In February 1912, the Manchu Dynasty, rulers of imperial China since 1644, collapsed and was replaced by the fledgling Republic of China. Watching with great interest from Chicago was Lyon Sharman, an American woman who grew up in Hangzhou, 100 miles southwest of Shanghai. In her dedication to Bamboo, Tales of the Orient-Born, which Paul Elder published in 1914, Lyon clearly approves of the change in government:
If one might presume to dedicate so slight a book to a great country, this would be dedicated to China—the land of the author’s earliest recollection and of abiding sentiment, a nation whose present renaissance commands the admiration and solicitude of one who was born to lover her.
Title page of “Bamboo”
The stories in Bamboo are intended for young readers. The characters reflect Sharman’s own experience: Chinese growing up in China, Americans growing up in China, “American” teenagers newly returned to the States who feel like foreigners. The first story, “A Little Daughter of the Gospel,” is clearly autobiographical.
Lyon Sharman (14 Sep 1872–21 Jul 1957) was born Abbie Mary Lyon in Hangzhou, China, the daughter of American missionaries. While a teenager the family returned to the United States, where she attended high school and earned a BA from the University of Wooster in Ohio. She attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, intending to join her father as a missionary, but met and married Henry Burton Sharman (1865-1953). While working towards her Ph.D. in literature from the University of Chicago, Abbie wrote book reviews for the Chicago Evening Post under the byline “Lyon Sharman.” She later branched out into fiction, poetry, biography and drama. Abbie and Henry spent three years in China while he taught at Peking University; she continued to write. They retired to southern California in the early 1930s and lived there for the rest of their lives.
Three ounces are necessary, first of Patience, then of Repose & Peace; of Conscience a pound entire is needful; of Pastimes of all sorts, too, should be gathered as much as the hand can hold; Of Pleasant Memory & of Hope three good drachms there must be at least. But they should moistened be with a liquor made from True Pleasures which rejoice the heart. Then of Love’s Magic Drops, a few—but use them sparingly, for they may bring a flame which naught but tears can drown. Grind the whole and mix therewith of Merriment, an ounce to even. Yet this may not bring happiness except in your Orisons you lift your voice to Him who holds the gift of health.
Title page of “Recipe For a Happy Life”
These few words on page 1 of Recipe For a Happy Life (1911) are in fact the only words by Margaret in the entire book. The rest of the text consists of quotations compiled by Marie West King along the themes (italicized above) in Margaret’s recipe.
Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), also known as Marguerite of Angoulême, was a French noblewoman, Queen of the small Kingdom of Navarre by her marriage to Henry II of Navarre. Margaret’s brother Francis I was later King of France, and her grandson Henry IV was the first in the long line of Bourbon kings of France.
Margaret became the most influential woman in France during her lifetime when her brother Francis I ascended to the French throne in 1515. Her salon, known as the “New Parnassus,” became famous internationally. She wrote many poems and plays. Her most notable works are a classic collection of short stories, the Heptameron, and a remarkably intense (and very controversial) religious poem, Miroir de l’âme pécheresse (Mirror of the Sinful Soul).
Frontispiece of “Recipe For a Happy Life.” A reproduction of a crayon drawing by François Clouet.
There is evidence that Margaret had some influence in England. A letter to her from English Queen Anne Boleyn survives, and in 1545, twelve-year-old princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I) translated Margaret’s Miroir into English and gave it as a gift to her stepmother Catherine Parr (sixth wife of Henry VIII).
Page 1 of “Recipe For a Happy Life,” the only part of the book actually written by Margaret
Margaret of Navarre is not to be confused with the medieval Margaret of Navarre, Queen of Sicily (ca 1128-1183), a Spanish noblewoman who lived 350 years earlier.
I have been able to find no further information on the compiler, Miss Marie West King. This is her only association with a Paul Elder publication.
Page 2 of “Recipe For a Happy Life”
Cover of “Recipe For a Happy Life,” orange version with silver textCover of “Recipe For a Happy Life,” yellow version with red text
What you bring away with you from a tour of Europe depends largely upon your reading. If through great writers you know intimately the history, art and architecture of a country, you will find that your travels serve mainly to stamp indelibly upon the memory many of the impressions formed from the books you have read. … Americans are too apt to neglect this reading, which forms a vital part of the education of the European. … Hence they lose that perfect blending of romance and reality, as one does who listens to a great opera of which he knows neither the words nor the story.
