The New York Herald Newspaper, December 8, 1875, Page 14

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4 LITERATURE. The Latest Novels of the Season. “The Wages of Sin,” “Hester Howard's Tempta- tion,” “The Queen of Connaught,” “Cha- rette,” “Told in the Twilight.” - . HEPWORTH DIXON'S LAST WORK. The White, Red, Black and Yellow Races. Js Civilization a Failure, or is the Cau- easian Played Out? The coming of winter has not made any differ- ence in the character of the new novels and tales. ‘They ure just as light now as they were during the dog day, and are as many as the leaves on the ground, ‘There is nothing in the way of recent fiction as good as some of the things we had last year when Thomas Hardy, Mrs, Alexander, and, later, Anthony Trollope and some half dozen others put forth fresh and vigor- ous work, And the announcements of forthcoming works contain nothing of a startling nature. To be, | eure George Eliot is said to be at work on a book, but that is in the dim future, Joaquin Miter has a work in press, and Bret Harte has one commenced in Scribner's which gives great promise, Mr. Howell has one under way in the Atlantic, and Julia Hawthorne has one running in Harper's, But for the immediate future there is nothing of unusual interest. There feems to be more romanee in real life nowadays than there used to be, The daily papers chronicle suicides and murders, the causes of which are often stranger than many a plot in fiction. The heart history of heart- legs men and women and the histories of men and wo- men with too much heart full as otten to the lot of the newspaper reporter to write a8 they do to the novelist, and we read, as we sip our morning coffee, of as strange things going on arovnd us as_we useil to find in the yellow-covered romances of our childhood. There is nothing too strange to be true, yet there is a great deal in nature that is unnatural, Tux Waczs or Six, By Edmund Yates. Boston: Wm. F, Gill & Co. Mr. Yates has not put his best work into this story, {t ig ag light as air and of the world worldly, The wages of sin, according to the Bible, is death, and one of the sin, ners in this story is made to pay that in coin, The others, however, who are much worse than she, go happy through the world, The hero of the book is Nugent UMngton, who has just returned to London after an abgence of twenty years. Tire first ten of these years he passed as the husband of a lady who already had one- such appendage. He was very kind to her, They never quarrelled, as the princi- pals in such affairs ‘ genérally do, but lived happily until one unlucky day when she was drowned. She paid ber wages, but he did not, The heroine of this story is Lady Forestneld, the wife of an ill-con- ditioned fellow, who sows more wild oats than any forty men would care to reap. He neglects her, and the consequence ts that she finds another man to love her. ‘This lover is one Gustave de Tournefort, who is very mach of a rascal, though she does not find it out until later, When the husband discovers that his wife loves another man he takes the highly virtuous. ground of all rakes and preaches morality at her from his lofty pedestal, and goes out to get a divorce so that ho may marry some other woman. If Sluebeard had only lived in these days of easy divorces how many murders he might have spared bis conscience. Lady Forestficld is turned out of doors, and her lover, whom’ she really does not love as weld as she does her husband, utterly neglects her, in fact, never goes near her. Some of her untitled friends, considering the circumstances, remain srue to ber, among them one E @aughter. Mr, Yates “would not be happy if he could not introduce the Bohemian e ment. _Uifington, who arrives upon the sceno of action at this time, ts very kind to Lady Forestfela for the suke of her mother, who was one of his old friends. He tries to bring about @ reconciliation with her husband, but ineffectually. About this time a lively Fronch scene ig introduced, a little stronger than Bohemia. Uffington having sowed his wild oats at the age of thirty, coald be virtuous with a vengeance and forgiving to a degree. He looked upon Lady Forest- ficld as an injured woman, It had been heart-sicken- ing to him tosee this woman shunned, tabooed and pointed at by a world which continued to recetve the hound who had been her husband, and dared not openly say, “You are a scoundrel, Lord Foreatield, whose ill conduct has driven your wife to do what she has done; and though we must ostr&cise her, we de- ¢line at the game time to have anything more to say te | you.” As luck would have it, Lord Forestfield felt il! and was nuraed back from the edge of the grave by his wife, His discase was contagious, and when he recoy- ered she fell ill and died, The wages of her sn was death, but he who was a much greater sinner got off without paying the debt, at least so far as our knowl- edge of him goes, Husten Howano's Tewpratiox; A Soul’s Story. By Mra. C. A. Warfield, author of The Household of Bonverie. hiladelphia; T. B, Peterson & Bros, since she wrote “The Houschold of Bouverie,” Mra, Warfield has but @wice lifted her pen in the cause of Tomance. That book gained a wide popularity and re- ceived remarkably fluttering notices from unexpected sources, Reading some of the pleaeant things said about the book by Gail Hamilton, Jobn G. Saxe and Dr, George Ripley, we were led to expect something out of the usual Jine in the story of “Hester Howard's Temp- ition.” As awhole, the story ig lacking, but the: are some good bits of character drawing in it, and the Interest is certainly well sustained. If not speaking of a lady one might say that the author of this wovel is inclined to slop over. There is too much of the “up- lifeful” about the story, and gonl has the ascendancy over sense. Hester Howard herself is not a bad cliaracter, aud in her tréatment of her busband she will have the sympathy of ail right thinking novel readers, Married to Julius Howard when she had arcely waked up froin the dreamy uncertaiuty of lier vague yot imaginative ebiidhood,” being only sixteen years old, she, of course, did not know her own mind, much less that ot the man she married, When Howard asked her to marry him she taid yes, because other girls whom she knew got im: ried, and she supposed that it was the thing-to do. She did not care for the man who proposed to her and who was actuated by the same motives in making bis propo- fition that she was in its acceptance, Of course, a mar “riage under such circumstances could only be pro- ductive of unhappy results. He was vain, visionary and both knave and fool. They went to California to live, and; as he did not pretend to conceal thecloven foot, they were very miserable. She had two children to whom she was devoted, and both of whom died at an interesting ago and left her almost petrified with grief, To take her out of herself, an