The Portland daily press., 1886-12-20
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Driftings. Songs and Sketches. By Rob-
ert Rexdale. This is a very pretty volume,
which being real Portland book, will have
a special value among the holiday publica-
tions. The author, who uses nOmme de
plume, has chosen pretty title for his vol
ume, which has a charming design upon its
covers, drawn by Mr.. John Calvin Stevens.
The verses have very musical ring, and the
poet writes as the bird sings, because he
must This quality is noticeable in the
opening poem, which gives the book its
title:
80 river ripping to the sea,
Thy silvery waters, softly stealing
In Swallowed beauty Ger the lea.
Awake the slumbrous chords of feeling,
And on thy waves of rosy light,
Seen in my boy hoods happy vision
In drifting from the shores of night,
To isles of rest in realms Elysian"
The collection contains some pretty som
nets, and two graceful tributes to Whittier
and Longfellow The last half of the volume
contains some bright prose sketches and sto-
ries, and the whole forms an interesting col
lection The printing was done by Messrs.
Ford & Rich and the binding by Edward c.
Small The book is for sale by Messrs. Lor-
ing, Snort q Harmon, and by William H.
Stevens d Co., successors to Hoyt, Fogg &
Donhanl.
One of the most elegant as well as one of
the most valuable of the books specially
adapted to the Holiday Season, is Happy
Hunting Grounds, tribute to the woods and
fields, by William Hamilton Gibson. The
text and illustrations are both by Mr.. Glib
son. The book is after the manner of Pasto-
raj Days by the same author. and is in every
way worthy companion of that delightful
volume. The first of the sketches is Win
ter Walk, in which the author takes us into
the forest when the ground and trees are
covered with their mantle of snow, and re-
yeals to us by his brush and his pen beauties
which, though all around, are likely to be
overlooked by the ordinary observer The
essay is prose poem, delicately shaded,
aud is as charming as the admirable sketches
Of nature that accompany it. A Witch Ha-
eel Copse is delightful, with its descriptions
of the weird and beautiful shrub which puts
forth its flowers late in the season just as
every other species of vegetation is assum-
ing its sonbre winter garb. In the same
vein are Sap Bewitched, Backyard Studies,
Singing Winds and the other sketches which
make up this artistic volume. New York:
Harper & Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short
& Harmony
Another book for the holidays is the
Home Fairies and Heart Flowers, TWEEN
ty-Seyen studies in children's heads. Some
Of the heads are drawn from life and others
are reproductions, with slight changes, of
photographs Each headEis accompanied by
an appropriate poem by Margaret L. Sang
ster, written especially for this book. The
portraits are by Frank French, and cover
not only the American type Of beauty, but
the Italian, German, Indian, Chinese and AT
rican. The heads are evidently the heads of
real children, and have little of the ideal or
spiritual about them. The book is adorned
with flowers, and head and tail pieces of Gu
rious designs, while the cover is a marvel of
gorgeous ornamentation. (New York: Har-
per & Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony