The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 18, 1897, Page 24

\ THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 1897. GERTRUDE ATHERTON’S BOOK. PATIENCE By Gertr 1> Bodle: wm Doxe New Yor<: john Lane, For sale in this Clty by Wil* e tiotel. Pr.ce $150. ed upon which to bate a Atherton’slatest work, sparhawk and Her Times,” it might ening chapter of the Second How nre the mighty falien.” mes is this sentence repeated in the res in as many verses, asif to give phasis to the sentiment, and in like manner it here be thrice repeated as a Califor- expression of disapproval at the turn s native daughter's genius has most et it be said, in nts of this Head a text we view of Mrs. Gertru Patienc eginning, that all resi- possess the highest sense of admirati e work done by Mrs. Ath- erton in her earlier efforts. A bit of fiction to equal “The Pearls ot Loreto” has never been u It was an ideal of what a short story should be. Its dramatic quality made tin every line, its brilllant and accu- rate local coloring, § t from the first page to tne last, its well- mstanced sitnations, all combined to ex- husiasm of lovers of good litera- Cen & more thrilling situation be eived than that described in ‘“fhe Pearls reto” where Dela Vega, for love ofa face, enters the sanctuary to rob its shrine of a priceless string of pesrls and is covered in the act by is pricstly guardian? We can almost hear the hoarse cry as uttered by the viola faith, can see the wlel 3 arawn over yellow rning deep 1 withered sock- s neck from the Virgin's fronted i e priest. “Dog! Thou wouldst Ac accursed ! one moment for hesitation, one Before the prie complete De la Vega's k+ ife bad flashed ross. The priest leaped over and aown, and re. the sanctusry. owing there is the star of Monterey, med of her lover's sacrifice gratily her whim, re- faith in like manner. That the Monterenos by her appareled gorgeous!: gotten jewels. In the & friar, who announces nof his superior. De laVega Ysabel stand sccused. The assembled caballeros have their hands upon their swords, but ere ained by General Castro, who rges the laws of hospitality Never mind!" cried the friar. Had the bay risen about (he custom-house! | mWhat is thac2” demanded Castro charp The poor of Monterey. fhose who love thelr 1048 better than ths arisiocrats love thelr caste De 1a Vera cab Aashed across tb cat a long rif they stood upon ¢ ner entrances i Son, her Il “You cannot Liste Ysabel in his arms and To0m and corrid or. His knife the canvas, and in 8 moment ¢ rocks. The shrieking crowd Were on the other side of the custom-hous “Marcos’” - called to his boatmau. Noanswer came but the waves tugging at the rocks not two feet below them. He could see nothing. The fog was thick as night. “He I3 0ot here, Ysabel. We must swim. Any- Fhing but to be torn to pieces by those wildeats Ar thou d¥rald?” No." she said Te folded her closely with one arm and felt with Tis 100t for the edge of th» rocks. A wild roar came from benind. A dozen pistol shots were tired Into the air. Dela Veza recled suddenly. 1 am shot. Ysavel,” he said, hs knees bending. “Not in this world, my love!” and her arms about him, and drageing him o the brow of the rocks huried herself out ward, carrying him with her. The waves tossed m on high, flung them against the roc<s and £rouna them there, playing with them like a fion th 1ts viciim, then buried them. Then in the Doomswoman we recognized a master-hand in the art of descriptive writing, go0d specimens of which are to be found in any of its chapters. O, the pity of it that talented and versatile a writer should Lave fallen victim to the prevailing cry for sensa- tionalism—a cry emanating from the gutter and fostered in newspapers of the new-jour- stic kind. To appreciete the depth of the 1 it is necessary to consider Mrs. Atherton’s talent as manifested in her first books in its lation to American literature In her short stories she hes shown that she is thoroughly posted regarding early Calitornian traditions, legends and supersutions. She has written of these in a manner most attractive Ehe has described to us old Monterey, with its missions, its wonderful cypresses, its bay end ts adobe houses. Around these and upon this stage she hasassembled figures, puppets 10 her hands, yet full of that breath of lite so essen- toa well-written narrative. She has had r beck all the elements which go to make fornia absolutely the most fertile field for woveilst. Tiil she broke the grouna, and even tiil to-day, there has 1o noveilst arisen capable of properly treating so vast a subject, Meny of the initiated even promised that it would be Gertrude Atherton who would write the Great American Novel which has not yet seen the light of day. And in reference 1o this last