The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 5, 1896, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY' 5, 1896. 238 SEEN BY SOUTHERN EYES A Gurious School Hi States by a “DIARY OF A PECULIAR GIRL,” BY A NEW AUTHOR An Unknown Writer Gontributes Pictures of Upper English Society in a Vein Above the Mediocre, Under the Title, “A » Touch of For some years past there have been heard from various quarters in the Southern Statcs a demand for a school history that would give a Southern view of the war between the States. This demand may have arisen from a real de- sire on the part of the Southern people for such s history, or it may have been worked up by some Southern publishing-house that de- sired a contract for supplying such a book. Whatever may have been the cause of the de- mand, it has at last been gratified. We have received the complete advance sheets of the book, which was written by the Rev. John W. Jones, D.D., and bears the title “A School History of the United States.” Mr. Jones, who served during the war asa chaplain of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was later & chaplain of the University of Virginia and secretary of the Southern Histor- ical Society, is the author of several works and holds high rank in Southern litera- tu this work, however, he makes no erary excellence. The history is lently intended for primary classes. Itis ded into short paragraphs, dealing with nts of our history in the order of urrence, and no attempt is made to nnect the psragraphs in any literary se- e. They simply follow one another like s in an almanac. At the close of each here follows & series of questions for se of teachers in making examinations. Southern character of the book is shown sny ways. Nine pages are given to an unt of the settlementof Virginia alone, ly six to the settlement of all the New i States. Four pages and a half are de- dto & biography of Jefferson Davis, and nly one to &n account of Lincoln. Asamat- f course the right of secession is asserted, the whole course of the war is treated from & Southern standpoint. There is, however, no stiempt 1o inculeate sny hostility to the nion as it now exists, nor is there any un- irness in the statements made of the events war or the causes which led to it. was, of course, to be expected that the | th would tell her side of the war story and | ve her view of its causes, and it is moreover | very natural in Southern people to desire that | ldren should learn history as they es understand it. Itis bardly likely, | g, even to the South. The author is evi- dently too old a mar and lives too much in the past to deal rightly with the great issue. w00l history of the Republic is cer- | | very much needed. Neither the North | nor the West, any more than the South, has one that it can be proud of. Whichever sec- | tion produces one will bea benefactor to all, | n schools for a Southern history than there is in the nonconformist schools of England | for & Puritan history of the daysof Cromwell. | [Baltimore: R. H. Woodward Company.] The T uch of Sorrow. The identity of the author of this story, which deals with the Englisn upper classes, is not revealed, but “The Touch of Sorrow” is = study from life doubtless, by some woman in society. The book possesses more merit than the average novel of the day; there is Dothing unwholesome about it; its perusal cannot be altogether unprofitable, and the book will be Iaid down at the close of the story with satisiaction. Stella Morecombe is “The Study.” Asachild she has lived a curiously solitary life, undisturbed by any deep emo- tions. Her mother is dead; her father’s life is daily taken up with the cause of science, and she is brought up by her governess, who only | succeeds in winning from her pupil an easy tolerance in place of affection. It was her pe- | culiar gift that she knew when she was happy ; her peculiar difficulty that she feared sorrow intensely. She was impatient with any one | he world who was not as radiant es | If and resented the faintest shadow n across her path, Her happiness is un- in love-making and marriage. Trouble comes to branches of her family, but | scenes of funereal woe create in her a strange natural repulsion. Her heart seems stony eTe is woner at her callousness. Many who loved her love her no more. Then Stella becomes & mother and she adores her babe. Death takes her little one away and in her depth of woe Stella litts her voice and heart | to heaven. At last God seems to take the h of loneliness away. Over the flower- | ae grave of the babe the fond ones of | old are clasped in love aud tears and all old | wounds are heaied. “Death was there and | h also, for Stella felt dimly that & new soul 1e 10 her and to those who stood about | s radisnce was visible in her face.”