The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 22, 1896, Page 21

. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1896. _— e . THE GREAT COMSTOCK LODE ~Its Discovery Forms t he Basis of an Inter- esting Story of the West 'CHARLES H. SHINN TELLS OF THE BIG BONANZA " The Days of the Great Strike Admirably Described by One Who Faithfully Portrays Both the Bright and Dark Sides of Mining Life THE STORY OF THE MINE—By Charles How- ard Shinn. New York: D, Appleton & Co. For gale by William ™ Doxey, Palace Hotel] price The industry of mines and mining is so bound up with the history of Cslifornia and of the States bordering upon it, that any liter- ature bearing upon the two can alwaysbe sure of a weicome at our hands. Mr. Charles Howard Shinn of the University of California has contributed to Appieton's Story of thal West series s work entitled, “The Story ‘of the Mine, as Illustrated by the Great Comstock Lode of Nevada.” From the editor’s preface we learn that Mr. Shinn “does not aim at a comprehensive his- tory,” but he “illuminates its salient points.” As will be seen from the title he has taken up for review more particularly that most roman- tic event in the mining history of the State of .Nevada—the discovery of the Comstock lode. e has quoted statistics, facts and figures. " f5uthe hasusea these as a background only. | . connection with them he has painted a orrect picture of the life of the miner from | the days of the gold rush of 1848-50 to the present. He has besides entered minutely -1nto the processes used in finding, testing and working ores, has described the great me- | * chanical problems solved by the prospectors, and has shown how mining communities have been productive of men “with vast capacities for love and hate, for sarcasm and laughter, for terrible wrath and for sublime seli-sacri- fice.” Itis interesting to learn that noless a per- sonage than the late Horace Greeley made a remarkable prophecy regarding the then neglected region, afterward covered with prosperous mining camps, in & speech de- livered on the pisza of Placervilie in the summer of 1859, He said: “Lastly I have come across & desolate and terrible country, a land seemingly worthless forever—the great American desert. But I believe that the Almighty has created nothing in vain, and as 1 have passed over this awful region the thought has fixed itself in my mind that since itis certainly useless for every other purpose it may bea land of vast mineral wealth. If that be so it will take 100,000 Californian miners 100,000 years even 10 prospect it.” Certeinly & remarkable prediction viewed in | the light of after events. | The first quartz prospectors spoken of by | Shinn were the unfortunate Grosh vrothers. They bad no capitel and few friends. Notwithstanding the fact that they were the virtual discoverers of the rich Com- st ode they seem to have been pursued by ill-fortune and died without reaping the bene- fit of their vast mineral discoveries. “01d Pencake” Comstock was working in the mining district which afterward took his name et about the time the Grosh brothers were engsged in prospecting. Mr. Shinn de- | scribes Comstock as *‘a curious combination of | | understanding and sympathy which make for a perfect National unity.” EMANUEL ELZAs, A CHARMING GIFT-BOOK. TALES OF LANGUEDOC—By Samuel Jacques Brup, with an_introduction by Harriet W. Fres- ton. Tilustrated by Ernest C. Peixotto. San Francisco: William Doxey. Palace Hotel. Price $1 50. In the present work Professor Brumof the Leland Stanford Jr. University has collected a number of old-time French legends, some of which have been handed down by tradition in his own family. The “Tales of Languedoc,” thus published, possess & threeZold interest. First, they will be read by students of folklore as something quite new in this field of literature. Professor Brun’s woik is entitled to rank with fhatof Joseph Jacobs, who has charmed a large circle of readers both in England and America with hissimple Provencal stories’ and ballads. In the secord place, these quaint old-time fairy tales will be a grateful aid to the mother who until now has sought inspiration for delight- ful talks with her tiny tots from the brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and lastly, they will be found worthy of a place in every nursery library for the use of children of somewhat larger growth. - idenl of beauty in one form, he doesn't try to make stone images of & whole people.”” “Do you think that our fiction writers are showing signs of the degeneration Nordau talks of 7 “No; on the contrary, I think that we are improvifg. We are combining reality to life with beauty of style. I have strongly opposed the ideas of Max Nordau. Ido not believe that the man is sincere. “Itis in the line of realism that the future of our fiction lies, I believe, and it is here that we are showing genuine promise. I have al- | ways beld that that was the work at which the writer should aim. We have no idealistic work in this country now. Nathaniel Haw- thorne was, to be sure, one of the greatest masters of romanee, but he (has left no suc- cessor, and I do not expect to see one appear.” Mr. Howells declined to draw any compari- sous between the work of American writers and that of the Scotch school, whose popular- ity has grown so rapidly in this country. He expressed himself as pleased with the shorter sketches of Barrie, but said that he was unac- quainted with Barrie’s novels or with those of Stevenson. | Inspeaking of poetry, he