The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-02

the regulations laid down for the cure
further require the King TO walk for
two hours before eating a morsel Of
food.
This his Majesty performed by pac-
ing up and down the promenade from
the Kruez spring at one end to the
Ferdinand spring at the other
Notwithstanding all the appeals Of
the local authorities to the visitors.
King Edward was much greatly in
colvenienced by the snCbbish curiosity
of the crowd"
One may query whether the snob-
bish curiosity of the crowd or the
snobbish newspaper information as to
how the King slipped his second pint
glass of water" was the most repre-
hensibIe. OF course there are Both men
and women who delight in the person.
alities Of the press, especially when
they CONCERN themselves. Sir Gilbert
Parker. for instance, would have been
justly annoyed had the fashionable
rouncement that he had followed the
King-(with that 'snobbish' crowd, one
suppOses ?)-tO Marienbad.. Many ladies
of rank and title are only too happy to
have their dresses described to the man
in the street, and their physical charms
discussed by Tom, Dick and Harry
And when the press is amiable enough
TO oblige them in these little yearnings
for personal publicity. let us hope that
the labOrer. being worthy of his hire,
hath his reward.
In oIden days it would seem that
great part OF the responsibility of the
press lay in its criticism of art and
literature. That burden, however. no
longer lies upon its shoulders Since
the people began to read for them
selves, newspaper criticism. so far as
books are concerned, carries little
weight When some particular book
secures a great success, we read this
kind of thing about it: In argument,
intrigue and style it captures the fancy
OF the masses without attracting the
slightest attention from the critical
prevail alone gives any chance of per-
maneuce to work. This is of
course. very old hearing. The criti-
cal and discriminating few in Italy
long ago condemned Dante as a ''vul-
gar" rhymer, who used the peoples
vernacuIar." Now, the much-abuSed
Fiorentine IS the great Italian classic
The same critical and discriminating
few condemned John Keats, who is
now enrolled among the chiefest OF
English poets. Onslaughts of the Bit
terest kind were hurled at the novels
of Charles Dickens by the critical
and discriminating few'-in the great
fancy of the masses" and lives in the
hearts and homes of thousands for
whom the critical and discriminating
few might just as we'll never have
existed. And when you look I'D the
names of the critical and discrimf-
mating few in our own day, we find,
strange to say, that they are all dis
appointed authofsl All of them have
written poems Or novels, which are
failures. So we must needs pity their
criticism and Discrimination
equally. knowing the secret fount of
gall for which both these delicate
emotions spring. At the same time
the responsibility" of the press might
still be appealed to in literary. dra-
matte and artistic matters, as for ex-
ample:
Why allow an unsuccessful artist to
criticize a successful picture?
Why ask an unlucky playwright,
who cannot get even a farce accepted
by the managers, to criticize a bril-
liant play?
Why depute a gentleman or lady
who has ''essayed" a little unsuccess-
full fiction to review a novel which
has captured the fancy of the
masses and is selling we'll?
These be weighty matters. Common
human nature is common human ma
ture all the world over, and it is not in
common human nature to give praise
to another for what we ourselves envy.
Every one has not the same fine en-
dowment of generosity as Sir Walter
Scott, who wrote an anonymous review
of Lord Byron's poems. giving them
the most enthusiastic praise and frank
ly stating that after the appearance of