YALE ALUMNI WHEKLY
ae
THE BOOK SHELF.
(Conducted by ALBERT LEE, "91.]
The story of Dr. Jameson’s raid into
the Transvaal Republic was pretty fully
told and retold in the newspapers at
the time of its occurence, and it has
been described again and again since
then in monthly and weekly publica-
tions on both sides of the sea; so that
it is not at all unfair to presume that
any one who follows the news, even
in the most casual way, must be fairly
familiar with the history of that
movement. Nevertheless it is pleasant
to have the thing summarized and
placed before you between covers, and —
this has been done by Mr. Richard
Harding Davis in “Dr. Jameson’s
Raiders,’’ (New York: Robert Howard
Russell). The author claims that he
has “sundry facts here collected and
set down for the first time,’ but they
are few and far between and not easily
discoverable. However,.it is not new
facts that the readers of Mr. Davis’s
pamphlet should desire. We all know
that he was not with Dr. Jameson
and that all he knows about the raid
he got from the newspapers and from
men who were with Jameson, so, at
best, his tale comes to us at second or
third hand. But. that again, is a mat-
ter. of minor importance. What we
welcome is the tale itself, told con-
nectedly and _ interestingly in Mr.
Davis’s pleasant manner and enlivened
bere and there ‘with occasional ex-
pressions of opinion with which we
may agree or disagree, without feeling
that we are showing any want of re-
spect or confidence in our writer, for
we know that he was no nearer ‘the
scene of action than we were.. It is
very enjoyable to be able in this man-
ner to put one’s self on an equality, so
to speak, with the author in - hand,
and especially so over a story of this
kind—a story which I think is the best
that the dreary world has offered us
for some two hundred years. As Mr.
Davis puts. its: “Dr... Jameson's: “act
was suited to the buccaneering days
of Sir Francis Drake. He tried to put
back the hand of time some hundred
and fifty years, but he only succeeded
in jarring the works for a few seconds,
and the hand swept him out of its
way and moved steadily on: «-Thesart:—y
‘selves almost wag.
of the romancer lies in giving veri-
similitude to his narrative, and the
greater the semblance to truth the
more enjoyment is there for the reader,
But here is a tale that may rank with
the wildest romance, and yet we all
know, aS we read along, that th
events actually occurred a little over
a year ago. It must have been Mr.
LDavis’s journalistic instinct that
recognized this as a “good story’’—
better probably than any he could
fabricate—and led him to put his name
to the telling of it. Whether he has
given us any new facts or not, is of
small moment; the pamphlet shouid
be read for the very fun to be had out
of the story. '
Stories about dogs are almost ail-
ways interestirg, unless the dog is a
very sad dog indeed. Miss Maria
Louise Pool ‘has collected all the
stories she knows about dogs in a lit-
tle volume named ‘Boss, and Other
Dogs,’ (New York: Stone & Kim-
ball), a little volume. with a binding
covered all over with dogs and a dedi-
cation addressed to a dead dog. The
whole combination, therefore, .
ceedingly doggy, and the tales them-
Here you may
read of every kind and condition of
hcw-wow, and although the book is
not of the kind that one finishes at a
sitting, it contains a number of good
yarns, of which the title story is ky
no means tne best. There is a quaint
turn of humor in “Concerning Laddie
and Others,’ but most of the stories
are pathetic. Why not write about
funny dogs? Is not there enough sad-
ness in the world as it is; the man or
woman who laughs makes a_ better
citizen and a better neighbor than the
cne who sighs and weeps.
A very well written book is ‘Life the
Accuser,”’- by E. EF. Brooke, (New
York: Wdward Arnold); © but:. the
author has drawn cut her discourse to —
a most unnecessary length and has
woven a number of minor issues into
her main plot that might better have —
been left out. The theme is mattis.
monial infidelity—the same old not
that“has -been»harped--on: for. the pe
is eX-.
five. or six years by those writers who
have not enough imagination to build
a plot on any other foundation. The
Ciscussion of the subject is not going
to help maters any, and so long as
Miss Brooke has certainly failed to
bring us any closer to any kind of a
solution of the question, we cannot
help but feel that she would have
Gone better had she spent her time in
writing upon some other topic. A wo-
man who has the command of lan--
guage possessed by Miss Brooke can
do more for literature by working
along another line.
we. ae
7
President Eliot on Athletics,
(From Annual Report to Harvard Overseers.)
The conduct of intercollegiate sports
during the year proved afresh that the
management of these sports at Har-
vard has been for some years unin-
telligent, and for that reason unsuc-
cessful. The evils of overtraining and
excessive exertion on the part of the
members of the prinicpal teams were
exhibited in a high degree.
A fundamental defect in. .the
athletic organization has been that
coaches of limited experience, who
may be either unobservant or obtuse,
can override on the spot the advice of
the trainer and physicians. The re-
sult is that the principal players of
football are almost all more or less in-
jured early in the season, and. are
then brought to the principal games in
a crippled or exhausted condition;
while the crew comes to the final race
less capable of endurance than they
vwere-a month earlier.
