| Show p t 4iJZka t j4 b Ii i i I rr I L k Jj4I1 1 I i ITld 1A fi s 4V naiilt i ¼ JiJ p 1jjl Mi I i p ii I 2 jt V A I Last year the total number or new books published In the United States reached G356 or G53 more than In any 662 new editions I previous year There were I lions of old fiction and 616 new novels showln a decided reaction toward novels or established reputation A special feature of the year was the reissue re-issue of celebrated books In fine and carefully edited editions St Lolila l GlobeDemocrat j 0 0 C I 1 The sale of the collection of first editions edi-tions ofthe works of Bryant Emerson Hawthorne Holmes Longfellow Thoreau Thor-eau Lowell and WhittIer made by William Wil-liam Harris Arnold of New York city brought over T00047370 to be exact Record prices were made for some rare volumes Fanshaw Hawthornes first publication and One oC the rarest of nineteenth century books was sold for J10 It was a line copy in the original boards with cloth back and i V paper label and was uncut The original manuscript of Emersons ThrenodS42on fourteen quarto pages sold for 300 Whlttlors Moll Pitcher 1S32 morocco and uncut brought 5200r It was bought for 51CO last November Lowells Commemoration V Commemo-ration Ode 1S65 prlately printed and a presentation copy sold for 220 Pittsburg Chrolnlcle I V 0 0 Of Bryant as a poet the London V Aclemy says that he Is a cross between be-tween Thomson and Wordsworth without with-out a spark of the power in either V a S Macaulay was several limes invited to Windsor and once as he himself recorded re-corded had the temerity to correct tho Queen to her face apropos of a blunder In history The Queen he said was most gracious to me She talked much about my book and owned that she had V nothing to Fay for her poor ancestor James II Not Tour Majestys ancestor an-cestor said I I hope this was not an uncourtly correction I meant It as a compliment and she seemed to take It soIt V It was on one of these visits to Windsor V Wind-sor that the historian was so foolish as to date aletter to his constituents from the Castle a piece of singularly bad taste which brought down upon him the ridicule of the Times which re I lcrleu 10 iur macauiay 3 iiiue place In Berkshire and later went on to hint that he was commanded there to fill the vacant place oC a pet monkey of Her Majestys recently deceased V e Jenny Linds letters to an Italian friend written during the period from 1845 to 1S71 will soon be published by an Italian firm It Is said that the V letters number over one hundred and give the prIma donnas outspoken opinions of the music and musicians of her time V < o SQ n L Stevenson writing In 1S93 to George Meredith in an epistle quoted In a new edition of his uLeltelssays with a heart touching pathos For fourteen years I have not had a days real health I have wakened sick and gone to bed weary and I have done my work unflinchingly I have written In bed l and written out of It written In V hemorrhages written in sickness written torn by coughing written when V my head swam for weakness and for BO long it seems to mo I have won my wager and recovered my glove I am better now have been rightly speak ing since first I came to the Pacific V and still few are the days when I am not in some physical distress And the battle goes on1I1 or well Is a trifle so as It goes I was made for a contest and thePowers have so willed that my battlefield should be this dingy inglorious in-glorious one of the bed and the physic bottle At least I have not failed but I would have preferred n place of trumpeting and the open air over my head a I Iif his article on Questions of Usage In Words in Harpers Magazine for I February EronthM Matthews says What is called the split infinitive is also a cause of pain to the purist who I is greatly grieved when he finds George Lee to in the Life of Goethe saying I completely understand This in serting of an adverb between the to UHlihc rest ° r the verb strikes the verbal critic ns pernicious and he de nounces it Instantly as a novelty to be 11 stamped out before it permanently con taminates our speech Even Prof o F Emerson who does not object to it In his History oC the English IA it 11 Lan J1JuS calls It a synthetical r combina tion now establishing Itself and Prof A S Hill in his Foundations or Rheto ric while admitting its antiquity since it has been In use constantly from the days of Wickllffe to the days of Her bert Spencer still declares It to be a common mulL not sanctioned or even condoned by good authority rhe < fact Jif I think that the split t V Infinitive has a most respectable pedi V gree and that It is i rather the protest njalnst it which is the novelty now V establishing itself The split Infinitive imto i be found In the pages of Shake V Gpoare t Masslngor Sir Thomas Browne Df e Burke Colerldgo Byron Dc Qulncoy Maeaulay Matthew Arnold Browning Motley Lowell and Holmes But the fact is also