The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 16, 1897, Page 23

OUR STEAM NAVY., ROWTH OF THE WAR IN THE AND OF TH iy Frank M A_HISTORY OF THE STEAM VESSELS OF NAV L COUPS e o, publishers. ¢ almost as bright a the career ot the mer- ish naval officer when of the ) But the novellst e who will tinge with idealism v of the lieutenant who walks the button on the bridge of the machine of to-day. It the n is wanting to heroize the man we in the modern iron- eam Navy of the ennett, passed as- S. N., has nusa work 1 and as instructive as uld be. y that the first eteam 1 for war ag that the story of the dev ne ngineer. Itis in our navy that thisde- velopment has been most marked,and although ee-quarters of a century has elapsed launching of the clumsy Demolgos apletion of the swifi-sailing and »wa, not s decade has gone by that essed some step forward. eais that the engineer deals things; that he takes no ossibilities of war. The British soldier in Napler's ighting pstiently to no honors to of danger and his death “fought t caught opment of nett cannot be gain- h firmer and finer degree of ed e cfficer who com- ou of me soned beneath stesmer than in in the en air and danger. While Mr. Be ute to the courage of :he engineer corps and made evi- nt the justice of its claim for equal rank h the line, he has done more. given us a hi of tae navy since 1840 th some respects is superior to any heretofore ished. Of especial value to those in iters is the care with which L or has traced the careers of the var ous steam vessels from the day they the hands until the end—sometimes ¥ 0ld ocean, oftener relegated ches of & w f the planning a of the Demolgos by Rovert we are given in a work of 900 ructy 1814 navy of the United States. it been completed in the time expected there 1s no doubt but she would have our seacoast of the British fleet and ed in a way the revolution in naval by the Merrimac-Moni- v sixty years later. The sud- on and other untoward events, ayed the completion of the vessel , Demolgos was ard named the Fulton. She was taken vy-yard, where she was used as ship un:fl 1829, when one day in agazine exploded, completely de- the vessel, killing twenty-four wounding nineteen. This ious end of the first el ever built. It was that another steamer was This was also named the 200 tons displacement She was commanded by tain M. C. Perry, afterward the commodore > opened the ports of Japan to our com- + was owing to Captain Perry’s sug- gard 10 the officering of the Fulton he beginning of the engineer corps in the y was made. ervice until 1842, when she was laid Brooklyn for ten years. She was then practically rebuilt and again placed ia com- mission. abandoned by the Confederates in 1862 the Fulton, which was_laid up in ordinary there, wes burned with the other craft. When the Mexican War broke out the ouly le steam vessels in the na igates. Later two side- en and Spiteful—ot tons each were aaded to the fleet. They siogularly enough, been built for the ican Government, but on the outbreak of des were equently several other steam ves- aller tonuage were purchased and t down to the guif. In 1850 there wasa ticeable addition made to the steam vessels of the nayy by the completion of the frigates Susquehanna and Powhatan, which were each 250 feet long and of nearly 4000 tons dis- placement. These were followed by two | er craft—the Saranac and San Jacinto—of 0 tons displacement. Jn 1854 six first-class steam frigates were authorized by Congress, and the Merrimac, Wabash, Norfolk, Roanoks, Minnesota and Niagara were builtat the Government yards, They were full-rigged ships, could stesm cight knots and were exceptionally fast sail- ers. Five new screw s100ps-of-war were added to the mavy by actof Congress in 1857, and four of them, Pensacola, Lancaster, Hartiord and Richmond, were built by the Govern- ment, while the fifth, the Brooklyn, was built by contrect in New York. Four more screw sloops were also shortly added, the Mohican, que Wyoming and Dakota, soon followed e smaller ones, the Narragansett, Semi- nole and Pawnee. All these vessels 100k part the Civil War. During the War of the Rebellion the en- gineers corps did most valuatle service and Jade possible the four yeais’ blockade of the Southern ports. At the beginning of hostili- ties there were 192 engineers in the service, #nd 22 of them resigned to join the Confeaer- 2c After the increase of strife the number grown st the end of 1861 to 404 in the lar service and 364 aciing engineers. e men were distributed among the numer- ous merchant vessels the Government bought pressed into service and on the large mber built in the navy-yards. ¢ first ironclads, the Monitor, Galens and Ironsides, were builtduring the first year Lewar. The resultof the great naval duel Hempton Roads having shown the value of onitor type & number of similar craft : ordered. Of