The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 3, 1897, Page 23

HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1897 T 1S one of the curious facts observed by those who have noticed the course taken by American literature and lit- erary men that so few noveis based upon historical subjects have thus far been written 1n this country. Many and various have been the theories advanced to account for the phenomenon, the pe- cubarity of which becomes the more ap- parent when a8 comparison is made be- tween writers of America and those of European countries. The Englishman has his Scott, his William Harrison Ains- worth; the Frenchman his Dumas, father and son: but so far no man has arisen to elaborate the history of this country as have the authors mentioned theirs, To put forward ihe excuse which is the stock in trade of the jingo that *‘we are only a young country, vou know,” were puerile, and however the remark may be applied to our institutions, communal, | municipal and national, it cannot be made | to fit the American novelist. What our poets have done to make America notable ith equal facility have been done After all said we have had the *Great American Novel,”” remaios to-day unwritten, the | et ic visiou of dreamers of dreams. Perhaps the best specimen of a| historical novel thus far given to tae | T ng world by an American nove.- ist 'was Cooper's *“Spy.” It was a| masterly piece of work, and even to- day compares favorably with the pro- | ductions of some writers across the water | we couid mention, Then, to bridge a long space of time, we bave had Mr. Crane’s “Red Badge of Courage,” clever | in & way, and certainly, for a young man who up 1o the time of writing the book had never viewed a battie, betraying a wonderful knowledge of war. But the cardinal defect of both these books may be said to exist in their lack of | coloring, in their f.ilure to convey any | clear and definite idea of how the resi- dents of the United States lived in early davs, or later, of their manners, their cus- toms, their modes of administering jus- tice, and the thousand aud one details which in the hanas of a capable historical romancer might be made to serve almost in place ot history itsell. Some of the clearest ideas of history are gained by the opean youth from the pages of such works. Take the case of Scott’s “Ivan- hoe.” What a splendid picture have we there of h life of the times of the | early Plantagenets! Many is the British boy who has availed himseif of the assist- ance of the Wizard of the North in pre- paring some difficult paper in history. Coming down to more recent times, read Harrison Ainsworth's *Old Saint Paul's,”’ and you w have an excellent series of sketches illustrating the state of King | Charles the Second’s court, or “Guy | Fawkes” for some well-penned descrip- tions of the administration of his Majesty | James the First. And, in our time, thers Benjamin Disraeli, who | is own | V! several radical defects of *“Hugh Wynne." These might have been avoided when the book was adapted to its present form. For the rest let a good word be said for the scholarship evinced in the work, for its careful local coloring, for its apparent honesty, and let the reader who may have the patience to carefully peruse so cum- bersome a book be assured thathe will thereby add much to his stock of knowl- edge on important but neglected points in the history of this country when *‘the best who left England were trained to rely on themselves.” EL Evzas. HIS FRIEND THE ELEPHANT. An Awmerican traveier, who spent sowe time in the compauy of Rudyard Kipling in Lon- tells the following story: “QOne aiternoon we went together to thie Zoo, and while strolling about our ears were as- sailed by the most melancholy sound I have ever heard, a complaining, fretting, lament- ing sound proceeding from the elephant- house. ‘What's the matter in there? asked Mr. ling of the keeper. k elephant, sir; he cries all the time; we don’t know what to do with him,’ was the answer. “Mr. Kipling hurried away from me in the direction of the lament, which was growing louder and more painful. I followed and saw him go up close to the cage where stood an elephant with sadly drooved ears and trpnk. He was crying actusl tears at the same time that he mourned his lot most audibly. In auother moment Mr. Kipling was right up at the bars, and I heard him spesk to the sick beast in & language that have been elephantese, but cer- y was not Eaglish. Instantly the whin- ing stopped, the ears were lifted, the monster turned his sleepy littlesuffering eyes upon his visitor snd put out his trunk. Mr. Kipling be- gen to caress it, still speaking in the same soothing tone and in words uninteliigible to me at lesst. After & few minutes the beast be- gan to answer in a much lov ered tone of voice, and evidently recounted his woes. Possi- bly elephants, when ‘enjoying poor health,” like to confide their symptoms to sympa- thizing listeners as much as do some human individuals. Certainly it was that Mr. Kipling and that elephant carried on