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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (May 9, 1900)
318 YALE, ALUMNI MEER L SS 1+Boys and Men A STORY of LIFE at YALE By RICHARD HOLBROOK (Yale ’93) Second edition, 12mo, $1.25 A FEW NOTICES. © “The strength of ‘Boys and Men’ is largely in its thoughtful representation of the development of boyhood into manhood. . . . Nobody will think the book absolutely correct, for the subject is one on which no two men absolutely agree; but nobody will think it very far wrong. Moreover, nobody will regret reading it, and nobody, for a long time at least, will do the thing better.’—Yale Alumni Weekly. “One finds in Mr. Holbrook’s story something of that rich exuberance of college life which is the envy of those who have never experienced it, and which forever lingers in the memory of those who The chief interest lies ina wholesome enthu- siasm that pervades the story, and in the bits of have. clever dialogue that are truly typical.” —Chicago Tribune. “¢Boys and Men,’ is a remarkable book in many In the first place, although a Yale book, Secondly, it has a very Thirdly, it is the peer of any college . Inevitably, a college story must rely for attractiveness upon the author’s skill at picturing characters and weaving together some respects. it is not bound in blue. clumsy title. story ever written. . . interesting scenes. In this the author of ‘ Boys and Men’ has succeeded splendidly. His pictures of college life are intensely vivid, and the romantic connection between the two heroes and the exquisite heroine, Margaret Glenn, is very cleverly, even dramatically, wrought. It isa pleasure to repeat that ‘Boys and Men’ is a college story that will be hard to surpass.’”’—Boston Journal. CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, Publishers Nos. 153, 155 & 157 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK This-is One of Our Latest. It is one of 60 styles illustrated and described in our catalogue ‘' B”’ for 1900, of * Rolling and Carrying Chairs. The case of invalidism doesn’t exist for which we cannot furnish a suitable chair. We also make the best types as well as the largest variety to be found, of Reclining Chairs and Adjustable ‘Couches FoR SICK FOLKS, WELL FOLKS AND LAZY FOLKS. All of which are illustrated and described in our catalogue C. In writing for information please particularize. GEO. F. SARGENT COMPANY, 289y Fourth Avenue, next 23d Street, NEW YORK. No. 179. ‘‘The most unique Photographic Studio in the world.” | Photo grapher, Has removed to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Fifteenth Floor. Take Elevator 34th St. side. An Artistic Novelty : Sepia Effects on Vellum VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME. A SHARP POINT can be kept on Dixon’s American Graphite Pencils without breaking off every minute. They come in 11 degrees of hardness and are unequalled for uniformity of grading. Can be bought at the Yale Co-op. and all stationers. JOSEPH DIXON CRUCIBLE C0., Jersey City, N. F oS See to a pipe- fal? rs One rea- son why Old Eng- lish Curve Cut pipe tobacco Is SO pop- phillies lar, The curved tin box that fits any pocket is another reason. No other pipe tobacco has ever made as many friends in so short a time. “It disappoints no one.” A trial box will be sent to any one anywhere on receipt of ten cents in stamps. Address Old English Department, The American Tobacco Co., 111 Fifth Avenue, New York City. All dealers sell it. ~Bennie’s father, YALE LITERATURE. [Continued from page 317.] one Sabre Calhoun, when they lay out nights on sand or in undergrowth and watched the pole star hopefully.” This is at the end of a good story told in a very choice way by Arthur Colton (Yale ’90), who is doing some good literary work. His readers know his style, which is very finished, simple and suggestive; full of meaning and feel- ing, without saying too much about it. A little allegory called “The Elder’s Seat,” published a year ago in the Atlantic Monthly, is as good an expres- sion of it as could be given He has HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, YALE ’56. Who will succeed himself as a member of the Yale Corporation. written some verse on the same order. The story we quoted from is called “Bennie Ben Cree, being the Story of his Adventure to Southward in the Year ’*62.” It is published by the Doubleday & McClure Company. Mr. Colton, as one of his friends has put it, for the first time in his stories, has put action into his writings. He does not let up for a line. In fact it is a good adventure story, well told, not too bald. As to the plot, it is well to read it. Here is the last scene of one of the acts (Dan Morgan, being a hap- py, fat man and formerly a friend of who had had much fun out of Bennie, and had often said that Bennie would be the death of him) :—‘“But the strangest sight to me was the six drowned men, lying in the wash, and among them, with his lips pursed out, as if amused and smiling up into the wild sky, that singular man, Dan Morgan. For he looked as if he liked it well enough, lying dead in the wash of the sea, and thought it odd at any rate, that Bennie Cree should have been the death of him.” Bennie Ben Cree is frankly Steven- sonian, but Stevensonian with a dif- ference. That “Wizard of the North” and of the Pacific Islands whom we are fond of charging with the burden of the modern romantic school