The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 17, 1895, Page 23

JALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1895. 23 ¥ has gone to the country. e was a perceptible falling off in les of Du Maurier’s best book a and a careful canvass of the kstores yesterday showed a d decrease in the demand. 10lesalers, however, are compen- by their steadily increasing orders the small towns. Hence ““Trilby” is i B it is no discredit to the d the City, for the whole- the San Francisco “Trilby” ize was half a year later than in the I'he best.selling book of the week in San co is “The Bonnie Briar Bush,” by McLaren, of whom it was said by critics several months ago that he ould rival Barrie in his own field. That ritical vaticination has more than been lied. The Scotch divine has caused s star to grow dim. 1e next book in the sales of the week is by the same author, “The Days of Auld 1 In looking for an explana- suteess of this author’s works t to run over the gamut of the deepest human emotions, ile strings have felt the hand in the creations of Ian ols ol g.\",_, e next in demand is “‘Count Antonio,” nthony Hope, author of the Zenda Weyman’s “Memoirs of a ' has a good sale, like- **Stark-Monroe Letters,”” by ehas t lest a ose v the >. W. Townsen ‘Chimmie Fad- v den’ took ‘the co storm, has is- sued his new book, *“The Daughter of the Tenements.” Its sale is nothing like that of his reputation-maker; but that may be accounted:for in part by the fact that the $175. ““Chimmie Fadden” sold for competitor for leading popu- ‘Zoroda,” by Le Queux, the Stokes Company. e a sensation in the East. :man Vagabond,”” by Hopkins d Binith, is having a good sale; likewise Face in the Mask,” by Robert Barr, 1or of *‘In the Midst of Alarms.’* er Haggard emerges from _retire- t with & new novel, ‘‘Joan Haste,” being widely read. ‘‘Count An- Hope, and ‘‘About Paris,” by are among the leading sellers . and ““A Comedy of Spasms,” 1a, the author of “The Yellow Aster,” s not far behind them. The same draw- s to price in the sale of Townsend’s er of the Tenements’ is noticed stores. ong the 130 recent works of fiction are rapidiy winning their way to pularity is “The Village Watch Tower,” by Kate Douglas Wiggin. L up on the list of favorites is “The orable Peter Sterling,” by Ford. At Johnson & Emigh’s Kipling’s ‘‘Second | gle Book” is in demand for juvenile iders, and * Casa Braccio,” by F. Ma- ‘rawford, is crowding to the front. sgeneration,” by Nordau, has a firm 1d-on the literary world and maintainsa stéady demand. Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress,” by ¥ promises to_be second only great success, the littie lord and his ny Tracks,” by Frederic Reming- is having a large sale. Mr. Reming- 1's reputation as an artist is based on the great skill displayed m his delineation of horses and horse riders. -— AGAINST HUMAN NATURE. . Miss Wilkins has so thoroughly familiar- ized us with a certain hard, tragic type of New England character that we have come, rightly or wrongly, to accept it as the dominant one. Whoever comes after her in portrayal of New England rural life must necessarily undergo criticism of the comparative sort. Readersof Maria Louise Pqol’s latest novel, “Against Human Na- ture,” will almost inevitably look to her to give us, in Alminy Drowdy, the well- known Wilkins old maid. It is almost with incredulity that we recognize, at the 1 very .outset, a genial rather than | a grim humor about Miss Drowdy, ‘ that is as welcome as it is un-Wilkinsonian. We get the tragic lim- Itations, the .dull intensity and pathos of rural New England life, but there is throughout the book a broad, human sym- pathy, a mellow, nature-loving undercur- rent that in Miss Wilkins’ work is ever subordinated to that author’s severely dramatic selective processes. In ‘‘Against Human Nature” we have a New England old maid-suddenly transported from Hoyt, Mass., to the mountains of North Caro- lina. Of course it is duty that takes her there. Sk goes at the dying request of a lover who, years ago, had treated her most cavalierly, to assume charge of his only child, a :daughter, about 20 years old. ' The girl has grown up ‘‘most anyhow’” in the mountain wilds, with only the ministering care of a weird, half-wild yellow woman, her ser- vant, factotum and_intimate companion. She is bright, moody, attractive, and as far removed from the average girl brought up in Hoyt, Mass., as can we lbfa'imngmed. We have not bad in recent literature a more delicately drawn and thoroughly en- joyable situation than this of the Massa- chusetts spinster, in_her endeavor to play propriety for her weird, attractive, uncon- ventional, hobbledehoy charge. ~Miss Alminy 1s so genuinely conscientious, so convinced that all rules’of conduct are re- ferable to the standard of Hoyt, Mass., that the situation has for™ her ele- ments -of- real pathos. Temple Craw- ford—~the very name, for a girl, sounds heathenish to New England ears—rides mebwk_ all over the mountains at un- sual hours with two great dogs. She | holds tr ts literary demands are six | ysts at daybreak with a handsome | young man, who teaches her to play the violin, and she plays upon thatinstrument ‘o the extreme scandaiization of Miss | | Alminy, who has never thought of such a | thing as a woman playing the violin, For the life of her, M fiss Drowdy could not explain why he should