a conversation with the result that the elephant found his spirits much cheered and improved. The whine went out of his voice, he forgot that he was so much to be pitied, he began to exchange experiences witk: his triend and he was quite unconscious, as was M-. Kipling, of the amused and interested crowd collecting about the cage. At last, with & start, Mr. Kip- | ling found himself and his eiephant the ob- | served of all observers, and beat a hasty re. treat, leaving behind him a very different creature from the one he had found. *Doesn’t that beat everything you ever saw?"” ejaculated & compatriot of mine as the ele- phant trumpeted & loud and cheerful good-by 10 the buck of his vanishing visitor, and I agreed with him that it did. **“What language were you talking to that elephant? I asked when I overtook my friend. «‘‘Langusge? What do you mean?' he an- swered with a laugh. *:Are you s Mowgli?’ I persisted, ‘and can all those beasts in their own v smiled in reply.”” in English as pure as it s the present centt attempt has lately been made to give som: of life in America imme- ng and following the Revo- vel by S. Weir Mitche has ever been of political senti- y. | | gh Wynne, Free Quaker.” It was first publishea as a serial | in the Cent Mugazine and at- tracted much attention for the reason that, as we have pointed out, there have b very few books written desling of the | period of which the book treats. Now it | es its appearance in the somewhat | dy two-volume book form at price published by the Century Com- pany, and on sale by William Doxey, Palace Hotel. Thestory is a good one, but is told in st person, and to the manner of the telling we must object. following the thread of aromance to be | obliged frequentiy to stumbie over ob- siructive “‘thees’ and ““thous.” We main- tain that these could well have been | omitted without detriment to Dr Mitchell’s reputation as a novelist. In | addition to this fauit, there is another | and an almost equally serious one—that of prolixity. Each of the volumes under review consists of more than 300 pages, averaging say 250 words to the page, or & total of anout 80,000 words. This may be very well for a story published in serial form, but we fear the size of the book will deter many who would otherwise be glad to make the acquaintance of a first-ciass novel of Revolutionary days. Dr. Mitchell, we learn, has been en- raged for several years in gathering ma- terial for his work. He has personaily visited the places he mentions after the fashion of the up-to-date novelist who de- sires correctness, and has also made a careful study of the period of which he | writes. The storv takes up the social life | of Philadelpnia during and beiore the Revolution and embraces the exciting scenes of the Revolutionary War it-elf, the time covering the peried of from 1753 .{ t01783. The much-bruited gquestions of those important years are well handled, and one is led to a correct appreciation of the popular sentiment at the time when taxation without representation seemed about to be saddied upon the colonists, The bero of the book, Hugh Wynue, who, assisted in part by liberal ‘extracts from the diary of one of his comrades, tells the story, is 8 member of the Society of Friends, the son of a Quaker father and a French mother. Educated by the Friends, he yet succeeds in fashioning his character after the example farnished by an aunt, who is a Whig of the old school, and in whose house he sees much of that gambling ana wine-arinking class of peo- ple common in the time of the Georges. For various offenses against the Friends he is *‘read out of meeting”’ ana becomes a soldier, serving on the staff of Beneaict Arnold, that worthy being then in com- mand of the American forces in Phila- delphia. Excelient pen portraits of men like Ar- nold and Washington are furnished by the writer of ‘Hugh Wynne,”’ and indeed under his investigating light we are en- abled toview them in their extrahistor- ical chszracter. Few actual historians wonld dareat the present day to ascribe to Benedict Arnold the attributes of being It is tiresome in | |and an | he could not satisfactori THIS RESEMBLES POE. THE CRIME OF THE BOCLEVARD— Claretie; translated by Mrs. Carlton King, New Yorl R. F. Fenno & Co. Jules Claretic is & member of the French Academy, and is peculiarly at home in & story of this kind. In the openingchaptera gentle- man of leisure is fourd murdered in one of the suburbs of Paris. A police spy, Who hap- pens to be an exceedingly well informed man umateur photographer as we il remembers having read an erticle wherein the writer claimed that by photographing the | retina of & murdered mun’s eye the image of the one who killed him had been discovered. At the autopsy, aiter no little trouble, the surgeons performed the necessary operation, the retina was photographed, and., after development of the plate, the face of *he man wus clearly visible therein. A friend of the murdered man, whose face corresponded exactly wiih that seen in the retina, was | arrested, and afier an examinstion