The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-12-20
Magazine Notices.

Mr.. John G.. Whittier opens the Christmas
number of st. Nicholas with poem entitled
The Voysge of the Jette. A picture of the
Jettie afloat on Bear-csmp river accompanies
the poem. The frontispiece is from wood en-
craving after William Pages portrait picture.
The Three Sisters,-one of whom, by the way,
is the Editor of st. Nicholas, as she was in ear
ly childhood. Mrs. Dodge contributes fairy
story, Wondering Tom, the original charm of
which is further set forth by Frederick Diel-
mans lovely pictures; and to the Very Little
Folk she gives a story, The Little Girl who
Wanted to Go to the Moon, tuned to their own
key of thinking and doing, and illustrated with
novel silhouettes. Besides these stories, Mrs.
Dodge gives Christmas page made up with
original verses, old-time carols, and pictures by
Addie Ledyard Charles Dudley Warner asks
the youngsters What he shall Do with Her?-a
tail-less cat, whose queer ways, as he narrates
them, must keep her human neighbors in fits Of
laughter. Frances Hodgson Burnett. author
of That Lass O. Lowrie's, contributes Christ
mas tale, Behind the White Brick. The long
promised fairy story by Julian Hawthorne,
Rumpty- y-Dodget's Tower, begins in this num-
ber; and the six pictures by Alfred Fredercks
ably second its enchantments. Sarah j. Prich-
ard tells how Wilster Elspeet's Ship went into
the Church. There is a lively versifed story,
Pete's Christmas Tree. Children's Day at st.
Paups-one of the most telling things in the
numbers a story by N. D'Anvers, which de-
scribes incidentally the anniversary of the
Charity school children in the great church of
London; and 1t is accompanied with ten admir-
able illustrations, by Kate Greenaway, of Lon
don, pictufing the boys and girls in their quaint
old-time costumes.
Without having much that bears directly
upon the Christmas season, the January Scrih-
ner has decided flavor of good cheer. The
paper on Old Maryland Manners, by F. B.
Mayer, of Annapolis, is an interesting repro
duc.ion of the quaint and stately times of the
Maryland Gazette, and of the celebrated Tues
day Club, to the whims aud oddities of which
considerable space is devoted. Scribner also
introduces a new artist in Mr.. Mayer, who
makes his own drawings, depicting the most
characteristic and unfamiliar phases of the old
regime. The Tile Club at Work, by W. NJ.
Laffsn, decribes with much clumsy humor the
methods of an association of artists and others,
whose work speaks for itself in the illustrations
which include drawings by E. A. Abbey 10
tiled mantel- oiece), W. NJ. Chase, Hopkinson
Smith, Winslow Homer, Alden Weir, Reinhart
| Quartley, Wimbridee, LaffaD, and Paris, and
tile in relief by O'Donovap, the sculptor. A
companion paper, the Tile Club at Play, is to
appear in the Midwinter number, with large
variety of illustrations. The serious side Of the
holiday season is touched upon by the long
est contribution in the number, paper on
Leonardo da vinci, by Clarence Cook, who
considers his subject both as painter and as
mechanical inventor. Among the cuts are two
important blocks by Cole; the well-known Last
Supper, and this Heal of Christ, supposed to
be study for its central figure. The Mona
Lisa, by Henry Marsh, is considered to
be one of his finest blocks. Detail drawings Of