BOOKS.

A NEW AMERICAN SATIRIST.* THOUGH no name appears on the title-page of Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War, it is an open secret that the author is Mr. Dunne, of the Chicago Journal, and in Mr. Dunne, we have no hesitation in saying, America now owns a humourist who wields the shafts of ridicule with as unerring an aim as the immortal but temporarily forgotten Artemus Ward himself. Out of the welter of the recent war many figures have emerged into notoriety, but few have achieved fame. In this latter and limited category Admiral Dewey easily holds the first position amom.s the men of action ; adminis- trative capacity of a high order has been shown by General Wood, the Governor of Santiago; while in the domain of criticism "Mr. Dooley" has eclipsed all competitors by his mingled satire and sagacity. Mr. Dooley, let it be premised, is supposed to be a well-to-do elderly Irish saloon-keeper in the Archery Road, in Chicago, who has never been oat of his ward for twenty-five years but twice :—" Re reads the news- papers with solemn care, heartily hates them, and accepts all they print for the sake of drowning Hennessy's rising protests against his logic." Hennessy, it should be added, is a compatriot who acts as interlocutor, but though each of the chapters is cast in the form of a dialogue, Mr. Dooley has matters very much his own way. The first monologue is devoted to diplomacy, in which the superiority of Spanish methods is convincingly established in an imaginary war of wits between Senor Sagaata and the President, but it Is in dealing with the preparations for the campaign and the conduct of hostilities that Mr. Dooley gives us the true taste

• Sir. Dooley in Peace and War. London: Grant Richards. 2,J—London: P. rutuatn'a dons. P.,.1 of his quality. "We go into this war," says Mr. Dooley, dis- cussing "some army appointments," "if ever we do go into it, with th' most fash'nable ar-rmy that iver creased its pants." And he proceeds to give an interview between President McKinley and a New York " dude " who comes to be examined for the Army. Master Willie Dooselberry satisfies the President that he is a good golf player, that he is a member of four clubs, and gets his trousers from England, and is forthwith appointed a Brigadier-General. But there is a slight drawback :— "'I fear I can't go to the fr-rout immejetly,' he says. Me pink silk pijammas hasn't arrived,' he says. Well,' says Mack, wait f'r thim,' he says. I'm anxious f'r to ind this hor'ble war,' he says, which has cost me manny a sleepy night,' he says ; but 'twud be a crime f'r to Bind a sojer onprepared to battle,' he says. Wait f'r th' pijammas.' he says. • Thin on to war,' he says; an' let ye'er watchword be, " Raymimber ye'er manners," he saj s."

General Shafter fares ill at the hands of the remorseless Mr. Dooley, and even Colonel Roosevelt does not escape, but the most scathing ridicule is poured on General Miles, whose campaign in Porto Rico is sketched as follows:—

" I'd hate to tell ye iv th' thriles iv th' expedition, Hinniasy. Whin th' picnic got as far as Punch, on th' southern coast iv Porther Ricky, Gin'ral Miles gazes out, an' says he, This looks like a good place to hang th' hammicks, an' have lunch,' says he. Forward, brave men,' says he, where ye see me di'mon's sparkle,' says he. Forward, an' plant th' crokay ar-rches iv our beloved counthry,' he says. An' in they whit, like inthrepid warryors that they ar-re. On th' beach they was met by a dili- gation fr'm th' town of Punch, con-sistin iv th' mayor, th' com- mon council, th' polis an' fire departments, th' Gr-rand Ar-rmy iv th' Eaypublic, an' prominent eitizens in ca.rredges. Gin'ral Miles, makin' a hasty tielet, advanced onflinchingly to meet

thim. Gintlemen,' says he, what can I do f'r ye?' he says. 'We come,' says th' chairman iv th' comity, 'Pr to offer ye,' he says. th' r-run iv' th' town,' he says. We have held out,' he says, as long as we cud,' he says. 'But,' he says, 'they's° a limit to human endurance,' he says. We can withstand ye no longer,' he says. We surrinder. Take us prisoners, an' rayceive us into ye'er gloryous an' well-fed raypublic,' he says.

