The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-07-08
Current Giterature.
The Magazines.

SCRIBNER's MAGAZINE beginning
the tenth volume) has its leading
article on subject which attracts par
ticular attention at this season." Speed
in Ocean Steamers" The author, A.
E. Seaton, is connected with large
ship-building firm in England, and
makes perfectly plain to untechnical
readers the various conditions which
must be borne in mind in designing
ocean greyhounds, and the most adj
vanced methods which have met them.
The illustrations show number of the
fastest steamers afoat. This issue con-
tains also two illustrated out-of-door
articles-one on lizard Hunting in the
Spanish Pyrenees," and the other on
Fishing for the Black Sea-bass on
the Pacific Coast" The number is
unusually rich in fiction, containing
four complete short stories, by George
A. Hubbard, the late John Elliott Cur
ran, Edith Wharton and George L.
Catlin, U. S. consul at Zurich.
THE ARENA has full-page portrait
of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and crit
ical paper by George Stewart, DEL,
LID, the well-known editor and
critic of Quebec, treats of the life and
literary labors of DIR. Holmes, in a
manner at once scholarly and absorb
ingly interesting. Probably the most
notable paper in this issue is Edgar
Fawcett's Plutocracy and Snobbery
in New York" G. Wood Davis APP
pears in this number in a paper on
National Control of Railways" W.
d. McCrackan, whose paper on "The
Swiss referendum in a previous is
sue of this review attracted such gen.
eral notice, contrasts in an interesting
and instructive manner the Swiss and
American constitutions. With the
conspicuous impartiality which has
ever marked the management of the
Arena, the editor this month publishes
reply to his own paper on "Social-
ism" by the well-kdown nationalist
and Christian socialist, Rev. Francis
Bethany.
THE LITERARY WORLD, published
fortnightly by E. H. Hames g. Co.,
Boston, Mass, borrows not leave to
be-" but by its own merits, we must
believe, has won its place in the news
paper world. 1t is now in its twenty
second volume. 1t deals with books,
and does for the reading public a kind
of work that in these busy days is
much-needed one. Few of us can
read very many books, and what we do
read, we want of the best. In the
division of labor demanded by the
times, the Literary World has taken
upon itself to find for US some of the
best new books. Each issue gives us
extended reviews of some half-dozen
such books; of many more it gives
brief notices. One may expect good
editorial page in each issue. Its motto
is, " Books, we know, are substantial
world, both pure and good" and into
this world it aims to lead its readers
proftably. The subscription price is
81 year; single copies, ten cents.
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY begins
story, "The Lady of Fort st. john"
by Mary Hartwell Catherwood. The
novel opens in an Acadian fortress at
the mouth of the river St. John.
Within the walls of this fortress, over
which Madame de la Tour, the lady of
Fort st. John, presides, is gathered
curious family-a noblewoman formerly
of the English court, a Swiss lieutenant,
dwarf witch woman, Dutch gentle
woman and two Jesuit priests. There
is good deal of dramatic interest in
the first installment, which ends, as all
well-regulated serials should, in a situa-
ton which piques the curiosity of the
reader. Professor Lanciani contributes
paper on Underground Christian
Rome" in which he tells of the dis
covery of the Christianity of an ancient
Roman family from the excavation of
their ancient burial-place. There is
nothing better in the whole number,
however, than Octave Thanet's paper
on " Plantation Life in Arkansas" 1t
is admirably written. Professor n. S.
Shaler's paper on " College Examina-
tions " will excite remark, and the other
contents of the number also are excel
lent.
THE FORUM is a number of excep-
tional interest, and the most important
paper in it is that of Professor f. Helm
rich Geffchen, privy councillor of Ger
many, who gives a review of the career
of Bismarck, the story of his dismissal
by the young emperor, and an estimate
of the latter's policy and character.
Aldace F. Walker, formerly a member
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
and now commissioner of the Western
| Irafilc Association, reviews the opera
tons of the interstate commerce law.
He shows that it has worked contrary
to the expectation of its trainers, for
the benefit of the strong roads and to
the detriment of the weak ones. Gen
eral Francis A. Walker reviews, by the
returns of the census of 1890, the
growth of the colored population, and
finds that its increase has been rela-
lively less than the increase of the
white population. Besides these ar
ticles there are discussions of immigra-
ton by Oswald Ottendorfer, proprietor
of the Ne,o York Stats letting, him
self, of course, an immigrant; of silver
and the coinage laws of the United
States, by ex.Secretary Fairchild, and
the need of more money by David M.
Stone, editor of the Ne,O York Journal
Of Commerce.