Comparisons That Cause Heated Discussions— Is She Better Than Mrs. Carter ?~-Their Meth- ods—R^jane in Other Plays. Last week Mine. Rejane gave " Zaza " for the first time during her season, and we now find ourselves on the edge of a newspaper controversy as to whether her " Zaza " is better than Mrs. Carter's " Zaza." Both sides have passionate adherents. There are critics who jeer at Mrs. Carter as crude, sensational, and cheap, and critics who denounce Rejane as pale, colorless, and ineffective. People with French names have rushed into print, sputtering with rage that any one should stoop to such an odious comparison. Pa- triotic Americans, who like their drama high, as they do their ducks, have declared that the French actress is wanting in the fire, the force, and the vehemence that made Mrs. Carter's performance a nerve-racking experience. I saw Mrs. Carter four years ago play " Zaza," and I have a very clear recollection of it. It was in London, and we sat up in the balcony and were properly shocked when the star began to take off her clothes, so that you did not know where she was going to stop. An English girl near us, who had evi- dently strayed innocently into the play with her young man, pretended to feel ill and had to leave — I suppose it was the only way she could get the young man out. I have an undying memory of him assisting her along between the seats and craning his neck back over his shoulder for a last glimpse of Mrs. Carter. He was in a rage, and yet he was trying to be polite to his drooping com- panion, and his face, expressive of these warring emotions, remains in my mind as a picture which cheers me in dull moments. I saw Rejane on Thanskiving Day. "It was the first time I had seen her in " Zaza," and I have a sort of an idea" that that week was the first time she had played it in this country. The French version is very like the American, except in the last act and in the scene of the quarrel, which is amplified in the English edition. The American Zaza has more to say in this scene. In the French it struck me as exceedingly short — almost too short. It moved with the lightning-like, trenchant quickness with which deadly scenes do move in real life. I often have thought that when a murder is committed in the heat of fury, it must be in a white hot, blinding moment following on a rapid-fire of talk — the whole thing over and done in a few quivering seconds. The last act is very different. They purified it for the American theatre-goer, and made it exceedingly banale. Mrs. Carter, all in white, as a good, kind, respectable actress-lady — very handsomely dressed, how- ever, and with a smart new carriage of her own — was not what you'd call convincing. She is a redeemed and chastened Zaza, a thing for missionaries to talk of, and Sunday- schools to believe in. The French authors do not suggest any such complete transfor- mation. They realized the accuracy of the proverb that " you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Zaza leads the same old life, and is in many ways the same old Zaza. Love and suffering have not exactly given her a soul : they have quickened in her a sense of the fineness and beauty of something in a dim " beyond " never seen before. Senti- ment is born in her : the aesthetic sense is awakened. In fact, Zaza. through her love affair with Dufresne. becomes a woman and an artist. She has seen " the glory and the dream." Rejane plays this scene most beautifully — as only a Frenchwoman could play it. Her start when she sees Dufresne, the sudden faintness of her joy, the moment of respond- ing to his caress, are all given with a depth of sentiment that is extremely moving. And her gentle rejection of his renewed proffers of love, her memories of a happier past, her inquiries about himself and his life, are im- bued with a melancholy renouncement that has something in it of nobility. It is the speech of one who is looking back on dead things, once indescribably dear. To be able to play such a scene in such a way, the body absolutely motionless, the voice low, depend- ing only upon the most delicate shades of facial and vocal expression for effects, is to be a great artist Only Rejane or Duse could have done it. The first act — behind the scenes in the loge of Zaza — is much the same in the original and the adaptation. We miss some of Mr. Belasco's introductions in the way of local color — the operating of the machine that made the sound of horses' hoof-beats, the filing on the stage of the company with the stage-manager growling at each one, " Smile. Smile now !" The quarrel between the two actresses was much more violent in the French version. They pulled each other's hair. In the middle of the battle, the man- ager rushed in with a set, business-like face, separated them, and all was calm again. One of the most subtle differences in the acting of the two stars was to be seen in this first act. Nothing could have been much more frank than the making of Rejane's toilet. The exposition of what they call in the shops " underwear " was of the most candid. Having taken off her dress and her corset, she put on a kimono and sat in front of the glass making herself up from the first application of some sort of adhesive grease to the last layer of rouge and pearl powder. She arranged the most wonderful coiffure of false hair, all the time talking to the various men and women who dropped into the loge, adding, while she talked, finishing touches with an eyebrow pencil and stick of lip salve. Yet