in which ly clear himself of guilt, was thrown into jaiL In the end, how- ever, another man turns up who confesses to having committed the terrible deed. How the ing man saw his absent friend, and how it s proved that science is alweys correct, are things thet will be made clear by reading this interesting story to a finish. TURY BOOK OF THE AMERICAN DLUTION—by Klbridge S Brooks. New York: The Century Company. Price g1 60. The Century Book of the American Kevolu- tion, the latest of Mr. Brooks' meny popular books, contains the giorious story of the revo- lution told in the account of the trip of a party of boys and girls with their uncle to the land of these historic scenes. Not only are the Northern battlefiel ington, ~Concord, Bunker Hill, Long Island, Harlem Heights, Monmouth, Princeton, Germantown, Brandy. wine, Saratoga, etc.—described, but the trip extends to the Southern fields, Eutaw Springs, Camden, Guilford Courthouse, Kings Moun- tain, Cowpens, Savannah and Charleston, about which very little has hitherto been writ- ten. Many of the charming illustrations in the book were taken especizlly for this work. Toey include pictures of battlafielas, of places connected with notable events in the war, of famous builaings, monuments, statues, ete. In addition there are portraitsand char. acter pictures in sufficient number to give an illustration for almost every page. The book is issued under the auspices of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Rev- olution and containsa fine introduction by Chauncey M. Depew. A HELPFUL BOOK. S5—By Orison swett - Wildeé & Co. Price $1 25. Orison Swett Marden’s books are all writ- ten wiih the purpose of helping and inspiring young people while they are in the transitory state from dependence to indcpendence. They are packed with stimulating, uplifting and inspiring material, and it is safe tosay that notone paragraph in them is ever overiooked. His “Pashing to the Front” was widely read, and “Success’ should become even more pop- ular. It teaches the youth who may think he has no chance that, in a land where farmers and mechanics sit in Congress, no 1imit can be placed to his carecr if he is armed with de- termination and has learned his alphabet. Such teacnings are healthy and helpful, and canonly result in spurring on the young to in- creased efforts. The book is handsomely bound in cioth, and is iliustrated with jourteen full- page portraiis of people who have become eminent through hard work and determina- tion. rden. Boston: A MEXICAN STORY. ISIDRA, THE PATRIOT DAUGHTER OF MEXICO—By Willis Sieel. New York: F. “‘a most gallant and daring soldier, a ten- der father and an attached husband.” Nor are we accustomed to regard George Washington as a man whoss conversation savored of the taproom, and who regarded women -but lightly, Strange how after reading a historical novel our ideas of his. torical characters, derived from tradition,. are changed and modified. Tennyson Ncely. This 1s an exciting and tragic story of love and war, the scene being Iaid in Mexico in the year 1864, when the country was in the throcs ©Of an iuternal struggle for independence and Fretcen troops were siding the party in power. In spite of the troubious times a young cap- tain in the French army finds time to fall des- perately in love with = Mexican girl, who turns out to be a notorious bandit. Her at- We have taken occasion to mention | tewpt to make her lover swerve irom the path of duty and save her father, who is to pay for his political intrigues with his life, is told in a manner that cannot fail to hola the reader's attention. How Captain d’Amyot fails, and what terrible fate befalls the girl he loves, must be read to be appreciated. The story is full of good descriptive work and is one of the bestof its kind we have perusea fora long time. USEFUL TO LAWYERS. THE FEDERAL COURTS—By United States Circuit Judre Char es H Simonton. Richmond, Va.: B. F. Johnson Publishing Company. We read much these days about the so-called interference of the Federal courts in matters coming under the jurisdiction of those of the State. Judge S.monton’s book, consisting of lectures delivered at the Richmond Law School, and setting forth the organization, jurisdiction anz procedure of the courts in questiop, will enable the reader to acquaint himself with the subject. The style is neces- mastered without difficuity by any one with & fuir knowledge of legal lore. A CRITICISM ON ANDREW LANG. Max Beerbohm is an entirely new lit- erary element. He may be cailed an unpalat- able one. If criticism isa medicine to those | who. nolens volens, swallow some of it, there are a siringency and corrosivenessin Max | Beerbohm’s ministrations. Quilier Couch certainly wrote nonsense | when he said that Andrew Lang was *the | master of the best style in English prose dur- ing the last years.”” “Where, then,” very prop- erly asks Max Beerbohm, “‘are we to placs | Pater, Froude, Newman, Hardy, Ruskin, | Stevenson, Arnold?” And is Meredith to be | overlooked? it all comes, s Max Beer bonm, from