Show I = q p 1 fi t 4 e I ijkp tt I IF13J J I I fii Ii th 4 i I j 1 I 1 tiihUJ Pr I Mr C K Shorter complains that the I younger poet of today gets little M enough of encouragement that there is not much genuine taste for poetry Then he proceeds to say concerning the late Grant Allens criticisms of the S current poet that Doubtless he exaggerated exag-gerated in his generous and unstinted P1 praise but this was a charming faulL U His i perhaps unlawful to disagree with Mr Shorter says the New York Tribune iI Trib-une but we cannot believe that the undue un-due exaltation of poor verse is in any respect a charming fault There Is far loo much prosaic and wearisome rhyming In this world and he who I4 good nuturcdly l encourages the perpetrators 1 perpe-trators thereof is helping to demoralize literature 11 0 The virious manuscripts upon which L Miss Braddon will be engaged for the eil1 next four years are a historical novel i41 based on the siege of Calais an eastern ezih story suggested by a lover in Miss t t Pardoes Turkish tales and another in Byrons Bride of Abydos and a story h of the Ilarz mountains with audacious auda-cious flights in German diablerie 9 S I The death of exSenator Ingalls has directed attention anew to his fine poem entitled Opportunity A correct reeL version is as follows e Master human destinies am I Fame love und fortune on my footsteps wafr l Cities und fields I walk I penetrate Deserts and seas remote and passing by l Hovel un mart and palace soon or late r1 I knock unbidden onco at every gato sleeping waking feasting rise bo i irr fore l I turn away Ills the hour of fale And they who lollow me reach every state 7 Mortals desire and conquer oven Coo Savo death but thoso who doubt or hesitate l z hesi-tate p Condemned to failure penury and woo f Seek mo In vain and uselessly Implore 1b 1 answer not and 1 return no more oJ i Never be too eager to acquire an auction auc-tion boplc unless you are very thoroughly thor-oughly assured that It is ono of the kind truly designated rarisslmus An eminent and thoroughly Informed book collector with an cxperlunce of forty i years devoted to hook auctions and r book catalogues assured me that il was his experience that almost every t book would turn up on the average r about every seven years Of course i there arc notable exceptions ami especially es-pecially among the class of books l51 known as Incunabula or cradle s books printed In the nfancy of printing print-ing and of early Americana but It is I T not these which the majority of libraries I li-braries are most In search of Remember k Remem-ber always IC you lose a coVclcd volume vol-ume that there will be another chance iib perhaps many of them t S S S p It la j staled that Anthony Hope has Cr still another novel written besides Qulbantc Stanley Woyman has also I ill recently put the finishing touch to anew L a-new story and Henry Seton Merrlman I e is i at present busy over tho closing ij chapters of his latest book a I i > S Il Hall Calne used to be credited with 1 getting an Immense amount of free advertising C ad-vertising But he haH dropped out of sight lately and Rudyard Kipling bus taken his place Mr Kipling Is said 1I I it to have sold the serial rights of his I new novel for the highest price ever L i paid to ln JCngllsh writer of ficllon a sum said to be equal to the annual salary tlt sal-ary of a British Cabinet Minister That h1 will be most satisfactory to Mr Kipling Kip-ling but It might be well to remember 1 that there is such a thintj us paying too much far a good thing Harper I Bros paid Lew Wallace a large sum for Ben Hur which took so well lhat they thought hey could Increase the Thi sum for his nexl noel The Pll nc soC i3 s-oC India The result was a great loss i Combined with other losses it wrecked l i the oldestablished house of Jlarner TC Authors can easily see that the publishers f pub-lishers lot Is not a happy one nor 4 J William Heinemann has brought out in London Stephen Cranes Iwo siorlen tI I Georges Mother and Maggie In aV one volume under the title of Doe P i4 Tales a o 5 A queer biography of Goethe Is In 1 contemplation In Germany It is to be colossal and Is to be done by a sort ii of literary syndicate a t i i While the English authcrilcs arc sllll discussing as to whether or not tho Riibaiyat Is the work of Omar Khay yam some deciding It to have been gVwrlllcn 100 years after Omars 1eal h I Solhors that It Is entirely the work of 0 S FitzGerald himself perhaps it would L bo as sensible to agree with the re 0 centlypassed verdict pf our own Mr I 3 Alden that