely interesting to read comparison
OF these dramas by a writer Of Mrs Wharton's
special tastes and gifts. She is very happy in
her treatment Of them, and uncommonly per-
suasive. Good qualities she finds in all three
plays, and some bad ones. The weakness of Mr..
Phillipss she finds in the fact that the interven-
ton early in the play Of Lucrezia-whom she
aptly characterizes as 1.-The only man in it,
removes the important element of suspense,
and makes Of the remaining acts merely cpl
sodicaI progress toward an anticipated catas-
rrophe" She thinks that the author has un-
duly neglected local color, both in the atmos-
phere and in the psychology Of his play, but she
finds some good dramatic passages in the latter
and some fine poetry. Eight centuries and the
Alps she says, lie between Mr.. Phillips's Fran
cesca and Signor d'Annunzios. In other words,
she finds the Italians work more Italian, as is
natural enough; much richer in what We may
suppose TO be the true spirit Of the time. EX-
quisite incidental touches, she remarks. create
the peculiar charm of the Southern writer's
work, yet it must be owned" she adds that
these touches impede the action, and that the
drama, when stripped of them, shows a complete
arrest of movement in the third act.' She re-
serves most OF her space, and her most cordial
praise. for Mr.. Crawfords drama, saying:
Whatever the merits of the two other plays
and they are many-Air. Crawford has undoubt-
edly been most successful from the dramatic
point of view. He has written the best acting
play. His action is more rapla ana simpler La
than that of the other dramatists. and has
higher quality Of dramatic ineVitableness. he
has been clever in letting the surprise of the
lovers take place without the time honored de-
vice of the feigned departure. The psychology
of his principal characters is firmly drawn, and
though his play is bare Of metaphor as a
tragedy of AIferi's it does not lack high i'm
aginative touches where Francesca eXclaims
on the sudden darkening of the light behind her:
a touch which suggests, though on a lower
plane, such lightning flashes OF significance as
kea1s's
$50 the two brothers and their murder'd man
Rode past fair Ference
and Imogen's exclamation on the road TO Milford
Haven:
.@why, one that rode to's execution. man.
Could never go so slow.
The whole paper is full of interesting criti-
cisrl, and one does not need TO agree with all
of Mrs Wharton's points to find her readable
and suggestive. Indeed, it is TO be regretted
that while she can write so We'll in this vein
she should bestow so much effort upon fiction,
tn the production of which she is always handi-
capped by the absence of creative power. Criti-
cal writing like hers, sensitive. scholarly and
polished, is sadly needed In America, and she
gives us only too little Of it
The current sScribner'' opens with charming
paper by Mr.. Will H. Low, entitled In an Old
French Garden" He writes Of the beautiful
place at Giverny, in which, not long ago, he
spent some months painting. Some of his
pictures are reproduced to illustrate his pages,
and they serve the purpose very we'll. The text
conveys in light, agreeable fashion the authors
enthusiastic impressions Of what must surely
be lovely environment The authors notes
on the beauty Of the garden are varied with
vignettes of certain figures in it. We may quote
two of these portraits:
But this paragon of gardeners is handsome,
cleanIy set up, with curling hair, black eyes and
ruddy cheeks, that speak well for the good
Burgundy wine which he was sucked, for he
is a stranger in Normandy. He is kind hearted
and, by the testimony Of our little hleulleS, can
do some things to which even their papa cannot
pretend His presence in the garden was so
healthy and wholesome that, by common COM
pact we refrained from asking him TO pose for
U.s. lest he become self-conscious. On Sundays
he still finds work there, for why" says he,
should I go to the inn and play billiards when
happier here?" No early effect to be
caught ever brought me into the garden before
he there, and after sunset the watering pot
came out And through the long drouth the
garden blossomed fair. and what he laughingly
called ''the rain from the nozzle" supplied the
parched earth despite the lack Of rain.
To see a handsome trade handsomely and gal
lantly exercised is a noble spectacle and here
I take NV hat off 10 this Louis of the Woods
In this enumeration the cook calls for men
ton, not alone from the gratitude Of the stom-
ach nor because of her hoWerllke beauty, for
Artemse is distinctly plain But perhaps on
account Of her name predestined to be a chas-
seresse des bois We more than suspected the
existence OF vague romance between this pair
There also a disparity OF age for, taxed
with partiality for the gardener, she bluShingly
disowned the thought, she might be his
mother "or at least madame, an elder sister"
But even this slight romance, probably having
as its chief result the cOnfecton of choice dishes
for the delectation Of the gardener in the kitch
en-, served to keep alive our human interest
THE Century contains much fiction, the
Confessions of a Wife" being the freshest and
most characteristic-and most sentimental. But
sentimentality aside. the author-is ii Mrs.
Phelps ard?-certainly represents with mar
vellous truth the terrible tendency Of a sensi-
tive woman to aggravate unhappy situation.
Blameless and thoroughly within her rights,
Marina works herself more and more woe for
failing TO see the value of cheerful Indifference.
The story of the late Paul L. Ford, which opens
the magazine is merely mediocre.
Mrs Coatess lines on Picquart are worth
quoting:
For love of justice and for love of truth
Aye, twas for these, for these he put aside
nd