Br-rave men,' says Gin'ral I congratulate ye,' he says, on th' heeroism iv yer defuse,' he says. Ye stuck manfully to yer colors, whativer they ar-re,' he says. I on'y wondher that ye waited f'r me to come befure surrindhrin; he says. I welcome ye into th' Union,' he says. 'I don't know how th' Union'll feel about it, but that's no business iv mine,' he says. 'Ye will get ye'er wur-rkin-cards fr'm th' welkin' diligate,' he says, 'an' ye'll be entitled,' he says, 'to pay ye'er share iv th' taxes an' to live awhile an' die whin ye get r-ready,' he says, 'jus' th' same as if ye was bor-rn at home,' he says. I don't know th' names iv ye, but I'll call ye all Casey, f'r short,' he says. 'Put ye'er bokays in th' hammick,' he says, 'an' return to Punch,' he says, 'an' freeze sorcethin' f'r me,' he says, me thrawt is parched with th' labors iv th' day,' he says. Th' rest iv th' avenin' was spirit in dancin', music an' boat-r-ridin' ; an' an inryable time was had. Th' nex' day th' army moved on Punch, an' Gin'ral Miles marched into th' ill-fated city, preceded be flower.girls sthrewin' r-roses an' geranyums befure him."

Mr. Dooley never misses a point, though he often presses it home rather cruelly. Thus Mr. McKinley's evangelising plea for expansion is satirised in the rumour that the President is " arrangin' a knee dhrill, with th' ides iv prayin' the villyans to th' divvil." The "unctuous rectitude" of the " prayers for victory" is exposed in an audacious account of a deadly conflict between the "powerful preachin' navies

iv th' two countries." In this we read how to meet the bishops of " Barsaloona," Havana, and Madrid, "all battleships iv th' first class," the Americans despatched " th' bishop iv New York, th' bishop iv Philadelphia, th' bishop iv Baltimore, and th' bishop iv Chicago, accompanied ba a flyin' squadhron iv Methodists, three Presbyteryan monitors, a fleet of Baptist submarine desthroyers, an' a formidable array of Universalist an' Unitaryan torpedo-boats, with a Jew r-ram. Manetime, th' bishop iv Manila had fired a solid prayer weighin' a ton, at San Francisco; an' a masked batthry iv Congregationalists replied, inflictin' severe damage." More effective, because less extravagant, is the account of a mutual admiration banquet given by the Prosperity Brigade, which opened with a prayer "that Providence might r-remain undher th' protection iv th' administration," and at which General Sbafter begins his speech by observing: "' Gintle- men,' says he, 'it gives me gr-reat pleasure,' he says, to be prisint in th' mist iv so manny an' so various vittles,' he says." The ignorance of the average voter is happily hit off in Mr. Dooley'a reply to Hennessy, when the latter proclaims himself an advocate for annexation "An' yet,' said Mr. Dooley, "us not more thin two months since ye lamed whether they were islands or canned goods Wan iv the worst things about this here war is th' way it's makin' puzzles fr our poor tired heads. Whin I wint into it I thought all I'd have to do was to set up here behind th' bar with good tin-cint see-gar in me teeth, an' toss dinnymite bombs into th' hated city iv Havana. But look at me now. Th' war is still goin' on ; an' iv'ry night whin I'm countin' up th' cash, I'm !Lakin' mesilf will I annex Cubia or lava it to th' Cubians ? Will I take Porther Ricky or put it by ? An' what shud I do with the Phlippeens ? Oh, what shud I do with thim ? I can't annex thim because I don't know where they ar-re."

