The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 23, 1895, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 1895. MTSS COOLBRITH'S NEW BOOK OF VERSE. It is charged against San Francisca that theis a grim stepmother of the arts: that her artists are unappreciated and that her giited and daughters otherwise, are forced far a’eld for recogni- tion, sons Yet 1 Francisco can boast an qrgani- zation such asno other city in America knows, vet of which any cify might well be pr G oud. This is the re formed iild of Letters, of which William Greer Harrison is president, and whose member- ship already includes, a 1 the cultured men and women of the coast. _‘Organized for the purpose of encourag- ing art and aiding letters on this coast, the Guild some months ago decided to begin its 1 work by the publication, under its au . but thro ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, of the of Ina Donna Coolbrith, The book will appear early in the win- v poems ter and the publ ion is to be a notable one. William Keith has madehalf a dozen exquisite sketches in oil to illustrate the adopted or | e number of | gh the house of Hough- | saries or Iuxuries of life to be had in the | market, and it could not depreciate.” | | So easily as this is the most difficult | | probiem of civilization settled in Aristopia. | The author has put forth this book as, | he | says, to show what might have occurred if | the current of events had been turned at a | | eritical point by- some man with sufficient virtue and mental power, combined wi the power which some fortunate material circumstances might have given him. | In a word, his book is an attempt to | show what might have been possible had | the impossible happened. This is no time for such push-pin play as this book indulges in. The world is to- | day thoroughly in earnest in its endeavor | to read aright the puzzling riddle of our | civilization.” One does not gather grapes | from thorns, nor figs from thistles—nor | can any sane man_believe that an ideal commonwealth, or, indeed, any common- wealth worthy of‘ the name, could grow from a settlement, the basic priucipFe of wkich was anti-social, anti-republican. Judged by literary standards, Mr. Hal- | 1 ford’s work is very poor. He especially | fails to give us any sense of the time with which he deals. He hassimply telescoped I during certain army maneuvers and ex- periments that were made with smokeless | powder. He has much to say of the dan- ger there exists that the celebrated Ger- man army may be trained down to too fine a point by the ceaseless activities de- manded in the service of ‘“‘the War Lord.” Here is one of his comments upon certain features of the army regime: *“Men who have been on parade and much hustled about from 8 o’clock until 1 become hun- gry and thirsty. The dinner (2 o’clock) is a copious one and the drinking heavy bath auring and after dinner. And what do you suppose is the fashionable beverage of the smart German officer of the Guards to- day? Champagume and port mixed. It makes one think with a shudder of the ab- sinthe whick softened the French brain under the empire which collapsed in 1870.” There are several chapters devoted to a visit to Bismarck, who talked very freely with Mr. Smalley and gave him at k‘flgtil his views regarding socialism and its prob- able effect upon national affairs. There are several articles on notable Americans, William Walter Phelps and Dr. Holmes being among the number, and an exceed- ingly interesting one with' Mr. John Wal- ter, founder of the Times, for its subject. Americans will be surprised to learn, on Mr. Smalley’s authority, that one of Mr. Walter’s unsatistied ambitions, perhaps the only one, to be received by the Queen. ~ He sais “I have known nearly all her Ministers, I have a very profound should like, before I die, to have five min utes’ talk with her.” Commenting upon this the author says: “I cannot under- stand why he should not have had, unl he were unwilling to take the necessary | THE BROOK. [From a painting by William Keith for the illustration of Ina Coolbrith’s new volume of verse.] o service all the modern bookmaking in the work. . Mr. ss Coolb ast, but T lege of re- hese from a photog the beautiful little and the lines that were the immedi n of the picture thgse of the ARISTOPIA. We have had, of late years, divers con- tributions to the Utopian literature of the d. . There has been a massing of many books portraying the future of a nation under ideal conditions, but none giving a history of a nation begun, in the far past, under such