— [New York: Henry Holt & Co. For sale by Dadge Book and Stationery Company; price | §1.] The Diary of a Peculiar Girl. This is a new Yook by a new author—George Austin Woodward. It is written in a fairly bright style, though there hardly appears within its pages sufficient of incident, start- ling or otherwise, to merit its length. Indeed, the whole book could well be condensed into & breezy sketch of a few thousand words. Tne “peculiar” girl in the book acts tous very much after the pattern of any other yonng feminine person. Those whom she ad- mires she charecterizes as “nice”—the others are “horrid.” She drives, reads, trotcs and diarizes in & precisely similar way to hundreds of her class and Circumstances. She also pro- tests vigorously ageinst the embraces of a young masculine acquaintance, wherein, pe; haps, she may not resemble other “peculiar’ girls, though this may be » libel on them. The “Diary of a Peculiar Girl” will serve to pass an idle hour during the summer vacation. [Buffalo, N. Y.: The Peter Psul Book Com- pany, 420 Main street.] Checked Through. Richard Henry Savage has written a story of the detective order relating to New York City life, in “Checked Through—Missing, Trunk No.17580.”" Itisissued in the Rialto Series, No.73. Some flashlight views of darkest Tam- many are given, and the reader’s interest is kept up throughout. The story has much to do with metropolizan police and their meth- ods, end s striking part is played by a million- airess detective, The nature of the plot may be judged from these cogitations of a chief of | police, at the close of the tale: “In thirty vears of police life I've tried to find out why nnocent often suffer in place of the guilty, 1 have failed to find the answer, either in codes or in the counsels of the wise. There something strenge in the uselessness of crime; something awful in the terrible rush- ing tide of temptation; something mockingly 1 in the final fruitlessness of evil deeds. But for cold heartlessness, for crafty brutality, for a devilish unpitying wickedness, give me #lways the educated man or woman who goes wrong. There’s no limit to their fieudish- ness” [Chicago: Rand, McNaily & Co., pub- ‘»*Y"'r; For sale at the bookstores; price 50 cents.] h An Army Wife. The works of Captain Charles King are al Wars awaited with ifiterest by a large circle of readers. His latest contribution to American CTature, “An Army Wife,” is a real love story, fashjoned from the intrigues of wome: #0d set in the severe military life of a Western fort. While not the best of Captain King’s | are some strong scenes in the book. [New works it §g i very readable and fully sustains | Appleton’s Town and Countiy Library. The | 1aughs the idea to scorn. Shecan’t find it in '¢ Teputation of the author. If we want to | gale by Dodge Book and Stationery Company; story of the Ur\iterd Gonfederate Sorrow” love and retail gossip in a frontier military fort, a perusal of “An Army Wife’’ will furnish the desired information. [New York: F. Ten- nyson Neely. For sale at the bookstores.] JENNY’S COMING HOME. Guess yon knew it by my face— By the roses round the place; By the birds in blossoms sweet; By the violets 8t my feet: By the whispers o' the May— Jenny's coming home to-day ! Jenny’s coming home: O birds! ‘ Match your music with her words! Winds from windows o' the west, Toss her bright curls to my breast! Blue skies bend above her way— Jenny’s coming home to-day! Wish the weary time would go Faster than a river's flow; Every hour's my enemy T1ll her lovely face I see! Only this T sing or say: Jenny’s coming home to-day! enny’s coming home!” It seems Like & song I've heard in dreams: Like a faint, far, soothing note From an unseen thrush’s throat! All the pipes o' morning play : Jenny’s coming home to-day ! Jenny’s coming home! FHer eyes Make the sunlight in life’s skies: Wealth I w00 not—fame may flee When her dear arms necklace me! Sweetest music o’ the May— Jenny’s coming home to-day! FRANK L. STANTON in Atlanta Constitution. The Dancer in Yel ow. Another novel for summer rezding is “The Dancer in Yellow,” by W. E. Norris, issued in heroine is Daisy Villiers, a queen of burlesque, ‘who is married in secret to Frank Coplestone, & younger son of a British nobleman. Frank