proposition, viewing the ground upon which she had to work and her adaptability for vation, Californians might think so, too. The land of the Dona and the Caballero, of the Vallejos, the Castros, the Alvarados and the Arguellos would surely appear to possess as many possibilities as Rufus Choate's New Eagland to produce the Great | American Novel of view of puted, whathas Mr or series novels. In Atherton done of & re- markable characier since the publication of her short siories? Nothing, except sell her birthright—tne field of California romantic fiction—for the mess of pottage offered by the devotee of the erotic novel and of sensational journelism. As a result, we are given “Pe- lience Sparbawk and Her Times,” clever in its way, caustic, epigrammatic, superficially attractive,and treeting of that typeof New York woman described s “a marble statue with a snub Dos:,” who is ‘‘frisky” and larky,” aud who, in default of & more sub- stantial wager, “‘bets her hopes of & tiara.” How are the mighty fallen! Mrs. Atherton dedicates her book to Paul Bourget, “who alone of all foreigners has de- tected in its full significance that the motive power, the cohering force, the nltimate reli- &lon of that strange composite known as ‘The American,’ i Individual Will” If, however, Mrs. Atherton intends to translate “Individ- ] Wili” into “intense self-relience” she is ‘uost emphatically wrong in thus singling out Bourget as the only man who has| sotea tms characteristic of the people of fhese United States. Hence why shoula poor {ourget be thus d.stinguished? Nevertheless, atience Sparhawk” begins well. Once 530 we are transported 10 the cypress groves of Monterey. We are made to inhale the odor of the pines, to hear the roar of the surf. there the resemblance to Gertrude Atherton’s earlier stories stops. No more do gayly attired caballeros wait upon handsome women in lace mantillas, Mo more are pictured the gorgeously attired RHAWEK AND HER TIMES. | admirably sustained in- | its culti- | these facts, undoubted and undis- | But | | and suave-mannerea vaquero, the prosperous | ranchero, the hos pitable don and his wife. G trude Atherton has abandoned the time when | “the golden skeleton within the sleeping body | of California had not been laid bare,” and in | lieu thereof has taken up the life of a curious | anomaly in the shape of a 15-year-old girl. | who reads Gibbon, Macaulay, Boceaccio and Byron and speaks like & diminutive edition of & Missouri backwoodsman. As & specimen of character portrayal Pa- tience Sparhawk is a failure because of her in- stability and unreality. We cannot imagine this chiid of nature rearsd by a drunken mother amid the pastoral surroundings of | modern Monterey, associating dailg wit girls of her own age in the local high school, | secing nothing of the life in a great city, be- | traying knowledge of good and evil which | could be expected only in an ancient dow- | ager. Patience, as exhibited to us by her | chronicier, is & young lady of few likes and | most pronounced antipathies. Thus, when she is informed by her schoolmates that her | mother has been seen under the influence of quor and that “she regularly turned the town upside down,” this affectionate young Californian, with & spirit possibly incarnated by the Castros and Alvarados of a former gen- eration, goes home to her psrent and thus gives her views: | “Ihateyou!l Ihate you! It doesn't doany good to tell you so, but it does me good to say i Verily, s case of Elementsl Hate,a young | cai A Mr. Foord, who has taken much interest in Patience, is desirous of sending her toa sister of his, resident near New York. The mother, however, raises the objection tnatshe is under age. The objection is overruled by a | providential fire, which consumes the lady while she is in a state of inebriation, and Pa- tience goes East. This incident ends Book 1 of Patience Sparhawk and Ser Times,” and with it a1l that portion of the story relating to California. The novel under review is a long one—by far | the longest ever written by Mrs. Atherton. 