THE WRITER'S WAY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14715, 24 December 1909, Page 13

THE WRITER'S WAY.

Israel Qumdo, author of " Mcnschenswee," translated into English and just published mid Mie title "Xbo Toil of Men, is to-day the wading critic on the Handelsbiad in Amsterdam. The present novel is the first of his to be translated into English, although his two others have had°a somewhat sensational reception in Holland. Hall O'ne recently took the part of the Governor-General in a performance of the play based on his novel " The Prodigal Son," which was given for two nights at Douglas, Jfelo of Man. His son, Derwent Hall Came, took the title role. The actor who was assigned to the part of tho Governor-General was suddenly taken ill, am' 'he elder Hall Caine stepped into tho breach thus mado and "read" the lines. Mr Jack London who by sounding the call of 'he wild won the ear of the public —tho bourgeois public, lie calls it,—and has since posed as a Socialist and inflicted upon a weary world a deal of very,crude '"revolutionary" talk along with'some very stirring scraps taken out of elemental htnm- life, has undertaken id his latest story, "Martin Eden," to write what it may bo pvw', is a sort of fancy autobiographical sketch. The story purports to trace the making of a. great literary artist out of a common sailor in the co'urso of ai few years of steady grinding and desperate striving. Henry W. Kcvinson, whom Mr Massiiigham, n-fra talking with him half a minute, chose to represent' the London Chronicle in the Greek War of 1897, and who lias since managed to be a part oi various interesting campaigns, and to luive a band in all manner of efforts in behalf of the under dog, has,- according to the Spectator, absorbed Aeschylus into his system, but is a born rebel, as Mr Kipling is a born Imperialist, and further, ho calmly assumes ethical superiority. Filially,, ho himself says that ho has been "most constant to the big, coarse, humorists, men like Aristophanes, Rabelais, and Falstaff . . . and closest to (his) heart, most intimate, in every gleam and shadow of love and hatred, and m every phase of the war for freedom, Heine whispero and sings,' Heine, after tho other three!' " Mr Aylmci Maude; tho completion of whoso "Life of Tolstoy" will be published early next year by Messrs Constable, is now in Russia, visiting Count Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. The Coun tcss Tolstoy takes great, interest in the "Life," and is reading it very carefully before publication, to ensure its accuracy. Sho writes that the volume already" issued is "very well written." The Countess has been her husband's constant companion for 47 years, and besides safe guarding his health and physical welfare, lias done an iromer-.se amount of work in •.opying bin MSS. and reading the proofs of the various editions of his works. The result of her co-operation should add greatly to tho authority of Mr Maude's work, the uublislicd first volume of which has already aroused much interest. According to the London Law Times, George Bernard Shaw's play, "The Show-iiig-up of Blanco Posnct, which was produced iri Dublin, after being refused a license by the.censor in London, is Teally n study in jurisprudence. It says in part: "The sceno is laid in the 'Town Hall' of a Western town in the United States, and the incidents centre around the trial of Blanco Posnet for the theft of tt horso —the most heinous crime, in the eyes of the community, of which a man could be guilty. The ' trial' is conducted by the sheriff, who is assisted by a jury of 1? lynchers, and a length of rope with a. noose at the end of it has a prominent place in tho proceedings. The play presents an interesting picture of the administration of justico by a wholly uncivilised community, which possesses the vaguest ideas concerning criminal procedure and the law of evidence. Mr "Shaw shows up with infinite subtlety the crude beginnings of our modern system of criminal law and procedure, with all those checks and safeguards which thoughtless persons are so fond of decrying. f| author's representation, of ' rough justice ' or ' the unwritten law' in action is instructive, though not alluring. The sheriff, with sarcastic reference to the system of law that he is admini4erms. declares that 'it would be more seemly to have a witness.' The prisoner chailpimes the i and ho is called jipon to give his reasons. ' I challenge it on the general ftroupd that it is a rotten jury.' The prisoner then is told that if he does not like the jury he ' should have stolon a horse in some other town,' and then the trial proceeds, Th l, whole play involves a compliment to modern law and the methods of lawyers that perhaps Mr Shaw did not intend."