Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-01-18
Books and Authors.

Japan, Egypt, Holland, France, SwitZ-
erland, Sweden. South America and
Alaska. Among the interesting
sketches, which give ar idea of the
character of the volumes, are "Barba-
rian Babies Dining with a Manda-
rim" Some Little Egyptians" "A Visit
to Sweden" An Eskimo Breakfast
How much is in a name only novelists
KNOWN this case the title has great
deal to do with the perfume of the
been lost by George Eliot's famous
story if instead of The Mill on the
Floss" she had called it by her alterna-
tive selection, The Tullivers: Or Life
on the Floss!' This book by the way,
goes cut of copyright next spring.
Good literature loses a fond, loyal
friend by the death of Horace E. Scud-
der, who had been long associated in
various stations and services with the
publishing house now known as Hough-
ton, Miffiin & Co. Mr. Scudder was a
sincere and honorable worker in letters,
who employed his highly cultivated
gifts, which We're genuine, Industrious
~, modestly and with a large degree of
success to the entertainment and
strengthening of our lives. His early
work was chiefly for the young. For
boys and girls he made books. which in
their kind are models of good sense,
good taste and pure delight. They re-
flected the sane ideals and genial sweet
ness of his own soul. Hence their in
fiuence, never obtrusively didactic,
was noble and gracious. The range of
his literary work broadened with the
development of his power, and he pro-
duced novels, tales, essays, history and
memoirs, his latest completed work be-
ing a biography of his friend, James
Russell Lowell. For three years he
was editor of the Riverside Magazine,
and for eight years editor of the At
lantic Monthly. In every task and in
the conduct of life he was devotee of
truth and eXcellence.-Boston Herald.
The deplorab!e depth to which Mr..
Kipling has sunk in the production of
what he and the editor of THE Lon
don Times are perhaps pleased to re-
gard as poetry is not, alas! surprising.
THE Islanders" only marks another
stage in a process of literary deteriora-
ton which has been going or ever since
this man of genius began to write as if
he had received commission as
schoOlmaster to the British Empire.
This queer conviction, which has been
made manifest again and again both in
prose and verse, is possibly to be eX-
planned by the we'll known fact that
British colonials are apt to be more
From Mr.. Kipling's Anglo Indian
bringing up, and his many experiences
in the colonies, the vehemence of his
preachments is doubtless largely de-
rived. But we fear that there are 9TH
er causes at the bottom of his hortatory
campaign. His silly vituperation Of
1.-The fiannelled fools at the wicket as
he can call citizens of the country
which has given him so cordially the
hospitality of its shores, illustrates
only a recrudescence of that peculiar
taste which has marked certain of his
deliverances on Americans. Further
more, an important cause of his recent
decline in literary effectiveness would
seem to be serious diminution of his
sense of humor, the one thing indispen-
sable if a man is to be saved from TAX
ing himself too seriously. To those
who, like ourselves, have from the start
delighted to do him honor, these reflec-
tons are profoundly distasteful, says
the literary editor of the New York
Tribune.