50 far as it Telates to Californis, its scenery, its women and its characters, the work cannot be called s success. All whoknow and love Moj terey, that most picturesque portion of our State, will note the anachronisms in the book, the inaccuracies of her description of Carmel Valley and Bay. Far better would it have been for Mrs. Atherton’s repu- tation asawriter had she amplified oneof her | shorter tales into & goodiy sized novel, bring- ing to bear uponitall the wealth of her re- | search, her power of description and her | knowledge of the early history of California. | But she has neglected the opportunity. In the | latter chapters of “Patience Sparhawk and | Her Times” we areintroduced to the mys teries | of the boudoir of the New York soclety woman. | Her most intimete thoughts and lingeric are | shown to the lightof day in a manner crude and unrefined. Her intrigues and scandals, | her vanities and her vices are held up to re- | proach in & way suggestive of nothing higher j than 20 cents per inch in newspapers of the | N.J. So has California lost her first novelist | and most promising romantic historian,and in this wise have her romance and her history | been forsaken for the base and the erotic. How are the mighty fallen! Exaxv BRET HARTE. | = | Noonewho knows Mr. Harte, and knew the | California of bis day, wonders that he left it as he did,says Charles Warren Stoddard in & recent issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Eastern | editors were crying for his work. Cities vied | with one another in the offer of tempting bait. | When he turned his back on San Francisco nd started for Boston, he began e tour that | the greatest author of any age might | have been proud of. Itwas a veritabie ova- tion that swelled from sea to sea; the classic sheep was sacrificed all slong the route. I | have often thought thut if Bret Harte had met with a fatal sccident during that transconti- nentel journey the world woula have deciared with one voice that the greatest genius of his time was lost to it. His experience in New England welghs little in the balance with his experience in California; his experience abroad even less. It was Celifornia, snd early ifornia — let | me say picturesque California— that first | eppealed to him, ard through him to ali the civilized nations in their several tongues. O1 | American suthors Bret Harte and Mark Twain have traveled farthest and are likely to tarry iongest. Whom would you substitute for these? Whom could you? In print each is as American as America, though the former has not been with us for & score of years and may never again revisit his native land. When he left Californiain 1871 he left it betimes; he took with him about all that was worth taking, and the California he once knew, and surely must have loved, lives forever in his pages. 1t no longer exists in fact; but for him, in an- other generation it would have been forgot- ten. Because he has penetration such ss few possess, and exceptional fancy, imagination and literary art, he has been thought untrue 1o nature; those wnom he has pictured would have no difficulty in recogniZAing themselves could they but see the types he has made his own. It hes been suid. too, that he repeats himself. He does; so does spring and so does | summer—eacn is but another spring, an- | other summer; but they are never twice |alike, nor would we have them other |than they ere. Any one can vouch | for Bret Harte's truth to nature | who knew San Francisco in the fifties, and is | fsmiliar with his civic and character sketches; what is true of one page is trus of all. Itis the point of view in every case that deter- mines to whom the page or tie picture shail appeal, and whether favorably or unfavorably. | The comprehensive edition of his works, pre- | pared while he is yet aiive and active, atiests the world-wide interest in his work and fore- shadows 1ts permanence. —From Current Literature. A PRIZE STORY. “THE INCENDIAR By W. F. Leahs. cago and New York 4 A Rand, McNally & Co. Out of B16 competitors this story was awarded the fourth prize in the Chicago Record’s “$30,000 10 authors’ competition.” The reader is given ample opportuuity to fina out if he has any latent powers about him that might by exercise develop him into a de- tective. There are many clews suggested as to the origin of a mysteriously started fire which resulted In great loss of proverty and of life, which the reader can try to unravel, weighing all the eviderze pro and con, till he forms a theory of who the incendlary was. Its merit as a story of mystery has been certified by competent literary judgment in the receipt of the prize over the efforis of many other authors. Aside from the interest in the mystery there is an atiractive character in the person of McCausland, the detective, who had nothing in his exterior that suggested the sieuth—he was a rollicking eompanion, suave of voice and genial of manner; but “in the pursuit of crime he was a believer in total ge- pravity, or rather, to Le just, he knew the po- evil whick is harbored in every humen Chi~ n| | DR W\ MRS. GERTRUDE ATHERTON. Gertrude Franklin Atherton, whose latest work is noticed on this page, was born in San Francisco. Clark’s Institute, and, after graduation, a school in Lexington, Ky. published anonymously in the Argonaut, and its satire caused much stir among members of the local “‘400. She attended Her first story, “Randolph of the Redwoods,” was Mrs. Ather- ton’s first novel caught the public eye, and sharpened the axes of the critics.