G.B.S. AGAIN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 253, 18 July 1908, Page 12

G.B.S. AGAIN.

PLAYWRIGHT AND CRITIC. MR. BERNARD SHAW AND THE ' EDITOR. The first June issue of the-" Academy" contains the text of a remarkable correspondence that has passed between Mr. G. Bernard'Shaw'and:.the editor of tho paper, arising-,out of the, criticism which appoared in " The Academy" of Mr. Shaw's play, "Getting Married," The following is. the correspondence:— Dear • Lord - Alfred Douglas,—'Who, on earth, havo you .been handing over your dramatic criticism to p Your man, who must have been frightfully ..drunk, has achieved tlio following Startling libel:— " The waiter, disguised as a butler, told us, among other things, that his mother was vory fond of mon, and was in tho habit of bringing Ijhom homo at night. For that statomont, which I need hardly say is puro invention, you will havo Vedronno and Barker, Frederick Harrison, and ' Holman Clark (tho actor concerned) de--1 manding damages from "Tlio Academy" at ! the.rato of about £2500 apieco.' Can you not manage to volunteer in your .. noxt issue a withdrawal of the article? As a rule, I do not like asking an editor to 1 throw-his contributor over; but when tho [ contributor throws over the editor so outrageously is in this case, I do not seo what is to be done. j I feel rather in ji difficulty about it, bet , causo I do not. know who tho writer is; and f am afraid that ho may turn out to bo soino a unfortunate friend of mine. Anyhow, sinco j lot in fpr £ damages and endy less costs by a wild attack on -—; there . lias been nothing quite so reckless as this article. You will see that tho writor gives himself r away hopelessly at tho beginning by saying 0 that ho left the house at the end of 25 1 minutes. Later on ho describes a sceno ,1 which he ,ditl not wait for, and contrives to t got both a libel and a flat mis-statement of h fact into his reforence. Ilowover, it is really o this howler about tho man's mother which o makes the articlo eiitiroly indofensiblo. "As •- you may not havo seen tho .play, I should s explain that what actually does happen is 1- that tho grc°"Brocer who is in charge'of tho y wedding breakfast describes certain oscapay pades of his sistcr-in law, who ran away ir from home several times. He adds that tho s men." brought her homo the same night, and t, no harm done." It is conceivable that a cri•o tie, if very, drunk, might possibly have mud-