these six were designed by s the builder of the Monitor. Thye cd Passaic, Montauk, Catskill, Pa- igh and Sangamon, while the Nan- tucket, Weehnwken and Camanche were bullt by different contractors. Most of these ves- sels are still afioat, the Camenche now lying in the harbor of San Franeisco. Mr. Bennett gives a very comprehensive s¥etch of the origin of “relative rank,” thatap- el Scott did around the | “Tom Cringle’s Log™" and | , and it is | ng should be told by an Ameri- | He has | apparently an exhaustive his- | The Fulton was employed in | When the Pensacola navy-yard was | ere the | purchased by the United | ple of discord which arrayed the line against the staff, and during thirty years hascontinued | todistract the naval service. It is to be hoped, | for the credit of the service, that this vexed question may be satisfactorily settled before 1 many more Congressional sessions go by. The i time has come for the line officer to recos- | nize the fact that he is largely dependent for suceess in the conduct of the ship on his en- gineer. In the current number of the North American Review Admiral Colomb, the dis- tinguished British admiral, in “The Evolution of the Naval Oflicer, here is no doubt that, long after its intro- ction, steam propulsion was despised and haied by the ablest and best among our naval officers. Men went so far as to pride them- selves on profound ignorance of everything relating to the s m-engine. Years elapsed berore the study of it became a road to promo- tion. But when the engineer came on board he possessed a knowledge with regard to the ship which 1t was st no disgrace to the captein—rather to his nonor, indeed—not to share. For the first yime the younger man, with the lesser experience of sea life, was the | superior in a knowledge which was necessary to the ship. The captain was the official but no longer the personal superior of the engineer | in his peculiar department. For the first time the conduct of the ship became the conse- quence of a consultation between the captain, with a general but incomplete knowiedge, and the engineer with a special but complete knowledge.” The captain is no longer a despot on board his ship; he has been changed into a consti- | tutional monarch and is dependent for nis | supplies if not for instruction #s 1o the course | heis to steer on a parliament personified by the chief engineer. Mr. Bennett's book is pro- fusely illustrated. HYST[RI; IN LITERATURE. The astonishing development of hysteria in American literature within a comparatively | brief period may well arouse the concern of says: | Christian people of every denomination, says | & writer in the New York Observer. By hyste- ria I mean that class of morbid, cver-wrough writing, that gets ltself publichea in boo | with lurd titles ana nightmare covers—a cat- niv prehensible nonsense. Some of our most pro- lific writers seem to have broken loose from | lnterary bedlim, and to be capering and crack- ing their heels in the face of the public, as if there were no longer any such thing asde- or propriety to be expected of a man Tne improbable, the dis- ic, the 1mmoral, are all laid under contribution to furnish a feast that will meke the reader wriggle in his tressing, the fanta hair. In one of these recent hysterical volumes three collaborators put their heads together to devise, collect or { “adapt” the most horribie stories possiole | concerning the torture and death of infants. | This sort of thing is, perhaps, the worst | phase of the prevailing literature of hysteria— 1 the use of the shocking, the revolting, the un- { mentionable, as & means for attracting the | atiention of the reading public. Then there | 1s another phase of literary hysteria—the | supremely silly. Nine-tenths of the sffected, abnormal school of modern writers cultivate & | kind of obscure, giggling nonsense, because it is easier to produce merely silly things than | anything eise. | Such hysteria as this is more harmless than | the convulsive sensationalism of a more virile | class of writers, but no reader ever gets any | inspiration or help or enlightenment out of it. | It demoralizes by wedkening the mental fiber. | Associated wiih the shocking and silly litera- | tore of modern hysteria, is the no less out- | 1andish and meaningless “poster” craze. In- | decd, the modern poster seems to be a very | good visible reflection of the literature which | 1t 1s 1utended to advertice. There is really but one way to neutralize and sterilize the hysterical in modern literature, snd that is to hold it up to honest, hearty | ridicule. There is materiel enough for satire, | certainly, in the fantastic, pretentious, morbid | compound of poor literature and false art that | is now meking such a persistent bid for popu- | lar favor. Those who are easily drawn by | some new thing (and their number is con siderable) have