The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 27, 1897, Page 23

L g THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL SUNDAY, JUNE 27 1897 23 ENGLAND THROUGH FRENCH EYES. A DIPIOMAT IN LONDON—Letters and Notes sated from the krench of New York: He Holt & For sale by Doxey; cloch bound, the lettersand notes containec the rom 18 London M. Charles Gava:d, 110 1877 of first as chief secreta; he French aires. A g art to make himselfa we on tha earth most glish are the > The candid views likely to be found in <h appreciation of art is he Kensington Museum) thus conveyed really very interesting and instructive; one t get one’s whole ecucation in this place; 100 many English paintings. sborough znd Reynolds; I often edmire them,even in ntrasts of color that remind hool of to-day,” which ses candy,” and which at- e attention of “the mob,’ y sick. To pull him- d to the hail that s re is breadth puissant, profound; aster, you look, uld you belt avard lit are great, presence of rofit. W it these seven ntique hey could to em- g are the London thea- vo “always the same 1tion, the same exaggera- nd exclamations, the in place of 1 pleasantry liscovers a total absence of everything t constitutes dramstic art. “There is n, nor continuity, nor ver! similitud sallas discordant as the colors they bring together in their toilets, or es the edibles they mix in the same piate.” He bec mate with the Roths- Baron d hesds, in his es that ors; standing M. Gavard was , 10 the writer of Notes,” was “‘the temple of negative of every idea of aud of good taste.” They bave gathered together the cream of the masterpieces o. the entire world, and made ©of them the most sickening coliection con- | ceivable; and more then that, to meke them y wash them at least once & year. It happened to be people’'s day at the Pa’ace, | atfact gave rise to these choice com- “The people had come 1o eat there the people eat better there The public is worthy of me! Saxon strain comes to the surface!” Disreeli s descrived as Lothair. Coningsby, the Jew, D ‘sepulebral as always in old-fashioned costur “You ngland tion of orienta He is not e; There is a sugges painted face. b ng Gladstone The Grand 0:d Man ch ness of mind store of recollectio; feel a sincere attraction toward toat appeais to him as being generc armed M Gavard s ope is “‘a charmer. though not, perhaps, a very | Treassuring one. Lord Salisbury, he res, is “the best speaker of them all” him the French ciplomat. finds two us—the sim charming gentleman t eveiy one when they talk to him tete-a-tete, and the vio- lent, bitter orator one listens t0 in every a:- sembly in which he speaks Of Lord John Russell in the House of Com- mons he gives this pathetic picture: “He no longer knows what he is saying, he can’t hear ng that is said to him in s_on telking even while be spoken to, After the Ministerial tions, Lord Granville, who is really also a bit dea, shouted the substance of them in his lordship’s ear. jdea of the political mind of this House than %0 sce them listening patiently to the words escaping from the mouth of this invalid, bit , amidst the most painful contortions.” volume abounds with thumbnail of notable people From & British representative just returned from China he learns many facts, and he sets the case down thus: *‘It is the system of edu- cation that puts & damper on the masses ther exhaust all their faculties in learning ¢ono more, and when they ought to reason tney remember. For the rest, we shall see them overrun the earth wita cheap labor and coal. put down their customs and prejudices. and to launch their 200,000,000 or 400,000,000 of buman beings on the way 10 progress.” The famous Tichborne case at itsone hun- dred and fiftieth hearing brought these com- ments on English law from M.Gavard: “It \was anedifying spectacle. From beginning to end )t is nothing but a contest between ba Tisters. It was reslly characteristic. The whole 8im of the lawyers is to drag the thing out as long as possible till sowe juror dies; then it will be necessary to begin over again Sor the third time. In English jurisprudence you may undertake to doanything, even to Prove that a hippopotamus isa gazelle. All vou need do is to organize a corporation to oniwit the law. You may buy shares here in judicial enterprises to set aside succession to Property no less than in associations for sieal- ing dismonds.” Here and there throughout the letters and notes ‘as some of the above quotations indi- cate) crop out evidences of the sirong French resistance ‘to Eagish influences; but while M. Gaverd freely eriticizes the English, he flso freely acknowledges some of the promi- nent wesknesses of the Gallic character. For example, referring to theaters, he remark “They find a means here of being eoarse with- out shocking their morals—we do just the con- trary in Franse.” The volume is replete with scute comments on passing events. There are bright,.clever things everywhere—not adull pege in the book. These letters *and motes, often treating of important diplomatic si- fairs, are of value in & historicel sense. They were not intended for publication. 