feel so excited. She confessed to herseli that she was ‘‘all creepy | crawly That had been green tea that she had taken with her supper, and_ green tea Elfi\: S did make her drunk. And what was ssembling Love” anyway? She didn’t like the sound of that name. It couldn’t be any | Proper iind of a piece to play, and for & young | woman, and on & fiddie! Her whole life at home rose before her in strong reproach. If this were really Roger Crawiord's aaughter she | would probably never be able to do & thing with her. It wasa mysterious dispensation of | providence that she had been allowed to come down here to North Carolina. The poor maiden lady lives in a perpet- tual state of being shocked, and what shocks her most of all 1s a dim recognition, in her inner consciousness, that she is not, | after all, as much shocked as she really | feels she ought to be. She cannot help | loving Temple. Nobody can. There is a strong, wholesome magnetism about the girl that draws every one to her. The authqr, herself, shows a rare recognition of this quality. scious, woman though she was, of that strange and subtle attraction of mere sex thatisin some women so greatly developed. It isa mistake to assume that only men are aware of this at- traction, this mystery for which there seems no explanation. That woman child who is born into the world possessing this power draws to her unconsciously. 1f she be good we yield unresistingly; if she be bad we make a fight, but we generally yield all the same in the end —unless we run away. Temple Crawford experiences religion and marries the minister whose preaching has converted her. He loves her, but dares not tell herso, as she fancies and he believes that she is marrying her because she is consecrated to the Lord's work, and can do it best as his wife and assistant. They are friends and co-workers, traveling about the country holding revival meetings, but the terrible strain of such a life, “‘against health, but she nearly dies before she and her husband discover the cross purposes in their life together. The book closes | with the final recognition by each of their mutual love. There is, throughout the book, an in- tense love of life.and of nature. Onbe can- not but feel that Temple Crawfora’s deep sympathy with nature, her passionate clinging to the mountains and streams, her keen, vivid joy in just mere living, is ‘fl:e author’s own. This is, of late, a fre- | quently recurring note in any literature, and one that is essentially wholesome. Miss Pool’s story is vivid, dramatic and DR. M. appreciative. It -abounds in san_\" comprehensive character touches, and there is rather a clever bit of railery at a modern fad in the|ije wrong he hus wrought toward her. introduction of Miss MacCullum and | qpjs the fellow, after considerable hedging her Delsartian institute for the cure of | ang hesitation, finally refuses to do, and at | sick nperyes. On the whole, “Against ||} escapes. from the apartment and Human Nature” is one of the most genu- inely readabie books of the present seaso There is a deep human comprehensiveness just | about Maria Louise Pool that is some- 1t has | thing more than insight and something other than art, which makes her one of York: 2 | the most companionable of m-esent-dni writers. .[New Bros. Price $1 Upham & Co.] Messrs. Harper For e by Payot, " wONE ; HERR NORDAU'S NEW BOOK. | Dr.amx Nordau, whose amazing book, ““Degeneration,” gave us such a nine days’ | catching of the breath in the early part of i this year, has recently put forth a drama | which, under the title of “The Right to Love,” is published in this country, in | | translation, by F. Tennyson Neely. In | place of a preface Dr. Nordau has a dedi- | catory letter to *‘Her Excellency Madame { von Nordau of Moscow,’ which he has | this characteristic fling at the critics, be- | fore whom he habitually poses: * ‘The | Right to Love, ”’ Le tells her,"has met with | a favorable reception on every German stage upon which it has been produced. * * % Prominent and weighty period- 1cals have praised it with little reservation and without stint. Yet a few contempt- ible mortals who (by their own confession) wished to avenge themselveson the author of ‘Degeneration,” have made the greatest | efforts to_stifle ‘it under falsehoods, cal- | umny and vulgarity. I know that a sen- sible man ought to have nothing to do with such persons. Yet I was on the eve of succumbing to the temptation of dealing with these worthless folks in a preface to the edition of my drama in book form. “The thought that the playisto be dedi- cated to you came to the uid of my reason, and strengthened 1t for the conquest of gemuer: 0 Y “For the sake of your name I have ex- ercised self-control and avoided a rashness in which I shouid have surrendered too much of my dignity.” Nothing “could be more naively Nordau- esque than this frank lash at his critics over the fair shoulders of *Her Excellency Madame Nordau of Moscow.” One cannot congratulate the worthy doctor too warmly upon the fiallam. recovery of his imperiled dignity, but a suggestion will intrude itself as to what the lady of his dedication possibly thought of his agile performance 1in thus lashing the foe over her shoulders. This notion of a conspiracy of the critics against him is a favorite one of Nordau’s 1n *‘Degeneration’’ he anticipates it with a promptness which would