Quiller Couch being in “a Wal sarily somewhat heavy, but the text can be | ter not'serf of his edueation.” In this the critic of the critic unquestionably refers to the endless references to authorities Andrew Lang any many others indulge in. The matter of the stylist isa difficult one, but we think, with Max Beerbohm, that Mr. Quiller Couch is an incompetent judge. Andrew Lang, in his “Pickle the Spy,” is particularly cold-blooded. Impartial he is, but wnen reading this book no emotion is | called up. You look upon the Jacobite Prince through the long years which separate him from to-day. You are not made to feel a spark of pity even for the man whose misfor- j tunes degraded him. It is the historyof a dry bone without any flesh to cover it. That there 1s more than oue style, each one with its special qualities, is what Max Beer- bohm wants to show. For all the critics may write about Andrew Lang, what he writes will | | always be read. You go to the table he spreads | |in a cool and deliverate way. The dishes | will be capitally served; the garnishing of the plates excellent. The attendance will be ab- solutely perfect. Nothing will be slipshod. 1 you want a curry with a heady wine, with | | napery not exacily immaculate, you are free | to dine somewhere else, and perhaps in & very | much less elegant company. | Ia the meantime we have to thank Mr. Lang | for having left aside, if but for an ipstaut, ghosts, table rappiogs and the mysterious ringing of axes in Sumatra jungles, for in his | “Ode to the Philadelphians” he lands our cricketers. These pleasant verses, with their graceful and gracious lines, are to be | read *‘At the Sign of the Ship’ in a recent ssue of Longman’s Magazine. | s x | | | WOULD-BE AUTHORS:‘PLUSE NOTE ! Atarecent dinner in London of the Associa- | auante centum tion of the Correctorsof the Press Frederick wealth and refinement, whose life wasde- voted to helping the poor and attending to cases such as the one before us. Under ber care Eveugelica finally blossoms forth intoa spiritual aud perfect woman; she refusesto marry, lives an ideal life and at the early age of 28 dies. The lesson the story teaches is a good one, but the writer’s method of telling itis faulty in the extreme. The few characters in the book indulge in long-winded speeches cover- ing several pages: the author’s sentences are constructed in a manner both obsolete and ungrammatical, and in laying down the book one experiences the sensation that is felt after the pernsal of a tract by an early father rather than by a nineteenth-century writer. HOW DID SHAKESPEARE MAKE MONEY? The uncertainties of authorship is the ol fest of themes and is always being presented to the public, and somehow, we think, interests itlittle. The meager pittance doled out to Milton or the thousands of dollars thrown at the librettist of an opera boutfe excite but momentary wonder. If Alexander Du- mas the elder were paid 10 cents (cin- ) every time he wrote a “Yes” or a “No,” and & quarter of a farthing a word is considered fair pay in Grub streer, it is the quality of the writer which makes all the difference. The ten-cent-a-word authors are but few—the ten-words-for-a-cent writers are legion. One commands the market for literary wares and the others do not. Dia- monds are scarce and there is rubble in pro- tusion, and still we never could quite get along without plenty of rubble. Sidney Lee has been working up Shakes- peare in & new direction. Some idiot, it may be remembered, insisted that Sweet Will was nothing else than a gsmbler. Fortunately | Who Has Written a Notable Nove! This Page of THE CALL. Covering the Period of the Revolution. DR. S. WEIR MITGHELL, His Work Is Reviewed on dorfian environment.”” The fact is, Andrew Lang has been for a long time the cock of the walk, and mey bave made himseif “unpleas- eht”’ by a little assumption of superiority. He picked a quarrel long ago with that most estimable and learned man Max Muller, and was by nomeans nice in the way he handled the sun myth. It might be that Andrew Lang’s omniscience brought about an uncomfortable feeling, for his dicta were too imperious, whether the sub- jects treated related to a troutfly or a folk-lore story. A certain resentment is sure to come sbout whgn you dance on other peopie’s toes. Joseph Jfheobs, who is quite as strong a folk- lorist as is Mr. Lang, has more than once come down heavily on Mr. Lang, and, as far as we can make it out, not without reason. These are, however, personal details, and have nothing to do with style, and yet person- alities color words. Max Beerbohm gives Mr. Lang what might be called “the esteem of suc- cess.”” Itis “a nice little styTe,” but we find it 100 spinsterly 10 be at all inspiring, and even bis slang, though it enrapture Quiller Couch, seems to usrather like an after-spark of Gir- ton’s chaste conviviality. We never have, es faras we can remember, seen anything like slang in Andrew Lang’s writing. Certainly there is some malice in this criticism, which says thatin Mr. Lang’s essays “the charm and distinction