actress friend—a first rate character, by the way— induced her to go upon the stage. Before the footlights she attained wealth and fame and forgot hor troubles for the ttme being. Money coming to her from an unexpected quarter she left the stage for private Info, and her hasband left her at the same time, taking the bulk of her money with him, Howard is one of those men wh ounterparts are known to every one-—selfish, cruel, lazy and blus- tering, who nover earna pouny, but who brag and blow their own trampet to that extent that people are Sometimes fuoled into believing that perbaps they are ©f some account in the world after Hester long 6 ceased to caro for him and would not have any of Just before this had been ill and Pasved many sleepless nights. Hor physician could Bie hor nothing to compose her nerves, and she at lave @alled in a meemerist by the name of Mordaunt, who makes a fow passes before her and she sleops like a deacon in church, There was no sort of flirtation be tween Hester and Mordauat—she was two ill for that— bat he was evidently iinprossed by the beautiful, wile. He left the place suddenly, and, when Hester awoke from her magnetic sleop, she found a cameg ring ‘on her lioger, bearing the head of Christ and the name “Eric! engraved on the inside. Mrs, Wardela evi- deutiy isa firm believer in mesmeriem, and from the general tong of the book one might well believe that aliavst any “ism’’ would Gnd jp Wer a (riond. That bonsense, she eanor Irving, an artist's | Jhused | | ‘ these worn by the Celts of old. é glance, she gave one the impression of a north country | | the pomps and v: NEW YORK HERALD part of the work relating to Mordaunt ts somewhat high flown and absurd. Years later he came to Hester, and his love for her was the temptation into which she would have fallen before only he did not urge his suit. This story will not bear being held up to the light, though it does not read aa impossible as it sounds inthe telling, A great many characters figure through its pages, some of them evidently drawn from the life, and drawn well. Mrs, Warfield takes this story as a meins of airing her belief in “electic affinity,” of which science, or whatever you choose to call it, her hero, Dr. Mordaunt Trevor, is the exponent, ‘Society, wine, excitement of every kind, he was necessitated to forego, or fail in his efforts to relieve suffering. * * * When questioned of his gift, he replied frankly that he knew no more of Its secret sources than did others; that he had been called to thig mode of life as a vocation which he could not resist, and that in order to be useful to suffering humanity he found it necessary to lay aside all private tastes and turn away from all distracting causes.” By way of peroration the author says!—‘‘The power to command sleep! Have you thought what that is, my reader? It is something that approaches the God-like more nearly than any other gift, It is more absolute than courage, more noble than generosity, more potent than gold, more benevolent than charity itself, Within the breast of a man go constituted think what entire empire over self must provail!, What influito strength and calm- ness, what yearning compassion, what intimate sym- pathy with suffering must be his who can compel re- pose for weary or fevered eyelids and breathe tran- quillity above the restless couch of mental anguish 1”? ‘After this what more can be said? Tas QueeN ov Coxxavaur. A story. New York: Harper & Brothers, It isa relief totyrn from an atmosphere charged with electricity to the healthful, clear air of Ireland, Superstition, but ina mild and pardonable form, fills the pages of “The Queen of Connaught,’ but is more amusing than annoying. Kathleen O’Mara is the heroine of this story, and ag she is the direct descend- ant of Shana O'Mara, the original Queen of Connaught, who lived for atime at the court of Queen Bess, and completely upset propriety by her wild Irish ways, Kathicen had a ring worn by this distinguished ances- tress upon which hunga family legend whereon she pinned her faith, Though descended from a Queen of Ircland, the O'Mara family was poor in worldly goods, but had that which was more to them—blood! Though the scene is laid only thirty years ago the heroine {ts thus introduced :—“Upon Abuge moss-grown rock, which lay imbedded in the purple heather, sat Kathleen, dressed tn her usual ex- travagait fashion. A book which she had been read- ing—au old poetic chronicle in the Irish tongue—lay neglected at her feet, the half open leaves fluttering in the breeze, Her body was bent forward, her chin rested in the pajms of her hands and her eyes were fixed upon the ground, Her hair, unfettered by fasten- ing or bands, hung, wildly about her shouiders, while her uncovered head was exposed to the rays of tho midsummer sun, The skirt of her dress reached only to her aukles, thereby exposing to view a pair of prettily formed feet, on which she wore sandals, in imitation of i In fact, at a first ant girl, rather than a person in her own station of life.” Any eccentricity in dress could be forgiven in so beautiful a girl as, Kathleen, She was engaged to be married to her cousin, Randal, the villain of the book, who sat by her side in the heather. Fortunately she finds him out in time, and does not marry iim, The ring of Shana 0’ Mara, on which hung her fate, was lost in the stream one day by a careless httle cousin, but was found ina fish he had caught by a charming young Englishman by the name of Darlington. Of course this brings about a love affair between Kathleen and Darlington, which, after some ups and downs, re- sulted in a marriage. Kathleen was a yery proud girl, but that did not prevent her going to: all the dances among her father’s tenants and having a jolly good time, Darlington hardly understood this, but he was the sou! of amiability, and smiled Upon all that she did. When they were married he rebuilt O'Mara Je, and Kathleen, rejoicing in her wealth, enter- ined every old crone or young rnacal who came and élaimed a couginsbip, Her husband Was surprised at the quantity and quality of her relations, but he treated them all well for her sake, | He was not liked among the peasantry because he was an English- man and the bad ones, led on by Randal, were continu- ally popping bullets.at him. ‘These attempts upon her husband's life by people whom she had been brought up with proved too much for Kathleen, and not being strong, she gave way under constant excitement and died, About the same characters figure in this as in all Irish stories. None of them are new. There is the warni-hearted, impulsive herome, the English lover, the disreputable priest, the drunken father, the mixture of good and vad tenantry, the handsome, good for nothing cousin, the wakes, dances and other jollities of Irish life, Though lacking in originality, the book is not without interest. The field fs not a