Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-23

are drawn in pen and ink, and their
elaboration generally requires the page
or so of humorous description that he
gives 10 each one. They Will doubtless
be the subject of much attention Wnen
the book appears.
w d. HowelIs interchangeable activity
will bear fruit this autumn in two new
books that the Harpers will publish
One that will appear in October VIII be
called Literature and Life and VIII
ho n sort OF companion volume to his
LITERARY Friends and Acquaintance
that was published two years ago-full
of "Reminiscences and comment such as
Mr. Howells can write in so delightful
n vein. The other is a boys book, The
Flight of Pony Baker," it is the story
from a boys point of view of Pony's
life in a little town; how he resented
being "babied" by his mother, objected
TO his fathers sternness, contemplated
Joining the Indians, and then circus;
and shows why these temptations came
10 him and now he emerged from it all.
Mrs. "John Oliver Hobbies" Cralgle
intends to publish shortly her new five
act comedy, THE Flute of Pan"
Hall Gaines new novel, which is to
be brought out next year, will deal
with phases of the life in England
which is Influenced by Non-conformlty
There are signs, by the way, that Mr..
Gaines literary popularity is some
what on the wane.
when he willed he got atmosphere
SAYS the London Saturday Review. OF
Charles Dickens, novelist. Nowadays
our young men get exactness, but not
atmosphere" "And then again, be-
sides his fun and picturesque quality,
the very movements of his puppets en-
gross US. We admit them to be wood
en- dolls. without-at any rate for the
most part-the breath of life in them;
we deny them to be anything else; but
they amuse us; knowing them to be
dolls, we follow them, even with
anxiety. The mans personal force
overlooked into them and galvanized
them into a sembiance of life. That is
to say, he is m one sense a good story
teller: and to admit him to be that, to
claim him as that, while rejoicing In
his fun and sharing his sense OF the
sympathy between winds, waters,
clouds. skies, old buildings and bud
ding trees and human nature, even
when he Transcribed his human nature
wrong-surely this is to place him in
very high position among those who
have made life pleasanter and perhaps
nobIer for those who have to live it. A
genius he was; of the first order? No;
but whether of the first or any other
order matters nothing so long as we
have him. love him, and hold him as a
national pride and glory. There is no
need for more than that; it may we'll be
doubted whether Dickens, living out
his strenuous days, expected so much"
A commentator on Sir Leslie Ste
phen's biography of George Eliot diff
fers from him lin 1.-THE Speaker'O as
to that lady's lofty and oracular ways.
''As a matter of fact" he says, 'she
could be light and easy in manner, full
of gayety and charm, quite as much at
home with the jestS and banter OF
Lewes-and the two could banter each
other numerically sometimes-as with
the reconcile reasoning of Mr.. Herbert
Spencer She would give and take
with the best of them. Her voice, soft
and rich and low. was a wonderful
contrast to the rather heavy face.
Listening to her it was forgotten that
her dress was not in the latest fash
ion. and that her feet We're encased in
coverings more comfortable than ele-
CANT
Her husbands biography of her, this
friend complains, offered the portrait
of an unpleasant solemn,
priggish, full of that pride that apes
humility; ungenial, ENJOYABLE. There
was little indication throughout its
pages that the subject of it was a wo-
man of genius; a page from almost
any one of her early writings was of
much more value in showing us what
manner of woman she really was. In
this official Life she figured as a por-
tentious bore. That she was nothing of
the kind all thoroughly acquainted
with her knew we'll"