are few,” but rather “meager, peevish and anemic iralls of little sentences.” Surely Mr. Quiller Couch has little apprecia- tion of what is English when he prefers Lang to Thackeray. Thatisasif you were to com- pare tie shadow and the form.. Mr. Lang does write in an emotioniess kind of way. He holds his teelings under strong control, but Mr. Max Beerbohm has no right 1o say tnat he has not any. Mr. Andrew Lang is always before the public. He is the bestemployed preince-maker of the day. He mustbe the most industrious literary man of the period. Itisalways a misfortune when & man writes too much. The many others who want jobs get jealous of him. Mr. Max Beerbohm regards Mr. Andrew Lang as one of the best and (in & Bostonian sense) brightest of our eritics, but ig sorry “to notice that he is slipping gradually into a most fool- isb habit.” He never writes “himself,” but about other people. “I would urge,” writes Mr. Max Beerbohm, “*thet assimilation, not vomition, is the right use of culture; thata critic should be & mas- Maemillan of Macmillan & Co. responded to the toast of ‘Literature.”” In the course of his remarks he dwelt on the fact that while there were a few instances of making money by writing books and obtaining a subsistence by the same he said the great mass of English literature which will remain in the world of letters has been the product of men who had other occupations than that of writing. Shake- spesre was an actor-manager, Lord Bacon a lawyer, John Bunyan a tinker, Dean Swift a parson, Edmund Burke a statesman, and Charles Lamb a clerk in the India House. Mr. Macmillan continued: “WhatI have in my mind in making these remarks is the melan- choly spectacle of young men and women, ambiticus ot literary fame, who are only 100 ready to throw up their positions in office or shop to buy an inkpotand ream ot paper and setout on & literary career. It is my lot to me across many such aspirants to immor- tality, and to them I always say: If by a liter- ATy career you mean writing books, remember that Scott composed s great part of his immortal works while he was earn- ing an official salary as Sheriff of Selkirkshire and collector of sessions in Edinburgh; and to come nearer to our owa day, remember that the many and excellent novels of Anthony Trollope were written by an active and busy official of the general post- offie, that the poetry and prose of Matthow Arnold flowed from the pen of an inspector of schools, and that ‘Lothair’ was the work of a Prime Minister of England.” A BOOK WITH A MORAL. EVANGELICA — By “ Apollo Belved:-re.” New Yor K. Russell, bookseller. Price $1 26, The aim of this little book s to show that through will the most degraded of humen beings can be born anew mentally, morally and physically. The heroine of the story, Evangeiica, is born of poor and viclous pi ents and is surrounded by evil influences un- til they' die, which, fortunately for her, takes place when she is 13 years of age. Up to that time the girl had received no spiritual train- ing, having been left to herself entirely. She was a stranger to the love and companion- snip of other children, and, although she hed two brothers, they were both habitual drunk- ards, and what influence they had over ber was of the worst. After the death of her par- ents Evangelica was taken care of by one of we are no longer exasperated by those cranks who wrote tedious folios explaining how Shakespeare never wrote a line at all. What Mr. Sidney Lee is trying to do isto find out the source of Shakespeare's fortune. What was he worth? How did he accumulate his shillings? What were his investments? We know that, to use a strong moderu phrase, the paternal Shakespeare was “deed broke.”” and we learn, t0o, that hisson paid his father’s debts. Skakespeare left Stratford in 1585, and did not return till 1596. He was away some eleven years. When the dramatist was 21 he was married and the father of not less than three children. During that brief time he had written his most successful plays, and he must have saved money, because he wes able to pay his father’s debts. Sidney Lee shows that Shakespeare about this time began making investments in land. In 1597 he built “New Place,”” which was the largest house in Stratford, though in bad or- der. What he paid for this property was £60. In 1602 he was the owner of “107 acres of arabie land near Stratford,” the cost of which was £320. Where did this money come from? What were the dramatist’s accumulations, which must have been considerable? Mr. Sidney Lee calculates that the £100 of Queen Elizabeth’s time would be worth £1000 to-day—that is, in purchasing power. If we were to consult Thorold Rogers, we should say that the English pound of the ciose of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeentn century, compared with the purchasing power of the 20 shillings of 1897, was as 1 to 8. Did Shakespeare fiil his coffers or swoll his account with the goldsmiths by writing his plays? Assuredly not. In those days £6 was paid for a play and ocessionally £10. There