almost lay him ander the suspicion of being himself a degenerate, when he speaks of “‘critics who have tried. to intimidate him into speechlessness.”” It is fortunate for the large class of readers who are able to take the worthy doctor’s famous diatribe with a philosophy which he failed to instill into it, that this fell design of the critics was frustrated. Else we bad missed a dose which was in the main wholesome, al- though by no means justifying its author’s claim for it, that it was “scientific.” “The Right to Love’’ isa drama in four acts. Mme. Bertha Wahrmund is the wife of a German merchant, to whom she was married as a mere child by a widowed mother with a small income, and only too glad to have her daughter provided for. The pair had been married eight years and have two children. Mme. Ber- tha is “touched” with the new ideas of reater freedom for women. A Mme. iurkhard, an artist, is introduced, who flaunts her lover openly in the eyes of the world, and discourses eloquently on ths right of the human heart to love—i. e., thie right of the human heart to follow its own romptings, even when they take it into orbidden paths. This is "a dangerous doctrine to preach to a restless woman who does not love her husband. A friend of the family, Herr Otto Bordenholm, is in love with Madame and wins her heart. She struggles long against the wiles of the tempter. ough she does not love ber husband, she loves truth and detests falsehood, and she will not deceive Wahrmund. But the husband is dogmatic and prosaic, somewhat stern and critical. The lover is ever pres- ent and importunate, and at last she yields and becomes the victim of remorse and Looking ather now, Almina was dtvinely con- | human nature,”” breaks down Temple’s health. She goes to Hoyt, Mass., to| Miss Alminy, who nursed her back to filled with hatred of her own duplicity. She urges her lover to acknowledge openly, before the world, the relation that, deem- ing it justifiable in itself, she yet despises for its dupl but he is a cautious fel- mindful \ess prospects, possibly willing to ntain the integrity of his skin against the outraged Wahrmund’s wrath. But Mme. Bertha, at last unable to endure the falsehood of her position, on an occasion when her husband lovingly protests his perfect trust in her, warns him that his confidence is not justified. A revelation follows, and poor Wahrmund is filled with indignation and grief. Immediately he sends for Bordenholm and offers to allow Madame to procure a divorce if Bordenholm of hfsown Tenmiion andlina by a whisper to render them tract- story there is much that is suggestive of Bulwer’s “Coming Race,” and of the voy- ages on underground rivers so graphical depicted in Haggard’s African stories. The English is good and the author’s ower is evidenced in every chapter. Purdy Publishing Company, Chicago, On sale at Creighton’s bookstore, 40 Turk street.] THE * HORSEMAN'S - WORD. One of the most notable books among this season’s output of fiction is the re- markable romance which its author, Neil Roy, gives the curious title of *The Horse- man’s Word.” The scene is laid among the Scottish lowlands, and much of the action hinges upon certain ancient’ super- stitions that obtain among’ fisher-folk of every land, but especially among those of Celtic origin. The horseman’s word is some mysterious bit of cabalistic lore which tradition*hands down from father to son, from teacher to favorite ’prentice, in the ranks of teamsters and plowmen in rural Scotland. The possessor of the “word’’ is supposed to be able te subdue the most vicious and untamable horses, able and docile. John Morton, the wretched hero of the tale, is popularly supposed to have the *‘word.” He is introduced to the reader in a fear- ful contest with a savage mare, half-crazed naturally, and rendered vicious and dangerous by brutal treatment. Where Morton came from before he sud- denly appeared to do battle with the mare isa mystery. The ignorant and super- stitious yokels of the farm village wherein NORDAU. Wahrmund’s wrath. Now the German merchant rises to_supreme heights. children, his two little daughters, shall not have a discarded wife for their mother. She skall keep his house, rear hie children and maintain the outward semblance of She, who abhorred dissimulation, should be forced to play an endless farce before society, before her children, before her mother, even. She should go to enter- shrink with repugnance from her touch trust, lost forever. Bertha (hiding her face in her hands)— 1 Icannot. Itis too hard. | Wahrmund—Think of the children. Bertha—To die; that is the solution. ‘W. (dully)—For you—not for the chil- ren. (After a pause.) B. (sobbing)—Do with me as you choose. ill atone—till you forgive. | Wahrmund makes a gesture of repulse. | The children are heard entering the ante- | room ealling loudly, *Where is mamma?” | Wahrmund warns her to control herself, | the children must suspect nothing. She | rises and totters from the room. With a | ;.vrfian he sinks into a chair and the curtain alls. p The action throughout is vivid and dra- matie, the dialogue well sustained, but while it is evident throughout where the | author’s sympathies lie, the motive of his | drama is ‘not so obvious. Unless Herr | Nordau desires to teach some etbical lesson in his poor, sordid little tragedy he has produced merely a bit of realism, for the