VOL. XI.]

THE

TORONTO, JUNE, 1898.

Rev. R. G. MacBeth, M. A., of Winnipeg, author of "The Making of the Canadian

on his way to the meeting of the General Assembly in Montreal. He expressed himself highly gratified at the reception given his book in the West. The booksellers find that as time goes on the demand increases. The portraits and personal sketches seem to be most appreciated by the public.

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Creighton, the Bishop of London, presided at the annual dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors at London, last month. The learned Bishop in his remarks spoke in a semi-humorous vein. In the course of his speech he said that in the days of his youth he had written books, but had received less from the publishers than the cost of the books he had to buy in order to write his own. There is a lesson in this for our struggling Canadian authors. We might say to them: What matters it if a few hundred dollars are sunk in publishing your first efforts, provided you achieve ultimate success (like the Bishop of London) in some other line. If you have not got the few hundred dollars to lose in publishing your first efforts, or cannot induce confiding friends to go security to some obliging publisher-why, don't publish the books, that is all. The world will not suffer if you do.

ABOUT COPYRIGHT.

On June 3rd, J. Ross Robertson, M.P., Toronto, once more brought up the question of copyright in the House of Commons at Ottawa. Mr. Robertson is to be congratu lated on his persistency in attracting attention to this question. On this occasion Mr. Robertson drew the attention of the House to the effect on Canadian interests of a new Copyright Bill introduced into the British House of Lords by Lord Herschell. In the course of an admirable address, he pointed out that if the Canadian Parliament was to be allowed to pass and enfore such copyright legislation as it considered necessary, the rights of British authors being always frankly acknowledged therein, this Herschell Bill might be accepted without protest. But if Canadian legislation on copyright was to be still restricted by Imperial legis

[No. 3.

lation, then it would be well to enter an earnest protest at once.

An interesting discussion followed Mr. Robertson's address. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Prime Minister, intimated that the subject was still under consideration by himself and his colleagues in Council, and that the Government hoped that a Bill dealing with copyright would be among the first measures introduced at the next session of Parliament

While this question of copyright is of special interest to authors and publishers, the booksellers are beginning to see that they are also largely interested in the question. The question of importation is a vital point for the bookseller. If harassing restrictions are to be placed on the importation of foreign reprints of British copyrights, the bookseller is placed at a serious disadvantage. The Herschell Bill is very strict in this respect; and as we intimated in our last issue, every bookseller should enter a protest against its provisions in this respect.

Book Reviews.

"The Life and Work of Conductor Snider." 116 pages, 16mo. Published at 25 cents by Wm. Briggs, Toronto.

Mr. Snider was a conductor on the Grand Trunk Railway. He was also an active evangelist. Thousands who knew his genial face, who have laughed at his mimicry, or wept under the spell of his pathos, will welcome this memorial of his life and works. In addition to a sketch of his life, the work contains two sermons by Mr. Snider and his wellknown lecture "Life on the Rail."

"Thoughts from the Writings and Speeches of William Ewart Gladston." Compiled by G. Barnett Smith. 376 pages, cloth. Published at five shillings by Ward, Lock & Bowden, London.

This is a timely re-issue of a volume which has already had a deservedly large sale. The editor's object has been to secure as far as possible an adequate representation of the manifold intellectual, social and religious interests which engaged the attention of Mr. Gladstone through his long and distinguished career. The "Thoughts" were compiled by special permission. The volume is one that can be warmly recommended for the perusal of both young and old.

"The White-Headed Boy." By George Bartram. 288 pages, 12mo. Issued as No. 34 of Unwin's Colonial Library. Published by T. Fisher Unwin, London.

This is the story of Rory, a Kerry farmer's son. It is a rattling good story of Irish life and a very fine study of Irish character. Incidentally it discusses the last armed attempt at securing Irish emancipation. It is brimful of good stories, in which the proverbial humor of the Irishman crops up on every page. It is a book that can be strongly recommended. Pathos and humor are happily blended in its pages.

"The Making of the Canadian West." By Rev. R. G. MacBeth, M.A. 230 pages, 12mo., cloth. Published at $1.25 by Wm. Briggs, Toronto.

