The article on Keely’s motor in the September Lippincott by Mrs. Bloomfleld Moore is answered very good humoredly, but decidedly, by W. H. Babcock in the October number. In Philadelphia the name of the lady means something, but the world to whom she is nothing but a name only sees that she is another victim of a man who seems emulous of the fame of Arthur Orton, and wishes to be the greatest humbug of the century. He has quite turned the poor lady’s brain, and as she lives at present in London it is probable that he is laying his plans for other fields of activity. America is sucked dry and thrown aside; it is England's turn to pay with hard cash for the pleasure of uttering rapturously such words as “laws of etheric force,” “philosophy of vibratory rotation.” Why Keely should be thought to have any secret when a second rate prestidigitator can do things a hundred times more miraculous can be only explained by personal reasons. He is able to bamboozle people as very few can; that he has captivated an elderly lady of an extremely romantic turn of mind is not surprising, nor will it be matter for amazement if London contributes her quota of fools to the blandishments of Keely. Joe J. Ellick describes the tribulations of an umpire at baseball, and while admiring the masks and shields of the catcher plaintively suggests that “some defensive armor for protecting the umpire against bad language and beer glasses is imperatively called for.” George Parsons Lathrop indulges for eight pages in that egotism which Lippincott's Magazine encourages in authors, F. N. Zabriskie gives advice in the choice of a library, and Grant Allen has a paper on the name James or Jacob, tracing its various modifications from the Jews down. KE. S. Nadal contributes a most original and striking portrait of the Hon. John Welsh, formerly Minister to England, told in the simplest way, but with much art. The fiction for October is good, being four chapters of W. E. Norris's “Bachelor's Blunder” and ‘‘ A Lear of Tompkins-Square,” a short story by Edgar Fawcett.
Published: October 2, 1886
Copyright © The New York Times
See Also