But the satire on the stay-at-home patriot reaches its high- water mark in Mr. Dooley's discourse on the Anglo-Saxon alliance :—

"This war, Hinnissy, has been a gr-reat sthrain on me. To link iv th' suffrin' I've endured ! F'r weeks I lay awake at nights fearin' that th' Spanish Ar-rmadillo'd lave the Cape Verde Islands, where it wasn't, an' take th' thrain out here, an' hur-rl death an' desthruction into me little store. Day by day th' pitiless exthries come out an' beat down on me. Ye hear iv ready Rosenfelt plungin' into ambus-cades an Sicrity iv Wars; but I've hear iv Martin Dooley, th' man behind th' guns, four thousan' niles behind thint, an' willin' to be further ? They ar-re no bokays f'r me. I'm what Hogan calls wan iv th' mute ingloryous heroes iv the war; an' not so dam mute, ayther. Some day, Hinnissy, justice'll be done me, an' th' likes iv me ; an' whin th' story iv a gr-reat battle is written, they'll print th' kilt, th' wounded, th' missin', an' th' seryously disturbed."

ft is in the same chapter that the definition of an Anglo-

Saxon occurs as "a German that's forgot who was his parents," while among other notable obiter dicta we may cite the sayings

that an American's home is his castle "till th' morgedge falls

due," " 'tis betther to r-read a book thin to want to go to th' DirC118 an' not to be able to," and (of an Irish chairman at a

political meeting), "Plunkett is a good man, if they was no gr-rand juries." The chapters headed "Mr. Dooley in Peace" are equally mordant, but we must content ourselves with a bare reference to the summary of the Dreyfus case, the grotesque account of golf as played by the gilded youth of &merice, the brilliant satire on the abuse of expert testimony, and the analysis of the French character in which we find the epigram, "When England punishes, th' Irish'll die iv what Hogan calls ongwee, which is havin' no wan in the weary wurruld ye don't love."

Mr. Dunne's method, it may be observed, is more subtle and Less genial than that of Artemus Ward. He does not assume the character of a native-born American, but employs as his mouthpiece an Irish immigrant who speaks a strange sort of hybrid lingo, three parts Irish brogue and the rest cockney Chicagesque. We find it very hard, therefore, to believe that the sentiments ascribed to Mr. Dooley reflect those of any Irish-American in his or in any other position. He is, we take it, simply a convenient mask or a speaking-trumpet used to lend picturesqueness and sonority to the views of a

shrewd but captious onlooker. Thus it frequently happens that the views are those of the anti-expansionist New York Evening Post, with its horror of gush, excess, and

vulgarity, though the voice is that of the Irishman in the street. Again, while Mr. Dooley is merciless in his ridicule of mismanagement, vanity, and cant, he omits, with the solitary exception of Admiral Dewey, to say a good word where good words are due. The American volunteers in the late war were not all dandies in silk underclothing who took their valets to the front. Their ranks included many pro- fessional men, who endured privations without murmuring and quitted themselves like men. The war was not all picnic and comic opera, and this fact is overlooked by Mr. Dooley in his indiscriminate use of the weapon of ridicule. One cannot help wondering, in conclusion, that the Americans should have stood this shower of sarcasm with such perfect equanimity. In Germany Mr. Dooley would have been in- fallibly interned in a fortress, while in France his life would not have been worth an hour's purchase. Artemus Ward satirised the war fever freely enough, but he was not ashamed to conclude his paper on "The Draft in Baldins- ville with these memorable words :—" I have great confidence

in A. Linkin. The old fellow's heart is in the right place, and his head is clear. There's bin sum queer doins by sum of his

deputies—civil and military—but let it pass. We must save the Union. And don't let us wait to be ('rafted. The Republic is our mother. For God's sake don't let us stop to draw lots to see which of us shall go to the rescue of our wounded and bleeding mother." Mr. McKinley is no Lin- coln, and it may be conceded that the cause of the North touched the conscience of the nation more deeply than did the recent war. All the same, Mr. Dooley might have "let it pass" or shown a little more sympathy with the Govern- ment, without in the least impairing the efficacy of his satire as a whole.