These reminiscences of one who was an eye-witness of the change from the old life to the new in the Canadian Northwest are not only most interesting reading for the present generation of readers, but will prove of great value to the historian of the future. The author gives a succient account of the progress of the country through its formative stages, with just enough of personal reminiscence to make the book of interest to the

every-day reader. Some fifty illustrations and portraits serve to enhance the value of the work. Many of the portraits are of great historic interest.

“John and Sebastian Cabot." By C. Raymond Beazley. 312 pages, 12mo., cloth. Published at five shillings by T. Fisher Unwin, London.

This story of the Cabots and the discovery of North America will be of special interest to Canadians. A good many volumes and essays have already appeared upon the Cabot voyages; but the author of this volume has carefully sifted the evidence in the Cabot controversy, and has given us a volume eminently reliable and readable. Mr. Beazley is a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and has had exceptional opportunities for consulting the original documents necessary to a thorough understanding of the questions in dispute. The volume is issued as one of Mr. Unwin's popular "Builders

of Greater Britain" series, and is embellished with a photogravure frontispiece and maps.

"A Lover in Homespun and Other Stories." By F. Clifford Smith. 200 pages, Third edition. Published at paper cover.

25 cents by Wm. Briggs, Toronto.

The

F. Clifford Smith, of Montreal, has had the gratifying distinction, rare as it is with our Canadian authors, of having a third edition of his first book placed on the market. Such is the good fortune of his "A Lover in Homespun and Other Stories," which first appeared less than two years ago. Mr. Smith has no reason to complain either of his reception by the reading public, or of his treatment by the reviewers. The London "Literary World" declares the stories "com pare favorably with similar selections, in which Scotch, Welsh and Irish rural life have been exploited. Sir James Le Moine thinks "the volume a charming one, and must win the author no few admirers. character studies of French-Canadians are exceedingly good." The Montreal "Herald" observes that the stories are characterized by "strong dramatic sentiment and situation, and a decided deftness and a naturalness in dialogue. The "Star" sees in them "elements of undoubted power." La remarks that "Mr. Smith's style Presse pure, and he possesses in a high degree the principal gift of a novelist, imagination." "Le Soir" says "the studies of French-Canadian character in this book are exceedingly clever, and the stories are peculiarly charming. The success of his first venture certainly must be encouraging to this young Canadian writer, from whom we may confidently expect great things in the future. The new edition has as frontispiece an excellent portrait of the author.

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66

Book of the Victorian Era Ball, given at Toronto on the Twenty-eighth of December, MDCCCXCVII. Toronto: Printed and published by Rowsell & Hutchison.

The appearance of this volume puts a period to the season of anxious expectancy and anticipation which followed the announcement made shortly after the ball, that the most striking features of that brilliant affair were to be depicted by the best Canadian artists and embodied in a book under the above title. One can agree with the editor that here was an opportunity certainly for the display of the artistic ability of this large group' of Canadian, or rather Toronto artists, but the collective efforts of the monochrome illustrators would only be promising if concentrated in one and presented by a novitiate in the local Art Students' League.

The work is modelled on the same lines as the popular Gibson and Winzell books, and

the press-work and binding seem to be quite equal to these; but as to the illustrations, that is another story. Were it not, indeed, that some of the "really masterly" drawings were placed too near the centre of the page, the volume would make a splendid blank book, although the introduction of the Japanese paper might slightly mar the uniformity of the whole.

One thing the book conclusively proves is, that while the list of "voluntary" contributors contains the names of a number of members of the R. C. A., of undoubted ability as "painters," not one of these men in the specimens here presented can qualify as an "illustrator" of even ordinary ability. unless we except the work of E. M. Morris, whose drawings certainly have some of that style and feeling that is absolutely necǝssary to make a black drawing interesting.

Mr. Wylie Greer's heroic effort to mass flowery riot of color and beauty in the frontispiece leaves much to other æsthetic faculties than the imagination.

Further criticism is quite unnecessary, as a fair comparison between illustrations in the book and a modern New York daily will be quite sufficient to place their merit.

Let us hope that no one into whose hands this volume may come will take at all seriously the statement that it represents the best illustrative art of Canada, reproduced by processes which if "new" to the editor have been used for the reproduction of all the meanest kind of commercial production for years back, or that the drawings have any more technical merit than a pen drawing for a soap wrapper or a wash drawing for kidney pills.