mere sake of doing it, equal in force, in hopelessness and in terror to anything Ibsen has done. Wahrmund was deceived, and deserves sympathy, but not more than Bertha, poor, helpless victim of a social system that bartered her, in her girlhood, to the first man who offered to provide her with a home. That this is anything more than the normal and rightful lot of woman never seems to enter the author’s head. He disposes of her with a cool, doctrinaire brutality that recalls an earlier dictum of his, in which he engagingly defines the healthy attitude of man toward woman, as one of ** desire toward her for the time be- ing, and indifference when the state of desire is not present.'” From beginning to end the conception of her asa living entity, as anything other than an adjunct to her husband, does not seem to have oc- curred to him. Wahrmund is silly, prn%manc, complaining, obtuse. Only at the last in his fearful grief does he rise to anything like the stature of a man to com- mand respect, while Bertha’s whole atti- tude toward her temptation and her sin reveals a noble character, whose suffering is only limited by her own power to feel. Yet tne author’s treatment of her through- out is frankly brutal, for in every one of the dozen or more characters introduced Nordau speaks, and Nordau alone. The translation, by Mary J. Dufford, is very creditable, and” the publishers have put the book out in attractive form. [New York und Chicago: F.Tennyson Neely. Price, $150.] LIFE INSIDE THE EARTH. As a flight of the imagination Charles Aikin’s novel, “Forty Years with the Damned, or Life Inside the Earth,” en- titles him to a place beside Rider Haggard in the list of modern fiction writers of the hiFth imaginative school. The story is told as the translation or record of a hunter’s dream. While in search of game on a mountainside he falls asleep and dur- ing his nap sees a burly negro at the mouth of a cave and the latter tells him a wondrous tale about a forty years’ resi- dence in the bowels of the earth, occa- sional excursions to Mars and the north pole. He also describes in connected story the strange and beautiful sights seen in the earth’s interior, the habits of the stranger inhabitants and the idealic state of ce, love and happiness which pre- vails among the denizens of the mysterious country. The story is well told and the writer’s skill is shown in the almost con- vincing consistency with which the im- probable incidents are evolved from his in some of its flights. In the plot of the domestic _life, but her guilt shall stand | between him and her ever as a speoter. | hood by tainments with him and feel his arm | girl comes tardily into She should suffer herself and see him suf- | fer in the memory of happiness, love and will marry her and in a measure undo | he casts hislot as an_entire stranger at- tribute to him the “ill-fit,” that is, the evil | foot, bringing misfortune into every house and’ every boat whose threshold” or gun- | wale it crosses. By common repute he is | also credited with® being the “kelpy,” the His | mystical, dreaded Satanic horse of the local lake, masquerading for his own evil ends in human shape. In reality he is a | deeply wronged human being,” wronged at birth, estranged from the class in which he belongs by right, hounded from baby: misfortune, bewildered and misled, pursued by batred and dis- trust until the sense of universal enmity makes the man all but a monster. Only a lste-blossoming] love for a dumb his life to save his soul from utter shipwreck and ruin. But even this joy was his but for a brief time. The young wife dies in childbed and the kelpy is once more desolate. He dis- covers and makes good his claim as Earl of Calziel, lord of the whole region through which he has been hunted as an accursed thing, but dies mysteriously in the stall of a_vicious steeplechaser whom he has subdued; dies most opportunely to the avoidance of complications which the reader had contemplated with gennine d From first to last he is a strange and pitiable being, whose career one fol- lows with a fascination not far removed from horror. Unquestionably the book is Laurence Hutton. a powerful one, and we have in Neil Roy a writer to whom we may look in future for something better yet than this, The story is not without its crudities. Here and there it seems to dmg a little and leaves an impression of something less than clearness, but there is through it all a sense of life moved upon by genuine insight and power of interpretation. Mr. Roy is a romancist, whose methods are in the highest degree realistic. He is at times intensely dramatic, with no appar- ent attempt at being so. There are pas- sages in his book that remind the reader strongly of Hardy, although the author by no means attains to the delicacy and sub- tlety, the exquisite finish, of Hardy’s later works. The account of the encounter with the mare and the incidents of the ter- rible storm out of which “‘the kelpy” made his first and unwelcome appearance strikes the note of high dramatic feeling, which is fairly well sustained throughout. Mr. Roy evidently knows his Scotch country well and 1s'a welcome addition to the growing band of Scottish writers now claiming public attention. [New York: Macmillan & Co. For sale by the Popular Bookstore, San Francisco. Price, $1 25.] ol il g THE DOUBLE - MAN, The book just issued from