I think that slnco i the protect hac been raised there has I been tendency rtmonp careful writers eschew the split infinitive or at least employ only when there Isu gain in lucidty from its use as there is for example Jn Prof Lounsburys to more than counterbalance U > llai ry Thurston Peck attacks Prof Matthews for this the latter can take refue behindtho royal skirts of InS Edward LVILwhouSl t divided ln fmlllvc ituhls I tlrst tato proclamation cilinston lIme Q 0 TheriCarl of Ajthburnhams books and mnnusjjrJpis have been nut on the marl hn5 5 1 time to time with record rp sulta Bit he kept out of thosalcs one V mi ujcrnt volume a magnificent I EvanscHa Quatuori and this has jbat V teU50l to a WlVfVtaiiurchasci for uiOCCTlie The book Which dates from the eighth or ninth centurS I waG formerly Ij In the posscpsion l of the Abbey oC Lln dan and has double interest us a specimen of the illuminators and also of tho goldsmlthsnrt l l Th6 binding la studded with oer the hundred precious stones Lord Ashburnham is V delighted with his deal London Chron I icle VV a V V ComparJson iLIC not always odious A contributor to the London Quarterly Review has worked o lau ingenious setof comparisons V between Virgil and V rennysoit and strangelo say numerous V numer-ous as they are fnone I of them seem forced or even questionable In a general V gen-eral way comparisons have long been noticed between tIle Augustan I and the Viotqrlan poet but I the painstaking contributor has gone into the subject with much more detail and with good results a V Both poets wore shy and sensitive both tall dark and somewhat rustic In appearance Both wore Ollntlmnte V terms with the ablest V poets of their time and both wjttfe In Joyal sympathy with their respective sovereign 1 and government Neither urote prose and both W rote epics Virgil kept to the V eplo alone while Tennysons muse chose every variety of form Both were fond of exquisite finish and both cared less for originality V thought than for artistic expression Both wqrc justly accused of plagiarism and one cared as little for the > accusation an V did the other Virgil when accused of stealing from Homer replied Why dont these gentry attempt the same thefts themselves then they will find It Is easier to rob Hercules of his club than Homer of a single line Tennyson Tenny-son did not hesitate to take from any source provided he knew that he could transmute what he took by the touch L of his artistic genius Both poets were good scientists nnd V both wore affected by the materialistic spirit of their times Both according to the writer in the Quarterly made V honest effort to keep true faith to the religion inherited It is here perhaps that the reader may take Issue with the writer For Virgils filth In the established V estab-lished form of religion seems to have come from natural Instinct and close sympathy with the past Tennysons faith In God freedomnnd Immortality was the result of persistent honest struggle with all the doubts questionings question-ings and bald facts which the nineteenth nine-teenth century knew o how to evoke TirE NEWSBOY Gods grace be with you fearless eur The city streets are strange and wild And yet qulto by your dauntless self You tread tho mazes little child 1 The seas blue dream Is in your eyes Your brown check shows healths ruddy rose V And where the deepest crimson lies A baby dlmplo comes and goes Madeline S Bridge 01 A magazine editor In this city wrote to a New England woman a few weeks ago stating that he was publishing n V story In which a heroic aqt of hers was described and asking her to send her picture to be used in his magazine says the Evening Sun The u > man had never done anything else In her life to distinguish herself and the editor was somewhat surprised to receive a letter from her In which she said she would furnish the picture and the story of her deed for 50 She knew that the magazine made lots of money and she wanted her share of It He offered hers her-s 2 for her photograph and declined the story The woman stuck to her orig inal offer and so lost her chance of having her picture published In timeV magazine Another picture published by the same magazine was a photograph photo-graph of a street scene A man whoso picture had been taken unawares by the photographer recognized it in the magazine His face added nothing to the view but like the New England woman he assumed It had been of some value to the magazine and he called on I the editor to collect Thats my picture he said point IngIt V It does look like you said the ed itor Well then I want pay for It I Why your picture was of no value V said the editor Ypu Just happened to be standing in front of the camera Well if It was of no value what did you publish It for thats what I want to know You ought to pay me V I for It You wont Then you dont catch mo buying your magazine again It aint a fair deal And as11e went I I out