New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-14

| shall swim. l shall catch fish.
There is sure TO be a billiard room in that
pub, and pretty certain 70 be few people
who play bridge. The overtaxed brain
must be allowed relaxation. So goodby
Plato; goodby, Spinoza; goodby, Samuel
Rawson Gardiner; goodby, Freud won't
take any Of YOU
I HAD been in the place twenty-four
Il hours. and had plumbed the depths
Of my reighbors' incapacity to play any
games Of skill or chance Except possibly
i did not ask this-loo and vingt-et-un),
when, sauntering down the main, and in
deed the only, street, caught sight of the
words, Grocer, Chemist, TobaccOnist,
Draper and Circulating Library 1t
would be ungracious, felt, to let such
versatility go unrecognized. Besides, one
might as well take a novel or two out
with one in a boat. 1t might make the
intervals between the bites seem little
shorter. SO went.
4 YOUNG girl with plgtal escorted
- me past the Quaker Oats and the
Gold Flakes. under little doorway and
into a back room. "A shilling deposit, and
twopence on each book" she said; and left
me 10 the shelves. There were books there
all right: about two thousand of them,
reaching from floor 70 ceiling on both
sides. There was no sort Of order. alpha
UNoA
expecting to find particular author right
eff. The only thing for It was beginning
somewhere and going steadily along the
rows.
ID VI. CROKER: yes, think I read
ID. great many of hers in my youth
They were about penniless young ladies
going to India and getting married. 1t IS
no good tackling this one. "The Gateless
Barrier" by Lucas Malet: that was about
spiritualism, and pretty average tosh it
was; shall probably come 70 "Sir Rich
ard Calmady' presently, but l shall give
him a miss. too. THE Iron Pirate liked
that rather, but il would be q pity not TO
ike II so much now. I feel the same about
"caracinesca." "The Witch of Prague" and
In the Palace Of the King" which are all
in a lump together where some late dew
otee has replaced them. Marion Craw7
ford, upon whose every word my childhood
hung, I dare not attempt you again; even
a Cigarette-Maker's Romance and the
chronicle Of "Mr. Isaacs" (who enjoyed
Kant and deluded me. for a time, into the
belief that ! should like him. too) will be
more dear to the memory if they are not
restored to sight. Count Hannibal" that
was the man who either massacred some
body or escaped massacre on st. Bartholo-
news Day lie had a great square Jaw
Snd eyes that made you jump; and women
covered and obeyed when he emitted
short, sharp oath or looked like emitting
one. William Black | never liked at any
time, so nothing by him need detain me.
PLANES" No. "Dodo?" Oh dear, no.
"Ships That Pass in the Night?' No.
There was edelweiss in it, and an old man
who, like Lord Randolph Churchill, read
nothing but Gibbon. Queen Victoria
thought highly Of it, but l don't want to
read it again. Nor "Red Pottage" either
The husband and the other man Il think
had duel. They drew straws, and the
man with the shortest straw had TO kill
himself. What the lady thought about 1t
/ don't remember. But one Of them was a
lord, New Zealand came in somewhere,
and at suitable places in the conversation
moth would futter or a kingfsher fash
by. 1t is by touches like these that one
can distinguish really imaginative litera-
ture, but l am not tempted.