—From a pkotograph by Thors. SEEKING AN IDEAL. ‘THE WELL-BELOVED"—By Thomas Hardy. ew York: Harper & Brothers. For sale by M., Robertson, Post street, City. Price §1 80. This sketch of & temperament is cleverly done, and throws a poeticgiamour over a char- acter frequently met in & more or less devel- oped form. Such a one seems merely fickle to the ordinary observer, and too trifling to be worthy of much thought. Tne genius of Thomas Hardy has, however, piaced the character mentioned in quite a new and more favorable light. He makes us sec in the man whose love wanders with such wonderful fa- cility from woman to woman an artistic soul, simply obeyiug the imperative behest of his peculiar organization to engage in pursuit of an impossible ideal. His futile seexing is & strange mixture of pleasure and pain to this lover, and be is no more to be blamea for his obedience to the subtle suggestions given to him from the spiritual laws of his being than would a man for possessing brown eyes or blue, and his seeming inconstancy is shown to De in such a nature the most consistent con- stancy. It is & puzzle to guess how far the author of “Life’'s Little Ironies” meant to be fronicin this narrative of a tculptor who pursued with such eager desire the intangible spirit of his well-beloved as it mysteriously flitted from the person of one fair woman to another. It seems 10 be & subject to which he devoted his talents half in suppressed lauphter aud half in & mood of the most serious and subtie analysis of character. The artistic inconstant herein portrayed, who seems in some ways entirely too day- dreamy for the uses of this world, would be called a fantast by some, says Thomas Hardy. Others will see him only as one who gave ob- jective continuity and a name to a delicate dream which in & vaguer form is more or less common 1o all men, and is by 0o means new to the Platonic philosophers. The sculptor escaped & good deal of seli- reproach by making it clear to his mind that he faithfully loved the “masquerading crea- ture wherever he found her, whether with blue eyes, biack eyes or brown. Ii was sim; that she who always attracted him and lead bim whither she would as by a silken thread had not remained the occupant of tae same fleshly tabernacle in her career. STORIES OF MEXICO. “OPALS FROM A MEXICAN MINE"—By (weorge de Va liere. New York: New Amsier- dam Book Company. For sale by A. M. Robect- son, Post street, Clty. Price §1 25. A collection of fanciful stories with tne scene laid in Mexico, written in the prose- poetic menner. Here is & brief sample of the author’s styie: “But now ths way that lay from the star grew brighter, and adown it came two figures, s woman and & chiid. The woman’s brown hair feil about her like a veil, freming a pallid face whereon was writin- finite sadness, and the suffering that is not to ond through all the roil of the centuries, not even when the earth splits asunder and falls screaming through space.’” SEMI-SERMONS. CHISTIAN CITIZENSHIP—By Carlos Martyn. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. Price 76 cents. The writer of this little manual is & minister who some years ago preached a series of ser- mons with “Christian Citizenship” for the uniform text. Out of this work sprang the idea that & book on similar lines would be use- ful. It treats of what the French call “burn- l“" questions and remedial agencies.” A REINCARNATION ROMANCE. New York; Stone & ZISKA—By Marle Corelll. M. Robert~ Kimball." For sale in ibis Clty by A. 80, Pos: street. Price §1 50. The “Problem of a Wicked Soul” is the sub- title of this book, in which the author of “The | Sorrows of Satan™ and “The Romance of Two Worlds” follows her bent for writing some- what flightily of the mysterious. This might have been expected from previous experience of her productions. The story is based on the theory held by thecsophists and Buddhists that the soul 1s successively reclothed in the flesh of many different bodies in the long course of its development. Most westerns eau- not think thus, but it cannot be said that such a theory of retribution and spiritual training is unacceptable to Aryan minds, for we have many thoughtiul and studious people among us to whom Karma and reincarnation is a creed as firmly held as by the great scholars or the East. Most people would ratherread a story more concrete and credible than this wild flight of Corelii’s imagination, but tastes differ, and this writerof mysteries has already abuzdant.y proved that her style is popular, and she is making no reckless experiment in a commer- cial sense, no matter how much she may ot- fend the canons of sober literary taste. Some of her flights of attempted eloquence