the Rubalyat was without i J with-out doubt written by Lord Bacon in i tho Intervals between his other literary tJU labors as for instance Mr Alden socs ieey liii no jcason to doubt that Bacon may have written a Shakespearean maB I 1iJ the morning a philosophical treatise in the afternoon to be followed by IL J Ben Johnson ot Marlowe play later 4 with a dozen or tWo quatrains to finish If his days work However this may be 4 tho Omar cult is still grow Ins and two new books have bca announced 1 I one of them a Greek translation of the d Rubalyal w S S Frances Skinner has made a translation I i transla-tion of a novel by Peter Rosoggpr the 1 popular Gorman novelist entitled The Forest SchoolmasterS S S fi A critic in the London Chronicle lakes A Prof Gcor n 13 Wood berry of Columbia university severely to task for his misuse i P mis-use of the wellknown uhrnse of tha ilk In the course of his remonstrance this critic says A writer of ProC Woodberrys accomplishment ac-complishment really ought to know better t t t bet-ter than to talk of people finding a rare combination of Information taste S and aggressiveness In one of their own i1J Ilk This ignorant misuse of the word < Ilk no doubt originated in England 1 but it has taken root In America and 1 threatensto become Ineradicable The LI phraso above quoted Is by rights absolutely lii abso-lutely meaningless This Is not fl qucs I tion of prejudice or pedantrY like the i hi I oblcclion lo such words as scientist and collide or to such expressions as hack of It is bY a sheer blunder that Ilk has boon taken to moan kind sort or kidney It cannot be too frequently fre-quently repeated that of lInt ilk moans of that same and nothing else and that It Is only applicable where a man takes his name from his osUitc Thus Klnloch of that ilk means Kin loch of Kmloeh By way of fixing this in hia mind we would beg Mr Wood hcrry to remember lhat when Dr John rron was In Scotland he described himself II I him-self as Johnson of that Ilk1 meaning that he lived In Johnsons court Fleet street The word in short will repay careful avoidance Cases in which it can be used con ecllY do not occur twice in a lifetime and there Is the less excuse ex-cuse for using It incorrectly as we have plenty of words which do express the meaning it does not express I o aWe S a-We are told that while those works I of R L Stevenson which are of real I merit are steadily rising in value silly trifles like the Davos Platz brochures have lost something of the auction room popularity which they had at onetime one-time The Athenaeum says that Not I and Other Poems has dropped from about 95 to 30 Black Canyon from 555 to S12oO and The Marguerite from 20 or Slio to S10 The maintenance of high prices for trivial stuff which has no element of value save scarcity I Is always exasperating to a true lover of literature and could not we imagine I im-agine be matter of pride to any author worth his salt j on S Ills Meter Mrs Flood erOh Mr Patts how I enjoyed your lovely volume vol-ume of poems Batts Youre very kind Indeed Do you like the Alcaic meter Mrs Floodyer Alcaic meter Oh I see you want to change the subject Modesty is the crown of genius But I really I cannot say Docs It save much gas Brooklyn Life S 0 0 Edwin Markham has nearly completed com-pleted his second volume of poems which will be issued In the early fall a The life of John Paul Jones by Augustus Au-gustus C Bucll which is now in press will represent the result of fourteen years researches in Scotland France and SL Petersburg us well as in this ountry S S 0 In the volume by Mr Alnsworth R Spofford for so many years at the head of the Congressional library which the Putnams have ju published under the title of A Bookfor all Readers there Is a great mass of practical information informa-tion Invaluable < o the buyer of books whether he be rich In experience or not The author has these sagacious remarks re-marks to offer about a common pitfall for thecollcctor i 1 0 0 For those who do not care for the Sollna Whites and Mamela Crips of lat terday fiction the following plaint from a novelreading correspondent tithe ti-the editor of the London Dally Mall will be enjoyed and appreciated Is there no one he asks who will deliver de-liver us from the heroine of the modern novelist She is a most disagreeable specimen of the human race Heroines In the days of Scott and Dickens Miss Edgeworlh and Jane Austen were lovable lova-ble women endowed with many charmIng charm-Ing qualities and possessed of but few I vices During the past fifteen years I this type of heroine