The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1886-01-14
Literary News and Notes.

| graph verses of Whittier, Mrs. A. D. 7. Whit
ney, John G. SAKE and others, which never
| have been in print, are embodied in this article.
Three rising Canadian authors, who are
making their mark in the older magazines,
contribute to Wide Awake's series of ''True
Adventures,' Edmond Collins, Macdonald Ok
ley and Charles G. ID. Roberts. In the Febru-
AIRY issue Mr.. Collins has a fine coast story,
''Saved by Kite
| The Ladies' Floral Cabinet for January
opens a new volume of this favorite home
magazine. The amateur florist and the house
| keeper will find the Cabinet indispensable if
| they once begin to read it and the premiums
! offered with the magazine are worth the sub
scription price. Published at % Vesey street,
| New York.
''The Feeding of Infants is the title Of an
| article by DR.. }. Lewis Smith in Babyhood for
January, in which the writer graphically des-
cribcs certain evil effects of artificial feeding,
and gives important directions for weaving
and nursing. Among other articles are ''The
Baby's Mother" by Helen 2. Grafton ''Our
Baby and How We Undid Her. (the first of a
humorous series), by Martha 0. Inglis; Scat
Maps and their Causes" "Baby's Curls," ETC.,
etc. [S1.50 a year; 10 cents number. IS
Spruce Street, New York
The publishers of Science ask us to remind
our readers not to forget Science in making up
their list Of periodicals for the year. Much Of
what is called popular science consists of a
| reproduction by literary men of the views Of
scientific workers. Science is an attempt to
bring educated persons Of all classes directly
in contact with scientific men. Our most pop
uar and wideIy-read books upon scientific sub
jects have largely been the work of foreign
| authors; in the pages of Science one finds week
by week the writing of our own scientific men.
Science is, in fact, an attempt to give us an
American scientific weekly.
We have received an announcement circular
of 'Ihe History of Anti-Slavery in State and
Nation" by Rev. Austin Wiley, editor of An
ti-savery Paper during the conflict. The book
will contain over 800 duodecimo pages with
nineteen portraits of prominent men in Maine
| and elsewhere who were active in the great
conflict, will be bound In cloth, and mailed to
published next month and orders may be sent
to Brown Thurston, Portland, Me. In his
preface Mr. Wiley says: "Maine was second
to no other State in that mighty contest for
Liberty. although but slightly mentioned in
other history"
The January number Of Outing is as usual
full of interesting matter. The leading article,
"Thoughts on Archery" is a superbly illustra-
ted historical paper upon this pastimc, by Ag-
nes Fraser Sandman. J. R. w. Hitchcock
gives vigorous sketch of hunting and fishing
adventure ''ln the San Francisco Forests"
James +. jerome contributes a readable ac-
count of the Cruise Of the Philoon," with
humorous illustrations by Reed. The Stevens
narrative, "Around the World on Bicycle"
is continued, with thrilling interest, taking the
narrator through Bulgaria, Roumelia. and into
Turkey. Interesting special papers are: "Snow
shoeing and Tobogganing in Saratoga" by
Newell B. Woodworth; ''Ice Skating in Cam
ada, by j. Macdonald ONley; The Ladies' Tri-
cycle Tour to Kettle Cove by Nlnna Caroline
Smith and "A Pedestrian Tour in the Scottish
Highlands" by Edward $. Farwell. Essays
on "Our Theater," by Newell Dunbar. and
''The Frosted Man." by }. Il. Rothrock, and
poems by Harriet French Ford and Others
with capital short story by Anna Eichberg
King. 60 TO make up an exceedingly entertaii-
ing number. The Outing Club and Editorial
Department are unusually full. The transfer Of
this magazine was noted last week, and the
February number will be the first issue under
the new management. Excellent As it has been
in the past there is reason to believe that Out
ing will be better i'll the future.
he in tbn nf ba
North American Review which is perhaps most
certain to interest Americans is the striking
report by Thomas p. Gill, NJ. P, on the present
state Of landlordi~m in this country. He de-
cares that for all practical purposes OF bestow-
Ing free farms on its growing population the
public domain Of the United States is now eX-
hau>ted and he supports this statement with
a startling presentation Of official figures and of
the results Of personal observation in the mid
Western States. Mr.. Gill points out that
"accorling to the reports of the Land Office,
the diminution Of the public domain, BY all
methods, fraudulent and lawful under the
homestead and pre-emption, the timber culture,
the desert and other land acts, is taking place
at the rate of 20, 900 900 acres Year And ac-
cording to the same reports there are just
100000 acres Of the public domain still left Of
a character that makes them available for set
tiers without capital" The rapdity with which
the system of tenant farming has taken root in
this country and the ignorance Of Americans
concerning it are alike extraordinary.
At the Census of 1850 there We're found to be
lO24 ,6Ol farms rented by tenants i'll the United
States That figure alone entities America to
take rank as possessing the largest tenant
farming class now furnished by any natiol-a
strange >ingularty for a nation, one of whose
proude>t boasts is that the old feudal institution
Of landlortlism has obtained no foothold on her
free soil. But to bring it nearer to the actual
truth, that figure must be made bigger still. In
the five years since the census was taken it is a
modest and well-conSidered calculation that the
number Of tenant-houingS has increased % per
cent. This would raise the number Of tenant
holdings at present in the United States to a
million and quarter. In Great Britain and
Ireland, the countries that have cluny most
tenaeiously to the aristocratc system, the num-
Der Of tenant-hodings, according to statistics
obtained during the late Parliament, is as fol-
lows: in Ireland, 341 ,222; III England and
Wales, 414S04; in Scotland, SO,10l-total, l.
069,127. Thus the United States, at the present
day, possesses a quarter of a million more
tenant-farmers paying rent to landlords than
the Three Kingdoms and the Principaity to-
gether. 1t contains more than three times as
many as England and Wales; and more than
twice as many as landlord-ridden Ireland. In
the State of Illinois alone, which is neither an
old Eastern nor a Southern State, there are,
with a less population, nearly 10000 more ten
ant-farmers than there are III the ancient feudal
kingdom Of Scotland. By the time the next
census is taken, the probability is the number
of tenant-farmers in the United States, increas-
ing i'll pace with the population, will be up to
million and half. And from that onward, for
reasons which will appear, the ratio Of increase
in tenancies will be greater than ever.
Going a little further into the figures of the
census, we find that the total number of per
sons engaged in agriculture in the United
States five years ago was 1910 ,493. Or this
number, 2,9S4,306 are registered as nominal
owners of their holdings, the remainder being
tenants paying rent to landlords and agricul-
tural laborers. Thus, at the first flash, the
census shows the popular notion that the agri-
cultural classes of the United States own the
soil they till to be incorrect
But the figure given in the American Census
Report is too comprehensive. To get at the
number of genuine rural proprietors, or work
ing farmers who own the lands they till, in the
United States, the estimate of the census must
be considerably reduced. The 1884 1906 farms
given as owned by their cutivators include
farms of all sizes, from three acres up to
thousand acres, ''and over" Can the owner
of farm of 1000 acres and over" or, for
that matter, of $500 acres and under 1000
acres" be called working cultivator, or to
use word of undemocratic extraction, but
which expresses more nearly than any other
the general idea in the minds of Americans as
to the class of men by whom they suppose the
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