'l;hzl‘np:: ight have been more elegant, o T but.as it is, “A Dip'omat in London Wil be found exceedingiy exjoyable. Zola has lost Lis sult for infringement of copyright sgainst the bookseller Larorte, Who had printed s selection of the most ultra realistic pessages i his works in a pamphlet called Zo'a Against Zoln,” which was to be used as &n argument sgainst the movelist's sdmission 1o the Acrdemy. Tbe court, how- ever, expressed its disapprobation of . Le- porte's proceeding: the race is on holidays, when the | Nothing gives one a siranger | the books of Confucius; after which they can | A Peter the Great is needed, simply to | S, R. Crockett has written in “Lad’s Love” y { whatmight nave been a readable story i he | bad abstained from his inveterate habit of | etting druck on the unholy music of diaiect. | Whenever he gets his ear wi ing d tance of the hand that he is a Scotch author D hes with ably goes wrong. Intoxication claims him for its own, lus gentlemanly paris | are aniled e all »w of native ver- | acular and the man who i1 15-r05ms nakes himsclf understood creditably in sh is for the nonce a 1 suaning his ears et from *home.” e infusion of “dialect” fiction has made ny a modern writer popular. One would suppose that the winning of popularity would per in a foreign | in & rayof rural dia- lodho serve to discourage rather than promote the practice whereby that dangerous stiention had 'Leen auracied, inasmuch as populari rely ads to an iltimate adve: ent of the popular one’s | inevitable deficiencies and is never a lasting assurance that he does good work. Popularity does not aiways denote ability—it not infre- queatly denotes the lack of it, and never by any chance signifies that the per: cted with it ever got famous by any more creditable means than accident. Popularity, indeed, is | | MORE DIALECT FROM S. R. CROCKETT. accident. Whether the popular one subse- quently turns out to be possessed of brains | above the ordinary is left to the merey of Prov- | | iaence. And i ail depends upon the quality of the intellect with wnich Providence has furnished bim at birth whether he remains popular or not after the first blush of novelty which chanced to fall upon him at maturity has faded from his tender countenance and the capricious part of the world, which be- tows the populerity, has tired of him as a fad. Crockett may enjoy basking in the popular- ity which his remarkable “dialect” sheds upon him, but unless be seizes the opportun- ity which Dame Chance and Editor Nichols | have dropped before him and proceeds ver: shortly have very little to sustain him in age, when popularity tires of propping him This “Lad’s Love” sort of twaddle will live just as long as it is being read, and it wall | It Mr. Crockett can write | be read very briefly. good English and has a c.ever imagination let him write stories for educated men lines. On any other lines we most disresp e fully decline to examine bim. We refuse to reed “Lad's Love” further than the fifth pege. [ Mr. S. R. Croc Minister” made him f: Sii the latter being his newest work. TALES OF THE EAST. 1 KAKEMONOS — By W. Carleton Dawe. New York: John Lane, the Bodley Head. For sale in this City by Wiliam Loxey. Palace Hotel | Price $1 25, | Nine shortstories of the far Enst, adventures ss are always to turons. There is one quite graphical ten called “His japanese Wife,” which points a moral with considerable empnasis. The white man, Cuthbertson, who marries a Jap- anese girl, persuaded nimself he was doing & noble deed of justice, when other men would | mereiy have betrayed; but, as the writer say Nobiiity is a transceudent virtue, but in Cuth- bertson’s case it was & aeplorable vice. The vreacher will tell us all men are brothers; he knows very well that we are nothing of the kind.” The strong condemnation, however, does not reach 1o the core of Cutibertson’s error, and in this story and some of the others there is a tone that tries to give to adventur- ousvice a seeming less foul than true art sbould impart to it. g of adver STRANGE, SAD AND PLEASING. MERE SENTIMENT—By A. J. Dawson. London and New York: John Lane, the Bodley Head. | For sale In this City by Wiilam Coxey, Palace Hote.. Price $1 26. Very poetic, and mysterious and sad are these stories of Australian bush life. Some of them read as If written by some madman with wonderful method in his madness. One of them, called “Wattle