The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-21
BOOK NEWS.


author of "Katrfne," has a posthumou'
short story in the August Harper
Magazine. A summer love-sketcn ..
the seacoast, done with the lightest o.
touch, it produces the effect of pastel
and this effect is heightened by oeii-
cacy of title. THE Apple-Tree cottage.
A rev book by Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps is promised for late August
when the trainboy's call of All tne
latest fiction" is more tolerantIy tfedt-
ed than at any other season Inc neN
story has not yet been announced ~
title, but it is said to be shorter thar
Mrs Phelps most recent novel, wall
ed In
Notable among the strong features OF
the September Century will be the nrsI
chapters of ''FNulton's Invention OF the
steamboat" written by his gre :etl
granddaughter, Alice Crary Sutcnne,
The narrative, dealing in this issue
with the trial-boat on the Seine, VIII De
told largely in extracts taken from pa
pers of the inventor never before pup
iished and will be illustrated with
plans by Fulton only recently discov-
cred, and with portraits
1.-THE House of the vampire" MI.
Viereck'S strange tale of the absorptlVe
genius. has Just been published by Moi
fatt. Yard & Co, with a new preface,
by Axel. Berlin and Stuttgart, rms
German edition is dedicated to Profes-
sor Hugo Munsterberg, who has peen
strongly interested in Mr.. Vierecks
theory of absorptive genius. Professor
Laid has likewise metaphysically en-
dorsed Mr.. Viereck's views. It is inter
esting, in connection with the recent
Shakespeare controversy. newly en-
Hvened by Mark Twain, that Mr.. N1er-
trude Atherton, in q letter to Mr.. N1er-
eek has remarked that The House OF
the Vampire" fantastic though IT Is, IS
the first thing that has ever given her
the glimmer Of a belief in the idea that
Shakespeare Is the author of the plays
1.-The Vampire the remarkable play
based on Mr.. Viereck's novel, is now,
during the summer months. being play
ed in stock with great success. and II IS
expected that il will see the larger life
Of the metropolitan stage again in the
forthcoming season.
Seldom does Mr.. Punch OF London
trouble himself to take his pen in hand
for the sake of making remarks about
American novels, even the best OF them.
On this account Justus Miles Forman
has some reason for congratulation on
the very genial opinion expressed by
this censorious parsonage in the latter's
columns entitled Our Booking Office,
by Mr.. Punch's STAFF of Learned Clerk. -
Harpers called Jason in this country,
on the other side is named THE
Quest" Says the Learned Clerk, there
fore: when, on a spring morning in
Paris, Ste. Marie and Richard Hartley
set forth on the quest to discover the
vanished brother of the young woman
with whom they both suppose them
selves to be in love. the reader who
has any previous acquaintance with
the work of JuStuS Miles ForInan will
already congratulate himself. Nor does
what follows belle the promise of so
good an opening The scene is fur
sn the way of restaurants especially. to
recall delightful memories. Further
than this, there is a wicked uncle |
with a laugh like the mewing of al
two; and finally a dilapidated old house |
in the suburbs, in the garden of which |
chow Mr.. Forman does love a horticul- |
tural setting) the hero is kept a wound |
ed but enamo-ed prisoner for weeks on |
end. 1t is all quite gloriously impossi- |
bic, but the best fun in the world to |
read about. I wish Mr.. Forman had
not chosen to call his most frequently
n entfoned character Ste Marie: but,
this small personal objection overcome,
the story is oae for which have moth |
ing but rather breathless admiration"
Burke Jenkins is a writer whose work
IS known TO many thousands of maya
zine readers. Hi, speciality is the west
ern story, of the real old-faShioned cow
boy type. A good example of his work
ts Skin Deep" short story which ap-
pears in the Popular Magazine for Sep
tc1nber. A b-oncho with a peculiarly |
marked coat, daring girl, a plotting |
uncle, and q cowboy here who speaks /
the very language of the plains-this is |
good material for a short story. and /
Mr.. Jenkins has handled it we'll.
Ainslee's for September contains the
second installment Of George Barr Nc
Cutcheon's new GrauStark story
''Truxton King" It is unQuestionablyI
the best work Mr.. McCutcheon has
ever done and he gives a picture of |
the adventurous young American in the /
OF Graustark with a vigor
end intensity that cannot be resisted. |
His vast following viii receive this
story with a hearty welcome.
Mark Twain's name has a habit of
slipping into 4 mans conversation be-
fore he knows 1t. Two men were dis
ousSing the peril Of the pedestrian in
the path of the incontinent motor car
Luckily Nature has her own way of
after us" said one. DO you
re member one of Mark Twain's shorterl
stories called "A Horses Tale where
an old army colonel Is teaching a tot
Of a girl how to ride? Mark says. He
taught her 16 ways of breaking her
reck and 22 ways of avoiding it, That's
tie advantage Nature gives our side"
The other man laughed. I've read that
story myself" he said. "and know a
letter one than that. You remember
the child's sorrow when she had crush
ed the helpless insect and what she
said? Poor little anty, I didn't mean
to kill you; but there wasn't any other
way to save you. 1t was such a hurry!'
Z guess that comes pretty near being
the motorists point of view"