The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-04
THE PLUM TREE, by David Graham |
Phillips. Illustrated by T.. NJ. Ashe.
Publishers: The BobbS-Merrill Com |
many IndianannIiS Ind

Publishers: The Bobbs- Merrill Com
pany. indianapolis, Ind.
Some years ago when Senator Quay
was summoned TO testify in an investi-
cation about specializing in sugar,
when the sugar tariff was before the
Senate, there came to light telegram
| to his son which contained this ad-
vice: Shake the Plum Tree Since
! that time whenever a public man mas
| desired to take advantage of a UP
| and make money on Change, the say
! ing shake the plum tree" has become
common.
Political novels have steadily grown
| in popularity. They touch a subject
| which interests every voter, for polltlcs
| is engrossing TO most men and many
women. This novel, shake The Plum
deals with the modern condition of
politics that has produced The Boss,
and ii is a composite picture OF great
events in recent national campaigns.
| The characters are strongly drawn,
but the best and noblest character is
the mother of the hero-the noble
hearted and self-sacrificing WIDOW
whose joy, ambition and happiness
were wrapped up in the professional
career Of her son 1t was her faith
and her courage that inspired her boy,
and yet she did not live to see the
high position which her son was en-
abled to win by reason of her life or
devotion and sacrifice. The book is
one of the best dealing with polltlcs
that has been written and Is belnS
widely read and discussed. In late
issue of the New York Times, Pen
dennis" writes charmingly of the per-
sonality of the author, David Graham
Phillips. 1t is so good that we quote
it below:
AT a club anonymous while it
lived) where congenial spirits used to
meet and make the one room they
rented reek with the atmosphere OF
smoke and all the 'ologies unknown TO,
face, there was one sane man who
printed these lines in large letters on
the wall:
You may talk and you may dribble,
You may laugh and you may qulbble,
You may drink or even scribble'
But:
For Gods sake, use your brains!
The verses came beck to me after |
had spent an hour or so with DaNld
Graham Phillips, the young American
novelist who exhibits in his latest book
THE Plum Tree" his faith in the
literal meaning of that proverb, 1he
pen is mightier than the sword.
phillips is the sort of man VINO
makes a tacit appeal not merely to
his readers but to every one ana
everything within point of contact to
him For Gods sake, use your
brains!"
He is the sort of man who makes
a Gothamite feel uncomfortable be
cause the things that he believes real
ly count in the world are not belng
done i'm New York OF course, there
is great deal doing here, but New
York, according to men like Phillips,
is very much like the drunkard who,
though being observed by a Bishop
was unabashed, while the Bishop,
(whom for Illustration we will call
Bishop So said TO a friend as he
watched the drunkard, There goes
Bishop S. but for the grace of God
phillips would make an ideal rep
resentative Of the Government in some
virgin soil where he could draw out
of the raw material upon an annexed
land i'm the far Orient day, a living,
breathing republic of justice, honor,
and self-reliance.
How many American Consuls
abroad would appreciate the moral or
my friends lines: For Gods sake, use
your brains!' without applying the
words to their political training?
Men i'm all professions get brain
flag, which is .enlightening in its re-
action. but the political brain never
Tags; it has no reaction, it passes
from under the eye of the boss, and
is no more.
These are reminiscent observations
of Phillips; he leaves you full on
glaring, meaty truths; he is not mere
ly making literature as classical oc-
cupation; he is man who is af1re with
the smoldering embers of facts that
other writer's pass by; he digs INDUS
triously in the neglected ash heap OF
mems rotten motives.
HE plays with nothing; he works
patient example to the young American
writer who staggers into the market
with wavering indecisions as TO mo- |
tives. style, editors, and revenue. His
first book was called The Great God |
Success
az worked on the manuscript while |
/ was writing editorials for New
York daily he said. Political edito- |
truth, even if the editorials didn't /
permit me to tell it. | was impressed |
with the awful failures among men
who. were avowed great worldly sue
cesses How unhappy they were how
puerile in their motives, how unattain- |
able happiness or contentment was to |
them, and then how small percent |
age Of brains had brought all this |
about Could the brain of multi I
literal superiority to the brain of a |
professional man, for instance, who |
lived in the calm. sure light of intel |
lectual exercise, while the other grew |
sickly and pale in the yellow glitter OF
his gold? Did his success give him |
any reward that was commensurate |
with his efforts? Why shouldn't the |
of a man who thinks steadily, |
clearly. about the more |
unselfish problems of life be as great |
as the triumph of money that another |
man has selfishly accumulated and |
esta blsh for him supremacy of sue |
cess? That a few men should hold |
I'm their power eighty millions of peo-
pie is not success, nor is it possible |
that their brains are in mathe-
NAUTICAL ratio of equation so much |
mightier than those eighty millions of
people they control. No, they are
merely victims of circumstances, the |
figurehcads of conditions over which |
they had no control. Things were ~
ing around loose: it is a vast country;
there were not so many people as
there are now, and they just grabbed |
as much as they could hold at an OPP
perfume time"
"And they are still holding on"