said: “The Ameri- | can epic is not destined to appear, I think. No epics are being written nowadays. We have not the kind of civilization requisite to produce them. But the outlook for American poetry is, on the whole, promising.” “What do you consider especially good among recent American poemns?’” “Why, I think that colored man, Dunbar, hasdone some extraordinary work,” was the | Teply. “And James Whitcomb Riley's latest | Poem, ‘A Child Worid,’ is alovely thing. Then | there is Kipling, Ashe is an imperial English- | man we can ciaim relationship with bhim, I | think, His poetry is unusually good. Heisa young man yet, and if he keeps on at the pace he has set he will do all that could be expected of him. In fact, he is doing that now.” DICKENS' GREATEST HERO. | Who is the greatest hero created by Charles Dickens? Why, Sydney Carton. What did he do? Why, he laid down Mis life for his friend, and surely no man hath greater love toan this. It is & peculiar paradox that claims the most unheroic hero of Dickens as the greatest, says the Newcastle (Eng.) Chronicle, vet there is tittle of the heroic In Sydney Car- ton when first we meet him in *“A Tale of Two Citles,” % Briefly, Sydney Carton and & man named Darney, very like him in form and feature, | fall in'love with the same girl. She is French, shrewdness, vanity, ignorance and spasmodic energy. A Canadian by birth, he haa been | successively trapper, trader and miner.” | Comstock appears to bave possessed @ char- | acteristic traditionally attributed to Ameri- | cans, of claiming everything in sight. No | Fooner weas a strike made than Mr. Comstock appeared and intormed the lucky prospectors that they had been working his claim. This seems to have been the sole reason why the rich mining reglon in the southern part of Nevada bears even to-day the name of the Comstock lode. The days of the Great Bonanza are admirably | described by Mr. Sninn. He has written some good character sketches ot Stewart, Sharon, Mackay, Fair and Flood. A striking instance of Sharon’s way of doing business 1s pished a conversation held between James of the Sierra Nevada haron, who was then in control ies at Virginia City. and without a word of explana- ai can you run & rallroad from Vir- to the Carson River? itat once.’' . Inside of twelve months s completed. ie figures quoted by Mr. Shinn will iteresting. Take the discovery of the Consolidated Virginia mine for instance. 15t the stock consisted of 108,000 shares. hundred tons of ore per day was being aken out and $250,000 of builion per month ed. In September, 1874, the shares were worth $37. So carefully was the dis- covery guarded that nobody knew the value of these stocks excepting those who were work- ing in the mine. The greatness of the discov- as not appreciated. In December, 1874, Consolidated Virginia was worth $610 a share, and oue month later $700! Then the West gave the fmews, and it was 1 that in one mine there was $116.000,- 000 in sight and by some it was set down at 300,000,0001 his is, of course, the bright side of the reat Bonanza, but Mr. Shinn is quick to see d appreciate the reverse ot the picture. e is a clever piece of description of & ne once only too familiar, now happily far ess frequent: “There, in Pauper alley, one velk any time ir business hours and see creatures that once were millionaires and lead- ing operators. Now they live by free lunches in the beer cellars and on stray dimes tossed to them for luck. Women, t0o, form a part of the’ wretched crowd that haunt the end of the alley where it joins its more pros- perous neighbor streets and beg every specu- lator to give them & ‘pointer’ or to carrya share of stock for them. These are the dead ‘mudhens’ es the men are the dead ‘ducks’ of the stock-share gamblers. Horrible things one se¢s and hears of here. Old friends you thought were prosperous, but had not heard of for years, snove themselves out of the hud- dle and beg for the price of a glass of whisky. There stands a once prosperous printer in rags. He took flyers on the street too many times. Yonder beggar lost $£400,000 in a single sum- - mer, all good gold. The ghost of many & mur- dered happiness walks unseen amoug these half-insane paupers as they chatter like apes of lost fortunes and of the prospects of their favorite stocks. Really it is & frightful thing * to walk there and look at the seamy side of the " silken garment of fortune.” A solid chapter is devoted to the building of the Sutro tunnel—that marvelous enterprise whicn was contemptuously referred to by the contemptuous opposition to its builder as a “coyote hole.”” One cannot but admire the man who, deserted by powerful syndicates and financial backers, stood alone and finally succeeded in saving his property from ge- struction. “Even his enemies,” says Mr, £hinn, “began to yield unwilling admiration ‘to bis bulldog tenacity. ‘That little German Jéw will undermine the Comstock’ became a saying among the capitalists.” Included in the present work are some in- feresting chapters touching upon the interfor workings of a mine, These are fully Illus- trated and will form no mean factor in heightening the Interest felt by the reader in the book. Mr. Shinn has modestly and unos- tentatiously performed a good work. His book unot fail to revive interest in the not-yet- otten story of the days of 1849. To use words of the editor of this series of works: “The miner, though transformed in many WeYS, 18 & figure of the present as well as the past, and in presenting him and his work