Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-16
Between New Book Covers

| SleTTdS anu llle ways OF NIleu lulldL
itants. The author has frankly as
sumed the personal viewpoint through
out and gayly bids the reader accom-
pany her on her journeys through tn
/ mountains, by cleft and ChaSm an
down the smooth washed canyons
! The book will be of interest. not alon
/ to the authors friends, but to tn
i general reader who may desire to Sc
i California's natural wonders throus
] the eyes of a sympathetic observer.
The Land of Purple Shadows. b
/ Idah Meacham Strobridge. Los An
| geles: The Artmeisia Bindery.
To encourage the general public il
reading for simple enjoyment rathe
! than as a duty, is the object of Tempt
| Scott, whose pleasure of Reading
! includes as one chapter 1.-The Pleasure
/ of Reading the Bible" already re
/ viewed in these columns. Not how
much or what. but how well, is th'
true test of reading. according to thi;
author In his chapter on history anC
/ biography he suggests chairs of biog
raphy. fiction and poetry in the larger
universities as a means of educating
abe young in the appreciation of lit
erature. From the merely scientific
view of history while conceding its
/ usefulness up to a certain point, he
1 reVolts with the disdain of Il confirmed
rOmanticist, declaring:
History has long been received
into monastic hospitals. nursed by de-
vOut ascetiCs and compelled to don
the melancholy robes of their order
She now looks sternly and coldly at
us from behind barred gates and woe
betide the bold adventurer who dares
enter unpermitted and unaccompanied
her tlniStered walks. History IS
Truth exclaim these augurs. Truth
must be kept ChaSte, at any cost, even
at the cost of itself. from the pOlluting
touch of the imaginative and impas-
stoned layman. she Is the
handmaiden of science and philosophy
There she is in all her naked
ness. Not a sight, l am afraid. to stir
the pia mater of the true lover Who
looks long and wonderingly at this
starved and bony apparition. is tins
Truth?' he murmurs: then give me
the other thing. | think she would
look more presentable, at least, If she
were little draped.
The logic of this viewpoint. of course,
is omen to easy assault. II may talrlF
be maintained that the poetry Of the
future will not come from those VINO
in any wise evade or minimize fact, as
fact, but from the men and women
who face it boldly. not acclaimlng II
as true but at least sometimes the ven
which hides Truth As a revolt against
the inane liberalism which has par
aIyzed much of our literature since it
first took its carly Victorian pattern
from across seas. the book is rcfresh-
inc. II is suggestive and illuminating
if hardly synthetic or constructive.
The pleasure of Reading. BY Tenn
ple Scott. New York: Mitchell Ken
nerley.
The same brave and plaintive note
Sis EXPRESSED in Little Sister Snow
as characterizes Frances Little's trSt
literary effort-that charming story,
THE Lady. of the Decoration though
with a less CHEEKY accompaniment
Little Sister Snow is a story of
Jauan. A little Japanese maiden, Huki
Cham SO called by her parents be
cause she entered the world in the
wake of a great snowstOrm Nuki
being the Japanese word for snow,
grows to Wnmanhood to discover she
has a heart which longs to express
itself in love for sturdy young
American, Dick Merritt. She meets the
youth by chance in childhood and later
at an American mission, when hef
lonely little life seems in need of
Youthful companionship. Again he
comes into her life after a prearranged
betrothal by her parents TO a much
be-medaled and middleaged country
man.
According to custom in Japan, the
parents choice of a mate for their son
or daughter calls for StOcal SuDmls-
sion Yuki is no exception. In quaint
English she chronicles the burden of
her heart in Il diary forgotten by Dick
Merit when he leaves her fathers s
house for his home in America. Just
prior to her approaching marriage to
the JananeSe SutOr, Yuki makes Il
solemn promise to the gods that she
will put the young American out of her
heart and mind. To this end she
reverently enters the temple in the
early morning and burns the diary IN
the brass brazier before the SHRINE OIL
Buddba. believing that thereby future
peace of heart will be her reward,
The book is prettily illustrated by
japanese artist. The style is pic
turosuue and dainty. The oriental at
mosphere is preserved throughout, Ihe
story itself is less original and~less in
tcrestinc than "The Lady of the
Decoration
Little Sister Snow. BY Frances Little
Illustrations by Genjiro Kataoka. New
York: The Century company.
Samuel Burton is the fictitious name
of the hero of a novel, "The Man of
Destiny" by Thomas Gold Frost (the
Gramercy Publishing company, but
no schoolboy would fail to rec
oenize in him one of the great mill
tary leaders on the Union side in
the civil war. Foreseeing such not
very difficult penetration of the scanty
disguise, the author hastens to an
'nounce, in the preface, that the ro-
nance of the story is purely lmagi-
nary and is serving simply to lend addl-
tional color in the depletion OF one
among the most marvellous careers In
American history. Yet the sad love
story of Samuel Burton and Sallie Gus
tbs is a relieving feature in the reca-
pitulation of events in life the various
chapters of which have been merged
into the general history of our repub-
lie.
The love of Burton, the promising
young army officer of humble origin,
and Sallie Custis, a beautiful embodi-
ment of the true blue" southern aris-
tocracy. is rudely intefered with
through the Vaccinations of Burton's s
comrade in arms, Carl Brett, who is
also suitor for the hand of the fair
daughter of Virginia. a cleVerly exc
cuted conspiracy forces Burton to re-
sign from the army under a cloud as it
seems, and to renounce the hand Of
Miss Custis. who subsequently becomes
tho bride of Brett, the perfidious fraud.
When the civil war broke out Brett
takes up the cause of the SOUTH while
Burton redeems his reputation in the
Union army. Both soon gain promi-
nence in their respective fields, the for
mer becoming a senator Of the Confed-
eracy and later a brigader general
and the latter rapidly rising to the