New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-05-24
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Current Talk of Things Present
and TO Come.

Inc SfTlDnefS are DIlUblUS VhN ~
! English NJ. Rene Bazins new novel.
"Davidee Blrot" The heroine is school
| teacher in n little town agitated by So
caI problems and strike of.miners.
Necessity Of Moral Choice.
The book by Mr.. A. G. Benson which
| the Putnams will publish next month
is to be entitled Paul the Minstrel
and other Stories" These stories. II
il announced. are cast in the old ro-
mantle form" and they all aim more
or less directly Mt illustrating tho stern
necessity Of moral choice"
Mr.. Bangs's Travel Book.
Mr.. John Kendrick Bangs, who has
enga ged to make lecturins tour IN
Australia and Now Zealand next year
IS planning 10 write a book about his
eYnerienccs-a book 10 he called "The
Long Way Home or a Little Chin
Around the World"
Guy Thorne's Lectures.
Another writer who ia contemplating
n lecture tour IS tho English novelist,
Guy Thorne. Tho subject on which he
PROPOSES t. enlighten American audi
ences is temperance. 1t is question
which he has been carefully studying
for the purposes Of his novel The
Drunkard"
a Dramatic Escape.
The escape of Prince KrapotkIn from
Nc Russian prison is said by Mr. George
KEENAN, 20 have been in originality or
concertion and ingenuity Of execution
nrobab,y UNPARALLELED in prison annals.
Mr. KEENAN, wished years ago 70 write
down the story Of this escape, but
Krapotkin himself" he says. wouldn't
let me: for tho reason that the Russian
police didn't know how IL was managed,
and he didn't want them - know" The
story has at last been written by the
American. and II appears in the June
Century"
Or. John Browns Playmate.
That delightful scotchman. Or John
Brown. is visible In the Juno install
ment. printed in "Harper's,' Of Mr. A.
l.. Paincs biography Of Mark Twain.
when the Clemens family stayed In
Edinburgh Mrs Clemens was attended
by Or. John, and the kind physician
fen under the spell of the child Susy.
He called her "MeGalopos name sug
gested by her deep, expressive eyes.
Those plsymates, the good doctor and
Megalopos." says Mr. Paine. "rOmped
,,.itl =.
that complete abandon which few grown
persons can assume in their play with
children. and not all children can as
sumo in their play with grown-ups.
They played bear and the bear
(Which was very little one--so little
that when It stood up behind the sofa
you could Just get glimpse Of yellow
hair) would lie in wait for her victim.
and spring out and surprise him and
throw him into frenzied fear Almost
every day they made his professional
rounds with him. He always carried
basket OF grapes for his patients His
guests brought along books to read
while they waited. When he stopped for
n Gull lie Nbulu ShJ
Entertain yourselves while so In
and reduce the population
The Shakespeare Death Mask.
Does anybody want to pay $4,000 for
the so-called Death Mask of Shake
speare," said to have been discovered at
Mainz. In 1919? That is the sum at
which It has long been held. The claim
that It had been acquired at the sale of
the collection OF antiquities belonging to
a Count Franz Won Kesselstadt has GER
tainly been disproved. and the recent rep
etition OF the story with a new version
as to a supposed visit Of Won Kessel-
stadt to England in the 18th century has
reused the indignation Of Mr.. M. II.
Spielmann. He declares, In a letter 10
The London Morning Post" that the
statement that the bust at Stratford
was designed from the mask is absurd.
He adds
/ have myself made many measurements
OF the bust and assert that the two works
are inter contradictory and that the bust
utterly destroys the mask They are diff
ferent in type, in construction and in ap-
pearance. contour and feature; The mask
Is OF the refined and romantic Latin type
the other, sturdy English Saxon; In the
mask the forehead is receding and the
upright and the face round and broad; in
general appearance they are ridiculously
dissmllar. 4 few out OF the many meas
urements Of the two may Correspond. but