pleasure in Dumas's vigor and story-telling War of the Rebellion. [Charles Scribner's The Lost Gold of the Montezumas. The Blue Ridge Mystery is a sensational story by Caroline Martin, of murder, abduction, yellow fever, attempted lynching, and such like wild excitements; rather too highly flavored to suit cool Northern tastes. The scene is Ilaid in the South directly after the Civil War. Anna, General Houston and other redoubtable Fable are neither natural nor spontaneous at The exciting scenes incident to the struggle on heroes figured, furnish the materials for this and "brutal negro soldiery "take some small With Crockett and Bowie. Mr. Kirk Munroe's use of the same historical Two good army stories are Warrior Gap, by Capt. Charles King, U. S. A., and Pontiac, by Col. H. R. Gordon; the first of Indian massacres and personal courage among the ranchers of a few years ago and of treachery among army officials, given in a spirited manner, while the hero, Dean, stands forth as a type of an ideal frontier officer. [Neely. $1.25.] The second takes the reader back to the siege of Detroit in colonial days. The plot centers round the escape of a white girl from Pontiac's lodge. There is not a taint of sensationalism in the story, and yet for vivid and natural interest it is one of the best. [Dutton. $1.50.] In The Copy-Maker Mr. William Farquhar Payson, with the aid of illustrations by H. B. Eddy, professes to give the experiences of a raw young man who goes to work on the staff of a great metropolitan newspaper. The Daily Bread is a good dummy for the author's purpose, which is facetious, and Mr. Samuel E. Forbes and his wife Alice answer well as lay figures on which to hang what are probably the veritable recollections, or at least the plausible imaginings, of the author. Together with some passages that are laughable, there are others that are strained, and the book as a whole is one of a kind that gets to be tedious. [New Amsterdam Book Co. $1.00.] In Sim Galloway's Daughter-in-Law the Rev. William E. Barton has made further use of his materials as the above in his book, also for In the Days of the Pioneers. Of much the same sort, though not so intense, is this story of Indians and Indian warfare by Edward Ellis, of the time and the country of Daniel Boone; the thread on which its beads of adventure are strung being the peril and rescue of a young white girl from the hands of the Shawanoes. The girl's lover and a faithful negro divide the reader's interest with the heroine. [Henry T. Coates & Co. $1.50.] CURRENT "POETRY." Andrew Lang has lately expressed in print his wonder Opals, by Olive Custance, are "musings with visions fraught," sentimental, gentle, sometimes sad, never strong or purposeful. A curious structure in the verse gives it a broken, hysterical effect, and there are occasional sacrifices of sense to the sound of words. [Lane. $1.25.] Rev. B. P. Aylesworth's verses in Song and their best, though his conceptions are often poetic and his melody sometimes sweet. terms as "astream," "abloom," "agloom," "agleam," and such a phrase as "mouth acurve with hunger's prayer," instance the straining for effect. [Des Moines, Iowa: the Kenyon Press.] Such In Huldah, A Daughter of the Revolution, Miss Emma E. Brown tells patriotically the story of a Lexington household, with one or two addenda, and a few love songs interspersed which come near to being charming. [Lothrop.] The contents of Mr. Henry Johnson's book, Where Beauty Is, treat of art, love, sorrow, etc. The versification is generally smooth and often graceful, and always wrought with care and pains. But there is not a line to fasten itself in the reader's memory. [Brunswick, Me.: Byron Stevens.] While in The Spinning Wheel at Rest, by Edward Augustus Jenks, there is nothing of marked poetic quality, there is much sweet and tender feeling, and no little grace of expression, with one prime essential of the writer of verse, namely, an ear for cadence and accent. In illustration we would gladly quote “On the Road," if the "poets" now demanding attention did not take up so much room. [Lee & Shepard. $1.25.] Rays from the Starry Host, by "Lucus a non Lucendo," is not an astronomical treatise, but a sort of new "Christian Year," with a page for ment over the unfailing production of minor poetry, which every day in the year, and an original poem for few men care to read and fewer still to buy. "The whole every page, and the subject of that poem some subject of an enormous supply kept up in the face of abso- one of the saints of the British Church from lutely no demand whatever, but contrariwise," he observes, time immemorial. These are the "starry host" "is an economic mystery." The wonder grows as we ana-whose "rays" are deflected to the