been resdily fascinated by | this dime museum type of literature. They | will crowd to see the disemboweled infant, the | hypaotized girl, the man who turns his con- science inside out, the yeilow dancer, the red | realist, and their like, until somebody with a | healthier imagination shows them the ridicu- | Jousness and vulgarity of the whole thing. | Then they will all go home, laughing; and the shutters of hysteria will be put up; and much | elaborate stage scenery will pass into the | bands of that relentless old junk- dealer | whom mortals call oblivion. | STORY OF JANE AUSTEN. THE STORY OF JANE AUSTEN'S LIFF—By Adams. Lee & Shepard, Boston. The above is & new and illustrated edition of Mr. Adams’ popular life of the famous lady This “Story of Jane Austen's Life” is con- structed ou somewhat different lines from the | blographies previously published, it being the intention of the author to place Jane Austen | “before the world as tne winsome, delightful woman that she was, and thus dispel the un- attractive not to say forbidding mental pic- ture which o many have formed of her.” Mr. Adams hes spent much time and effort in the preparation of the story, having visited all the localities once famiiiar to Jane Austen, the descriptions of Bath, Steventon, Chawton and other places being very interesting as well as accurate, This new edition 15 in several respects an improvement upon the earlier one. The valu- able bibliography has been extended some two pages, a detail which all students of Miss Austen will appreciate, and of stiil more in- terest will be found the reduced fac-simile of an entire letter by Miss Austen, written in August. 1796. But the distinguishing feature of the new edition is furnished by theeigh- teen illustrations scattered through the vol- ume, which include the most memorable | scenes associated with Miss Austen’s life and work. | FROM JENA TO MOSCOW. LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Vol- | “ume IIL. By Willlem Milligan Sicane, New | York: The Century Company. The third volume of Professor Sloane’s great history of Napoleon is now out with a pro- fusion of fine portraits, colored war scenes and battle maps illustrating the positions and movements of the opposing troops. It opens 1n 1806 with an account of the condition of the Prussians after their defeat at Jana and of the masterly energy with which the con- queror followed up his victory. Itcloses in 1812 with the evacuation of Moscow, and re- lates the beginning of the end, when the har- ried, sick and exhausted Napoleon of those days left unattempted the military feats to retrieve his disasters that the Napoleon of earlier days would have essayed. This vol- ume is not, &s & whole, 80 interesting as the second wes, but & wel-written and accurate history of the stirring events of that period and further revelations of the character of n article on | of sensationalism, silliness and incom- | | wuch that these herolc, honest, but astute the principal actor in them cannot fail to te of great interest. Such was the sudden celerity of Napoleon’s pursuit of the Prussian armies, as Sloane re- cords it, that the King would have been cap- tured but for the politic falsehood of the hero, Blucher; and an offset to this perfidy was the lic of the French hero, Lannes, who was said frigate. STEAM NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 1. The Demolgos or Fulton, built in 1814. The Merrimac, launched in 1855, type of the steam 3. The lowa, the latest addition to Uncle Sam’s navy. to be the most honest of all Bonaparte's gen- erals, by which Hohenlohe was deceived into needlessly surrendeting a large army. The marvel to the student of history is not so generals of an unscrupulous age shouid lie to each other as that they should have believed eachother. £ The beginning of Napoleon’s great blunders is pointed out to be the conscription of 1806, and in the same year came his complete sur- render to luxurious self-inaulgence. He coolly ayowed that he was ot to be bound by the plain virtues of ordinary men. it was then that he met in Warsaw the beautiful Countess Walewska, and they became victims of each other’s fascination. In 1807 he began to relax his old method of indefatigable attention to detalis and his dis- sipations increased. His reply to Josephine's jealous reproaches 1s characteristic: *I am different from every one else and eccept the limitations of no other.” An incident recorded of the ambitious Corsi- can’s ideas of the Turk and the Orient will be of especial interest just now, when the Eastern question is to the fore. At Tilsit & courier an- nounced to him the overthrow of the Sultan Selim. *It isa decree of Providence, snnounc- ing the end of the Ottoman empire,” he cried, and thenceforth much of his conversation was concerning the Orient. “As if inspired by prophetic fire he sketched a missionary