The Washington herald., 1908-07-19
THE WORLD OF BOOKS.
LITERARY CLEANINCs AND GOSSIP.
He wished her happy New Year.
And endearcred 20 make II quite clear
That her happiness lay
il naming Tie dr.

He wished her happy New Year
/ And endeaFcred 20 make Il quite clear
That her happiness lay
/ in naming the day
There were 5000 competitors. Of whom
5s,s9s failed to guess that the line which
would please the editor was.
When the ring and the book shall appear
Mr.. Edward Masterton and Mr.. Arthur
Blyth did guess. and TO the former were
awarded the 500. Wherefore Mr.. Biyth
sued. lost, and appealed. contending in
I genioUsly through counsel that the
plaintiff did not in any way quarrel with
| the decision OF the editor; on the con-
trary. he relied on il. The editor had de-
/ eided that particular line was the best
/ and the jury had found that the plaintiff
had sent in that identical line" But three
lords justice OF appeal. in wig and gown,
I decided. after much verbal exercise. that
/ the editors decision was, according TO
published conditions. 20 determine not
which was the best line. and who wrote
I Il. but who was the author OF the best
/ line Having framed this delicate prob
/ lem fo- the delectation Of some future
combined Thomas Aquinas Lords Mans
/ field, and William Nelson Cromwell, their
I lOrdships ruled that inasmuch as the
editor OF Ideas could not have read 5000
Z HNA0lC 1AAAEA aAA1 AlAiLESs tie ElA4-
test was lottery, and II served the
plaintiff right
How improbable a thing may be the
companionship Of the great IS illustrated
by some anecdotes told by a writer in
the current Harper's Weekly There are
people, he observes, who have known in
timateiy Alcott and Emerson, and yet
can remember no single saying Of theirs
which might not have been unttered by
any chance Acquaintance a lifelong ac-
quaintance OF Ibsen could give no more
interesting record than thar - genius
vas extremely regular in his habits and
drank large lumber OF Scotch and soda
al given hour each afternoon. A So
called 'writing-lady- chauced in Winches-
ter to take an apartment kept by the for
mer hOusekeeper OF Miss Charlotte Yonge
and when she begged for news Of her
childhoOds idol she got nothing more in
teresting than a lively description OF the
pattern Of Miss YOnEe's silver knives and
forks These worlds have spun along
within sight Of one another, indeed. had
seen the outer surfaces. but knew no
more OF each other really than the earth
knows OF Mars There are straight lines
on the surface. and we think they may
be canals constructed by highly devel-
oped intelligences, but we know nothing"
writer IN the Nouvelle Revue has re-
Gently shown that one OF the most thor
ough and amusing examples OF literary
imposture must be charged up against
the name Of Prosper Merimee. In lss5
Nerimee. then an obscure clerk in the
ministry OF commerce. published lie
Theatre de Clara Gazul. which purport-
ed TO be the work OF a Spanish actress.
and was in reality his own The book
brought him some fame. and Meriuee
followed u Up two years later with la
Guzla. "a collection Of IIlyTian folk
songs gathered in Dalmatia. Bosnia. Gro
alta and Herzegovina, and entirely
written by one Prosper Nerimee. Europe
was then a sympathetic spectator OF the
struggle Of Greece and the Slav peoples |
against the Turk. and la Guzla'' was
immensely successful Pushkin translated /
extracts from Il into Russian. Gehrardt /
did the same for German declaring thar /
his work had been facilitated by his own I
knowledge Of the "Servian rhythm"
Adam MickieEicz rendered some Of the /
ballads into Polish, and the great Slavic 4
scholar Schafaf1k mentions La GUzia" I
in his history OF Servian literature as /
noteworthy collection The hoax has been 4
exposed by ToTO Matte, a Croatian writ I
eT. and N Louis LeEer. who show that Z
Merfmee drew his qualifications for the /
task from q number OF volumes Of Bal ]
kan travels and a few apocryphal folk
songs cited therein. N Leger points out i
that in the preface 10 the edition Of 1S42 .
Merimee half-confessed the impOsture in /
the following words The idea occurred /
to Us 10 write a book OF travels in East
ern Europe. 20 sell II at an advantageous /
price. and TO use our profits in finding out 1
whether We had made any errors IN our
A book promised for September by Duff
field & Co. has for its title Scottish
Women Of the Past by Harry Graham.
author Of misrepresentation Men" &C.
This viii be Capt Graham's first serious
prose work In it he has collected a
number Of types Of Scottish feminine
character. presented in a series OF bio
graphical portraits in which he aims to
suggest something Of the general life and
manners OF the particular period TO which
the main figures Of his book belong.
In September Henry Holt & Co. viii
publish volume entitled "Davy Jones'
Yarns, and Other Sailed Songs" by
Thomas R Tbarra- with over thirty IL
ustrations by Henry Mayer. The book
S described as one OF "humor and inagi-
nation. in which Davy Jones has adven-
lures with the Swiss admiral. cannibais
he Car. pirates. the revolution bug"
&c Later come the 'LandIubber's Toast"
md verses about a sailor who made
1oet tired" a captain who substituted
lowers for oaths. and some burlesques
II typical sea songs and comic opera
iailors-
It Is related by the editor OF a Pitts
,urg paper IN his review Of one Of o. !
5enry's books, that O Henry had breez-
d unannOunced into the Office one day
our years before. while on his way East:
He was in a hurry because he was
hungry. He had an inside coat pocket
iulging with manuscript, and a vacuum ]
n the compartment consecrated to small [:
hange- He looked as If he had seen
much OF the world. and a good deal OF Il
ad stuck TO him. For all that he looked I
s happy as a philosopher, and all he
wanted was a dollar or two for some Of
hose manuscripts. to provide himself
With pate de foie gras and peanuts be- )
ore marching onward to New York. Two
T three months later the story refused
y this Pittsburg editor appeared in a 5
'rominent Eastern magazine Il made :
eOPle sit up and ask who this new
rriter was And to-day there isn't any
ame that is better known than o. Henry. /
he pseudonym OF Sidney Porter.
The recent riots which occurred in Per
las capital Teheran. ard the attack OF I