this was all done with such ex- traordinary delicacy, such apparently naive naturalness, that the element of the pre- meditatedly suggestive and shocking was al- most non-existent. It certainly was not what one would call modest, but the violent and coarse immodesty of Mrs. Carter's per- formance in this act was lacking. The French have a wonderful knack, or art, this way. I am under the impression that a person brought up on such stage performances as the Belasco stars give, would be much dis- appointed in Rejane's Zaza. It would strike him as so low-keyed as to be almost colorless, so quiet as to be ineffective. Its amaz- ingly fine shades of feeling, of pathos, of humor, would be lost on him. I have no doubt that half the audience on Thanksgiving Day were disappointed in the scene with the child, it was so fine, so delicate : only a suggestion of tears, a slight roughness of voice, where the spectator had expected a tor- rent of sobs and at least a few suppressed writhings of emotion. And it was nothing but an ugly woman, with a hurt, tremulous face, speaking in a strangely natural voice to a simple, straightforward, every-day child. But all things considered, and to give the devil his due. I am not sure that I don't think in the scene of the quarrel Mrs. Carter was more what one would think Zaza was. Or put it this way — suggested more the rage and agony of a hot-blooded, uncontrolled woman wounded to the death. She certainly, by her own robust and unsubtle methods, gave an impression of suffering that was al- most terrible. One felt that one had seen a human creature face to face with the darkest hour of its fate — she shrieked, she screamed, she sobbed, she fell over the furniture ; but through it all she never lost her power of suggesting that she was in spiritual anguish. Of its kind, it was the real thing — the " fight- ing with wild beasts at Ephesus " that some of us have to go through. Rejane's treatment of the scene was en- tirely different. There was a world of mean- ing— fear, defiance, a trembling bravado — in her three affirmatives in answer to Dufresne's infuriated questions. She has spirit, and is angry and vehement herself till he crushes her with a brutal epithet. She drops into a chair as if he had struck her, and her words are broken and feeble after that. When he goes, she runs to the window and looks after him. calls him back, but he has gone. Then she comes down the stage, pale, stunned, with the air of one half comprehending. She not only suggests a much gentler and more loving woman than Mrs. Carter, but one who at this first moment of desertion does not see the long, bleak road before her. " La Passerelle " and " La Parisienne " drew upon themselves quite resonant thunders of disapproval from the press. I saw " La Parisienne " one night, and I must confess it struck me as a highly moral performance, so violently, so ferociously, did it pluck the veil of sentiment from the familiar situation, and show it forth in its grim ugliness. " La Parisienne" is not a new play. It was writ- ten twenty years ago by Henri Becque, and great actresses have played it. Becque died poor and embittered. He had delivered his " message " and, if it was listened to, the listeners did hot bring its author riches. What it was, was that the typical love-affair of the French dramatist and novelist was not the poetic, saccharine, idealistic affair it was represented, but a sordid and cynical mat- ter, with business and profit in it, not grandly wicked, but smally base, mean, calculating, dirty. The surface of the play is the smiling sur- face of middle-class Parisian life — the life of small flats and small families, the young wife, the elderly husband, and the lover. There was a good deal of humor in it, and the people on the stage are constantly laughing. Their laughter reminded one of the Abbe's answer to Candide when he asked if the peo- ple of Paris were always laughing. " Yes," said the Abbe, " but it is with anger in their hearts." The comfortable, perfectly dis- illusioned, acridly biting cynicism of the whole situation and its treatment, would be hideous had not a glow of debonair French gayety played over it. It was certainly the keenest, bitterest, most vitriolic exposition of unspeakable sordidness I have ever seen on the stage. Everybody in it — except the lover who was put out into the cold for a while, and then taken back into favor— was perfectly amiable, well-mannered, and socially delight- ful. They were not immoral, but just the most unmoral set of people that every were drawn together to deliver the message of a disgusted student of the Human Comedy. Geraldine Bonner. New York, November 29, 1904. CROSS GLOVES ...FOR... WOMEN $1.50 per pair GLOVE ORDERS ISSUED AN Ideal Xmas Gift FOR SALE ONLY AT Roos Bros. KEARNY AT POST LOUIS H. EATON Organist and Director of the Choir Trinity Church Teacher of Voice, Piano, and Organ Studio, 1676 Broadway Phone East 571. | mm $* ^ ACT 1 -TrtE OTA8T' ACT 2.