died this honestly in the-way your man has done; but that does not make it any moro dofensiblo; and you can see bow the gross coarsoness of tho blunder would affect a jury if the case camo into court. 1 suggest that the best and friendliost thing to do is to stato in your noxt issiio that since tho scntonco abovo quoted is a misdescription, you feel bound to withdraw tho whole articlo unreservedly. If you think well of this, or somo equivalent courso, you might lot me have a lino so that I may try try and smooth mattors, Your faithfully, G. BERNARD SHAW. To this the Editor of the " Academy" replies:— Dear Mr. Bornard Shaw, —I received your lottor this morning with the greatest surprise. I strongly resent the accusation of being drunk which you bring against the writer of tho article. It seems to me that io is characteristic of tho feminino quality of your intellect, to which reforence was made in tho article, to make such an outrageous suggestion. As a matter of fact, I wrote tho articlo myself. If I misheard any particular sentence in tho dialoguo the orror was} on your own showing, a very trifling one, and it is ludicrous to suggost that it is libellous. Lord Alfred Douglas goes on to express his surprise at tho lino adopted by Mr. Shaw, and invites that gontleman to take whatever action he chooses. NOTES. An uptown book store in New York is credited with this advertising couplet, put over a part of its .book display:— For Satan trembles when ho sees Bibles sold as cheap as these* ' • Some wholesome home truths are uttorod by the New York " Evening Post " respecting tile small expenditure upon books in families of a comfortable income. . The average privato " library " in New York—tho critioism would probably apply with equal fprco to London —is described as " a pathetio collection of odds and ends, picked up withojt forethought, or even intelligence." The kitchen,- wo are told, is far more systematically and thoroughly furnished; and " tho mistress of tho house would bo aghast at setting her dinner-tablo with a similar array of coarso, incongruous, broken, and ugly dishes.". Tho importanco of supplying good material 1 for children's homo roading is especially emphasised. Books "of strength and vitality" can alono counteract tho temptation of "tho yellow. magazines, streaked, spreckled, and spotted," which catoli tho oyo at every corner. ... " AVe havo during the past year or two," says tho'"Book Monthly," "had a great many . hovels. treating of the Armageddon which is supposed to. be coming some day. Onp wonders if thoso books have ever bad much salo, for somehow readers do not like , to have thoir feelings unduly and unnecessarily harried. They are willing to put up with sensation in nowspapors, but when it • comes to books they rather object to what the Americans would call the 'tail twisting' of other nations. They like a stirring story all right, so long as it is fiction puro and simple.; Whesn thoy have particular countries brought in and mado to provide 'thrills,' why, thoy are loss pleased. Perhaps this, attitude of tho book reader towards scaremongering may proservo us from an undue numbor of . the Armageddon novel, which really becomes tiresome.". In "Father O'Flynn and Ould Doctor Mack," by Alfred I'orceval Graves—a liltlo boqk just' published by Burns and Oates— we havo tho >tory of the origin of tho former famous soni». The air' of " Father O'Flynn" is a Kerry version of " Tho Top of Cork Road."- Air. Graves first heard it played as a jig by James Buckley, a famous Munster fiddler, and had often danoed to it as a boy: i "The words of tho song .came into Mr. Graves's head in London as'lie walked from Eastbourne Torraoo across Hyde Park, the Green Park, and St. James's Park, cn his way to the Homo Office, in the! spring of 1875. On roachins bis desk lie sot it down just as it now stands, and sent it to tho , 'Spoctator' where it first was printed. It was not published as a song until' It appeared in a Collection of Irish Airs arranged to Mr. Graves's words ("Songs of Old Ireland") in 1882. It attracted ■ Mr. (now' Sir Charlos) Sant'ey's attention, and he obtained a triple encore with-it at ono of Boosoy's Ballad Concerts. Thereafter he sang it constantly. and mado a feature of it at tho St. Patrick's Day concerts." Mr. William Watson has a poem in'tho "Spoctator" "To the Invincible Republio," which opens with tho following lines: — " America! I have never breathed thy air, Have never touched thy soil or hoard tho speed And thunder of thy cities; vet would I Salute thee from atar, not chiofly awed By wide domain, moro breadth of governed . dust, Nor measuring thy greatness and thy power Only by numbers; rather spoing thee, As mountainous heavo of spirit, emotion huge, Enormous hate and angor, boundless love, And most'unknown unfathomable depth Of energy divine. " •' ' In peace to-day Thou sit'st botweeu thy oceans; but whon Fate , Was at thy making, and endowed thy soul With many gifts and costly, she forgot To mix with these n genius for repose; Wherefore a sting is evor in thy blood, And in thy marrow a sublime unrest. And thus thou ke'epest hot tho forgo of life, Whore man is still re-shapen and re-made With fire and clangour. And as thou art vast, St are the perils vast that evermore In thy own house aro bred; nor least of these That fair and fell Delilah, Luxury, That shears ' the hcrolp strength away, and brings . Palsy on nations. Flee her loveliness, For in tho ond her kisses are a sword." Among tho collected works of Oscar Wilde are two " terrible" letters on the cruelties of prison life, and Mr. Christopher Millard writes to tho press correcting an' impression that these proved barren of effect. '.' There is," lie says, "scarcely a single reform suggested in them by Wildo' that has not bean carried out, moro or less, as'ho . proposed. It is related on undeniable authority that tho commissioners appointed to inquire into tho question of prison reform in 1897-8 spent three days in considering tho suggestions made in Wilde's letters, with the fol. lowing good results:—At tho end of the first month's imprisonment a prisoner is allowed to write a lotter or to receive a visit, and to read a book, instead of waiting three months, as formerly; tho sanitary arrangements havo been improved; the food }voighod Qut each day is somewhat less scanty and moro varied; tho plank bed is insisted upon for the first fourtcon days only, instead of a month; and, though little children aro still committed to most of tho horrors of the prison lifo, much has hoen done of late years in tho way of extending the Borstal system." " In tho June numbor of tho "Bibliophile," Mr. J .S. Hewitt Bates has a suggestive and practical articlo op "Bookbinding for tho Book-Lover," in which ho deplores that tho lover of books does not exercise a little mora influence ovor tho bookbinder, in tho I way of suggesting treatment and "Tho principles which ought to govern the , right and proper binding of a book (says , Mr. Bates) aro strength, durability, and i fitnoss. It should open freoly, so that jt docs not require to bo held down by the ' hand wliilo it is being road, and should bo, ■ if only bocauso it is so often our, dose and i constant companion, as beautiful as the coni ditions of its existence will allow. . . . i Tho docoration of a book ought' to bo in : harmony with tho nature of tho work. The 1 design ought always to bo simple and flat i without sha'ings."

i i Tlio regimental officer is tlio backbono of ) tho Army—tlio beginning from which all • tilings must como. If wo givo him tho in--1 torest in his profession to which ho is on--3 titled, allot to him tho work which ho is 1 ready to do, wo shall bo better served .in - this respeot than w other Army iu the • world.—"Anny. aad Navy. Gazette."