Evening journal., 1911-08-05
A BAD BOOK
BY The REV. r. L. JACKSON

The initiated tell us that the way
men review hooks nowadays IS to
cut the pages in different parts of
the book, smell of the paper knife and
then turn the smell as registered by
the olfactory nerve into copy. Judging
by the modern output Of works Of
fiction only men Of the most rugged
constitutions can follow the trade Of
3 reviewer. IF the output aspires TO
any more degrees Of malodorousness
a previous experience with drain
pipes and sewers will stand the more
conscientious reviewer In good stand.
A friend OF mine having been re-
viewing Upton Sinclair's latest mag
mum opus. Loves Pilgrimage, gave me
whiff Of his paper knife when !
called the other day. My olfactory
nerve was up in arms instantly. 7
advised my friend TO drop the book in
the sewer and treat his paper knife
to a dose OF chloride of lime.
Loves Pilgrimage is a bad book,
not bad In the Sunday school sense
of the world but in the wicked old
worlds sense of the word A ply
slcisn who cannot be said to be over
fniclty on being told Of a certain
chapter in the book which alone will
make the book a treasure TO collec-
tors Of pornographia, expressed his
feelings in words too strong to print
It's author poses IL, as a woman's
book for the emancipation of woman.
II passes me to see how a book in
which woman Is given only an instru-
mental role in the life of man in
which she figures only as passive ac-
cessory whose duty Il Is to contribute
to his success and happiness or suffer
herself to be put aside for one who
can play the role to his satisfaction,
# is beyond me to see how such a
book can do anything for woman, but
increase her bondage a thousand fold.
The author, to all appearances, has
written his book with the case Of
Professor Heron In mind; Professor
Heron put away his first wife for a
wealthy young woman. OF course his
justification for It, was that she could
help him I'm his work of reforming the
world better than his first wife.
have always wondered how he ever
got around the dedication in his little
book "A plea for the gospel" in
which he declared that his first wife
had been to him "a living conscience" 4"
Evidently she was "a living cons@-
ence" TO him only up to the time he
saw his chance Of getting a rich young
woman for wife. Thereafter wife
No 2 played the role.
Authors. who star men like Pro-
fessor Heron in their stories may
pull the wool over the eyes Of those
who do not know the facts. They
may make out a very plausible case
for the man who feels himself Obliged
to do something immortal in art and
literature, but TO do this something,
he must first get a new wife. They
make It look as II he, in putting away
his first wife. for his second was
making a great sacrifice. An mel
Are we such fools as to swallow all
this? That will be a sorry day for
women when the erratic anarchism OF
Loves Pilgrimage comes TO prevail.
MT Sinclair calls himself a So
cislist. am truly sorry for any ism
that must O. X him and. his sort
They are the sure damnation Of ever,
movement they tic up to.
n they arc really sincere IN wha
they hold and disseminate they ar
to be deeply pitied and charitabl,
dealt with. n they are a parcel o
poseurs for the sake OF pecuniarl
profits they should be unmasked ant
ostracized by all self-respecting mel
and women.