The San Francisco call., 1906-04-01

EIy under way for the comfortable and
economic. housing Of women wage
earners in New York City.
/ =, The Russians in Alaska are new to
fiction. Warren Cheney has discovered
them in his remarkable novel, The
Challenge" Just published by the
| BobbsMerrill Company. He came upon
them by accident, An Eastern masa-
zine had given him commission 10
write up the Alaska Fur Company anu
its successor, the Alaska Commercial
Company, on the lines in which the
Hudson Bay Company has been ex-
plotted on the other side. He had ac=
cess to the Bancroft Library and the
old post records and put in about-tWo
years intermittent work preparing for
the task. But at the end of that time
he had become so tremendously inter-
ested in the human side Of the ques-
tioR-there had developed such
wealth of new. and picturesque material
for fiction-that he threw aside the his
torical commission and began work on
novel. Not only does THE Chal-
Ienge" deal with Russians. but it has
much of the Russian literary spirit and
method. Some critics have gone so far
as 20 call Mr.. Cheney "the American
Turgenieff The Bobbs-Merrill Company
Literary Notes.
The week of it's publication Bertha
Runkle's The Truth About Tolna" was
among the books reported by New
York dealers as their six best selling
books; and it continues on this list
In Old Bellaire," Mary Dillon's story
of life and love in Carlisle, Pa, is also
reported among the six books most In
demand in libraries and book stores.
-
A public spirited lady has just or
dered from the Lothrop. Lee & Shepard
Company thirty copies Of Henry Weed
standard work, 1.-The Political Economy or
Humanism," which. are 10 be present.
ed to the thirty..labor members recent
ly returned to the new English Par
lament.
Herbert Quick, author of Double
/ Trouble" is leading the quiet life. He
has betaken himself to Palmetto Beach,
Ala, there to write a new novel His
library will be of interest to- every one
! who has tried to figure out what books
he would take with him were he ban
ished to desert isle. 1t consists of
Roget's "Thesaurus," Webster's Diction-
airy, Omar's ''Rubaiyat," Burton's
Thomas play Arizona" and the New
/ Testament. Mr.. Quicks new story in
process of writing is said to be in
very different vein from the rollicking
comedy of Double Trouble. The
Bobbs-M Merrill Company Literary Notes.
From William Jennings Bryan's In
dividualism VS.. Socialism" in the April
Century: The words individualism' and
socialism define tendencies rather than
concrete systems; for.'as extreme indi-
| - ff ha HaP oT0
form of government, so there is no
example of socialism in full operation.
All government being more or less. So
cfalistic. the contention so far as this
subject. is concerned. Is between those
who regard individuaiism as ideal, to
be approached as nearly as circum-
stances will permit, and those who re-
gard a socialistic state as ideal. to be
established as far and as fast as public
opinion will allow"
The Putnams will publish shortly I'm
the Shadow of the Alamo ard other
Texas tales by Miss Clara DriscoIl, the
author of The Girl of La Gloria"
which the same publishers brought out
a few months since. Miss Driscoll, it
need hardly be said, is the lady who
'Mexicana" The tales in the present
volume present aspects of Texas life
and history from the early days Of the
Spanish conquest down to our own time.
Into them are woven legends and tradi-
tions. which by their depth OF human
sentiment and passion, have lived for
hundreds of years in the memory of the
people. The book is exquisitely printed
and marginal Illustrations scattered
through it represent old Texas scenes.
The remarkable narrative of Lady de
Lancey, detailing to her brother her ex-
periences at her husbands deathbed just
after the battle of Waterloo, is now to be
published, for the first time in full. in the
. April Century. This document-was shown
privately to both Sir Walter Scott and
Charles Dickens. Both were greatly
moved with its pathos. Sir Walter wrote
to Captain Hall after reading 1t: 'I never
read anything which affected my own
feelings more strongly. or which. 1 am
sure. would have a deeper interest on