The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-03-31
THE CURRENT MAGAZINES.

4
/ Laurence North's novel. "Syrinx,
which appears complete in the April
iE-ue of the Smart Set. stands in
class by itself as magazine feature.
II presents an extremely striking and
vivid picture Of the inner life of GER
tain artistic and erudite cult in mod
ern English life. 1t is the world OF
scholarship that is laid open before
the reader, the human side of the
Oxonian and the classicist. in whose
nature the beauty worship and the in
tellectual hedonism of the old Greek
life find nothing incongruous in their
juxtaposition with an up-todate en-
joyment of cheering cricket field and
footing mosorboat. Aspasia, the
idol of the Polite Outcasts, is charac-
ter of infinite charm. Cleverness
flashes in every lin, of this story.
Mr.. North's novel makes a powerful
appeal to the intellect and to the
imagination; 1t is a veritable dynamo
of rapid-fire wit and scintillating re
partee.
One feature of the Smart Set that is
tnding great favor each month with
the readers of that clever magazine is
the essay on some up-to-date topic
written in ,ntly satirical vein by
one of the cleverest of the present
generation of those who observe.
Charles Francis Read draws attention
in this April number to the value of a
cultivated imagination. Matter-of-
factness, on which quality the average
modern prides himself, is shown as 4
virtue become by exaggeration fault;
imagination, the inspiration of every
great achievement and source of every
higher enjoyment
The April Worlds Work contains
two or three comprehensive articles
OF timely interest in large way. The
editor Of The Far East" Mr.. Adachi
kinnosuka, answers the question,
u 9es Japanese Trade Endanger the
Peace of Asia?" Mr.. Edwin Bjorkman
writes of What Industrial Civiliza-
ton May Do to Mana vivid picture
of the conditions thrown open by the
Pittsburg Survey, which ends optim-
istically; Mr.. Rockefeller contributes
the seventh instalment of his Random
"reminiscences, his article being sub
named Business Experiences and
Principles" Mr.. Lawrence Perry
writes of 1.-THE Great Coastwise Fleet
of the United States"
| Very striking is Mr.. Stewart Ed
ward Whites breaking the Worlds
Record at Naval Gunnery,'' a novel
contribution to the present very gen.
eral discussion of our Navy; while
Mr.. w. ]. Henderson, of the New York
! Sun, one of the most brilliant Of
! American musical critics, tells of
New York, the Greatest Opera City
in the World
Thirty-eight years ago young army
officer, just graduated from the United
States Military Academy at West
Point, went with his bride to begin
service on the western frontier Into
this new life of army post the young
girl from the east found herself
plunged, with buffalo hunts and
storms, indian raids and bandits but
casual incidents of the day Fortu-
nately her letters to her family were
preserved, and from these the writer,
Mrs. Frances NJ A. Roe, wife of Col.
Roe, u. S. A.. has permitted Apple
tons Magazine to select the material
for an article in the April Appleton's
and others that are to follow The
/ freshness of her impressions of a life
and conditions now practically past,
the naive and courageous optimism of
the young wife In such unfamiliar sur
roundings. give to the letters a quail
ity of intimate human interest and
value rarely excelled in such material.
/ A striking feature of the April Nc
Cures Is the third of George F Par
/ ker's papers on Grover Cleveland,
which contains the ex-President's opin-
ions Oh some of his great contempt
raries-J. Pierpont Morgan, Theodore
Roosevelt, James J. Hill, Senator For
aker and others. Burton j. Hendrick
contributes an interesting article on
tie discovery of serum at the Rock
efeller institute, which has reduced
the mortality of spinal meningitis
from Is to % per cent; Guglielmo
Ferrero, the great Italian historian,
who came to this country at the inyi-
tation OF President Roosevelt, CON
tributes a remarkable paper on Nero
and the Christian persecution. The
number also contains another install
ment of Mrs. Humphrey Wards great
novel, Marriage la Mode" and four
short stories.