MR. DOOLEY'S PHILOSOPHY.* FURTHER acquaintance with the works of Mr.

Dooley, while heightening our admiration for his wit and acumen, brings into stronger relief the limitations of his outlook and his method. From one severe ordeal he emerges with distinction: he bears re-reading. From many of these chapters we have already taken liberal toll in another column as they appeared inserial form hi an American weekly, and have found our appre- ciationof their point undiminished on a second perusal. Again, the extent of his success must be measured by the obstacles, some of them self-imposed, which he has had to surmount in his appeal to an English audience. Not the least of these is the choice of a dialect and a mode of spelling disconcerting alike to the English and the home-keeping Irish reader. For the speech of Mr. Dooley approximates neither to the Trans- pontine type nor to the genuine Anglo-Irish variety, as repro- duced to perfection in such a work as Some Experiences of an Irish .LIE; it represents the hybrid lingo of a Munster man who has lived for twenty-five years in Chicago. This does not °mance to a ready hearing, and Mr. Dooley's triumph

• Nr.:110041( Pkassophy: Ellustautsid by William Mao sou, E. W. Keuisk, .$ 1?. oilier. ipadoe : W. lieineniaba Las. za.) . in the face of such a drawback redounds all the more to his credit. The patois humonrist must be content, as a rule, with a parochial reputation, but Mr. Dooley has achieved a popularity as a commentator on the humours of Anglo-Saxondom greater than that enjoyed by any American writer since the death of Artemus Ward. This is not to say that Mr. Dooley ranks with the immortal showman, as a former remark of ours has been perversely misconstrued. Underneath the extravagance and exaggeration of Artemus Ward there lay a geniality, a generosity, and a chivalry which we do not always find in the sage of the .Archey Road. Artemus Ward was an enthusiastic patriot, who reverenced goodness, and was not ashamed on occasion of a burst of senti- ment. Mr. Dooley is almost always the detached critic, the amused and interested spectator of the game of politics, but always inclined to be " agin the Government," and in regard to public characters a consistent iconoclast. He has no illusions and no heroes—with the solitary exception of Admiral Dewey—and assails with undiscriminating mockery statesmen and party hacks, brave soldiers and blatant charlatans. In his view, Mr. John Hay is a snobbish, weak-kneed opportunist, and Mr. Roosevelt— whom with an innuendo not quite worthy of its author he always calla Rosenfeld—a vulgar braggart. And whether the operations are in Cuba or South Africa, his trenchant and often legitimate satire of mismanagement and muddle is seldom tempered by any acknowledgment of bravery or endur- ance, never by a word of sympathy for the bereaved. The British officer is an eye-glassed booby; the only reference to the Victoria. Cross is a sneer; and those who have lost friends or relatives in the war may be recommended to skip the pages in which the course of the campaign is treated in a spirit of screaming farce.

But if Mr. Dooley fails at times to be just in his treatment of individuals, and does not always say the right thing of the right person, he is in the main a wonderfully shrewd critic of tendencies, movements, and national traits. The servant-girl problem has been a standing dish with American humourists and American comic papers time out of mind, but he has con- trived to mingle good sense with wit in his handling of this hackneyed question. "Th' more ye ought to be a servant ye'ersilf, th' more difficult 'tie fr ye to get along with ser- vants We have a servant-girl problem because, Hinnissy, it isn't manny years since we first begun to have servant girls." The attitude of the States towards the Boer delegates is summed up in the observation that "th' vrurruld is with th' nndher dog on'y as long as he has a good hold an' a chanst to tur-rn over Th' enthusyasm iv this counthry, Hinnissy, always makes me think iv a bonfire on an ice-floe. It burns bright so long as ye feed it, an' it looks good, but it don't take hold, somehow, on th' ice." The sudden revulsion of feeling against Admiral Dewey prompts Mr. Dooley to remark that " 'tis unsafe fr anny man alive to receive th' kind vrurruds that ought to be Th' further ye stay away fr'm said on'y iv th' dead

th' American people, th' more they like ye. Sicond-cousin-iv- me-Aunt-Judy-George made a mistake comin' home, or if he did come home he ought've invistigated his welcome and see that it wasn't mined. A man cud stand up all day an' lave Packy Mountjoy whale away at him, but th' affiction iv th' American people is always aimed three an' is invaryably fatal." The remark of a New York " dude " that a man in politics oughtn't to be married is responsible for some of Mr. Dooley's most luminous aphorisms :—" A man in pollytics has got to be marrid. If he ain't marrid where'll he go Fr another kind iv throuble ? An' where'll he find people to support P" Finally, Mr. Dooley decides that up to a certain point a politician must be married :—" Afther that—well, I on'y say that, though pollytics is a gran' career fr a man, 'tis a tough wan F r his wife." For as he remarks with real insight, "Ye talk about ye'er colleges, Hinnissy, but pollytics is th' poor man's college." On the other band, "there isn't much a woman can learn either she begins to raise a. family." The well-meant but disastrous attempt of Mr. Sheldon to Christianise American journalism is dismissed, in the mouth of Father Kelly—Mr. Dooley's spiritual a/ter ego —with the phrase : " They ain't anny news in bein' good. Te might write th' doin's iv all th' convents of th' warruld on tb' back iv a postage stamp, ea' lave room to erre 4fai4

yet, for all his seeming cynicism, Mr. Dooley is invariably on tile side of the angels in the domain of morals, the relentless foe of lubricity in letters and pseudo-science in education. He does not like Kings, brit he likes Anarchists less.