new one.nor is it too old to beara deal more of working, The author evidently t that we cannot have too much of a good thing. . Cuarstre Tale of Lovers’ Sorrows ad their Tan- gled Sin. New York: G. W. Carleton & Co. Without doubt the candle of many a boarding school girl will expire with a groan In its own grease as the midnight hour finds her poring over the pages of “Charette,” The greater’ part of the scene of this story is laid in New York, and the, heroine bears the name of Jacqueline, a very popular one at the golden bread and butter period of youth, The herd, Hugh Dymocke, is introduced while driving a bargam with an old Jew tor some He wished to preserf® these laces to a young lady on her birthday, and he had searched the stores on Broadway in yain for anything handsome enough, The Jew takes him to a little dingy back room in Catharine street and there shows him some genuine point antique de Venise, for which he pays $5,000 cash, The heroine is also introduced in th cog, Jew, to accompany Dymocke to his banker's for the money. She gets it, and he, being immediately smitten by her singular beauty, proposes that they go and get Junch together, and at the game time he senag a messenger to order his drag to be sent to the restaurant, and after lunching they go for a drive in the park, He took ner home at dusk, and invited her to accompany him to the yacht race the next day. When ihe morning came he went down to Catharine street, but the bird had flown, No traces of Jacqueline or the Jew could be found. He Was in despair, but it was of no use, The veautitul Misa Merrifield, to whom he had been exceedingly attentive, and for whom he bad bought the laces, failed to com- fort him for the lost Jacque! Finally he went up to the Thousand Isles with a party of friends, who drank champagne and fished all day and sang bymns aud talked. “serious talk” in the night, aud there he met a most attractive poy named Jacques, who rowed him about on bis fishing excursions. Jacques conversed on Shakespeare with remarkable fluency; his whole tone, in fact, was rather literary than fi ‘The ladies from New York, prop- erly chaperoned, visit the fishing gentleman and take a great fancy to Jacques, Hugh finds out fhat Jacqnetine ig in the neighborhood and employs Jacques to hunt her up, and tells the lad how well be loves the girl he gaw but once, but whose image is stamped upon his heart, &e., &. Well, to make a long story short, Jacques and Jacqueline wege one and Hugh is happy. Her disgnise, though simple, must have been complete, tuat he dd not recog. n her. The plot thickons, for Moses, the old Jew, is a smuggler, One night the lovers are wandering through the, woods, when a party of sol diors, bunting for smugglers, see them and fire, ing Jacqueline, as Hugh supposes, unto death. He gives the body over to the care of a good, taith(ul priest; and be is then set upon and beaten by a party of men. well again. So does Jacqueline, to whom, after much tribulation, he is marrie She turns to be the daughter of fine old Southern parents, with an estate In Louisiana, She has some trouble to prove her tlaim, but does succeed in proving it, The day of the wodding Miss- Merrifield, who has never gotten over her love for Hugh Dymocke, puts aside ities of this wicked world, cuts off her golden tresses an? joins an Episcopal sisterhood in New York, All the interest of this book does not centre in the hero and heroine. There is Archie Talbot and his wife, who drag out an enhappy existence, He devotes his time and her money to the turf, and she accepts tho attentions of another man. She is about to clopo with him, and as they are dashing down Iroadway to the wharf Archie appears in sight, dragging at his horse’s heels. She screams, bursts open the coach door and js at his side in a moment. He Is taken toa hospital and she follows, and Vance, the lover, wound. is cheated out of bis mistress, Thero in a sngular place, and is sent by her friend, the | Taken back to camp, he is cared for and gets | out | spirited description of a race at Jerome Park, when Archie's horse wins the purse, Then there are some other scenes of doubtful morality; & gambling scene at Charette, the Louisiana plantation w York hotel. The book lacks nothing to make it dear to the heart of all such readers as are to be found in every boarding school in the land. Love ts the motive power that moves the wheels ; it clogs at times, but soon runs on again, The language is high flown, but only the more impressive to acertain class of miind, It will be read and reread by sentimental youngsters, who will imagine every charac- tor real, and whose eyes will weep over the woes of the lovers, and whose hair will rise on eud at the horrors freely described. PARKWATER, OR, ToLD IN THE TwuGHT. By Mrs. Henry Wood. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Bros. Mrs. Wood has written this story with a purpose which is to show that it is not well to educate children above their parents, Sophia May was the daughter of the janitor belonging to the firm of Lyvett, Caslerosse & Lyvett, lawyers in London, Her father made the fires and her mother serubbed the stairs. Mrs. May had once lived in a great family, and that, together with the romances she read, determined her to educate her daughter tor a lady, Sophia was nothing loath, and, being pretty and bright, her parents lavished every. thing upon her, They got hera piano, which was kept im the kitchen, and sent her to a select school to begin and to a French school to finish her education. The French school was, to be sure, one of the poorest in France; but what did that matter so long as sho learned the language and gotacertain French polish that goes with the lowlier Gaul? When she recrossed the Channel and came home her parents were very proud of her, prouder of her than she was of them, ‘They lived in the old rooms in thé lawyers’ office, and the Piano still stood inthe kitchen, covered with tins and other things, Sophia had almost forgotten her English when she came home. She had grown prettier than ever, and acquired a certain French manner that made her seem more ladylike than sho really was, Her home scemed dreadfully plain and her parents, alas! appeared common in her sight. She longed for fresh pastures, Her aunt, Miss Foxaby, proposed that she become @ lady’s maid, which idea she would not entertain for a moment, One day young Frederick Lyvett saw her and fell a victim to her beauty, He was an honest, wild sort of a fellow, just as good as gold, and his intentions were all honor- able, Perhaps if they had been less so his father would not have been so angry. As it was, the old man sent him flying off to Valparaiso on business for tho firm before he had time to make decent adieux. The Mays were turned out of their position, and Sophia got an engagement as governess to Lady Teunygal’s chil- dren at Parkwater on forged