Worship” is wildly imaginative. It teils ofa man whose passion for nature’s beauty ss maniiested in the | spring-time giory of the woods, *“when thick, | luscious grasses strangle each other in Tumal, | tne dreary hum of lazy insects and the love- bird’s throbbing cry fi.l the place of the sad | | hush of the wilderness,” passes from a loving | | 1everence into & sove like a passion for woman and thence to a sort of madness, Those who | | enjoy the iascination of the odd whnen it is | joined with poetic beauty will appreciate these | short stories. J | A CONVICT'}; REFORM. DERELICTS—By Willlam J. Locke. London and | New York: John Lane, the Bodley Head. ¥or sale in this City by Wiliam Doxey, Palace Hotel. Price $1 25. | The terrible difficuities with which ex-con- victs have to ¢ ntend is made plain in this | story of Joyce, who, getting in debt when a | young man, misappropriated some trust funds and wes sentenced 10 two years in the peni- | tentiary. The term of imprisonment was & | Iight pain compared to the long sgony of despair that followed, when all men shunned him and he found himself ostracised. His | gloom is somewhat ligatened by the friend. ship of & woman he haa known in the days of | | his prosperity, and through her influence he at last comes back to happiness. 600D SHORT STORIES. SYMPHONIES—By George Egerton. New York: John iane, the Bodiey Head. Forsale in this | City by Willlam Doxey, Palace Hotel. Price | 1 25. The suthor of these symphonies says ass sort of motto for his book: *‘Our best storics are ever untold. T like to think of them s tored away io some monster aerial library of the un- written works of human faney—dream stories | that unfold in the darkness.”” It he has any | | storfes so stored away that are much better than those he has here toid al: readers will wish he could find some way to reduce his fancies 10 expression, for what he has put in print are 0 admirable that to excel them would furnish a rare treat indeed. ABSTRUSE. GODS AND THEIR MAKERS—By Laurence Houseman. New York snd London: Johu | Lave, the Bodley Hesd. For sale in this Ciiy | by William Dcxey, Paluce Hoiel. Price §125. | A queer story is this, with probebly much | allegorical intent, too obscurely intimated. It tells of & young savage, Peeti, and his | woman, Aystab, and how they made for them- | | | beart, 10 do_some enduring work he will | his old | and | | women. We are willing to Judge him on thoss | S. R GROGKETT. selves imagee of gods and worshiped them. Peetl says to Avstah concerning her god, “Hoosh was you—the worst of you. Onur gods are ourselves—the greedy parts of us, the luet, the cruelty, the love of evil.” The book has &ll the imagination and the lack of pertinency | of a dream. BRIEF HISTORIES. GERMANY—By Kate Freiligrath Kroeker. E LAND—By Frances E. Cooke. New York: D. Appleton & Co. For sale in this City be W iliiam Doxey, Palace Hotel. Price, each 60 cents. Two little volumes of a series of histories for young readers, one of England and the other of Germany, are just out in such attractive form as to greatly encourage young people to begin the study of history. They cover the historles of the two countries from shortiy be- fore the Christian era down to about 1870, and each is condensed into about 250 pages. The cy of a put | piat isan admirable one of giving many of | the most notable events in such condensed shape as not to weary routhful readers. MICROSCOPIC LIFE. IN BROOK AND BAYOU—By Clara Kern Bay- liss. New York: D. Appieton & Co. For sale inhis City by William Doxey, Paiace Hotel Price 60 cents A study of the queer formsof minute life which exist in the wayside pools. It contains a number of curious illustrations. It is said there are more kinds of life in a littie stag- nant pond that can be seen with a microscope than all the straunge people and animals to be | found without it in all the countries of the globe. The book is written in a style designed to interest enildren. STORY OF ADVENTURES. FOR LIFE A NDL age. New York: 25 cents. By Richara Henry Sav- d, McNally & Co, Price The plains of Texas and the banks of the | some things of which e Rio Grande are the scene of the adventures of | & young civii engineer and his Texas sweer- There is & study of & border character, Bi Leavenworth, a man true us steel to his frienas, but of terrible and unforgiving tem- | per, who reigns as a sort of king on the bor- | der. Dangers and escapes, love and jealousy, scheming greed and plots to rob the Govern- meats of Mexico and the United States, form the material of the tale. SHORT STORIES. THE MERRY MAID OF ARCADY, AND OTH- F R STOKI+S—By Mrs. Burion Harrlsou. New York, Eoston and Londo.: Lamson. Woifte & Co. For sale in this Cl.y by Wililum Doxey, Palace Potel. Price $1 50. Mrs. Burton