begs the girl to quit the stage and assume the name to which she is entitled, but Daisy her blood to leave the stage while she is able to win the plaudits of admiring audiences and the especial praise of lordly people. Mean- time Frank's boyish passion cools and he is the object of attentions from a beautiful widow, who has been engaged to a de-| ceased brother of Daisy’s husband. This | brother’s death brings Frank into line for his father’s title and estates, and suddenly the father's demise makes Frank Lord Cople- stone. The latter even then is faithful to the | dancer in yellow. , She breaks down, and it is then that, with a spirit comparable, in & way, to that which existed in thebreast of the humble “’Ostier Joe,” the lord. takes Daisy Villiers to his home, where she dies as Lady Coplestone. It need hardly be said that Daisy had outlived her reputation, and she was glad to die in order that greater happiness might come to Coplestone ina wiser marriage, and that the title of his house might receive no stain from her. The widow before alluded to befrienas Daisy in her last hours, and afterward succeeds to the title of Lady Coplestoue. Lord and lady then keep gay with weving daffodils the grave of the Dancer in Yellow. [New York: D. Appleton & Co. For sale by Doxey; price 50 cents.] The Story of Cuba. There is little either of novelty or of value in this book, by Murat Halstead. It appears to have been compiled from clippings taken from newspapers of recent date which are yet fresh in the minds of those whe have followed the various phases of the Cuban troubie in the public press. The author has acted as corre- spondent of various daily journals at the seat of war and hence may be supposed to have gathered considerable information regarding the situation. The somewhat pompous dec- laration of Mr. Halstead that he enjoys “the confidence of the Cubans” and the “candid expression of their interoretation of events” scarcely justifies the presentation of a mere scrapbook of clippings. Nor is his “sense of duty to the veracity of history” sny further apology for his work. [Chicag: The Werner Company.] Patmos. This unveiling or interpretation of the Book of Revelation is one of considerable value to the student of theology, to whatever denomin- ation he may belong. The work has been done and admirably by Rev. Charles Beecher, the author of several works of a like character. The author in an interesting manner deals with the Apocalypse of St. John, treating of the environment of the apostle, the character of the vision and the literalness of the symbols in the light of history, altogether a work that will commend itself to theologians as casting much light upon disputed questions in that most difficult of scriptural subjects, the Book of Revelation. [Boston: Lee & Shepara. For sale in this City by William Doxey; price $150.] Isaac Pitman Shorthand. ‘The publishers of the Isaac Pitman system of shorthand, always notably to the fore in in- creasing their already large library of phono- graphic works, have just published a new edi- tion of their *Teacher.” As in the case of many other things British, American students of the art of brief writing were loth to take hold of the new importation, preferring to ex- pand their energies upon some system which promised a fabulous rate of speed at the end of one week or one fortnight's study. The ex- perience of older shorthand writers, however, has demonstrated that all such mushroom sys- tems were valueless and totally incapable of producing even fair results. Some three years ago Clarence Pitman, a nephew of the vener- able Sir Isaac, was sent out to New York to es- tablish a branch of the London and Bath es- tablishments. To-day the Isaac Pitman system is recognized by the public schools of New York and in other large cities. The Teacher mentioned previously costs 20 cents and can be heartily recommended to those wishing to pursue a fascinating study which has stood the attacks of more than half & century of time and which will prove both useful and remunerative to thestudent, [New York: Isaac Pitman & Sons; the Phonographic Depot, 33 Union Square. For sale by all book- stores.] Lady Val’s E oprment. No. 183 (July issue) of Lippincott’s Select Novels containe John Bickerdyke's socfety novel, “Lady Val's Elopement.” A long serles of painful misunderstandings in love affairs end as happily as a day in June. The book is in two parts, and the reader is given diversion from the discords in London’s upper cireles by the introduction