earth through lyze the quality of this undiscouraged product, and realize how superior it is to the verse which half a century since was accepted as quite good enough for the readers of Annuals and Books of Beauty. Our versifiers have studied the subtle tricks of rhyme and accent, and but little fault can be found with most of them so far as the construction of their wares is concerned. Graceful, well-made, scanable stanzas are nowadays rather the rule than the exception. But, in spite of this, dozens of tastefully bound volumes appear month after month, for which no one cares a button, and which live their little day on the booksellers' shelves and go down apace to unmerited dust and oblivion. a poetic prism for the inspiration and guidance of the faithful. [Roxburghe Press. 5s.] Mr. Louis F. Benson's Hymns and Verses number about fifty, of which nine are translations from the Latin. More are religious, some are ecclesiastical, a few are patriotic, several are lyrical and would well fit music to be sung; and all are generally correct in form. [Westminster Press.] A dainty book of first verse is One Way to the knowledge of poor-white life in the Cumberland It seems a sad result of so much painstaking, but the pro-Woods, by Evaleen Stein, containing between Mountains, to the end of some wholesome les-duction of similar volumes goes on, nevertheless, undeterred and undismayed. In spite of Mr. Bryan, Mr. Runk, thirty and forty short poems, generally attuned sons as to character and life, and the bringing and Mr. Coogler, and the warnings to which their "poems" to out-door notes, echoes of the woods and out into clear relief the thought of Divine Provi- have given rise, still the "poets" come; here are some fields. The quality is respectable, but not notdence and the love and care of God for His twenty more waiting their turn upon this reviewer's table. able. [Copeland. 75c.] children. [The Pilgrim Press.] BOOKS FOR BOYS. Mr. Arthur H. Salmon's collection, Life of Life, is not destined, we fear, to any happier fate than has overtaken, and we trust overwhelmed, his compeers. His characteristics are a certain grace in versification, an ear for accent, some fire and feeling, and an imitativeness which is at least suggestive, all expended on such themes as sorrow, love, passion, memory, regret, and so on. [Blackwood. 25. 6d.] Mr. M. A. De Wolf Howe's Shadows make a book much like the foregoing in appearance and quality, but the poetry is of a more pronounced grade of excellence, and has touches here and there of the true poet's voice. [Copeland & Day. $1.00.] In Folly's Bells Anne Gardner Hale relates in generally smooth verse a legend of North Germany bearing a Christmas lesson. [Peter-Paul Co.] The Last Cruise of the Mohawk. Some things about this book by W. J. Henderson we do like and some we do not, but on the whole its lessons of manly truthfulness, pluck, and courage outweigh its occasional rough and slangy talk, and we shall try to believe that Mr. Charles H. Crandall's Chords of Life are We are ready to accord more than ordinary it will strengthen the boys into whose hands it about one hundred poems, touching many chords, merit to the some thirty poems, by L. Bruce falls to make a good fight of life for the good, exhibiting sentiment and love of nature. The Moore, collected under the title of the first the true, and the pure. The "Mohawk was best are "The Return of the Ship,' ""The Ar-poem, The Death of Falstaff. There is not a a man-of-war, and the adventures of Johnny gonauts," and "In Memoriam." [Printed for little power in this opening piece of ShakespearRodgers therein were encountered during the the Author. $1.00.] ean blank verse, and some of the rhymed com positions which follow have an excuse for being put into print. [Baltimore: Cushing & Co. $1.50.] ciently answers for most of us; the handling of dred and twenty miles from the balloon toward some others is perhaps "popular," as, for ex- Stockholm. We pity the reader who can look ample, the author's account of his curious and upon that page and its picture without having Mr. Edward McQueen Gray publishes his interesting experiments "On Sensations of Ori- his heart touched. Elsewhere the magazine is Alamo and Other Verses himself, from his Crof-entation;" but for the most part the lectures distinguished by what we shall call an original tonhill Ranch, Florence, New Mexico, with the are philosophical rather than "popular," in the and daring attempt to illustrate the interior of laudable purpose of devoting the proceeds of accepted sense of that word, and are addressed the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky; by portrait its sale to defraying the expenses of a free cir- to the best thinking powers of trained