conditions. This is what, in “Aristopia,” the author, Castello N. Hal- ford, has aimed to give. He traces the growth of the commonwealth of his ideal, from a tiny settlement on the Potomac Ri in the time of King James, until it became a powerful community, in one man’s lifetime. Apparently Mr. Halford’s idea of what constitutes a commonwealth sculiar to himself. Ralph Morton isa young Englishman, who comes out to the Jamestown colony in 16 He discovers, in the course of an exploring voyage under Captain John Smith, a gold mine of fabu- lous richness. He takes the precious ore out in lumps the size of his head, and re- turns to England full of a great scheme. With unlimited wealth to back him he secures an enormous grant of 1and, and by payi_nga hundred or | so thousand pounds to King James, ob- tains a charter vesting him with abso- lutely royal power. Then he buys and hires ships and proceeds to tran:\’t\\n to his colony men from ameng the Yiu k of Eng- lish artisans and scholars. In the course of a few years he has established a power- ful colony on his grant, and calls1t Ar topia or “the bes The settlers areall in his employ. He is monarch of all he sur- ,an_absolute autocrat on his own do- main. He keeps the existence of his mine a secret, but it is inexhaustible. and he draws upon it freely for the development of his colony. Wher all is ready, taking Sir Thomas More’s Utopia as an inspiration, and—apparently, the constitution of the United States as a guide, Morton proceeds to plan an ideal commonwealth, and to draw up a constitution for the same. Under this there is to be no private ownership of lands, except the title he has acquired from the Virginia Company and certain furcher titles he expects to acquire from the King. The ultimate title rests in him, but the practical title is vested in the commonwealth—a subtle distinction neces- sary to the unil of the tale, but a most amazing proposition to serve as the found- ation of an ideal commonwealth. ; There is to be no traffic in merchandise. The people may exchange their commo- dities with each other or sell to private persons, but none may buy to sell again. ‘All stores are to be carried on by the commonwealth and are at first stocked with Morton’s money—or at least by means of the gold Morton has dug from the earth. There are laws providing for the election by the people of a congress, all of whose acts must be subject to the approval of a Governor, that Governor during his lifetime is to be Morton. In fact, the ideal commonwealth is an absolute monarchy, and, as was likely to happen under a one-man power, backed by boundless wealth, it grows apace, Morton having entire authority to exclude all objectionable immigration. The new nation increases in wealth, Mor- ton obtains fresh grants of land extending back to the Onio, and, being an inventive genius, he originated divers kinds of ma- chinery, boats moved by horsepower and a number of very useful contrivances that the colonists keep” a_secret. They haye a paper money, “issued solely as a medium of exchange and not as a promise to pay a debt,” so that ‘“no more and no less was issued than the wants of trade demangeg. 'he Aristopian paper money was not re- éeh;-nuble ir‘x’ goldl:‘ bl:xet in what the holders needed more than gold—any of the necest ph | ¢ of the original painting. | and | lition to these the pub- | the nineteenth century into the seven- | steps. teenth without particularly benefiting either time in the process. [Boston: The | Arena Pablishing Company. For sala at| the Popular BookStore, San Francisco.] | OLIVER CROMWELL, This is a new edition, published by the | Harpers, of a volume brought out some two years ago by Appleton & Co. The | | auther is Dr. George H. Clark of Hartford, and his book is largely. compiled from : Carlyle’s great work on Cromwell. It is | only of late years that Oliver Cromwell | has seemed to the world heroic. There | | have been whole libraries written in con- | | demnation of the man, but, save for Ma- | caulay, who did speak a good word for the Protector, based on such scang data as | in his time could be gotten at, no man did | Cromwell justice until Carlyle appeared. | It is possible that future generations will concede Carlyle’s life of Cromwell to - be his most important contribution to Eng- lish literature. But Carlyle’s “groanings unutterable’ | over this great work of his did not con- |duce to that easy reading which is said to result from hard writing. He is exceedingly ditficult to read, and for this reason it is well that we have Dr. Clark’s present