New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-04-06


Mr.. James's american Scene" by the way.
does not find 1t all plain sailing among the
English reviewers. Numbers Of these. being
scaled Of the tribe OF his thick and thin adj
mirers. duly swallow the book whole. but there
are others who. while testifying 10 the good
work he has done in the past. canddy rebel
against his latest volume One Of these critics,
writing in the London "Bookman." protests that
the only impression ne retains Of THE American
Scene is that OF "a Remorseess Bore" and he
frees his mind on the subject of this Sad rub
bish." as he calls it, in this amusing manner:
There are 4s5 pages; "A chapters. each. nominaiy,
dealing with some city or district STUDY II rev
you will lind that Mr. James is quite sound on
ness. But so are other people so should be all
who see to-day the Spread Eagle gloating over the
associate With 6 decent 1 n Pg you want TO
know about the States. read Basil Hall or any
obsolete-no matter-they are less unsayoury MI ar
pages more about himself than l want to know.
His Impressionism and Analytics are. to speak
pretends TO seek the Mystical Aftinties and Inner
Meaning Of eyerything Gazes on a cloud ,d ana
Whale hye-Pound n9te9T en- ba sere o as
a blank wall-what mystery does its Darkness I'M
poTtY The House Of Commons shrmps ior t ht
DOWN. No! something greyer. more brlckdusty.
more Rhadamanthine than any Of these Really
preme Joke After dwelling on with nonsense
like this for page two. muddled and muddIing.
Mr.. James is sorry 20 say he cannot at present
interpret that particular brick wal-hiB mood" Is
propitious aybe-and he has the impudenee
promise to look at II another day lin a different
light" and favour us with the result later on II
only they ICeTe meant for burlesque. l should
hugely relish these candid confessions of failure
And this tWaddle he calls Analysis. 1t IS nothing
OF the kind. Analysis is getting sense out OF
something, not putting nonsense in. And he pumps
out his nonsense in food of jargon which really
pretentlous and deliberately unintelhgble -as he
would say, for long words are as dear to him as
his grabbed Impresslonist shibboleths.
A correspondent Of the Chicago Dial" COM
plains that the magazines are constructed
mechanically that It is physical effort to read
them:
In plain English. It tires the thumbs Why do
publishers put their magazines together so that
they will not lie open the lap? How Is a man
10 smoke his pipe he reads when he must hold
the magazine open by all the strength OF both
are properly bound with thread and glue. instead
OF those Irritating wire clasps. No doubt, ele
clasps are cheaper, or they would not be used.
That IS the explanation Of most Of the impo5itions
q lOng-suffering public But believe any
magazine publisher could increase his circulation
by aboshing the clasps The other day closed
my subscription 70 a magazine had taken for
years, and ordered another in its place. chiefly for
the reason that would not lie open the table
and the other would. The wire clasps a
doubtful economy, surely. in that case
DR.. Osler's Harvelan Grafton on THE Growth
of Truth" declared that 'the iron yoke OF con-