The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-16
NEWS OF THE BOOK WORLD
Literary Abduction; How Charles Eus-
tace Merrman Took George Horace
Lorlmer's Characters and What Use
he Made Of 'Them-A Mathematical
Answer to the Question, what Shall
Va Ea$
We Eat?"

Inns column was called upon not long
ago to record a literary execution, and
now It Is forced to report literary alb
ouctlon. We would suggest that the lit
erary emergency court which tried and
sentenced Richard Harding Davis consider
81 an early date the case of Charles Eus-
tace Merriman, the author of Letters from
Son to His Self-Made Father, for the
aoductlon of John Graham, the now
famous Chicago porkpacker, and his son,
Plerrepont Graham both children of the
praln OF George Horace Lorimer.
Mr. Merrlman makes no bones Of the
1act OF the abduction. His only defense
, would pe some sort of justification, and
INTO that the court certainly ought to in
cure. If he is entitled to take these
characters and use them as he has, the
reading world would feel better to know
IT, and II he Is not that same world would
pc better satisfied to see Mr.. Merriman
su1fer the proper penalty of the law of
letters. There is strong feeling in GER
tain quarters that MIR. Merriman has de-
prlVed the public of something further at
the hands of Mr.. Lorimer, as well as
abducted Mr.. Lorimer's characters.
Inere Is no denying that the letters
or the son to the father as written by
Mr. Merriman are clever and make good
reading, but it is quite certain that they
40 not come up to the letters of the
Lorlmer, and further, that Mr.. Lorimer
could have done better. So the public
has something Of grievance against Mr..
Merriman
Pierrepont Graham as freshman at
harvard, Whence he writes letter No, !
TO MS father, seems to have decided to
make his education surrounded by all the
luxurles that Cambridge afforded. MA
had gone on with her boy to see that he
h,1 fhoy, Ic-
parted This is the way Piggy tells
ms father how he upset one arrangement
ms mother had made for him:
You will be glad to hear that I shook the
room IN College hall that ma had picked out fol-
Small apartment of five rooms and ba tn in one
OF the big dormitories The dingy hole in "Col
lese' was so horribly noisy that found it mpos-
sible to do my best work. The building was
made day and night hideous.
Piggy" boards at Memorial hall, 'the
| limit for bad grub One day the stuff
| served was so rotten that committee
was appointed to go to the kitchen on a
tour Of inspection. Imagine ''Piggy's'
chagrin when the committee returned bear
ing lot Of Graham & Co.'s canned beef
cans which "smelled to heaven piggy
lay low, but someone gave him away an6
he rose to explain.
"The next thing I knew the bone landed
violently on my neck says piggy" re.
ferrlng to a certain ham bone that ha6
been brought in as evidence, land the ali
was full of tin cans, four of which me
splendid resistance from my head.
| The surgeons bill is SIS, which
know you will pay cheerfully for my gal
lant- defense of the house. But I wis1
you'd put up better stuff
| In the same letter is found this:
I am approaching more and more the COLDER
| truths of Your cold storage precepts. AS 70,
say, fright and wrong don't need to be labeled
| for boy with good conscience. Good con
! sciences must be scarce around here, for on tn
other side of Harvard bridge they label wron,
with red lights, and I've failed to find fellow
yet who Is color blind. t-.ss
| AS postscript there is this:
l am trying hard to be good scholar. and an
really learning thing two. But I respec
your anxiety that l should be ga good clea1
man, - and almost every Sunday morning wax
up in Turkish bath. @s2,sr,s I.
| Here is a bit of wisdom that from gen
eral report is not far from the truth:
| Poverty may not be crime, but it's a grav
misdcmeanor in Cambridge.
A young man gains wisdom as his year
advance, but we submit that these sam
pies, clever as they are, do not indicat
a book up to the standard of Mr.. Lori
mer's We would have been better salts
| fled if Mr.. Merriman should have left tn
field to Mr.. Lorimer.