The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-27

substantial bound volume -F'renMed
Finance and aperceives that Of its $50
pages 14S are taken up with the in
sufance matter that 1t comes nome TO
one MI Lawson has gathered to
gether here q mass of material that
cannot fail to interest every policy
holder.
George AIDE, who writes his pub
fishers that before long there'H be an
other book to follow I'm Babel" has
had geographical honors conferred
upon him. A town, railroad station
and postOf1ce have been named after
him. Future maps of Newton county,
Indiana, viii show the name of AIDE,
six miles north of Kentland, on the
indian Harbor railroad George AIDE
has been putting the fortune his wit
has earned him into good, solid Amer
lean land, and near the location of this
new town owns a large and ehOurishing
farm The name was given to the
station by Vice President Brown, of
the New York Central, who is a great
admirer of AIDE. AS soon as he found
this town was to be formed near the
great humorist's property he issued or
ders that it should be named after him.
The Boy and the Outlaw. the story
of the John Brown raid written by
Thomas J. L. McManus has continued
to attract a good deal of attention and
a new edition has been prepared by
the Grafton Press. Mr. NcA1anus, it
will be rem mbered, was an eye wit
ness of the raid and has woven into
the story much of his own life as a
young lad.
It is always interesting to know the
methods Of composition Of any sue
cessful author. Mary r. wilkins
Freeman, for example, is q most
careful literary workman. ~She inva-
rlably thinks out othe climax of her
story first, and then writes without
copying and with very little correc-
of her novels and short stories, even
the wording, are clearly in her mind
before she begins to write the open
ing paragraphs. That this method
possesses a distinct merit of it's own
is clearly shown in the latest work
from her pen. 1.-The Debtor" which
Is attaining a success in England
nearly equal to that in America. ''As
delicate and charming as anything
one remem berS in recent American
literature" says the Manchester. Eng
land, Guardian; while the London
Evening Standard characterizes it as
AN epic of guilty impecuuiosity." It
IS generally conceded that the whole
refined, humorous, careless carroll
family afford the finest example of
how to live on nothing a year-a
theme of fascinating possibilities
which has occurred in fiction since
III IlcWNQ4 0IaWleY look I'D her
abode in Curzon street.
The Grafton Press of New York has
Just published Mr.. Scraggs by Henry
Wallace Phillips, collection of humoT-
Gus stories recording characteristic in
cidents in the career of the hero a man
who. III his ambition to be the head
of the hnll Mormon kingdom" married
right and left until driven to desper-
alton by his wives, he cut loose and by
"travelin fast between daylights," end
ed in a state where a man S Importance
is not weighed by the number of his
wives. Mr.. Phillips is an artist in his
special field and the character of Scraggs
has not been created to die in a day.
From the first moment when Scraggs
explains his melancholy appearance with
the four words I've been Mormon, :"
until he tells how he concealed from
the trusting Percival Merwin that they
had been camping for pleasure in a
country full of hostile Indians. he is
thoroughly entertaining. Though forced
to view life from the eyes of a pessi-
mist. he is true philosopher, with a
keen sense Of humor for the self-impos-
ed tragedies Of his life. and a readiness
to start fresh after each misfortune,
whether It has been the addition Of
/ another wife or the explosion of his drug
store.
H. W. Boynton, author of Bret
Harte," in the McClure-Phillips Con
/ temporary Men of Letters Series' de-
| clares that the most minute search of
/ all documents and inquiries among per-
! sons who knew Bret Harte, have not
! enabled him to fix definitely the rumors
/ of Harte's Jewish ancestry. Clement
| Shorter, editor of the Sphere, takes is
/ sue with Mr.. Boynton and declares there
/ is no doubt about the matter. He writes
/ to an inquirer: I may state that my
/ final authority for Mr.. Bret Hartes
Jewish origin is his daughter, Miss Ethel
| Bret Harte, for whom a fund was re-
| Gently raised in London. Mr.. Bret Harte
| in his family circle recalled as small
boy being taken to see the old grand
/ father, who was a very strict Jew and
never entirely forgave his son for mar
/ rying a Christian"