The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-14
TREND OF THOUGHT
 ALONG PATHS LITERARY

little cottage on "Copse Hill" the home of the South's quaint poet. Paul Hanhl- ton Hayne, we remember to have had our attention called. as we approached the hill, to youth, wandering through those great pine trees that grew so thick and far to the eye. We remember, too, to have wondered when told that this was the poets son, if he too were listening to a rhyming muse; if the soughing pines and the weird song of the mocking bird had a different meaning to his soul than to most of us practical mortals. We are not sure that we were not disappointed when he later came to help his little mother serve ice cream to her unexpect- ed guests, in the little parlor. Such a queer little parlor that was; all papered with newspapers and magazine illustra- tions of people and scenes of interest to the trio who inhabited this very neat, very homelike, very quiet little cot The very finest type of gentility was the first impression that one had with ones greet ing to the house-and then came the next impression: that these people were essen tially different from any you had known before. They were individual types. Some characteristics were very readable, and these would be patent to a very casual observer. Gentleness, quietness, sheer ity and becoming reserve. We recalled the mother after we left the house; remark able for her daintiness. and almost quaint in her delicate smallness. That little family circle has been broken. and we know not if the small home Is still grac- ing the small hill top-but the young boy is now the singer from that bird nest We have found in The Smart Set" a little poem by William Hamilton Hayne which we give below, and by some sort of resemblance it reminds of the work of William Hurd Hillyer.
 "An Island Storm"
 'The white-winged sea birds shoreward
 fly:
 Low cloud-wracks hang over wave and Fierce peals of thunder shake the sky
 With answering thunder from the sea. "A fishing smack with mast and shroud,
 By the wild wind Is rent apart,
 When from a scabbard of black cloud
 An sword of lightning cleaves its heart. " We have been in contemplative mood over the new fiction, making ''hop-and- a-skip' sort of inventive; backward and forward. Not in the way of comparison, but by allowing the memory unrestrained- ly to bring from the past some loved crea- ture, and place 1t as vis-a-yis to la- ter day Notwithstanding an imaginary company about me-and so allowing the mind to choose It's intimates, and to set within its inner sanctum its ideals. And this is one afterthought. Can we not spend more time with our old books? In the wild profusion of ephemeral litera- ture which greets us day by day, we are not satisfying that longing of the mind for beautiful thought; and the eager out look for that classic, that is to come, Is no excuse for the neglect of the treasure already stored upon our book shelves. Go back to the books that have been tried. ha AXartinR of rereading: and feed upon the delights of a literature that will minister to the pleasures of age. as we'll as youth. Read "The Vicar of Wakefield" Tom Jones. " ''Tristram Shandy," The Sentimental Journal" where Is Elsie Venner?" Take it down and go over 1t. And. if you are a traveller or not, read The Alhambra. '' You will do well to walk again into your childhood's fairyland. And we all know what romantic history is written in Irv- ing's Conquest of Grenada" Try 1t over again after one of our later day romantic historical stories. And the marvellous his- tory writing of Prescott. Try 1t again. Read once more The Conquest of Mexi- co" And when you are tired and want 'the quiet hour"-take from the shelf that masterpiece of fiction, for the mas ter of fiction Vanity Fair"
 We remember to have seen a rich re- hash of the work of our present day au- thors of G. Ray Williams, in the Book Lover. It was in the midsummer num- Der of 1902-and he made of our literary world feast of which we partook with pleasure, only when it contained a spiced variety-he said We never eat the same book twice; we crave variety and insist upon highly spiced delicacies. We remem- Der also his takes off' of some of our most popular writers-there are the great cooks who turn out books done to a turn, which they will send direct to your home. One of the most popular chefs is Mir Winston Churchill. MT. Irving Pacheller is another who prepares a rath- CT plain dish that is relished after one has eaten scores of MT. Richard Harding Davis's marshmallows. MT. Davis is very popular with society women and matinee girls who like his bonbons. Miss Mary Johnston of Virginia, has recently com bounded a palatable delicacy out of the herbs of her Southern fields, and the leaves of her native trees. The calls for this confection-the Audrey brand have been marvelously many The book crit ics were the subjects of his pleasant hu- nor also Each of these famous cook cries employs a number of skilled writ CTS who make out menu cards that are published in papers. These cards are works of art and I. not unfrequently, find more pleasure in reading than in realiZ- ing the virtues of the renowned cooks There are certain groups of men whc 
 bakery and make a business of tasteins each new dish that comes out and then write about it in the paper that employs them. They have eaten so much that thev have no taste any more. Like the drunkard, they have deadened their abil- itv to discriminate by over-indulgence."
 Sir Walter Besant said that his greatest task was to write a review of novel that he did not like His expression was that if was more irksome than any convict's work He said that he was never in g hurry to take up new novel; that he wanted someone to taste" it first And he did not depend upon the critics, but other neople's taste" It is interesting to hear him tell about what novel he liked to read of novel I ask but one thing siege me. Siege me, and hold me with g erin of steel. Make me deaf and dumt ,o all the world as long as read in thine snchanted pages. Carry me whither thou vilt. Play on me; do with me what thou wilt. at thine own sweet will Make me shriek with pain; fill my eyes with tears and my heart with sorrow; lot me laugh slo,,d: let me bubble over with the joy of silent mirth: let me forget that the world is full of oppression and wicked ,ass Only seize me and hold me tight ;mmoyable rapt, hypnotized; deaf and hiind to all the world" We feel surprised n+ erat when we read that Besant finds in .EInckIeberry Finn" these requisites. He baatans to say that, as the book itself nI'1as warning there is no motive, plot SI-oraI-brt that 1t pleaseS-is read with