has seldom graced I the pages of our novels The ccature who has so roughly shouldered her aside Is perfect only In her vices She IH as a rule vulgar anti commonplace more likely than not she Is repulsive and ugly bad manners and bad temper tem-per she regards as the necessary accomplishments ac-complishments of a lady She may dress veil for she Is vain but of charm or grace she Is as Innocent as the babe I unborn She looks down with supromo contempt upon all those finer qualities which are the peculiar prerogatives of women In short the modern heroine Is tho boileddown essence of all that Is unpleasant No doubt she Is occasionally occa-sionally to be met with In real life but happily she breathes more freely I in the realms of imagination and finds greater great-er nourlshmont in Ipk and paper than in commonplace bread and butter S 0 u A new novel by Gertrude Hall tilt title of which Is to be Aprils Sow Ing is announced The name Is said to have been suggested by the following follow-ing lines in Brownings Plppa Passes Youll love mo yet and I can tarry Your loves pnurnctfd d crowing June reared tho bunch of lowers you carry I From Htcda of Aprils sowing S I That the great Dominion of Canada I has produced at least one hundred and thirtylive writers of verse mostly I bad is the emphatic statement of the Pall Mall Gazette This opinion has been called out by the examination of the recentlypublished 1 anthology of Canadian verse a book which the English En-glish critic declares contains no cvI dence whatever to prove that Canada has produced a poetnot even a minor poet S S S The London literary journals arc waxing mournful over the fact that Kipling llterarlae are rapidly depreciating depre-ciating In value The way that a few of Mr 1 Kiplings early works were knocked down at Sothebys in London the other day has called forth a choruS cho-rus of I told you sos from nil those who prophesied that the absurd prices paid during the lust few years for certain cer-tain very early works of Mr Uudyard Kiplings could not possIbly last The first copy of Schoolboy Lyrics JSS1 to appear In the market realized 135 In April of last year It has been on the down grade ever Mince and a fortnight ago a copy was sold at Sothebys for i 3 5s The series of the United Services College Chronicle from 187S to 1891 I I with contributions by Mr Kipling has I declined from 29 In April last to J5 7s Gd S S S j A series of biographies famous livIng liv-ing actors and actresses Is to be l pub jlshod soon The first two biographies will ho Ellen Ttrry by Clement I I Scptt and John Drew by Edward A Dlthmar The volumes arc to be copl ously Illustrated with photographs In character 00 S There is some controversy as to whether the name of Chinas capital should be wrlilen Peking or Pekln Those who prefer the latter cite the decision de-cision of the board of geographic names as authority for their usage Those who retain the final 4g have been reinforced rein-forced In their preference by a recent statement of Minister Wu whose at tcnllon had been called to the controversy contro-versy Minister Wu says the correct I form is Peking and he gives good reasons rea-sons for his decision As between the 2 Chinese Minister and the board of I geographic names the former Is undoubtedly un-doubtedly the better authority on such I a subject Vu Is a scholarly and well informed Chinaman and he certainly ought t to be posted on the orthography of the cities of his own country The board of geographic names Is com yoscd of department clerks at Wush inglon who serve as members of this board without extra compensation and who have no special Illness for the work Its recommendations are often absurd and as frequently discredited Not long ago It attempted to convert Porlo Rico into Puerto Rico but the attempt at-tempt was a failure Most of the newspapers news-papers which are using Pekln on tho recommendation of this board declined to accent Puerto Rico The Government Govern-ment at t Washington after a brief struggle with Puerto dropped back to the simpler Porto As the Journal has before remarked the matter Is of no gIeat Importance and those who like Pekln better should hold to that form But there Is really no more reason for saying Pekln than for saying lion Kon 01 LI Hun Chan Kansas City Journal To which we may add the ridiculous form of Talia for Dyca adopted by that same board I S SHALL S-HALL CAINE AND HIS NEIGHBOR Your remarks on Hall Caines recent re-cent Issue writes a bank manager in the Isle of Man recall a conversation I once had with two old friends of mine