had been written by him, say, fourteen dramas in the six or seven first years of his life. Then, argues Mr. Lee, if asa playwright he made £20 a year out of his plays that was the extreme limit of receipts. Shakes- peare was, however, an actor. An actor's salary was then as high as 3 shillings a day—or was worth for the year £45. Now add £45 10 £20 as coming from his acting and his plays, and that would make £65 for the twelve months. Suppose, however, Shakes- pear was a leading performer. Then his sal- ary might have been larger. Mr. Lee belteves that Shakespeare may have received earth’s ‘‘minisieriug angels,”a lady of £100 a yosr as an actor. Then we have £130a | year as a top figure. Then, sdopting the tem- to-one principle. Shakespeare’s £130 was about what £1300 is to-aay. There was & rumor, questionable of its kind, that for his sonnets Shakespeare received a handsome douceur. But even if money was given him by Lord Southampton that would not account for the dramatist’s fortune. Between 1599, then, and 1613, the total in- vestments of the dramatist in lana in and around Stratford were £970. Mr. Lee puts it: ““He had amassed between 1590 and 1616 an estate, real and personal,worth nearly £15,000 of the standard of to-day.” That he wasa ‘‘warm man” is confirmed by the testimony of Jonn Ward, a seven- teenth-ceutury vicar of Shakespeare’s town, whosaid: “In hislast years he speat at the rate of £1000 a year, so I have heard.” John Ward may have been inaccurate as to the exect sum total, but still the impression remains that the dramatist was faizly well to do. How, then, account for this nice property owned by Shakespeare? Mr. Lee solves the metter in this way. The Globe Theater was built by Richard Burbage and his broiher in 1599. There were shares to be had and profits coming from the receipts, and shares were sold to those “deserving men, Shakespears, Hem- mings, Condeil, Phillips,” who all walked the stage of the famous Globe Theater. Supposably there were sixteen shares, and it is believed that Shake- speare held two of them. Mr. Lee presents this fact, that there having been a law- suit in 1613, the appraised value of & shere was £200. There might have been fluctuations in price, and tho shares, from the interest they brought in, might have been worth more. It has been stated that Shakespeare had aninterest in the Blackfriars Theater, but this is denied. It happens, strangely enough, that in ‘“Hamlet” there is what we would call to-day a gag. In the third act, second scene, Hamlet breaks out with the well-known lines: Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The bart ungalied play: and Hamlet concludes: “Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers (if the test of my for- tunes turn Turk with me), with two Provincial roses in my rayed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir ?” Horatio—Hal1 a share. Hamlet—A whole one, I. Now this is pretty fooling. The pit might not have understood it, but the actors did— and enjoyed it. One could not affirm that Shakespeare absolutely wanted to put in prominence the value of ashare in the mouth of the ecceutric Prince, but it looks very much like it. Mr. Lee presents the evidence that both Hemmings and Condell, who were actors and shareholders with the immortal dramatist, were well to do. We do not know what was the exact money Shakespeare received from his share in the Globe, but it is to be supposed that it was a fair vearly sum. It is, then, from the three sources: His interest in the theater, his act- ing and Ais plays, that Mr, Lee thinks Shake- speare’s wealth came. Brethren of the Rialtos—for there are sev- eral in New York to-day—loiter, then no longer at the street corners. Be up and bestir yourselves. You may not be actors, but you might be dramatists, or some day own & share in some far-distant Nevada playhouse. Think of the the posthumous iame which awaits you when the sources of that handsome fortune you 50 honorably acquired are looked up some 300 years or more irom now. HERE AND THERE. Hall Caine is said to be hard at work upon the dramatization of “The Christian.”” Wil- son Barrett will probably present the plsy in America. The French Academy hss awarded Mme. Blanc, who recently visited America in com- pany with M. Brunetiere, a prize of 1500 francs for her interesting book on American women. Notwithstanding there are innumerable edi- tious of Dickens on the American market the copyrights of his works published by Chap- man & Hall, London, do not expire till the year 1912, Oh! oh! oh! We are 1o have. in a separate and distinet book, “Gems From the Writings of Marie CorellL.” Letusmeake & display of Cape May diamonds, and Strass, mounted in pinchbeck. Some one trying to find Macaulay’s grave at Westminster Abbey found the task impossible. At lss. it was discovered in the center of a pile i wooden desks. The ‘‘Poets’ Corner” was a dumping ground. A revorter for one of the London papers has been interviewing the sellers of photographs in that city as to what picture seils best He finas that there