Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-26

symbol of his art may be thus repre-
seoted, but all to no purpose. Max
Nordau, however. in his admirable work
on Art and Artists" gives very sim
pie explanation of the signature. The
butterfly is nothing but the first letter
of Whistler's name-a big "W." An or
namental Gothic "w' with the two side
lines bellied out and bar in the mid
die, reminds one strikingly of a soaring
butterfly with its cylindrical body between
it's outstretched wings. The association
of ideas from similarity of form made
Whistler, as he painted the "W'' OF his
signature, think of a butterfly, and he
henceforward formed this picture instead
of the balder and more meaningless
letter
The career of Roy Horniman, the author
of Lord Cammarleigh'S Secret" has
been anything but uneventful. The son
of an English naval officer, his childr
hood was spent in various parts of the
world, according to the exigencies OF
naval life At the age of IS he is said
to have written a novel entitled "Cor-
inne," but it's erroticism 80 Mortified his
mother that he was persuaded to give IT
into her keeping, and has never been
able to trace it since. He completed his
education in England and despite his de-
termination to be an actor was persuad-
ed to enter an office as an experiment.
The experiment was ghastly failure.
Later, as an actor, he attained consid-
erable success in the companies of Forbes
Robertson and Mrs. Patrick Campbell,
OF his previous novels, the most sue
cessful is ''Bellamy the Magnificent" his
dramatized version Of which Sir Charles
Wyndham has arranged to produce. Mr.
Horniman Is q vegetarian and practlcaliy
& teetotaller. In Lord Cammarleighs Sc
cret'. he has told an immensely enter
tanning story of an impecunious young
man who boldly assumes the position OF
secretary for Lord Cammarleigh In or
der to learn his great secret.
The John Mcbride company has just
published a novel by Robert Aitken,
whose short stories in Appleton's Maga-
zine have given him a large following'
Among the writer's of romance, with the
probable exception of Richard Harding
Davis there are none who have had sucn
an adventurous career as Mr.. Aitken. Be-
sides being commissioned officer In the
British army during the Boer war. Be-
Aitken has been identified with two South
American revolutions. During his last
filibustering expedition he was captured
and sentenced to be shot. His escape
would make a novel In itself. Mr.. Attken
stands six feet four in his stockings, and
Is built in proportion. He Is an English
man by birth but is equally at home In
New York, London, Paris ana various
parts of South america and Africa. He
is not the type of man to talk about him
self or his exploits--in fact he is known
among his friends as "Silent Aitken" !"
The title of his book is ''rhe Golden
Horseshoe" It's a long distance from
the Flatiron building and Madison equare
to the tropical republic of San Benito in
South America, but Mr. Aitken carries
his readers there with hop. skip and a
jump, and the person who has read the
opening page won't let go till he reaches
the end.
Although Arthur Stringer has published
three volumes of poetry in Canada and
one in England he is known in this coun-
try through his occasional magazine verse
alone, and the deeper and more sustained
note of "The Woman In the RAIN" his
first American volume, announced Tor
publication by Little, Brown & Co., may
accordingly come as surprise TO those
who have thought of him as merely con-
tributor to the page-ends OF periodicals
The greater portion of this new volume,
in the first place, is written In that most
difficult of mediums, English blank verse.
Then one-half of the book is taken up
with four-act tragedy dealing with tho
life and love of Sappho entitled "Sappho
in Leucadia." The title poem, THE Wom-
an in the Rain" on the other hand. is
openly modern in note and thought. IL
has to do with a condition and problem
dear to the heart of President Roosevelt,
and is treated with a candor and direct
ness that prompted a London critic to
describe 1t as 'grhe most yirile American
verse since The Man with the Hoe
The Three new Thumb-nails-Henry w.
Longfellows '.Tales of Wayside Inn,
Charles Dickens Seven Poor Travellers, =
and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Travels
with a Donkey" which the Century com
pany has just issued, make the total OF
these little leather bound classics thirty
aix