minds. galleries of Mexican society in Maximilian's culating library in that town. The author, we Their field, generally speaking, is that of phys- time, and of a group of women composers; by take it, is a self-exiled Englishman, who at least ics. [Open Court Publishing Co. $1.00.] an illustrated study of "The Songs of Ameriknows what poetry ought to be, though we fear Art and Morality is the title of a booklet by can Birds" by John Burroughs; and there is a that the sales of his book for its own sake will Washington Gladden. Art, he states, is inspired large variety of fiction continued or complete, not build or long support the proposed library. by the love of beauty, as is morality by the love and other matter. The themes are largely those suggested by the of righteousness; but the two should move in locality, and akin to that of the title poem, harmony. Neither skillful realism nor mere which is founded, of course, on the tragedy of idealism is art, since art to be true unto itself San Antonio. [75c.] must be exercised in noble service. Such an essay as this helps to clear away the mist which calls the impure art because it is real. [Wilbur B. Ketcham. 50c.] Father Edmund's Passion Flowers are the devout effusions of a member of the religious Order of the Heart of Mary, whose secular name is Benjamin D. Hill, who has evidently been an attentive student of the best in English verse, and who has acquired a considerable facility in expressing his lofty, devotional sentiments in flowing and sometimes very nearly elegant verse. But there is the sound of the machine in many of them, and they lack the indescribable something which makes true poetry. [Benziger Bros. $1.25.] Anything more absurd in the way of "poetry" than the Legend of Minnewaska and Other Lyr. ical Poems, which Ina E. Wood Van Norman has collected in a handsomely printed, gilt-edged volume of nearly 250 pages, it would be hard to name, unless it be productions of Bryan, Runk, and Coogler already referred to. The author, who protrudes a portrait of herself before her title-page, calls her "Legend of Lake Mohonk " a "Sequel to Longfellow's Hiawatha." It is enough to make Longfellow turn over in his grave. Given a rhyming dictionary, a ream of paper, a good fountain pen filled, and time enough, and any one can make poetry like this by the yard. It would need a more accurate foot-rule, however, than Miss or Mrs. Norman possesses to measure the length of her lines in inches. [Chicago: Donahue & Henneberry. $2.50.] N. B. The pictures are almost as absurd as the poetry. John Vance Cheney's work is fairly well known to magazine readers, and his quality of verse, as collected in Out of the Silence [Cope land & Day. $1.50], does not differ materially from that which we have met before from his pen. There is a lightness and ease in his touch which it is always pleasant to meet with, and if he never gets very high neither does he fall very low; so that this volume of his is pleasing reading. Beyond the Day" is a good example of his style. MISCELLANY. A good deal is made out of a little in the opening pages of Harper's by Mr. Franklin Matthews, in a description of a sham fight by the New York militia on the heights above Manhattan, the chief purpose of which probably was to give Mr. Zogbaum and Mr. Remington a text to which to fit some pictures of cavalryTwo books which have great interest for men in action, which are spirited and fine. As Roman Catholics and little interest for readers for the "Manoeuvre" it is of trifling interest outside of that communion, except on the score and little importance. Much more to the purof curiosity, are the Illustrated Explanation of the pose of most magazine readers is the second Prayers and Ceremonies of the Mass, by Rev. D. part of Du Maurier's illustrated reminiscence I. Lanslots, and An Illustrated Life of the Blessed of "Social Pictorial Satire," such as he and Virgin, by the Rev. D. Rohner. Both bear the Charles Keene had their hands in, in the pages of imprimatur of the Cardinal Archbishop of New Punch and otherwise for so many years, and York, and the former is honored with a preface reproducing some of those delicious bits of by the Archbishop of New Orleans. It needs humor which were the fond repast of a former not to be said that the doctrine of the mass here generation. Mark Twain describes in characterpresented is permeated through and through with istic vein, half realistic, half caricature, the the dogma of transubstantiation, and it hardly recent "Stirring Times in Austria," quorum needs to be said that the Life of the Blessed pars, we doubt not, fuit. Julian Ralph, who went Virgin is an exposition of Mariolatry in its extremest form. The proportion of tradition, assumption, and assertion in the