"Between you an' me, Hinnissy, ivry " arnychist I've knowed, an' I've met manny in me time, an' quite, law- citizens they was, too, had th' main' iv of a thradeejan in him. If they was no newspapers they'd be few arnychists. They 1i/wit to get their pitchersth' pa-apers,

an' they can't do it be wheelin' bananas through th' sthreets or milkin' a cow, so they go out an' kill a king." On the other hand, he holds that "kings is makin' thimsilves too

common A king ought to be a king or he oughtn't. He don't need to be a good mixer. If he wants to hang on he must keep out iv range Th' on'y person that ought

to be able to get near enough a rale king to kill him is a jook, or th' likes iv that. Th' idee iv a man from Noo Jarsey havin' th' chanst I" But perhaps the most thoroughly human

of all Mr. Dooley's utterances is his deliverance on modern methods of educating the young,—the science of pa3dology as it is now elegantly termed. Mr. Dooley describes how in the course of a vote-catching expedition he dropped in on Cassidy's daughter, Mary Ellen, to see her " kinder- gartening " :—

"Th' childher was settin' ar-ronnd on th' flare an' some was moldin' dachshunds out iv mud an' wipin' their hands on their hair, an' some was carvin' figures iv a goat out iv paste-board an' some was singin' an' some was sleepin' an' a few was dancin' an' wan la-ad was pullin' another la-ad's hair. Why don't ye take th' coal shovel to that little barbaryan, Mary Ellen P' says I. We don't believe in corporeal punishment,' says she. 'School thud be made pleasant fr th' childher,' she says. 'Th' child whose hair is bein' pulled is larnin' patience,' she says, an' th' child that's puffin' th' hair is discovrin' th' footility iv human indeavor,' says she. Well, oh, well,' says I, 'times has changed since I was a boy,' I says. Put thim through their exercises,' says I. • Tommy,' says I, 'spell cat,' I says. 'Go to th' divvle,' says th' cheernb. Very smartly answered,' says Mary Ellen. Ye shad not ask thim to spell,' she says. They don't lam n that till they get to colledge,' she says, 'an',' she says, sometimesinot even thin,' she says. •An' what do they larn ' says I. 'Itompin',' she says, an' dandle,' she says, 'an' indepindance iv speech, an' -beauty songs, an' sweet thoughts, an' how to make home home- like,' she says. Well,' says I, • I didn't take anny iv thim things

at colledge, so ye needn't unblanket thim,' I says. won't put thim through anny exercise to-day,' I says. But whisper, Mary Ellen,' says don't ye niver feel like bastin' th' seeraphims ' teachin's iv Freebull and Pitzotly is conthrary to that,' she says. But I'm goin' to be marrid an' lave th' school on Choosdah, th' twinty-sicond iv Janooary,' she says, 'an' on Mondah, th' twinty-first, I'm goin' to ask a few iv th' little darlin's to th' house an',' she says, 'stow thim over a slow fire,' she says. Mary Ellen is not a German, Hinnissy."

" The proverbs or casual observations printed at the end of the

volume are of varying degrees of merit, but at least half-a- dozen are worth recording :—" I care not who makes th' laws iv a nation if I can get out an injunction " ; "Most vigi- taryans I iver see looked enough like their food to be classed as cannybals " ; "People that talk loud an' offtnd ye with their insolence are usu'lly shy men thryin' to get over their shyness. 'Tis th' quite, resarved, am-spoken man that's mashed on himsilf " ; "If Rooshia wud shave we'd not be afraid iv her " ; "An autocrat's a ruler that does what th' people wants an' takes th' blame f'r it. A constitootional ixicutive, Hinnissy, is a ruler that does as he dam pleases an' blames th' people."

We have only to say, in conclusion, that we are very far from attributing to Mr. F. P. Dunne, the clever creator and inventor of Mr. Dooley, all the sentiments that he puts in the mouth of the Chicago saloon-keeper. Many of them un- doubtedly express the feelings of an Irish-American politician accurately enough. Others illustrate the standpoint of the Mugwump,. with a slight leaning towards Bryanisw, anti- militarism, ,and anti-expansion. Others are the natural out- come of the " horse-sense " of the American," of the shrewd- ness and sanity that underlie a deliberate exaggeration of

language. Thus the persona of Dooley, while it furnishes the author with a conveniently detached standpoint, is not

without inconsistencies. And we are reluctantly driven to conclude that he cannot be kept alive indefinitely. In these matters it is certainly true that those whom the gods love ought to die young, or, at least, before they can be accused of garrulity or repetition. It will be most interesting to see whether Mr. Dunne has the flexibility which will enable him • —

to adopt a new Medi. um o e. rea. .a• hew thouthpiece-fot;his

commentaries on current events. We ourselves have no doubt whatever that Mr. Dunne will be able to strike out new paths. There is something elemental in his humour which makes us feel, sure that he will be able to vary both themes and oharaoter. He must not confine to Archey Road what was meant for mankind.