Read Ebook: The Philistine: a periodical of protest (Vol. I No. 5 October 1895) by Various Taber Harry Persons Editor

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The Philistine A Periodical of Protest.

Printed Every Little While for The Society of The Philistines and Published by Them Monthly. Subscription, One Dollar Yearly Single Copies, 10 Cents. October, 1895.

The Bibelot for 1895, complete in the original wrappers, uncut, is now supplied on full paid subscriptions only, at 75 cents net.

On completion of Volume I in December the price will be .00 net in wrappers, and .50 net in covers. INVARIABLY POSTPAID.

Back Numbers are 10 cents each, subject to further advance as the edition decreases.

THOMAS B. MOSHER, Publisher, Portland, Maine.

To the Homes of Good Men and Great.

The publishers announce that Little Journeys will be issued monthly and that each number will treat of recent visits made by Mr. Elbert Hubbard to the homes and haunts of various eminent persons. The subjects for the first twelve numbers have been arranged as follows:

Published by G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,

AT THIS TIME THE PROPRIETORS OF THE ROYCROFT PRINTING SHOP, at East Aurora, New York, announce the publication about Christmas time of an exquisite edition of the JOURNAL OF KOHELETH, otherwise the Book of Ecclesiastes, reparagraphed.

With a bit of an introduction by Mr. Elbert Hubbard, whimsical, perhaps, but sincere, wherein the rich quality of the text is commended to those over thirty, and under: with explanations, always reverent, that may be useful.

Yes, do you send me a book for my birthday. Not a bargain book, bought from a haberdasher, but a beautiful book, a book to caress--peculiar, distinctive and individual: a book that hath first caught your eye and then pleased your fancy, written by an author with a tender whim--all right out of his heart. We will read it together in the gloaming, and when the gathering dusk doth blur the page we'll sit with hearts too full for speech and think it over.--DOROTHY WORDSWORTH TO COLERIDGE.

THE PHILISTINE.

Edited by H. P. TABER.

THE PHILISTINE is published monthly at a year, 10 cents a single copy. Subscriptions may be left with newsdealers or sent direct to the publishers. The trade supplied by the AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY and its branches. Foreign agencies, BRENTANO'S, 37 Avenue de l'Opera, Paris; G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 24 Bedford street, Strand, London.

Business communications should be addressed to THE PHILISTINE, East Aurora, New York. Matter intended for publication may be sent to the same address or to Box 6, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

THE PHILISTINE.

NO. 5. October, 1895. VOL. 1.

RHADAMANTHINA IVRA.

In thus reversing that order in criminality which has hitherto obtained in the assizes of criticism we are moved by the consideration among others: the writing of any book, good or bad, is a matter of concern to its author alone so long as it remains in manuscript. Its merits or demerits have alike no existence to the public; however shameless its morals, feeble its plot or intolerable its dullness these are all equally powerless for mischief so long as it has not been put into type and launched upon a much suffering, helpless world. Then its career of evil begins. For this the Publisher is solely responsible; he and he alone is able to remedy the abuses which have long been calling out to heaven for suppression, by setting up some sort of standard as to the minimum of those defects which shall bar any manuscript whatever from his favorable consideration. What this minimum ought to be we shall take pleasure in enlightening him from time to time in these pages.

It will be understood therefore that our column of Reviews exists, not to aid struggling authors or enterprising publishers to launch their craft upon the already crowded ocean of Literature, but as the Pillory where manifest culprits are exposed to the jibes of the crowd, to the end that others who are meditating like deeds may be warned by such penalty to desist. Nor need the idle stocks ever yawn in emptiness so long as upon his right hand and his left a man beholds such a richness of backs itching for the lash.

And since we have promised that instruction shall go hand in hand with castigation we will not close until we have pointed out for the future guidance of those who may wish to avoid one at least of the many by-paths of reprobation, that in any novel we regard the existence of page Four Hundred of readable type as confession on the part of both Publisher and Author that neither of them has yet learned the foremost and greatest of the arts of their trade--the art to blot.

A TRINITY OF OFFENDERS.

The book is freely illustrated, but the pictures have nothing to do with the persons and incidents of the story.

In my own mind I have always made a distinction between illustrious men, famous men and notorious men, but Mr. Lewis avers that in our day and generation such fine shades are all obliterated by the bright iridescence of the standard dollar. An author, he says, succeeds only as his books sell, and if his name is on the lips of rumor, women especially will besiege the stores and demand his tomes.