second volume presented in the guise of historical fact is extraordinary. [Benziger Brothers. Each, $1.25.] NOTES AND QUERIES. over to see the end of the late Turco-Greek War, sketches with his graphic and ever-ready pen some of its after-scenes. A chapter of early American art is related by Charles Henry Hart; Joel Benton furnishes readable recollections of Wendell Phillips, E. H. Chapin, John B. Gough, and other lights of the old lecture platform, with portraits; and a number of portraits also 9. Richelieu. Who is the sober moralist illustrate Dr. Henry Smith Williams's review of referred to in the opening lines of the third act"The Century's Progress in Anatomy and of Bulwer's "Richelieu?" Is the quotation a Physiology." genuine one? B. THE MARCH MAGAZINES. There are three articles of leading importance in Scribner's. Mr. Wycoff, in his personal narrative, "The Workers," joins the great army of tramps in the West; E. Neville-Rolfe describes with the aid of excellent illustrations a 66 Gentleman's Life in Pompeii" as seen from the recently uncovered ruins of the house of A. Vettius; and Senator Lodge continues his "Story of the Revolution," which in this installment centers around the Declaration of Independence and the figure of Thomas Jefferson. The Pompeiian pictures are uncommonly fine and interesting; they are reproductions of photographs taken on the spot by a Neapolitan artist. of personal narratives by John Sidney Webb and Edward S. Curtis, both profusely illustrated from photographs taken by the authors. There is little question, we think, that the Klondike is destined to occupy a foremost place in the world's eye for some time to come, that there is to be an immense rush in that direction the coming season, and that the discovering and the The more thoughtful class of readers will turn uncovering of its gold deposits are to exercise a as usual to the Atlantic not so much for enterprofound and far-reaching influence in the devel- tainment as for instructive, stimulating, and opment of the whole Northwest. These articles suggestive writing on themes of a high sort. A second edition, revised and enlarged, is open a new chapter in the romance of American They will find "England's Economic and Politpublished of Mr. Thomas J. McCormack's trans- history. There is one page in this number -aical Crisis" discussed by J. N. Larned, "The lation of Ernst Mach's volume of Popular Sci- single page-of infinite pathos; that which Municipal Service of Boston" described and entific Lectures. The German author has held holds the picture of the carrier pigeon which criticised by Francis C. Lowell, "English as important professorships in the universities of the captain of the whaler "Aiken" shot, in against French Literature" viewed in contrast Prague and Vienna, from the former of which ignorance of its true character, on the border by Henry D. Sedgwick, Jr., "The Australian the preface of the first edition of this work was of the Arctic drift ice in July last, and which Democracy" surveyed in a cold dry light by Mr. dated in 1894. Some of the themes of these proved to be the bearer of the only message E. L. Godkin, "The Social and Domestic Life twelve or fourteen lectures are "popular," as, that has yet been received from the intrepid of Japan" uncovered by K. Mitsukuri, and a for example, that entitled "Why Has Man Two Andrée. The poor little bird had lighted on paper on Bacchylides and his Native Isle," by Eyes?" a question which the stereoscope suffi- the whaler for rest after a flight of about a hun-Mr. Mannatt; all excellent examples of their excellent class both as regards topics and treatment. -Miss Laura E. Richards, whose Melody has passed the 50,000th copy mark, and of whose Captain January 100,000 copies have been sold, has written an idyl of the Maine coast entitled - Mrs. Coventry Patmore is preparing a biog- Love and Rocks, which is on the eve of publicaraphy of her late husband. tion by Estes & Lauriat. FOREIGN NOTES. - Even the Bodleian library at Oxford suffers from book thieves, and the Curators have been obliged to lock the cases that contain the select library. There was recently sold in London a copy of what is known as the Kilmarnack Edition of Burns's Poems, in the ordinary paper cover of 1786, measuring 6x9, and said to be unique. This gem fetched the enormous price of five hundred and forty-five guineas, and at that price is likely to come to America. -The middle of April will see the publication of Vanity Fair, in the new biographical edition of Thackeray, which Smith, Elder & Co. have had in preparation for some time. Mrs. Richmond Ritchie is writing an introduction for each of the thirteen volumes. - Following on the success which has attended the widely known series of "The Stories of the Nations," Mr. Fisher Unwin is about to begin the publication of another series which he has had in preparation for several years, to be called "The Library of Literary History," the keynote of which is the idea that intellectual growth and artistic achievement furnish the true measurement of history. Each volume is to be the work of a scholar of repute, and the services of foreign men of letters will be frequently employed. Our prosperous New York contemporary The Outlook has an infant namesake just born in London, a new three-penny journal edited by Mr. Percy Hurd, taking the widest range in its survey of modern life. - A discovery is announced of long-lost Nelson manuscripts which formerly belonged to Lady Nelson. They include many letters of Nelson to his wife, with others from her to him, none of which have ever been published, but all of which are now to appear in book form. - Lord Tennyson is engaged upon new notes to certain of his father's poems, which will see the light in a forthcoming edition. - The cable of Sunday last brought news of the death of Frederick Tennyson on Saturday, February 27th, a brother of the late Lord Tennyson, and himself a poet, whose achievement was, of course, eclipsed by that of his more famous brother. NEWS AND NOTES. - The Baker & Taylor Co. announce for immediate publication The Twentieth Century City, by Rev. Dr. Josiah Strong, a study of modern municipal development; also a volume of essays on Life, Death, and Immortality by Dr. William M. Bryant. -The French firm of Boussod, Manzi, Joyant & Co., located at 170 Fifth Avenue, New York, announces the publication of a new monthly, entitled Le Theatre, with French text only, to appear simultaneously in this country and Paris. It will certainly be a boon to American students and readers of French dramatic literature. -T. Y. Crowell & Co. have in press for immediate publication Tolstoi's new book entitled What is Art? and Dean Farrar's studies of Great Books, now appearing in the Independent. -- The publication business hitherto conducted by Mr. George E. Croscup has been incorporated under the name of the Croscup & Sterling Co. The new company will start out with new editions of Defoe, Boswell's Life of Johnson, and Pepys's Diary, for which latter special illustrations are being made.. - Little, Brown & Co. announce for the coming spring and summer Memoirs of Chancellor Kent; a new edition of Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms; The King's Henchman, an historical novel of the wars of Henry of Navarre; a musical story entitled The Duenna of a Genius, by Mrs. Blundell; and a romance of Palestine by Henry Gillman, entitled Hassan, a Fellah. The present month will see the completion of the new editions of Parkman's works, and April the beginning of the new edition of Dumas. The same firm will soon publish All the World's Fighting Ships, by F. C. Jane, a descriptive book profusely illustrated, and several other contributions to the study of naval science and history. -The Lippincott Co. have just ready The Winter's Tale, in Dr. Furness's Variorum Shakespeare. – Houghton, Mifflin & Co. announce Caleb West in book form, by Hopkinson Smith; Children of the Future, by Nora Archibald Smith; Penelope's Progress, by Mrs. Wiggin; Mr. Higginson's Cheerful Yesterdays; four stories of transatlantic travel by Henry B. Fuller, entitled From the Other Side; Tales of Trail and Town, eight new tales by Bret Harte; and The Pil. grims in Their Three Homes, by Dr. Griffis. -F. Tennyson Neely announces for immediate publication So Runs the World, by Sienkiewicz. -The Macmillian Co. will publish here in two volumes Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's mem. oirs, My Life in Two Hemispheres; also 4 Handbook of Nature Study, by D. Lange. The new Boston firm of Richard G. Badger & Co. announces Rational Home Gymnastics, by Hartvig Nissen, and a volume of Poems by Philip Becker Goetz. | - Dodd, Mead & Co. announce From Tonkin to India, a narrative of travel and adventure, by Prince Henry of Orleans, covering a distance of over 2,000 miles, four-fifths of which was through country hitherto unexplored. - The Macmillan Co. publish immediately a translation by Mrs. Christen of Dr. Sabatier's study of The Vitality of Christian Dogmas and Their Power of Evolution. A feature of the new Century Atlas, companion volume to the Century Dictionary, is a finely executed map, in colors, of the region around the North Pole, showing the surrounding confines of the continents, the vast unexplored region which is the goal of the adventurers, and the devious tracks of intrepid explorers like Nansen, and stimulating the imagination with possible details of the fate of Andrée. This Atlas, which we