in this volume Mr. Shinn has not only contrib- .uted to American history something of lasting value, but he has also furnished for those who sometimes read between the lines another reason {01 pride in the qualities which have conquered this continent, and an aid to the e of \ CHARLES HO In the stories narrated by Professor Brun he has followed the broad lines laid down by older writers of imaginative stories for the young. He presents to us the gallant youth of noble mien and heart who sets forth to seek a fortune, who performs a kindness to a flock of geese or & swarm of flies and is by them assisted to wed a king’s daughter. These and similar improbable incidents are nerrated in astyle that will appear to the young reader with a force equaling that created by a perusal of the adyventures of Ali Baba or Aladdin. We heartily welcome Professor Brun’s work in the direction to which his talents have led | him and shall be glad to see more of it. Men- tion should be made of the work done by Ernest C. Peixotto, who has ably seconded the efforts of the author in his graphic illustra- tions. The Californian artist has caught the spirit of the stories and the pictures will ndd much to the interest of the work. The press and mechenical work generally has been well attended to by Mr. William Doxey, under whose superintendence these tales are pub- lished. As & gift book for the holidays, ‘‘Tales of Languedoc” will doubtless hold a prom- inent place. It is certainly ome of the best books of folklore which it has ever been our privilegg to inspect. . AN EPISODIC MZRRIAGE THE_FIRST PERSON—By Maria Louise . Harper & Brothers, New York: price For sale by A. M. Robertson, Post street, N ¥y This is a tale of love and fame, with the scene laid in New England, where the writer seems at home in delineations of the country people of that land. The girl who telis the story in the first person is Wilhelmina Arm- strong, whom her intimates cell “Billy” for short. Her father is a New England horse- trader, whose not very aamirable peculiarities she describes as frank’y as if it was tke third person telling the siory instead of the first, A great operatic singer, Miss Leonora Runciman, who is a woman of whims, discovers that Billy has a voice with possibilities, and takes a fancy to train her and have her asa companion and protege. The novice learns too well to suit the teacher. Jealous of being outdone by her own pupil Miss Runciman shows her dis- like so plainly that Wilbelmina was too proud to stay in the company. She immediately takes the train for home. Miss Runciman’s nephew, who is & singer in her opera com- peny. boards the same train. He and Billy were in love with each other and he persuades her 10 marry him immediately. Some months later she learns that this man, Vane Hildreth, had a wife living in Paris at the time of his de- ceiving marriage with Wilhelmina. Now Leo- nora Runcimen’s better nature shows itself, and she is sincerely sorry for the deceived girl. She gives Billy $5000 with which to go to Europe and study music. In the farewell in- terview of the one-time lovers she sald, “You deceived me because yon loved meso.” On thfs sentence two very different interpreta- tions might be put, and we are left in doubt as to whether she spoke in irony or In the deepest sympathetic kindness. His farewell gentence was, “Miss Armstrong, you can regard our ac- quaintance as a slight episode in your life,” HOWELLS ON LITERATURE. Wiiliam D. Howells has decided views on literature. He hasexpressed some of them to a reporter thus: “The best features of our fiction are its finish and its excellent porurayal of life,” said the novelist. “Next to the French ours is the most artistic fiction, and the truest. While no great three-decker novel has been written on American soil, I do think that much of our work is extremely faithful to a vast number of the phases of our life. No novel can covera great proportion of the types which this coun- try affords, for the range is todvaried. The ‘great American novel’ will not be written, I think. Itisno more feasib'e for the novelist WARD SHINN. | and loves Charles Darney, and Sydney takes | his fate like a man. He has an interview with her, and when all is understood between | them, Sydney promises never to trouble her | in that way again, and sccepts ber friend- | ship. He keeps his word wonderfully. Bril- | liant of mind and trained in the law, he is the spaw of the jackal, of a big talker named | Stryker, who makes his way in the courts, and | Wwhose cases Sydney works up. Meauwhile, he is leading a dissolate life. Drunken and careless, he lives on, 6eeasion- | ally visiting the peaceful home of the woman | he loves, now a hapoy wife and mother. Her Lusband is really descended from the French nobility, end his family have made themselves | specially hated by the people of the great | revolution, of which time the story treats. A humene visit by Darney to Paris is the op- portunity of his being arrested as a vile aristo- | crat of tne house of Evremonde. For months he is imprisoned; and, after many triais, finally condemned to die. His wife, his child, his father-in-law, are 1n Paris, powerless to save him, but careless, willful ney appesrs on the scene, and by deftly playing checkmate to 8 5py, he obtains access to the cell of the con- demned Darney. Sydney has taken precaution to obtain a drug,and uses it upon Darney when the latter refuses to take advantage of hislikeness to pass out of the prison-house, leaving Sydney to meet the