New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-09
Mr.. Henry JameS'S Book on His
Recent ViSit te america,

The story is told OF a French painter who
onened his studio door one day TO family con-
sisting Of a widow and some eight or ten chill
5ren. The visitors had come to order a portrait
If the husband and father they had just burie l.
They had no Photograph, so the painter thought
a. easy 10 dismiss them. but he could not shake
their resolution, and was finally persuaded to
undertake the commission, basing his work
upon the descriptions volubly rendered by all
the members Of the group. When the portrait
vas completed and the family was summoned
frey stood in a row, and for at least ten minutes
we're lost in contemplation. Then after nudges
and inquiring looks which passed up and down
the line. the eldest son spoke up and said: Yes
g. is indeed our poor father. but how changed"
Reading The American Scene" know just
how that young man felt. The country It de-
scribes is our own country: but how changed!
i is the country in which Mr.. James was born
and for Il he cherishes, we shrewdly suspect. a
certain sneaking affection. He approaches the
American scene with amiable recollections in
the back Of his mind Of his contact with It in
earlier years. He IS ready pat II on the back
f9r old sake's sake. and not infrequently he does
show Il this sign of good Will. But II is a
rather patroniZng salute and never IS II more
SO than when the author is moved 20 say his
little say about the people who vivify the scene.
zones supreme relation" he says. as one had
always put II, ones relation 10 ones coun-
try-a conception made up so largely Of ones
countTymen and ones countrywomen." One
may be pardoned for saying that after ones
perusal OF this book. one has ones doubts as to
Mr. Jarness success in establishing that relation
Of ones self TO ones countrymen and TO ones
countrywomen which IS Indispensable to ones
arriving at a true conception of ones country.
Joking aside, there is something extraordinary
ex+-s IN,
failure 10 present a clear picture Of things seen
Ar. James is careful IN observation, and II there
is one thing more than another which we gather
from his book It IS that he revisited this country
81 q mood OF intense curiosity, having every de-
sire 10 get a truthful impression OF his native
land. The whole purpose Of his writing would
seem 10 be the notation of the last and subtlest
phases Of his visual and mental experience. We
feel that he IS almost painfully sol.citous TO
plain 10 the reader just how this or that episode
struck him. Yet 1t is next TO impossible really
70 pin him down TO point Of view, 10 broad
tangible attitude. Embedded IN his chapter on
Baltimore-which he calls, by the way, dear
little city"-there is this fairly specific pro-
nouncement: u may seem too much TO brood
upon IT, but the interest Of the American scene
being. beyond any other, the show, so i'm
mense q scale. of what Democracy, pushing and
breaking the ice like an Arctic explorer. is max
wears q part OF its dignity" There, for mo-
nent, as it seems TO Us. we have something to
60 The democratic motive is. for Mr.. James.
the all-compellinE motive, the one Of which he
VIII never lose sight no matter how far afeld
his joUrneyings may carry him The demo-
cratic idea viii dwell with him IN New England
and in the South. He VIII think Of It in the
Bowery and in Newport; it will follow him to
Boston to Philadelphia. 10 Baltimore and Wash
ingtor. "a Richmond and Charleston, and, of
course. he viii make the most of it in New York.
Nevertheless. the impression of democracy in
America which We suppose he has endeavored to
Put on record IN this volume Is so lost in well
ter Of words that for the life of us we cannot
pretend TO have made out more than fragment
or Il here and there.
When Mr.. James does contrive to put definite
observation on our democratic ways of life into
comparatively clear and succinct FORM it must
Re confessed that he gives Us rather one Of those
EIimpses Of the obvious which We expect from
the ordinary traveller, than the fresh and deeply
suggestive comment which we feel that We have
e right 10 expect from so portentous a critic
Take. FOR example. the following passage:
1t is the hard fate Of new missionaries that the
l % sr,a-Sj ~ -1,a 5i-9-5ess Of the past
bu receiving the fun modern glare light 1ata. 10
NJ See II IN New YORK. trying. irving is very
hardest 10 grow, not Vet knowing 'by so many
1dica tionsD what 70 grow
There comes baaz = me again and asa IN. for
teresting struggle in the vCida constituted image
helplessly more or less oated by its immense good
rnet but betrayed by its paucity Of real resource
The occasion allude 10 was simply dinner party,
n nigh ornament Of the general upIifted situation
was consistently struck that it presented itself
without possible ccntext-as consciously, almost
painfully, UuaccOmpanied by passages IN anything
Ike the same key. The scene Of our feast was a
@ii4 II f,-,itfS, grrfo,ie and gIit-
ridcence: but il was impossible not TO ask ones
eeif with what IN the wide American frame such
great matters might be supposed 10 consort or to
carried with II really social sequence. applica
ton. and that, tribute TO the ideal. TO the ex
C(Teecrra;ior The dilficTtv the ironv If the hour
ness Tat is Of sustaining social order were alb
cent There was nothing for us TO do at II o'clock
bed There was nothing, as IN London or In Paris,
70 go on" TO; the going . on IS. fQr the New York
court function would alone haye net the strain
erly crowned the hour
Talk Ike this is not bad, and it is even, in a
small way. useful. But it leaves US dissatisfied,
for two reasons. In the first place the writing
Of book Of this kind only be justified by
the filling of # with nevy-Ininted thoughts, with
the fruits Of intellectual exercises really worth
while, or with the charm of a personality so
original as to make pure entertainment, perhaps,
sn adequate substitute for edihcation. If we
look for the right sort Of book anywhere we
look for # 10 a man IKE Mr.. James distin-
guished writer whose long career has been spent
in the production Of novels nominally opposed in
their every line the chronicling Of small beer.
Secondly the quotation We have made, which
shows Nj James at his best, both as regards