BOOK CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13996, 31 August 1907, Page 7

BOOK CHAT.

A crusade against the cigarette in fiction and also against* all indulgence ia alcoholiolic limiors, is said to liave been started by the Frances E. Willard branch of' the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. And more than tin's: "not'-'content with tabooing, all novels in which the hero or heroine--smokes cigarette (why not cigars also, and pipes?) or drinks 'intoxicants, these■■-Jealous ladies have decided* to include in their condemnation ever)*, hero and heroine whose language savours of profanity: "It, is considered quite smart,", a leading member of this band of refoi-mens is quoted as saying, " for . the hero to rip out an oath; kit to me an oath is as bad as a murder." Phades of Dumas and-Fielding., what, a judgment! ".. Will nothing (exclaims Hie Chicago Dial) in (luce these kind.' ladies' to use a little discrimination—to make the punishment, more accurately fit the crime? •

The author of " Alice-for-sbort," Mr William srend De Mtfgau, who is also S? S*. author' of -Joecpb'

Vance," proves to be the son of no less a celebrity thaji Augustus Do Morgan, the mathematician. Educated at- University College, London, lie began to 6tudy art iii 1058, became a student in the Royal Academy a year later, practised arts and crafts till early in tlio present century, when he wrote the beginning ■ of " Joseph Vance," to see whether he had a turn for fiction. Re decided in the negative, but his wife found the manuscript, and persuaded him to finish it. The story is not autobiographical, as many have supposed, and its successor .is-'equally a work of imagination. De Morgan fiction now promises to outrival de Morgan pottery— the ware produced at the works erected by Mr De Morgan in the early seventies. The' prevailing note in " Alice-for-Short " (remarks the New York Outlook) is surely that of human kindliness. A gently humorous friendliness prevails as between author and reader, and in most cases also as between the characters of the story. This was largely what made "Joseph Vance" such a likable book; and we find hero in at least equal degree the same cheerful, semi-confidential flavour. The people of this story, moreover, sirovlv beam or bristle with individuality. The little waif Alicia. (Alice-for-Short) is deliberately made a girl counterpart, of Joseph, Vance in that she is the child of a drunken parent, helped on and loved by a big-hearted- young man and his sister,' just as Joseph was he'.ped on by a sw-eet-natured girl and her father. But- one notes this semblance in plot only as one would a coincidence in real life. Alice is positively real, and so was Joseph, and the resemblance, in their lives is a superficial one and of no importance. So with the other people of this delightful narrative. Mr De Morgan is not an imitator of Dickens, but he has certain tilings in common with Dickens, and one is that we, not, grudgingly but .cordially, forgive him traits that woudl dam/i utterly a lesser genius. One does not need to apologise, as some reviewers seem inclined to do, for liking "Alice-for-Short." It may violate., the traditional unities of art, but it contrives some way to have a wholeness of its own—and a wbolesomeness, too; it may' Tamblc, but it does not ■weary; it may not be "subtle" or "psychological" in the manner of Mr J;nnes_ or Mrs Wharton, but, in Mrs Browning's phrase., it, emphatically " shows a heart within, blood-tinctured, of a veined humanity."

Tlie Rev. Dr John Watson, of Liverpool, better' known by His nom-de-guerre of " lan Maelaren," left estate of the gross value of £57,709 6s Ud, of which the net personalty lias been sworn at £57,627 Is 2d. His will beam date January 17, 1899, and the testator left all his consumable stores and household and personal effects to his wife absolutely, stating: " But I declare that my copyright and all other rights and privileges in my published works and my unpublished manuscripts, and tlie right of publishing the same, shall not pass by this bequest, but shall form part of my residuary estate." Tlie residue of his property ho left to his wife for life, with remainder equally between his sons, John Watson, Francis Duncan Watson, Henry Trelss Watson, and Frederick William Watson, on attaining the age of 25 years. He further stated, with reference to his copyrights in his published or unpublished works, that: "My trustees shall have in their alvsolute discretion tlio fullest powers and rights of continuing tlie publication and sale of any of my said works and of publishing any of my unpublished manuscripts, and for that purpose to make 6uch arrangements with publishers »nd others as they may think fit." Are we deteriorating? (inquires the Daily Mail). This is cme of the- eternal questions of the day. ' As a contribution to ils elucidation wo should like to suggest a competition to one of the papers that offer such pleasures to their readers—MrFrowde has just published, in the excellent. TVorld's Classics, with a concise and clear introduction by Mi' Walter Jerrold, "A Now Spirit of the Age," by Richard Hengist Home, who used to" be known as " Orion Home," because of an epic called Orion that he published and sold for the price of one farthing. If thus, in 1813.. he anticipated modern cheap publishing in 1814, with the "New Spirit of the Acq" ho developed the idea of "Men of the Time" or of "Who's Who." It had been practically invented by Wiliam Hazlitt, who compiled a first "Spirit of the Age" 25 years before. "A New Spirit of the Age" contains about 40 biographies of distinguished men and women," mostlv men of letters. • " Who's Who " contains to-day about 20.000 autobiographies. Tlie task for competitors nii?ht be to winnow out from these 20,000 Hhe names of 10 men and women to parallel Home's two-score. Whom should we set against Charles Dickens. Landor, Marryat, the Karl of Shaftesbury, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Macaulav, Browning, Mrs Browning, •Mrs Shelley, or Thomas C'arlyle? Yet all these were alive in 1844! Well, "Who's Who" offers us its 20,000 to choose from. In "John Phil pot Curran" IDnblin: Sealy. Bryera, and Walker, Is) "R.W.W." furnishes a lucid and succinct account of the leading events in Curran's carcer. He has added nothing to current knowledge'of the grc-at Irish orator, but his biographv shows judgment, .and discrimination. Ireland is not likely to forget the debt she owes to Currnn. He remains the central figure in one of the most troublous epochs of Irish history. Himself a Protestant, he fouyht gallantly, though .unsuccessfully, for Catholic, emancipation? As an orator he was unrivalled in' a. nation of oTatore. and his voice was always' at the disposal of his country. Neither bribery nor intimidation could move him. '"There was never," wrote O'Connell, "so honest an Irishman. . Of all—the only uncorrupted and faithful one." Curran does notappear to liavo had muoh sympathy with the, movement of the United Irishmen, which terminated 60 fatally in the rebellion of '98. He trusted to constitutional means for a redress of Irish grievances, hut when the smouldering embers of disaffection had burst into'a (lame he defended the leaders of the movement with a forensic abgjty which surprised even his opponents. In private life he was one of the most companionable of men. H's love of convivality attracted him to that quaint sooiet.y founded by Lord Avonmoro in 1779, and known as "The Monks of the Screw." Curran (became Prior of the Order. ' His wit had a barbed edee. When Judge Robinson, who owed his position to a succession of worthless political .pamphlets, taunted Curran with the smallness of his library, the young advocate.replied: "I have prepared myself for this'high profession ra.ther by the study a few goods books than by the composition of a gnat many bad ones." A yet moro biting retort is quoted by the author of • this memoir:—"When the notorious Judge Tolor asked once at dinner : " lis tliat beef hting before you, Curran?" he laid himself open to tlw rejoinder: "Do you try it, my lord, Slid t hen it is sure to'be!"