guillotine. Dar- ney is carried senseless from the cell by the spy, who represents him as Carton overcome with grief for his friend. And Sydney is left in the cell with a few minutes between him and death. Kind, gooa- hearted, careless, lovable Bydney. And even | then he thinks not of himseli. He finds & poor little seamstress, falsely accused of plottin and helps her to die bravely. And then he taken and killed, thinking of a greater sacri- fice than his own. And when they looked at him dead, it was said no sweeter face had fallen from the guiliotine’s blade. And no wonder. Well might Dickens’ biographer say: “There is no grander, lovelier figure than the self-wrecked, self-devoted Sydney Carton in literature or history.” TALE OF A WHISKY CURE. “GASCOIGNE'S GHOST” — By C. B. Burgin, @yew York: Harper & Bros. Forsale by A. M. Robertson, Post street, Cily; pricesl. This is & narrative of characters of mingled depravity and nobleness. The two principal characters, Gascoigne and his father, who is his “ghost,” after thoroughly disliking each other for a time, at last each discover the latent generosity of the other’s nature, Richard Wayne, the father, who is adrunk- ard, is left a legacy of $10,000. To maxe it safe he leaves it all to his son, Ray Gascoigne, who is ashamed of his father and takes his mother’s name. Ray is anxious to marry Miss Marchmount for her money. He takes his father to her house fo dinner and here Wayne gets drunk. The son denles his relationship to his father and the old man goes home and hecomes very ill. He is treated successfuliy with a cure for alcoholism. Being a brilliant newspaper writer, he now offers the use of his talents to Ray, In order to save the latter's paper from impending ruin. Ray repents, and not to be outdone in generosity, he deeds the paper to Wayne. FOR CHRISTMAS. TOTEM TALES—By W. S Phillips. Star Pub- lishing Company, Chicago: price $1650. For by A. M. Robertson, Post street, City. These Inaian legends were gathered by the author during his travels among the tribes of the Pacific Northwest. He has {llustrated them with & large number of pen sketches taken on the spot. It 1s & book to suit the boys and girls at Christmas time. The author first told them to some little friends of his and they became 80 much interested in them that they would be ever begging for “just one more story.”” The Indian peculiarity of tale-telling is followed as nearly as is possibly consistent with the mak- ing of thém comprehensible in English. They 5 to treat the whole National life of America | are not the mere inventions of an imaginative than that of Italy. We resemble the Italians closest in our extreme decentralization, “As a matter of fact, no novel yet written | around the campfi brain, but are the real myths and legends told by the professional story-tellers of the tribes in the big woods at deals at large with English life, or French or | night. They breathe tho poetry and love of Spanish or Russian. Writers can do justice 1 | mystery of the Indian nature. They tell of fragments, but not to the whole. It is all superstition 10 think they can, When an wrtist carves outastatue he crystallizes hif | Waters, “The Talking Pine,” “Tha Song of the Waters,”” #The Dance of the Wind,” “The Great “The Tale of the Demons.” “The Birth of the Sun,” “The Rainbow,” “Yelth and the Butterfiy,” and are full of the forest thoughts of the wild people wWho dwell in close communion with nature. BITS OF CHILD-VERSE. By FRaNkLYN W. Lee Blue Eyes. Blue eyes that shine in the gloamicg— Frankly xnd hopestly blue; Blue eyes aglow with a lovelight Sober and tender and true; What will you see in the future, When, from the boyhood estate, Time brings a man to do battle Ever and ever with fate, Blue eyes, so sweet and so tender, Life is not always a dream— Often man’s eyes §row aweary, Beauty is never supreme. Learn, then, to fashion a curtain, Subject to sense and to will; Look, when you may, at the better; Curtain yourselves from the i1l Blue eyes, I sigh in the twilight— Would that you e’er might retain Some of the beauty they showed you Once on the heavenly plane! 1f you but treasure it always, Life will seem better to you— Blue eyes that shine with a lovelight Sober and tender and true. A Piea for Ghildhood. You do not know—you cannot tell What megic lies in each caress From baby hands; for childlhood’s spell Binds not all men; and so, unless You love a child, you cannot tell. You do not know—you do not dream How potent is that childish laugh; For ears must understand the theme The treble besrs. It tells not nalf To those whose hearts unconscious seem. You do not know—you do not think How near to heaven these wee cnes are; They stand upon & sun-clad brink— Sweet treasures sent us from afar Eeach little hand a tender link, The Kir\gaom of No-Name. You have heard of the wonderful kingdoms Which lie to the east of Cathay, Where the people are laden with-jewels And life is a beautiful play; Where the labor is done by the brownies; Where fairy folk live with the rest; Where the moments arc just as they should be, And days are brightest and best. But I know of another queer kingdom, Where life is a midsummer dream, And the quaintest of odd little people Apert from the rest of us seem. It is found in & room where two children Are monarchs of all that is ther And the oldest has eyes like the morn-mist— The younger is blue-syed and fair, If you stand in the hallway and listen To what they are saying inside, You wiil fancy that though it seems crowded, Their