Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1884-03-02

was proposed four or five years ago, and
Is still being considered by our State
department. / also favor engraving it
on brass. It IL on paper now. There is
no lasting quality about paper"
80
Harper for March opens with Mr..
Bishops account of st. Louis-an adj
mirable article, as are most things Mr..
Bishop attempts to do. III this writer
be not our most efficient magazine OBJ
server and our best recorder Of what he
observes, where Is the better? Excel
lent illustrations embellish the article;
and the text Is worthy of them. Fol-
lowing next appears q paper on "The
Yorkshire Coast" but IL belongs to the
older style Of magazine work, and Is
harder reading. 1.-THE Poetry of the
Deaf" by DIR. f. NJ. Gallaudet, Is Gu
rious. Portraits ofa half. dozen writers
are given, and numerous extracts from
their productions. The Easy Chair Is
uncommonly good. Tennyson, Mar
garet Fuller 1.-THE "Life," by Mrs.
Howe, and the opera season are among
the topics. Margaret Fuller is declared
10 have been personally plain and not
of a graceful carriage, though DR..
Hedge remembers her as not ungrace-
full. Mr.. Congdon, in his "Reminis-
cences," gives an account of Miss Full
Ter whom he knew which readers of
Mrs. Howe's biography should not over.
look.
The Century for March is about the
best number we have seen for a twelve.
D,thar h hir,l,
were one or two Of the recent numbers,
hut the, present one makes long stride
forward. All in all tits the best of the
months magazines. 1t contains not 8
single dull article, and many that are
extremely bright. The opening paper
on the city of Washington is exactly
what descriptive magazines paper
ought to be, and what such papers are
fast getting to be, and for which there
existed several years ago great need,
The author Of this paper, whose name is
withheld, and Mr.. William II. Bishop
know what is the thing worth saying
and how the thing ought to be said.
They belong to all entirely new order OF
descriptive writers for the magazines.
The Century follows up last months
Dante papers with some "Notes on
the Exile of Dante" by Sarah
Freeman Clarke. The paper is in
teresting and the illustrations are
charming. Mr.. TOwse's criticism OF
Henry Irving il notable contribution,
and il is fortunate that so intelligent
ard clear an estimate should be thus
placed in the way of large humber OF
English readers. The letter from the
author OF "The Bread Winners" Is
amusing and clever exactly the sort OF
letter that an advertising agent would
praise with all his heart.
-
George Parsons Lathrop's new novel,
Newport" is a book which will be
something of disappointment 10 read.
err who, Knowing the high standing OF
It's author, looked for something better
than tine commonplace. Nevertheless,
It is q clever, tluently written story,
which presents rather sharply drawn
picture OF life at Newport during "the
season." contains u number Of shrewd,
sometime humorOusly caustic, Obsarva-
tons, and has some DISQUALIFICATION
descriptive matter-but these redeem
ing qualities are strung together with
q thTeadbare plot and in very mar
tistic manner. The cleverest and
keenest bit OF work in it is the portrait
OF one Horatio- or Crash ,"--POrter,
an off:hand, plausible, INSCRIPTIONS
! Operator" as he would be called on
1.-the street." A man who, by boldness
and good luck combined, raises him.
self from the position Of mere "com-
mercial traveller" to that Of an operator
commanding the respects Of capitalists
and who goes into the business OF
| pushing into public favor the stock OF q
company without any real merit, trust
ing to luck, apparently, to evade
trouble, but with what seems to be
vague notion that it is only business
enterprise involving some risk, not only
of failure, but OF being caught, also, in
the meshes of the law, and yet, after
all, not involving, necessarily, any
moral turpitude. When there has
grown to be some feeling OF uneasiness
about this company he, eager to bolster
| 1t up with mOrey enough to float it into
recognized position OH the stock mark
ct, engages III an Operation" with tue
stock OF another company, to the
"grouud fi0Orr of which he is admitted
by "a friend" Both he and his friend,
With hundreds of others, get thorough
~ squeezed" i'll this affair, and by the
father OF this friend, another clever
portraiture, evidently drawn from
somebody known 10 the author. In
the disaster which follows, "R4iShn is
arrested, but, bod and nonchslant to
the last, induces the officers to stay all
night at his house, and attempts to take
poison while they wait for him. He is
baked in this and carried away to
trial, from which, the reader is assured,
he has no hope of escaping with free
dom. Even in this exigency he con.
fesses his offense precisely as one would
Gown up" to the miscarriage OF any
legitimate business enterprise, and at
tempts suicide, not from any feeling OF
moral despair, hut apparently sole!y
because he considers his business posi-
bilities ruined without the money
which he hoped to gain by successfully
selling out before the crash. This
char. cter Is drawn with good deal OF
care, and affords the author Opportua-
ity t give the reader some glimIses of
the tremendous, secretly ed engiucry
employed to manipulate the sto2N
market ami work out the mAr?' e s
@ Ill binatiOns Of the master spirits in
that colossal gambling hell. But it IS
only here aud there q glimpse, and
though this Is the strongest part Of the
book, it might be far stronger aud still
fail to do justice to the theme. 1t is
win that might be worked with profit,
and since Mr.. Lathrop has "struck the
lead" he should follow it up. Except
through fiction the great public will
never .eJrn what the peril Is. The
*, ten of the character Of one Of these
master spirits-even the curiously
graphic d-scriT ton of his personal ap
peGranCe-is fragmentary and in
silhouette, only, so TO speak, bat
it has an odd twsng Of having been
taken from life" Ii can scarcely be
possible that it was drawn wholly from
the authors "inner consciousness" II
worked out with equal care it would
surpass the portrait of "Raish" in pic
turesque power, but it is only touched
here and there, and yet, upon laying
down the book one feels that these
touches are OF the actual life aud prac-
tice Of one of these ruthless manipula-
tors. For the rest, the book Is merely q
passably clever sketch of the idle and
frivolous life of the watering place. The
plot is meager, and lends badly" One
Laws down the book with a feeling of