-"M{)LLY AID I ACI+-"TH£ FifllSrt" ACT3-~AHD THE MBY "LOOK BEFORE VOU LEAPI" Copyright, 1904, by Treadwell & Freck. CALANDEE, mounted and tied with rib- | For sale by all art dealers, or sent, post-paid, by TKEADWELL & FRECK, Publishers, 634 Emma Spreckels Bid, S. F. 1, size 8x18, 50 cents. PICTURE, mounted on red deckled-edge paper, size 5 xl5, 25 cents. ■j The Christmas CENTURY FIRST CHAPTERS OF THE NEW SERIAL NOVEL It SANDY 99 BY THE AUTHOR OF "MRS. W1GGS" Illustrated by W. L. JACOBS. To continue for six months. OPENING ARTICLE IN AMBASSADOR WHITE'S STORY OF HIS GERMAN MISSION, 1897 1902 With especial reference to the personality of the German Emperor. Superb Color Reproductions of Paintings by George Inness, Winslow Homer, Boutet de Monvel, Maxfield Parrish, Anna Whelan Betts, Jacobs, Horsfall; exquisite pictures in tint. Five Christmas Stories By well-known writers, art and literature. ■ a great Christmas feast of Other Serial Novels by MRS. HUMPHRY WARD and KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN will come during 1905, with stories by Kipling, Craw- ford, Jack London, Anthony Hope, Owen Wister, Booth Tarkington, and a great list of contributors. Buy the Christmas Number— or Subscribe for a year ($4.00) beginning with the Christmas number and let us send you the November number free. All dealers, or THE CENTURY CO., Union Square, New York. 404 THE ARGONAUT. December 12, 1904. LITERARY NOTES. The Books to Buy Children (or Christmas. . difficult taw lo select books to give JldreO. Three or four hundred books 1 ■ ■ America, and though the doting parent may read tl that appear in the ad wcckljf pre&, 1! 's ten cti&nc< that he or she has forgotten all about them time, and consequently wanders and takes a fresh young Ol very good I the juveniles t.» buy. ■ almost everybody buys Acs) to mu briefly aVer the juvenile publications of the entire year, and therefrom the most desirable. Through the present writer's bands has passed the whole juvenile output, and whili no ex- ritical ability in juvenile litera- olaimed, pater QX mat erf ami lias m;i> • Wpeiid upon it that not a little OttK and thought has been exercised in making the following selections. :ially interest- rnia youngsters is Ernest Thomp- " Monarch : The Rig Bear of Tflllftc/'. since it in the main tells the story rifely put in Golden Gate Park: :■• have taken unwarranted lib- erties with Allen Kelly's true story of the apture, but children will not care for icr a hundred drawings by the clever pen of the author adorn the volume (Scrib- (1.25). While the story of Monarch will make its mos£ effective appeal to juvenile ■f action. Wary Austin's "'The. Basket Woman " is perhaps too descriptively poetic to hold the impatient mind of such children ; r is a book for the quiet and thought- ful child old enough to feel the poetry' of lies of the desert | Houghton. Mifflin & 1 'tlier books which we especially recommend for boys and girls of from eight v -n t roughly speaking) are " Poems 1 hild Should Know." by Mary E. Burt (Doubli & Co.; go cents net), and "The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games." Burton Kingsley (Doubleday. Page & Co. ; $1.50) — a veritable encyclopaedia of [ iivcr six hundred pages. Probably " African Forest and Jungle." by Paul du i'haillu will Ik: liked by boys more especially as will also " Captured by the by Captain Charles A. Curtis, U. Harper ft Brothers; $1.50). Professor Later Magic" (E. P. Dutton & is a book that will be beloved by the older hoys, as also will R. G. Barbour's" '' The Book of School and College Sports " < Applet And boys old enough to like " Treasure Island " will find Bailey Millar^ •■ ry. "The Lure o* Gold" I "lode : $1.50) absorbing. books for girls arc published, but it is much more difficult to say what girls like, rdeo and How it Grew." by I <ntury Company: $1.25), tical treatise on flower-gardening, told in the form of a story, ought to please a little girl ; whether it actually will can only be told Tig, and we are slightly less certain Lucy and Their Majesties," by B. L. Farjeon (Century' Company), and " Elinor Arden by Mary C. Du Bois (Cen- mpany ; $1.50}, though both of these we think are yood. " Jewell's Story Book " Chapter in Her Life" I Houghton. Mifflin & Co. ; $1.50) certainly inning, the only drawback being that ries they inculcate a 1 nee. tment of literature that no wise that of natural his- if ri^ht or ten may the scientific descrip- but he or she will, if miliarizc nd bo, finally. rid beast* mm end Will tural His •' < r three linn nd Mrs. which is pro . lore than six le books Henry w Kb splendid oramend ■ : not be > tn.irkcd sue aid t hi rate | 1 the Pumpkin " 1 I hlluii; ham > of 'unland " 1 the minor, 'A y much ltV. ; i and " I ll.u with ■ '■ :■ fulid interest — it is about Chinese children in this city— and may for that reason be recom- mended. " Buster Brown Abroad," by R. F. Outcaull (Stokesl is not a moral book, but it may not fail to be as diverting to Buster's young brethren as it certainly is to grown- ups. •> Personal and Miscellaneous Gossip. Mrs. F.lla Higginson. the author of " Marietta of Out West." tells a good story on herself of going about a little town far iM>rth in Alaska in search of a book, and finding her own story confronting her. " Thought we was stuck on that book — sure," said the gentlemen in his shirt sleeves be- hind the counter, handing it down ; " had ten copies, and only sold one. The rest stuck. But the author of the book hit the town yesterday, and they've gone off like hot cakes. Last one. Want it?" Tt is said that Maurice Hewlett has gypsy blood in his veins. The serious illness of General Lew Wallace, author of " Ben Hur," brings freshly to mind the extraordinary career of this novel, which was published twenty-four years ago, and is selling to-day better than when it first came out. It has been translated into many lan- guages, it has been published in fourteen luxurious editions, but no cheap edition has ever been issued. It is estimated that the book has now