New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-05
Literary .NesOs and Criticism.


9T es out IL in her edgnss carried out in chair
Captain Runsby eyes 5ne eve eeserp pS %
stationary. on The principle OF some lighthouses
our great novelist has never been approached.
We cannot help wishing. as we turn these
friendly, entertaining pages. that Canon Anger
might have written his memoirs. He wrote
about people and things with the same ingra-
tiating touch that he used IN writing about
books and biographical literature would have
been the richer for portraits Of his contempt
rarIes drawn by his sympathetic and judfcious
pen.
Mr.. Andrew Lang is very much his old self
writing his miscellaneous notes AT the Sign of
st. Paurs." in 1.-THE Illustrated London News"
instead Of AT the Sign of the Ship" In the
Gently discontinued "Longman's Magazine" In
the latest of his little dscourses he treats the
joy of picking UP things" which is to say the
joy of the collector who finds his treasures in
unexpected places Ever since his school days,
in which he a picture of the ancient wall
of the city Of Agamemnon. Mr., Lang has been
haunted by the interest of the Lion Gate at
Mycenae. The lions of that gate have long been
headless, and he has always wanted to what
sort of heads they wore. Now he thinks that
possibly he has seen. telling this story:
Some years ago I was walking past little shop
of second hand small wares in a London street. I
stared in at the window of the lost little curiosity
nicknacks- cheap jrides1f saw the lions Of Ny
Of white stone, onyx or chaIcedony, or what-not.
There was a modern gold ring for attachment TO
rounded by broad gold band of late eghteenth or
OF nc een ioy oesn Inc es s5e en- rim
ming like Two Cheshre cats varied in several de- de-
should show it to the British Museum q think the
late Mr.. A. S. Murray then head of the Classi-
cal De9partme9t and to a certain very great eat
trinlzet. and what was not good enough for them
When again Went t6reugh bo that street saw the
lions in their old place. and fell victim to their
ably some tourist in Greece century ago more
had seen and sketched the lions of Mycense, still
make tho trinket from the sketch as a souvenir de
exact copy in several points; that, however, set
down to the carelessness of the sketcher or the
copyist in stone; and anyhow. the heads were on
the lions facing the spectator
coMid F be fognd noWhere Howe%er they turned up
sonehow three weeks ago; then they were sno"h
may said that what he does not know, is nos
posing that the trnket is probably a talisman of
the later Mycen@an age; and another expert be
tiquity It viii thus be of the period OF. King
ogf had aPq 4e 9f this pieces Of luck for the
Of the small boy who, IKE many OF those e., Snaii
since ike Homer Himself explained away in
a syndicate of men Of letters
For our own part we believe that the spirit
of Homer reserved this piece of luck, for the
fore but which, under the circumstances, we
surely need no excuse for reprinting again
THE ODYSSEY.
A. one that for q weary space has lain
I.ulrd by the song OF Circe and her wine
In gardens near the pale of Proserpine,
And mo- onI VII the low iutes of iove complain,
And only shadows Of wan wan lovers l pine e. b-3na
Salt on his lips and the large air again,
So gladly from the songs of modern speech
fr1rn nd
shrin wind beyond the close of heavy flowers overs
they hear like Ocean on a western 6I1os1 beach
n this present age of publicity, curiosity
seems sometimes TO be about evenly divided be-
tween the affairs of the very rich and those OF
the very poor. When it manifests ftse!f In
snobbish concern over the doings of the smart
set or in intrusive stunning" expeditions II
Is es irnpertinent as it is morbid But when
II is animated by good sense 1t Is altogether
iustifiable There is abundant good sense shown
in 'HThe Queens Poor U4ongnans, Green q
Coz. by Miss NJ. Loans, who was for several
wears an English district nurse, brought by the
nature of her duties into close association with
the poorest in town and country. Her expert
ence was wider than that of the Rev. Mr. Free
whose Seven Years Hard" her book recalls. 1t
covered larger field. and the whole the I'M
nression one gets is that she views conditions as
somewhat less sordid, more hopeful than did
mat devoted and entertaining cleric. The very
poor as she saw them and mingled with them
seem less different in nature, more human, than
thev appeared to Mr.. Free Perhaps this is due
n the fact that her association with them In
+beir homes was closer, more confidential than
his Like him, she is possessed of delightIoi
sense of humor, which must have gone lar TO
relieve the depressing influences of the misery
she witnessed, and certainly does much to make
her volume readable. She is an unco1npromis-
ing advocate Of the principle that money Is the
worst thing that can be given to the able
bodied poor no matter how destitute they may
he unless it is given in such an amount as to
1ift them out Of their dependent condition and
70 placs them on a self-supporting basis. Half
way measures only tend to pauperization' and
are more expensive in the long run.
II Is 2 mistake the author contends, to sup
nose that an indifference to ohurchgoing and
religious observances argues lack CT deep and
true religious conviction on the part oF the very
poor. It is true. she writes, that those among
whom she worked were almost without excep-
ton not so much Indifferent to the dogmas OF
religion as unconscious of their existence Inc
chief tenets of the faith almost universally held
bv them included a belief in the existence OF a
supreme Being intimately concerned with the
life of men, and best served by loving faithful
ness to the homeest duties the spiritual EN-
cacv of prayer and triumphant faith in the i'm
mortality of the soul" One controlling reason
for none hurchg0ing is thus explained:
Many, Of the poor rarely attend church, not be-
long since received and ABSORBED the truLn s py
which they I've while tde tJ l'e does I not occur to
them and does not seem credible when sugges 3
- 5 in theirs sit in large, well ighted