work, based on the exhaustive researches of Carlyle. | The book is, however, something more | than a mere echo of the greater work. It | is well and concisely written, and gives us a vivid picture of the man who for two | centuries was held in execration by his- torians. Of necessity the earlier chapters | | of the book are devoted to clearing away | the mass of vilitication that has been heaped upon the Protector’s name. He | | sketches for us the real character of the | God-fearing Puritan—of the time when | | the word Puritan stood for something | other than a political profession—the wise | ruler, the mighty warrior, and the warm. | hearted, impulsive, loving friend and | honest man. Of late years a reaction i regard to Cromwell and of interest in him | | has set in in England. It may even,in | time, assume almost as formidable pro- | vortions as the present Napoleon craze, | and we may have a voluminous Cromwell | literature. . However that may be, the present volume is of interest and comes, | just’ at this moment, with particularly | good grace from an American source. New York: Harperd& Bros. For sale by | | Payot, Upham & B8an Francisco.] ‘ { STUDIES OF MEN., [ These studies of some of the most famous | men and women of our times were origin- | ally contributed by George W. Smalley, | | the well-known London letter-writer, to | the New York Tribune. Now gathered in | book form, they constitute a valuable col- | lection of pen sketches of prominent per- | | sonages. | Mr. Smalley bas had unusual opportuni- ties for meeting public characters, and he has the true newspaper worker’s apprecia- | tion of what people want to know about men and women. Necessarily many of his studies have to do with personal expe- rience, but he is delightfully free from egotism and is in no way concerned to ive us a study of Smalley en passent. gfis has been a most catholic acquaintance. Cardinal Newman, Lord Granville, Bal- four, Parnell, Spurgeon, Tennyson, Bis- marck, Professor Tyndall, Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Mrs. Humphry Ward are some of the people to whom he’introduc 2 us, and his introductions are fraught with pleasantness. Some of his analyses are exceedingly good. Of Cardinal Newman he says, in concluding that “study,” “I am almost tempted to call him a at journalist, so fragmentary was his writing; so strictly did it answer the appeal, ‘Give us day by day our daily bread’; so accu- rately adapted was it to the necessities of the particular occasion on which he wrote.” 0f Tennyson he tells a number of capital stories that have since the first publication of these letters in the Tribune been widely copied, but which are well worth having in this permanent form. One of the most in- teresting studies in the book concerns the German Emperor and his army. Mr. Smalley had the good fortune to be present Was it because he was regarded at Windsor as a newspaper man ?" Mr. Smalley has a keen eye for salient points of character, and a vivid way of writing that brings the individual of wimm he writes into bold relief. His studies are exceedingly readable, and give a broad view of modern English public life and affairs. [New York: Harper & Brothers. For sale by Payot, Upham & Co., San Francisco.] THE AMERICAN PEOPLE'S MONEY. The Hon. Ignatius Donneily has made his contribution to the prevailing financial discussion in the form of a duodecimo vol- ume of 186 pages, bearing the title of the “American People’'s Money.” Following thefexample of “Coin’s Financial School” and other similar works, Mr. Donnelly has | | the exigencies of rh respect for her as a good woman,and I | a | writes as though she which not only ds the demonetization of silver condemned, but the advocates of it, and particularly the press, denounc Mr. Donnelly would have sustained his cause better in the long run by one'of those philosophic arguments of which his mind 1s so capable than by the course he has taken of writing a stump speech over- laden with invective. 