been sold well toward a mil- lion copies ; and the royalties from it, and from the play founded upon it, have made General Wallace a rich man. Doubleday. Page &: Co. will publish on January 14th a new novel by Thomas Dixon, Jr., entitled " The Clansman." Charles Scribner's Sons have in prepara- tion a volume by Walter A. Wyckoff which will deal with the Paris workmen very much as the author dealt with the American work- ingman in " The Workers." D. Appleton & Co. are issuing a book which deals with the Russo-Japanese War, entitled " From Tokio Through Manchuria With the Japanese." The author. Major Louis L. Seaman, was once a surgeon in the United States army : he returned about a month ago from the scenes of hostilities, where he had special advantages to observe the war. The volume will contain forty illustrations, which, with the exception of three, were made by the author himself or under his supervision. Among new books is Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox's "A Woman of the World." consist- ing of letters of advice addressed to all sorts and conditions of men and women. Miss Ethel Barrymore is an enuthusiastic admirer of Jack London, who, she thinks, shares with Joseph Conrad the credit and distinction of writing about the only "big stuff " that is being done to-day. She met Mr. London in California recently, and found in him a most interesting personality. " He's the sailor, all over." Miss Barrymore told a NTew York reporter, the other day. " with all the charm of a free life about him. We talked about the play that he is going to write for me. It is a little indefinite yet. You could understand how indefinite if you had heard the questions he asked me about exits and entrances and so on. He knows nothing, technically, about the stage ; but you can be very' sure he will learn. The theme he pro- posed appealed to me instantly. It will be a Klondike play, and there are all sorts of backgrounds and character and romance and dramatic material available. I keep thinking about it all the time, for it has a strong hold upon the imagination." O. Appleton & Co. have received an offer for the serial rights of " The Story of Wire- less Telegraphy." by A. T. Story. It is con- sidered a new departure to serialize a scientific hn 10I The fourth and concluding volume of 1 reswick's " Life of Joseph Chamber- lain " will be published immediately in Lon- don. The autograph copy of Keats's " Hyperion." I", the British Museum, is produced in collotype facsimile by the • Ixford 1 faiversil y Pi e New Publications. ' \ ' ; i try," by Elroy \l, Avery, I'h. I)., 1.1. . 1). American Book Company. "The Rose of Seville." by Elizabeth Minot. A play and poems. Richard G. Badger; $1.50. E ay on Addison." Edited by Charles Mint McClumpha, Ph. D. Frontispiece. Ann 1 ii an Booh I lompany. ■ mu.-." by Albert Lathrop Law Illustrated. Little, Brown & Co.; $1.50 — i early days in Michigan "The Reaper," by Edith Kickcrt. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; $1.5.— a mournful story of the Shetland Ulea; gloomy, but with a certain strength and distinction. 'The Pursuit -.t Phyllis." by lohn Har- in Hoi! A Co.— a slight, light, but bright little love-story; just the kind of a book with which to fill up an idle hour. " Nature's Invitation." by Bradford Torrey. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. ; $1.10 net — thirty short, readable essays about birds. "An Angel by Brevet," by Helen Pitkin. Illustrated. The J. B. Lippincott Company ; $1.50 — a quiet, gently humorous story of present day New Orleans. " In the Days of Chaucer." by Tudor Jenks. With an introduction by Hamilton Wright Mabie. Illustrated. A. S. Barnes & Co. ; $t.oo net. " The Lady of Loyalty House." by Justin Huntly McCarthy. Harper & Brothers; $1.50 — precisely the sort of " pretty " historical romance that thinking people try to avoid. " American Familiar Verse." Edited with an introduction by Brander Matthews. Long- mans. Green & Co.; $1.40 — an excellent col- lection of homely, sweet, and intimate Ameri- can lyrics. " The Book of the Iris," by R. Irwin Lynch. Hand-Book of Practical Gardening Series. Beautifully illustrated. John Lane — an excellent manual, though directions as to the care of the flowers refer to English condi- tions. " Mammy 'Mongst the Wild Nations of Eu- rope." by Ruthella Mory Bibbins. Illus- trated. The Frederick A. Stokes Company ; $1.50 — quite an amusing account of a negro mammy's experience abroad, told in dialect ; it is on the Samantha Allen order. "Diane: A Romance of the Icarian Set- tlement on the Mississippi," by Katharine Holland Brown. Illustrated. Doubleday, Page & Co.: $1.50 — a well-told romantic story of a French Communist settlement in Illinois in the early fifties. " How to Study Shakespeare," by William H. Fleming. Fourth series. Doubleday, Page & Co.: $1.00 — a futile, foolish book; a love of poetry was never inculcated by making the scholar answer questions like these which Mr. Fleming's book asks : " What does Imogen say of Cloten ?" " What second suggestion does Pisanio make to Imogen?" "What preparations has he made therefor?" " What promises does he make to her?" "Does she accept them ?" " What, on parting, does he give her?" — etc.. ad nauseam. Bah! "The Life of De Quincey "— A Wooden Book. TO FRANCIS THOMPSON. "... Tracrt 51 av$pd)Trot.s dp i}V ifsvXV t4kv Saris 5' atir direipos &v ^eyei, fjGtJov nei> d\yet, 5v(TTi'x^v 51 evdaipxjvet." — Euripides. At the first heavy touch how swift a change! Vanished the subtle brain, its thoughts and dreams Ever through which the opium fragrance streams, The flute-like English virginal and strange, Of deathless cadence, with its infinite range. Which, still, when it draws near Him who redeems, Even more mighty and more plangent seems. All gone — all fled — all do these Notes estrange. I touched the book in pity — but my hand " In stipitc* " trembled — and my blood was stirred — " Dextra . . . trepidarc" — how withstand The "what a bring me, Katy**?" that one sees In his own letter? " Kinsey!'