are as glaaily heady as if a feverish brain were the motor of the pen. Ziska is & Russian princess of such over- whelmingly magretic beauty that even & Corelli requires ample space to picture her. She is & reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian and is met in Cairo by Gervase, a famous French artist and an athelst, who is a reincar- nation of an ancient Egyptian warrior and conqueror, Araxes. His desire for possession of Zisks, passionate and unholy, and its fear- ful spiritual punishment 1s the motif of the story, and the reasoning by which we are ex- pected to accept Its extravagant improbabil- ity can be summed up most tersely in that often quoted sentence of Hamlet's, *There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”’ Inasmuch as refncarnation is an interesting subject of speculation as to the pastand future of our souls, the general design of the story may be said to be good, but the overwrought eloquence of its execution calls for some con- demnatory criticism. More sobriety of ex- pression would have given more beauty, and the bathing of the talented suthor’s temples in cold water would have made her spirit calmer to interpret suggestions from Pallas. Very meuy sentences in the book sound like delirious ravings. Marie Corelli has in “Ziska” invented a phrase to define the persistent wickedness of some humans, which deserves to be perpetu- ated. She puts it into the mouth of a very righteous und very learned doctor of philoso- phy, and It possesses the ring of seientific ac- curacy. Itchimes with the theory of endless spiritual evolution through countless rein- carnations, and she calls it “Terpidity of the psychic germ.” EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS. THRE STORY OF EXTINCT CIVILIZATIONS OF ThE EASI—Bv Robert E. Auderson. New York: D. Appleton & Co. For sale by William Doxey, Falace Hotel, Cicy. Price 40 cents. The #izo of this volume. is notsuflicient to alarm the indolent, and its brief contents are both interesting and iostructive. Much in the book is comparatively new data obtaiued by means of deciphering the ancient hiero- glyphics and cuneitorm inscriptions and other recent antiquarian explorations, FROM THE FRENCH, MME. CHRYSANTHEME—By Plerre Lot!. London_and New York. George Rout edce & Sons. Forsale in this City by A. M. Koberison, Post street. Price $1 25. Artistic in a very quaint and dainty way is this reprint of a work by the popular Frencn suthor. The multitude of designs by Rossi and Meyerbach are so exquisiteas to make the book worth having were there naught eiso in it to add to its charm. An idea of the style of the book can be quickly grasped from these words in Loti’s dedication of it to La Duchesse de Richeliou: *Kindly welcome it in the same spirit that yon would receive some quaint Dit of pottery, some grotesquely carved ivory idol, or some preposterous trifle brought back for you from this singular fatherlana of all preposterousness.” The dedication represents the author as telling an incident out of hisown life. He spent a summer in Japan, and for amusement married a Japanese girl for the season only. It was & legal unfon in the Mikado's realm. Here such an arrangement would be consid- ered vile, for it could b: diseolved at pleasure, and the girl was bought for §13 per month. The tale is told with such an air of the affair being a harmless holiday frolic as is almost too French for our standards of the correct way to nerrate an immorality. But to French taste it seems that to be artistic is sufficient to silence puritanic criticism; and here our con- vention seems to allow a transiation from the French a wider latitude (provided the author has been duly crowned as one of the exception- ally clever) than is granted to our own writers, All the facts of this playing at marriage with tiny Mme. Chrysanthemum for the summer could be told by au American author, but never with so assured an inuocence of man- ner. But in keeping with most Japanese things it is too quaintly absurd to be taken seriously. CONTAINS BITS OF BROGUE. LADY KIRKPATRICK—By Robert Buchanan. nicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Co. A simple story of a fine young Irish boy and his struggle against the ilis that resulted from the bar sinfster of his birth. He is in love with an Irish girl named Dulcie, who is as sweot as her name. His father was a patri- cian and his mother a peasant. The father repented late of the wrong he had done to Moywa, the mother, and wished to make amends to the illegitimate son, but the law of the land forbade the passing of the estates to one born out of wedlock. The happy denoue- ment is the aiscovery of Moywa, who was sup- posed to be dead, and the old lord marries her in order to legitimate his son. Then said this Irish lover to nis love: “Ye loved me, Dulcle, when I was the poor squireen. Ye won't love me the less now that I'm to_be the Lord Kil- patrick?’ “Not less,” said Dulcie, “nor more. Sure,” she added, with the most musical of brogues, *’iwould be impossible.” CONTRASTED CHARACTERS. KOHELETH—By Lewls Austih Storrs. G. W. Dillincham Company, New York. Price 81 50. ¥or sale by William Doxey, Paiace Hotel, San ¥rancisco. The seaport town of NewLondon, Conn., is the scene of the story of *'Kobeleth.” The two main characters are so portrayed as to show the striking contrast of a bold, self-confi- dent man and a shrinking, diffident, doubt- ing and introspective one. There are some minor stories embodied in the book more or less independent of the main tale. The style 1s ratker overfluent, HERE AND THERE. 3Mr. Clark Russell continues to turn out ex- citing novels with praiseworthy energy and diligence. be published by Chatto & Windus, London, in May. One of the two romsnces left by thelate Willinm Morris will be published very shortly by the Kelmscott Press. It is entitled “Ihe Water of the Wondrous Isles,” while the other, “The Sundering of the Flood,” is in prepara- tion. Robert Barrett Browning is establishing a school at Asolo, Italy, for the benefit of girls employed in the silkmills there. The memory of Robert Browning will thus be linked more closely than ever to the place. Henry Labouchere, M.P.. the proprietor of Truth, has epent £40,000 in successfully de- fending vexatious actions for libel brought sgainst him. He iseutitled to the thanks of the Enelish-speaking world for having exposed 50 many abuses. Before Rider Haggard took to novel-writing hekepta arm with a Mr. Cochrane in Natal The original of his Jess is said to be & lady of Pretoris, whose husband, once a wealthy man, ran through his money and lived on the earn- ings of his wife, she having taken a positionin a South African opera company. Mrs. Sala is about to edit the much-talked-ot Commonplace Book of her husband, the *‘G. A.8."of the Telegraph. When the work is published the original volumes are to be Dre- sented to the British Museum, George Augus- he wished to preserve in this book. Edwin A. Abbey, the American artist, that just before Du Maurier wrote “Trilby had fallen into distavor in the Punch office, and his drawings had actualiy been omitted | from Puneh’s Almanse. This depressed him greatly, as his eyesight was failing him. | enormous success of *“Trilby” changed every- thing. On the Index Expurgatorius, as far as Rus- sia is concerned, has been slated Leroy Beau- liew's “Empire of the Tsars and the Russians.”” Sons publish Leroy Beaulieu’s notable work, and Mme. Ragozin has supplemented it with new and important notes, and so the informa tion is up to date. Mr. Barrie, since his return from America, has not been doing much literary work. He has been engaged in the dramatization of “The Little Minister”” with which he ha mede good progress. He did not at first in- tend 10 do the work himself, but has now taken it in hand, and it may be expected without very long delay. Fifty thousand copies of Marie Corelli's Ziska' have been sold. Mr. Arrowsmich, her English publisher, bought the novel outright for £1000 (§5000). The book sells for 6 shil- lings (81 50), and the cost of its production is about 24 cents per copy. Of course there is a discount to the trade, but there must be a profitto Mr. Arrowsmith of at least §40,000. Voltaire’s “La Pucelle.” translated into Eng- { lish verse by Austin Debsom, J. W. Bouton | will have ready some time in May. There have been several so-called translationsof “La Pucelle d'Orleans” in English before this one of Austin Dobson’s, but they have been poor and worthless. For good or for bad, the Phil- osovher of Ferney wrote about Jeanne d’Are, and in France the heroism of the girl has always been belittled It is eaid by friends of Rudyard Kipling in Vermont that he has been hired by the Lon- don Times to go to Crete as a war correspond- ent, and Miss Huldah rettigrew-Warren-Fos- ter, an ardent admirer of the writer, makes the following remark about the bargain: ‘Five thousand dollars a month will lead Kip- ling to hope that the Cretau difficulty may be indefinitely prolonged.” Which is considered very uloodthirsty for a feminine literary person. A, Swindle” Is the name that appears over the office door of & struggling lawyer in the tunate gentleman suggesied the advisability of his writing out his first name in full, think- case might be, would sound better and lock better than the significant “A. Swinale.” When the lawyer, with tears in his eyes, whis- pered that his name was Adam, the friend understood and was silent.