enter- prise for the liberation and regeneration of Greece and for the emancipation and reor- genization of the lands and people on the Danube and in the Levant by distributing among them enlightened sovereigns.” Among the most interesting features of the volume are: The meeting of the Emperors at Tilsit, when the Czar was completely captiva- ted poleon’s seductive powers; an esti- | mate of the crafty Talleyrand; an account of Lucien Bonaparte’s magnificent adherence to principle in the refusal of the tembting crown of Ialy; the crime of the subversion of the Spanish monarchy; the danger of sacking Spanish towns; Napoleon’s threat of chastise- ment to the Spaniards, ending, “For God has given me the power and the will to overcome all obstacles”; thedeath of the hero Lannes, when Napoleon wept; the results of the inves- tigation of Josephine's character, “‘She was not virtuous, she was not strong. she was not even very besutiful”; the fiith campalign against Austria, which Bonaparte said wus his finest performance; the conqueror’s meeting with the savants, Wieland and Goethe, to whom he showed more respect than ho did to royalty; and finally the planning of the Rus- sian invasion, . A CONVICT HERO. A MARITAL LIABILITY-By Elizabeth Phipps Train. _Phi ade!phi: J. B Lippincott Com- pany. For sale in this City by Joseph A. Hof- mann, Sutter street. Price 75 cents. Avery well written and entertaining hittle story is this, 1llustrating the occasional cruel miscarriage of human justice. The hero goes 10 the penitentiary and servesout s sentence of ten yesrs in order to shield his wile from exposure for the crime of forgery which she had committed in a diabolically clever way. The beautiful taith and love of the man’s daughter, who be- lieves in her father through all tnese years of Qarkness, is pleasant 10 contemplate as an off- set to the painful thought that such unmerited imprisonments are really sometimes inflicted. Another pretty feature is the ardent love of & society woman who acts the good Samaritan and tries to reinstate the returned convict into the best social circles. Realizing the restraints of finer feeling that bina the hero, she lets her loye-making go to lengths that would be considered unwomanly under ordinary circumstances. A LOVE STORY. LOVICE—By Mrs. Hungerford. Philadelphia: J. ‘B. Lippincott Company. For sale in this City by Joseph A. Hofmann, Sutter street. Frice $1 20, ‘Tnere are few writers who have attained such s wide popularity in spite of adverse criticism as has the “Duchess.” The fact1s a remarkable exemplification of the adage that tuere is no accounting for tastes. Perhaps it is because that such beauties as herworks have are so plainly floating on the surface that it requires no mental effort 1o grasp them, restful recreation for idle hours. L. Q. C. Lamar once said he hiked occasionally to take ® spell off from serious thought and read something that was absolutely trash. The need of some such restiul reaction may be shared by many others of fine intellectual endowment, and the desire to read the *Duch- ess” may not always be evidence of lack of depth. > The Lovice of this story is a lovable girl in spite of the fact that although she utterly despised her rival in love, the vulgar mulatto, Miss Johnson, with a “swivel eye” and £15,000 ayear, she yet faithfully attended the mulat- 10's social functions. Lovice ralls at the heir- ess behind her back and wittlly says insulting things to her while a guest at her house. Surely Mrs. Hungerford would not in real life have admirea s girl who showed so ltile refinement and sense of honor, and yet the fair heroine of this book seems sertously in- tended as a model of refinement held up to contrast with the vulgarity ot the other characters. Itcannot be denied that the book is admirable in some ways, and it is harmless, bright and clean. THE BIBLE DEFENDED. THE OLD TESTAMENT UNDER FIRE. By A. J. F. Behrends: New York: Funk & ‘Wagnalls Company. The author of this little book, who is the pastor of the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn, says that it was struck off at white heat to mee: the pressing emergency. He had passed through the common ex- perience of doubting the ceuracy of the Old Testament, as & result of reading the higher criticism, but after investigating the subject for himself he came back to a faith in its his- torical accuracy and literal truth. He admits that it contains incomplete and variant ac- counts, which thus far have refused to melt together in the critical crucible, but he adds that these do not discredit the entire record nor reverss its general movement, A PRIZE-WINNER, THF MILL OF SILENCE-By B.E.J. Capes. Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Co. Price $1 50. This is the winuer of the second prize in the Cnicago Record's series of stories of mystery. There were 816 competing, and the amount divided smong a few of the best stories was £30,000. The author’s style is well adapted to the writing of mysteries and before the first chapter is finished he has placed the reader under the spell of the weird. There is a great | deal more to the story than the invention of a plot intricate enough to puzzle the wits of a skilled detective. The peculiar characters de- scrived are interesting and the anthor pos- sesses the faculty of making the manner of telling as much a.resson for reading asthe matter told. AN UNWISE MARRIAGE. A EPOTLESS REPUTATION—By Dorothea Gerard. New York: D. Appleton & Co. ko ¢ale in this City by Willlam Doxey, Palace Ho- tel. Price b0 ceuts. Geraldine s the lady beautiful in this story, and the description of the way the diplomat, Walter Nolebroke, met her in a magnificent garden of blooms, in which she is the choicest flower, and instantly felt an immense impulse to kiss & tiny hurt place on the girl's dainty finger, is well done. The in. troduction tempts the reader toread on and learn the future of the fair one and the sud- denly made captive of her charms. The out- comeof things is unhappy. Geraldine's beauty proved a curse. ABOUT FISHER FOLK. PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE — By Mrs. ‘Amelis E, Barr. Now York: The Century Com- puoy. Price $1 50. The fishermen of the Shetland Islands have here furnished Mrs. Barr with material fora fairly good story. These people are the de- scendants of the Norsemen, and although they have been Christians for generations they still retain characteristies of the old herolc pagan- 1sm. Inone of the characiers the idea of ven- geance for a wrong s often seems to him a virwe as do the milder eachings of his pro- fessed faith. The Christianity of these fisher folk was Calvinism of the strictest type, and the suthor speaks of them as being hedged #nd 50 fo many minds they supply the most [ about “with the phentoms of s gloomy creed.” B e e e e T S S I ST ST 8 ) For this reason the title of the book fs*Pris- oners of Conscience.” As the resultof terri- ble trouble the hero and heroine of the tale learn the consolation of a more soothing creed. A NEW ENGLAND STORY. THE STAND-BY—By Fdmund P. Dole New York: The Century Company. Price $1 25. The author of this book is Assistant Attor- ney-General of Hawaliand a cousin of Presi- dent Dole. “Stand-by” is the nickname of the hero of the tale. He won the title while cap- tain of a Yalo boatcrew. He becomes editor of & reform paper in a Maine town, where principle compels him to wage war on a rich Dbrewer, who is the father of his sweetheart. The story is said to be founded on fact. THE LIFE_ PHILOSOPHICAL. ONE MAN_WHO WAS CONTENT—By Mrs. Nchuyler Van Rensselaer. New York: The Century Company. Price $1. Four short stories, the first of which has been published in the Contury Magazine. It teaches that the evils of life should be ac- cepted with sometning more than resigna- tion, for merely tosay “I am resigned” is to acknowledge defeat and to give up the fight for happiness. *A brave soul caanot do this, because it would be ashamed, and & wise soul cannot because it feels that as it must con- tinue in this world simple common-sense com- mands it to gather all of good that the world may siill present.” Two of the other stories are founded upon the author’s experience as Inspector of Common Schools in New York. CALIFORNIA’S EARLY DAYS. THE LITTLE LADY OF LAGUNITAS—By Richard Henry tavage (hicazo and New York: Rand, McN & Co. Price 26 cents. The story opens with the stirring events of 1840 in this State, and there is a mingling of history and fiction through many finent pages It tells of the seizure of the territory by the United States and of the deep plots and ambi- tions underlying it. Some account is given of the wild days of San Francisco's beginnings, when respectability had to give up the e tral part of the Gity to gilded and reckless vice. The pathos of the change to the old Spanish families is described as the superb domain passed under the dominion of the American. VERSES. HEART TONES—By D. O'Kelly Branden. Buf- falo and New York: The Peter Paul Book Compuny. This is & little book of short poems of patriot- ism, religion and sentiment, and one rather long one on the “Visions of St. Paul of the Cross.” The patriotic poems refer both to the United States and to Erin. There are some pretty thoughts about tlie reunited sections of this country. Among the poems of sentiment there are two specially sweet—‘‘What is Worch While” and “The Changing Sea.” BENEFITS OF EXERCISE. PRACTICAL TRAINING—By Randolph Faries. London and New York: The Outing Publishing Company. This litile book on how to exercise, diet, bache and train the body for athletics, health and pleasure was written by the director of physical education in the University of Penn- sylvania, who is both an