The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-31

A4C4OQQs DV X. - 6uLClliAC A4tE
London. Price $50.
Undoubtedly there is much IN the
spirit in which you approach book to
influence your judgment of it. II you
are naturally somewhat perverse an ad
verse criticism will predispose you in
its favor and the contrary. Did you
like it?" I asked a man who reads all
the new fiction before it is cold. &C. }.
Cutcliffe Hyne's new book, "McTodd,"
was the subject of inquiry.) He an
swered promptly, mo" but I have rea-
son to believe he wasn't quite sincere in
that judgment Later he qualified his
statement. He had liked it, that is
found it interesting. but he did not ap-
prove it, It is not a book, he said,
about good people or that makes one
the better for reading 1t. From this
you VIII See that he is prejudfced in
favor of the missionary idea In Itera-
ture. For myself 1 don't know that I
am. A book that seems to me to be
really good. that holds my interest
throughout and gives me something to
think of afterwards. always contributes
something to me intellectually, emotion
ally or spiritually and in that sense no
doubt I am the better for having read
1t. One certainly doesn't like a book
that offends ones taste or shocks ones
moral sense, but people are so different
in this respect: what other people find
too shocking or disgusting for literary
purposes often seems to me to be per-
fectly legitimate material for the ar
lists treatment and to yield better re-
turns in mental and spiritual enlignIen-
ment and edifcation than potter stuff.
Really, If my friends standard of good
literature means that a book must
have moral purpose and preach a
sermon" from well defined text with
firstly, secondly. thirdly and conclusion
If 1t must end in the punishment OF
the guilty and the reward of the vIrtu-
Gus, If it's hero and heroine at least must
be irreproachable, whatever variety be
permitted the author in the way or viii
la1ns and vi1lainneSSes-then am
afraid I don't demand the same or liter
allure that he does. If book seems to
me to mirror faithfully the conditions it
portrays. II Its men and women nave
good red blood in their veins and do
the things and say the things that it
seems reasonable to suppose men and
women would do and say under the cir
cumstances. If the book is a graphic
sketch or Photographic record of life
as it is lived in some corner of this old
earth, then it can't be a bad book. With
Whomever 1t may deal, as to good or bad
purely relative terms anyway, those,
as applied to rnorals-it cannot make
one the worse for having read it if it
has pictured Things as They Are and
the chances are it will make one better
wider as to sympathies. clearer as to
understanding of alien characters and
alien situations. with a broader view of
humanity and a quickened sense of per-
sonal responsibility.
There are certainly good red corpus
cleS IN the veins of Neil Angus McTodd
and no mistake. An old Scotch sea dog
cursing, fighting, drinking. who has
roved the seas from the tropics to the
north star, he spins these yarns in his
own 1nimttable way. The book is a SER
les OF narratives, only slightly connected
and every one is replete with interest
and graphic power. A tale of thrilling
adventure has quite indescribable pic
turesQueneSs and charm told in the sim
pie, easy conversational style of this
ancient mariner" who scorns a strain
for tremolo, pianissimo or fortissime eff
fects. Withal Mr.. Hyne has made his
old yarn spinner natural and convincing
without making him either rambling or
discursive. There is also a commenda-
BILE discretion shown in the use of the
technical and nautical terms which so
often spoil story of this kind for the
average reader who can tell only from
the context whether a boat-steerer is
man or piece of machinery Not that
these terms are entirely lacking There
Is a good bit about foreto' -gallan's and
to'-gallan's and cross trees and bos'ns,
ana Jibboms, whatever they may be and
the book will be made further irnpossi-
Bile for those who object to dialect by
the fact that chara cteristically Scottish
expressions occur from time to time.
But there are not many of them, and
the meaning or each is very easily
guessed and added to his British slang,
and sailorjargon they make the style
ana language of McTodd something in
comparable for picturesqueness origi-
nality and idiomatic power.
There is much humor in the book
the dry unconscious humor of the
Scotch. There is a good laugh for the
reader every time McTodd refers to the
fact that his father was "the Free Kirk
minister of Ballindroehater and the
most respectable man in Scotland" and
that Neil Angus McTodd might have
filled his place if he had followed in
the way intended by his parents. But
McTodd, in his development harked
back to an earlier and less respectable
state and every year after he left Bal
lindrOchater he slipped farther and far
Their from the old life and the old tradi-
tions. Still he never forgets, especially
when on one of his periodical "sprees.s
to refer to the fact of his family's re-
spectability and it is the lingering in
f1uences and effects of his birth and
training In contrast to the low and
common habit of his fallen estate which