recommendations. At Parkwater she met Theodore Devereux, the good-for- nothing brother of Lay Tennygal, who came down into the country to get clear of tne duns, He had nothing better to do so, he flirted with the pretty governess notwithstanding that he was engaged to marry a rich heiress, Sophia showed her hand pretty plainly before Lady Tennygal, who made further inquiries about her, and found out that she was an impostor and that her recommendations were false, But Lady Tennygal never knew how intimate had been the relations be- tween her brother and her governess, Sophia was discharged and she set up on her own accoutt in Lon- don asa music teacher. Frederick Lyvett found her out and married her against the direct commands of his family, Here is where the tragedy comes in, One day, just after they had returned from their wedding tour, awoman with alittle child came tosee Sophia while Frederick was out. The woman was going to America, so she left the child, The lodging-house keeper noticed. this, and later in the evening said something about tho child up stairs. Sophia denied that there was any such creature up there, and said that the worhan had taken him. Later ona little boy’s body was found in a pond near by and the murder was traced to Sophia, Sho was arrested, tried and condemned to be hanged. Her mother went to see Devereux, and told him if he did not get his father, who was the judge, to pardon her, she would tell all England whose child it was that had been murdered and send his name down to posterity coupled with that of thecriminal. The guilty mam was frightened and did as he was bid, so that Sophia was imprisoned for life instead of being hanged, And all.these ills and all this wickedness came ot being educated beyond her posi- tion, Mrs, Wood forgets to say how much a weak in- tellect and brain stuffed with sensational literature had to do with all this sin and misery. THE WHITE CONQUEST. Tur Warre Congcest. By William Hepworth Dixon. In two volumes, London: Chatto & Windus, York: Scritner, Welford & Armstrong, Mr. William Hepworth Dixon is an Englishman, who devotes a great deal of time and thought to Ametica, and the present volume is not the first that he has de- voted to us and to our institutions. His “New Amer- ica,” which appeared some years ago, made consider- able of a sensation for the reason that it laid bare, and with see:ning fairness, the nature and conduct of many of the communistic societies of America, Mr. Dixon did not investigate nor elaborate this subject as it has been done more recently by Mr, Charles Nordhoff, nor did he make as valuable an historic volume as Mr, Nordbofs, His book was interesting as giving an Englishman’s side of the question, and was, like the “White Conquest,” written {na graceful and graphic manner, In the present volume, Mr. Dixon begins by wandering through the almost unknown and wholly romantic regions of early California, and traces the history of the white conquest for the past one hun- dred years, WHITE PROGRESS, ‘The tale of a hundred years of white,progress is a marvellous history, he exclaims, ‘Phe European races are spreading over every continent and mastering the isles and islets of every sea, During those bundrea years some Powers have shot ahead and some have slipped into the second rank. ‘The progress of the United States has been among the most startling. Starting with a population no larger than that of Greece, the Republic bas advanced so rapidly that ina hundred years she has become the third Power as to size and territory, the fourth as to weal & and popu- lation in the world. Some months ago Lord Dufferin, Governor General of Canada, annexed the whole region, known and unknown, stretching from the recognized frontier of British America toward the North Pole, and some mouths hence the President of the United States will annex the ereat provinces of Lower Call- fornia, Sonora and Chihuanua, with parts of Cinaloa, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon to the Republic over which he presides. The, present boundarkes of the United States will be onlarged by land enough to form six or seven new States, each Stato as big as New York. Such is Mr. Dixon’s proph The surface of the earth is passing into Anglo-Saxon hands, “he saya “Yet glorious and inspiring as this story of white conquest is the warning on the wallis brief and stern. The end ig not yet come. The peril of the fight is not yet past, and the white successors of the Creeks and Cherokees are unhappily still wasting some of their best strength and noblest pasion on internal feuds, Disaster in the past, menace jn the future, warn us to stand by our common race; ovr blood, law, language, science, We are strong, but we are not immortal, A house divided against itself must fall, If we desire to seo our free institutions perish it is right that we should take the part of red man, black man and yellow man against our white brethren, If we wish to gee order and freedom, science and civilization preserved we shall give our first thought to what improves tho white mau’s growth and tho white man’s strength. So many foes are still afield that every white man’s cry should be, ranks!’ and when the rans are closed, but not till then, ‘Right In front; march!’” All of which proves Mr. Dixon to be not only in arms against the black brother, but every color except white, Ho apparently believes in the future greatness of America, which ts a condescension on the part of an Englishman LOWER CALIPORNIA, \ Writing of Lower California Indians he says: take the Indi increa ‘You n as he is—a wreek and waste of nature, even as this altar of San Carlos is a wreck and waste of art. For twenty cents laid out in whiskey you may hear the story of his life, and in that tale the romanco of his tribe.” From Indians to Spantards—Mr. Dixon hada pleasant interview with Don Mariano, the head of the Vallejo family, ‘You ask about the history oi California,” Don Mariano remarks; “my biography 1s tho history of California.” ‘No Mexican of note,” ho fays to mo in ono of our drives, “has been able to keep bis lands, My case is hard, but not so bard as that of othera, Twenty years hence no Spanish Don will bea citizen of the United States.’” “You mean the Spaniards will retire?” “They will remove to Mexico, where they may hope to keep their own,” Mr. Dixon attended a cascaron or egg shell ball with Don Mariano, This is the room:—"A wooden shed, about the length of a country barn, with bare benches set against whitewashed walls, 1s brightened hore and ‘there by @ bunch of ribbon, a wreath of paper flowers, and something lke @ score of lights, One fiddlo and one concertina make {he orchestra, On the other side are the girls in briluantcolors, * * © As Tam passing down the room, conducting two sefioras to their seats, a young girl, slipping behind mo, smashes an egg shell on my pate, an egg shell from which