the press of the Arena Publishing Company of Boston under the title of “The Double Man’’ does not vindicate its claim to the dignity of being called a novel. It isa nightmare— a hideous, senseless and pithless jumble of spiritualism and occultism without a half- probable plot to redeem it from absolute and badly written nonsense. There is also much of what the French call risque imagination, which approaches the Icarian | in its dull and witless pages. The student of literature is well aware that the occult affords the novelist of the present day a rich field: Moreover, the popular taste makes it certain _that the writer of fiction on occult lines will *“find a sale for his wares.” But the writer before assaying a mystic fiction should be en rapport with his subject and not con- iouncPthe spiritualistic volgarisms of the day with the subtle, half-philosophic, half-mystic science which Lord Lytton gave to the world of letters in such a finished classic fiction as his *Zanoni.” “The Double Man’’ is the story of a young artist who has become a convert to spiritualism in all its branches. He is in fove with a doctor’s daughter, and before the tiresome, improbable_ tale has dragged its weary length to a finish all those who have come in contact with Don La Velle, the artist hero, have gone insane as a re- sult of their occult studies and investiga- tions, and Ina, the doctor’s daughter, commits suicide very ‘unpromantically by swallowing a quantity of prussic acid. The test of the true novelist’s powers is in the reader’s forgetfulness of the improba- bility of the most improbable tale during the reading. Mr. Dowd lacks that power to a painfully obvious degree, and it is apparent his field is not the occult. [Atena Puglishing Company, Copley square, Bos- ton.] Y6 OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. In London, in the summer of 1877, Lord Beaconsfield, then Prime Minister of Eng- land, in a public speech said: “I have touched upon the health of the peovle, and I know there are many who look upon that as an amiable but merely philanthropic subject to dwell upon; butthe truthis that the question is much deeper than it ap- pears upon the surface. The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their power as a state depend. * * * If the popula- tion of a country is stationary or yearly diminishes, if while it diminishes in num- ber it also diminishes in stature and strength, that country is_ ultimatel doomed. And speaking to those who, hope, are proud of the empire to which they belong, I recommend to them by all the means in their powe to assist the movement now prevalent for improving the condition of the people by amelior- ating the dwellings in which they live. ‘The health of the people is, in my opinion, the first duty of a statesman.”” It was in the spirit of this utterance by the great English statesman that the pres- ent inguiry was undertaken by E.R. L. Gould, Ph.D., under the direction of Car- roll D. Wright, Commissioner of. Labor, into the best methods as yetknown among civilized communities of housing the masses. The results of the investigation have been reduced to a somewhat voluminous report, which ought to prove a vade mecum_ to -all persons in any way in- terested in household sanitation, and especially to those who desire to promote the growth of model house-building enter- prises. The best methods of rendering dwellings habitable; of eradicating slums; of guaranteeing the sanitary character of new buildings; - of multiplying model dwellings, and of developing popular pro- prietorship of homes are presented, not in theory, but as they exist in fact. The in- formation has been prepared after an ex- haustive investigation in the principal cities of this country, and in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and all the laree cities on the Continent. The work is profusely illustrated with eleva- tions and diagrams of model tenements in various parts of the world, and a special chapter deals - interestingly with the economic and ethical aspects of this most practical reform of our modern civiliza- tion. [Washington: Government Print- ing Office. Address United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.] 3 R L0S ANGELEN' MAGAZINE. Itis justa year since Charles F. Lum- mis, the well-known explorer and writer, who had recently returned from an im- portant expedition to South America, took the editorship of the Land of Sunshine, a monthly magazine published in Los An- geles and representative of California and the Southwest. The matter was widely noticed in the newspapers and liter- ary periodicals of the East, and the young magazine—then six monthbs old—began to be quoted extensively in Eastern publica- tions. There was some doubt if a maga- zine of locality eould be made to succeed, but Mr. Lummis’ faith has been that in this age of intense competition specializa- tion is the keynote of success in maga- zines, as in all other business, and the re- sult seems to be justifying the view of that writer. The maglflzine has doubled in circulation and multiplied by a still larger figure its influence, It has forced a foothold in the East. where it is not only on sale at the news-stands but is read for its interest and quoted as an authority on the Southwest. It already numbers among its contributors such names as Mrs. Fre- mont, Mrs. Custer, Margaret Collier Gra- ham, Joaquin Miller, Charles Warren Steddard, John Vance Cheney, C. F. Holder, £.