1t is evident, how- ever, the book was intended not as a contribution to literature but asa part of a red-hot culnggign, and for that purpose may perhaps be more effective in its pres- ent form thay if it had been more caimly and philosophically expressed. [Laird Lee: Chicago. Price, clotk coyers, 50 cents.] i LITTLE KNIGHTS AND LADIES. Margaret E. Sangster has dedicated this volume of verse for children to the Chil- dren’s Order of the Round Table, the great circle of youthful readers who have gath- ered about Harper's weekly paper for young people. The verses are intended for children’s reading. The different poems have in nearly every sinstance a story to tell. They are simple, unaffected little verses-—sometimes musical, often pathetic, and always tender, sympathetic and wholesome. They are adapted to the childish understanding without ever being silly or sacrificing the artistic unities to hyme. “Mrs. Sangster has a real fcllo\\‘shlf! with children. " She oves them and under- stands them. If, as scientists are wont to ell us in these days, the coming genera- ion is alway of more importance than the present, then the most importanc literature of the day is that intended for the perusal of ‘the coming generation. Such fools as can may write our grown-up books without ~ doing irremediable mischief, but the books read by the children should be written by wise and true men and women, Mrs. Sangster has written much tender and sympathetic verse for men and women. She is pre- tly a singer for the people, but in ng out these poems for children she might well have echoed what Lucy Lar- com said years ago: 1 am sure that T would rathe Could I merit so fine a thin Be the poet of little children "Than the laureate of & King. [New York: Harper & Brothers. For sale by Payot, Upham & Co., San Francisco.] THE JUDGMENT BOOKS. Oscar Wilde's tabu book, “The Portrait of Dorian Gray,” is so manifestly the in- spiration of E. F. Benson’s new story, “The Judgment Books,” the reader finds it impossible to disassociate the two in his mind. And yet the stories are quite dif- ferent. ‘“The Judgment Books'” is the better written, althouzh it bristles with the same glering faults of diction that characterize this author’s other book, “Dodo.” The story is of an artist who, after reading “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,” comes across an old cafe chantant pro- gramme that takes him back to his bach- elor days and an episode of his gay life in Paris. ~ In the frame of mind resultant upon this combination he is impelled to aint his own portrait. . Into the painted glcc go all the evilcapabilities of the man’s nature, and more, for he grows hysterical and morbid over it, until at last he has painted the face of a human fiend, and himself looks exactly like the portrait. He has not painted his real seli—only the evil thing he might have been had he not revolted against the evil of his early life. He is filled with horror at his own creation and is only saved from going insane by the influence of his wife, a very beautiful and immensely sensible young woman, who brings him to his senses and makes him destroy the picture, which he does by stabbing it many times, finally cutting it to shreds. There is a good deal of conversation of a catchy sort in the book, and the summer reader who does not care to be taken too seriously when the thermometer is in the nineties will find it readable hammock literature. New York: Harper & Bros. For sale by ’ayot, Upham & Co., San Francisco.] FAR FROM THE MADDING OROWD. How much a novelist’s whimsy may operate to alter geopraphy is well illus- trated by certain influences which Thomas Hardy’s greatest novel, now published by Harper & Brothers, has had in England. In “Far From the Madding Crowd” Mr. Hardy first used the word Wessex, which he had rescued from the pages of English history, and gave it a fictitious signific- ance as the existing name of the district once included in that extinct kingdom. The press and the public took up the fancy, accepted the anachronism of a Wessex under Queen Victoria, aud have made the appellation whereby the author had merely thought to distinguish the horizons and N N X IGNATIUS DONNELLY’S PICTORIAL ARGUMENT ON THE FINAN- CIAL QUESTION. [Reproduced from the title page of his new book, *“The American People's Money."] T = expressed his argument in the form of a dialogue and has illustrated the most effective points in_it_by pictures, some of which are designed with no little force and skill as political cartoons. The controversy between bimetallism and monometallism has been so thor- oughly beaten over during the last four years and has been treated in so many different ways by so many people that even the versatile author of “Ragnarok’ and the ‘‘Great Cryptogram’’ has been able to add nothing to it in the way of novel arguments or new facts. He has put into his argument, however, much of that wealth” of imagery, aptness of illustrative anecdote and eloquence of style for which he is noted. Though the theme is old, therefore, the book will be found inter- esting because of the vigor with which it presents the case for free silver and