—Wisconsin Blade. In a recent letter William E. Gladstone says: « have been a purchaser in my time of about 35,000 books. A book collector ought to pos- sess six qualificatioms—an appetite, leisure, wealth, knowledge, discrimination and per- severance. Of these I have only the first two and the last is restricted as my visual power seriously diszbles me. Speaking generally, I have retired from the list of purchasers and I am gradually trensferring the bulk of my library to an insti:ution, £t. Deniol’s, Hawar- den. The book longest in my possession is ‘Sacred Bramas,’ presented 1o me by the authoress, Hannah More, inscribed; ‘As you have just come into the world and I am just going out of it, allow me,’ etc.” The Lark, or, as Mr. Burgess was pleased to call 1t, “The Bird,” is to suspend publication with the April issue. The poor Lark! did she soar too high or did she sing todeaf ears? 1 remember a certain little book stail which 1 used to visit daily for my papers. Upon a crude sheif the enterprising proprietor deftly rearranged each morning his stock. In the midst of this collec fon of dime novel litera- ture, Police Gazettes,Fireside Companions,ete., was one soliary copy of the Lark. = For months it lay there, until one day I m: told me he had scid it to a young girl who had afterward tried to return it because, as she explained, “the poetry didn’t rhymeand whea the leaves were cut lots of the pages were blank.”—From the Clack Book. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once made sn sddress in his native town to 2 medical asso- clation. The president of the association was the son of & man who had been the drugeis: of the village when Dr. Holmes had studied medicine there. “It is good to look at this young man,” said the genial autocrat, “and trace his father’s liniments in his face.” On another occasion, at a country charitable fair, Dr. Holmes was entreated to furnish a letter for the postoffice. He took a sheet of paper, and between its folds placed a $1 bank note; tusning to the first page he wrote the follow- ing Dear lady, whosoe'er thou art, Turn this poor page with trembling care; But hush, oh hush thy beating heart, The one thou lovest will be there! The page turncd aisclosed the attractive greenback. Oa the tnird page, opposite the banknot Fair lady, liit thine eyes and tall 1f thie is not a trutktul letter; This is the one tnou lovest well, And naught (0) would make thee love it better, His latest, “The Last Entry,” will | tus Sala was in the habit of entering any news | The | Nothing daunted, the Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s | city o! Stratford, Ont.. A friend of the unfor- | ing that Artbur or Andrew Swindle, as the | LITERARY NOTES. The life of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, by his son the present holder of the title, will be one of he chief books of the autumn. It will be pub- lished by Macmillan in two volumes. Anna Katharine Green's “That Affair Next Door” having been & great success, its pub- lishers, Messrs. Putnam’s Sons, have ready a new story by the seme suthor, “Tho Bronse ead.” Besides his novel, “When the Century Was New,” the J.B. Lippincott Company has in preparation a volume of outdoor essays by Dr. C. C. Abbott, with photogravure illustrations of some of the author’s favorite localities. Leslie’s Weekly gives this week, in addition to its exclusive European matter, fully illus- trated descriptions of the New York Aqua- rium, Mi Careme theatricals, society ladies of San Francisco, with other timely topics, and a number of portraits of interesting “People Talked About.” A welcome will be accorded to the volume ot Sir Lewis Morris’ poems, which Kegan Paul & Co. of London will publish this month. It wiil consist of a representative selection of poems chosen by the poet himself. Austin Dobson is also forming a collection of his poems for pub- lication in the autumn. The first number of the Expositor, a etho- logical magazine, of which the publishers are Dodd, Mead & Co., has just made its appear- ance. The editors of the Expositor sre the Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll and the Rev. Charles | Cutnbert Hall. The articles are by the most distinguished ecclesiastical writers in England and the United States. A charming addition to the Canterbury Poets has just been made by Walter Scott in the shapz of three mew Browning volumes. The first contains “Pippa Puasses” and other poetic aramas; the second, “A Blot on the ’Scutcheon” and other dramas, and the third, ;l)l!)