°S. Van Dyke, Grace Ellery Channing, Flora Haines Loughead, Char- lotte Perkins Stetson, C. D. Willard, and many others, and is furthermore finding out and bringing out a little band of new writers of much promise. The Land of Sunshine is a prophet honored inits own country, as is shown in most substantial wise by the business men who have formed a corporation to carry it on. Among them are D. Free- man, owner of the great Centinela rancho, #railroad director and ex-president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; W. C. Patterson, now president of that cham- ber and also of the Land of Sunshine Pub- lishing Company; Fred L. Alles, ex-secre- tary of the National [rrigation Congress; George H. Bonebrake, president of the Los Angeles National Bank; H. J. Fleish- man, cashier of the Farmers’ and Mer- chants’ Bank; C. D. Willard, the well- known short story writer, who is secretary of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; F. K. Rule, auditor of the Los Angeles Terminal Railway Company; Charles For- man,ag{ominent mining man and cap- italist; Harry Ellington Brook, a veteran among Southwestern newspaper men; L. B. Newton, business manager of the Harper & Reynolds Hardware Company ; M. E. Wood, secretary of the Pasadena Board of Trade; John ¥. Francis, capi- talist; C.G. Baldwin, president of Pomona College; €, M. Dayvis, president of the Kingsley, Barnes & Neuner Printing Com- pany; Dr. William Le Moyne Wills, a lead- ing ‘physician; Charles Cassat Davis, a prominent attorney; F. W. Braun, head of the great wholesale house; E. W. Jones, capitalist; W. H. Holabird, manager of the great Chino ranch; E. E. Bostwick, ex-State Printer of Kansas; Andrew Mul- lin, merchant. The directory also includes Mr. Lummis as vice-president and manag- ing editor, and F. A. Pattee, oneof the founders of the magazine, and now its secretary and business manager. The list of stockholders is made up of men who are not only of literary sense, but of the foremost business standing in Southern California. They evidently in- tend to make the magazine a permanent part of life and letters on the coast. DI, “Queen Esther to Ahasuerus” is the sub- title of this new volume in Laird & Lee’s Golden Rod edition of fiction. The story is a very free rendition of that most pictur- esque of Biblical love stories, the story of Esther. The author, Mrs. T. F. Black, ac- knowledges her indebiedness for descrip- tions ot the ancient Persian domains and the customs and manners of the people to the histories of Messrs. Rawlinson and Rollins, It would have been better could she, lacking persoral knowledge, have de- rived her information from literature, always a surer and juster guide to the na- ture and life'of a people than history can ever be. Thecharacters that figure through the scenes of her book are unquemonal'fiy historic, but they are unquestionably not Persian in the sense of giving us a glimpse of Persian character, They are suggestive, by turns, of the Greeks and the Romans’ and, more frequently than anything else, they are medieval English, but never once do we get a glimpse of Persian character, such as could have easily been drawn even from a comvaratively superticial knowl- edge of Persian classics. The light- hearted, nimble-witted, volatile, subtle and always insincere Oriental is evidently an unknown quantity to Mrs. Black, and her ignorance of the national foibles is not atoned for even by her at times too elaborate arrangement’ of the historical mechanism of the times. It is too palpably mechanical, too purely historic, to Ee of any value as a serious study of the condi- tions she wishes to present. As a story ‘‘Hadassah” does not approach, in purity of style or height and depth_ot human pathos and romance, the sacred narrative, while as a picture of the time with which it deals the tale is wholly valueless. [Chi- cago: Laird & Lee. Cloth, gilt top; 75 cents.] A SOX OF THE PLAINS. A story of the early days of the once famous Santa Fe trail. The author, Arthur Paterson, has become well known to American readers through his earlier books, “A Man of His Word” and “A Daughter of the Nez Perces.”” *‘A Son of the Plains’ is by no means his best work. It is a commonplace portrayal of frontier life, with ail the regulation accompani- ments of frontier scoundrels, fair maids captured by Indians and rescued by im- possible young noblemen in the rough, who fall in love with and eventually marry the imperiled fair ones. 1In fact, the story is so thoroughly commonplace in its some- what tame presentation of a hackneyed theme that one is prompted to regard with surprise the imprint upon the title-page of the house of Macmillan, which is usually a guarantee of li:erari' and artistic excel- lence. [New York: Macmillan & Co. For sale by the Popular Bookstore, San Fran- cisco. Price, $1 25.] : CHILHOWEE BOYS IN WARTIME. This is another of Sarah E. Morrison’s Chilhowee stories, than which no better books have been written to give our young people a clear idea of pioneer life in this country when it was still “the New World"” from which old England was loath to ioosen her grasp. The scenes of this book, asin the earlier volume, “Chilhowee Boys,"” is laid in Tennessee during the War of 1812. The trials of that terrible time fell with