* (Ah! that word) " Scntif sub corticc pectus." " Kinsey, please. . . ." Agnes Tobin. *Ovid. Met. L. viii. *" This was the last time that I heard her sweet voice distinctly, and I shall never hear one like it again." — Extract from Dc Quincey's letter to Miss IVordszvorth on the death of Catherine Wordsworth. M Victor Berard claims that he has lo- cated the land of the Lotus-eaters, the Island ol Calypso, the cave of the Cyclops, and the resl of the familiar spots of the Odyssey, and shows that Homer used one of the ancient Phoenician log-books on which to base his descriptions. M. Berard has spent years in working up and down the coasts of the Mediterranean in a sailing boat, armed with the French " Nautical Instructions," which are ultimately based on the " Periploi " of the Phoenician sailors. " Les Pheniciens et L'Odyssey" is the result of his labors. Gold spectacles or eye glasses make acceptable holiday gifts. We fit the proper lenses without additional charge after the holidays. Hirsch & Kaiser, 7 Kearny St. Opticians. THE cTW A N WHO KNOWS the good and the bad points of all typewriters buys the Remington Remington Typewriter Co. \ 327 Broadway, New York GLUTE 238 Bush St. iMills Bid), San Francisco. These trade-mark crisscross lines on every package. For DYSPEPSIA. SPECIAL DlUrfeimc FLOUR. K. C. WHOLErV/tfCAT FLOUR. Unlike all otJJer IdodsX Ask Grocers. For bg(5k ow9bmp]\ write Farwell & Rhines, WateVown, N. Y., U.S.A. JOHN G. ILS «& CO. — MANUFACTURERS — HIGH=GRADE FRENCH RANGES Kitchen and Bakery Outfits 814-816 KEARNY STREET San Francisco, Cal. SORE AND BLEEDING GUMS Soft and spongy gums are made healthy by the mildly alkaline and astringent prop- erties of SOZODONT. It is the most fragrant deodorizer and antiseptic dentifrice known to the world. SOZODONT TOOTH POWDER the complement of SOZODONT Liquhl, has abrasive properties, yet is absolutely (re- from grit and acid. It will not tarniih gold fillings or scratch the enamel. 3 FORMS : LIQUID, POWDER, PASTE. impRcssions cttiseniuiR 100s BEAUTIFUL IN DESIGN AND COLOR Price SI. SO net. Postage 12 cents. PAUL ELDER &. CO., 238 Post Street, San Francisco December 12, 1904. THE ARGONAUT 405 ^COOK'S TOURS^ Conducted Parties or Inde- pendent Tickets to EGYPT, THE NILE, THE HOLY LAND, GREECE, Etc. CRUISES TO THE WEST INDIES and THE MEDITERRANEAN LITERARY NOTES. Holders of Cook's tickets are afforded facili- ties unobtainable through any other source without charge. Programmes and full information for the ask- ing. THOS. COOK & SON * 621 riarket St., San Francisco Established 1841 WILSON & CO. HIGH GRADE Furnishings for Men Holiday Novelties NECK DRESS PAJAflA SUITS FANCY SHIRTS SUIT CASES NIGHT ROBES UNDERWEAR HOSIERY UflBRELLAS, Etc. 910 Market Street NEAR STOCKTON. Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery San Rafael, Marin County A Rural and Permanent Burying Ground for San Francisco Any and all inquiries regarding prices and Vols will be supplied on application to MT. TAMALPAIS CK3IETERY, San Rafael, Marin County or at 618 Parrott Building, San Francisco. Educational. Oregon. ST. HELEN'S BALL A Girls' School of tbe Highest Class. Corps of teachers, loca- tion, building, equipment— thebest. Send for catalogue. Opens Sept. 15, 1904. San Mateo, Cal. St. Margaret's Suburban School Home and day school for girls. Academic and college preparatory courses. Special advantages in music, art. Athletics, hockey, basketball, etc. Illustrated book oi information. Second term opens January' loth. ELEANOR TEBBETTS, Principal. Mr. Sterling in a Second Edition. " First Edition, November, 1903 " — " Sec- ond Edition, November, 1904" — these are two phrases the like of which are seldom to be seen on the title page-reverse of books of poetry. Hundredth editions of novels are far more frequent than second editions of verse ; and so the fact that the first edition of George Sterling's " The Testimony of the Suns " has within a year been exhausted, and that a second edition has now been published, is indeed remarkable. It is true, of course, that the first edition was a small one : but so are the editions of most first books of verse; and, in the vast majority of cases, the poet pays for the pleas- urable sensation of " being printed " out of his own not too capacious pocket. The Argonaut's high opinion of " The Tes- timony of the Suns " was, of course, expressed with due emphasis immediately upon its ap- pearance. " The poem moves [we then said] with dignity, even with grandeur; it has in- dubitable power." And this verdict was in the nature of things sustained by good critics in the East and in England, Mr. Lang, for example, saying in an article in a British review : " If I know what poetry is, this is poetry " — from him high praise indeed. Of the short poems and sonnets in the volume, two may fittingly be quoted : NIGHTMARE. Departing troubled to her tryst with Sleep, The soul, that night, paused doubtful and afraid Within the portals and eternal shade