athlete and s’ physi- cian. It is aesigned not ouly for those who wish to train for athletic contests but for all who desire to keep themsclves In glowing health. The author says there are thousands of men suffering from low spirits, languor and pain who by means of well-regulated exereise could essily regain health and bodily vigor. A STORY OF IRISH LIFE. BEYOND THE PALE—A novel, by A. M. Croker. New York: Veter Fenolon Coiller. Price 25 cents. The above is the title of Mr. Croker's latest effort, which deals in an entertaining fashion with some of the more or less familiar phases of Irish life. The stocy was originally pub- lished serially in the London Times and has Just been copyrighted in this country under the international copyright law. Mr. Croker is a favorably known and proiific writer and the novel under review will be warmly wel- comed by s admirers. 4 HERE AND THERE. Paul Dunbar, now in England, is writing a novel. An English edition of his “Lyrics of Lowly Life"” will be issued shortiy. Rudyard Kipling has just delivered to the editor of a well-known American magazine the manuscript of 8 new short story entitled “Number 007.” We understand that there is to be a memoir of Coventry Patmore and that the work of writing it. has been committed to one of his oldest friends. Mr. Crockett, who has not been in very good health, has gone for a walking tour in Pome- | rania, where the scene of his next novel, “The Red Axe,” is to be laid. M. Francois Coppee, through ill hesalth, has been obliged tostop all work. Having under- gone an operation, at the last accounts ae wa: at Pau, with a fair chance of recovery. Pierre Loti has appealed through the French Bress for funds to equip a Humber of hospital ships upon the coast of Ireland, (0 which fish- ermen may be taken for treatment when 11l A number of unpublished letters by Mme. de Stael have been found which were addressed to the Czar Alexander L Another discovery is a number of letters which were sent to Bossuet. o Mr. Benson, of Dodo fame, is writing a novel of Greek life—of Greece at the time of her struggle with the Turks seventy years ago. It is to be published as a serial before coming out in book form. Ouida hes already another short novel in the press, although “Le Selve” has been out but & few weeks. The new story shows the difficulty of putting ideas of social equality into practice. The title is “The Altruist.” Rymor has run wild in talking about R. D. Blackmore. He is not, we are glad to say, 1n ill health, but is well and at work. In the earlier part of each day he is about with the | birds, tending his vines and gardens. The alternoon finds him busy with his pen, Arecentsale of books in London brought out a curious fact. It was & presentation copy of Keats' poems, 1817, first edition, with the autograph, “To W. Wordsworth, wish the author’s sincere reverence,”” and brought $230, but Wordsworth had never even cut the leaves. | Mr. Froude’s ‘Erasmus’ has been translated into Dutch. A literary Hollander complains however, that the work is “very bad.'’ | “Froude,” he says, ‘‘does not seem to have had any knowledge of what had been written on the subject on the Continent in recent years.’ Mr. Barry Pain is engaged on aromantic history of Robin Hood, and most people are hoping he will treat the subject with his char- acteristic whimsicality. Butas Walter Crane is to illustrate it perhaps Mr. Barry Pain will curb his sense of humor and go in for ortho- dox medieval romance, which would be too cruel. 2 Besides & number of new pleces which the volume of selections from the poems of George Meredith is expected to contaln, some of the novelist’s more recent verse—his somnet on hearing of Robert Browning’s death, aud the Trafalgar day poem, for instance—will be in- cluded in the volume which Constable & Co. have in preparation. The stained-glass window which is to be piaced in the church of tne village of Forgney, Ireland, where Oliver Goldsmith was born, will appropriately represent a scene from the “Deserted Village.” The committee formed to carry out this object, and of which Sir Wal- ter Besant was a member, have raised, chiefily among men of letters, the sum of £75; Among recent American books translated into Japanese are Captain A. T. Mahan’s “The Influence of Sea Power” and a life of Commo- dore M. C. Perry based on Dr. W. E. Griffis work, which, with illustrations, contains Miss Flora Best Harris’ rendering into English of “The Sorg of the Black Ship,” which re- sounded all over Japan when the American squadron lay in Yokohams harbor in 1853, Mrs. Julia Davis, who aled at Ciifton a few days ago atthe great age of 94, was probably, the Athenum points out, the last survivor of the intimate friends of Charles Lamb. She was the daughter of Joseph Hume of Montpel- Mer House, Notting Hill, where Lamb, Good- win and Hazlitt were constant guests. She