ar- raigns the gold standard as an injury to the productive classes of the country. It is to be regretted that the merits of the work are marred by the violence with landscapes of his dream country the name of an actual geographical area, where, as Hardy quaintly expresses it, ‘‘People can go, take a house in and write to the papers from.” The adoption by the public of the abso- lute name has its disadvantages for Mr. Hardy, inasmuch as it may in time render some of his scenes a trifle too realistic. He rotests niainst it in a half-humorous way, ut while he could bring the oid name into use he can neyer cause its abandonment. The present edition of ‘‘Far From the Mad- ding Crowd” is embellished with a map of Wessex and_further illustrated with an etching by H., Macbeth-Raeburn. {Nsw York: Harper & Brothers. For sale by Payot, Upham & Co., San Francisco. ALMAYER'S FOLLY, 1t is difficult to understand just why this book should have been written. Whatever may have been the object of the author, NEW TO-DAY. 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CHILDREN'S JACKETS, all ages.. .'82,00, 82,25, ; $2.50 Reduced from 4, $5. Every garment in our house is cheaper than you ever dreamed of. Lok at them. Joseph Conrad, he has succeeded in giving us a decidedly unpleasant and apparently entirely aimless tale. Almayer isa white man of Dutch boer Earemage‘ who allows himself to be bought by a blustering sea captain to marry a full-blooded Malay girl whom the captain has adopted. With his half-savage wife Almayer settles on the east coast of Borneo and becomes a “white native.” The old sea captain disappears. Almayer is weak, shiftless, inane, His affairs go to destruction. He lives in an incomplete ruin of a house which he has built, and which occasional traders have dubbed ‘‘Almayer's Folly.” His Malay wife is half witch, half fiend, and he has one daughter, whom he adores. Almayer becomes mixed ug with a Malay Exirate in certain questionable transactions. is daughter, who under her half-breed skin is a savage at heart, falls in love with the Malay and runs away with him. When he is about to be arrested for his share in the pirate’s misdeeds, Almayer discovers that his daughter is gone, and becomes crazy. There is a good deal of movement and adventure in the book, but it is full of intrigue, of squalor and degradation, and from first to last there is not a genuine, clean, decent man or woman in the story. New York: Macmillan & Co. For_sale y William Doxey, San Francisco. Price BOAT-SAILING IN FAIR WEATHER AND FOUL. This is a particularly timely issue in a library of sport which the publishers of Outing intend issuing. The author isCap- tain A. J. Kenealy, a well-known New York yachtsman, and his little book treats exhaustively of yachting tor the benefit of the amateur. Captain Kenealy is a devout believer in the catboat as a handy craft for the ama- teur sailor. He meets the objections to this form of rig with strong arguments, and his chapter on the choice of a boat is full of useful suggestions and pointers to the would-be yachtsman. Nevertheless he does not overlook the fact that there are other craft of sterling qualities, and what he has to say of the yawl and the amount of pleasure to be found in the stern ot a good yawl with a stiff breeze on is enough to set the amateur sailor’s nerves atingle. There is a great deal of useful information in the book regardin, the management of a boat in every sort of weather, the fitting out for a cruise, laying up for the winter, and seamanship in gen- eral, and the volume is a condensed sum- mary of everything that the amateur needs to know for successful cruising in most waters. The book is amply illustrated with pictures and diagrams_that serve fur- ther to illuminate Captain Kenealy’s com- rehensive text. [New York: The Outing ublishing Company.] THOMAS BOOBIG. A quaint-conceit that might have been made picturesque, but which the author, Luther Marshall, by a neglect to make himself familiar with the pathology of his subject, has only succeeded in making grotesque. Thomas Boobig is a giant. At first a puny boy, he suddenly takes a start and grows nearly a foot in a night. After that for several years he grows, by fits and starts, until, when in the last of his teens, he measures some sevgntinleet in height. Contrary to all that is known of giants and giantism, his intellectual growth keeps lpaee with his physical, and he is a marvel of wisdom as well as of size. 1f Boobig wereonly a little smaller, or the author’s mental concegfion of him were a little clearer, he might