Of his great temple. AH the shapes that sweep Athwart its twilight, from the abysm they keep Rose in tremendous menace. She, dismayed. Turned to her day in trembling, nor delayed Her breathless flight from that portentous deep. But thou, O Death! shall feign no dream nor dawn, Tho' sons sunder the hermetic tomb. And light annul the mausolean gloom — Nay! tho' contending sun to sun be drawn In ruin that the worlds diffused attest To watchers round Arcturus, / shall rest! MYSTERY. Men say that sundered by enormous nights Burn star and nearest star. That where companioned seem the sister lights The great abysses are. So held by Life's unsympathetic dark. We press to hidden goals. From gulfs unshared the friending fires we mark, And we are lonely souls — Your hearts, O friends! Beyond their veiling bars, Are hidden deep away. Your faces gleam familiar as the stars, And as unknown as they- Published by A. M. Robertson, San Fran- Popular Books at the Libraries: A Summary. Below is printed a list of the books which have been mentioned more than once in the Argonaut's weekly list of books most in de- mand at the Mechanics', Mercantile, and Pub- lic Libraries, of this city. The period covered is from July 25th to December 5th. The figures show the number of times each work has been mentioned in the Argonaut's tables. "The Crossing," by Winston Churchill. 23. "The Castaway." by Hallie Erminie Rives, 19. "A Ladder of Swords," by Gilbert Parker, 17. " In the Bishop's Carriage," by Miriam Michelson. 14- "The Queen's Quair," by Maurice Hewlett, 14. " Man and Superman," by G. Bernard Shaw, 14. " The Affair at the Inn," by Kate Douglas Wiggin, et al., 13. " The Masquerader," by Katherine Cecil Thurs- ton. 13.. " Three Years in the Klondike," by Jeremiah Lynch, n. " The Last Hope," by Henry Seton Mer- riman, 9. " The Lure o' Gold," by Bailey Millard, 8. " Imperator et Rex " — Anonymous. 8. " Vergilius," by Irving Baeheller, 7. " The Sea-Wolf," hv Jack London, 7- " Nancy Stair," hy Elinor McCartney Lane. 6. " The Memoirs of a Baby," by Josephine Das- kam. 6. " Olive Latham," by E. L. Voynich, 6. ■* An Autobiography." bv Herbert Spencer, 5. '• Whoever Shall Offend." by F. Marion Craw- ford. 4. " Woman Errant " — Anonymous. 3. " The Cost," by David Graham Phillips, 3. " Double Harness," by Anthony Hope, 3. " The Simple Life," by Charles Wagner, 3. " God's Good Man," by Marie Corelli, 3. " Japan: An Interpretation," by Lafcadio Hearn, 3. " Dorothea," by Maarten Maartens, 3. " The Woman With the Fan," by Robert Hichens, 2. " The- Lightning Conductor," by Mr. and Mrs. C. X. Williamson. 2. " The Grafters," by Francis Lynde, 2. "' Byways of Braithe," by Frances Powell, 2. " He That Eateth Breath With Me," by H. A. Mitchell-Keavs, 2. " Pillar 0/ Light." by Louis Tracy, 2. " The Madigans," by Miriam Michelson, 2. " Keystone of Empire " — Anonymous, 2. "The Prodigal Son,", by Hall Caine, 2. " My Lady of the North," by Randall Par- rish, 2. " Old Gorgon Graham," by G: H. Lorrfmer, 2. " Traffics and Discoveries." by Rudyard Kip- ling, 2. Combining the summary of last July and the present one. it appears that Winston Churchill's " The Crossing," and Miriam Michelson's " In the Bishop's Carriage " are tied for first place, each having been men- tioned precisely forty-one times. Other popular books at the libraries during the year are: "The Deliverance" (27), " To- Morrow's Tangle " (23), " The Russian Ad- vance " (22), " The Castaway " (17), Spen- cer's "Autobiography" (19), "People of the Abyss" (17). "The Queen's Quair" nj<. and " A Ladder of Swords " (17). It is interesting to note that the books of more solid merit retain their popularity longer than " readable novels," though these latter may get a long lead at the beginning. Thus Ellen Glasgow's " The Deliverance " was the most popular book during the first six months of the year, but was mentioned not at all dur- ing the second six months. It was " all in." But Spencer's " Autobiography " was among " the most popular " fourteen times during the first half of 1904 and five times during the second. So with Jeremiah Lynch's " Three Years in the Klondike." In the July summary it was named four times ; in the present one, eleven. A remarkable circumstance is the popu- larity of G. Bernard Shaw's " Man and Super- man." It is a book that, to say the least, is most difficult reading. Even the elect are said to be bewildered by its subtleties. Yet — doubtless stimulated by the production here of Shaw's " Candida " — " Man and Super- man " has been among " the most popular " at the libraries no less than fourteen times. The almost universal verdict of reviewers on Kiplings" " Traffics and Discoveries " (that it is a little dull) is reflected by the library reports, which put it last on the long list. The reappearance of Charles Wagner's " The Simple Life " shows what a good ad- vertising scheme it was for the author to visit this country on a lecture tour. Indeed, the library public is remarkably sensitive to such influences. For example, Jeremiah Lynch's Klondike book immediately reap- peared in the reports of all the libraries when the little affair of his on board a trans- atlantic liner was so sensationally exploited by the newspapers. If an author wants to be really popular, let him run over some one with an auto, sue for divorce, get in a fight, have typhoid fever, or be a militant socialist like Shaw. These are more certain methods than merely writing well. The Popular Books at the Libraries. The five books most in demand during the week at the Mechanics', Public, and Mer- cantile Libraries, of this city, were the fol- lowing : mechanics' library. 