The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-21
BOOK NEWS
AND GOSSIP
THE UNEASY CHAIR

JULES VERNE CRITICALLY ILL.-It
IS announced from Nantes, France, that
Jules Verne, the novelist, is critically i'll,
and that his recovery is not expected. He
is 70 years old, 80. u Il a..
The condition of the author is re-
garded as hopeless. kilograms of SYM
pathy from all quarters of the. globe have
Deen received. Many Of them are from
children and scientists. T'.-l,-i
SOME NEW REASONS FOR GOING
TO CHURCA.-Offhand,, one would not be
likely to ask G. Bernard Shaw for reasons
Tor going to church, if indeed, one asked
anybody. Perhaps that is the reason Mr..
Shaw has not waited to be asked but has
published an essay On Going to Church., a
very unusual essay, too. Mr.. Shaw's rea-
sons for going to church are original. He
thinks going to church a good substitute
for the liquor habit, for example. He puts
it in this way:
: What Is called professional work is, in point
OF severity just what you choose. to make 1t,
e1ther commonplace easy and requiring only
extensive industry to be lucrative, or else dis
t1nguished, difficult and exacting the hercest
intensive industry in return, after probatio
OF twenty years or SO, for authority, reputa tion
and an income only sufficient for simple habits
and plain living. The whole professional world
lies between these two extremes. At the one
you have the man to whom his profession Is only
a means Of making himself and his family COM
Portable and prosperous; at the other, you have
the man who sacrifices everything and every
body himself included, to the perfection Of
his work-to the passion for efficiency which Is
the true master passion of the artist. At the
one, work is necessary evil and money-maktng
pleasure; at the other, work Is the objective
realization of life and moneS-makng nuisance.
At the one, men drink and drug to make them
selves comfortable at the other, to stimulate
their working faculty. Preach mere abstinence
at the /one. and you are preaching nothing but
diminution Of happiness. Preach 1t At the other,
and you are proposing reduction OF efficiency
If you are to prevail you must propose substi-
tute. And the only one have yet been able
to hit on is--going to church
John w. Luce & Co., Boston,
THE DEGRADING INFLUENCES OF
TYPEWRlTlNG MACHINES: MARK
TWAIN'S FIRST EXPERIMENTAL
Twain seems to have been a pioneer in the
use Of typewriters. According to an ex-
tract in ,Harper's Weekly, from Mr..
Clemens. unpublished autobiography, he
was the unhappy owner Of a machine
away back In 1874 or 1875. He thinks he
dictated a portion Of "Tom Sawyer" to al
operator about that time, But it is his
complaint that the thing affected his
morals. SO he tried, to give 1t away
Finally he tried it on W. D. Howells
Mr.. Howells took it, and tho he brought
it back, his (Howells,) morals have never
recovered, says Mr.. Clemens. 1t was on this
same: machine that Mr.. Clemens wrote hi:
autograph for Edward Box. then young
man in the autograph hunting business.
| The taste Mr.. Clemens gives IF hi
autobiography in the current number O.
| the Weekly Is enough to assure readeri
| that something rare Is in store for then
when the autobiography Is published.