The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-24
LITnRAruRu.
REVIEW or VIEW BooKs.

illustrations by Sol Eytinge, 'Jim Bludso,"
and little Breeches," a couple of pieces
which have gone the rounds of the news
papers, and which have obtained considerable
favor with a large portion of the public.
These two pieces are the best of Colonel
Hays dialect poems, "Banty Tim" and "The
Mystery of Gilgal" being decidedly inferior
to them in every particular. Colonel Hay
has been accused of being an imitator of Mr..
Bret Harte, but the accusation is not neces-
sarily reproach. Mr. Hsrte has shown how
distinctively American subiec can be treated
in an attractive style, and their latent poetry
be developed, and any really able attempts in
the same direction are deserving of encour-
agement. American poetry and fiction,
if they are to be anything but weak refec-
tions of European performances, must smell of
the soil. The soil cultivated by Messrs Harte
and Hay is, however, particularly rank and un-
wholesome, and the difference between the
two writers is that the former knows how to
extract purity from impurity, and that the
latter does not. Mr.. Harte can treat a coarse
subject in a refined manner, but in Colonel
Hays best efforts the coarseness is so promi-
nent that it repels readers who are at all fas-
tidious. The ballad of slim Bludso," for
instance, possesses extraordinary merits, and it
more than deserves the favorable comparison
made between it and Browning's 'Herve
Riel' by one of the London weekly reviews.
AS work of art it is entitled to take higher
rank than Browning's poem, but neither
Browning, plain spoken as he is at times,
nor Bret Harte would have treated the same
subject as Extensively as Hay has done. This
poem and the other Pike county ballads
should not be condemned entirely on account
of their coarseness, but it is the duty of their
critics to protest against their defects in this
respect, and to urge the author to put a
proper restraint upon himself. Colonel Hays
dialect pieces, meritorious as they are, do not
possess the peculiar charm that makes those
of Mr.. Harte so attractive, but his poems
proper have a more genuine ring to them
than those of the last-named writer. Those
which are published in the volume before us
under the titles of ''Wanderlieder" and ''New
and Old are above the average of reasonably
good newspaper and magazine poems, which
cannot be said of those of Mr.. Harte.
j. S. Osgood & Co. have also just published
the CONDENSED Novels" of Bret Harte, with
illustrations by Sol Eytinge. In these capi-
tai burlesques the fine humor of MIR. Harte
is displayed to signal advantage. He hits off
most amusingly the characteristics of Charles
Reade, Disreali, Charles Lever, Dumas, Bull
wer, Dickens, Marryat, wilkie Collins, Victor
Hugo, and other well-known modern writer's,
and these CONDENSED Novels" will be hugely
enjoyed by all who familiar with the sub
jects burlesqued. Where all are so good, it
is difficult to pick out any as being the best,
but Handsome is as Handsome Does, by
Chs R-de; ''The Ninety-fve Guardsmen,"
by Al-x-d-r D-m-s; ''The Dweller of
the Threshold" by Sir Ed L-tt-n
B-lw-r; and "The Haunted Man." by
CHS D-ck-ns, take our fancy particu-
larly.
The above-named works are for sale in this
city by Claxton, Remsen & Haffel6nger.
San Old Fashioned Boy" by Martha Far
quharson, published by Evans, Stoddart q
Co., follows in the footsteps of Miss Alcott's
sold Fashioned Girl, and the authors idea
has been to set up before the boy of the
period q model worthy of imitation. The
book is entertaining, and the hero, erred
Landon," will find many friends among boys
of the right sort.
-''Xenophen" is the eighth volume of the
capital series of critical, descriptive, and ex-
planatory treatises in course of publication by
j. B. Lippincott & Co. under the title of
''Ancient Classics for English Readers" This
volume shy Sir Alexander Grant Burt, LII. D.,
Principal of the. University of Edinburgh, and
it will give those who wish to know some-
thing of the famous historian of the retreat
of the ten thousand Greeks an excellent
idea of the story told by Xenephon, of his
STYLE and of his philosophical opinions. This
and the other issues of the series deserve to
be in every library, and they will be found
useful by classical scholars as well as by those
who have neither time nor opportunity to
study the classics for themselves.
-''Beechcroft" is the last issue of the uni
form edition of Miss Yonge's novels now in
course of publication by d. Appleton g. Co.
1t is pleasant story, and, like all the writings
of the author, it has moral aim which will
commend it to the favorable notice of parents
and others who are fastidious about the
quality of the literary food supplied to young
people under their care. For sale by Porter
& Coates.
II. B. Peterson & Brothers have just
published cheap edition of ''Basil; or, The
Crossed Path, an entertaining novel from the
pen of Wilkie Collins.
-"The Village School Choir" published
byJ. P Skelly Co., is a pretty little reli-
gious story, translated from the German by
Anna B. Cooke.
John Pennington q Son have issued 8