1. " The Masquerader," by Katherine Cecil Thurston. 2. " The Prodigal Son," by Hall Caine. 3. " The Truants," by A. E. W. Mason. 4. " The Youth of Washington," by S. Weir Mitchell. 5. " Adolescence," by G. Stanley Hall. PUBLIC LIBRARY. 1. " The Sea-Wolf," by Jack London. 2. " Whosoever Shall Offend," by F. Marion Crawford. 3. " The Affair at the Inn," by Kate Doug- las Wiggin. et al. 4. " The Masquerader," by Katherine Cecil Thurston. 5. " Japan : An Interpretation," by Lafcadio Hearn. MERCANTILE LIBRARY. i. " The Sea- Wolf," by Jack London. 2. " The Brethren," by Rider Haggard. 3. " The Masquerader," by Katherine Cecil Thurston. 4. " The Son of Royal Langbrith," by Will- iam Dean Howells. 5. " The Truants," by A. E. W. Mason. The Ladies' Field complains that " it is a painful fact that the four most unpleasant novels which have appeared this autumn have all been written by women." It adds; "It must also be admitted that it is only really to their own sex that this form of fiction appeals." TO ii. XT T H O Pt JS : It you want your MSS. accepted have them neatly typewritten. We make a specialty of typing and edit- ing MSS. and Plays. 10 cents per 100 words. S. F. , Typewriting Bureau, R. 7, 215 Kearny St., S- F. Befitting Christmas. The rare attribute of perfect ap- propriateness is peculiarly the property of a Christmas present of Dorflinger glassware. Each piece, bearing our trade-mark label, is genuine in the crafts- manship and artistic in every line. Ask your dealer. PDoRFUNGERi Engraving, Pictures Fine Stationery Objects of Art WEDDINGS DODGE STATIOXERV CO. I2j Grant Az-enue - - San Francisco .Yorwood Brcnvning Smith, .\fgr. CHRISTMAS — AT THE — B00KL0VERS LIBRARY Good during December : S3. 50 per year for one book a day for the year, value S5.00 And the Booklovprs Magazine for the year. value 3.00 Total S8.00 Pay S5.00 for a membership or renew your sub- scription at the regular rate and secure the privilege of giving your friends Christmas presents at the S3. 50 rate. The Booklovers Library 240 STOCKTON STREET. S. F. PHOTOS FROn LIFE. FOR LOVERS OF ART AND BEAUTY. In the most graceful and exquisite French Workmanship. Illustrated Catalogue, with 4S samples, and 3 fine Cabinets or Stereoscopes. $1. Carefully Selected Assortments, $2. $5. and Jio. Money order or bank note. R. GENNERT, 89P Faub. St. Martin, Paris, France. ENNE1NS *C BORATED O TALCUM IM&WDER I CHAPPED HANDS, CHAFING, tfmd all aUBctloca of tbe ifcm. "A Btk ' higher in prkt, perhaps, than wrthJas sabstitoUs. bat j rcuon for it." LV itgbtful iha shiviig. SoU everywhere, or auSed oa ffaifX of 25c GERHARD MENNEN CO, Hcwtzk. N. JL B£ HM RISTOL CO. CHRISTMAS GOODS JEWELRY AND SILVERWARE We are showing the newest designs in such well-selected variety as to meet the most widely different tastes. The name BOHM BRISTOL CO. stands as a guarantee of satisfac- tion in quality and price. Open Evenings » ap » 104 = 110 Geary Street -iUb THE ARGONA UT December 12, 1904. In "The Professor's Love Story," al- though its corned) 1- of ihe delicately fan- lype, Mr. Barrie, to my perhaps un- taste, reaches the sympathies with ■ firmer, Mirer appeal than in " The Little Minister.:1 The latter play is Full of absolute improbabilities; the former is just what might and does happen to the bachelor scientist whose dry-as-dusl solitude is in- by the bright youth, and gentleness, and delicately Mattering tendance of a pretty girl-seci The sentiment of the piece remains senti- ment, and does not become high-keyed ro- mance, ami the play is pfervaded by an atmos- phere of fresh, lively, engaging humor. Pro- Goodwillic is really a delightful old fellow, for old one must call the prema- turely aged student, although he is only forty. full of autumnal sadness and decay, >till retains a few lingering possibilities for a woman: but, in accordance with the un- christian partiality that fate and the world's attitude persist in showing to the sterner sex. it is but ripe and lingering summer to a man. So the professor is forty, and. without offending the prejudices, may sue for and win the favor of a blossoming maid of twenty. That is. in Great Britain. In our country, youth is more like to mate with youth in all f love in which financial considerations do not intervene. But in Great Britain, they say. a girl without fortune must take the first thing that offers, or go unwed. The guileless professor, however, although he has money, is beautifully unconscious that he is. an eligible. Von perceive that here is where one element of improbability enters. For where is the man, professional or com- mercial, prince or peasant. Christian or heretic, that has not been tutored by the single ladies of his acquaintance into full and complete recognition of the fact that he is a catch? But the professor is unconscious of a fact of which every other being that re- in his orbit is acutely aware. That is one of the things that constitutes his charm. Another is that he is so perfectly open, so broadly, beamingly wholesale in the utter inmenl with which he wears his heart upon his sleeve when his delighted regards fall upon the pretty secretary. Why do we love dogs and children so ? Because they have no rcscrv- v They --how their emotions with absolute candor. The professor is as oprn-hcartcd as a child, ami loves with the Mnglc-mindcdm---- of a faithful dog. Miss White, with the