-mnuc Romances and Lyries” and “Sar- ello Thos. Y. Crowell & Co. have completed arrangements for the publication in the United States aud Canada of Dean Farrar's new book, “Men 1 Have Known.” The volume will be made up of the Dean’s reminiscences of Rob- ert Browning, Tennyson, Arnold, Stanley, Dar- win, Tyndall, Lowell, Whittier, Holmes and many other famous men of England and America. It will be illustrated with poriraits and fac-simile letters, The Continental Publishing Company of { Now York announces “Tales of the Sun-Land,” & new volume of Indian storied by Verner Z. Reed, the author of “Lo-To-Kah,” with illus- trauons by L. Maynard Dixon. The same house announces a metricai tranlation by L. C. Van Noppen of “Lucifer,” the masterpiece of the great Dutch poet Vondel, whose influ. ence on his contemporary Milton is still one of the problems of the hisiory of letters. The advance orders for Beetrice Harradeu’s “Hilds Strafford” in America have kept pace | with the demand the: is reported to have been feltfor it in England. The English pubiish ers are printing their eighth edition, and | Dodd, Mead & Co., the American publishers, | have felt a correspondingly large demand for- itin America. Theadvance orders for “The Great K. & A. Train Kobbery,” Paul Lelcester Ford’s novel of adventure to be published by Dodd, Mead & Co. next week, have also been very heavy, “General Grant” is the title of & volume in the Great Commanders Series, which will be publisned shortly by D. Apleton & Co. The author, Geueral James Great Wilson, has had exceptionsl opportunities for a knowledge of General Grant's military career. An acquaint- ance begun at Cairo in the summer of 1861 | was continued for almost a quarter of a cen- | tury. In addition to this, General Wilson.has had the advantage of consulting a war diary | containing many interesting conversations | and incidents of his service under General Grant in the Vicksburg campaign and in the West. Charles Scribner’s Sons. announce in their “Women of Colonial and Revolutionary Times” series a volume on Martha Washing- | ton, by Annie Hollingswortn Wharton. Itwill contain a fine portrait. Dr. Henryvan Dyke's “The Builders and Other Poems” is o be is- | sued shortiy, and also Professor D. G. Ho- | garth’s “Philip and Alexander of Macedon.” Professor Hogarth of the Oxford University is the author of & most notatle book, “A Wan- dering Scholar in the Levant” The fime paper, printing and binding of the Messrs. Seribner’s Sons will be at their best in these voiumes, “Does Modern College Education Educate, in tne Broadest and Most Liberal Sense of the Term?’ is one of the most dmoortant inqui- ries that could beset onfoot. This discus- sion, which is 10 be tuken part in by Presi. dent Gilman of Johns Hopkins, President Dwight of Yele, President Scharman of Cor- nell, President Morton of the Stevens Insti- tute, Henry Thurston Peck of Columbia, Bishop Potter and othersof the most distin. guished men of both the United States and Euzope, is begun in the April Cosmopolitan by a radical inquiry into the educational problem along the lines of Herbert Spencer. President Gilman will follow in a direction ale most equaily searching, Mark Twain, says The Critic, is in London, writing an sccount of his lecturing trip to Australis, Indis, South Africa, ete. It will be in the style of the immortal “Innocents Abroad,” and will be published in the fali— by Chatto & Windus in England and by the American Puulishing Company of Hartford in this country. The book will be & large octavo, iliusirated, and will be sold by subscription ouly. The American Publishing Company is preparing a uniform edition ot ali of Mark Twain’s works, including those now published by the Messrs. Harper. Ii will be in fifteen volumes, and theie will be an edition de luxe of 250 copies, signed by the author. The Har- pers will continue to publish their own edi- tions of Mr. Clemens’ later writings. Edward Bellamy’s new book, “Equality,” the first which he has published since “Look- ing Backward,” will be awaited with extraor- dinary interest. After years of preparation the author now puts forward & work which will command universal attention. The new Dbook, which will' be published in a few weeks by D. Appleton & Co., will be larger and mo; comprehensive than *Looking Backward. The scene is the same—that is 10 say, the world of the twentieth century—and the same char acters reappear. But while the new book telis b msh that is {zesh about the institutions of the warid of t0-morrow, its especial purpose, =5 ai-magtished from that of *Looking Back- ward,” 15 to account for those institutious by explaining not only their righteousness and reason, but likewise the course of historical evolution by which they were born out of the very different order of things existing to-aay. In this part of his work the author has much to sey ol the meaning of the events of our own times, which he links with the future by pre- dictions of changes now close upon us. The title, “Equality,” is well chosen, in view of the genersl theme.