the meat had been drawn and the {nside filled with tinsel and colored paper, cut s0 fine as to fall like snow. Apeal of laughter greets the girl's success, It isachallenge, When a shell 18 broken on your head you have tho right to claim a dance, during wlitch you may crush your casearon among the damsel’s curls, A‘ romp ensues, If sefiorita slips away sefior follows in pursuit, A game of hide and seek is played, and shella get broken on balconies, As night comes on the ladies press the fun, not only for the laughter, but because the tinsel adds a beauty to their dull black curls and lustrous eyes. By supper time the riot runs so high that dons and caballeros can hardly keep their pride of port, * * * Don Mariano isa type not only of the Jost capital, but the regiring race.” BRIGANDS, : Tho chapters on brigands read ikea romance. One could almost tolerate the depredations for the sake of the depredators, In California, as in Greece and Italy, says Mr. Dixon, brigands are the privateers of public wrongs, or what the peasants call their public wrongs, A brigand is a malcontent, who waits his chance to rise in a more threatening shape. Los Angeles and San Jox6, the Free Towns, peopled by disbanded soldiers, squaws and camp followers, are two great nests of rogues and thieves, gamblers and cutthroats. From these free towns a line of brigand chiefs have drawn their scouts and helps. A mixed blood hates the agents of all rule and order, Years ago his teeth were clinched against the Spanish friars; at present his knife is whetted against the American police. Much of his pas- sion is political, and the conflict in the jungle and on the mountain side is one of race with races How dif- ferent this manner of procedure from that of the com- mon thief, “Captain Senati was the leader of & company carrying on the trade of robbing shantics and stealing girls; Moreno was his first lieutenant; Los Angeles the scene of his exploits. One day, hearing that a ball was to be given in Los Angeles by some ladies from San Francisco, Captain Senati's company swooped into the streets, surrounded the house and pillaged every one in the dancing rooms. After eating the supper and drink- ing the wine each brigand took a partner by the waist and whirled her round and round till he was tired. Then, ata signal from their chief, they filed out of the saloon, pointing their poignards at the men and kissing their fingers to the women as they bowed adieu. Cap- tain Vasquez was the pride of all the brigands—the handsomest, the bravest. He began his acts of violence in the name of an invaded country and committed theft and murder in the cause of an outraged race. He robbed white men and stripped the government mails, It is said his bands were companies which might have swol- len into regiments, Some persons think he might havo raised an army, and become the Alvaredo of his epoch, hadhe not been ruined, like so many heroes, by the beauty of a woman and the jealousy of a friend, WILLIAM ©. RALSTON, Writing of San Francisco Mr. Dixon says:—‘‘At Bel- mont we are lodged with William C. Ralston, one of the magnates of this bay; once a carpenter planing deals, tifen a cook on board a steamer, afterward a digger at the mines, now the president of a bank and one of tho princes of finance, * * * Our host has made him- self an earthly paradise at Belmont, but an earthly paradise in which calmer mortals than himself will bask. I like the man and I hope for the best for him; yet noticing his restless eye and paling brow, I cannot help feeling that with all his jollity and briskness William ©. Ralston is the victim of his en- terprise, the slave of his success,” Mr. Dixon had not long to wait to see the fulfilment of his prophecy, Farther on he says:—‘a special man, liko-Ralston, our host at Belmont, tries to guard himself by a denial of such pleasures as his fortune brings within -his reach, He dares not drink a glass of wine, At dinner a servant puts a pint of milk before him with his fish and pours some drops of lime water into his mug. A glass of fhe may leave a headache, and a headache means some loss of time, Time is a talent he dares not waste, His billiara hall is spacious; but he must not vefiture on a game, He brings tobacco from Havana, but he fears to soothe his brain with a cigar. His house and park are but an hour’s ride trom his office, yet he only comes to see them once aweek. Dining quickly and tossing off three pints of milk, he rises early, leaves his guests and goes to bed. Next -morning, he is up at four, consulting grooms, trotting through woods and visiting farms and ‘water works, At ten we see him fora moment as we break our fast; at one he puts us ina drag and sends us out; at three we meet him on a hill above San Mateo, where he is damming a creek and building a town; at five he jumps into the train, his holiday spent, and hastens to his office im San Francisco, having done a full week's work in foumand twenty hours—a typo of the white conquerors who expend their life in carrying on the fight!” DEATH AND DIVORCE. The California described by Mr. ‘Dixon must bo the California of *49 to Judge from the description. It is that country as the dime novel paints it, not as it is in reality. ‘The people living on tbis sunny sea are sel- dom in a state that country curates would describe as wholesome. Too much sun is in the sky, too much wind ts on the hill. Warm air expands the lungs and frets the nerves. Men eat too fast, drink too deep and: work too long. How loud they speak, how hard they drive! At every turn you catch high words and mark tho passage of swift feet. Under the shadow of Lone Mountain lies a racecourse, where bankers and judges hold trotting matches, and wiry little ponies are excited by voice and lash imto a pace that kills, That racecourse lying in the shadow of a graveyard is a type of California In her ordinary mood. The towns and villages in this bay not only teem with life, but life in a most strained and fe- brile state, No one is calm; no man sits down to poke the pipe of peace; no day seems long enough for the labor to be wrought, All memand women aim at em- phasis.” So far the writer has caught the spirit of the people, but in the next sentence he draws upon legen- dary lore:—‘‘An actor rants, a preacher roars, a singer screams, Such talk as suits a London dining room sounds tame, such colors a beseem a London dancing room look dull. The pulses of society beat too high for ordinary men and ordinary times. * * * Aciti- zon volts his dinner, gulps his whiskey, puffs his cigar- ette and hurries off, as though he heard a bugle eall.’”’ We hope this next is figurative:—‘‘He sits at table with a loaded pistol in his pocket; he fingers his bowio knife while asking his friend to drink. Suspi- cion is a habit of his mind If he is quick to see offence he is no less quick to bury the offence in blood, A man will sboot his brother for a jest, Hero isa case in point, not many days old. A luckless wit described his neighbor in one of the papers as dining at What Cheer House and picking his teeth at the Grand Hovel—about the same thing as saying of a man in London that he boards in Leicester Square and hangs about the door at Long's, The wit wasshot next morn- ing in a public road. “A writer has no easy time; his reader craves ex- citement, and he has to feed this passion for dramatic scenes, Each line he writes must tellatale, Eath word must be in capitals, Ifa writer has no news he must invent a lie, One journal is advertised as bold and spicy, and is trac to the devico, «It deals with all ond spares none, Editors are always armed; reporters must be steady shots, Aman who cannot shoot and stab had better not indulge himself with pen and ink. A sufferer burns a pinch of powder in the nostrils of these editors now and then, but such a fact is thought too trivial for report, unless, as in a recent case, a jour- nalist shoots some passer by instead’ of winging his brother to the land of souls.” Mr. Dixon seems to think that tho reason why women are at their worst in California is because the men treat them so well, No matter what a woman does sho is never found guilty by a court of law. Divorces are easy and a husband changed as readily as a bonnet, It fs the wives who bring the divorce suits. A husband going Into court is generally regarded as a fool. Not long ago a poor Irishman tried his best to show that he was tll used and dught to be divoreed. ‘The magistrate frowned, “Well, thin, I won't say any- thing against the woman, Judge, but I wish that you would jast live with her a little while,” The Judge re- laxed and gave him releaso, Fow jokes, says the writer, are more suecessful in soclety than such as hint at domestic murder—at tho wife of your bosom making ‘ youacup of hemlock tea or blowing your Uraing out ‘as you lie asleep." *A young Californ™ ladv complains WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1875—QUADRUPLE SHE‘. to her friend, a Widow of twenty-five, that ner fate husband tells euch cruel things of her, “And not a word of it true?” “My dear, how ean you ask?” “Only for form’s sake. Now, my dear child, I have had three husbands, no better and no worse than other men, but they are all gone, My dear, dead husbands tell no tales,” . WHITE AND BLACK. Mr. Dixon gives several chapters of his book to the consideration of the recent troubles Ip Louisiana, His sympathies are all with the nativo whites and against the blacks and carpet baggers. He states the whole case to show his theory of white conquest. “Negro ascendancy,” he says, “even though supported for a time by federal troops, will fail before white science, a8 surely asa forest of plants fades before an English Spruce and a herd or game before an English horse.” Speaking of military rule in Louisiana, he says of Sheridan, with whom he lived in the same hotol at New Orleans during the exeitement:—'‘As a com- panion, by the way, I like General Sheridan, and if I paint him somewhat darkly it is because the facts of history leave me no choice, Nature has not drawn compliment of softening a grand and sombre figure, To feel the situation you must see the man.”’ Sher- man, as a whole, he admires more, “Sherman has no taint of Cwsarism. A patriot first, a soldier afterward, ho values military prowess mainly as the shield of liberty and safeguard of the Common- wealth, Unable to support a personal folicy, even by silence, he has broken with the President, Secretaries and Adjutants, and shifted his headquarters from Washington to St, Louis, where he stands apart, an American Achilles, disgusted by the passing phase of public affairs.” Mr, Dixon gives a graphic account of the scene in the Rotunda in New Orleans on the even- ing of Wednesday, January 13, 1875, Of the reign of Pinchback he says:—‘‘Seldom in either history or flc- tion have grotesqueness and absurdity been carried to such lengths. We sigh over the doings of Bocking, the tailor of Leyden, asa pitiful illustration of human folly. We laugh at the impudenco of Sancho as a pleasant creation of satiric art, But Minster and Bar- rataria must look to their bays. If Bocking has no rival and Sancho no superior, Pinchback and Antoine in high places haye an air of burlesque not easily surpassed.” “The black question, like the red question,” says Mr, Dixon, “is Vroader than the policy of a day and longer than the lives of Sheridan andGrant. Can col- ored people live in freedom? Can a negro bear tho rough friction, the close contact and the hot competi- tion of an Anglo-Saxon? Higher races than the Afri- can are dying in this flerce contention, Where is the Pict, the Cymri and the Gael? Where, on American soil, are the Six Nations, the Horse Indians, the Mex! cans? What facts in natural history suggest that ne- groes are exceptions to a general rule? The strong advance, the fit survive. Are negroes stronger to ad- vance and fitter to survive than whites?’ ‘In going to the Capitol with Senator Fowler,” he continues, “we meet Tom Chester, a negro of puro blood, from New Orleans, whose acquaintance I made some’ years since, in our salad days, Chester was a student of the Mid- dle Temple when I was eating mutton at the Inner Temple, Called to the English Bar, he went to New Orleans, where he has practised ever since. Ho saila to Europe now and then, #nd we have met in good houses, of the révolutionary sort, tenanted by Polish, French and German refugees.” He asked Chester, ‘Are youa Kelloggite?? ‘No! a native of the South, I wish to live at peace with my white neighbors,’ * * * ‘You mean that the carpet-baggers, men like Kellogg and Chamberlain, make the rows?’ ‘Not in our inter- est, but in theirown. These men our friends! You know me. In New Orleans I have the respect of Bar and Beneh. No advocate objects to act with me or to oppose me in any suit. White judges reccive.mo, 1 “dine with bigh and low, just as [ should dine in Lon- don, Paris or Berlin. But let me go up North, into towns from which these Chamberlains and Kelloggs hail. I should not be allowed to dine ata common table in Boston and Chicago! 1 tell you we shall get along better in New Orleans.when we are left alone.’ On coming from the Senate, where members are still flaming out against the President's policy in Louisiana, we meet Pinchback in the lobby. ‘Cheated, sah,’ ho bawls at me; ‘cheated, sah. ‘The Senators reject my papers! Itas all dat Kellogg, sab’ ‘Has not Governor Kellogg signed your papers properly?’ ‘Gubnor Kel- logy! Hoe gubnor! Dat Kellogg is a rascal, sah. He sign de papers all right; put big seal all right; den he write a letter undergroznd for de republicans not to yote. He want tocome hisself, He neber stay in New Orleans, Sab, Kellogg 1s de greatest big rascal in America|?” THE YELLOW RACK, : After leaving the black question Mr, Dixon takes up theyellow question, and discusses the pros and cons of Chinese cheap labor. He thinks that the yel- low question is almostas menacing to republican in- stitutions as the black, He says that 50,000,000 of Asiatics could besent over here without bemg missed at home. It would, he argues, pay the government of Pekin to hire ships and send them over. If they came they woutd control the ballot box, and under a repub- lican constitution they might assume the fuling power, Let us draw a veil and hide tho horrible thought, =~” % PHILADELPHIA. ‘The author thinks that Philadelphia is the best ex- ample of white progress in America, because nothing accidental, nothing temporary, rules the conditions of her growth, “The growth of modern Rome, the splendor of Berlin, are not so singular as the growth and splendor of Philadelphin * * * In three years London adds to her numbers more people than cluster on the Seven Hills. In four years Philadel- phia does the same.” He pays the highest compliment to her public buildings, and then says—‘In no place, either In America or out of it, have I seen such solid work, such means of purity and com- fort, in the ordinary private houses ag in Philadelphia, * * * Lread in the Water Company’s report that more than 40,000 heads of families in Philadelphia pay that company a water rato for household baths, That record 1s a greater honor to the city, as implying many other things—the thousand virtues that depend on per- sonal cleanliness—than even the beauties of Fairmount Park.”’ Altogether Philadelphia should feel flattered by’Mr. Djxon’s admiration, which is expreszed in sey- eral pages of his very entertaining book. Mr. Dixon says a great deal more that is worth quoting, Lut we have already gone beyond the limits usually accorded to book notices, The book ig well worth reading and bas evidently been prepared with care, The author may be mistaken in some of his statements, but the most of them aro fair and seemingly reliable, The book is written ina gossipyand cary styie, and tt cer- tatuly has the virtue of brightness. LITERARY CHAT. , ‘The newly published letters of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, are full of personalities and bad spelling. In this extract she laments that she was borna woman:— 7 “Tam confident,” she says, ‘that I should have been the greatest Hero that ever was known in the Parlia- ment House if I’ bad been so happy as to have been a man; but as to the Field, I can’t brag much of that sort of courage, but 1am sure no mony, tittles, nor ribons leshould have prevaild with me to have betrayd my coun- try, or to have flattered the Villains that hay don it,”” A third series of Dean Stanley's “Lectures on the History of the Jewish Charch” is to bo issued shortly by Mr. Murray, Mr, James Stothert will soon issue his “French and Spanish Painters,” containing an account of living artists as well as of ‘the old masters’ of those centu- ries. : At Murray's tecent London sale, 3,100 coples of Dr, Darwin’s books were sold; 2,700 of Dr. W. Smith’s “Classical Dictionary,” and 5,300 of Smiles’ “Lives of the Engineers,’ besides 10,000 of his new volume en- titled “Thrift, George Eliot, it is said, bas been paid £7,000, or $25,000, for a single novel, Cookery books are good property, but hymn books are better, In proot of this, take the fact that the copy- right on Moody and Sankey’s hymn books in England alone, from January to Juno, 1875, amounted to £5,677, or over $23,000, which has gone to help build Mr, Moody's church in Chicago, Queen Victoria has subscribed £200 to found the chair of Celtic Literature in Edinburgh University, A pew daily paper has been founded in London under the title of the Daily Express, Captain R, F, Burton’s “Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo” is not confined to a record of his own travels, but treats of geographical problems with great acumen, He confirms in the main Du Chailla’s accounts of the gorilla, and has many fine descriptions of the native tribes and their customs, Mr, Hepworth Dixon's “White Conquest” will be honored by a French translation, A life of tho remarkable German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, by Miss H. Zimmern. is in tha nresa, Phil Sheridan in sepia, nor need we pay him the poor | Mr. William Morris’ translation of Virgil's ak is greatly praised by the London press, It ie iu bic verse, rhymed. Some posthumous notes, by Sainte-Beuve, on tha men of his time, said to be very severe and very ing discreet, are shortly to be published. . ‘The posthumous memoirs of Philarite Chasles, r Jearned humorist, are in press and are said to be full of satire on the members of the French Academy, which he was not elected, Dr. F. B, Hunt proposes to publish a book on “Amen {ean Woods,” illustrated by @ separate case containing) 100 prepared specimens or sections of different tree: The idea is borrowed from German and French publi cations of similar type, An entertaining book about Russia js Mr, Dutlomt Johnstone's “Trip Up the Volga to the Fair of Nijul Novgorod.” Russia, he insists, is not a nation, but continent, and her 60,000,000 are likely to re: 100,000,000 before the end of the century, The Nation is elaborately reviewing General Doyns ton's review of “Sherman's Memoirs,” which it gays refutes the charges against General Sherman which 1 was intended to prove, Miss Braddon is busy at work upon her thirtictly novel, It will be entitled “Joshua Haggart’s Daug! ter.” Tho opening chapters appeared in the Belyravi; Magazine for December, M. Henri Havard has written, under the title of “4 Hollande Pittoresque,” an account of the degerte: cities of the Zuyder ~Zee, which is very interesting. ‘These Dutch towns, once full of the hum of businesay abound in empty houses, deserted streets, walls en- closing large meadows and cows grazing on oe once covered by human dwellings. The Nation vigorousiy denounces the little sect off English writers whom it calls the Neo-Pagans, at the head of which it puts Mr, A, ©, Swinburne, . The great “History of the Sciences in Germany,’ published by the German Historical Commission, approaching completion in sixteen volumes, FINE ARTS, GOSSIP AMONG THE STUDIOS. . Daniel Huntington has just finished a half longt! portrait of John Taylor Johnson, and is now sei one of the late Colonel Borden, of Fall River, Mass. Hot holds a copy‘of the Boston Daily Times, a paper whicky he was always reading. A full length ofthe late Mr, Hyde, one of the founders of life insurance institutions) in this city, 18 nearly completed. It ia destined for tha} Equitable building, A portrait of Benjaming i. Field, one , of — the retired — mer; chants of New York, is also on his caseh) This gentleman holds acopy of Halleck’s poems, he} being an admirer of that poet’s works, and one of tha| largest contributors to the Halleck statue, Mr, Hunt ington is finishing two of