realm is surprisingly wide; For they bring from the sunshine around them, In answer to manaeates they give Such a congress of iantastic bemngs That one won s where they all live, There are gnomes in profusion and fairies As serfs to the King and the Queen, And the oddest of relatives, neighbors And friends from the sunlit unseen, They are there, though we may not behold them, Nor hear what they say in reply, For the Queen and the King are not lonely And moments ere spurred as they fiy. "Tis the Kingdom of No-Name I speak of— A realm where the children may reign Till the years banish brownies and falries And devastate all their domain. They are happier far then the rulers Who govern thefr States with a nod, For the wonderiul Kingdom of No-Name Is close to the Kingdom of God. My Lady Tippet. My iady’s tippet is of gray, And gray her eyes and gray her muff— A mousie sprite with winning way, She peeps from o'er a velvet ruff, My Lady Tippet has a grace No queen could copy if she tried, While eyes of gray ne'er looked from face 80 charming and so beautified. Her laugh is like a silver bell That tinkles in the frosty air; Her smile is like afairy’s well, Reflecting all the witcheraft there, Her step is soft, her touch is light— As soft and light as eiderdown— And sweet her ways, which make me knight And bid me for her win renown, My Ledy Tippet loves me true— She tells me 5o in tender wise Whene’er she gives the kisses due To prove the love that underlies, And me? Ah me! no cloud I need, Eince she brings sunshine every day; But life would be a blank indeed Without the child in tippet gray. FASCINATION OF HORROR. THE CARISSIMA, A Modern Grotesque — By Lucas Mallet. Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicagos vrice 81 50. For sale by A. M. Robertson, Post ireet, City. Every one to his own taste, and this book will suit those who like something really ex- cellent in the way of an uncanny, unhappy, blood-curdling story. It tells that there are peopie in this life who have seen the Thing- too-much, gone clear to this world’s limit and looked over the wall and consequently have forever after a haunting fear. The hero of the tale while traveling over the barren wastes in the mining districis of Africa comes upon a dead camp. He Is sick with fever, weary, thirsty and lonesome. The people oi the camp were ghastly corpses—victims of thirst ina desert. The only living thing there was a miser- able yelping cur tied under one of the wagons. Close to the dog lay the body of a little girl just big enough to have been able to toddle to its old playmate. The brute had been living on the blood and meat of the child. Forever after the ghostly image of the dog haunts his imagination. It makes him seem a madman to the woman he loves. It spoils his life. He ends the horror of it by suicide. The writer has a wealth of words and puts them together in a way that makes the reader shudder, A FIRST POETIC FLIGHT. THE SOUNDING SEA AND OTHER POEM:! By Jobn F. Garvey. The Hicks-Judd Cflmunys" Han Francisco; price 80 cents. For sale by Witilam Doxey, City. This is a small collection of verses sent forth as a first venture by an author who “has no 2pology to offer or ambition (o shine for other than what he is”’ He remarks that an un- heralded poet is a'fihlnin: mark for satire’s trenchant pen, butlwhile thus reminding us that the critic’s attempted mortal thrustsare only the following of stereotyped custom he disclaims any wish to ward off serious criti- cism, Thisis only a beginning, and he ex- presses a desire to do better worl ime alone can tell. In this humor “he attempts to storm the citadels of conservatism.” One o1 the best of the bunch ot little poems is “Lake Merritt,” of which this isthe first stanzi Upon thy banks my fancy roves . To all those sweet embroidered groves Of well-remembered story; And often there I lay me down In autumn when the leaves are brown And dream of phantom glory, IN THE ARMY AND THE WEST. A GARRISON TANGLE-. ey R B Ao Tompson e, Non Yt i . lum :ndnsuuanery Department, City. This is a story of love and fighting, of boots and saddles, of sudden alarms and swift merches, of chasing to bay desperate horse- thieves, of dealings with Indian chiefs who ar past masters in the art of diplomacy—men “to whom Metternich and Talleyrand might have bowed in envious contemplation.” The scene is 1aid amid the billowing foothills, where the valleys are beautifully wooded and the waters are crystal clear. The tale ends with the run- ning down and kiiling of \I great mischief- maker, but who while dying shows a trait of nobleness, BRIEF ANU BEAUTIFUL. THE LAND OF THE CASTANET-By H. C. Cbatfleld Taylor. Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chi- ' cago; price 81 25. For sale by A. M. Robertson, Post street, City. This is a collection of Spanish sketches, so well written and so tastetully printed, that to pick up the book is to wish to read it through. The sketehes are not connected, but they lead one on from sketeh to sketch as if they were chapters of some absorbing continued story. Facis about Spain are well told on fine peper with wide margins, which are restful to the eye and make the reading of each page rapid and easy, and gives the mind a sense of swiftly passing from pleasure.to pleasure in these | panorama-like descriptions. FPretty pictures are profusely scattered through the littie book, showing dancing and music and merry mak- ing, odd streets and grand cathedrals, and parisof fair palaces like the Alhambra and the Alcozar, LITERARY