The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-03
AMERICAN WRITER
MAKES SATIRE ON
LONDON SOCIETY
"StrawberryLeaves," an Anony-
nous Story, Is Piquing Curl
osity Across the Water and Is
Charged to Yankee-Wh Is
Doing Among Bookmen.

I LONDON, Aug. 2. = Authors are on
/ their vacations, like other folk, and the
book trade has rather fattened out, but
| interest in literary matters is being
! kept alive by discussion now in prog
ress over the authorship Of a recently
| published romance. This work has
! piqued readers curiosity especially be-
cause it is a daring satire, quite in the
"Gyp" style, on London society and its
/ little shortcomings. Strawberry
Leaves is it's name, and it's author is
described on the title page as "A Leaf.
Needless to say, strawberry leaves are
| part of the insignia of a duke or duch-
ess, and there is quite general belief
| that the writer of this novel really is
member of the aristocracy. By the
/ way, it is rather questionable, II
| strawberry Leaves" is a novel. Its
author says, my work is a plain mar
rative of facts which truly happened to
| the people concerned, people whom
| in order to avoid duels, libel actions
! and such npleasantnesS-I have IN
vested with fancy names, and more or
I less fancy surroundings" And, as a
matter of fact, society folk who are
reading this sprightly, and occasionally
rather risque work, profess themselves
under little difficulty in identifying
most of the characters. The heroine is
a duchess whom her friends call "the
She-Saint,' and the book opens at the
famous war bazaar at the Queens hall
and ends at the opera.
Much as this book has been dis
|
lished a few days ago, and though
many guesses as to it's authors iden-
tity have been made, no one seems to
| have been struck with the idea that
| strawberry Leaves is the work of an
American pen. Perhaps one of the
wearers of the leaves. in question has
| turned literary, who knows? Such
! typically transatlantic phrases as
cheer up, old mani" and, particularly,
| doesn't care a cent" are literally
sprinkled through the book, and the
| writer seems especially happy in de-
| scribing a young noblenlan by mar
riage who halls from Seattle, Wash. It
| is noticeable, too, that he-or she
/ does not deem it necessary to make his
American characters say "Ammurica,"
| ''Wa-ar' or even Calculate" a practice
which no well-regulated English move
! list disdains. 1t is true that the de-
scriptions of "srnart life" in London
are done with a knowledge which few
writer's from across the ocean could
muster. Such insight would be nat
| ural, however, were strawberry
Leaves" the work of an American. peer
eSS.
Rider Haegard's Work.
| Although Rider Haggard has pub
| lished one or two books recently, the
work which has been occupying him
most constantly for the last year is a
romance of the Crusades. This he has
| now finished, and Casselrs Magazine
has bought the serial rights. The
story, which is not yet named definitely,
will begin in the coming Christmas
number of Cassells, and will not be
! published in book form for several
months after that.
| The plant of the latest English au-
| thor to protect against the ways of re-
viewers is rather unusual. Writing
anonymously to one Of the quarterlies,
| he declares that literary critics of to-
day are not severe enough, not severe
at all, in fact. Nine books out of ten
being praised, he goes on there is lit
| tie chance for the work that is really
worth while to rise above the ruck-
| which recalls Mr.. Gilbert's saying:
| when everybody's somebody, then no
ones anybody" But the author goes
| on to say that there is reason for all
| this indiscrimate praise, and one which
the public ought to know about. Ac-
cording to him, nearly every book re-
viewer is also an author, and thus
wishing his own productions to get
good send-offs, he practices the golden
| rule. So this writer signs for the days
| of the Edinburgh Review, even if it
| should mean more Keatses "snuffed out
| by an article" He admits that Jeffrey
| abused Wordsworth and other geniuses,
| but insists Good round abuse is what
| is wanted, and if it sometimes falls
on the wrong head 1t is at any rate
| stimulating
PopuIarizing Dumas.
| A popular edition of Dumas novels,
which one of the most enterprising
| of London publishing firms is getting
ready, promises to be the most COM
| plete ever issued outside France, or
| at any rate, outside Europe. Ameri-
! can publishers have supplied readers
with TRANSACTIONS of the great Alexan-
dre's writings to much greater extent
than their English brethren have cared
| to do, but even in the United States
| nothing like a complete set of trans
| lations exists of the seventy odd nov
els to which the Frenchman signed his
name. For this purpose each of the
novels has been newly translated, and
the price will be ten, twenty-five and
| thirty-five cents volume, according to
| length. The first will be "The Three
/ Musketeers" and it will have preface
| by Andrew Lang, probably the great
est English authority on Dumas
The picture postcard craze in this
country has taken some rather nota-
BILE shapes. A set of cards repro
ducing six of the cleverest. cartoons
of F. c. Gould, the Westminster Ga
zette's political fun-maker, have just
made their appearance, and probably
will be used for Liberal campaigning
ends in the coming tariff fight. And.
aprOpos Of the recent dramatization of
Dante the Cassells are getting ready
to issue a series Of postcards with re-
productions of Gustave Dore's illustra-
lions of the epic.
| Cutcliffe Hyne sticks fast to his rule
about publishing under his own name
only certain percentage of the stories
which he turns out SO readily. OF
l course these are the works which he
considers his best: the others still are
credited to 'Weatherby Chesney." For