The San Francisco call., 1905-03-09
BRITISH AUTHOR
TO CROSS OCEAN
G. B. Burgin, Who Wrote
shutters of Silence" Plans
Visit to United States
WILL STAY In AFRICA
Rudyard Kipling PoStpones
Return to London Until
the Latter Part of Spring
Special Dispatch to The Can.


LONDON, March sc. B. Burgin,
whose new novel The Marble City
has just been published, is planning to
go 10 tho United States early in June
He is rather pleased with the fact that
a hundred thousand copies Of his
shutters Of Silence" in paper, have
just been printed in New York After
a short visit in the United States
Burgin means TO go TO the back settle
ments" Of Ontario. where ne already
has spent SO much time and gathered
so much material for q holiday that
has been well earned
Rudyaro Kipling has decided not TO
return 10 this country from South
Africa until the late spring. Hall
Caine is in Switzerland and, 1 hear,
considerably improved in health. Will
lam lie Queux is making a motor tour
through Italy His new novel, Who
Giveth This Woman2" is to be pub
ished in a day or two.
George Meredith declared the other
day that though he had no special
choice among the women Of his books,
he perhaps gave most color TO Diana
of the Crossways' and Clara Middle
ton OF the 'Egoist.'
] have not studied women more than
! have men, said Meredith, but with
more affection. a deeper interest in
their enfranchisement and develop
ment, being assured that women of the
independent mind are needed for any
sensible degree Of progress. They will
SO educate their daughters that these
viii not be instructed at the start to
think themselves naturally inferior 10
men because less muscular, and need
not have recourse to particular arts,
feline chiefly, 10 make their way in the
world.
Since began to reflect I have been
oppressed with the injustice done to
women, the constraint put upon their
natural aptitudes and their faculties
generally, much TO the degradation of
the race"
POPULAR FRENCH WRITER.
Anatole France is now by far the
most popular Of living French writers
and has record OF sales that is little
short Of amazing. His Crime of Syl-
Eestre BOnnard" has gone through IS
editions, and lie Lys Rouge" through
SO. 'L'Orme du Hail" is in its nth
edition, lie Mannequinn d'Osier' in its
18th, and Monsieur Bergeret" in its
Both. The figures are a credit to
French taste, considering that the au-
thor Is the leading stylist of his age
good deal Of interest is being
taken in reprint just published in
London Of '-OrOnooka." a novel by
Mrs. ADhra Behn, who is supposed
10 nave been the first English pro-
iessionaI authoress and female play
wright. Born in 1910, Mrs Behn was
also one Of the first English women
30 take uD the business Of a political
SPY and i'm this capacity she was sent
10 Antwerp in 1866 to find out the de-
signs of the Dutch, her husband being
a gentleman Of that nationality. She
conducted her mission with some suc-
cess and gave Information of the pro-
Jected expedition Of the Dutch to the
Ihames, though Charles II and his
sapient cOunselOrs thought proper to
ignore her warning. Then she took to
writing plays. which had some success
on the stage, though they were not re-
markable for their delicacy. "Oron-
coka" was the best OF her novels.
CLARK RUSSELL NO SAILOR
Before long we may have a Dorset
shire man asserting that Thomas
Hardy doesn't know Wessex Quite
recently a Hindu critic. who ought to
have known what he was TALKING
about, declared that Rudyard Kip
ling's knowledge Of India was only su-
perhcial, and now comes J. K. Pat
tersOn, a former sailor, with the in
formation that Clark Russell is igno-
HIS
Island Princess" RusSelrs latest salt
water novel, this nautical critic says:
There is no true breath of the ocean
about him. Take these utterances of
his as samples:
The breeze was blowing a stiff
wind. The decks sobbed.
The shrouds rang like
church bells
such things as these never heard
during a dozen years under canvas the
world round. Again the narrator,
talking Of the wet sails, says they
we're
Dark midway the height of the
mast with the saturation of the swing
Of the brine.
This man must have been looking a
hundred years ahead Of his day prefer
naturally seeking to throw Rudyard
kipling and Frank T. Bullen into a
couple Of lines. So much for this un-
seamaniike sailor"
Clark Russell an "unseamanlike sail
or" After this it viii be no shock TO
hear that Dr. Doyle knows nothing
about medicine or that Barrie ism [
really a Scot.
A good story that is none the worse
for being rather belated is being told
Of how a French newspaper man got
an interview with Zola- knowing that
1t was out Of the question to try to
set the novelist 10 .'taTkD in the ordi-
nary way. this reporter called at his
house and told the servant 10 tell his
master that Francois Coppee. was dy-
ing. COppee. Of course, was Zola' s
great cOmrade, and the author Of
Accuse" came rushing out irnmedi-
aieiy, white Of face. Whereupon the
waiting scribe said blandly. Sir. it is
rot true that Monsieur Coppee is dy-
irg. although he is not especially well
today. but ] should very much like
- get your opinion on such and such a
inject" It is affirmed that zola was
fsbbergasted that he gave up" all
his visitor wanted to know.
-S--o-s--