In 1912, San Francisco Chronicle sent critic George Hamlin Fitch (1852-1925) on a seven-month trip around the world, from which he cabled daily dispatches for publication in the newspaper. After his return, Fitch distilled his stories into two books: The Critic in the Orient (featured last time), and today’s spotlight, The Critic in the Occident. The books were published by Paul Elder in September 1913.
Title page and frontispiece of “Critic in the Occident”
Fitch’s itinerary in the West was:
Greece, The Fountainhead of all Art and Letters
Italy, Home of Art and Monuments
France, Land of Romance, Thrift and Artistic Life
London, Seat of the Founders of World-wide Empire
New York City, The Skyscraping Marvel of the New World
Special boxed edition of “The Critic Travels”
Fitch devotes a chapter to the ruins of Pompeii, which had been discovered in 1599 and later rediscovered in 1748. The well-read Fitch was clearly not a prude, but is not very fond of the overtly erotic nature of many of the murals and mosaics, which he blames on the inferior nature of the Roman’s pagan faith:
The Roman phallic worship tinctures all the art in Pompeii and brutalizes it. It is shown in the stone phallus, built into the walls of many buildings, to keep off evil spirits. … From these remains the conclusion is inevitable that the ancient roman was not immoral but unmoral. Christianity introduced a new code of morals in which purity of thought was one of the leading features. Beside it the Pagan religions are unspeakably gross and vile. It was not strange that the Egyptian worship of Isis found many followers in Pompeii and that the initiation of novices degenerated into the most fantastic orgies.
Page 26 of “Critic in the Occident”
Fitch is far more impressed with Venice: “The charm of Venice lies in its unlikeness to any other place. You may have read of its canals and its lagoons, its palaces and its prisons, its gondolas that glide mysteriously through dark stretches of glassy water, but the reality comes upon you with unexpected force.”
Paris “is a city of surprises and disappointments. As a place of magnificent vistas it surpasses one’s conceptions, but its buildings and its statuary disappoint the tourist fresh from Italy. Its shops, which were once the wonder of Europe, are now easily surpassed in artistic quality by the shops of second-rate cities like Rome and Naples. Its gayety and brightness it has not lost, nor it fondness for the outdoor life of the cafes and boulevards and great public parks.”
Page 70 of “Critic in the Occident”. Today, David no longer wears a fig leaf.
London: “The first impression that London makes is one of immensity. To the sensitive tourist it seems impossible in a short visit to see anything of this huge city, with its miles of streets and its thousands of famous buildings. This impression is heightened by the gloom due to a cloudy sky and a pall of soft coal smoke.”
New York: “The first sight of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor and of the ships flying the Stars and Stripes looks very good to the man who has scarcely seen an American flag since he left home seven months before. Then comes that awe-inspiring skyline of New York, which is changed by every new skyscraper–a spectacle more impressive than anything that can be seen in Europe.”
Page 165 of “Critic in the Occident”: Tips for the Tourist
This book of impressions of the Far East is called The Critic in the Orient, because the writer for over thirty years has been a professional critic of new books–one trained to get at the best in all literary works and reveal it to the reader. This critical work would have been deadly, save for a love of books so deep and enduring that it has turned drudgery into pastime and an enthusiasm for discovering good things in every new book which no amount of literary trash was ever able to smother.
In 1912, San Francisco Chronicle sent critic George Hamlin Fitch (1852-1925) on a seven-month trip around the world, from which he cabled daily dispatches for publication in the newspaper. After his return, Fitch distilled his stories into a two-book set; the present volume and The Critic in the Occident (which will be featured next time). The books were published by Paul Elder in September 1913.
Title page and frontispiece of “Critic in the Orient”
Fitch’s itinerary in the East was:
Japan, The Picture Country of the Orient
Manila, Transformed by the Americans
Hong Kong, Canton, Singapore and Rangoon
India, The Land of Temples, Palaces and Monuments
Egypt, The Home of Hieroglyphs, Tombs and Mummies
Page 10 of “Critic in the Orient”
One of the pitfalls of vintage travel literature is encountering language that we would now call patronizing or even bigoted. I am not qualified to write a comprehensive sociological criticism of Fitch’s work, but I see more to praise than to condemn. Most painful to modern ears is his use of “race” when today we would use “nationality,” and noting that India is “the seat of the Aryan civilization and that, though the Hindoo is as dark as many of the American negroes, he is of Aryan stock like ourselves.”
On the other hand, to his credit Fitch admits his preconceptions about Japan were wrong, and devotes the opening 48 pages to that country.
