The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-06

feeling that the run of French novels
misrepresented the French people,
partly through their concentration on
the life of Paris. He set himself 10
reveal the nature of the people of the
French provinces,-a section of French
, life which he felt had been strangely
neglected. He aimed to show France
and the world that his people had depth
ana simplicity of nature, and were at
root an intensely moral people. Partly
because of this some of his earlier
novels turned mainly on religious ques-
t1ons,-and since he was a Catholic a
large section of his American public
has been Catholic. He has set forth his
literary creed in these words: Our
noveiists, by occupying themselves with
this Representative part too ex-
clusively, have created and spread a
conception of our country which is not
only inadequate, but is also essen
TALLY false.
IF L have held myself reasonably
aloof from the society novel, which 1
might have done, perhaps, as well as
another, it is because l desire to por-
tray sweetness, purity and beauty of
French family life. and not to perpetu
ate a gross libel upon it,
L am also anxious to dispel the ilIu-
sion that the French are a goddess peo-
pie. If I make a great deal of religion
in my novels it is because religion pIaySs
an important role in our life"
When NJ. Balm was asked his i'm
pressions of America he said that he
was so confused by the magnitude and
beauty of all that he had seen in such
a small space of time that the reporters
must let him wait a while before he
expressed himself.
THE Counsel Assigned" Mary Ray
mond Shipman Andrews new Lincoln
story, won the first prize of 81, 500 in a
story contest conducted by the Associ-
10 zin
published as a book by Charles Serb
ner's Sons. The title was then 1.-The
Counsel for the Defense" AS 1.-THE
Counsel Assigned it has already run
into third edition, and seems likely
some day to rival that earlier and
more famous Lincoln story by Mrs.
Andrews, THE Perfect Tribute which
has now sold more than 100000 copies.
While suffrage and kindred topics are
interesting the women of today it has
been noted by reviewers generally that
Mr.. Comfort in his new novel Fate
Knocks at the Door deals with the sex
question in an original manner and yet
does not find in suffrage the solution
of the woman question. The book is
dedicated to The Mothers of Men and
Mr.. Comforts attitude is well express
ed in the following quotation from it:
This is less a mans world than it
was century ago-than 1t was yester-
day. If a man has good to do, or
message to deliver, he must drive it
home through women. 1t is the women
who are listening today Women do
not analyze-they realize. Wom-
ans cry for Rights today is raised
from her hearts defeat in finding her
real companion. Commerce has become
her mortal enemy-as once was war.
Men absorbed in the world, consuming
in this modern passion, are as far
apart from woman's sphere as if they
were the pawns of imperialism, ma
noeuvred to their death across the
world
pleasures and Palaces" by Juliet
Wilbor Tompkins, illustrated by How
ard Chandler Christy, has been pub
lished by Doubleday Page & Co. This
story of the homemaking adventures
of Marie Rose will appealoto all thrugh
it's bright and original treatment of
the first attempts of an otherwise So
phisticated young woman to engineer
the mysteries of the kitchen, but that
is not all, for the story and pictures
take Marie through many vicissitudes.
Everybody read the State Journal.