Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-08-26
By WILLIAM HAMILTON OSBORNE

very point. and, therefore, it is a book
of d~elieately beautiful sentiment-the
sentimental journey, as n might call
1t, of a bride III bridegroom. Let no
bachelor read this book, or he will rush
at once into matrimony. The Euthor
at the outset, by way OF apology, has
TO say:
There may be some who will object
to this narrative on the score that its
telling is spasmodic and lacking in
continuity. To such | would retort
that they know nothing of h-oneymoons.
Whoever expected a man on his
honeymoon to talk Of things consecu-
lively? For one thing. there are too
many things you cannot tell about.
Perhaps they are, as understand YOU
to say, just the things which are most
honeymoon; but, / beg you TO observe
This is my honeymoon, and know what
is tellable about it, and what is not.
If you a a different set of incidents
or a different method YOU must get
somebody else to tell o of theirs
or let a professional writer of fiction
make one up"
OF course, as the reader may guess,
the whole point of the narrative-but
not its whole characteristics in the
efforts of the bride and bridegroom, to
conceal the fact from everybody that
they are newly married. OF course,
they never succeed. They might just
as well have been labeled. There are
new adjustments and settings down
into the marital stride that are inter
esting. The bridegroom wonders
whether or not he should raise his hat
to his wife.
From a distance" he says. IT could
see Euphemia standing by the book
stall where l had left her; and as | mp
preached r~erplexity assailed me.
Ought /, or ought / not, to raise my
hat? Yesterday | would have done it.
but today . Why had I never
noticed how married men behaved?
Why was there no manual to tell one
these things? + . " How my indeci-
sion would have ended I have no idea.
but just at the ome when the ways
parted Euphemia smiled at me. With
out v~olition on my part. as ii seemed to
me. my hat was in my hand. and I
know that that smile has, in this one
particular, settled by behavior to the
end of our married life. Had / re-
NAMED covered then, the precedent
would have bound me in all similar
cases; whereas now / know that If we
are married for fifty years | shall
NORTHUMBERLAND. ! am glad that
she smiled just when she did"
There is no problem in the book; it
is just sheer charm, clear through. The
reader will be grateful for 1t. If you've
ever beer on a honeymoon, read it.
If you have no intention of ever going
on on~e-.beware. This is a fine story
for any girl to hand to any man
either to accept it. or to read 1t. SO
look out.
60
The Storytelling Instinct Continued
Some of our very successful writer's
have made their reputation writing
cowboy stories. told in the language of
the cowboy. Now, the nearer to the
cowboy they came in the use OF lap
guage. the better off they were. 1t re-
qnires cleverness-inborn ~cleverness-
to do this, but it doesn't require a
knowledge of Creek and algebra.
Let us take another Illustration of
genius lying long dormant and leap
ing all at once into unexpected full
f1lment. In Orange or West Orange
there was a man named Conan, en-
gagged in the hat business. He had a
family. The family, finding it had
some natural ability. from time to
time. under the fathers direction and
with his personal assistance. made a
practise Of furnishing amateur per-
formances for church fairs and other
local functions. The guiding star in
1t all was the father.
Somehow or other, having been sue
cessful in the amateur field, the Cohan
family found itself filling professional
engagements under the anne of the
-Four C%ohans,' father, mother, son,
daughter.