married Vice-Admiral Davis, R. N., and was the mother of the late Mrs. Augusta Webster, the poetess. Mr. Ruskin is in good health again, but still abstains from all literary work. Ruskin and Emerson met at Oxford ebout twenty-five years ago, and their first impressions of each Other were not complimentary. i found Em- erson’s mind a total blank,” said Ruskin to & iriend, “in matters of art.” “I found myself wholly out of sympathy with Ruskin’s views,” said Emerson; *' wonder such & genfus can be possessed of such a devil."” Andrew Lang has somewhere said that it is & melancholy feature of the present age that young people say they cannot read Dickens Just as they cannot reac Scott. This dialogue, overbeard in the Abbey on Saturday, lends some color to Mr. Lang's averment: He (in- structively, pointing with his eane to Dickens’ grave)—Charles Dickens. She (hesitatingiy)— Charles Dickens. A writer, wasn’t he? He (rather impatiently)— Yes, he wrote some tales. She—Just fancy Russia’ celebrated historian, Professor Alexander Buchner, is dead. He was 62 years of age and was born in St. Petersburg. Pro- fessor Buchner was a studeat of Heidelberg ana his German tendencies contfnually proved an obstacle to his advancement in Ru: In spite of them he occupied the chair of Rus. sian history in most of the large universities of Russia at different times. Most of his numer- ous contributions to Russian ‘history were written in German, thongh a few were in his native languege, Justin McCarthy is {n very,bad health again. Thestran involved in completing the fifth volume of the “History of Our Own Times,” which s now in the hauds of the publishers, has proved t00 much for him and his doctor has ordered him a period of complete rest. He will be unable to answer any letters for some time to come. Miss McCarthy, who has re- lieved her father to a large extent of the bur- den of letter-writing, is quite unable to cope with the heavy correspondence and requeste that this explanation may be made public, so s 10 prevent unnecessary disappointment. We referred last week to the crass ignorance of some would-be literary people. The fol:ow- ing note elucidates our theory. It is clipped from the current number of “‘The Bookman”: A lady, presumably young, wiites as follows from Eyracuse, N. Y.: “In your March pumber yon say that ‘unmixed Saxon Is good enough fox Gurth and Wamba.’ Who are Gurth sni Wamba?" Bloss us and save us! What shall we say to this? Nothing, except to advise the young l+dy to siop reading Stephen Crane and Marle Corelll (we Know that she reads Marie Corelll) and to take six months or a yearoff for the exclusive persual of Bir Walter 8coits LITERARY NOTES. Harper & Brothers have secured the Ameri” can rights of the forthcoming life of Tenny- son. & Mr. Fisher Unwin wiil publish in the course of the next fortnight a volume of short stories by Louis Becke. Frank R. Stockton’s new book 1s a collec- tion of nine short stories grouped under the title of “A Story-teller’s Pack.” Miss K. Douglas King, author of that clever novel, “Th# Scripture-reader of St. Mark's," ! has just finished another book which Hutch inson & Co. wiil pubiish. The suecess of Professor Brander Matthews’ “Introduciion to American Literature” is as striking as it is well deserved. We understand that the American Book Company has al. ready gone to press-with the fiftieth thousand of this admirably written book. The Philistine has the faculty of sassy things in a good-natured Itis fun without malice. The May issue seems fully up to the standard, with contributions by Willlam McIntosh, Adelaide Lund, Frank W, Noxon and Arthur Lucas. Then Editor Hube bard disports himself in the “side talks,” take ing & fling at everything ana everybody. saying The great success of Harold Frederic's novel, “The Damnation of Theron Wars,” has led to the publication by the Messrs. Scribner of & new edition of his novels, uniform in style with “Theron Ware.” Mr. Frederic says in his preface that though the subjects of the novels are American they weré written in England. He also says that he prefers his short stories to his longer, and that of the writers whose books affected his earliest years he thinks that Erckmaun-Chatrain exercised the deepest and most vital iufluence. A most interesting littie volume is to be published by the Macmillan Company under the title, “Burns and His Times as Gathered From His Poems,” by J. O. Mitcheil, LL.D. The yolume has grown outof a paper which appeared in the Glasgow Herald about nine years ago on Burns’ birthday. One passage aiter another is quoted, and these are jolned together with remarkable skill to show thes aspect of the country made famous by Burns ven, and many s topic is thus shrewdiy illus- trated until one closes the book with a sense of astonishment at the amount of information gathered in this wey in regard to the food, | drink snd clotning, the church, the politics, recreations and superstitions of the various | classes and masses for whom and about whom Burns wrote. For the past two years Mark Twain has been engaged in getting meterial together and writing a book relating to his trip around the world through Australia, India, South Atrica, | etc., and is now in London looking after its final editing, and adding the finishing touches. 