sensitive pride of youth. would be sure to feci the need of training ■ h to y< hrain from . » 1 » > future ecccntru ities resulting from mental prc-occupation whene'er he took his walks abroad But in all other respects, she would \*c the comfortable possessor of a singularly il lord: one who would never depart it from absolute alb giance iptor. be men like that, not in too great . but, although many do not pi opoi i ion to the num- men. They are u 1 their tnaccessi- ignifii .n' in the ■ I ■ ■ 1 yOUth rrtn. ■ bt during hi umption ■ 1 tudinarian St, and ■ 1 in his chat mingly. ■ pt at mingling of ' life in In-.. ■ ill for pun ol the t..r the man All tl bly gowned, and Mi. I tr touting ■ blonde make "p t.. the part that of hi iod rt . th. • amiability suitabh to tfa The least consistent and most stagy char- acter in the play is Miss Goodwillie, the sister, who wishes her infatuated brother to continue indefinitely in sharing her state of single blessedness. There is really something downright pathetic in the spectacle of a lone mother or sister, the last of the clan save for a bachelor relative, shaking in her shoes for fear some enterprising She will swoop down into his hitherto contented celibacy and carry him off a willing captive to the joys of matrimony, leaving her to dreary solitude. But when sisters, cousins, or aunts conspire against such happenings, they do not admit it. Such manoeuvring against untoward destiny is an instinct to- ward self-preservation, is generally secret or involuntary. and is sometimes scarcely realized by the manceuvrer. Miss Goodwillie, to the doctor and secretary, is perfectly open in her hard opposition to her brother's hap- piness, until her heart is softened by finding a belated twenty-year-old love-letter that never came to her: a. clever contrivance, the stage craftsmanship of which is rather char- acteristic of Barrie. who is no realist, but has a talent for effective manipulation of little incidents of the kind. Miss Belgarde is rather darkling and heavy in the role of the sister, but it is doubtful if the character is capable of being anything more than a sort of dull balance-wheel to the tone of quaintly fantastic comedy in which the play is so happily pitched. Some amusing scenes in the piece which exhibit the deliberate, cautious wooing of the canny Scot, were carried through by Messrs. Maher and Hilliard and Miss Laura Adams with a creditable, if not perfectly successful, attempt at giving the Scotch flavor ; even a Scotchwoman will simper when blown upon by softening airs of courtship, but Miss Adams, who was very good in the first act when rendering her diverse ministrations to the professor got in the last out of tone with the prevailing key, and played more in the spirit of broad comedy. When an actress starts out to support a comedian with serious aspirations, she must make up her mind to accept many a queer turn of the dramatic wheel. Maxine Elliott has played a beautiful and picturesque Portia to Nat Goodwin's Shy lock, and a giggling, characterless Alice to his Nathan Hale. She has been a womanly Phyllis in " When We Were Twenty-One," has con- ferred beauty and elegance upon the not too unselfish heroine of " The American Citizen," and, as a contrast, has figured as the cotton- clad daughter of a blacksmith in Augustus Thomas's " In -Mizzoura." Clyde Fitch, how- ever, has fitted her best of all. Her type of beauty is rather too gorgeous and overpower- ing, and her stage manner too suggestive of the pomp of the world for the domestically inclined Phyllis of " When We Were Twenty-One," but Georgiana Carley, of " Her Own Way," sweet, sound, and wholesome as she is in thought and deed, is yet a woman habituated to the life of display, of elegant competition and easy social supremacy which constitutes society. To act the society heroine is' emphatically Miss Elliott's metier. The Kate of " In "Mizzoura" is a raw girl full of struggling, half- formed ideals, silent and almost sulky in the primitive family life of the Vernons, and, in spite of her superior advantages in education easily dazzled by the thin varnish of urban smartness that over- lies the desperate purposes of her city ad- mirer. All these traits must have suited Miss Elliott as little as the broader, freer atmos- phere of Thomas's play. In " Arizona " Mr, Thomas introduces a couple of pretty women who stand for the type of Eastern girl who carries her beauty, her elegance, and her so- cial charm unwithered to the great alkali plains of the West. But the Kate of " In Mizzoura" is another , .order of being. She typifies the restless, undeveloped young womanhood of the Middle West, straining at the I' ash, and reaching out passionately for escape From the cramped confines of her native village lo the play ol mental and physical activities afforded in the rush and Sweep and competition of life in great cities. The contrast of her silent wretchedness to the broad, hearty content of the husky West- noun. 1 lu-r induces pity, bul the char- acter is not a gracious one. One is apt to turn from her with relief to the men who form the bone and sinew of the play. For they are preeminently of the big, brave, broad-minded, free-hearted, tolerant, easy- going West. The Missourians are too near the South not to have drawn from their neighbors characteristic traits of the easeful- ness of life, chivalry toward women, and of comparative indifference to the material ad- vantages that are to be gained only by an uncomfortable amount of hustling. 