Harfison's reputation. for sue- cessful story-telling is likely 10 be well sus- tained by thiese reproductions from the Ladies Home Journal. *“The Merry Maid of Arcad which gives title to the volume, is the study of the character of an 0ld maid who, though | reduced to poverly, keeps the sweetness of her | Qisposition throughout a long trial of haid- ships. A WAR STORY. THE SUN OF SARATOGA—By Joseph A. Alt- sbeler. New York: ). Appleton & Co. For tale in this Clty by Wiliam Doxey, Paiace Hotel. Price 50 cents. This romance of General Burgoyne’s surren- | der tells of the arduous and exciting life of a Continental soldi>r. It is well told, and the littie details of soldier life are given a lively turn. We are taught not to scorn a skirmish, for it may contain more heat to the square yard than s grest batue with 20,000 men en- gaged. As time passes, the acknowledgment of | George Meredith’s literary power waxes all the | greater. The Messrs. Scribner’s Sons are pub- lishing a sumptuous and complete edition of tils author’s works. *“The Ordeal of Richard Fevere,” “Evan Harrington,” “Sandra Bel- loni,” and “Vittoria” have already appeared. and “The Adventures of Harry Richmond’ witl follow. A PLEA FOR DICKENS. We hear frequently irom certain critics that the old favorites—Scott, Dickens and Thack eray—sre losing the popularity which their writings bave long heid. Quite recently Mr. Maurice Thompson remarked that “Dick must pass out of the List of permanent fam he has already gove, Le is so ignorant and slovenly.” When mere opinion or pr is puton in the form of a vositive ste of fact the writer, especially if & of ability and reputation, is very apt udice ment one to mis- ad his readers snd do them real inj The belief that the great masters of English fiction are no longer popular has grown out of such statements as Mr. made. In this case Dr. J. E. Rankin, pres- ident of Howard University, Washington, somewhat 1 mpatient with Mr. Thompson, has jowned fssue sbarply with him in a spirited article in the Independent. Well, says Dr. Rankin, If Dickens has “already gone” we can spesk our minds of hin freely. We may ad- mit that he hnd “no vast reserve of cuiture.'” He was only a “literary feller,”” who had caught the knack of making stories of such a nature that the whole world read them, lsughed over them, wept over them. He new nothing about “Antigone” and ‘Theoeritus,” Admitted he never studied fine Writing at the fect of great masters. It was not his funlt; so much the greater pity. When he should heve been in school he was packing blacking-boxes. The completest mas- tery of literature can only come. through the Greek and Lain classics. Still Dickens did en a Greek would not Atleast, we thought so Thompson has have been ashamed. when, in our youth, we were reading “The Christmas Carol.” And it is a pretty sum- mary disposition of the suthor of “Bleak House,” aud “Qur Mutusl Friend,” and ““Dom- bey end Son” and “David Copperfield” to call him “ignorant and slovenly.” These epi- thets do not apply to that kind of work. There was one thing which Charles Dickens did: hestudiel greatsocial wrongs thoroughly, and he heiped to uproot not a few of them. He get the example of the novel for the pur- pose of reform, breaking awey from the nis- torical novel, in whose construction 8ir Walter cott has shown such greatness. Which is the nigher grade of siory others may determine, In this he was the father of anew schooi, where Charles Reade, Walter Besant, Harriet Beecher Stowe and a Mrs. Ward on both sides of the water have been his pupils. He did bard and conscientious work in preparing his materials, and certainly 1n the novels above joned he also displayed great dramatic power—we mean in the construction of his plots and 1n making his personages real. Is there another author from whose pages an “Evening” introducing a score of characters may be selected, every one of whom would be instantly recognized? Itis true this impres- sion is often made from the recurrence of an idfosynerasy or a repeated phrase, or from some peculiarity in dress, but that is the man- ner in which we come to know real men. If1t is true that D.ckens is *‘already gon what will be 84id of such charaeters as Cap- tath Cuttle, Peggotty, Pickwick, Sam Weller | and hundreds of others? Are they miresdy gone? They are just as immortal in their sphere as Hamiet und Lady Mucbeth and Otheilo and Iago. You canaot kill them by eriticizing the Dickens literature. If Dickens had been able.or had thought best, to write like De Quincey, he would have had the educated and cultivated as his readers—readers who do not especially neea him. And what of the great multitude who do not appreciate litera- ture as such, who read without &uy philoso- phy.about what