Now we must admit that the fine sophistry that Mr. Lewis brings to bear is interesting, but is it Art? Further than this, does it fill a vacuum in the great economic cosmos of Letters? I do not think that it does, and therefore do not hesitate to flatly give it as my opinion that while the author is sincere, the publishers are moved by no other motive than to secure the money of ambitious young men and women, having first victimized Mr. Lewis for the cost of plates and the first edition. That the work, like all skillful sophistry, is inspiring to the young, there is no doubt, but the final effect of the book on society I believe will be damaging, and therefore I cannot conscientiously recommend it.

A JOURNALISTIC NOTE.

As long-time admirers of these admirable Sabbath sermocinations THE PHILISTINE welcomes this innovation. And we think we know the wherefore of it. The Rev. Mr. Hepworth's name attached to an article denunciatory of sin will have a tendency to strike terror into the heart of Beelzebub, and it was for this reason, no doubt, that Mr. Bennett directed Brother Hepworth to take the field in person.

ROBERT W. CRISWELL.

"Speak no evil of the dead:" Standard story that of Cain; Sence his vitle spark has fled, Dast a soul of him complain? Did his brother mortle harm, Lied about the thing, to God; His'n the fust abandoned farm; Skipped to Canady or Nod. Like some latter-day ex-gent, Sorry--for his punishment.

Judas did a traitor's deed, 'Scuse, I beg, the mention here, Bein' his life has gone to seed , Of him may no ill be sayed, Though this miscreant for gain The one perfec' Man betrayed To be crucified and slain: Went and killed hisself withal-- After readin' Ingersoll.

Stay! That max'm mayn't be true; In old heathen Rome 'twas bred; Livin' men should have in view What's the status of 'em dead. Conduc' stands--time don't forswear't-- Even to a lord's disgrace, When with Cain and Judas Scairt He has went ter his own place. Cains and Judases, don't guess Death will make you a success.

L. S. GOODWIN.

SIDE TALKS WITH THE PHILISTINES: BEING SUNDRY BITS OF WISDOM WHICH HAVE BEEN HERETOFORE SECRETED, AND ARE NOW SET FORTH IN PRINT.

If THE PHILISTINE disturbs placid self-complacency anywhere, as one or two of its critics intimate, it is sorry, for there is no such happiness attainable anywhere this side of Nirvana as its serene contemplation of the charms of self which Narcissus and some more modern fakirs exemplify; and the magazine of to-day is its gospel. But so good a Philistine as Horace Greeley is my authority for believing that the still pool in which self-love sees the reflection it feeds upon is a breeder of death, not life, and effervescence is the sworn foe of the morbid. Not the things we do that we ought not to do, but the things left undone that we ought to do are the primary count leading up to the confession that "there is no health in us." The other follows. Stagnation and the miasma of self-consciousness co-exist and are not to be separated. Wherefore, fellow-egoists, let us get a gait on.

Mention of Moses recalls the perhaps unique fact that a priest of the most austere of churches rolled off a tongue, musical with brogue, in his newspaper sanctum--for he is a priest of the pen too--this romantic version of the basket story which I have never seen anywhere but in his paper--then in the process of make-up:

On Egypt's banks, convaynient to the Nile, Great Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe in shtyle, And shtooping down, as everyone supposes To scratch her shin, she shpied the infant Moses: Then turning to her maids, in accents wild Cried: "Tare an' 'ouns, girls, which o' yes owns the chyild?"

The following advertisement is clipped from one of the October magazines:

MANUSCRIPT RECORD.

A handsome method for keeping track of manuscripts. Contains space for recording one hundred manuscripts, showing title, where sent, number of words, when returned or accepted, when paid for and amount, when published, postage account, etc. Each page a complete history of one manuscript, from the time it is first sent out, until published and paid for. Price, .25. Sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price.

THE BOHEMIAN PUBLISHING CO., Pike Building, Cincinnati, O.

I have sent for this book, as it is my intention to write one hundred manuscripts, and I desire to keep track of them until published and paid for. I have therefore ordered the book bound in cast iron.

Among the revivals which occur now and then in everything is a discussion of an old "science" of reading characters by the hair. I don't know much about it, but from what I have heard I believe a pair of old she-bears set back the theory for a few centuries when they chewed up the small boys that poked fun at Elijah. The old man would be rated as having no character, according to these "readers," for he had no hair, but Providence and the early Ursulines vindicated him.

"All the writers who are at present the incontestable masters of romance and journalism will transport, during the period of the Exposition, their working rooms to a section specially provided for them.

"The public will see them there as they really are at home, surrounded with their furniture, their books, all their accessories, and in working costume.

"From such an hour to such an hour--as at home--they will work on their articles, poems, or novels.

"That would draw a crowd; that would be truly interesting!

"They could be looked at through a sheet of glass or a lattice--silently, so as not to interfere with their inspiration.

"The administration could even put up signs like this:

PLEASE THROW NOTHING TO THE POETS,

or--more particularly for the pretty visitors:

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