The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-06-28
KITS AND ENTRANCES" by
r Charles Warren Stoddard, is a

Charles Warren Stoddard. is
volume OF entertaining remi-
niscences of writer-folk and other
people which will interest those who are
familiar with the author. or who like
queer and quaint happenings and out
of-the-way places. 1t is written in an
informal. gossipy style. with a good deal
Of the first personal pronoun but that is
not bad in this sort of book.
Stevenson in the South Seas.
Charles Kingsley and Westminster Alb
bey." Early Recollections of Bret
Harte," I'm Old Hawaii" and The
Pasha of Jerusalem" are a few of the
alluring titles of these chapters, and one
is about as good as another. There is
a singular felicity of phraslng in Mr..
stoddard's work. To take an extract at
random. he says of Stevenson:
Here was a man whose sympathies
were literary and artistic; whose In
timacies were born and bred above the
ears"
And again:
His work, an endless task, was bet
ter than straw 10 him. 1t was TO
become his -preserver and to pro-
long his years. feel convinced that
without it he must have surrendered
long before he did
And this IS his description OF lark
heard IN the neighborhood of shottery:
"Ah. how he sang. Tipsy with sun
shine and sweet air, while the world
was Keeling below him, and the little
worldlings were listening 20 bis canticle
with dumb merriment I found him at
last, away up toward the planets. seem
ing the merest leaf afloat upon the in
visible currents OF the air He was never
at rest. II was not enough that his
madrigal had revealed a new joy In life
to one listener az least: he must needs
pant upon the waves OF the afr like
strong swimmer. crying out in an &C.
stasy. He drifted for a moment. and
graciously descended toward the earth;
but his rapture was not yet ended. for
he again aspired, and grew smaller than
any leaf, and 1 saw nothing but a mote
painting upon the bosom of a cloud. and
heard nothing but still small voice
coming down to me out of the high
heaven OF mis- triumph"
1t was his Joy to eat supper and spend
the night in the very cottage of Anne
Hathaway. There he had a Charming
vision OF the night. which he tells with
a skill that redeens the banafity Of the
notion. II is permissible to use a de-
vice used By other men when you can
better the instruction. as none knew
more surely than Shakespeare himself
But what IN the world made Mr. Stod-
dard say in the closing paragraph of this
chapter that there was a morning
lark" to paint the meadows with de-
light" II Shakespeare had mixed his
metaphors Ike that he would not have
been classic. II Is not the lark who
does that Remember you not
When daisies pied and violets blue,
And LADY, -snocks al siivcr-white.
And cucRoo-huds Of yellow hue
DO paint the meadows with delight.
There is a proper kind of picture. But
what has a lark got to DO with either
meadow or paint brush? His business
is not with color, but with melody and
the Utmost recesses of the heart.
An Interview With George Eliot.
The interview with George Eliot is in
terest!ng and touched with humOr An
other interview, which will introduce a
poet unfamiliar to the average reader
I 4
thor OF Orion" an epic poem in three
books issued nearly eighty years ago in
London. 1t has been recently issued in