constitutesliterature? “I travel | for the bouse of Human Interest Brothers, and have rether a large connection in the fancy good ways.” This might be appiled to Dickens nimselfl. Everybody knows his delects as a writer, but in spits of because of them, much that he h writlen the world will not willingly let die. 1i hu- manity should change, if they should be ir- auced 1o forget the man who 5o ably and in- them, and sometimes | tt is one of the little growth of Scotchmen who a few years ago forsook the pulpit for the secular pen of popular authorship. mous, as Barrie’s *“ Window in Thrums” and lan Maclaren’s *“ Beside the Bonny Brier Bush attention of Editor Nichols of the British Weekly, who, secure in the autocra nce writing “ The Stickit Mini | given new lije to the discus:ion. His “Stickit made them famous—principally by attracting the trust and a popular confidence, calmly told the world that they were good ter’”” Mr. Crockett has given us * The Lilac Sunbonnet,” *Cleg Kelly,” “Bog M It is mentioned among this week’s reviews in THE CALL. yrtle and Peat” and “Lad’s Love,” 1e boarding school, ragged boy ‘he working-man and the work- hen ing-won not till then. After reading M several ford, Libraritan of answer: “I nave your inquiry, and in reply, I have to assu ou that so far as the popularity of the novels of Dickens being on the wune, the ex- perience of this library at co! His books are read here in greater iry, one to A. R. Spof- Congress. This is his ary. proportion thau those of Seott, Bulwer, Thack- eray or any list. This conclusion is confirmed by the ever-increasing reprints of Dis works, both here and in England.” This was the answer from the Astor Library, New York Cit “We estimate the relative use of the authors you mention ss follows : Dickens, Scott, Thack- eray."” If, therefore, Dickens is slready gone, these public lbraries are not yet aware of it. In his lust will and testament Dickens says: “I rest my claims to remembrance upon my published works."” 1t is now twenty-six years since Dick- ens died, and at present, at least, these claims, so far as this country is concerned, have not been disappointed. HOW T0 STUDY FICTION. There has been & good deal printed in the editorial columns of our newspapers and liter- ary periodicals about the taste for fiction and bow it can be raised. The controversy over the exclusion of certain works of fiction from the Carnegie Library at Allegheuy, Pa., has The follow- ing very sensible and practical article from the Literary News will be of particular interest at this time: “Slowly but surely fiction in the form of novels has made for 1tself a place in literature hes been recognized as an art to be studied as music, painting, sculpture and architecture are studicd. It has now been conceded that the finest essence of literary ability is to be found in our novels, no one can now lay claim to a lib- eral education who has not read Thackera: Dickens, Scot’, Reade, Kingsley and George | Eilol, not to speak of the living novelist whose masterpicces do not yield in rank even to those of the greatest masters. «critleally considered, the writing of novels now is what the writing of plays was in the age of Elizabeth, and while there is not much prospect for another Shakespeare or another Ben Jomson, there is no reason why the noble art which they created and developed should he belittied as it is, since its chief ob- jeet, which was to hold the mirror up to nature, remains, and slways must rematn, what 1t was. The aim of the Vi torian novelist should not be less then the aim of the Eiizabethan dramatist, which was to delineate the hearts and souls, the emotions and conduct of men and women. The drams was the novel in action, the novel is the drama in narration. The modern novel has had to_outgrow the Qisrepuie into which it had failen. It is not so very long ago when to read s novel was thought a frivolous waste of time, and 1o read the bulk of the novels now published wouia still be u {rivolous waste of Ume, But in fictitious form our great wrilers are mow teaching history, biography, social science, psychology, and all that makes for human progress and happiness, and there is need that the line should be sharply drawn between the novels that waste time and enervate the r er, and the novels that teach, inspire and strengthen. “The question so often discussed, whether purposs has place i fiction, does not enter here. The fact s established thatall the prob- lems of our day are brought before us in the form of fiction, and it has become necessary to seek direction and study the sim, the cause and the effect of the uovels we are reading. “Many have begun to realize this. For two geniously and triumphantly pleaded tor | seasous the study of fiction has been a course