David Gray was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1870. He has done editorial work on various papers, and has written a large number of interesting “horse stories” collected in such books as Gallops I, Gallops II, and Mr. Carteret and Others. In 1899 Mr. Gray entered the legal profession.
Doubting Thomas. A reference to the Bible story of St. Thomas, who at first doubted the resurrection of Jesus. See John: 20: 25.
“Hands.” Much of the skill in riding high-spirited horses depends upon the use of the hands in holding the reins.
MY HUSBAND’S BOOK
By JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE
Sometimes the short story is used as an effective means of satire of a type resembling that employed by Addison in The Spectator Papers. Satire can be given in so few words, and in the very speech and actions of the persons satirized, that it is well adapted as material for the short story. It should be the aim of all satirical short stones of the milder sort to follow Addison’s rule, and point out little follies rather than great wickednesses, and to aim at a thousand people rather than at one.
My Husband’s Book is an admirable example of ideal satire of the lighter type. The husband is typical—of whom?—of every one who puts off until tomorrow what he should do to-day. The wife is presented whimsically as altogether adoring, but as somewhat persistently and mischievously suspicious. At no time does the husband become aware of his real defect of character, nor the wife lose all her loving faith. Kindly satire like this is playful in nature, the sort to be expected from the author of Peter Pan. We laugh good-naturedly at the husband—and see ourselves in him!
Sir James Matthew Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, in 1860. His delightfully romantic Auld Licht Idylls, A Window in Thrums, and especially The Little Minister, made him known to all the English-speaking world. His remarkably original and fanciful plays, Quality Street, Peter Pan, What Every Woman Knows, and numerous other dramatic works have added to his already great reputation. He is one of the leading English writers of the present time.
WAR
By JACK LONDON
The short story often rises beyond the light and the commonplace to act as a stern critic of world conditions. With vivid, realistic touches it points at reality. By focussing every light upon a single human figure who compellingly commands sympathy it arouses in us a sense of kinship with all who suffer. Short stories of this type have teaching force that is all powerful.
War is such a story. Although little more than a vivid sketch it presents the brutality of war in all its horror,—not by picturing the slaughter of thousands, but by showing a boy,—shrinking, eager to perform his full duty, loving life, fearing death, stopping to gather apples in a boyish way,—a boy whose instinctive and noble hesitation to kill rebounds on himself, as if in irony, and causes his own death. In a certain sense, the boy with his kindly manhood and generous motives represents the American spirit. The opposite type of spirit, the love of war for war’s sake, brutality for the sake of brutality, is shown in the boy’s enemies,—harsh foreigners who hang men to trees, who shoot at the boy as at a target, and laugh at his death. The story individualizes war, and thereby gives emphasis to its horror. Such a story demands on the part of the author a heartfelt interest in his theme, an intense love of life, and the ability to write in realistic style.