a farmer and his buxom wife who live within a few yards of Greeba castle our great Manx authors residence resi-dence Hall Caine had just taken up his abode In his new house and I started the conversation by saying to the worthy farmer and wife So you have the great Hall Caine near you now 7 Farmer and Wife Aye man Farmers TlreAnd what trcmen Jus style they are keeping Its amazing amaz-ing l Farmer And whats he doing for a living Mr Bank Manager greatly astonished What dont you know lie Is a popular popu-lar author FarmerAnd hats that Bank Manager Why he writes successful I books Farmer with a fine show of con tcmptlhc lazy beggar I need hardly say concludes my correspondent lhat I collapsed New York Mall and Express S o a A historical novel dealing with the life of the earlier selllers of the 1 Mo I hawk valley Just before the Revolution Ilion I-lion has been written by Miss Pauline Bradford Mackle author of Ye LillIe Salem Maid It will be cntlllcd A Georgian Actress S a S W B Yeats Is working at his im porlant book on the folklore of Galway Gal-way He is also engaged on a new I novel iT 0S j Literature must be loved for Us own I sake or It is not worth while to love it at nIl But It is good to find a writer In the Saturday Review boldly stating that llleralure is not the whole of life that the man who is merely or even distinctly literary whether his literary preoccupation bo that of a reader 01 a writer Is as a rule a much more incomplete character than the man who has seen much of life and knows very little of llleralure 1 rhis ought to be everywhere understood under-stood as a matter of course but as we have often had occasion to point out a common failing of modern writers I writ-ers and readers is to fancy lhal lo bo devoled to books is to fulfill the whole duty of mankind and we arc grateful I for every forcible assertion lo thc con I tracy like that just cited Continuing its remarks the Saturday Review makes much of the relation of lltera tuie to international good feeling notes the recent success of Cyrano In London protests lhat Englishmen felt the destruction of the Comedic Francalse almost as though il had been an English calamity and concludes that to the fostering of international I sympathies few things contribute so much is literature Tho opinion can be Justified to a certain extent But we wonder if the benefits accruing from all Interchange of books aro not some what counterbalanced at the present time by malign Influences inseparable from the transaction Consider the I harm done to English and American letters by the importation of Ibsen the mountains of morbid trash which we have accumulated through a fatu ous enthusiasm for the decadents of Paris the slimy trail left by DAnnun xo wherever his pestilential works of art have been circulated Literary In tercourse between nations may be antI doubtless often Is humanizing But we would like lo see an account drawn up by some competent and cool critic oL the damage done by such inter course New York Tribune o u > A THACKERAY STORY When Thackeray went down to Reading once to lecture al Its literary Institute I ho was rocclvcd by the sec retary and one of the committee In the anteroom Thackerays manner was Inclined to be haughty but at length catching sight of a portrait the wall he remarked Ha So you have there a portrait of my old friend Gustuvus Adolphus At lhat moment the care taker was crossing the room itli wine and biscuits but hearing Thnckoravs remark he stopped suddenly and said In a lone of superior knowledge No sir you are mistaken That is the King of Sweden At this a thaw set in and Thackeray related with a smile how the mo meat he emerged from lho railway sla lion he had told a hackney coachman lo drive him to the nearest hotel The driver closed the door ceremoniously mounted his box and they started In a half minute the cab was a standsllll and Thackeray saw the coachman at the door bowing to him to get out He dlti so without a word and found that he was at the portico of the stallon hotel which ho had failed to see was not a dozen yards distant But he handed tho man ° n shilling and was entering the hotel rather pleased wilh his own sangfroid when he was amazed to see the cabman taking off his coat and offering to fight him for the other sixpence It appeared that on that day a resolution of the Read leg Town Council had come into oper aiion empowering hackney coachmen to charge eighteen pence for any dlq innco within the township This was Its first fruits The cabman got hIs money and Thackeray a good story to tell Household Words |