he slammed the door Magazine editors have their troubles a a It Is rather curious to know that the English copyright law places no time limit upon the works of tho reigning monarch The copyright In Queen Vic terms Highland diaries Is perpetual and will be handed down to the las of her descendants The privilege is I of course extended to no other write In the realm V III Wonderful arc the ways of fhc searcher after knowledge He under takes to Impart some to others and finds to his amazement that hu does not happen to possess It himself What simpler then than writing a note to some one who presumably has the Knowledge required An English oman who haH to driver a lecture qultc a small thing qn the writers f the last century IInrl a list In the Sffi the In excellent Viitcrary lerIotiIcal Chicago The author of the list Mr Jackson 3Qyd Is an Amer i lean and that wrHe the Soul He lecturer of cornBe makes a differ I ence but neVertheloBH wonders If I the list may be depended I on Here you I have a double need on time part of the j I IcJn wTaVlst110 lIi V111 place she must lean on a list made hSOq1 ono else j I Secondly she eaunot even tmu t hem I own Judgment as to whether it IN u I good one or not She nsks the Acad emy and its reader to help her The came IS one out of forty thousand I What we would suggest to theo In genuoun Individuals ls that n they I I should not attempt to lecture about I I subjects of which they have iot made I mm careful v study and 2 that when they find themselves confronted I 1 ii by the nc I ccsslty for delivering a lueluro I thev do a little honest digging for thuniaelvcs oJ anu not ask busy writer to drop their own work and help them over the stile New York Tribune o The pleasant sum of 510000 Is to go this year to the author of thu literary work which the Swedish Academy shall consider the most noteworthy from the Idealist point of view The period net for noinlnatlonn members of the Swedish French and Spanish academics and by the professors of aesthetics literature lit-erature or history at any university has almost expired It will be remembered remem-bered that this prize was founded by the late Dr Nobel one of the Inventors of dynamite a a a VICTIM OP A DELUSION 1 IJiavo always thought I would like to live In Washington city What for What for So I could bo In dally touch with the countrys great men Say If I you want to cherish the Idea that the country sends its great men to i Washington old fellow dont go there Chicago Tribune c To fire out In Its metaphorical V sense of eject Is the latest ugly duckling duck-ling of English speech to be proved aswan a-swan of whitest plumage Even the New England Dictionary assumes that It Is but another specimen of Ameri canslang and ascribes Its origin to a Western paper which In 1S35 recommended I I recom-mended that certain pupils should be fired out of a school But now Mr Sidney Lee points triumphantly In a recent number of the Athenaeum to Shakespeare ns the supreme authority for the use of the term In Sonnet CXLIV Yct this shall I nocr know but llvoln doubt V Till my bad angel fire my good oriOOUl In Its literal meaning of driving out by fire the expression was freely used by men of letters own to the tIme of Swift and here again Shakespeare furnishes the final authority In Klng Lear V V V Ho that parts us shall bring a brand from Heaven V And V fire us henCo llko foxes The transition from the literal to the metaphorical meaning Js obvious The latter was widely used In England In the sixteenth and scvcnte6nth centuries centu-ries and unquestionably emigrated with the Puritans to fall Into disuse for a while on polite tongues on both Ides of the Atlantic and then to rear Hs head again as have so many good old English expressions In some obscure ob-scure corner of Its new home as slang In Mr Stephen Philllpss Herod both meanings of the team are deftly Joined in the lines V Am I that Herod That cro the beard was on me burned V Up ClllCH That fired Limo robbers out of V Galileo Blood will tell for even before Mr Lee had traced its honorable ancestry the term had forced recognition of Us V sterling merit from a leader writer In the London Times and a contributor In the Spectator both of whom applied It with glee to Mr Hcalys treatment by his colleagues of the Irish Parllamcn ary party New York Mall and Express Ex-press a a a I have a splendid Idea for a play said the playwright Good returned the manager Shall I work It out Into a fouract drama asked the playwright Certainly not answered the manager man-ager V You must dreadfully behind the times Your method is fearfully oldfasliioncd Then what shall I do 1 Make a novel of It of course and later wo will dramatize it But it wont make much of a novel protested the playwright Quite Immaterial replied the manager man-ager You can not have failed to notice no-tice that we have dramatized some mighty poor novels of late Chicago Post V |
