The San Francisco call., 1906-04-01

those OF the public" And Charles Dick
ems, in a long letter to Captain Hall,
wrote: '.To say that the reading OF that
most astonishing and tremendous account
has constituted an epoch in my hre-that
shall never forget the Hghtest word OF II
that I cannot throw the impression
aside and never saw anything so real. 50
touching and so actually present before
my eyes. is nothing"
1t was Herbert Spencer who first adj
vised George Eliot to write fiction. In
a reminiscent article in Harpers for
April, written by two ladies who for
many years kept house for the philoso-
pher. they record that Spencer told
that George Eliot and her brother were
the originals OF Maggie and Tom Tul-
liver in The Mill on the Floss" The
writer's aver that Spencer seems TO
have been responsible for more than
one important event in that authoress
career. for 1t was he who let out the Sc
cret Of her identity. Some one blessed
with more desire for information than
with tact had asked him point-blank il
it were true that. Marian Evans and
George Eliot were one and the same.
and his simplicity being too great to al
low him to prevaricate. he Kept silence,
and so the secret was OUT
What is a songsmith? This is ques-
ton that has been frequently asked OF
Ottilie a. Liljencrantz's new romance.
Randvar the Songsmith" (Harper's). It
can best be answered by the reply made
by Randvar to Brynhild, the beautiful
TaIkyrie maiden: My foster-f father
who had worked at a forge in his youth,
said that all the skalds he had met were
like traders. who do not more than pass
on what other men have mades but that
8 singer who melts scraps together and
hammers them out in new shapes 10 q
songsmith.'
The following excerpts from Laurence
Hopes Last Poems (John Lane COM
pany) have an added interest from the
fact that they appear just after the au-
thor's tragic death When "India's Love
Lyrics and "Stars Of the Desert" caught
the attention Of the poetry y-reading public
the identity of the writer remained hidden
for some time behind her pen name.
Some months ago. however, It was an
nounced that Laurence Hope was the
wife Of General Malcolm Nicolson OF thu
British army in India and almost at the
same time came the information that she
had committed suicide. through grief over
the death Of her husband.
KHRIsTNA AND HIS FLUTE
Be STILL my heart. and listen,
For sweet and yet acute
] hear the wistful music
OF Khristna and his flute.
Across the cool. blue evenings
Throughout the burning dayA
Persuasive and beguiling,
He plays and plays and plays.
All, none may hear such music
Resistant to It's charms.
The household work grows weary,
And cold the husband arms.
/ must arise and follow.
To seek, in vain pursuit
The blueness and the distance.
The sweetness OF that hutel
In linked and liquid sequences,
The plaintive notes dissolve
Divtne1y tender secrets
That none but he solva
o. Khristna. ] am coming,
/ can no more delay,
my heart has flown to join thee"
How shall my footsteps stayf
Beloved. such thoughts have peru,
The wish Is In my mind
That I had fred the Jungle,
And left deaf behind IN
Burnt all barnboos to ashes.
And made their music mute
To save thee from the magic
or KhEistna and his futs.
Literary DfxesG