into the story of an anarch- ists’ club, intent on righting the wrongs of the world and incidentally destroying all the rich people. The story is interesting and makes #ood reading for the summer vacation. [Phil- adelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., publishers, Prjee 50 cents.] A Stumbler in Wide Shoes. In the Protean Series, No. 6, the latest novel is “A Stumbler in Wide Bhoes.”” The hero is Rupert Van Hals, a Dutch artist, and the story is one of temptation and seli-sacrifice. The scenes are 181d in Holland and England. There York: Henry Holt & Co., publishers. For know how they live; how they act, talk, make price $1.] H NlVERSALP ()a.mi“é It 1a perhaps not generally known that the great French astronomer and sclentific popularizer, Flammarion, loves from time (o time to pene- trate benesth “the outside of things” and to seek the soul of pature. In his sclentific romance, “Uranle,” occur many beautiful, true and highly poetic allusions of this Kind; but in a collection of his wrliings on various natural subjects entitled, “In Heaven and Earth” (Dans le Ciel et sur le Terre), we find ‘a little chapter 50 profoundly charming and unlike the ordinary works of “un- devout sstronomers” that we may be excused for transiating it for the ben efit of our readers. 1t 18 headed ““The Universal Pra One summer’s evening T had quitted the flowery slopes of Sante Adresse, a delicious marine villa hung upon the hammock of the hills, to mount westward the heights oi Cape Heve. When one looks at these heighis from the foot of the cliffs one imagines colossuses of stone reddened by the suu, motionless giants who are present as petrified witnesses, at the formidable movements of the sea, and who feel them dying st their feet. Theseenormous masses, inaccessible from the shore, alone ap- pear worthy of dominating the grand specta- cle. Beside them, as when near the sea, man seems so small that he soon loses sight of his own existence and ieels himself united with the mingled life which hovers over the sound of the waves. I had mounted gradually to the nigher leve!, where the signals stand to announce to far-off ships the hourly movement of the tides upon the shore, where the light kindles at the coming of the night like a fixed star upon the dark immensity. The glorious orb of day was still suspended. glowing in the clouds of pur- ple. * * * Above, the blue sky crowned me with its purity. Below, the heather, peopled with active insects, raised its couch of per- fumes. 1 waiked to the scarped edge, at the bottom ot which yawns the abyss. At the edge of the vertical bluff the eye dominates the im- mensity of the sea, whiclr extends to the left, from southeast to northwest, and if itlooks down perpendicularly the sight is lost in the depth of the green escerpment of the rocks and brushwocod, a rourh carpet, spread at three hundred feet below this rampart. The roar of the waves barely mounts to here, and the ear only perceives a uniform sound, of which the wind sustains the murmuring intensity. It is a silence, this far-off chant of the sea. Nature was attractive tothelastadien which the prince of light was giving to the worla be- fore descending from his throne and disap- vearing under tne liquid horizon. Calm and reflective, she was assisting &t the universal prayer of the creatures; for they were praying their holy orison of thankfulness as they re- ceived the last glance of the good sun; all, from the soft and solitary medusa, from the starfish with his purpie fringe, up to the chirp- ing grasshoppers, up to the snow-halcyon, all were thanking Him pioasly. And it was like incense rising from the waves and mountains, and it seemed as if the tempered rumbling on the shore, the breeze which blew from the continent, the embalmed atmosphere, the light dving into the serenity of the blue, the cooling of the ardors of the day, as if all things in this place had con- sciousness of their existence, and participated with love in that untversal adoration. To that holocaust of the earth was united in my thoughts the attractions of the spheres, not only those which bring near or draw away our globe irom the sun’s eenter, but agein the sympathies of all the stars grevitating in the imicensity of the heavens. Above my head were extended the sublime harmonies and the gigantic movements of the celestial bodies, The earth was becoming an atom floating in the infinite. But from that atom to all the suns of space, to those whose light takes mil- lions of years to reach us, to those which lie unknown, beyond human ken, I felt an invisi- ble bond atiaching in the unity of a single creation all the universes and all the minds. And the immense prayer of the immeasurable heaven had its echo, its strophe, its visible representation in that of the terrestrial life which vibrated around me, in the sound of the ses, in the perfumesof the shore, in the last note of the bird in the woods, in the confused melody of insects, in the moving assemblage of that scene, and above all in the admirable illumination of that twilight. 