Dickens’ star will set, and | Thompson’s article I wrote | lenst atiests the | and | in the curriculum of Yale University. Under the direction of & competent such a study is full of possibilities, and 1t with regret we notice that it is to be given up. Taste in fiction needs training. Itcan ba cul- tivated only by reading and re-reading the works of the great masters. Such training will determine whether fiction shall be a di sipation or a mental and moral food. The practical problem is to find modes of studying fiction which can fit themselves into the routine of ordinary busy life. Some ex- cellent suggestions in this direction are given in ‘Four Years of Novel Reading’; an account ofan experiment in popularizing the study of ction, edited with an introduction by | Rictard G. Moulton, professor of litera- ture in English in the University of Chicago. Some hard work 1s called for by Professor Moulton, but his ideass, rried out under intelligent guidance, would educate the readers of novels in systemat thinking, and open up to them a view of iife that would widen their sympathies and in- crease their personal infiuence and usefulness. The only way to getrid of the trashy fiction until it becomes laste in music, is cultivated by an abomination to them. in patnting, in constantly hearing and seefng what is good. Why should this not hold good in the art of literature? Read with understanding and cultivate the critical fac Trained readers of fiction will be an inestimable benefit to authors, only what a large proportion of their readers excitement and enervating resction. “Homer, Virgll, the Parables of the Bible, what are they but fiction? Tennyson, Brown- ing, William Morris have presented us s tems of philosopby in fictitlous setiing. In other arts we bave been taught to udy the old. Why not spply the same rule in literature. Training in fiction does not mean to be able to discuss glibly the latest novel, but to have so read the mas- ters that you know at & glince where the author has found his subj ct, and just how ruch of him he has put into his art. The technique of fiction and poetry is al- | most perfeet in the hands o literary artists, | and we have a right to demand a soul and a message as well as correct literary form. But we must be taught to look for it. The earnest study of fiction to-day is really a study of life. Men and women may see the life they are leading and mey reflec: upon the conditions of society which they are helping to bring about. It is an open question whether the earneststudy of life is not aboutas good & study as any college can take up.” WOMEN AND THE REPUBLIC. Into the dull-glowing literary horizon of to- day there has floated snother faint luminary, sent there to crowd back some other lights. It | does not bear comparison, howaver, and there | is small doubt that it will pale entirely away, presently relegated by its own insignificance. | * Helen Kendrick Jones bas published & work entitled “*Woman and the Republie,” which falls directly in line with the recent move- ment in the East against woman's suffrage. | In ail agitations of any moment there will and | must e counter movements, although as & usual thing the opposition comes from outside | the ranks. Miss Jones has opened fire from within the lines, but the flash is very faint | nd the report is scarcely heard at all. “Woman and tue Republic” is more an at- | tack upon the remarks of the suffrage leaders | than upon the movement itself. Susan B. Anthon: equally well known have been quoted and their words flung back at them much in the explosive style of the sehoolboy debater. he movement to obtain the elective fran- | chise for women is not in harmony with those through which woman and government have made progress,” says Miss Jomes, and she s ing to prove that as man advi ed tothe | position he mow holds in America, England | and France, woman naturaily, in accordance | with the rightful trend of affairs, retired | quietly to ner home snd left the affairs of state to man. She ciaims thatthe attempt to en’ranchise woman is a movement suicidal to the democracy—that everywhere in the world where women have the voting privilege the | government s a failure. She quotes history and articles and Jetters atan appalling rate, butatter one has laboriously the tangled branches oné by one because | they have the sembiance ot solidity, and | emerged into the light of day again, the real- ization comes that it would bave been essier 10 have pulled the bushes up and flung them away. For Miss Jones’ book is a delusion—it as- | sumes something which it does not have. It | 1s & work without humor, wit or wisdom. It | aoes not please, it does not interest, nor does it ingtruct. We can forgive the existence of a book that is cleverly