have been made interesting. As it is he is a bore, and such a prodigious bore that the reader experiences genuine relief when, in an ef- fort to penetrate to the center of the earth, the giant is swallowed up and never again seen by mortal man. [Boston: Lee & Sheparg. For sale by William Doxey, San Francisco.] POEMS OF RICHARD REALF. The publisher of the San Jose Semi- Monthly Letter has issued a little souvenir in pamphlet form of selections from the poems of Richard Realf. There is always a certain degree of interest centering about t$he name of Realf. His obscure origin, his romantic history and his tragic death all contribute to this. The deep and pe- culiar interest manifested in him in Cali- fornia, however, would scarcely seem justi- fied by the poet’s brief sojourn in this Btate, His name occasionally occurs in lists of Californian writers, but it can only find its way there under a very liberal in- terpretation of the word Californian. It seems almost a pity that this particu- | Jar selection should be made. The book | is so very small that certain poems to which, in all probability, Realf himself | would have attached little weight are | iven undue prominence. This isapt to | e the case with very small collections of | verse. About the only things among the selections worthy of preservation are the sonnets, upon which, so far as this collec- tion is concerned, Realf’s reputation must rest. Here and there, among the other | poems, gem-like lines flash out, but the | setting is often most commonplace. The | vein of poetry running through the verse is an exceedingly thin one. What the poet’s maturer powers might have pro- | duced one cannot, of course, say, but cer- tainly such of his work as is now sacces- sible would not seem _to justify the recent | attempts to bring his name into promi- nence. THE CAT. Lovers of “the harmless, necessary cat” will welcome this book, by Rush S. Huide- koper, M.D., a physician and expert veteri- nary of New York. The volume is designed asa guide to the classifications and varie- ties of cats and a treatise on their care, the diseases to which they are subject and their treatment. 1t is a little curious that, considering the universality and popularity of these pets, there has not been written long since just such a book on cats as this which Dr. Huidekoper has just put out. In hisef- | forts to compile a bibliography of the sub- | ject the doctor has only been able to find ten books to include therein, and of these nearly half treat of the animal from a | purely scientific standpoint. The present volume will doubtless fill a real want, and cat fanciers will find it a very reliable and complete compendium of knowledge pertaining to the selection, care and comfort of auy sort of tabby. {New York: D. Appleton & Co. For sale by William Doxey, San Francisco.] A QUAINT SPINSTER. A story by Frances E. Russell of a queer little old maid who comes into a fortune | quite unexpectedly to all her friends, and utilizes the same in establishing a home" for spinsters. There are a number of these, but all of personality so little defined as to make no impression upon the reader. One of them finally marries and gives the rest something to talk about for th: balance of their lives. [Boston: Lee & Shepard. For sale by William Doxey, San Francisco.] CIENCE - NDUSTRY, LN NN, 3 NGV N o, SN Sn ‘WoMEN’s PATENTS.— &l Up to the present date ¥ * 5200 patents have been registered in the United States Patent Office by women, Many of these are as curious as they are ingenious. An Ohio matron devised a combinatipn washing- machine and seesaw. It consists of a hol- low receiver containing a rotary clothes- holder, which is revolved by the action of a seesaw. The merit of the invention is supposed to lie in the fact that a washer- woman can save her own energy andat the same time afford pleasure and recrea- tion to the children of the neighborhood by inviting them in to ‘‘teeter” the ma- chine, inside which the linen to be washed and a proper complement of soap and water have been placed. A fair Philadel- phian, in protest against the unbecoming- ness of the ordinary life-preserver, has de- signed a shapely life-preserving corset, to be worn “by either men or women’’ when a boating accident is anticipated. One ‘woman wanted a patent on a crimping-pin, which could be used also as a paper-cutter, skirt-supporter, letter file, child’s pin, bouquet-holder, shawl-fastener and book- mark. Another woman took out a patent for a skipping-rope, the” handle of which contained a music-box.” As soon as the child