KIND WORDS AND SIMPLE FAITH.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 799, 23 April 1910, Page 9

KIND WORDS AND SIMPLE FAITH.

..There must bo many people, in New .York,, of .those that travel by subway, "L," or surface car, who are going about their work those; days under the weight of considerable anxiety regarding the present state of Mr. Irving Bacheller's ' health. , The author of "Eben Holden" and 1 "Vergilius" is himself responsible for the prevailing uneasiness. Over his own signature he has caused to be widely circulated, a statement to the effect that he had recently tried to make his way through life without his regular copy of a certain weekly publication which we may designate as the "Reader's Guide," -and-had , .found,'to use Mr. Bacheller's own phrase, that he was "only half alive." From the buoyant tone which characterises the rest of the statement, wo gather that Mr. Bacheller'speedily abandoned hjs foolhardy experiment, and that ho is now consequently enjoying'.the best of health'and spirits. But while this is a matter for sincere congratulation, what guarantee have our author's admirers against the recurrence_of conditions calculated to reduce his vitality by one-half? What would happen if one week's copy of the "Guide" should go astray in the mails? Worse still, fancy Mr. Bacheller lost in the depths of his favourite Adirondacks and by mischance deprived of his copy for two or three weeks at a stretch. 'Would the effect on his health be cumulative, or would it be only the first blow that counted? We shudder to think ■of such a contingency as a strike on the "Reader's Guide'."

It is a disconcerting topic that we fain would leave, but cannot. Anxious thoughts will come. There is, , for'instance, the! reflection that, besides the "Reader's Guide," -Mr. Bacholler's reading must .cover-a, pretty .lyide, field; We havo.-np doubt he '-likes: his Shakespeare and his; Milton.'; We'are".'sure 1 that he is'a loving student-df tlio.Bible." , The homely wisdom that falls from .the mouth of his simple characters suggests a fair acquaintance with the classic moralists, with Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, with Carlyle and Ruskm.v It.is not to bo Miv Bacheller could bo deprived of any .one of these books without , a corresponding decrease in his. general vitality. . Wo call , up .the', dread hypothesis "of Mr. Bachellor"s being deprived of all his reading tvt olio swoop, as, for instance, by a telegram from his publisher requesting him to catch a midnight train for New York. Our author's physical condition as he boards the train may perhaps bo best represented in tabular form; Book Missed. Loss of Vitality. Tho Reader's Guide ...... 50 per cent. The Bible 12 per cent. Shakespeare 10 per cent. Milton, Pope, Carlyle, Ruskiu : 8 per ceni. Emerson 10 per cent. Thoreau, Whitman, etc...'. 8 per cent. Our readers need only add up the col'umn of figures. for themselves to find out in what a pitiful state Mr. 'Bachellor \yill arrive to do business with his publisher. Under such circumstances, perhaps it is host to hope that the "Reader's Guide" is not essential to Mr. Bacheller's continued welfare as in his exuberant kindliness he has made. it out to be, but that our author has only yielded to the _ fast-spreading national habit of speaking about our likes and dislikes with a hurrah. We confess that we find it bard to accept

it in its universal manifestations. What does Mr. Lincoln Steffens mean bysajing'of a certain contemporary series of useful political articles, that "on my knees, if I could, I would beg the people of this country to read r's story?" Mr.. Steffens knows well enough that tho people of this country, whom he has served so well in bis capacity as militant journalist, would be very much surprised to see him in an attitude of genuflection, and would probably snicker, even as somo of them do at the mere expression of Mr. Steffens's melodramatic intentions. We are faco to face hero with an old subject —the emotionalism of the unemotional Anglo-Saxon. Is it true that when wo once let 'go of our traditional 'reserve we are in danger of slopping over Is it characteristic of our people that whenfather and son meet after long years of separation they shall content themselves with clasping hands, but that when the same lather's' endorsement is. requested for a new breakfast food ho shall-write. "Dear sirs: I have used Leguiniucsa for a year and can only say this: If your wife and children refuse to have Leguminosa in the house, le'ave your wife and children."

Now, emotionalism is, in very many ways, a desirablo and beautiful trait. But emotion, to be.tolerable, mustliave at least one of two qualities, sincerity and propriety. Frenchmen, as we generally believe, are apt to go ■ off at half cock over trifles;, but at■ least there is no denying the genuine nature of the psychic storm while it. lasts. The best emotionality h&3-bot-h sincerity and ntness: such is the spirit of a Civil War and a French' Revolution. 'Che worst thing imaginable is an inherently stolid person breaking out into a hurrah < ver an absurd and inadequate object.. The ■mail 'ooks awkward and fliould; feel awkward'; ;if. he . does' not,', it,is be.causo he is any'oxtreirelji- sophisticated person'instead jof -a highly , .'. Emotional one. ■ The author of the "Reflections of a.Bachelor" some years ago wrote, of a new book he was pleased with,, "when you cut the pages, they bleed." How a man of such high-powered susceptibility ever remained a bachelor after the age of twenty-one' is almost impossible to comprehend. ' ' .

Kindliness, optimism, the desire to say a.good word for .somebody or something the national inclination to "boost" and not to "knock" are admirable virtues. But the virtues must always keep a weather-eve open for the the ridiculous. For. instance, if it were John Keats or David Copnerfield instead of the "Bender's Guide" that Mr. Bacheller could only half .live without, v-e shnuM-feel much-better about it.— "New York-Post:" , ''''