Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-16
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAF-
CADIO HEARN. By Elizabeth Bis


land. With Illustrations. Boston:
Hcughton, Mifflin u Co.
1t Is quite possible that no man of his
generation was as complete an embodl-
ment Of artistic ideals as Lafcadio Hearn
The love of the beautiful the passion for
representing truth revealed to him.
possessed him. almost without being chal-
lenged by practical material considera-
tions He led the life of wanderer. never
long protected from anxiety, and often re-
duced to actual want His chief and often
his only happiness was the JOY that accom-
panied the creations of his imagination and
the satisfaction of having Adequately per-
petuated some evanescent phase of lowell
ness
Miss Bslands biography is a fitting
monument for such man. She mad been
a friend to Lafcadio Hearn, and she has
known how to explain shadows of eccen-
tricity which have puzzled or allenated the
multitude. The sketch of his life is re-
duced to small dimensions in order to allow
room for the letters, which the blographer
feels are the mans best Interpretation.
With rare and sympathetic dellcacy, she
has resisted the temptation to make Il spec
tacular figure of her subject and has linz
tied herself to a consideration of the forces
which made Lafcadio's genius what IL was
and to keen analysis OF his lndlVlduanlS'
1t is a remarkably fine presentation. ohe
has left il to the letters to complete the
work of revelation. These disclose per-
sonality of delicate sensitiveness, or strong
if altogether NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. al SCI
business. and OF exquisite sympathy with
weakness and helpessness. The letters
show. moreover. how completely dominated
Lafcado Hedrn was by devotion TO MS art.
The claim has been made for the letters
that they equal the famous correspond
ence of Robert Louis Stevenson. That
I.afcadio Hearn has, especially in his light
err happier moments. something of the de-
Ucious humorous playfulness of the Scotch
man will be clear to any one VINO reads
the Life and Letters. For the resi- these
are two distinct indvidualites. The ac-
count by Hearn'S Japanese wife my niue
wife" as he almost invariably refers TO
her-of the American husbands habits OF
work and of living, Incorporated by MISS
Bisland into the text. is illuminating IN the
extreme. 1t is also pathetic in the eX-
treme in it's laborious and naive sincerity
The personality of Lafcadio Hearn is ad-
mirably Illustrated by some sentences from
one of his letters to Ernest Fenollosa:
-. My friends are much more dan
gerous than my enemies Ihese
latter help me to maintain the $50
Iation Indispensable to quiet regularity OF
work. Blessed be my enemies and
forever honored all them that hate me.
but my friends, They speak so beautiful
IL of my work; they believe in 1t; they say
they want more of it-and yet they would
destroy it, They do not know what 1t
costs-and they would break the wings and
scatter the feather dust even as the chlld
that only wanted to caress the putterny.
And they speak of communion and con-
verse and sympathy and friendship-al or
which are indeed precious things to others
but morally dead to me-representing the
breaking up of habits of industry and the
sin of disobedience to the Holy Ghost
against whom sin shall not be forgiven,
either In this life or in the life to come
THE, GERMAN EMPIRE. BY Burt Estes
Howard. Pho. New York; The Mac
milan Company. Washington: Bren-
tano's.
With very considerable scholarship DR..
Howard has produced an exhaustive and
by no means exhausting. exposition Of the
modern German empire. Without prellml-
naries he plunges into the Austro-Prus-
sian contention over Schleswig- Hoisteln,
which resulted in Austria's motion in June,
1866 to mobi re a federal army against
Prussia After the short and victorious
campaign of July the problem of recon-
struction at once forced itself 10 the front,
and with August a pos tive step had been
taken for the erection If Ge- nan federal
state. With marked power of analysis the
writer presents in two chapte- the inter-
relationship of events which led TO the
founding of this new empire, and shows the
connection OF the empire and tie individual
states. The kaiser, the Bundesrat the
Reichstag are each given separate EXPOSE
ton, and continuing there are taken up the
topics of imperial legislation, the chancel-
lor citizenship under the German constl-
tuition, the judicial organization of the en-
pire, the relationship of Alsace-Lorraine to
lne empire, AOlIcS anu tlIc
imperial constitution. In the purposes and
aim the book al once suggests the France
of John Edward Courtenay Bodley and
The American Commonwealth of James
Bryce, although while infused with spirit
of profound knowledge, ii lacks something
of the sparkle and suggestion which made
the latter work internationally famous
Producing. however, an impression of per-
feet accuracy and supplied with valuable
notes, the book is unquestionably the most
authoritative treatment of the subject yet
written.
THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY. By Flora
Annie Steele author of On the Face
of the Waters" New York: Double
day. Page & Co. Washington: Wood
ward & Lothrop.
OF undoubted interest is this latest story
OF Mrs Steele's 1t shows keen analysis
OF present-day conditions in England, and
is an unusually subtle study of character.
Aura, the heroine. betrayed by the warped
conditions of her upbringing into a fatal
misconception of love, is undoubtedly the
most successful piece of portraiture in the
book. Ted. pitiless revelation of the
tendencies of the normal respectable Eng
liShman. is almost equally vivid while Ned
loses in realism by being the mouth-piece
of the authors philosophical and spiritual
conceptions. The title is somewhat mis-
leading, for. while a satirical insistence on
the universal craze for gold, the sovereign
remedy pervades the book. the framework
rests upon the mistake made by Aura in
her choice between two lovers and its
consequences. For the presentation OF the
little-known phases of country life in
Wales, Mrs. Steele is to be thanked. Her
style. in it's extreme suggestiveness and
possible over-use of ellpitical idioms. is
sometimes lacking in clearness, but at other
times 1t rises into marked artistic inspira-
ton.
A SEALED BOOK. By Alice Livingstone,
author of The Silence of Maurice
Armitage." With Eight Full-page IL
Illustrations. New York: r. F. Fenno
Co. Washington: Woodward &
Lothrop.
A frankly Sensational story is THE Sealed
Book with nothing to distinguish IL from
the dime novel; type except the board
covers. The raven-haired, fiashing-eyed
villain. the tender heroine. mysteriously
hidden parentage. gruesome mad-house-
all the dear familiar creations of the crude
imagination are present. Withal it has its
interest.
COSTUME; FANCIFUL, HISTORICAL
AND THEATRICAL. Compiled by
Mrs. Aria. Illustrated by Percy An
derSOn I.OAdon. Macmillan 10