"A KENTUCKY CARDINAL."

"A Kentucky Cardinal" and "After. math," which Mr. Morang has recently issued, bound up in one neat volume at the popular price of $1.25 in cloth, and 75 cents in paper, should meet with a hearty welcome from readers and the trade. For these short stories are, in the best sense of the word, literature. They are not "potboilers," rushed out to meet the demands of publishers, who having discovered a popular man wish to exploit him. James Lane Allen had not arrived at any particularly exalted summit of fame when he wrote these charming creations. He had come to New York well furnished with a wealth of experience, and learning, and observation of life and nature, and had determined to write his best. For Allen is among the very few authors to-day who write for posterity and not for the hour, for fame, and not for notoriety. Of course, when the "Kentucky Cardinal" and "Aftermath " were published the greatest eagerness was excited as to his next book, for there was

upon these two the unmistakeable stamp of genius. A mark of the ability of the man is shown in the way in which he deals with the sad fate of the "Cardinal," that red Kentukey bird which gives the story its name, and which again and again appears n the course of the love-epic. To bring hat bird to a sad and fateful end, in a manner an end of ignominy and shame, and yet not to overstep the poetic bounds the author had set for himself, was a feat which few could have accomplished without clumsiness. This is how our author triumphantly meets the crux. It may be prefaced that the hero of the story had trapped the beautiful red bird for his mistress, and it would appear that the creature had died when deprived of its freedom.

"But now I was stained once more with the old guilt, and once more I could hear the birds in my yard singing that old, old chorus against man's inhumanity. Towards the middle of the afternoon I went away across the country--by any direction ; I cared not what. On my way back I passed through a large rear lot belonging to my neighbors, and adjoining my own, in which is my stable. There has lately been imported into this part of Kentucky from England the much-prized breed of the beautiful white Berkshire. As I crossed the lot, near the milk-trough, ash-heap and parings of fruit and vegetables thrown from my neighbor's kitchen, I saw a litter of these pigs having their awkward sport over some strange red plaything, which one after another of them would shake with all its might, root and tear at, or tread into greater shapelessness. It was all that was left of him."

The time came, however, when the sad memory of the red bird was effaced by greater things:

66

Georgiana stood at her window looking into the west. The shadows of the trees in my yard fell longer and longer across the garden towards her. Darkest among these lay the shapes of the cedars and the pines in which the red bird had lived. Her whole attitude bespoke a mood surrendered to memory; and I felt sure that we two were thinking of the same thing.

"As she has approached that mystical revelation of life which must come with our marriage, Georgiana's gaiety has grown subtly overcast. It is as if the wild strain in her were a little sad at having to be captured at last; and I too experience an indefinable pain that it has become my lot

to subdue her in this way. The thought possesses me that she submits to marriage because she cannot live intimately with me and lavish her love upon me in any other relation; and therefore I draw back with awe from the idea of taking such possession of her as I will and must."

"RUPERT OF HENTZAU."

The great amount of interest with which the trade have welcomed Mr. Morang's Canadian edition of Anthony Hope's masterly sequel to "The Prisoner of Zenda" is a sign of the healthy character of the book business throughout the Dominion. It is understood that the advance orders have been very large, and that there is every probability that the book will make a record sale. Several causes will contribute to this success. In the first place, "The Prisoner of Zenda," to which "Rupert" is a sequel, attained a surprising popularity. It took a fresh line just at the time that a fresh line was wanted, and gave the public that was very tired of introverted writing and analytical sex-problems, the refreshment of romantic melodrama. The subsequent dramatization of the work further brought it under the notice of the masses so that everybody now knows about the red-haired, unsatisfactory king and his double, Rudolph Rassendyll; about the stern and determined old soldier Sapt, and the beautiful and hapless queen. It is natural that a sequel to a book of this kind should be looked forward to with interest. People want to know what the audacious and unscrupulous Rupert did when he turned up again, as it was inevitable he should. It is now known that Anthony Hope has made the very best of the situation he created when he concluded "The Prisoner of Zenda," and, whether intentionally or not, left Rupert's future career a thing of possibilities. In the second place, Anthony Hope, at thirty-three years of age, has demonstrated the fact that he can write very interesting books. His name is, perhaps. as good a name as it is possible to have on the back of a volume, from a bookselling point of view. There is always an inner circle of about half-a-dozen writers who "rule the roost," so to speak, and it is plain that to that inner circle Mr. Hope belongs. Furthermore, both stories take the reader into a new country, a place that he cannot find in gazeteers or atlases, but which is full of a fine story atmosphere, and that is what the average reader of a novel wants more than anything else. He does not want an accurate representation of human life. He desires above all things writers who can invent fresh scenes and fresh people for him. In time these become as much alike to him as real people. But they are never tire

