The Washington herald., 1906-12-23

The first lesson In reading vel is that which
teaches us 70 distinguish between literature and
merely printed matter.
LOWELL-'Books and Libraries"
It is curious that no novelist has, so
far, chosen the personality Of Theodore
Roosevelt as the central character for a
story. Perhaps it is because he is too
picturesque a figure in reality and bulks
too large in his many activities. A great
many OF Americas statesmen have fig
ured in recent fiction. In Mrs. Mary Dill
Ions new book. ''The Leader" the hero is
William Jennings Bryan. Winston
Churchill in Richard Carvel'' gave Us a
picture of Washington; in The Hon. Pc
ter Sterling" Paul Leicester Ford drew
en- accurate portrait OF Grover Cleveland;
IN THE Crisis" again Winston Churchill
drew a portrait. this time OF Lincoln;
Gertrude AthertOn took Alexander Ham
ilton for her hero In The Conqueror;"
Andrew Jackson was the hero OF Alfred
Henry Lewis Peggy O'Neal." and F. C.
Williams drew a fdll-length portrait Of
Grant in THE Captain" Lewis drew a
more or less fiattering picture Of Richard
Croker in The Boss" and In 'Blenner-
hassett" Charles F. Pidgin took for his
central figure Aaron Burr. There IS a
lot Of this sort Of material yet unused.
Speaker Cannon might well be the hero
Of a novel to be called When the Bars
Are Up" a book called "OH on the
Trouble Waters could hardly have bet
ter figure OF a hero than Senator Bailey;
the book to be called Tom Tiddler's
Ground" might feature Secretary Shaw.
or Domestic Trouble by A. Bachelor.
might make use of the attainments of
Senator Sm0ot. There is, in short, no
end Of the possibilities Of this new sort
Of contemporaneous historical fiction.
Louis Tracy's latest novel, AT the
Court Of the Maharaja" is a farfetched
story Of India. whose interest depends
largely on the wiles and turns Of central
Indian politics. a subject not easy 70 IN
derstand and difficult 10 render Interesting.
Il has 10 do with an English girl who
foOlishly marries a maharaja, and goes
with him TO his native state, where the
gloss OF English civilization falls away
from him. and she is involved in all sorts
Of plots and intrigues. The story has
plenty Of action in It, but the whole thing
has an air of Unreality about it: while as
for literary quality, the book has absO-
lutely none. It is published by the Amer
lean News Company, Of New York
Il is curious how wideawake the mod
ern advertiser is TO a catchy phrase OF
title. and there have been few more at
tractive titles recently that that of Mere
dith NichoIsOn's novel, The House Of
Thousand Candles" Soon after the book
became a popular success a railway para
phrased the name 20 suit its own needs
and advertised Itself as The Road Of
Thousand Wonders" IN two different
cities wide apart. TWO sweetmeat makers
got the idea Of calling their places, The
House Of a Thousand Candies" and
well-knOwn summer resort hotel keeper
sought 10 make his house more appealing
to tourists by remaining II The House of
a Thousand Delights"
Mr. Nicholson seems TO have a hap
py faculty OF choosing attractive titles
his new story. which is running as Z Sc
RIAL is called The Port Of Missing Men. E"
The value Of a catchy title for any ar
ticle OF merchandise is so great that
big Western canning factory sent let
ter 10 Mr.. Nicholson offering him a SUBJ
stantiai check If he would name for them
new line Of fancy pickles. This was
too much for the poet and philosopher.
and he had, regretfully, 10 decline.
During the week just past the holiday
spirit was again in evidence at the Pub
lie Library. so far as the chiidren's de-
mands for books go, for again two Lang
fairy books lead all others. this time the
Violet and the Red Fairy books Other
popular juveniles were Dudley's with
Mask and Aitt' and Barbour's THE
Crimson Sweater" The two most popu-
lar non-hction books were Mrs. Batch
eller's "GHmpses Of Italian Court Life
and Ibsen's Peer Gynt" The two most
popular works Of fiction were VIII Har-
ben's Ann Boyd and Peoples rich
ard the BraZen-"
That erratic but gentle philosopher
Moncure D. Conway has been heard from
again, making his temperance with MY
Pilgrimage to the Wise Men Of the East, "
a delightfully."- gossipy narrative OF a
Journey through many Of the Eastern
lands. where he studied human nature
In HindUst2n he met Nine. Blavatsky
who, he says admitted frankly TO him
that she was a fraud and a humbug. and
thus disarmed him and prevented him
from attacking her. The book is valu-
able for many things, and not the least
for another collection of those pithy cpl
grammatic sentences for which Mr.. Con-
way is famous. Here are some Of the lat
est:
Who can love a Cosmos?
regard TheosOphy simply as spiritualism IN a fez
If one scratches Englishman with Moslem
spear he viii find a crusader.
From Boccacios Fiametta to Goethe's Gre6chen 1t
is church-goins that furnishes the lovers oppor-
tu1ity.
have remarked in various parts Of the world
that in every country the sex that exceeds the
other in numbers arrays itself finely; the minority
dressing plainly. In Australia the women being
relatively few are sure Of husbands without resort
ing to decoration.
once met Mr. Atkinson Harriet Marteneau's IA
nous friend and found the "Baconian Theory was
his substitute fOr Christianity. That this idea about
Bacon writing Shakespeare should cit around the
world and I'll its believers with an exaltaton and
peace the world cannot give is phenomenal
One of the important works promised
for early in 1907 is 'TaIleyrand: A Bio
graphical Study" in which the author
Joseph McCabe. holds a brief for his
hero. and tries to vindicate his character
from the asoersions that have been cast
upon It. Mr.. McCabe is an ex-priest, and
writing about another unfrocked priest
does, it is said. place many Of the &C
tons OF Talleyrand in new light. and
shows that some Of the things ne tried
to do have been misunderstood. McCabe
has had access to the memoirs OF Prince
Talleyrand. and it is predicted that this
viii be the most complete and satisfac-
tory life of the great statesman and diplo-
mat.
The Scotch are undoubtedly proud Of
Thomas Carlyle as a fellow-cOuntryman
and never fail TO point to him as a speci-