New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-30
More Ouija Board Novels

mystical symbolism" and notes further:
"The interest in the story is almost oblit-
Grated by the difficulties of the cryptic style
With exasperating slowness the tale unravels
itself. There are pages Of dull d!a-
lectic. . All this perplexes and bores
the reader"
The writer admits that mo doubt the
book attempts to reveal profound truth
and notes that within the deliberately
woven plot is an idea, very abstract and
tenuous at times, but nevertheless an idea,
row and then palpably symbolized," but
goes on to say that:
an spite Of occasional pleasant bits OF de-
scription of dewy mountain sides, OF white
moonlight bathing pastoral landscapes, Of
gorgeous caravans crossing the yellow des-
erts, of fishermen casting their nets upon the
Sea of Galilee. and of the ancient splendor of
Rome, the reader, he closes the novel, will
probably hope that if disembodied spirits arc
all inclined TO as tedious loquaciousness as
Patience Worth the difficulty of finding the
proper medium will continue to prevent
them from joining the ranks of earthly nov
eists'
"The Outlook" agrees with the forego-
ing. as is evidenced by the following:
owe will admit that Patience has better
qualifications as a writer Of fiction than most
controls but we find her writing feverish,
high-hown and terribly proliI."
However, so far as the present investi-
cation has been carried, "The Sorry Tale"
appears, upon the whole, to have more
friends than opponents. Among the pub
locations, aside from those already cited,
in which has appeared high praise may be
mentioned: "The New York Times" "The
New York Call" "The Philadelphia North
American" "The New York World" "The
Columbus Dispatch and "The New York
Globe"
CT AP HERON" later ouija board
~ product purporting to communi-
cate post-mortem work by Mark Twain,
appears to be faring rather less suspicious
ly. II is perhaps as yet pretty early 10
begin forming an estimate Of the critical
opinion in any comprehensive manner. In
the case of this book, however, since the
alleged author is one with whom the read
ing public is pretty eXhaustively familiar,
the principal interest attaches TO a ques-
ton whether or not the present work rings
true in the matter of style and content. 1t
emphatically does not, in the opinion of
The New York Evening Post" which
says:
There is hardly page in the volume that
could conceivably have been written by the
Mark Twain We know, OF whose writings the
principal characteristics are breezy humor
and pathos. If we could imagine Mark Twain
robbed of his breezlness the result might per-
haps be Jap Heron There is scarcely a
breath of breeze in the book; the humor rings
cracked and thin, and the pathos is slush."
However" compromises "The Post"
"lct the reader consider for himself the
questions both literary and philosophical
raised by Jap Heron" and adds: 1T is
mercifully short"
The book is written in a sketchy, ap-
parently hurried manner, and contains a
very long introduction in which, as The
Tribune observed, Emily Grant Hutch
ings expresses absolute confidence
that Jap Heron is the post-mortem work
of Mark Twain, dictated through plan
chette' or 'ouija' board And the review
under quotation goes on to this succnct
conclusion:
perhaps it is, but, if so, dying hasn't
improved Marks style"