some and never dull. The essential art of such a writer as Anthony Hope inspires them with a life that is much more interesting than mere realism can ever be. It is this that distinguishes the true romance writer from the mere producer of what he sees around him.

Book Motes.

Norman Murray, the hustling book and newsdealer of Montreal, publishes "Murray's Illustrated Guide to Montreal and Vicinity." Price, 25 cents.

"Rose a' Charlitte," an Acadian romance, by Marshall Saunders, author of "Beautiful Joe," will be published in July. Fully illustrat d. Retail, $1.50. An enormous sale for this book is anticipated.

The publisher reports a large demand for MacBeth's "The Making of the Canadian West." Already the sales exceed a thousand copies, and a second edition will soon be placed on the press.

A new novel, by Richard Harding Davis, "The King's Jackal," with illustrations and a striking cover design by Charles Dana Gibson. Bound uniform with "Soldiers of Fortune," 12mo, $1.25.

Rev. W. Bowman Tucker, Ph.D., of Sutton, P.Q., has prepared a work on "Sabbath School Outlines" for normal study in Sabbath Schools and Epworth Leagues, which is now being published by William Briggs.

A second edition of Dr. G C. Workman's "Old Testament Vindicated" has already been called for. The press comments on the book have been of the most flattering character. It is considered one of the most notable of recent contributions to apologetics.

Félix Gras's new romance, "The Terror," is said to picture the adventures of an "Aristocrat" in the French Revolution. Some characters reappear who will be recognized by the many readers of M. Gras's successful "Reds of the Midi." "The Terror" will be published immediately by D. Appleton & Co.

The new book on "The Art of Taxidermy," about to be published by D. Appleton & Co., is by the well-known authority, Mr. John Rowley, the head of this deparment in the American Museum of Natural History. Mr. Rowley is the author of the magnificent groups of moose, deer and other animals in the hall of North American Mammals, which form one of the most famous features of the

museum.

said to be the only descendant of the exiled people living in the land of his forefathers, has placed with William Briggs for publication a work entitled 66 · Grand Pré: A Sketch of the Acadian Occupation of the Shores of the Basin of Minas." This will be a contribution of more than ordinary interest to the literature of Acadia. It will contain a number of half-tone illustrations from original photographs.

Rev. E. R. Young, the well-known Canadian author, and Mr. J. E. Laughlin, a Toronto artist who has done much excellent work in book illustrations, have together prepared for E. P. Dutton & Co., of New York, a toy book entitled "The Indian Lovers," that is bound to be an immense success. Mr. Laughlin's work, we venture to say, is the finest specimen of colored book work yet attempted by a Canadian artist. The letter-press is a rhyming poem after the plan of "The House that Jack Built." The whole work is unique, and a credit to both artist and author.

The Copp, Clark Co., Toronto, will publish on June 25, "The King's Jackal," by Richard Harding Davis. With illustrations by C. D. Gibson. 12mo., paper, 75 cents, 12mo., cloth, $1.25. Mr. Davis showed in his very successful "Soldiers of Fortune' that he could sustain through a long novel the same fascination which had so prominently marked his short stories. This tale of a bankrupt king is as well drawn as romantic, and as continuously interesting as anything the author ever wrote. The newspaper correspondent, who is the real hero, and the beautiful American heiress, who figures as heroine, are among Mr. Davis's finest creations.

The old plan of one man doing all the work of collecting material, sorting it over and doing the writing, has given way to the modern method as used by William Laird Clowes, who, on his " History of the Royal Navy," employs a large number of clerks and secretaries to perform the mechanical drudgery that once fell to the author, and in this way what was formerly the work of a lifetime has become but the occupation of a twelvemonth. This enabled the publishers, Little, Brown & Co., to issue the first volume in August, 1897, and the second in April, 1898, with a prospect of the third volume in June, and the rest of the set within the year.