NOTES. Mr. Barrie's new novel, “Sentimental Tommy,” published only three weeks ago, is already in its fifteenth thousand. S. L. Olliff, manager of the Pheenix Publish- | ing Company, London, is to bring out “The | Woman’s Bible” in England. The second part of the book is in preparation. H. C. Bunner leit very few unpublished poems. One of the best of them, “A Magic Guft,” appears in the Christmas Scribner's. The verses. were written in acknowledgment of 8 gitt of flowers. According to the London Daily Chronicle, ; Mr. Thomas Hardy is now on the Coutinent preparing for publication in book form his novel, “The Pursuit of the Well Beloved,” which originally appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1892 iy There is to be anew edition of Macaulay’s works in ten volumes, including Sir George Trevelyan’s biography. The editor is notan- nounced, but presumably Sir George Tre- velyan himself will take charge of the work. There will be no illustrations. The Century Company publishes a very handsome and a very interesting book in “Modern French Masters,” & series of bio- graphical and eritical reviews by American artists, with abundaat illustrations, some of them wooa eugravings, some in half-tone. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson of California, the author of a volume of verse entitled “In This Our World,” has been lecturing in Eng- land. Her former husband, by the way, mar- ried some time ago the famous Dr. Channing’s granddaughter, who has made some reputa- tion in verse and romance as Grace Ellery Channing. The Messrs. Scribner will be the American publishers of *“Tne Unpublished Works of Ed- ward Gibbon,” including seven autobiog- raphies, correspondence ete., printed ver- batim from MSS. in the possession of the Earl of Sheflleld, with a preface by the Earl of Sheffield. These MSS. have since been ac- quired by the British Museum, Thomes Hardy has just returned to Wes- sex irom a sojourn of some weeks on the Con- tinent, He went abroad to strengthen his health, which had not been altogether satis- factory. He came back much benefited, and able 10 resume the revision of his story, “The Pursult of the Well-Beloved.” This novel will appear in book form early in the spring. Mark Twain has leit his rural quarters in Surrey and taken up his abode in London for the winter. indeed, he is likely to remain on the other side of the Atlantic until the middle of next summer. A good deal depends on the progress he makes, with the book deseribing his recent tour around the world. He has just corrected the proofs of & new volume of stories, “Tom sawyer, Detective.” The old and famous publishing-house of Harper & Bros. has been changed into a stock company, with a capital of $2,000,000. This step has been taken simply for convenience and for the better protection of the interests of those concerned. .The firm name will not be changed, nor will any outside capital be far beyond the limits of this State, one of his honorable mention in the Paris Salon. 21 SLOANE'S LIFE OF NAPOLEON The Historian's Work, 'While Scholarly, Is Lacking in Warmth and Golor NEW ESTIMATE OF THE FAMOUS LITTLE CORSICAN fapoleon’s Professed Love for France Regarded as Assumed. Devoted to His People, He Was Willing to Sacrifice Them to H is Ambition LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE—By Pro- fessor William M. Sloane. The Century Com- pany, New York. Sold by subscription oniy. In four volumes. _Price per volume, clo h, $7: half moracco, $8. For ssle by subscription only. This elaborate and beautiful work is of special interest because its author, who is professor of history in Princeton University, has worked from new sources of information which have not been delved into by other writers. He has carefully siudied papersin the archives of the French Foreign Office in Florence and in the British Museum, which throw new light on the ever-interesting story of the dazzling adventurer. The history has already appeared in the Century Magazine, but in book form is made more attractive by splendid illustrations. There are 280 fine, full-page picturesin the first volume, which has just been issued. Many of these are beatifully colored type- gravures, done by a& secret method known only to Boussed, Velladon & Co. of Paris. The colored pictures represent famous originals in the great muse- ums of Europe. There are four in each volume which show the exact coloring of paintings of especial fame. The finest in the volume now out is from the grand canvas in the Louvre, by Antoine-Jean Gros, of Bona- parte at Arcole, showing the stern, animated face of the young soldier as he heroically plants the standard on the bridge with his own hands. The printing isin large, clear, handsome type, which will not weary the eyes when they turn from the pleasure of the pictures to the pleasure of the words. In every way the work is got up with & thorough- ness which tells that the expenditure wes lav- ish to make this a stanaard life cf Napoleon Bonaparte, Itis claimed that the reproductions of the masterpieces of the European galleries bear a closer likeness to the originals than any ever before plit in a book. Moreover, there are a great number made in color expressly for Pro- fessor Sloane’s history, and not seen in any other form. In order to perfect the completeness of his equipment for the immense task he had on hand the professor traveled over all the ground made famous by the great command- er's battles, and thus acquired a familiarity with the scenes which adds to