Kensett’s landscapes, and i} also at ‘work on the portrait of an old lady in a pice turesque lace cap and a black velvet dress. For thal past three years he has been painting portraits of tha different Secretaries of War, and mary of our promiw nent military men, for tho War Department, The last Secretary of War, avd one ol the best painted by him, was Jefferson{ Davis. Portraits of Generals Grant, Sherman) and Sheridan are now in his studio, He painted pe fifteen of the Secretaries, Gencral Grant being place among them. His studio is filled with objects of inter est to art connoisseurs, There is an original “Stuart,” acopy of Titian’s ‘Descent from the Cross,” painted) by May; a copy of Titian’s head, by Page; Rem-| brandt’s portrait of himself, copied by Hoyt, and por4 traits by Huntington, of George Peabody, Honry Tuck~\ @man and Professor Morse, the latter having been his! master. Louis E, Tiffany is at work on a largo water color street scene in Geneva, Switzerland, an old second} hand shop with two women bargaining for gome arti, cles, He has commenced a picture for tho Céntennial,) which he is going to take abroad with him to finish, It, isa grand old gateway, one of the entrancés to Tana gier, with groups of the gayly dressed natives passing, A Saracenic town built on a hill, with the castle of Roquebrunné surmounting tho highest point,, and an unfluished- picturo of a woman washing) clothes In the river, while her children ara playing beside her, inthe south of France, are im water colors. A scene on the Hudson and an interior of woods with hunters eating lunch®are in oil, Mr. Tiffuny’s studio looks like an Eastern bazaar, He has! introduced a portion of it in his picturo, called “Tha, Scribe,” now in the Brooklyn exhivition, Mrs. L. B. Culver is now at work ona picture of the Patterson homestead at Fort Miller, near Saratoga, A wood interior, with a glimpse of Massachusetts Bay, secn through the hiils, a country road with a group of oaks, a scene on tho @Moosablo, in Maine, and sketches made in the vicinity of Hingham, Mass.,. are among the results of r summer studies, | One of the sketches represents a shower advancing) over the mainland, toward the bay, with its rocky: islands, and promises to be a very effective picce of, painting when worked out on a larger scale, Mrs, Young is in the studio with Mrs, Culver, and isi working in water colors and crayon. She has at present; on her easel a portrait of a lady with a Spanish veil, thrown gracefully over her head, Oliver J. Lay i3 busy with portraits. Among thos® on which he is now at work is one of Mrs, Field, mother’ of that versatile genius, Miss Kate Field. R. Swain Gifford is a back in his old studio inthe association building. He has during his absence trav~ eiled in Europe, Asia and Africa, His most interesting, sketches are of desert scenery. Tho Sahara is about, the only place not visited by artists, but Mr. Gifford) and his wife, who ts also an artist, mada many sketches in the oasis called Diskra. Arab tents made of guyly striped cloth, # temple in the river bed,-tho river itself flowing through. the sand and the oasis from different points in the dos sert, a street scene in Algiers, Arab families in their tents and one of ‘their old thatched shanties are but a few of his interesting sketches, He is painting a Ve~ netian scene of fishing boats, with their gayly parted sails,.in the lagoon outside the city, and a freight boat) on the Nile. One of the most important of his sketches: isa view of the city of Constantine, the ancient Cirba: of the Romans, the seat of the Jugurthan wars, and tha: home at one time of the historian Sallust, L Fanny Elliot Gifford, his wife, made over fifts sketches of birds and flowers. One, particularly goud, is a study of an owl. The works contributed by the members of tho Academy to the fund for the Nquidation of the mort- gage debt will he placed on public view in the Acadomy galleries on Wednesday, the 15th of December next, and will be sold at auction on the evening of Tuesday, December 21. Members who havo not yet sent in their contributions aro earnestly. requested to do £0 without delay, The pictures should’ be sent framed; and when the frame is notincluded in the gilt it should be so stated and the price given. Tho Council will be happy to receive donations of works of, decided merit from any arust or possessor who may be disposed to contribute to the fund. The names of the | committee appointed to take charge of the works ar 7, Addigon Richards, K. D. E. Greene and Thomas Hicks. About fifty works have already been contributed, Tho Artists’ Fund Society have their annual sale about January 20, Works may vo sent in until Decem+ ist picture, ‘The, Song of the Shirt,’ 18 now on exbibitiun at Knight's gullery, Ful- ton sircet, Brooklyn. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. After the definition of the infallibility of the Pope tha most important religious event of the reign of Pius IX, was the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculato Conception, December 8, 1864, The annual recurrenca of the day has been observed since as a feast of tho highest solemnity, though for a thousand yoars or more the doctrine was held and the festival celebrated, in both the astern and Western churches, ‘The services in the: Cathedral and Catholic churches to-day will be the same as on Sundays. Atthe Church of the Immanulate Conception, East Fourteenth street, hear avenue B, tho Feast will be observed in a spe cially impressive manner, = * CHARLEY ROSS, A SINGULAR LETTER RFCEIVED IN WORCESTER, MASS. [From the Worcester Gazette, Dec, 6.) Aletter was received by Mr. Wilham Ross in tuis city,'which purports to give information abeut the missing Charley Ross, of Philadelphia, about whom such astir has been made. The letter was marke! ou the outside “William Ross, Worcester, 11 High stroct.* and was evidently malied on the Philadelphia and Cams den Railroad, Somo ono, probably the postal clerk, atter it had boen mailed, wrote after “Worcester,” in oncil, “Mass”? The letter inside is evidently written by some one quite illiterate, and the handwriting ro- sombles thatof a young person whose hand ia an- formed, ‘The letter suys:-~ Twrite this to let you know where Chartes . tis u josher abducted him. OW ab 1 Water street, with Mary, tho mother of Mary is going to Paris on the 251 ADALINE KOs, The lettor was written November 21, aa it appears to be dated, but was not mailed til! November 24. It wag robably written as a boax, but the man who received it acted in good faith, There are two gentlemen named William Ross in tho city, but Belther are related to the Philadelphia Rosses, ror do they know any porsom named ‘Adaline Ross.’? ‘The letter is to bn forwarded to tho Chief of Pelica at Philadelphia by the recommendation of the Citv Marshai bore. 1 love

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