New-York tribune., 1905-12-12
THE Advantage to an Ess0yist of
the Sense of Humor.

.Inoe" As matter OF tact, the happy expert
20 70 which allusion is made comes only at
-, long intervals. The average collection of
s,,z IS hopelessIy literary The author
80 IN feel that he must convey an impression
= ,nsleeping scholarship; of being nothing if
=. criticaI OF being. in short, the Perfect
Tn5re Such writer's have a terribly depressing
,s,.ct upon the mere lover of good books. There
:. no.hin4 kindling about them. They never
,,,ova the reader 70 go and look for himself into
a. subIect under discussion On the contrary,
.hav leave him filed with unutterable weari-
ess An essayfst like Mr.. Samuel McCEord
C-o+hers is therefore boon. It is perfectly
.Is,y from many page in the book he has
80 pubIished 'The Pardoners Wallet
II5oughton Miff1in & Coz, that he gets good
deal out of his library, but it is also plain from
1La character of the volume q whole that he
ots more out Of life Is not this because he has,
r,onq other useful resources, the sense Of
humor?
Al the end of his book, speaking Of the
rc1,eltv of Good People" Mr.. Crothers points
,,t that righteousness at first is crude that it
e harsh and bitter; but he adds, give it time
.,d sunshine and it will grow sweet and mel
-" This illustrates the mood of loving kind
.ss in which he writes, but ii illustrates also
hts sense Of proportion, his readiness to put the
.bings that confront him in daily life into
sornd perspective; and that, maintain is
only another way of saying that he takes
Genuinely humorous view of mankind and its
affairs He could not for the life of him take
himself too seriously, and why therefore. we
can hear him asking, should he take anybody
aIse too seriously? Why. for example, should
he object to another mans prejudices? He
realizes that they are, a rule, quite harmless,
and that indeed, they often give the possessor
an abundance OF innocent pleasure His essay
on the subject in this book is a model of genial
and delicate admonition. Mr. Crothers is the
,ror, foe of what in one of his essays ne calls
sunseasonabIe virtues; he believes in the casu-
cation OF wrong, but he knows very Weh "hen
he has attended successfully more meetings Oh
. refornatory and denunciatory character than
,.+,,ra intended me to profit by" In fact he
-. the hIlD1orist's conviction that We need to
1ook life sanely and cheerfully in the face If we
,ronose TO live If to advantage, and throughout
fbese pages he urges the reader, with all lmasl-
nable gentleness and tact, TO adjust hmseh
easily and happily to the conditions around him,
10 practise contentment and common sense. In
the essay on The Pardoner," with which he
opens his volume. he paints droll little picture
Of the man who is kept awake in the early
morning hours by- worrying over THE Thing
That Was Not Worth Doing" and similar ri
diculous bogies. He follows it with this apt bit
of comment for those who do not know when to
let their sorrows. their joys, take care of
themselves:
Even IN our waking hours there is a tendency for
the sins of omission and the sorrows OF omission
10 pile up in monstrous fashion Ihere Is a curl
cus ingenuity which some persons have IL loading
fsem and In extracting melancholy reflections out
q their good fortunes They viii not frankly ac1
TO them In moqrnfu disgui,se Poets % fes SEEN
Eere are some lines entitled Two Sorrows:
Before Love came my eyes dim with tears
Because | had not known her gentle face
An grief from my poor heart she will efface'"
B5 5: sas s5lS2.s s sns SHs Se 1sl.t s a aye
But heart at every close OF day
weep Io foF those WIG have not found yet,
There is a fine altruism about this sentiment that |
one cannot but resPeet yet should hafe o 10 nn9 no
venture on dy little kindness for fear of opening
should feel ike urging another point of view.
IT is true that you happy, happier than you de-
fully IT'S not your fault. II seems selfish you
say 10 enjoy your blessings when there aren't
enough to so round among all your fellow beings.
Why, my dear fellow that's the only way 20 make make
selfish? We viii readily pardon that for the sake
q good time we much prefer that you should al
low to sympathze with you in your happiness
rather than that you should infict ii upon US 100
much sympathy for our deprivations
Mr.. Crothers writes always with so much
modesty that we suppose he would shrink from
hearing this sort OF thing described as wisdom;
but that is what it is and that is what he has
put into all Of his essays. Only he is careful
TO avoid the preachers air Of authority. What
he has to teach he teaches in light, friendly
fashion and though he never drags an anecdote
in by the heels, he is lavish enough of the
quaint illustration, the funny story. which will
serve at once to point his moral and TO amuse.
If we had more essays like these we would
begin to believe that the writing of a good
essay is not after all a lost art
The Christmas Book which is TO say the
volume prepared essentially for the holiday sea-
son. is the subject of an interesting paper con-
tributed by Mr. Joseph ShayIor to the "CornhilP'
for December. He speaks, among other things,
OF the famous "annuals' to which writer's like
Hood. Macaulay, Southey, Coleridge and Ten
nyson in his younger days used to contribute. !
The success Of these miscellanies was astonish-
Ing. Mr.. ShayIor quotes the figures in which
Nr. S. c. Hall, writing IN early number of
The Art Journal" summarized the results of
the sale of the "annuals' for 1929. The total
proceeds were 10000, thus divided:
Aators and editors SIX manufacturers etc $500
Painters for pictures. Advertisements 1900
EasTa.ers 1000 Publishers ,prodfs... 1900
goppeEpate printers 5SeoI R stai booksellers oo
Paper manufacturers. 6o00i -
Modern enterprise could hardly beat that OF
course. on the other hand, the modern public
would scarcely take as kindly to a scheme of
the sort as did The readers and critics of the
earlier Victorian age, according to Mr. Shaylor
Continuing, he says:
These Annuals were contributed 10 by nearly
every popular 0oet Of that period! some writing
a. enormously W N PTaeG ga receiveo - % @ gulFeas mes
PAID 10 artists some Of the Illustrations: Ihe