peculiar hardshiQ upon the pioneers of that State, and Miss Morrison, who. seems thoroughiy familiar with the life and customs of that date and region, tells a delightful story of adventure and boyish courage. She is a chronicler of real events, and the Chilhowee boys as she shows them were stuff of which everyloyal young American has reason to _be proud. [New York and Boston: T. Y. Crowell & Co. Price, $1 50.] GRACELAND'S GRAVES. A peaceful city lies over there; Never a heartache. never a care; No more longings for brighter days Nor fruitless strivings for higher ways. Peace with the world, at rest in God: Home once more to the kindly sod, Where roses bloom and the fresh grass waves A gladsome vigil o'er Graceland’s graves. Some summer morning when skies are bright, Some night in winter when snows are white; It matters little the time or when We shall bave done witn the cares of men; Goue the way where our fathers led Into the mystery of the dead; Seeking the peace the spirit craves, Choosing & home 'midst Graceland'’s graves. None can know the burdens borne, Nor the cruel weight of vokes we've worn; The broken idols were all our own; The lips wonid smile when the heart would ‘moan; Bravely acting each one his part, Hiding the dead hopes in his heart; We come to the stilling of the waves; And Sunset leaves us at Graveland’s graves. And when we're gone from the haunts of men Will the world have less of sunshine then? Will mother, sister, sweethes i Love more of etornity, less of life? Are we building a monument high and grand, Or a dingy hovel upon the sand? S0 we ask our hearts as the mind o'erstrays To the peaceful city of Graceland’s graves. EUGENE FIELD. THE STARK-MUNRO LETTERS. The latest of Conan Doyle’s books con- ceals under a rather blind title a very read- able volume. It is called “The Stark- Munro Letters,” but should have been named “The Adventures of a Physician in Search of a Practice.”” The story of the start in life and struggle.for success cf a young English doctor furnishes the reader with a series of sixteen delightful chapters in epistle form, filled with fine thoughts, striking situations and running comments upon science, religion, society, and in fact about everything which furnishes food for the active brain of ambitious youth. The book is one of the best of Conan Doyle's later stories and will be read at a sittiug by whoever gets interested in the thread of its well-told narrative. [Published by D. Ap- pleton & Co., New York. For sale at Doxey's. Price, $150.] AT THE YOUNG CONDUCTOR “The Young Conductor, or Winning His Way,” by Edward S. Ellis, is'one of the Through on Time series. Mr, Ellis has won an enviable reputation as a writer of juvenile fiction, and ‘rhe Young Con- ductor” is in his best style. Dick Faral- lon, a youth 17 years of age, with $10 in his pocket and a solid though plain education for his capital, is the hero. He starts out in the werld to make his mark and his fortune after the death of his uncle, his only remaining relative. At the outset of his career he saves a railway train from destruction and is rewarded for his cour- age and quickness of thought by being taken into the employ of the company. The interest of the story centers in the struggles by which he attained a success- ful manhood. Dick is not an idealized boy. He isdepicted asan earnest student, honest and brave, and wins the success which awaits every lad who possesses those qualitics and is willing to work. It is a_well-written story and the moralis ood. [The bhierriam Company, New ork; price, $1 25. LITTLE BOY ON THE HILL. “The Little Boy Who Lived on the Hill,” by Annie Laurie (Mrs. Orrin Black), just issued by Doxey, is from the Murdoch press and .isa gem of the typographical art. It isa story for children, written in Annie Laurie’s best style, and the illustra- tions are by Swinnerton. Asa Christmas book it is one of the prettiestof the season. LIFE OF ADOLPH SUTRO. Eugenia Kellogg Holmes has published a neat little book entitled “Adolph Sutro.” Itisa well-written story of the eventful and successful life of the present Mayor of San Francisco and contains many illustra- tions by Carl Dahlgren, among which are a portrait of Mr. Sutro, many viéws of “The Heights,” *‘Seal Rock,”” “The New Cliff House” and ‘‘Sutro Baths.” HRST_S_ o This book is now in its second edition, a proof of the appreciation with which it was met on its first appearance. In his work, the author — E. Hampden-Cook, M.A.—has sought to reconcile many of the Biblical records with the apparently irre- concilable discoveries which have come with modern thought. How well he has succeeded must be left to the standard of truth and consistency fixed in the mind of the individual reader. As has been said, “the Gospels and Epistles of the new Tes- tament are not poetry, but plain practical prose.”” Common-sense, therefore, re- quires that their language should be in- terpreted not indeed literally, but in ac- cordance with the usages of every-day life. It is true, as well, that not a few ot the unhappy divisions and schisms in Christendom are mainiy due to the neglect of this principle. The author throws a strong light on the obscure passages. This second edition contains a number .of hymns by Tidd Matson. [London: Simpe kin, Marshall & Co., limited. Cloth, one and sixpence; paper, one shilling.] CHIPS DOGS. F. P. W. Bellew, known