the accuracy of his descriptions. In his preface the author points out that the history of Napoleon covers a period in the pro- cess of civilization full of turmoil and far- reaching consequences—dramatic and inter- esting to an extent teyond all others—teach- ing, as in a great flashlight, knowledge for all succeeding generations, easy (0 see and never to be forgotten. Added to thisinterest is the gigantic personality of the greatest history- maker of modern times, Surely, these are rea- sons to make eager readers. The first volume extends from a sketch of the Bonavarte family in Corsica to the fall of Venice, when the triumphant general writes to Josephine, “I care for victory because it gratifies you,” in & letter wherein jealousy can be plainly read between the lines, The first chapter gives an account of the nobility of the family of the imperial democrat—a nobility published last week by William Doxey. The design is drawn by Ernest C. Peixotto, the young Californian artist who recently leit for New York City to takea position in @BE above picture forms the cover of **Tales of Languedoc,” by Samuel Jacques Brun, © {he art department of Charles Scribner's Sons. Mr. Peixotto’s fame as an artist extends pictures having attained the distinction of taken in. All the stock is in the hands of the Harper family. Franklin W. Lee, author of “Dreamy Hours,” “Mam’selle Paganini’”’ and other pooks, who is now editor of the Rush City (Minn.) Post, has issued a pamphlet edition of his rhymes about children, entitled *Whis- pers of Wee Ones.” Mr. Lee will publish other poems in similar style, grouping them accordiug to their themes. The next will be entitled “Lenten Lyrics." General Horace Porter in his “Campaigning With Grant,” in the Christmas Century, deals with General Grant’s demeanor during the battle of tbe Wilderness. General Porter says that even during the most critical moments General Grant manifested no perceptible anx- iety, but that he was visibly 'affected by the sight of blood. During the second dav of the battle Grant smoked about twenty strong ci- gars, his highest record in the use of tobacco. That clever literary raconteur, “Droch,” who in private life is Robert Bridges, has joined the ‘writers who are flocking in such numbers to the Ladies’ Home Journal. “Droch” commences in the December issue of that magazine a series of “Droch’s Literary Talks,” which will Dereaiter be a regular editorial feature of the Journal. Mr. Bridges will aim his work more directly at girls, and gossip about pooks rather than review them. They will be, in short, “literary talks,” which was emphatically denied by the unseru- pulous adventurer wheu he was seeking pro” motion at the hands of the Jacobins. Of his youth we are toid that it was largely occupied with resding and that history found chiefest favor in his eyes. This reading was done, notebook in hand—not for pastime, but for acquisition. The schoolboy was morose, studious, solitary. He became sociable and amiable only for the purpose of fighting mimic battles with his schoolmates. The book pic- tures him leading an assanlt on a fortress of snow, with snowballs for bullets. Further on in the yolume the author relates some things which mignt surprise those read- ers who have not read history closely and re- membered what they have read: When a young officer in training at Auxonne he was charged with the oversight of some slight workson the fortifications. Hedisplayed such incompetence that he was actuslly punished by a snort arrest. Neither he nor his sister Eliza could ever spell any language with accu- racy orease. And this: ‘“Accordingto iet interpretation of the military code there was scarcely a crime which Bonaparte had not com mitted—desertion, disobedience, tamper- ing, attack on constituted authority and abuse of official power.” 2 Speaking of his first appointment as a gen- eral, the author say: ‘Neither the blind luck, nor the revolutionary epoch, nor the superla- tive ability of the man, but a compound of all these, had brought this marvel to pass.” In May, 1795, when Napoleon goes to Paris, is the time named as the end of his appren- ticeship and the fixation of his character into what it remained to the end. The careful stu- dent of his life sums him up as decidedly un- scrupalous, He says that as a Corsican he re- tamed the national sensibility, together witn an enormous amountof endurance, both physi- cal and mental. He was devoted to his family and his people, but willing to sacrifice the lat- ter to his ambition. His moral sense was practically lacking. As to religion, he had a superstition which passed in his mind for faith. Sometimes he scoffed, but in general he preserved a formal and out- | ward respect for the church. He was wily in | diplomacy. “His pulpy principles were re- | publican in their character, so far as they had any tissue or firmness.” The shiftiness of Napoleon’s character is well shown in the description Professor Sloane gives of how he was watching for an oppor- tunity to lead a revolution in Corsica, and yet eager to draw his pay as a French officer while absent from his regiment. The great man’s illegible handwriting is ac- counted for by saying that he abandoned the excellent chirography of his youth in order to conceal his defective knowledge of French. His professed love for France is regarded as essumed. “He was & citizen of the world—a man without a country—his birthright was @one, for Corsica repelied him and France he hated, for she had never adopted him.” Josephine