The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-04-25
NEWS OF TIE BOOK WORLD
American Society and institutions as Seen
by an EngIIshman Who Was Not Look.
Ing for American Freaks-Slr Philip
Burne-Jones Finds Dollars and Democ-
racy Closely Welded

Personally we do not often have a
chance to see ourselves as others see US;
collectively we do. Sir Philip Burne-
Jones affords us an opportunity Of the
latter sort in Dollars and Democracy, and
it is not distorted view he gives us,
either, like some Of Max O'Rells S. Thru
out the book there is no striving after
effects, no evidence that the author was
looking for the grotesque in order to
have something to tell that would excite
Ia laugh or awaken aversion. He sees
things as they are, and he sets them
down honestly, without fear or favor,
knowing well that the imperfections of our
American cousins will easily find their
counterpart with us across the sea. while
their manifold excellences can hardly be
outshone.' The reader who takes up the
book, therefore, in the hope Of boisterous
amusement will be disappointed. But
amusement of the quieter sort there is
abundance of.
The artists first American sensation
was New York's scent or characteristic
! SMELL a thing New York would have
to have to be in the swim with other
great cities. Mr.. Burne-Jones caught it
while still well out to sea. He after
ward visited Chicago but he mentions no
Chicago scent. Perhaps that is out of
Kindness to his friends in the windy city.
Still he says some other things that We're
not complimentary to the city by the lake.
But then he was in Chicago in winter
and perhaps the scent was frozen up.
| He says Of Chicago, for example: Chi
| cago has all New YorlI's least desirable
characteristics exaggerated twofold. y
| The sky-scrapers, which flourish vigor-
ously in the congenial soil of Chicago. APP
pear twice as high those of New York.
! Its newspapers are quite twice as vulgar.
and in tone of twice as deep a yellow"
! That newspaper thrust is not to be won
/ i ~ Ia s1rl>k g 49,
periences with the Chicago papers.
| The Dollars part Of the title of Sir
Philips book is derived from observa-
| lions like those below, possibly also from
| the rewards of his labors as an artist dur
ing the year he was on American soil
But here are the observations. Speaking
| of sky-scrapers and churches side by side
in New York, he says:
/ Towering far above the steeples, these
4 houses of business reduce to insignificance
the houses of worship. Can it be that they
are "a silent comment by the modern
I American man Of affairs on the relative
Importance which he attaches to the wor
ship of God and Of manmon?' .~.
1 "And how they talk money! In snatche:
\ of conversation caught in the streets, the
restaurants and the cars, the continue
cry is always 'Dollars-dollars-dol GLARS
You hear it on all sides perpetually, an(
money does truly here, as politics in Eng
of a means to an end.
g . it must be confessed, when all's
said and done, that there is at presen
/ something hopelessly middle class ant
bourgeois about American smart society
i
"The chief fault to be found with thes,
people-the very rich ones, 1 mean, wht
owe their conspicuous position solely t,
their wealth and to no other cause what
aSra y no,
seems to be no serious basis for life TO
them at all, and amusement and pleasur
are the sole aims Of their existence"
In spite Of this last. however, Sir Philil
found many excellent people in America
such as he could admire and was glad t
count his friends; which should make hi
caustic comment on the Smart" smar
the more.
| Part of the strength and convincing human re
atty Of Mrs. H. A. Mitchell Keays novel 0
divorce 'He That Eateth Bread with Me,
comes from the fact that its central idea wa
suggested by situation in real life. Kat1ierin
Mackemer, the heroine of the novel, allows he
husband to divorce her tho she still loves hin
and remains true to her marriage VOWS to hin
In the circle Of Mrs. Keays' friends womn
to whom practically this same thing happened
! For three years. from the time of the divorce I
the time of her death, she went every evenin
: to place where, unnoticed. she could waite
s her husband return from business and enter hi
. new home.
REST.
Sometime, somewhere it may be on this eartl
Will come sense Of allpervading calm
+ When heart and mind and soul in harmony
And sweet attune with Gods unspoken law,
Will rest untrammeled by the heavy weight
II That spirit chained to body must endure
And lost In silence reverent, profound,
lWill know that peace is life's great destiny.
: Prom Elizabeth Minot's "The Rose Of o.
: Seville.''
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