The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-29

of every daily paper Is more or less consciously
aware.
There some days when " there 5 no news III the
paper" There arc other days when the i'll the
paper is 50 big and so important that all the lesser
occurrences which ordinarily get themselves chron-
ced are crowded out. Granting white paper sup
ply which docs not at present exist, it would, OF
course be possible on the big days to record all
these lesser doings, and consistently day in and
day out to print nicely proportional accounts OF
every event attaining to a certain fixed level OF
specific interest So.
But the reader who may think he would like this
would speedily find out that he didn't. Some days
he would have twelve page newspaper and other
days (not Sundays, ether he would have one of
thirty-siX pages.
His natural appetite for a knowledge of what his
fellows doing would be alternately starved
and ovcrfcd; malnutriton would lead To chronic
and incurablc dyspepsia; soon he would become
hateful msanthropc, stunning his fellow and
having seizure every time Mr.. HEARST brought
out the eighth tor frst) edition of the New York
ErCninq Journal 1t is really dreadful to think
what havoc a literal adhesion to the motto of the
New York Timcs-"All the news that's fit to
print would work in New York city.
Things You Try to Do.
As Mr.. HOLIDAY has said with fine perception,
Tue true lullFIlon Ol lnc VI HPW HobhS IN
simply to bring particular volume To the atten-
ton of its proper public To do that it is necessary
to CIV the book to an extent enabling the reader
of the article to determine With reasonable
curacy Cl( whether the book is for him that is, adj
dressed to public of which he is one and (2)
whether he wants TO read it or not.
Whether the book is good or bad is not the point
A man interested in sociology may concevably
want TO read book sociology even though II is
exceedingly bad and even though he knows its
worthcssness He may want to profit by the au-
thors mistakes: he may want 10 write book to
correct them; or he may merely want t0sbe amused
at the spectacle of fellow socioogist making
fool Of himself, spectacle by rare but
hardly ever without capacity for giving JOY TO
the mildly malicious
II is superfluous for the book reporter to say
that Miss SUCu AND SuCus book on New York il
rotten All he need do is to set down the incredible
fact that Miss SUCH-A AND SUCH locates the Wool
worth Building at Broadway, Fifth avenue and
Twenty third street and refers TO the Aquarium
the fisheries section of the Bronx 700.
The rule holds in less tangible matters. Why
should the book reporter ask his reader TO accept
his dictum that the literary style of a writer is
atrocous when he can easily prove it by few
sentences paragraph from the book
Definition of a Critic
No one who is not qualified as critic should at
tempt TO crticise new books
There hut few critics in any generation.
What is critcf critic is person with an cdu-
cation unusually wide either in life or~n letters,
and preferably in both. He is person with huge
backgrounds. He has read thousands of books and
has by means another absraGtcd the es-
scnce Of thousands more. He has, perhaps trav-
clcd good deal, though this is not essential; but
he has certainly lived with a most peculiar and ex-
ceptional intensity descending to greater emo
tional and intellectual depths than the majority Of
mankind and scaling higher SUBMITS; he has in
some degree, the faculty of living other peoples
lives and sharing their human experiences. which
is the faculty that, in transccndant degree, be-
longs TO the novelist and story teller
A critic knows the past and the present we'll
that he is able TO erect standards uncover old
standards. by which he and does measure the
worth of everything that comes before him. He
can actually show you, in detail, how Dr. MORGAN