The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-28
BOOK NEWS.

Despite their furious energy and
their genius for mechanical invention,
the Americans are no more c1Vlllzeo
than the Japanese. The men are cruel
and dishonest in business, and the
women are hard, immeasurably con-
cefted and impatient of the duties OF
domesticity" This is the Indictment
of America made lately by the Eng
lish Saturday Review. The occasion
was a discussion of Mrs. Humphry
Wards latest novel, Marriage Ia
Mode" recently published by double
day, Page & Company. or Daphne
the American heroine of Mrs. Ward
novel the English journal says: she
is simply insufferable, conceited, Pc
dantic, inSolent, lecturIng everybody
The book may shock those who make
the mistake of regarding the Amerl-
cans as a civilized people. Daphne is
g splendidly drawn type, the woman
who is swept into marriage by a
sudden gust of physical inclination;
is disappointed and disguised by the
first experience of marriage, and then
impatiently cancels the contract, talk
ing about her career, her 1ndIVlouaI-
ity, her chances. OF course great
deal of the trouble continues our
critic, lis caused by so many Amer
lean girls being left in uncontrolled
possession of so much money Cntli
the United States adopt decent and
uniform law of divorce, we shall per-
sist in regarding the Americans as
semi-civilized and setting a very
bad example to the rest of the world.
There, now!
Albert Bigelow Paine was very
little boy, forty years ago, when Mark
Twain's "Innocents Abroad came
forth from the presses to delight all
the land. He was too young to COM
prehend the humor of the book ana
was all unsuspicious of the fact
that he was to have some fame as a
h4If no
listened to the reading of the travels
of Mark Twain and Dan and the
Doctor with keen delight and wished
that he might make such trip. NOW,
Mr. Paine has grown up to be the
official biographer of the author or
the book that SO charmed his child
hood, and, in fulfillment of his young
dreams, he has actually followed the
itinerary of those innocents who went
abroad forty years ago. His account
of the pilgrimage is being published
serially in the Outing Magazine, in
the August number of which 1t began |
Thomas Fogarty is illustrating tne
narrative with almost as many PIC
lures as were in the old volume.
Modern hotels and apartment |
houses of the most expensive type are
described in Lodging for the Rich"
in Everybody's for September. In the /
same number is discussion of What .
Shall We Do With the Old?" and an
unusual quantity OF flcIlOn.
Hamlin Garland, whose announce |
ment that he would probably write no |
more novels, but plays instead, occa-
stoned outspoken regret, has modified
his resolve, and new book by him is |
expected to be in the hands of his pub |
Usher. the Harpers, some time in
September.
Mr. Walter Camp, who is considered |
the foremost figure and authority in the
field of sports and games in America,
has been engaged to write a series OF
articles for The Century Magazine dur
ing the coming year. beginning in NO
vember. The articles will cover the
development OF athletics in America
football. baseball rowing, track ath-
letics, golf, and tennis-and he will
treat these subjects especially with |
reference to sports in colleges. Mr.. |
Camp is perhaps generally thought of
by the public as the successful strate- |
gist of Yale's football elevens, In New
Haven and at Yale university he is
thought of mainly as a highminded /
gentleman who has devoted years to I
Improving the tone OF amateur athletics
in America.
The Harpers are announcing this
week their full list of August publica- |
tons as follows: "Pa Flickinger's
Folks by Bessie r. Hoover. The Men
of the Mountain" by S. r. Crockett, |
and Jonathan and David" by Elizabeth |
Stuart Phelps-an fiction; Henry Hud- |
son. an historical narrative, by Thos.
a. Janvier; and five new titles in the
Library of Living Overwhelmingly.
1.-The Life of the Universe" Svante Ar
rhenius; THE Origin Of the New Tesla
ment," Prof. William Wrede; Chris
tianity and Islam" Prof. C. H. Becker;
The Transmigration of Souls" Prof.
D. A. Bertholet; and Jesus or Paul"
Frof. Arnold Meyers.
The leading article in the American
Magazine for September is an account
of the ten years struggle for the rail-
road supremacy of the west between
Hill and Hartman. With the october
number the American is to increase
It's size to IA pages. or nearly one-half
its present size.
Defects and possibilities Of modern
methods have a good deal
OF attention in the September Crafts
man. There is an article on the evils
of the American school systems; one
on the London municipal arts and crafts
schools, which train the unskilled labor
er to become craftsman; and one on
the need of manual training in the de-
of this nation.
A new novel by S. r. Crockett is to
be reckoned a literary event Of the sea-
son. It is called "The Men of the
and announced by the Har-
pers as forthcoming Immediately. Mr..
Crockett is still best recalled by THE
Stickit Minister" although several 9TH
ers of his novels are favorably remem-
bered, among them "The Gray Man"
'The Dark o. the Moon" and THE Red
Axe"
a d EA %