Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-10
THE CRITICS REVIEW.
Delightful Bits of Verse and Timely Papers
In the BIaga azines-Poetry, Genuine and
Spurious-War in Modern Days-Fiction,
History and Politics.

| Delightful Bits of Verse and Timely Papers
In the BTagazines-Poetry, Genuine and
Spurious-war in Modern Days-Fiction'
History and Politics.
| II all the trees in all the woods were men,
| And each and every blade of grass pen;
| If every leaf on every shrub ana tree
Were chanaed TO- Ink anS ali eartss living tribes
Had nothing else to do but act as scribes
A. And Tor ten thousand ages day and night -,ts
Till all the pens and paper were useo up
And the huge inkstand was an empty cup, 4.
Still would the scribblers, clustered round the
Call for more pens more paper, and more ink.
#.*
nR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, Autocrat OF
the Breakfast table, Dictator of the tea
cups, who, like the enviable Herr Teufelsdroch,
is Professor of Things in General" and who
might go on dipping whole forest of pens in a
whole ocean of ink for a whole millennium and
| nobody would get tired of reading his prose or
his poetry closes thus his contribution to the
March atlantic. The chief topic of discussion
which prevails this month amongithe "teacups,'
as the company about the table style them
selves-where there is plenty of feast of reason
poetry. Almost any kind of human creature
can write some kind of poetry" In the case
of most human creatures, however, the poetry
will be the kind which needs to be entitled
The leading paper in the atlantic is Mr..
William R. Thayer's account of The Trial,
Opinions and Death of Giordano Bruno" Bru.
nos narrative of his life, and his statement OF
his philosophical opinions are given IN trans
lation of his own words before the 1nquisitorS.
The whole account is full of interest. Bruno
would have been at home in this progressive
century. His ideas sound singularly modern.
We realize that we are a long way back in his
tory, partly by the intolerance of the inquisitors
and partly by Bruno's reconciliation In his own
mind between his accepting certain doctrines
''theologically" and rejecting them "philosoph-
ically." Intolerance has. for the present, gone
out; and the separating of mans mind into
two rooms, without any door between, and put
ting faith" in one room and reason" in the
other, with strict orders to hold no communi-
cation one with the other, has gone out also
We live in generation which is more intel
lectually truthful than Brunos. However, the
stake vindicated Bruno. Intolerance was
helped out and truth helped in by that death in
the Campo di Flora. "Peradventure you pro-
nounce this sentence against me with greater
fear than receive il, /" he said, in words pro-
phetlc.
The atlantic has paper by John Trowbridge
on Dangers From Electricity" which is the
most readable of the many recent articles on
that subject The safest place of all, in these
days when forked lightning lies in wait at the
street corners, seems to be inside an electric
car,
GENERAL HENRY L. ABBOT. in the March
FOTUnl, writes ABOUT ~" ar UnQer new
Conditions" He sums up the new conditions
of infantry fighting as follows: II. The bullets
will have much greater penetrative power and
will thereupon be less readilystopped bycovering
obstacles, whether natural or artificial. 2. The
trajectory is lattened that is the bullets at de-
cisive battle ranges rise less above the ground,
thus not only widening the dangerous space,
and reducing the number of misses due to q
defective estimate of distance but also extend
ing point-blank range, and thus in a measure
doing away with adjustments of the sights un-
der heavy fire. g. The power of firing few
rounds with excessive rapidity when needful,
will make charges more bloody than ever be-
fore. 4. The reduction in the weight of am
munition will enable the soldier to carry about
double the number of rounds, and to receive
fresh supplies in action with corresponding
greater ease. 5. The use of smokelsss powder
will make it more easy to overlook the ground
in front by reason of the absence of the clouds
of smoke that heretofore have spread a merci-
full veil between modern armies in the death
struggle. Finally, the use of smokeless powder
can hardly fail to increase the local horrors of
the battle field, and thus to subject to greater
tension the nerves of young soldiers" General
Abbot says that the arms which were used in
our Civil War are as much inferior to present
day fighting machinery as were the bows and
arrows of the aborigines to the f1int-lock
musket of Miles Standish.
The current discussion of realism in fiction is
helped on in paper by MIR. Mallock on the
side of reasonable idealism. Archbishop Far
rar, who is In favor of the brotherhood move
ment in the Church of England shows that
there are present in it none of the features
which made mediRval monkery a delusion and
a spiritual tragedy, His paper is entitled THE
Specter of the Monk" Frederick Harrison,
the Positivist, writes of France in 17S9 and
1859, things are considerably better in France
to-day than when Arthur Young made his
memorable journey of inspection 100 years ago.
SxH
THE Joseph Jefferson autobiography con-
tinues to interest the readers of the
Century. In the March number are several
capital illustrations of Mr.. Jefferson in char
acter. We have so long associated Joe Jetfer-
son with Rip Van Wrinkle, that his part in
"Our American Cousin" and various other
dramas, is almost forgotten. There is good
picture of Sothern Lord Dundreary. Mrs.
Van Rensselaer, and Mr.. Pennell, in text and
picture, take us about Gloucester Cathedral
John La Fargo continues his ARTISTS Letter
From Japan" From Toxic to Nikko is the
journey this time. "The Merry Chanter" comes
too soon to a conclusion. Mr.. Edward L. Will
son, with pen and camera, describes Some
Wayside Places in Palestine" Frederick
Schwatka has paper on THE Sun Dance of
the Sioux" with illustrations by Frederick
Remington. Dr. Fisher contributes the
fourth and concluding installment of his
papers on Revelation. These papers have been
written with the grace and precision which
have uniformly characterized Prof Fishers
work. 1t is somewhat unfortunate, however,
that they were not made more popular and
more generally readable. These solid pages.
with their long sentences and their prodigi-
ously long paragraphs, have not an attractive
look to the magazinist. They are too solid.
"The Self-Protection of Mr. Litteberry
Roach is, however, not at all too solid. Rich.
ard Malcom Johnston, whose name has come
fnh hn oil 6n NiCn n mnrh inn Af
the way, interesting and worth while, is the
writer. prehistoric remains in the Ohio
Valley is the title OF paper by Prof. F. w.
Putnam. Ancient earthworkS at Marietta and
mounds in various places and of various forms
are described. A paper is TO follow in the next
number on the famous Serpent Mound"
Purple waves of evening play
Upon the western shores of day.
While babies sail. safe and free
over the mystic slumber Sea.
Their little boats are cradles light:
The sails are curtains pure and white;
The rudderS are sweet lullabies;
The anchors, soft and sleepy sighs.
They're outward-bound for Sunderland,
Where shining dreams lie on the sand.
Like whisp' ring shells that murmur low
The pretty fancies babies know.
And there, among the dream-shells bright,
The little ones will play all night;
Until the sleepy tide turns: - then
They'll all come sailing home again!
xxt
THIS pretty little poem, under the title "Of
for Sunderland" written by Caroline
Evans, is one of the good things in 81. Nicho-
las for March. Fighting wolves with dynamite
is the adventure with which the number opens.
Jacks Cure" by Susan Curtis Redfeld, with
excellent pictures by W. A. Rogers is a capi-
tai little story of a boy who ran away from home
to get out of doing work, and brought up in a
place where he had to descend-not quite to
keeping the pigs. like another prodigal-but to
the disgrace of washing dishes, that etfectually
cures Jack. 1t hardly seems possible to some