to the readers of Life and other standard humorous publications as *‘Chip,” is one of the fore-. most humorous sketchers and carica< ture artists of the day. ‘‘Chip’s Dogs” is a neatly printed volume, in board, of Mr. Bellew’s best sketches. It is printed on extra heavy paper, is typographically per« fect and would be an ornament to any library or drawing-room. [R. H. Russell & Son, publishers; for sale by Doxey, 631 Market street.] LITERARY NOTES. Macmillan & Co. will publish this month a novel called “The Grey Lady,” by Henry Seton Merriman, whose former story, With Edged Tools,”” has won for him a well-deserved popularity. “Being a Typewriter” is the suggestive title of a readable paper in the December Atlantic, by Alice €. Bull. It treats of the relation of the machine to literature. “The Sources of American Federalism” is the sabject of a recent paper by Proe fessor William C. Morey, published by the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The purpose of the essayis to show the beginnines of the federal system on American soil, and to suggest the hise torical principles upon which its origin must be explained. “The History of Oratory, trom the Ace of Pericles to the Present Time,” by Proy fessor Sears of Brown University, will be published by 8. C. Griggs & Co. It purs ports to give a connected account of tha origin and growth of oratory as an art and as a science—especially of Jorensic, delibe erative and patriotic oratory—and shows that there is a philosophy of discoursa based on mental and moral action, and ex+ emplified in the successes and failures of representative orators through many cene turies. “The Income Tax Decisions, as an Obs ject Lesson in Constitutional Construce tion,” by Professor Christopher . Tiedes man of the University of the City of New York, one of the recent publications of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, is an essay which should attract wide attention among lawyers and students of political science. The Authors’ Journal for November ig an interesting number. Its special ‘‘featy ure’’ is @ forcible article on “The Practical in Literary Life”’ by Judge Tourgee, but the most interesting article perhapsisan anonymous one, ‘‘Reputation by Inheri~ tance,”” which charges that one of the mos§ popular authors of the day (whose name i3 not given)is a literary fraud, as the book which gave him his reputation was written by his fatner. A nuniber of additions havi been made to the “White List of Editors,’ which is a department published monthly, Ewing the names of periodicals that deal onestly with contributors. Other spes cial articles are: *‘Writing for the Stage” by Ciarence Herbert New; “The Proposed Authors’ Trust,” by Charles Rowland “The Public Taste in Plays,”” by Sir Henry Irving (an interview); ‘-Within the realm of Fiction,” by Walter Barrett Browni “‘Authorship as a Business,” h?' Leon Mead; *‘Curiosities of Criticism,” “Twa Practical Suggescions to Young Writers,”* “Pen Pictures”; a sketch and portrait of F. M. Bird, editor of Lippincott’s. In ad- dition there are the usual departments, “The Manuscript Market,” giving the month’s births, deaths and changes in the periodical world; “Notes of Authors,” etc. A il BOOKS_RECEIVED. Tae RETURN oF THE NATIVE; by Thomag Hardy. New York: Harper & Bros.; 1 50. 3 Acainst HumaN NATURE; by Marig Touise Pool. New York: Harper & Bros.; $1 25. Tue CARYED L1oxs; by Mrs. Molesworthe London: Macmillan & Co.; $1. OrnER T1MES AND OTHER SEasoNs: Laws rence Hutton. New York: Harper & . Bros.; 75 cents. U~DER A Mystio SPELL; by Harold Less lie. San Francisco: Griffith Publishing Company; 50 cents. A LiFE oF CHRIST FOR YOUNG PEOPLE; by Mary Hastings Foote. New York: Harpez? & Bros.; $125. THE LAND of Provise; by Paul Bourget, Chicago: F. Tennyson Neely; $1 50. Forty YEArs WITH THE DAMNED; ORy Lire InsipE THE EARTH; by Charles Aikin, Cloth; 422 pages. The Purdy Publishing Company, Chicago; Creighton’s books store, 40 Turk street. A Sox oF THE Prains; by Arthur Pute nam. Published by Macmillan & Co. New York and London; for sale b, Doxey. San Francisco; $1 25. TaE Ri¢uT 10 LovE; by Dr. Max Nordait, English translation by Mary J. Saffor authorized_edition). _Published by F. ennyson Neely, New York and Chicago, THE CHARLATAN; by Robert Buchanan and Henry Murray. Published by F, Tennyson Neely, Chicago and New Yorkj. for sale by Doxey. TuE Curist Has CoMe; by E. Hampden- Cook, M.D. Second edition, paper, 180 pages. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Ham- ilton, Kent & Co., limited. Cloth, 1s6d; paper, 1s. su1p's Dogs, a collection of humorous drawings by “Chip.’” F.P. W. Bellew, R. H. Russell & Son, publishers. For sale by Doxey, 631 Market street, under Palace Hotel. TrE DousiE--MAN, a novel' by F. B, Dowd. Cloth; 303 pages; price $1 25. Arena Publishing Company, Boston. THE YoUNG CONDUCTOR, OR WINNING His ‘Way, by Edward 8. Ellis, author of the “Brave and Honest” series. Cloth; 246 pages;_price $125. The Merriam Come pany, New York. [ Lol S ot o £ 8 &7 o2 &2 X &2 : 9 ¢ ¢ 3 : may be said of any cigar; but § there’s a difference in the KIND of smoke. ; Try the sweet, fragrant smoke of the NEW La ESTRELLA Cigar, (pure all-Havana Key West) whose fame of many years intead of ‘‘ending in , smoke”” is now spreading like wildfire. New sizes. All mild. Every cigar banded. 2 for 25¢.—10¢.~3 for 25c. l [ S o)