written, even though its underlying purpose is not sound; and we can tolerate one that is sound, even though it does not seintillate with touches of sarcasm | and bright allusions. But when a book op | with an involved sentence which sounas like | every other sentence in the whole | yourself of en ides, you read another pege | | and become puzzled to know which one the idea came from, there is cerainly something lacking in the make-up. Miss Jones’ view of the case may be a con- | sclentious one—doubtless she has convinced herself that she is right and the numerous well-known ladies of whom she writes were wrong—but she will fail lamentably to con- | vince any one else. The physician who cures the ladies of this day and generation of this popuiar malsdy must be & wise one, and the | dosa will have to be carefuily prepared and disguised with the most subtle flavorings, and { seek for it. “Woman and the Republic” is certainly not the right prescription. AERONAUTICAL PROBLEMS. THE AERONAUTICAL ANNUAL — Boston, W. B. Clarse & Co. Price $1. urnal, which is devoted to the en- chines and to the advancement of the science ot serodynamics, statesthat the progress made toward tie solution of the problem of man. flight in the past twelve months wes greater then that of any previousyear. Itcontains records of recent experiments in gliding | flight, aerodromes, screw propellers, etc., and | has an interesting chapter on *‘the way of an eagle in the air.” IN BURMA. SIR GALAHAD OF THE GREFKS—By 8, New Yorg: D. Appleion & Co, For sale in tbis City by w ililam Loxey, Palace Hotel. Yrice 50 cents. A young Enelishman in this tale goes out to | the East Indian service with a stout heart and pure morals 10 battle with the dishesrt- ening problem of trying to improve a race, and | with the temptations to sivk from a life of pure idesls im0 one of sloth and sensuality. There is & certain type of missionary at which | the author aims a good deal ol sly sarcasm, proiessor | is to cultivate the minds and bearts of readers | sculpture, | many of whom are now content to furaish | are satistied with—false picturesof felse life, | Miss Stanton, Dr. Jacobi and others | jends eleven chapters and a conclusion in | pushed aside | ens | work; | when after reading one page and possessing | | made so extremely palatable tnat they will | coursgement of experiment with serial me- | HERE AND THERE. “The Private Life of the Queen” is the title | of a new book by & member of the royal house- | hold, which will be published immediately by | D- Appleton & Co. The American Publishing Company of Hart- ford will publish shortly a new book of Mark Twain's relating to his trip around the world. The work is to be handsomely illustrated, | *Ian MacLaren” is resting on his laurels as a novelist. He annouaces his intention of refraining from writing any more fiction this year and is devoting himself to the*Life ot Christ,” on which he has been engaged for some time. 8. R. Crockett has beer tour in Pomerania, we are advised by the English papers, no doubt with a view to ac- quiring “local color” for his new story, ““The taking a walking ® | Red Axe,” the scene of which is to be laid in | Pomerania. Paul Laurence Dunbar, the young mnegro | poet, has not been finax | reader in England, but he is having an sgree- able time soclally. ““The American colored man here,” he says, “Is a good deal like a boy | justout of school. He feels his freedom and | shows it ingenuously. When one has not been allowed tostick his nose inside the portal of | the Hotel Waldorf in New York, and is re- fused entertainmentat the best hostelries of his Nation’s capital, to be welcomed at the Hotel Cecil in London is, perhaps, a little up- setting. After finding one’s self exclude from the bast restaurants in America, or | frowned upon in them, to be seated and smiled &t by the obsequious manager of Frascati’sis something of a change.” cially succassful as a *Zola, having been told that Brunetiere had in a lecture delivered in New York, criticized with a severity of denunciation which almest equaled political invective the writings of Zola, made no reply,” says Leslie’s Weekly. “There was none for him to make. He could have done no more than again to defend his methods and ideals. He could not deny Brunetiere’s authority, nor coula he justly accuse that profound French critic of personal animosity. The first essential for true literary criticism, Brunetiere declared in one of the American lectures recently given, is that the critic absolutely divi fofall personal dship or enmity. His great authori kingship in the realm of literary criticism, is due partly to tne fact that ne is known always to approach his subject absolutely free from any personal bias, unhem pered, and at fuil