1 looked. Butl was so small in the midst of that rendering of thanks that the grandeur of the spectacle 6vercame me. I felt my per- sonality vanish before the immensity of na- ture. Very soon it seemed to me that I could neither speak nor think. The vast sea ex- tended infinitely. I no longer existed, and my eyes were covered with a veil. I gazed with- out seeing, lost upon the mountain. The sea fled into infinity, and the creatures continued their prayer. And the sun, source of that light and of that life, looked for the last time above the horizon of the seas, and when he had received that homage of all the creatures, which none amnong them had tnought ol refusing, he ap- peared satisfied with that day, and descended gloriously toward the hemisphere of the other peoples. Then a great silence took place in nature. Clouds of purple and gold flew toward the royal couch and hid the last blushing gleams. The waves were. soothed, for the wind which swapt them upon the beach had fallen. The little winged beings went to sieep, and the star, forerunner of the evening, kindled in the ether. 0 mysterious Unknown!” cried I; “great Being—immense Being! who are we then? Su- preme authority of harmony, who, then, art thou, if thy work is so great? Poor human mites who think they know thee. O God! O God! Atoms—nothings! How small we arel How little we are! “How great thou art! Who then dared to name thee for the first time! Who is then the proud madman who for the first time pre- tended to define thee! O God! O my God! all powerfulness and all tenderness, sublime and unfathomable immensity! “And what name to give those who have de- nied you, to those who do not believe in you, to those who live without a thought of you, to those who never felt your presence, O Father of Nature. 0,1 love thee, I love thee! sovereign and unknown cause. Being whom no human speech can name, I love you, O divine princi- ple! butIam so small that I know not if you hear me.” As these thoughts rushed out of my soul to join the great aflirmation of entire. nature, some clouds withdrew from the sunset and the golden cadence of the enlightened regions in- undated the mountain. “Yes! thou hearest me, O Creator! thou who givest to the little flower of the fields its beauty and its perfume. The voice of the ocean does not drown mine, and my thougit rises to thee, 0 my God! with the prayer of all.”” From the top of the promontory my sight ex- tended to the south like to the west, over the plain like over the sea. Turning I perceived the human cities half hidden upon the shore. All Havre, the shoppiug streets were iliu- minated and, further on, upon the opposite side, at Trouville, the car of pleasure lighted up its lanterns. And while nature had recognized herself be- fore God to salute the mission of one of his faithful stars; while all creatures had united their prayers, and the roaring flood of the seas joined with the evening breeze its movements of thanks at the end of that beautiful di while the created work, unanimous and hushed, had offered itself to the Creator; the creature, gifted with an immortal and respon- sible soul—the privileged being of creation— the representstive of thought—man—lived apart, heedless of these splendors, having eyes 10 see not, ears to hear not, seeming to ignore that universal harmony in the bosom of which he should find his happiness and his glory. ~ A STUDY OF THE SOUL The San Francisco Book on “Reincarna- tion” Reaches a Fourth Edition PAN-RUSSIAN EXHIBITION AT NIJNI NOVGOROD “The Life and Distinguished Services of the Hon. William McKinley,” With Prefaces by Chauncey Depew and dJohn Sherman There has appeared a fourth edition of Dr. Jerome A. Anderson’s ““Reincarnation,” and there has also been a German translation of the work, all of which would seem to prove that there is a great deal of intereit in the subjeet treated by Dr. Anderson in this book. Asits name implies, the work isone that treats of that ever fascinating problem