is little demand for the pic- tures of literary peopie. Sometimes a photo- graph of Hall Caine is passed off as a picture of Shakespeare, but he does not sell well in his own name. Here is something for Major Pond to attend to. Anthony Hope. who is soon to arrive in this country on a lecturing tour, is regarded by many as the best after-dinner speaker in Lon- don. Hsrold Frederic, in a recent letter to the New York Times, said that for elegance and purity of diction there is no speaker there to compare with him. The sale of Mr. Hope's books still continues as large as ever, and no doubt will be increased greatly by Lis pres- ence here. Just fancy a calamity (literary) of this kind. Mr. Zangwill, probably with kis head full of Zlonism and his pocket bulging out with manuseript, loses a great wad of copy—S8000 or 9000 words—of his romance, “Dream of the Ghetto,”” The first chapter of this romance appeared in Cosmopolis some months ago. The probability is that Mr. Zangwill will write over the lost chapter, and as likely as not improve on it. We disdain any ides that this is a reclame. Dr. Thomas Dunn English, whose book of “Fairy Stories and Wonder Tales” is to be pub- lished this autumn, is living in New Jersey, vigorous and active stiil, though at a very vanced age. Dr. Eng.ish was for many years a resident of Washiugton, where he was a striking characier in political and social life. The tradition in the capital is that when he was in his prime he once administered a sound thrashing to Edgar Alian Poe for a sup- posed insult to a lady. The Luzerner Tagblatt, after informing its readers that Mark Twain is staying with his family in oxe of the pensions at Weggis, on the Lake of the Four Cantoans, gives the fol- lowing description of him: “In his external appearance he certainly reveals an artistic nature. But he lives in comparative retire- ment, and he goes about the roads so quietly and looks so earnestand serious that no passer could suspect him of what he is—the most iamous humorist of the age.” “Nothing can be more significant than the isolation of M. Zole,” writes Jossph Reinach in the Londen Athenzum. *“All his o.d dis- ciples have deserted him to enter on other paths, and he is visibly outliving his reputa- tion. I should say as much, too, of M. Paul Bourget, whose influence has never been so large as that of M. Zola, although it has been perheps still less healthy. Atths time of his great vogue two-thirds of the new novels were dovoted to dramas of adulterous worldlings, chiefly acted in small suites of rooms. It would be 100 much to say that adultery bhas ceased to take a chief place in the French novel, but its place is growing less year by year. People are decidedly tired or this sort of story.” LITERARY NOTES. Miss Mary E. Wilkins has written a book of verse for children, which will be published immediately, under tne title of **Once Upon a Time,” by the Lothrop Publishing Company of Boston. Harper & Brothers are to publish in the near future ‘“Marchesi and Music,” by Ma- thilde Marchesi, which will contsin remi- niscences of many of the great composers and singers in the past fifty years. When T. Y. Crowell & Co. putlish Dean Far- rar’s book of recollections, “Men I Have Known,” in a short time, they will reproduce in the work, in facsumile, letters written by Tennyson, Browning, Lowell, Holmes, Dean Staunley and others. Acharming parlor game called “Going to Kiondike” is now all the rage. It is as ine structive as it is amusing and should proves favorite with children, and also their elders. For sale by Hartwell, Mitchell & Willis, 225 Post street. Price, 50 cents. The Murray edition of Lord Byron will be ready tuis fall, or at least an important part of it will be published. Lord Lovelace, Mr, Mur- ray and Mr. Prothero have been hard at work atit. A novel portrait in the edition will be that of Mary Chatworth, Byron's first sweet- heart. The Harpers will publish shortly a biography of Msrie Bashkirtsetf by M. C. A. Healy. The artist will be described irom the point of View of her professors and iellow students. A num- ber of letters written to M. Julian, M. Tony- Robert Floury, M. Lefebvre aud M. Theuriet are to be inciuded. “Whitelaw's Improved Interest Tables and Charts” is the title of & handy liifle book that should be appreciated by business men and bankers. By it one is enabled to find out ina few seconds the amount of intereston any sum at a given rate and for & specified time, “T'he book is published by Laird & Lee, Chicago, Longmans, Green & Co. will publish next month a new novel by Mrs. Walford, entitled “Iva Kildare.” Theysnnounce for immediate publication a volume of stories by Mr. Watson, editor ot the Badminton Magazine; and a study on the Falklands of the seventeenth cen- tury by the author of “The Life of Sir Kenelm Digby.” : The handiest little velume yet out about the Kiondike is called “The Klondike Nug- get,” compiled by Max Maury and published by Laird & Lee, Chicago. What this little book does not contain about Alaska is not worth kpowing. The United States