Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1910 — BITS FOR BOOKWORMS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BITS FOR BOOKWORMS

The last of the three books by Marlon Crawford which were left unpublished at. the time of their author’s death is called “The Undesirable Governess.” It is described as “a story that could only be written by one who is thoroughly familiar with English life and English traits,” and of a quite different character from the novels which Mr. Crawford had previously written. Rider Haggard Is just now engaged upon two books that have to do with the experiences in love and war. In youth and early middle life, of a certain late Mr. Allan Quatermain, as related in MSB of his that have been discovered recently. .Mr. Haggard has ready “Morning Star,” a romance of ancient Egypt that deals with the love story and strange adventures of one of that country’s queens. This book will be followed by “Queen Sheba’s Ring,” at present appearing serially in an English magazine. Gertrude Atherton’s new story, “Tower of Ivory,” is concerned with a young Englishman of good family, much ability and a rather indolent temperament, who marries a beautiful American girl and is at the same time drawn almost irresistibly by the fascination of a great prima donna. Mrs. Atherton presents in her story a view of Munich that will be entirely new to the thousands of American and English who have visited the city only as passing tourists. She has lived much in Munich and her knowledge of the city is revealed in all that she ~ writes of it. With London she is, of course, thoroughly familiar, and her skill in providing a shifting background with a great variety of characters from different nations should give her new story distinction and interest. ‘T’he Education of the Child,” which orginally appeared as a chapter in Ellen Key’s “Century of the Child,” has just been published in a separata volume. Not leaving the child in peace is, according to the author, the greatest evil of the present day. A grown man would become insane if joking Titans treated him for a single day as a child is treated for a year. A child should never be pushed into notice, never compelled to endure caresses, never overwhelmed with kisses, which ordinarily torment him and are often the cause of sexual hyperthesia. Instead of beating a crying child one should isolate him, for if the reason for such Isolation is explained to him in the child’s mind a basis is laid for the experience that one .must be alone when one makes oneself unpleasant to other people. Jean Aicard, who wrote that droll story of Provence, “The Diverting Adventures of Maurin,” has recently been elected a member of the French Academy. An anecdote is being told of his first visit as an Academician to President Fallieres. The President received M. Aicard and the Academician who accompanied him in a drawing room the temperature of which was little above freezing. The two visitors being dressed in their Academy uniforms were exceedingly uncomfortable,but the President did not order the well laid fire lighted in the grate. At last M. Aicard edged over to the mantelpiece, and striking a match said to the President, “You will allow me?” The President hastily arose, thus signifying that the Interview was at an end. M. Alcard’s adventure may be included in a new book in which Maurin will make a wonderful story out of a reception of a new Academician by a President of France.