is described as having a retrousse nose, and as having falsified her age to the extent of five years in the marriage certificate. While the general was achieving his first great fame in Italy, the historian sars: “Though she had made ardent professions of devotion to her husband the marriage vow sat but lightly on her in the early days of their sepa- ration. Her husband appears to have been for & short time more constant, but, convinced of her fickleness, to have become as uniaithiul as she.” Speaking of the bloodthirstiness of the Jacobins the comment is made that the mas- sacres as Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon were the reply to the horrors of like or worse na- ture perpetrated in Vendee by the royalists. Considering the thrilling subject perhaps the history might have been written with more warmth and color, but it is no doubt ac~ curate, judicial, scholarly, and executed with the great advantage of much new light. Among the features of special distinction in the Christmas Scribner’s the following are an- nounced: Attractive printing in gold and colors, shown on the specisl cover designs, and the twelve pages of illustrations by Oliver Herford. Nine complete short stories, most of them illustrated. .An article on the late Sir John Millafs, with twenty pages of pictures, most of them chosen by himself in the last weeks of his life. Poems elaborately illus- trated by Will Low, McCarter and the Misses Cowles. The Hom. Thomas C. Platt discusses “The Effect of Republican Victory” in the Novem- ber number of the North American Review, and confidently asserts that the election of McKinley and Hobart will congtitute a verdict so emphatic that during the\lfetime of all those who are on earth to-day no man or party will be found bold enough to go before the people advocating®@detrines which mean repudiation. Other important articles in tais issue are: “The Protection of Bank Deposi- tors,” “Election Trials in England,” “High Buildings,” “Gevernment by Party” and “The Plain Truth About Asiatic Labor.” According to the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Mail M. Zola’s “Paris” is going to be a great book, ‘‘or at least that is the im- pression which the author has allowed to escape. ‘Paris’ will be like a boiling vat—a vat in the process of fermentation; the intel- lectual life, the life of the work-people, the Chamber of Deputies, the law couris, the literary and artistic worlds, all that there is in our great city, will be represented. This 15 a little crushing, and Zols’s touch is never very light; but ‘Paris,’ he promises, will be a work ‘rather optimistic.’ ” A luxurious edition of Don Quixote is issnea by Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. John Ormsby translates and produces the book, which is chaste and handsome. A note from the pub- lishers gives the information thst there are more than 300 editions of Don Quixote, less than half of which are Spanish. The Ormsby arrangement is perhaps the best known. Ninety-one pages &re taken up, out of the two | volumes of this edition, in a prefatory note, a | blographical sketch of Cervantes, a chapter of statistics about Don Quixote and an author’s | preface, besides “commentators’ verses,” con- sisting of familiar sonnets and other old-fash- ioned burlesques in rhyme. The book will make & choice holiday gift. “Hours With Famous Parisians,” by Stuart Heury, wiil be published by Way & Williams in December. Mr. Henry has lived solong in | Paris that he has become as much a French- man as the Parisians. He is part of the life he deseribes; he is saturated with its atmos- | phere. And this familiarity is evident in his sketches of contemporary writers, actors and painters. Some of them are done broadly in | charcoal, others worked out with more cares | ful elaboration; but the peculiarities of each personality are suggested with delightful abandon. There is a dashing picturesque- ness in the book, which shows something of the alertness of the American journalist, to- gether with a graceful delicacy thatis essen- tially French. Harper’s Rouna Tabie, published November 10, will contain, besides its many interesting short stories, articles, and the usual depart- ments on interscholastic, sport, bicycling, photography, stamps, etc.,, the following spe- cial features: A short story entitled “Recaptured,” by Cap- tain Charles King, U. 8. A.; an article by Paul Du Chaillu, the well-known African traveler, ‘who describes in many graphic, exciting pas. sages, an elephant huntin Africa; the first of a series of articles on typicel English schools by John Corbin; a story of the sea entitled “A School of Sharks,” by Charles Lewis Shaw, and an illustrated article on the marine parsde that took piace in New York harbor on Satur- day night, October 24. NEW TO-DAY. chial, Th: ONSUM ‘T THE EDITOR : I have anabsolute Cure for CONSUMPTION and all Bronch roat and Lung Troubles, and all conditions of Wasting Away. By itstimely use thousands of apparent- iy hopeless cases have been permancnily cured, So proof-positive am I of its power to cure, 1 will send /REE to anyone al THREE BOTTLES of my Newly Discovered Remedies, upon receipt of Expressand Postoffice address. Al'.!l‘ sincerely yours, T. A. SLOCUM, M.C., 183 Peatl St., New Vork. ‘When writing the Doctar, please mention this paper. RADWAY’S PILLS, Purel mild and reliable. Secure Bleto Algmauon. And. absorption of the Toos: caums & healthy action of the Liver and render the Sowals matural in their operai o Wiihous griping