A COLUMN FOR BOOKLOVERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2769, 26 March 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

A COLUMN FOR BOOKLOVERS.

(By E. R.) For a" jolly good hook whereon to look Ts better to me than gold. Readers of the American magazines cannot but" he familiar with the work of Theodosia Garrison. She writes both prose and verse, the prose good, hut the verse much better. It consists mostly of short lyrics, nearly all pathetic in tone, and rising to a very high level. So far as I know no collection of her poetry has been published, hut if there is such a volume it would be decidedly worth having, as her work is much above that of the average magazine verse-writer. Here is a little poem, published in “Harper’s” some time ago, that is very simply written, and .on that account all the more effective, GHOSTS. The three ghosts on the lonesome road Spake each to one another, ‘Whence came that stain about your mouth No lifted hand may cover?’ “From eating of forbidden fruit, Brother, my brother.” The three ghosts on the windless road Spake each to one another, “Whence came that red burn on your foot No dust or ash may cover?” “I stamped a neighbor’s hearth flame out, Brother, my brother.”

The three ghosts on the sunless road Spake each to one another, “Whence came that blood upon your hand No other hand may cover?” — “From breaking of a woman’s heart, Brother, my brother.”

“Yet on the earth clean men we walked Glutton and thief and lover, White flesh and fair it hid our stains That no man might discover.” — “Naked the soul goes up to God, Brother, my brother.”

“The Screen”—Vincent Brown. XLondon: Slodder and Stoughton. Gisborne: Thomas Adams.) A novel with a Bishop as the villain is undoubtedly a novelty. The “villainy” was certainly committed before he became a Bishop, in fact before he entered the Church at all, but that makes no difference. The .fact of the •unusual union of bishopric and villainy (which -word can, however, only J >e applied in a spirit of levity), though it is the main point of interest of the plot, is made somewhat subordinate to an attempt .to depict the state of affairs in Church government in England today. We are confronted with an extremely High Church party, clamoring for Disestablishment, and a low church party equally anxious to uphold the Establishment. Into a distinctly High Church diocese a bishop of low church tendencies is introduced, and complications begin. This does not sound like a subject for a novel, but Mr Brown has contrived to make a very interesting one of his materials. In fact, one of bis best. Some of the characters are decidedly well-drawn, particularly the Bishop. Anyone interested in Church matters should not fail to read “The Screen”; but it must be known that though an ecclesiastical -book, it is by no means a religious book, that is, it makes no attempt at “preaching.” “The Case of Miss Elliott” —Baroness Orczy. (London : Greening and Co. Gisborne: Thomas Adams.)

A collecting of short, rather clever detective tale s by the authoress of “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” over which so many readers went into ecstasies. The Baroness has -evidently an original mind, and •an apparently endless store of plots, but her style and her English are not faultless by any means. Her admirers, however, either do not notice or are willing to forgive -this for the sake of the story, so that this hook, though not as good as some others the Baroness has written, will be welcomed and enjoyed by many. “Beasley’s Christmas Party”—Booth Tarkington. (New York : Harper Bros. Gisborne: Thomas Adams).

There can very seldom be any doubt as to whether a novo? is printed in America or Great Britain, the superiority of the American editions (with a few exceptions) being manifest at once. In type, paper, illustration and binding -the American book is admirable, and even if the story itself is not very good one longs to possess the book for the mere pleasure of handling it. Here is a dainty little tale by the graceful, artistic author of “Monsieur Beaucaire,” “The Gentleman from Indiana?’ and many other equally pretty, quaint stories, and consequently the exquisite taste of the binding and illustrations are not the only inducements -to purchasing it. It is a very pretty little story, and -will be enjoyed by all. “The Social Secretary”—David Graham Phillips. (Indianapolis: BobbsMerrill Co. Gisborne: Thomas Adams.) The remarks already made about American publications apply equally well hero, and this little book has the additional interest of being illustrated by Clarence Underwood, whose pictures of girls are so well known. Mr Phillips has apparently followed tho fashion that so many authors have adopted lately of issuing a very small novel. E. F. Benson, Gertrude Atherton and Mary Cholmondeley (to mention only a few) have -all recently issued very short books, which ill most cases have been as successful as their longer ones. “The Social Secretary” gives a clever picture of modern Washington society, and the straggle for precedence in that far from democratic capital. It appears that the President now holds a real court, and is as much a for etiquette as any crowned monarch, winch is a distinctly amusing state of affairs. No one knows American society better than Mr Phillips, and the picture he draws cannot but be regarded as true to life. LI ere are a few remarks on various subjects: “It’s only in America that you find old women who -make you -forget to wish you were with young and.pretty Avomen.” “The more leisure neople have the harder it is to amuse them.” “Fat women have a mania for wearing tight things, just as gaunt • Avomen yearn for stripes and short women for flounces.” “I suppose there’s nothing deader on this earth than an cx-president, ’with no offices to distribute and no hopes for .a further political career.”

SAYING'S FROM OSCAR WILDE. “The Avorst of having a romance is that it leaves one so unromantlc.” “There are only two kinds of Avomen, the plain and the colored.” “The man Avho sees both sides of a question is the man avlio sees absolutely nothing at all.” A. cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite and leaves one unsatisfied. What more can you Avant?”