The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-21
Books and Authors
"PRoPER" BOOKS

q "a + 4 +.
The Lamp publishes a. somewhat inter-
esting letter written by the librarian Of
the Carnegie library at Cheyenne, Wye,
in answer to a letter written by her to
the publisher Of Mary McLane's book who
had filed her order for two copies of the
book and suggested to her that some
librarians did not consider Mary's book
proper" for library circulation. Miss,
Jean Irvine, the librarian, declared that
personally, she quite approves OF, the book,
but is not governed by this preference
but by her official position as librarian
for a community Of variant tastes in
reading, and when she is constrained to
accept many badly written books because
they are not bad, she Is the more loath,
If she cares for letters, to refuse writing
properly wrought, for the reason that it
be not proper; it occurs to one, en- pas
SAINT, that one has never heard Whitman.
nor Hardy, nor Balzac stigmatized as
to call (eNen vaguely and by inference)
this poor little McLane into the noble
army Of the socially impossible-is 1t not
unduly to exalt the mere specifically
IyuIgar?" She believes that the reading
of a library's patrons is directed by their
interest and not by their librarian; but,
are we to believe that this librarian con-
siders herself bound to send for any book
the patrons or a portion Of them may
| think 1t is to their interest to place on
the shelves? This is not exactly a safe
theory for librarians to adopt Mary Nc
Lanes vaporous book Is not calculated to
make anybody very vicious, except In
their literary style. Mary has already,
apparently, written herself into nephelscoc-
cygia She may descend a wiser woman,
with a more rational style, but it is doubt
/ full. Meantime there are so many variant
views as to which books are proper and
which are not proper that synod of
expert librarians would be unable to de-
eide the question
NEW BOOKS.
FOLLOWING THE DEER. By William J..
Z Long Author Of ."School of the Woods" sGtc.
/ Illustrated by c.. Copeland. Boston: CHM
1 s. Co. {.
The author records in this interesting
| volume some experiences of his youthful
| days following the deer thru northern
woods. He is Of the opinion that ian
animals life is vastly more interesting
than his death, and that, Of all the joys
Of the chase, the least Is the mere kill
/ ing" Mr.. Long has been a close observer
4 of thefdeer and he has come to the con-
clusion that the buck who leads q herd
is pitiful coward as he often leaps8awa3
for cover, leaving the herd to take care
of themselves without even giving then
note of warning, or drives the does ane
fawns out Of cover to be hunted and lays
himself down in their hiding place ane
lets the chase go by. The author, by
watching the deer behind cover is abb
. to record many interesting and valuable
details about their daily habits in thes'
days of long distance rifles, when dee
life becomes more precarious and thu
herds have to be more watchful. FL
tells many interesting stories about nigh
and day hunting, sti1l hunting in October
), the wonderful jumping of the deer. Their
; is a fine description of fierce fight be
:, Estween big buck and several fierce canin
. pursuers, in which three Of the dogs Wer
killed one after another with the dag
ger-like fore hoofs of the buck and the
.. the author was left facing him and tn
buck was in his power; but he gave hir
, his freedom. The heroic fight the, buc
had made with the dogs entitled him t
:, liberty. No pot-hunter would hav
= spared him but there. are hunters VIII
have sympathies which can be success
fully appealed to-. The true hunters en-
thusiasism is tempered with hunanit
and the growing tendency to natur
4 studies is minimizing the wanton destrue
4 ton of game.