One of the best results of foreign travel is that it makes on revise his estimate of alien races. When I started out it was with a strong prejudice against the Japanese, probably due to my observation of some rather unlovely specimens whom I had encountered in San Francisco. A short stay in Japan served to give me a new point of view of both the people and the country of the Mikado.
Page 14 of “Critic in the Orient”
Fitch ends with a couple valuable reference sections: “Hints for Travelers,” and, in keeping with Fitch’s belief that the literate traveler is a happy traveler, a bibliography. In the Hints section, Fitch starts by recommending which agency to use to go on your own world tour:
For a round-the-world trip the best plan is to buy a Cook’s ticket for six hundred and thirty-nine dollars and ten cents. This provides transportation from any place in the United States around the world to the starting point. The advantage of a Cook’s ticket is that this firm has the best organized force, with large offices in the big cities and with banks as agencies in hundreds of places where you may cash its money orders. This is a great convenience as it saves the risk of carrying considerable sums of money in lands where thievery is a fine art.
Of course, $639 was a huge sum in 1913, when the average worker’s annual salary was about half that. Then there was the matter of taking seven months off work, plus the expenses along the way. Extended world travel, then as now, was mostly a rich man’s pastime.
Slumber Sea Chanteys (1910) was the only sheet music Paul Elder ever published (there are a few pages of music in Knight of the Burning Pestle). It is a selection of children’s lullabies on nautical themes. It is also the first Paul Elder I ever bought, though I only realized it five years later when I began to collect Elder in earnest.
Composer Carrie Stone Freeman was profiled in the Music section of the Los Angeles Herald on 4 Dec 1910:
Local composers were well represented at the last meeting of the Harmonia Club Thursday afternoon … Among the songs of special interest to club members were those by Mrs. John J. Abramson, president of the club and hostess for the day, and Carrie Stone Freeman. Mrs. Freeman has written successfully for the voice and her publications include not only the Slumber Sea Chanteys, which are proving so delightful for little folk to sing, but are also most beautiful for the trained singer or a real by-land song, but also “Invitation,” Twilight,” “Lullaby” and “Eastertime Psalm.”
Freeman was also profiled in the Oxnard Courier of 16 Mar 1917:
Composer Carrie Stone Freeman in 1910.
Carrie Stone Freeman, chairman of music for Southern California Women’s club, has a new theory of learning music from nature. Mrs. Freeman is well known in this section in club work and has visited with clubs in this county many times. This is her advice: Listen to the birds and learn to sing. Try to catch and put into musical notation the clear, vibrant joyous calls of the Meadowlark and the mockingbird. Go where you will, is the big outdoors, land or water, and learn from the greatest music master in the world–Nature.
Here is the unique “teachology” of a brilliant Los Angeles woman who bids fair to catch the eye of the nation with her simple solution for developing one of the primal instincts of man–love of music. She is Carrie Stone Freeman, state chairman of music for the Los Angeles and Southern districts of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs. “Trying to catch the notes of the birds,” said Mrs. Freeman, “not only gives a person the opportunity to learn some of the truest sound values, but it also trains the ear. “Spare moments can be utilized for this study, for instance, while a train stops on a siding, while you are standing waiting for a car, if at some interurban point where the fields are at hand or as you sit in your garden reading or sewing. The birds are everywhere.”
Mrs. Freeman is speaking to club women in almost every part of the state, so popular is her subject proving. Just a few days ago she received a manuscript copy of the new song written by the well known American composer, Mrs. H. H. A. Beach; words by Ina Coolbrith of San Francisco. It is dedicated to Mrs. Freeman and is called “Meadowlark.” The motif of the composition is one of the meadowlark calls which Mrs. Freeman frequently uses in announcing her arrival at the artistic Freeman home at the western terminus of Sixteenth Street. Mrs. Beach heard her using it, while a house-guest, and begged permission to build a song on it.
Asked what she thinks of “ragtime,” Mrs. Freeman said “I don’t think. It was a tidal wave for a while and naturally it is receding. I think it will soon die altogether. I never talk against it. I simply offer something better in its stead.”
Co-author Lucia Chase Bell (1848-1938) also wrote the Elder publication Obil, Keeper of Camels. Her husband, Thomas Cowan Bell (1832-1919), was one of the founders of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
I can find no information about co-author and illustrator Rita Bell James.
Title page of “Slumber Sea Chanteys”Page 3 of “Slumber Sea Chanteys”