1t is written in the style of the immortal *“In- noceuts Abroad,” and his frienas predict that it will be his greatest work, his masterpiece; in a recent letter he refers to it ss follows: I #m riore than satisfied with it these latter days. Iwouldn’t tradeit for any book I have ever written, and Iam not an easy person to please.” The book will be a large octavo, handsomely illustrated, and will be published in the fall by the American Publishing Com-. | pany of Hartford, Conn. All parents who have wanted s clean, pure book to place in the hands of young children 2nd growing boys will be glad to know that the Vir Publishing Company, 731 Hale build- ing, Philadelphia, 1s about to publish a series of such books addressed to boys, young men, young husbands, men at 45 and those at 65. This series to men 1s to be followed by a simi- lar serics of five books 10 women. The series to women is 10 be written by Mrs. Mary Woods Allen, M.D., who is widely known as a writer and lecturer on personal and social purity. The series to men is by Sylvanus Stall, D.D. associate editor of the*‘Lutheran Observer, who is widely known by his various books, and especially by his “Object Sermons 0 Chil- dren.” The first volume, “What a Young Boy Ought to Know,” will be ready next week. The books are to sell at $1 each. Spalding’s Baseball Guide for 1897, which has just been published, is especially inter- esting to college men, ss it contains a com- plete record of all the games played by the leading colleges during 1896, and portraits of the most prominent college baseball teams of the country. The new : piaying rules have the alterations and amendments printed in italics, which i a decided im- provement, and the lists of averages of all the leagues and associatlons are very com- plete. Besides the college portraits the book contains pictures of all the leading teams of the country, embracing altogether nearly 500 separate photos. The Guide will be sent on receipt of 10 cenis to any address in the United States or Canada by the American Sports Publishing Company, 241 Broadway, New York. The Macmillan Company announces the publication at an early day of a supplement~ ary volume to the Oxford Chaucer in all re- spects uniform with that edition of Chaucer’s works 1n six volumes, 1894. Its title is*Chau- cerian and Other Picces.” edited from numer- ous manuscripts by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D.C.L, ete. THis selection inciudes all the most important among the numerous pieces in prose and verse which have bden ep- pended to Chaucer's works in various edi. tions, including those ot Thynne, Stowe, Speght and Tyrwhitt. Nearly every piece re- printed now appears in an important form, and in several cases manuscripts not pre- viously examined have been coilated and have proved to be the best. It contains Thomas Usk’s “Testament of Love,” * ‘Plowman’s Tale,’ ~Jack Upland,” Gower's “Praise of Peace, Thomas Hoecleve's “The Letter of Cupid,” etc., and Scogan's “A Moral Balade.”” Recen t excavations in Babylonia, under Dr. J. H. Haynes, have brought to lignt authentie records which, as made clear by Professor Dr. H. V. Hilpreeht, carry back the history of the race to an earlier date than was known before. Their archeologicsl value is even yat little known and faintly appreciated. The latestex- cavatioas disclose historic data ‘transcending in importance the most sanguine expectations at their start. A record of the explorations which secured thess resuits is now to be pubtished under the auspices and by the suthority of the department of archasology d paleontology of the University of Penne sylvania, under which the Babylonian ex- ploration fund earries on its work. The volume will inciude the personal narrative of Dr. Haynes, director of the expedition since 1892 and member of the earlier expediiion iz 1888, as expanded and supplemented by Dr. Hilprecht Assyriologist of the expedition from the beginning, and editor-in., chief of the publications of the Babylonian exploration fund. It is to be illustrated by seventy or more aps, plans and other plates, including sketches of its most recent im- portant finds. The yolume is to be issued by Jobn D. Wattles & Co. of Philedelphia, cor- r-sponding in style with **Recent Research in Bibie Lands,” ss edited by Professor Hile prechi. Price §2 50. It will published simule taneously in the United States and Great Beftalna o coe 3 T AR T8 A T e i ] f i | e