The reception given to J. A. Altsheler's romance, "A Soldier of Manhattan," in England, illustrates the interesting change of English sentiment as to American affairs which has been evident of late. Although Mr. Altsheler's story depicts the injustice

of the English toward the American colonists just before the Revolution, many of the English papers accept his implied strictures as probably correct, and their comments are significantly friendly. The departure from the insular point of view shown in the reviews of this story, which is published by D. Appleton and Company, certainly warrants a feeling of confidence in the predictions of a better and closer understanding between the countries.

T. Fisher Unwin has just published a new book of humorous tales entitled "The Humors of Donegal." The author is Mr. James MacManus, better known by his nom de guerre "Mac." He is rapidly coming to the front as an Irish humorist. Two other books of Donegal Tales which he has put before the public recently earned warm encomiums from such authorities as the Spectator, Academy, Literary World, Pall Mall Gazette, Times, etc., and the Daily Telegraph pronounced one of them to be a "rich treasure-house of genuine fun." The Daily Mail said that "Mac" had proved himself one of the most lightsome and diverting of story-writers. As Mr. MacManus is himself one of the Donegal peasantry, he can handle the Donegal vernacular with fluency.

Thomas Conant, of Oshawa, has arranged with William Briggs for the publication during the coming autumn of a volume of "Upper Canada Sketches," that promises to be a work of great interest. Mr. Conant, who comes of U. E. Loyalist stock, and traces his ancestry back to the Pilgrim Fathers, has much to tell of the experiences of his forbears in the early years of settlement in America, of the removal of the family to Canada, of life in the clearings, together with his own reminiscences of later events. A series of 21 full-page illustrations in colors has been specially prepared for the work by a clever Canadian artist. The reproduction of these has been entrusted to Messrs. Barclay, Clark & Co., lithographers, Toronto.

The publisher intends that the book shall be one of the best specimens of book-making that has ever been produced in Canada.

William Briggs has in the press a work of great interest and importance in "A History of Steam Navigation, and its Relation to the Trade and Commerce of Canada and the United States," by James Croil, of Montreal. This gentleman's name is in many ways identified closely with the shipping interests of Canada, and from personal experience and observation he is well qualified for the preparation of such a work. The information given in these pages respecting the far-reaching waterways of Canada, her magnificent system of ship canals, and the vast steam-commerce of the great lakes and

rivers of North America, will be a revelation and a surprise to all who have not made a previous careful study of the subject. Mr. Croil has given special attention to the illustrating of his work, having devoted much time and considerable in expense gathering together a large and valuable collection of engravings of steam vessels from the first rude craft down to the elegant floating palaces of the present day. Another pleasing and attractive feature of the book is the number of portraits and biographic sketches of prominent Canadians, ship captains and others. There will be in all over ninety illustrations, of which upwards of twenty are full page. It is proposed to put the book on the market in September.

It appears from a volume on British Guiana, which T. Fisher Unwin, London, has published, that poor Sir Walter Raleigh has had to wait 300 years for the justification of his El Dorado theory. The diamonds with which he intended to enrich his monarch's crown are now being picked up in the beautiful land whose name even literary people will insist on pronouncing Guinea (Guinea is, we need hardly say, a perfectly different Mesopotamian sort of place in West Africa). The work to which we refer is by Rev. L. Crookall, author of "Books; How to Read, and What to Read," etc. His new work is entitled "British Guiana, or Work and Wanderings Among the Creoles and Coolies,,

the Africans and Indians of the Wild Country." He is a chatty man, and communicates tiger and snake stories, missionary tales, information as to how sugar is made, and a stray hint or two by way of sky-piloting, without affectation or reserve. The reader is "dear reader" as in the good old days, and should be on very good terms with the Rev. Mr. Crookall.

