The San Francisco call., 1904-12-22
DARING CIBE
At THE KING
Sir Wilfrid Lawson in His
Verses Takes a Fling at
Edward and the Reerage

LONDON, Dec. 2i.-Sir wtlfrid Law
cial reform, in conjunction with f. Car
ruthers Gould, the caricaturist, has just
issued a volume of illustrated verses
entitled Cartoons in Rhyme and Line
1t is dedicated ITO the best of wives
from the worst of poets" So far as
the poetry is concerned, it suff1ces to
say that Sir Wilfrid lives up to the
reputation which he gives himself.
But he does certainly put gall and
wormwood into his doggerel. And he
does not care bit'whom he stings. OF
that the best example is this Quatrain
headed, From Lord Burton TO the
King"
Twas beer. your Majesty strong beer.
Which, as you know. made me a peer;
If you will only learn to brew.
God knows what it will make OF youi
The point of this reference lies in the
fact that when the King visited Lord
Burton recently he turned a switch
that set in motion the machinery which
brewed lot of ale. The lines are as
daring q reference to the King as any
thing ever seen in print In England.
Sir Wilfrfd inherited a baronetcy, and,
well content with his seat in Parlia-
ment, has no desire to be elevated to
the House of Lords. Peerages have
been conferred on several rich brew
ers, but there is no instance on record
where any man attained to that lofty
honor by the advocacy of teetotalism
CURRENT FICTION IMPROVING.
Richard Whiteing, of mo. John
Street fame, has confided to an in
terviewer some interesting opinions on
current fiction.
This is not an Augustan age of IL
terature," he says, but in all our art
there is far higher standard of me-
diocrity than there ever has been in the
past. Our mediocre novel is better than
the old mediocre novel. Our time shows
a marked excellence in averages. The
sheer force of competition has com
PEELED novelists to make serious study
of technique, and there are many
moderns who show a mastery of it
never attained by writer's of the past.
/ mean more especially that direct
study of nature and character resulting
in the perfect conversation which you
find in our best novels. For down
for forcible likeness to nature, you
would find it hard to beat three or four
modern novelists whom in certain other
respects / cannot always admire.
''Of course, we are plagued with
titled heroes and social snobbery and
irritating conventionalities which
there is no getting rid of The real
istic has succeeded the romantic age.
We have been brought closer to ma
ture. Dickens himself was not so
close to nature as Pett Ridge, for
example This serious study of tech
nique-we have learned a good deal
from the French-meanS that the
average novelist is a better novelist;
he is more workmanlike; he is better
aII-rcund than he used to be.
But 1 think that there is one
defect in our fiction-it wants big
! themes, it wants great subjects, it
wants lifting into a finer atmosphere. :"
| With books excelling as never be-
| fore in perfect conversations" it
would seem strange at first
| thought to account for the decadence
of conversation, which many declare
| to be among the lost arts. But, on
second thought, perhaps, that Is the
very thing which most accounts for it.
Books contain such excellent CONVEX
sation that we no longer go to our
friends for it. And authors themselves
reserve their witty observations and
| biting epigrams for their books. They
don't give their best away for nothing.
CARMEN SYLVA'S BURDEN.
Carmen Sylvia has found that one of
| the penalties of successful authorship
] is too heavy to pay. providing the au-
| thor happens also to be a Queen, with
| lot of state duties to look after. So
/ she has sent out circular asking
young authors to stop sending their