New-York tribune., 1906-12-19
FAIRY TALES.
Nezo Collections of Old FaOoTtes
and Fresh Intentions.

When viii that tndefatigable editor. Andrew
Lang. reach the end of his wonderful stores OF
fairy tales? From all over the world. from saw
age lands as well as civilized ones, and from
far-off times he continues TO draw material Of
never failing charm. This year we are glad to
welcome The Orange Fairy Book Q-ongrnans,
Green & Coz, a volume fascinating IN every
particular. The very first tale IS full of thrills
for the young. II comes from South Africa. and
relates the chief episodes in the career OF a
hero who goes conquering about his world in
many wonderful ways This is one Of several
African stories taken down from the lips Of
native romancers by a white man who speaks
their language. As we turn these pages we re-
allze how large q proportion Of the fairy tales
OF mankind are variants of a few themes. The
cruel stepnother and the stepnOther's ugly
daughter. the oppressed heroine who is re-
warded for passing kindnesses to fairies in the
guisa Of distressed animals. the cat who helps
her master 10 riches, the princess who suffers
because a certain fairy not invited to her
christening-these are figures which appear
again and again in the beguing literature
which AIr. Lang offers US. Apropos of this fact
we viii quote an interesting passage from his
preface:
The old puzzle remains puzzIe-Uhy do the
stories of the remotest people SO closely resemble
each other? Of course. in The immeasurable past
they have been carried about by conquering races
and learned by conquer5ns races ] rom yanquisaed
peoples Slaves, carried Iar from nome. brought
54-.Lz 5-l ~ 80 - 80 iffIgl5 +le - s+(-isa " %
s[2sR Igq 1 a @ bve 5Tee 5eed tRem Sb6at @ Roa
Soldiers Of many different races moved here and
From the remotest days men have been wanderers,
ana wherever they went their stories accompanied
them. The slave trade might fake a Greek TO Per
sla Persian 20 Greece; an Egyptian woman 10
Ihoenic., BabyioAsIn 10 Eg{P1 scaR4l4ay2a fII ian
Baltic To the Adriatic; or a Sldo4iau 10 0phIr'
wherever Ophir may have been; ~hILe the fortu-
guese may AE9 eQIne me- t Is R92 20 2o1t taf "a;
to FaE-nf The stories wandered wherever the
buddhist missionaries went. and the earliest French
facts help to account for the saneness Of the sto-
fancy in cariy societies must be the cause Of many
other Tesc1nblaAces
The late Frank r Stockton. in the tales col
lccted in the volume entitled The Queens
Museum and Other Fanciful Tales" (CharIes
Scribner's Sons} struck out new line of his
own There is magic in plenty in the perform
uuces Of the Junior Sorcerer, the Gryphoness, the
Drvad and the Accommodating Circumstance.
but there is also a quaint humor which the old
time fairy tale generally lacks The stories
into which fairies do not enter are delightfully."-
fantastic in other directions. There is as much
wisdom as fun in the story OF The Queens
Museum" and in that entitled The Griffin and
the Minor Canon" AS for THE Clocks of Ron
rreciate the shrewdness Of that parable Many
generations To come will. believe, cherish
these taIes-which should never. we may add
ba divorced from Mr.. Frederick Richardson's
telling illustrations. Nobody who has once
made the acquaintance of the Griffin with the
PenevoIent Smile VIII ever forget him. Mr.
richardson has also made some clever iIlustra-
tions for Mr. Robert W. Chamberss Mountain
land" %. Appleton & Coz This volume reports
,bo surprising conversations OF Peter and Ger
aIdfne with divers wild creatures of hill and
,rest-conversations in which much inforrna-
+for &c pleasantly conveyed. A fantasy Of the
60, &c Mr. Curtis Dunham's THE Golden Cob
lin, 1.-THE Bobbs-Me Company. 1t is in
-orio,,s but crude, and the introduction of THE
E,yire Dutchman' and Vanderdecken was a
,,tgtata II was also a mistake 10 try the
,,,,5ar,s sight with the figures In color thrown
on the text
Into the volume entitled THE Russian Grand
,,o+bar,s Wonder Tales CChares Scribner's
core, Louise Seymour Houghton has gathered a
eroun of slavonian stories translated from tho
C,ar,ua, of Friedrich Kraus. These partake Of
the nature OF the wondertales OF the rest OF the