have not seen in full, must be of exceptional value. - The Macmillan Co. issue a convenient and suggestive little list of books on the Practical Problems of City Government. - We are indebted to Miss S. B. Gilman of Hallowell, Maine, for copies of the interesting pamphlets describing the exercises at the recent dedication of the Hubbard Free Library in that pleasant, old, and honored town. Thus is added another to the long and growing list of free town libraries that are to illumine the land. -The American Library Association is to hold its Twentieth Annual Conference at Lakewood-on-Chautauqua, July 2–16 next. - Mrs. Charlotte Fiske Bates Rogé still dates her notes from St. Augustine. - D. Appleton & Co. have in preparation The Disaster, a romance of the last Franco-Prussian war, by Paul and Victor Margueritte, who are the sons of a distinguished French general killed at Sedan. From the same house comes Eastern Journeys, a book by the late Charles A. Dana, and A Voyage of Consolation, by Mrs. E. C. Cotes. - Bertha Palmer has edited a collection of stories illustrative of the Classic Literature of Many Nations, which will shortly appear from the Macmillan Press. The same house announce Topics on Greek and Roman History, a text-book for secondary schools by Mr. A. L. Goodrich of Utica, N. Y.; Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic, by Colonel Higginson; and FourFooted Americans, by Mabel Osgood Wright. - Mr. R. H. Russell has removed his New York office of publication to the Bancroft Building, 3-7 West 29th Street. - General Horace Porter's Campaigning with Grant is to be issued in London in book form by Fisher Unwin. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. - Francis P. Harper, New York, has in press from the pen of Rev. J. F. O'Conor, S. J., former librarian of Georgetown College, an illustrated work, entitled Facts About Bookworms, Their History in Literature and Work in Libraries. The author has gathered curious information about these destructive little creatures, and skillfully interwoven them with anecdotes and quotations from ancient and modern writers. It will surprise many to learn that they eat new as weli as ancient works. No less than seventy-two All Books received by the LITERARY WORLD are specimens of various kinds of bookworms have entered under the above heading. Further notice of any been discovered and studied under the micro-publication is dependent upon its importance. scope. The appendix consists of entomological notes. The entire edition is limited to 750 numbered copies and will be printed at the Gilliss Press. Biography. AULD LANG SYNE. Professor F. Max Müller. Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.00 HORACE MANN AND THE COMMON SCHOOL REVIVAL -Young Blood is the title of Mr. Horner's IN THE UNITED STATES. B. A. Hinsdale. Charles new book issued under the Scribners' imprint. Scribner's Sons. Educational. $1.00 DE QUINCEY'S CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUMEATER. Edit. by George Armstrong Wauchope. D. C. Heath & Co. 50c. A THE WARNER LIBRARY COMPLETED THIS MONTH The Special Introductory Price to be Immediately Advanced FTER more than two years of constant | and refinement. The fact that such a marvelous labor, the Library of the World's Best survey of the literature of the world, with the Literature, under the editorial direction of Charles exposition and criticism of the foremost living Dudley Warner, is nearly finished. Its com- men of letters, can be had for a sum less than the pletion will be a distinct literary event. The cost of the simplest collection of single volumes, special introductory price under the arrangement makes this a work which from the mere standmade by Harper's Weekly Club will positively point of economy no lover of books can afford to be withdrawn when the last volumes (which are be without. The Library is not only an immense now on the press) are issued. Readers will do saving of time and study, but of money as well. well to make note of this fact since by joining A postal card sent to the Harper's Weekly Club, the Club now they will obtain the work at nearly 91 Fifth Avenue, New York, will secure full one-half the price at which it will hereafter be particulars regarding the favorable terms upon sold. We have no hesitation in advising our which it is now being offered to club members. We readers to take advantage of this opportunity. believe there are few of our readers who will not feel We believe the Warner Library is a work of we have done them a special service in calling their such extraordinary character that it will sooner attention to this monumental work, and giving or later find its way into every home of culture timely notice of the withdrawal of the low club price. |