The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-07

| reflections, perhaps suggesting Thaek-,
cray He is said to have been always
delicate in health, of very retiring ma
tUre-smple, gentle, unobtruslve, and
free from all self-seeking and personal
parade in the footlights of distinction. 1t
is said of him that for years he knew he
could not live long, and he suffered all
the time from Gan obscure and deadly
form of heart disease" He travelled
much, and was married. He came to the
front slowly, but there were many APP
preciative readers of his stories in this
country as in his native England. 1t is
remarkable how many deaths there have
been among the British Eterati in a year
Twenty or more years ago l read two or
the novels of Henry James The style
then was excellent and the stories as
such were poor. l have not read a novel
from his fruitful pen since. He has be-
come more involved in style, and less pure
in the morality of his books, as / have
learned from many critics read from time
to time. His last book is called The
Ambassadors" and take it to be neither
cleaner nor clearer than some of his other
productions. He is a great favorite in
New England, where he was born, and
is regarded as a writer of pronounced eX-
cellence / find a literary discussion in
THE Bookman' for January, by F. T.
Cooper. in which Mr. James Is handled
unceremoniously so as to shock perhaps
his eager, perhaps blinded, admirers.
make selection from what is said: "A
great deal has been written. and with
justice about the obscurity Of Mr..
James, his bewildering mannersms, his
maze of qualifying words and phrases, IN
which a reader wanders, as through
verbal mist to end hopelessly in a blind
alley of inexplicable syntaX. K
He himself never gives you straight
forward facts, but merely series of i'm
pressions And these you have to take
as he gives them and let them accu-
mulate and sink in, until their ultimate
significance gradually dawns upon you.
X book with all the tantalising
vagucness Of real life, and one which
surely no one other than Henry James
could have written This refers to the
novel mentioned above.
The distinguished British politician,
Mr. Chamberlain. is an Unitarian. 1t is
not surprising that he favors ''protec-
ton"
The State Of Alabama is wisely careful
and benevolent. 1t has passed law for
bidding "boycotting, unfair lists picket
ing or other interference with the law
full business and occupations of others
Boycotting< working men is bad busl-
ness Look at Chicago. Here is rood
example set by progressive Alabama.
The great sympathizing negro State at
long range is Massachusetts,. But al
ready it has cut the wages OF So 900 white
cotton mill operatives. It's benevolence is
limited, and does not embrace both
races
There is a surplus according to
Roosevelt's message to the Congress
amounting to $54.297, 667. He estimates
that the present Congress will take care
t. spend the great surplus more than
enough to carry on the Government in
1860. under a Democratic President,
James Buchanan for quite eight months,
Extravaganza, waste. plunderng and
usurpation are the order of the day under
Republican administration. While the
Republicans plumber and waste and op-
press the people their bumptious Presi
dent swells with the mighty dimensions
OF an usurper who is law unto himself.
and turns up his nose at the Congress.
Horace Walpole, His published letters
fiji sixteen volumes, and they are among
the very best in English literature. He
was a great gossip, man of uncommon
gifts, lived in the eye of the world, was
the son of the very celebrated Sir Robert
Walpole, who was Prime Minister for
quite twenty years in the time of the
Georges, Cowper, Byron, Shelley, are
among the greatest of England's writers
OF letters Fanny Burney's letters aGcnt
court gossip rank high, but Horace Wal
pole may be placed possibly at the head
of all in this epistolary department OF lit
crature The n. Y. Saturday Review
says editorially: His forte was epistol-
airy AS poet, critic, historian, he makes
no mark As a letter-writing gossip he is
unequaled He lived and had his eyes
open from the age of Pope to the age Of
Wordsworth. from the era of the young
Pretender to the era of Napoleon.
THEODORE BRYANT KINGS BURY.
Wilmington, N c., Feb 5, 1904