contained in the queries, “Whence cameI?” “WhitherdoI go?” There is no human being of intellectual power sufficient to formulate these questions who has not asked them. Christianity, as taught to-day, deals with but one of the ques- tions, the latter, and with this in varying ways, most of which are entirely unsatisfac- tory to & very considerable proportion of men and women who are nominally Christians. “Reincarnation is the only explanation for both of these questions,” says Dr. Anderson, and he says it in a scientific, philosophical and yet altogether interesting manner—and evi- deutly believes it himself. “We are born on this earth many, many times,” he says, and he arguesit out upon that line with a showing of much logic, and many circumstances and analogies eited from known laws of nature would seem to bear him out. “Life can only be explained philosophically by reincarnation,’” says the author, and it may be noted in passing that some of the greatest sages the world has known have held the same belief. When they brought the blind man to Jesus they asked him if the mau were born biind for some sin of hisown or for his parents’ sin. “And how could he be born blind for a fault of his own if he had not previously ex- isted?” esk these latter-day believersin the very ancient teaching of reincarnatioa. The introductory chapters of Dr. Anderson’s book are devoted to the -‘nature and origin of thesoul” and the presentation of physiologi- cal evidence in support of the existence of the soul. That the book has gone through three editions aud now appears in the fourth speaks emphatically for its human interest, at least. [Reincarnation: A Study of the Human Soul in Its Relation to Rebirth, Evolution, Post- mortem States, the Compound Nature of Men, Hypnotism, etc., by Jerome A. Anderson, M.D., F.T.S. The Lotus Publishing Company, 1170 Market street, San Frao 0, and 144 Madison avenue, New York. Price $150.] WHEN WE ARE PARTED. When we are parted let me lie In some far coraer of thy heart, Silent, and from the world apart, Like a forgotten melody; Forgotten of the world beside, Cherished by one, and one alone, For some loved memory of its own; o let me in thy heart abide When we are parted. ‘When we are parted, keep for me The sacred stiliness of the night; That hour, sweet love, Is mine by right; Let others claim the day of thee! The cold world sleeping at our feet, My spirit shall discourse with thine— When stars upon thy pillow shine, At'thy heart’s door I stand and beat, Though we are parted. HAMILTON ATDR The Pan-Russian Exhibition. We are in receipt of the comprehensive guide-book of the Pan-Russian Exhibition of 1896 st Nijni Novgorod, issued under the di- rection of the Imperial Commission. The book of 240 pages is replete with iaformation concerning not only the fair but the town and the country about it, and contains some very interesting historical sketches accompanied by appropriateillustrations by Russian artists. The Nijni Novgorod exhibition buildings will cover an area of 230 acres, somewhat larger than that of the Paris Exposition of 1889. This Russian fair will probably be an astonish- ing revelation to the world at large, as it will demonstrate what wonderful progress the Czar’s people have made since 1882, when the last Pan-Russian Exhibition was held in Mos- cow. The guide-book gives a retrospective glance over what has been achieved in the em- pire during the thirteen peaceful years of the refgn of the predecessor of the recently crowned ruler of all the Russias. [St. Peters- burg: Edward Hopve, publisher; issued by order of the Ministry of Finance.] Life of McKinley. The Whitaker & Ray Company of this City have published a small work dealing with “The Life and Distinguished Servicesof the Hon Wil-. liam McKinley, and the Great Issues of 1896."” The book deals with the subject in a compre- hensive manner, and the same is introduced by short prefaces by Chauncey M. Depew and Hon. John Sherman. Quite a considerable portion ot the essay 1s taken up by the domes- tic Liféof the Republican nominee for Presi- dent. There is also included a sketch of Gar- ret A. Hobart, the nominee for Vice-President. The price of the book is $1 50. The Centary for July. The opening article in the July number of the Century is by Marion Crawford, the third of his papers on Rome. It is devoted to *“St. Peter's” and is fully illustrated by Castaigne. Mr. Crawford, who knows his Rome by heart, gives his first impressions of St. Peter’s, the reveries in the crypt, and describesthe