D. Appleton and Company, New York, new publications include "The Terror," a romance of the French Revolution, by Félix Gras, author of "The Reds of the Midi,” translated by Mrs. Catharine A. Janvier ; "The Art of Taxidermy," by John Rowley, Chief of the Department of Taxidermy at the American Museum of Natural History; "Outlines of the Earth's History," by Prof. N. S. Shaler; "Familiar Life in Field and Forest," by F. Schuyler Matthews; "Political Crime," by Louis Proal, with an introduction by Prof. F. H. Giddings; "Kronstadt," a romance, by Max Pemberton, illustrated; "Lucky Bargee," a novel, by Harry Lander ; "Arachne," an Egyptian romance, by Dr. George Ebers; "News from the Birds," by L. S. Keyser; "On the Farm," by F. W. Parker and Nellie L. Helm; and "Harold's Rambles," by J. W. Træger, three new volumes in Appleton's HomeReading Series; "Torn Sails," a Welsh

story, by Allen Raine; "Materfamilias," by Ada Cambridge; and "A History of the United States Navy, from 1775 to 1898," by Edward Stanton Maclay, A. M., with technical revision by Lieutenant Roy C. Smith, U.S.N., new edition, revised and enlarged, with new chapters and several new illustrations.

Mrs. L. B. Walford, the author of "The Baby's Grandmother," has written a new novel, entitled "The Intruders."

Trade Motes.

A second edition of "The Making of the Canadian West" will be issued shortly.

The English press is giving very favorable attention to Mr. Tyrrell's "Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada," of which an Eng. lish edition has been published by T. Fisher Unwin.

Buntin, Reid & Co., Toronto, are offering a good school ink, blue-black writing, for $3.60 per gross, or in 5 gross lots at $3.00 per gross. This ink is specially put up for school use.

Buntin, Reid & Co., Toronto, are offering an excellent American coated book paper at 10 cents a pound, with special quotations for quantities. All stock sizes and weights may be had.

E. J. Pelling is visiting Canada on behalf of Adam and Charles Black, the London publishers, as well as one or two other London houses. He is offering specially favorale terms, which will only obtain during his visit.

Messrs. J. S. Durie & Son, the wellknown stationers of Sparks Street, Ottawa, have disposed of their business to James Hope & Co.. The firm is one of the oldest in the city, having been in business over 60 years at the same stand.

J. F. Herbin, B.A., of Wolfville, N.S., a descendant of one of the early French Acadia families, has in the press of William Briggs a "History of Grand Pré," which will contain several fine photo-engravings of the picturesque scenes of the storied land of Evangeline.

Letters patent of the province have been issued incorporating E. Goff Penny, M.P., gentleman; Robert Archer, capitalist; William Strachan, manufacturer; William Currie, manufacturer, and Robert Law, merchant, of Montreal, to carry on and operate the business of manufacturing pulp and paper in all its branches, etc., by the name

The making of wood into wood pulp and thence into paper set inventors to thinking, and a result is the discovery of the transformation of wood fiber into strong and handsome cloth. The wood is boiled, crushed, and the fibers separated in parallel lines, dried and spun, the same as cotton or wool. Oak, hickory and locust make a very handsome cloth, while bamboo produces one that is almost iron-like in its strength and elasticity. The cost of the new process is not large, but is still a little above that of converting cotton or linen into substantial tissues.

The N. Y. "Independent" pays the following fine tribute to Dr. Rand's At Minas Basin": "This is the second edition of a volume of poems whose merits are great to the extent that they fulfil a distinct artistic purpose. Dr. Rand is one of the Canadians who have done honor to their country in singing its praises; but he has done much more than voice a local preference. Many of his hymns are delightfully fresh, some of them have a fine smack of shore and sea, and all are infused with a very engaging scholarly spirit. We recommend the book to the lovers of pure and dignified song."

Among the many June weddings celebrated in this city one of special eclat was that of Mr. F. S. Ewens- popularly known as Syd "-order clerk of the Methodist Book Room, and a veritable animated encyclopedia of books and publishers, to Miss Susie Henry, eldest daughter of Mr. George Henry, 383 Givins Street, this city. The hymeneal bonds were adjusted by Rev. Dr. Briggs, assisted by Rev. Dr. Dewart. There was a large company of friends present, a tempting dejeuner was partaken of, felicitous speeches made, and many hearty congratulations bestowed upon the charming bride and the happy groom. The couple left amid a pelting shower of rice and other projectiles for a honeymoon trip down the St. Lawrence.