The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-23
1
IkIEWS AND VIEWS
stAH or THE
In BOOk WORLD
- HERRERT BREWsTERl

tBY HERBERT BREWSTER!
DR. Charles A Eastman. the full
blooded Sioux Indian, who recently pub
lished the delightful volume, Indian
Boyhood," has recently concluded visit
TO the east, made partly for the purpose
of holding conference with President
Roosevelt, and partly to talk over with
his publishers the getting out of volume
/ on Indian Folklore At the present
time Dr. Eastman holds an important
government position in South DAKOTA,
| and some of his friends loosely refer TO
/ him as the future political boss of that
state As a matter of fact the Indians
are becoming more and more independent
/ each year. and naturally they are becom-
I ing power in a civilized way. DR..
ward to a political life with as much
pleasure as to his future literary work.
! For many years he has been collecting
and writing down the old Sioux legends
| and these he expects to bring out in DOCK
form before very long now. DR.. East
man. of course, knows a great many OF
/ the Sioux legends himself.
/ IL We're not an Indian, said Dr.
I Eastman during his visit in New York,
/ I feel sure | could not secure the legends
1 | do not know. The difficulty about the
white man getting. these legends is this:
He asks the Indians questions about
them, and at once all the Indian reserve
! and reticence comes TO the surface. The
| Indian Will not tell what he knows about
/ the matter if he is questioned. The
Indian lore goes among the Indians, Of
fers one $: and then begins to ply him
with questions. The Indian IS anxious
! to give S. worth. but is not anxious TO
tell what he knows about the legends.
The result is the white man gets hold of
considerable that is of no use at all.
Dr. Eastman then explained how he
! secured the true legends which he was
not entirely familiar with himself. He
would go into an Indian council and sit
] quietly without saying a word for a long
time Then he would begin to tell one
/ of
slant he came to d doubtful point and
hesltated made statement which
was not entirely accurate, another In
dian would gravely interrupt him and
take up the story, giving the right YER
slon If this Indian made a mistake still
| another one would interrupt and go on
with the story. 1t took a great deal OF
patient work, but DR.. Eastman was equal
70 that. and in this manner he has col
hitherto inaccessible Indian legends.
Morgan Robertson, the well known sea-
story writer. is confirmed enemy of
publisher may make money on a book
of short stories, but in ninety-nine cases
Mr.. Robertsons contention is curiOusly
borne out by the facts in his own case.
None of the volumes of short stories
which he has published has been at all
profitable, yet he is one of the best short
story writers in this country. So strong
is his conviction that the short-storv
volume has had its day. that hereafter
he will publish no books except long
stories, although his forthcoming volume
Is almost contradiction of this state
ment- Sinful Peck is the title of the
volume which will be shortly issued over
Mr. Ropertson's name As originally
conceived the contents of this book were
a collection of short stories which had
a one principal character, Sinful Peck.
Mr. Robertson, however, revised the mat
follows:
rrF hui , IL
Isle o. QuirB, whom hailed in the dark
ness: and who sat by me through the
The dedication itself contains 2 story
with the personal element behind il which
is of more than usual interest Arthur
AN Island Cabin a story of his dis
eoVery and life on a little island in the
upper end of Long Island sound. Robert
son happened to read Henry's book and,
although he was not at that time ac-
quainted with him. he wrote expressing
his appreciation. of his story. As a re-
suit the two fell into considerable CORE
spondence, and later on Robertson was
persuaded to spend several weeks on
was just what Robertson needed. for at
the time Of going there he was on the
point OF a nervous breakdown.
The announcement of a new book by
Mary McLane is an exciting bit of news,
since TINS young woman has been the sub
and a half Miss McLane's ways in New
York were most peculiar 1t is told of
her that on one of her visits to a pub
fishing house she walked into the office
of the chief editor of one of the maya
zines, and, pulling out silver half-dol-
h lar den demanded that the editor match
into the spirit of the thing and in three
or four minutes had won some $50 from
Miss McLane. Whereupon the Young
woman refused to pay. and began at once
to talk of something else 1t will be in
teresting to note. what form her ideas
will n afanW cr1a-
thousands of miles away from Butte and
seen good deal of the world since writ
ing her Confessions"
The usual crop of serious books has not
been forthcoming so far this year As a
rule. the months of January and Feb
the bringing out of their most serious
books OF the year. 1t is safe TO assert
that more works on RELIGION and phi
losophy are issued during these two
months than during the balance of the
Prominent among the serious books of
serious value published already this year
is Professor Woodburn's The American
Republic 1t is more than political
history of the United States and more
than a text book on civil government. 1t
IS not too much to say that this volume
of 900 pages fills in satisfactory manner
the great need of something between high
school text books and Mr. Bryce's The
American Commonwealth Professor
Woodburn, who holds d chair in Indiana
university. makes haste to grant every
possible credit TO Mr.. Bryce, not only for
much inspiration in his teaching but for
valuable helps in the preparation of his
written work
Another worthy work is J. C. FernaId's
compilation of what he calls Scientific
Side Lights Mr.. Fernald seems to aim
at the getting together of volumes which
shall be helpful to writers. His work on
the Standard dictionary was important.
and from that connection grew his
volume of antonyms- 1t is to be feared
that this collection of words has not
been appreciated by struggling authors
as 1t should be. The work gives the
antonym, the opposite word for every
important word in our language What
writer has not struggled in vain to find
the word he wants and has been able 10
think only of some word of an entirely
opposed meaning? The Scientific Side
Lights" is another kind of assistance
On almost every possible scientific sub
ject, Mr.. Fernald has made extracts from
the best authorities, and from these brief
paragraphs it IS possible to get a sort
of concentrated knowledge of the mat
ter. vOiuminous index makes if easy
TO look up anything in the line of scien-
tific subjects.
Wallace Irwin author of Il owe Sonnets