funeral of Pius IX, the music of St. Peter’s and the sculpture and painting in the cathedral. The contents of the number also include a number of topics prominent in the public mind. There is the third and concluding paper by James Bryce, giving his impressions ot South Africa from a recent visit. This takes up the rela- tions between the Boers and the Uitlanders thatled tothe Jameson raid. A glimpse of the disputed territory of Venezuels, with an account of the Guiana natives, the white settlers and the gold workings, is given by W. Nephew King. It is accompanied by many illustrations. Apropos of the alleged identification of Marshal Ney with a North Carolina schoolteacher, there is printed a hitherto unpublished family record of the marriage and execution of Ney by Mme. Cam- pan, who wrote the memoirs of Marie Antoi- nette, accompanied by an introduction by a relative of Mme. Ney, George Clinton Genet of Greenbush, N. Y. “An Arctic Studio,” an il- lustrated article by Frank Wilbert Stokes, is a description of the northernmost studio of the world, established during the Peary expedi- tion. Mr. Stokes pictures with pen and brush the charms of Arctic scenery and the nddities of Esquiman life and character. The frontis- plece of thenumber is a portrait of Bulow, the pianist, to accompany s paper of recollections and anecdotes by one of his pupils, Bernard Boekelman, which places Bulow in a kindly light before the publi¢, emphasizing particu- larly his service to the art of music. A novel- ette by W. D. Howells, an “Idyl of Saratoga,” is begun, and there is a story of the Chinese quarter of San Francisco by Chester Bailey Fernald, entitled “The Pot of Frightful Doom.” Literary Notes. Queen Margherita- of Italy is about to pub- lish & book about her Alpine experiences. Professor Rontgen’s great-grandfather was a cabinet-maker, whose works were so famous that Goethe alludes to them in his “New Melusina,” written in 1770. Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. are calling special attention to *‘Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto,” a forthcoming work of fietion in which Abraham Cahan breaks virtually new ground. Messrs. Arnold & Co., Philadelphia, have in press “Not Without Honor,” a novel, by Wil liam D. Moffat, whose name is already well known to juvenile readers. Smith, Elder & Co. of New York have in preparation a new edition of Robert Brown- ing, edited by Augustine Birrell. The only complete Browning now in the English market cost over £4. The German Empress has defrayed the ex- penses of a trip to Italy undertakeu by Jo- hanna Ambrosius, the now famous peasant poet, for the benefit of her health. Itis a nounced that the sale of her volume of verses continues unsbated. F. W. Bourdilion, in revising his edition of “Aucassin and Nicolette,” has collated the text with the unique MS. at Paris, besides re- vising the translation and rewriting the intro- duction. In this edidon there wilt be four- teen additions to the bibliography. Mme. Cora di Brazza says that her fortheom- ing book, “A Literary Farce,” will be pub- lished this month by the Argna Publishing Company, and will be followed in the autumn by “The American Idyl,” a romance of the Slerra Madre Mountains, from her pen, Professor Cook of Yale has offered a prize of $50 for the best unpublished poem, of not more than 100 lines, upon some subject con- nected with history or art, to be submitted on orbefore May 15,1897. The competition is open to a!l students of the university. The Rev. Dr. William Elliot Griffis, who is preparing a biography of the late Charles Carleton Coffin, requests all who knew the dead writer to aid him in his work by sending him all material, such ss anecdotes, reminis- cences, sayings, etc., to Ithaca, N. Y. Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, author of “Bird- craft,” has written for early publication by the Macmillan Company s child’s story, “Tommy- Anne; or, The Three Hearts.” It aims to give childfen an acquaintance with Nature that will develop into a life-lo ng friendship. Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons have in press “Camping in the Canadian Rockies,” by Wal- ter D. Wilcox, being an_account of excursions and explorations in the country near Banft and Lake Louise and in the Selkirk Range. Mr. Wilcox gives the main features of the ge- ology, botany, fauna and climatic conditions of the mountains. R. D. Blackmore is or of the. oldest living novelists. He has just celebrated his seventy- first birthday. George Macdonald is, however, his senior, being 72. Among other English novelists who are getting on 1n years are Mr. Meredith and Mrs. Oliphant, who are each 68. Miss Braddon is 59, Walter Besant 58, Ouida 56 and William Black 55. Th e volume on “Burns” in the Famous Scots Series will be from the pen oI “Gabriel Se- toun,” whose “Brainecraig,” “Sunshine and Haar” and “Robert Urquhart” have given him adeservedly high place in the ranks of Scot- tish writers. “‘Gabriel Setoun” is the nom de plume of T. N. Hepburn, who, like another Edinburgh writer of some note, J. Logie Rob- ertson, is a teacher. “In a Conning Tower; or, How I Took H. M. 8. Majestic Into Action,” by H. 0. Arnold-Fors- ter, M. P., is about to be reissuea atsixpence by the Messrs. Cassell of London. It has passed through several editions in its more expensive form, and translations have appeared in French, Spanish and Italian. The new issue is illustrated by W. H. Overend and will contain & new preface by the au thor. Admirers of the Chap Book, and their name is legion, will be glad to welcome the bound copy of the fourth volume of that publication, which has just been issued by Herbert §. Stone & Co. of Chicago. By seeing the Chap Book in this shape one car: gain a clearer and more comprehensive view of the atms and realiza- tions of the editors than can be had from the single numbers. William Doxey has the vol- ume for sale in this City. The New Amsterdam Book Comvany an- nounces the following books for summer read- ing: *“A Stable for Nightmares; or Weird Tales,” by Sheridan Le Fanu; *“The Shadow of Hilton Fernbrook,” a romance of Maoriland, by Atha Westbrook; ‘“An Adirondack Ro- mance,” by Caroline Washburn Rockwood, and new editions of W. Clark Russell’s “An Ocean Free Lance,” illustrated by Harry L. V. Parkhurst, and “The Copsford Mystery.” ‘When Rudyard Kipling was assistant editor of the Pioneer, a leading paper in Indis, he spenta vacation in Rajputana, and wrote for its columns a vivid account of some of the old Rajput cities under the title of “Letters of Marque.” According to the Atheneum, they were republishead in pamphlet form, but with- drawn owing to some difference with regard to the copyrights. This has now been amicably settled, and the letters will probably be brought out soon. In connection with the prices at which some early editions were disposed of at the sale of the Crampon Library, last montn, Critic says itis worth recalling that the sum Milton re- ceived for “Paradise Lost,” a copy of the first issue of which was sold for £90, was £5; and for the “Vicar of Wakefield,” for which £65 was paid for & 1776 copy on the same day, Goldsmith received £60. Longfellow, by the way, received perhaps the largest sum ever paid for & poem, $4000, for “The Hanging of the Crane.” As the Westminster Gazette remarks, it was a happy ideaof John Murray to secure the services of Byron’s grandson, the Earl of Love- lace, for the editing of the definitive edition of the poet’s works which he is to publish. Lord Lovelace is the son of Ada, whom Byron spoke of as “the sole daughter of my house and heart,” and has always taken a great interest in all that concerus his distinguished relative. In addition to the new material collected for many years by Mr. Murray, who is himself & Byron expert, the edition will contain unpub- lished MSS. and letters contributed by the editor from Lord Byron's correspondence witn Lady Byron and other persons. Altogether, the edition promises to be in every respect worthy of the poet’s fame and of the historie publishing-house with which he had such in. timate relations. A Journalistic Error. The poster design published on this page June 21 last was erroneously labeled, “An Original Design for a Modern Art Poster, by a CaLL Artist.” This was au error for which THE CALL now desires to amend in every way possible. The design in question was copied almost directly and with but very slight changes from the Msy Cosmopolitan. The caption should have read, “Design for a Mod- ern Art Poster, from the Cosmopolitan for May,” and this line was set, but, unfortu- nately, and with no intention on the part of the editors, was supplanted in the form by the line published and which had been “standing” forseveral weeks. THE CALL has no desire, nor no need, to “pirate” any iliustration or matter, but aims always to present to its readers the best attainable on that day and give credit ‘where credit is due. Every man should read the advertisement of ‘Thomas Slater on page 11 of this paper.