The remedies are the subordina-
tion of zoaches to an expert in train-
ing or to a medical adviser, and the
general adoption of more reasonable
views about all trainin g for athletic
sports. It must be perceived and ad-
mitted that training which goes be-
yond pleasurable strenuous exercise
is worse than useless, and that so-,
ealled sports which require a dull and
dreaded routine of hardship and suf-
fering in preparation for a few excit-
ing. crises are’ not worth what . they
cost. They pervert even courage and
- self sacrifice, because these high quali-
SE ties-are-exereised for ne adequate end.
ee enna
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UNION SQUARE
NEW YORK.
Professor Lounsbury’s Address.
Prof. Thomas R. Lounsbury recently
gave an informal talk before the
pupils of the Harry Hillman academy.
A press report condenses his speech as
fcllows:
The gist of the talk was that just as
the body is trained for athletic contests
so should the mind be trained for the
work of life. The student who starts
out to train for an athletic contest does
not prepare himself by spurts, but by
long weeks of daily application. "Tihe
same laws which govern the body govern
the mind. It is the steady work of every
day that assures success. The speaker
alluded to cramming for examination and
said this led to permanent impairment
of the memory. Knowledge cannot be
gaized in that way, but only by review-
ing and re-reviewing. Knowe'!dge iS a2
matter of growth. We may know when
we have mastered a problem in geometry
or memorized certain facts in history,
but we cannot tell when we have become
educated any more than the athlete can
tell when the became strong. In both
cases the process was one of slow and
imperceptible growth. Today is a king
in disguise. The man who is doing ‘his
daily work the best he can, will other
things being equal, show his superiority
over this fellows. Regular, systematic
training, whether of mind or body, will
develop strength and nothing else will.
Contents of Yale Courant.
‘The issue of the Yale Courant for the
first week in February has appeared with
the following table of contents: ‘‘Lay-
son,” by A. D. Baldwin, ’98; ‘“‘Recom-
pence,’’ (poem), by R. L. Munger ’97;
“The Island of Beria,’’ (concluded), by F.
Tilney, ’97; and the regular departments,
‘‘Bachelor’s Kingdom,” conducted by F.
Tilney, °97; “At the Round Table,’’ con-
ducted by R. L. Munger, ’97; and ‘‘Clip-
pings,’’ conducted by C. E. Thomas, ’97.
ALL THE WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE IN THIRTY VOLUMES.
This is indeed an era of unread books.
In this bustling, feverish age of ours
few are the favored individuals who can
lay claim to being ‘‘ well read.” The
vast majority of educated people finish
their ‘‘serious” reading just as they
begin to be able really to appreciate the
treasures bequeathed to us by the mas-
ter minds of the past.
The Need of Condensation.
There are many, however, who hon-
estly desire a large acquaintance with
the great authors and books of the
world, but the task is so enormous that
a lifetime would seem too short to ac-
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The realization of this fact has pro-
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Best Literature,” the simple yet daring
plan of which is to present, within the
limits of twenty thousand pages, the
cream of the literature of all ages. The
lines upon which this work has been
carried out are as broad as literature
itself. It offers the master productions
of authors of all times, irrespective of
the personal predilections or tastes of
any one compiler or group of compilers.
Although Charles Dudley Warner is the
editor-in-chief, with Hamilton Wright
Mabie, George H. Warner, and Lucia
Gilbert Runkle as associates, the assist-
ance has been sought of an advisory
council, consisting of one eminent
scholar from each of ten of our leading
universities, thus insuring the widest
possible breadth of literary appreciation.
A Few of the Famous Contributors.
The arrangement is not chronological,
but alphabetical, thus diversifying the
matter and avoiding the heavy monot-
ony of ancient or medizval literature.
There are also elaborate articles upon
all great authors, great books, and the
literatures of different ages, nations and
periods, and these articles have been
intrusted to over three hundred of the
foremost critics and writers of the
United States, Great Britain, France
and Germany, and signed by such
authorities as Dean Farrar, Andrew
Lang, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Dr. An-
drew D. White, W. D. Howells, Henry
James, and many other literary celeb-
rities. These articles greatly increase
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Some Special Features,
One must search long before finding
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reader may compare the oratory with
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utterances of our own Daniel Webster ;
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to be found, while all that is vulgar or
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most popular form of literature—fiction
—the choice of writers extends from
those of ancient Egypt to Bunner, Kip-
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likewise, the names of the greatest ex-
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folk-lore.
More than a Thousand Illustrations.
The work is embellished with more
than a thousand full-page and vignette
portraits of authors, which enable the
reader to obtain a perfect idea of the
appearance of nearly the entire list of
literary celebrities. The exceptional
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the edition to the most fastidious book-
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A Literary Education.
No one with any aspirations to liter-
ary culture or taste can afford to be
without this monumental compendium.
In a word, if one reads at all, it is in-
valuable. With the aid of this great
library which Mr. Warner and his able
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could otherwise be obtained by the in-
dustrious study of a lifetime. Although
this proposition may seem startling at
first, these thirty volumes really contain
a well-rounded literary education.
How to Secure this Great Work.
A limited number of sets is being dis-
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Library ; these sets are at present sup-
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price and on easy monthly payments.
Club No. 2, now forming, will close in
February, after which the price will be
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The introductory sets available will be
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Applications for special prices (and
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