The Minneapolis journal., 1904-12-23
NEWS OF THE BOOK WORLD

NEWS OF THE. BOOK WORLD
.--l ...lsssl.ss s-s-ss ~
THE UNEASY CHAIR
One Reason for Getting Divorce; q
Story In Book OF Christmas Stories and
Others.-The short story book has a place.
The Uneasy Chair discovered It long ago.
1t is in the inches and corners Of the book
reviewers time. OF course; it has other
places, but if it is good it will never be
utterly cast; out by the reviewer. 1t is
like a plate Of sandwiches when one
doesn't feel equal to full meal.
These post-sandwich meditations are
the result Of several sandwiches taken In
succession from plate offered by Eleanor
Hoyt in Nancy's Country Christmas.
When The Chair had finished the story
which gives the title to the book, 1t felt
that it had something to tell Its friends.
But it has since decided to tell of some
thing it found In I'm Oklahoma" the Sec
ond story of the list. There it discovered
| that divorces are sometimes obtained not
for alimony, but for realty. The Chair
| would deplore It IL this should in any wise
encourage the business Of getting di-
vorces, for the business is already badly
overdone, but luckily the telling of the
story can do nos harm, and 1T is worth
calling attention to just to show the risks
some people will take to acquire few
paltry acres. = ~ -, ':
"A New York girlswa visiting brother
or some other near relative in Oklahoma.
Among other acquaintances made there,
were a gambler and q, sheriff, with whom
she was holding a.. conversation one day
I in her brothers slumberyard, relative to
the opening up OF some Indian lands, and
1 the coincident 'run.,,,:st -F-<
r. divorces are easy down here. aren't they p
she asked, II lunched with the bankers wife Ife
time when she and John, were divorced. She
didn't see, seem sensitive about the thing but 1
The gambler and the sheriff both ehucked.
hy da 6es9 sn heart she snd Sar ssee haee
both got divorces just. before the rum. You see,
man and his wife stake only one claim
That's a quarter section. Now those two couples
and made the run, 0staked four claiuA and
after their. claims We're proved they marr1ed
again Eseh family , had haf se9ton apn see d.
rect simplicity about Oklahoma, methods that
startled her. -, -.
why didn't the author say "duplicity"
instead Of s"simplicity"? s..
But we won't find fault, for. she has told
some bright and entertaining yarns in a
and entertainingness.
/ Doubleday Page 5, s.. 5 Co., New York
WITH CAP AND BELLS.
With cap and bells day after day.,
The testers jocund part play:
Tss TSs only otab fabrie e that bs viii viii s bear
Times touch or turn Fate's frown away.
The wisest in the world are they
Earth's 1aughter-loving ones-who stray
Along thru life WIZ FEG% ssp ysar aaG tS Ssiis
A laugh-our sorrow can allay:
A sigh-our merriment gan slay; ..o,
| Give me the Jest that's not Jeer,
Give me the smile that's not a sneer,
And you may crown WITH me eap 5,n and bells sisy
Louis A. Robertson in Everybody's Magazine
for January.
Forest Fiction Nodded from Facts
That is what Charles G. D. Roberts offers
: in The Watchers of the Trails, a book Of
tales of animals and other living things
These tales are mighty good reading. In
/, teresting, too, is Mr.. Roberts. detense
{ against the chargeeof ascribing to his AMI
mails human motives and the mental pro
= cesses Of man. s Mr.. Roberts says he has
taken particular pains to avoid just the
: thing charged in the Indictment. HI
. adds this in his introduction:5 y ;
Il The psychological processes OF the. antmals arr
= SO simple. SO obvious, in comparison with those
Of man. their actions low SO directly from thei
b springs OF Impulse, that it is, AS a rule, al
:, easy matter to infer;sthe motives which are a
any moment impelliag them. I lnflny desire Il I,
( the sentimental, sstuded to keep well with
: in the limits Of safe Inference. Where ! may nav
IS seemed to state too confidently the motives un
"a deriving the special action of this or that AMI
: mall it viii usually be found that the action 1t
$ self is very fully presented; and it will think
o be further found that the motive whlca nav
. assumed affords the. most reasonable, II mot IN
only reasonable explanation OF the acton.
y Mr. Roberts statement is borne .ou
n by his stories. The motives he assigns t
= his animals are certainly the obvious mo
:. tives from the human standpoint, which
y Of course, is the only one we know. Bu
u getting at animal motlves' WITH any ,,ue ue
1T gree of confidence that you have the aoso
lutte truth, is a very difficult task. I'm
pressions are uncertain things; likeW1s
B. the impulses that spring from them' an
Is when an attempt is made to interpret IN
impressions and impulses OF one leVel
creation in terms Of a very different leve
> you can't. be at all sure that the inter
le probation is correct. = However, it is tn
" best we can do, and Mr.. Roberts IN tina
- line makes good stories, which cannot D
-. yery misleading in the information the
- convey about nature. .I
o, u. G. Page & Co., Boston.
ID
. = Flower Fables and Fancles.-Such
title on a book is enough to attract atter
oi ton The attention once attracted is sur
Is to be held by a +perusal Of the book;
IN certainly is If the one whose attention
caught is a lovers of flowers, and the boo
is n. Hudson Moore's. with its decoration
VI by Frederick G. Hall. This book is jus
1e what the title would indicate and some
j. thing more, for besides fables and far
>, cies, sone finds something about par
IL IL flowers have had III the lives of histories
IN personages. For example we find this Q
u one of the books pages:
The lavish Cleopatra decked her banquet ha
with roses for feast and did not consider whs
we would call thousand dollars too much
st expend on their frail beauty, Nero, 1.-The teri
m ble" spent hundred times that amount for ga
lands and rose wreaths for single dinner
ly And the old reprobate didn't deser7
re them, either.
de But there are. fables and fancies In tt
. book-many Of them. and the book in M
chanical makeup fits the subject matte
to Frederick A. Stokes company, New
1,, York. 81 60 net.
he %-- c.z,NEe