in fiction, might -well demur. He might well appeal from the awkward prosing of the historical novel now in vogue, from the skin-deep medizvalism of Hope, Wey-: man and that ilk, to the jaunty and vigorous narrative, the thrust and parry, the thrill and recoil of a story like Bennie Ben Cree It is not too much to say that this little book might re- mind him of the very way he clutches. you by the throat, to use his own phrase, in “Kidnapped,’ “The Master of Bal- lantine,’ “A Pavilion on the Links” or “St. Ives.” , We quote again: “There is an odd thing about that flag when you meet it on the high seas and the wind is blowing hard, namely, that of all flags I know, it is the most lively, when the wind blows, the most eager and keen, with the stripes flowing and darting like snakes, and the stars seeming to dance with the joy of excitement, so that there is none better to go into battle or come down the street when the fifes are piping ahead. But if you want some- thing to signify peace and quiet, you would be as well off without such brist- ling stars and fewer stripes, for the stars will leap and the stripes show their energy whenever the wind blows.” But Bennie Ben Cree, though strenu- ous like Stevenson, is exquisite like Hawthorne. The picture of the death chamber, with the face upon the pillow and the white window curtain blowing in, never could have come from the impassioned, restless spirit who gave us those tales of hair-breadth ’scapes, of danger and cool nerves; and if we are to match it we must search Hawthorne narrowly for those most delicate and sequestered passages which an un- observant eye skims over. After all comparison there remains the individual value, but faintly sug- gested in these critical terms. It is a fair promise of a new figure in our literature, of a mind of unusual fibre, which seems at last to be mastering its modes of expression. ; The “Yale Record.” The Yale Record has- always been considered good, even by the critics. It is not well to compare it with simi- lar ptblications in other Universities, but Yale has never felt any occasion to regret any such comparison. Of course, it varies a great deal. But the general tone is healthy. The record of the last ten years, since the Record was reor- ganized and materially advanced, has shown some excellent names like Crosby, Atterbury and Barber, while every Board has had its good men. Nineteen Hundred and One promises at least to keep the standard well up. When in good order, as it seems to be now, the Record reflects a side of college life which is delicious. The paper circulates not a little among graduates and they would doubtless take it more if it were more often brought to their attention. We are pleased to add, in behalf of this cheerful contemporary, that a communi- cation to the Business Manager, Yale Record, New Haven, will receive the best attention, and an enclosure of two and forty hundredths dollars will bring definite and pleasant results, every other week the year round. The Scientific Monthly. The Scientific Monthly is seeking to still further strengthen its hold upon its constituency, both undergraduate and graduate. It keeps within the plan of its purpose, the printing of scientific ar- ticles for its main contents, with com- ment and chronicle of scientific matters and scientific men for its departments. It intends to hold up a high standard of contributions and to make itself a valuable aid to men in scientific work, as well as a means of keeping men in close connection with the School. To this end it seeks the cooperation of an increased number of graduates, whom it feels it can interest and who, in turn, can help to make the Monthly stronger. The new Board has taken hold with the new number. The contents of the latter include an article on “Forests and For- estry in the United States,” by Stuart Hotchkiss; “Solar Eclipses,’ by R. M. Chamberlin; “The Effects of Sugar on Muscular Activity,” by W. T. Hart- mann, and a paper on “Explosives,” by G. H. Cressler. To College Writers. This good word is given to college writers in the April Yale Lit.: “If one’s creation be not a part of oneself, it can have no artistic value whatsoever. It is simply a meaningless set of colors or chords or words. This element of personal feeling is almost everywhere lacking in our college art; and it is this personal element which our writers must cultivate. In their stories, they must themselves experience the feelings of their characters: they must themselves be affected by the phase of life they seek to represent. And in the same way, in their essays they must not merely give a correct account of their subject’s life and a pains-taking synposis of his work. For this is only the inartistic veracity of the photo- grapher or the encyclopedist. Each es- say must reflect the purely personal and deeper meaning which his subject has for the writer. For it must be remem- bered that no one, save the pedagogue, reads a veritable work of literary art for the facts it contains. That would be lke going to an art gallery where “The Angelus’ was exhibited for the purpose of finding out what a French peasant looked like. Nay, surely, there can be none of us so blind as not to real- ize that a book, just like a painting or a piece of music, is naught but a key to unloose the bonds with which the neces- sary commonplaces of daily life have re- pressed our inner and higher selves.”