liverty to tell the truth,” An amusing little controversy has been go- | ing on between the respective pubashers of Murray’s “Handbooks” and Baede “Guide “Claims of precedence are ad- vanced by both sides. Mr. Murray seems to have the best of it, and proves prefty conclu- sively that when he began his series in the thirties there was no rival in the fieid. Since | then, too, he has anticipated the Baedeker | people in each country of Europe. In view of this ‘act, it is sad 1o observe the unanimity | of all but British travelersin preferring the Germen guides. Murray's handbooks have bad & higher literary quality than the Baedeker publications. but the latter, in their practical relations, especinlly in their maps, still remain at the head. The French guides come second, and then, bringing up the rear in the hands of loyal Britons, come the guides of Murray. Somuch for “precedence!” E. F. Benson, author of “Dodo,” “Limlta- tions,” and other popular stories, has written a novel entitled “The Vintage,” on a subject of peculiar interest at this time, the Greek war of independence, to begin serial publication in a few weeks in Harper's Weekly. Mr. Bensonls thoroughly familiar with hisground, us he has several winters in Greece in studving archwology and in traveling. Though only about thirty years of age, he has slready won unusual success In literature. He wasedu- cated at King’s College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself for scholarship, He is said to bave so mistrusted his ability as a story-writer that when he had half finished “Dedo” he submitted the manuscript tos well-known writer whom he knew, for advice as to whether it were worth while for him to go on with it. His brother, A. C. Benson, has made 8 reputation as one of the best of the younger English poets. Chester Bailey Fernald, whose first-book of stories, “The Cat end the Cherub,” was pub- lished by the Century Company last autumn and made an immense success, has just re- turned to America. Mr. ¥ernald was married last year and In October he and his wife started to wheel through Japan. Mr, Fernald has found much of his inspiration in the Chinese character, and he proposed utilizing his unique wedding journey in gathering ma- terial for sketches of Japenese life. But, ac- cording to the Critic, he was disappointed in the land and the people. They are changing from the old standards, and both have been overwritten, he says. Mr. and Mrs. Fernald | penetrated to remote parts of Japan, where | the country chidren tried to feed carrots to their bicycles. They found China more pic- turesque and interesting. Mr. Fernald says: “Broaaly speaking, one always 100ks for some | kind of rascality in & Chinamap, but with a | Japanese one sometimes forgets.” | At the beginning of 1879, says Mrs. Hamer- | ton, in her memoirs of her husband, Robert | Louis Stevenson sent a manuseript to Mr. Hamerton, with & request that he would read it and recommend 1t to a publisher ¢1{ it were worth the trouble.” In 1880 Stevenson wrote from Monterey: *‘Could your. recom- mendation introduce me to an American pub- lisher?” Still the author of “An Iuland Voy- age”” had been writing for Hamerton’s “Port- folio” since at least 1873. One would think that such strikingly meritorious and scrupu- lously prepared work as bis, no longer the | essays of a tyro, would, if anything ca, abpeal | toa reader on its own virtues. The editors | wno speak consolingly to contributors of their daily, diligent and necessary search through | manuscripts for “the possible gem” ‘which may be lurking ‘here would find it hard to ex- | plain why a Stevenson hed to secure that paironage editorially declared superfiious in order to obtain a hearing. “The ides of the diminutive encyclopedia, published by Herr Cobu of Bertin, which re- quires the aid of a magnifying glassin order that it may be read, is by no means new,’” writes a correspondent of the Westminster Gazette, “for a tiny dictionary ot the same kind has for a long time past been printed in English and sold at the low price of sixpence. Other than these photographically reduced books, however, Lord Dufferin claimed, in & speech at Bellest some two years ago, that he was the possessor of the ‘smallest book in the world,” weile Mr. George Salamon of Paris, who prides himself on having the larges: “ibrary of small books in the world,’ hasa series of almanacs dating from 1817 to 1840, printed ai Karlsrube in Buden, each of whicn measnres only fourteen millimeters iong by nine miilimeters wide. Mr. Salamon’s library of uiminutive literature is in great measure | made up of religious publications, and un 1den | of the unique col ection muy be gatbered from | the fact ihat 700 of the volumes may be packed easily in one perimantenu.”