began to skip the music started. A £ennsylvania maiden tried to convince the E“b“c that as a rule human bodies are not ept at the proper temperature in the in- terval between death and burial, and to emphasize her ideas she took out a patent for a corpse-cooler. One of the most novel atents ever issued was secured by a Boston woman on a device for restoring facial symmetry. The idea embodied in the patent was if a gentle, continuous outward pressure were main- tained on the cheeks from within the mouth the full and plump effect of the youthful face would, in course of time, be restored. To effect this two disks, mounted on prongs, were made to press on the in- side of the chreeks by means of a spring at- tached to the teeth. The gem of the col- lection, however, is a request for a patent on “artificial dimples.”” A small spot is to_be smeared on the cheek or chin with colorless shellac varnish, mixed with glue, and the center of the spotis to be pressed firmly with a pencil point until the sub- tance on the face becomes dry and hard “The stiffened indentation thus retains the exact shape of a dimple, and a little face { powder dusted carefully over it will com- pletely conceal the varnish glue com- pound.” The person who adopts this wily device is warned not to “smile too sud- denly or the dimple may be broken, al- though with gentle usage it will last a whole evening, if not longer.”” The speci- fication concludes with an important reser- yation: *“While the dimple process is ap- plicable to those whose faces comprise a soft, velvety or plump suriace, as then a very deceptive dimple can be produced, it is not so available for thin or bony faces, nor where the skin is very thick and un- yielding.” Tre New Arr oF Covror-Music.—Cul- tured humanity is rejoicing in the birth of anew art. Mr. Rivington, an artist and philosopher, has created a sensation in London by describing and illustrating his views on what he calls the new art of color- music. At considerable cost he has con- structed a ‘‘color organ,”” by means of which he produces results inexpressibly beautiful. This instrument putsinto prac- tice certain elements in the undulatory theory of light, which premise that the rates of vibration producing different col- ors vary in much the same ratio as the in- tervals in vibrations producing musical noles. In the color organ the eye de- lighted with music played in color. At- tached to a delicate mechanism isa key- board, and when any key is depressed the color answering to that note is flashed upon a screen. Thus, taking middle C to correspond with the low red of the spec- trum, the ultra violet spectral rays are considered as analogous to B, while the hypothetical low red of the spectrum re- peated, which is even now within a meas- urable distance of demonstration, cor- responds to C sharp of the new octave. The description of the ef- fects produced iz most fascinating. While “some of Chopin’s preludes were being played. the screen was flooded with successive rhythmical waves of har- monious color, from simple to complex, glowing scarlet, gold deepening to orange, exquisite half-tones in mauve, grays, browns and turquoise blue. A waltz of Dvorak showed “the higher possibilities of lovelv complexity, and the overture to ‘“*Rienzi”’ was strikingly beautiful in half tones of color. In fact, the new idea is to combine in the same instrument the rela- tion between the spectrum and the octave, and to demonstrate graphically that each harmony in sound is accompanied by its appropriate harmony in Light. A HosprTAL CaRAVAN.—A novel depart~ ure in the isolation and treatment of infec- tious diseases has been taken by the local authorities in a town in Scotland. It con- sists in putting on the streets a movable hospital in the form of a caravan. The caravan has four wheels and it can be drawn by two horses. It has an air space of 1120 cubic feet, beinf 19 feet long, 10 feet high from floor to roof and 8 feet wide. It has double walls, with an intervenin, space of one and a half inches. One en can be dislodged to allow of the vehicle being placed corridor fashion against an- other. Each van has two beds and is thor- oughly equipped. It is proposed to pro- vide a tender with each van for the nurse or for cooking. Each vehicle costs $500. The advantages claimed for this van isthat it can be taken to the patient, and that the vans in the several districts can be brought together wherever an outbreak of infectious disease occurs. e More than half of the entire cultivated area of Great Britain is now occupied by permanent pasture,