SNAP SHOTS
Middleton, George
Snap Shots Books, Art,. Drama By George Middleton TWO qualities stand out in any thing which * Arthur Ruhl writes: a critical sense and a keen repertorial faculty. Those who read the vivid account...
...Norman Hapgood in the preface to Other People's money, by Louis Brandeis (Stokes) * * * THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH birthday of John Bur-roughs is marked in his career as a writer by the third printing of his latest book, The Summit of the Tears...
...Ruhl has too much humor to over-accentuate the importance of much which the modern theatre has to offer...
...By way of variety there is also, recorded a clever interview with Isadora Duncan, which.adds tc the general good nature of the volume, The total impression of the book is that it is written by a keen observer who knows his stage and its practical aspects...
...Seribners) is, in fact, a delightful series of papers, mainly impressions of the passing show, touched with charm ancj fantasy which none the less give a very accurate picture of many phases of the theatre usually unknown the casual observer...
...This gives the book a casual quality which, makes it good reading in stray hours...
...Much of Mr...
...There' is nothing over-pretentious in these chapters: Mr...
...Ruhl has a kindly word to say about the American dramatist, though he realizes all the handicaps under which he works...
...Supplement this with the visits he makes to the Bowery Halls and the impression is complete...
...Ruhl exercises his lighter moods upon the stage and many theatrical conditions.....Beco.nd Nights...
...Ruhl does speak against much of the sentimentalization to which the American audiences have been subjected...
...Dublin has invited him to assist in the preparation of a civic exhibition which will last during the summer and fall, and to work on a plan for the general "improvement of the city with reference to housing, parks, playgrounds,- schools, etc...
...Now comes the great French philosopher, Henri Bergson, with a discourse delivered before the Institut psychologique entitled Dreams, An Explanation of the Mechanism of Dreaming to be published in book form immediately by B. W. Huebsch...
...The story of our time is the story of industry...
...Ruhl has a nicety of expression which adds a piquancy to whatever lie chooses to light- upon...
...Edwin E. Slosson, supplies an introduction that reaily introduces...
...Bergson believes that by means of dreams we delve into the unconscious substratum of our mentality for the memories which are there stored...
...No scholar of the future will be able to describe our era with authority unless he comprehends that expansion and concentration which followed the harnessing of steam and electricity, the great uses of the change and the great successes...
...Perhaps, the first dream book was hewn from Babylonian rock and dream books have been selling steadily ever since...
...that these memories are living and purposeful and gain consciousness when the opportunity offers...
...In the new book which is before me Mr...
...The little volume is the first book of Bergson to be printed in English since the author, was elected to the, French Academy...
...Ruhl is now with the fleet in Mexican waters sending back to his paper and G'otM0's other stories of a less horrible nature—but the war has not eventuated as yet, so perhaps he may witness other scenes ,to test his., repertorial skill...
...If at times it seems a trifle chaotic in structure one most recall it is a collection of essays gathered over a period of time...
...Brandeis' series of articles on ^he money trust was running in Harper's Weekly, many-inquiries came about publication in more accessible permanent form...
...And we need a real live audience if the theatre- is- to escape the present depression in which it finds itself after one of the worst seasons it has ever known—as barren in good plays as it has been in financial profits...
...Nolen's experience is summed up in his book Replanning Small Cities...
...It is not impossible to interpret one's familiar dreams and to discover their causes and significance after reading "Dreams...
...Belasco comes under his consideration but the author does not deal as harshly with his stage management as does Walter Eaton...
...The translator...
...Here was the clearest and most profound treatment ever published on that part of our business development which, as President Wilson and other wise men have said, has come to constitute the greatest of our problems...
...Yet his essays show a wide range of contact and they are stimulating in their quaint way...
...Incidentally, Mr...
...Huebsch,), practically the only book of its kind dealing with the American situation...
...Those who read the vivid account which he wrote for the New York Tribune, of the electrocution of the four gunmen at Sing Sing, will recall the social criticism which backed his sharply outlined' description of the event itself...
...Of course he discusses plays and actors, revealing an intimate understanding of the art expressed in each...
...The discussion of dreams by thinking people has doubtless been stimulated by the promulgation of Freud's theories more than by anything else...
...He says that our memories are packed away under pressure like steam, in a boiler and that the dream is their escape valve...
...Indeed this.unpretentious volume with that of Clayton Hamilton's Theory of the Theatre, recently reviewed in this column, will do much towards stimulating an interest in the theatre...
...Nolen consented to sail this spring for a first consultation, which was necessarily brief, as his engagements required him to be in California in April...
...For example, if you really want a lively picture of a phase of theatredom which is rapidly passing under the pressure of the cheap motion picture craze, read his pages in which he, de* scribes the "Ten-Twenty-Thirty...
...If you want something more elevated there are long analyses of Novelli and Maude Adams...
...In fact, jit'was the best account which any paper ran Tqf ¦ that grewsome scene still permitted by our civilization...
...The inquiries meant that the attentive publie recognized that here was a contribution to history...
...WHEN PHAROAH sent for Joseph he acted on an impulse that has animated people throughout the ages...
...No historian of the future, in my opinion, will find among our temporary documents so masterful an analysis of why concentration went astray...
...Literary Notes RECOGNITION of his success as a city planner has come to John Nolen from over the seas...
...WHILE Mr...
...Almost everything of Bergson's hitherto published in English has appealed to a rather limited audience in spite of a popularity comparable in our day only to that of James, but it is expected that this new book, because of its subject, will serve to present him to an entirely new group of readers...
...Even without such urgence through the mail, however, it would have been clear that these articles inevitably constituted a book, since they embodied an analysis and a narrative by that mind which, on the great industrial movements of our era, is the most expert in- the United- States...
...It was at the urgent request of Lady Aberdeen, who is at the head of the Dublin movement, that Mr...
Vol. 6 • May 1914 • No. 22
