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Show Literary Notes. The San Francisco "Argonaut" in its August 25th publication contains an article written by Geraldine Bonner, who charges that American women wo-men pay too much for their clothes. She claims that a French woman will make over her wedding wed-ding gown three or four times, while in this country coun-try the average woman is a slave to her dressmaker. dress-maker. M. A. Brisson, a French writer, tells of a Bibliomaniac Bibli-omaniac who married his housekeeper in order to obtain possession of the first edition of the "Hep-tameron" "Hep-tameron" (1559) after exhausting all arguments for obtaining it from her by less heroic method. It was valued at 10,000 francs. A story is going the rounds as to the unique method by which Mark Twain got a book at a bargain bar-gain in a New York publishing house. He first suggested that he was entitled to 50 per cent discount dis-count as a publisher; when this was conceded, the great humorist blandly suggested that as a great friend of the proprietor he expected a 25 per cent discount usual in such cases; this proposition meeting the approval of the clerk, the unabashed writer claimed the usual 50 per cent discount as an author, whereupon the clerk figured up the price of the book and said: "As near as 1 can calculate cal-culate we owe you the book and about 35 1-2 cents. Call again." One of the best sketches of home life among the primitive people of Arcadian Georgia has been written by Will N. Harben and Harper & Bros., its publishers, report an immense sale of the unique mountain story- A number of writers are devoting their energies ener-gies toward berating the use of the automobile in recent pupular publications. "Among the Freaks" is a new book just placed upon the market by Street and Smith of New York. Its author, W. L. Alden, has made a long study of dime museum "freaks," and the sketches dealing with this peculiar line of real freaks and showmen's show-men's fakes are well written and full of humor. "The Jewish Encyclopedia," published by Funk & Wagenalls company, New York, is creating intense in-tense interest among the Jews of America. The work is one which deserves a prominent place in the archives of Jewish history as well as appealing appeal-ing to the non Hebrew in presenting in compact form the entire social, political, religious and domestic do-mestic life of the Jewish people. There are twelve volumes in all, containing something over 1500 pages, and are the result of researchand writings of a score of the foremost Jewish writers of the world. Miss Mary Johnston, author of "Audrey," is spending the summer in Virginia and is engaged in the preparation of a new novel. The young father and mother who bore the unsympathetic un-sympathetic ear of their friends by "what baby said" number legion, but the writer who dares to place these quaint sayings in book form deserves something more than mere mention in the pages of newspaper literature. Charles Scribner & Sons New York, have recently added to the unique lit. erature of the world "Songs of a Child," by "Darl-ing" "Darl-ing" (Lady Florence Dixie), and while much of the contents of the production bring back scenes of one's childhood days there is much contained in the work which bears the stamp of too-advanced thought and correct rhythm to be the genuine product of undeveloped infantile minds. "The Religion of India" is a thoughtful production produc-tion from the pen of Edward Washburn Hopkins, and is published by Ginn & Company of Boston. The day has passed when to the Occident there is but one religion, and with the influx of Sun Worshipers, Wor-shipers, Theosophists, schools of Burmah and kindred kin-dred Oriental teachings the New World is leady for just such literature as is presented by this deep delving author. |