and Canadian mining laws are given in full and the maps are thoroughly authentic, Thomas Whittaker, New York, has in prepara~ tion a new edition de luxe of the classic poets. The volumes are to be octavo, printed from type and bound in two styles—one for the library and the other for presentation. The works of Burns, Byrom, Milton, Scott and Wordsworth will be ready immediately, fol- lowed later in the autumn by Moore and Shelley. ‘The novel on which John Oliver Hobbes has for the past two years been engaged is now completed. In this new work Mrs. Craigie deals with political life in the early fifties, one of the chief characters in her story being modeled on & well-known political leader of that period. Mr. Unwin of London will pub- lish the volume, the title of which is “The School for Saints,” in the early autumn. To the average person & life of three score years and ten is long enough. There are some, however, who would like to live even longer, and they will find pleasure in perus ing a little book entitled “The Possibility of Living Two Hundred Years.” The volume is compiled from the best authorities and fur- nishes interesting reading. For sale by Hart~ well, Mitchell & Willis, 225 Post sireet. Price, vaper, 50 cents; cloth, $1. Some two dozen unrhymed verses by Laura M. Smith collected together under the titie “Mother Soul” are well worth perusal, ale though owing 10 the shape in which they are offered to the reading public there is mot likely to be much demand for them. There is nothing so sacred in ail the world as the mother nor so wholesome as the young child. These verses are written in praise of both, and are as healthy s the subjectsof whigh they treat. Dodd, Mead & Co.announce in the line of fiction for the coming fall R. D. Blackmore's ‘“Daniel,” Henry Seton Merriman’s *In Keder's Tents,” W. Clark Russell’s *Tne Two Captains,” Amelis E.Barr's “The King's Highway,” Max Pemberton’s ‘“The Queen of the Jesters” and Joseph Hocking’s “The Birth- right”” In theological literature the same house will publish “The Potter's Wheel,” by Tan Maclaren; Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll’s Ex- positor's Greek Testament” and the *Poly- chrome Bible,” edited by Professor Paul Haupt of the Johns Hopkins University. Few writers of boys’ books have turned out so many capital stories as Jules Verne. Translations of two new works from his pen are to appear during the autumn through Messrs. S8ampson Low of London, under the respective titles “For the ¥lag” and “Clovis Dardentor.” It was in the former story that M. Turpin, the celebrated inventor sand chemist, declared that he had been libeled, but falled to establish his case in the Paris law courts. The second story tells of some ex- citing adventures of a holiday party in Tunis. Both books will be profusely illustrated. The New Amsterdam Book Company has in preparation “The Works of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton,” to be issued in twenty-eight volumes, each volume to have as frontispiece a photogravure reproduction from a painting by J, Streple Davis. “Rienzi,” in one volume; *The Last of the Barons,” in two yolumes, and “The Caxtons,” in one volume, are now ready and are handsomely bound in maroon ribbed silk cloth stamped in gold. The firm will also have ready in October a new edition of Austin Dobson’s *‘Life of Hogarth,” illus- trated by reproductions of Hogarth’s master- piece, and containing a full biography of his pictures. E Munn & Co., 361 Broadway, New York, have just published a work entitled “Magic— Stage Illusions and Ecientific Diversions, In- cluding Trick Photography,” compiled ‘and edited by Albert A. Hopkins, editor of the “Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts,” ete. The work, which is composed of entirely new material, is intended quite as much for the professional as for the amateur prestidigi- tator. The illusions are carefully illustrated by engravings, which in nearly every case ‘were executed specially for the work. The in- troduction by Henry Ridgely Evans, author of “Hours With the Ghosts,” gives the history of the great necromancers and conjurers of moa- ern times, with special reference to amusing incigents and anecdotes in their lives. The Doubleday & McClure Company publith the second volume of their “Tales irom Mg Clure’ Under the general title of “Humor” are grouped the following seven short storie ~Burglars Three,” by James Harvey Smit “The Joneses' Telephone,” by Annie Howells Frechette; “A Yarn Without a Moral” Morgan Robertson; “The King of Bovville.” by William Allen White; “The Merry Thanks- giving of the Burglar and the Plumber,” by Octave Thanet; “The Romance of Duiltown by James W. Temple; and *‘Fairy Gold, Mary Stewart Cutting. The publishers have aiready sold 5000 copies of the first volume of tre series, “Romance,” and foresee a like lively demand for its successor. They ane nounce that they will control the exclusive sale in Ney York and vicinity of Mark Twain's new book, “Following the Equator,” which will be ready before the holidays.