The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-02-07
CURRENT LITERATURE.
The February Magazines.

ESPECIAL interest attaches to this
number of Romance from the fact that
its leading feature is a ghost story writ.
ten expressly for it by Miss Mary E.
Wilkins, and the first of the kind that
she has ever given to the public. 1t
will be found unique and fascinating,
and alone worth far more than the price
of the magazine. This issue opens the
fourth year of this popular monthly,
and is the first of series which will |
contain, besides many other special at
fractions. illustrations of the chief |
types of the " short story" in groups of
three. This magazine is issued by Ro-
nance Publishing Company, Clinton
Hall, Astor Place, New York, at 50 so '
a year; and sample copy of recent
issue can be obtained by sending ten
cents.
The name of Oliver Wendell Holmes
in the list Of contributors to the Atlun
tic Monthly is a reminder of the Auto |
Gratis unbroken connection with the
magazine. Francis Parkmau is the
subj, ct of this latest poem by DIR.
Holmes. Two more significant names
in American letters could hardly be
brought together. A valuable portion
of the same number is devoted to II. G..
Merwin's article on Tammauy Hail.
a clear, di,passionate statement of the
great political machines methods and
achievements. Mrs. Olive Thorne Nil
Ter provides a study of nature, " In
Pasture by the Great Salt Lake"
"The Educational Law of Reading and
Writing" by II. E. Scudder, carries out
the Atlantic's purpose of giving its read
ers from time to time papers OF special
interest to teachers in schools and col
leges.
A VARIED and attractive table of
contents is offered bv The Popular
Science Monthly for February. DR..
Andrew d White, who has been missed
from its pages for over year, contrib
utes the first of new group of bis
Warfare of Science" papers under
the special title of "The Visible Uni
verse;" 1t shows that the dlsplace
ment of the theological and metaphysi-
Cal ideas of creation by the evolution
airy was itself an evolution in human
thought The recent death of PrUfes
sor Tyndall gives occasion for an ac-
count of "Tl ndall and his Americ n
VISIT" containing some interesting
letters, which is furnished by Miss E.
| A. Youmans. There is also an esti-
mate of the man and his work in the
Editors Table. Under the title "Notes
from Marine Biological laboratory"
Professor William S. Windle describes
the laboratory of the Johns Hopkins
University in Jamaica, with views of
its surroundings.
The February Arena is another man.
moth number of the great progressive
review, filled with able papers, cover
ing a vide range of topics of special in
terest to wide-awake thinkers and ear
nest reformers. The opening paper will
interest all lovers of Robert Browning's
poetry, as well as persons who appre-
ciate broad but profound thought. 1t
is from the pen of Rev. M. j. Savage
and is entitled Religious Thought in
Browning's Poetry" The editor con.
tributes two striking editorials; the
first is entitled "They Have Fallen
into the Wine-Press, or Illustrations OF
the Onward March of UNLIMITED Pow.
erty"; the second is strong argu.
ment against medical monopoly. Among
the eminent thinkers who review the
Books of the Day in this issue of Thu
Arena are, Rev. M. j. Savage, Heller
Campbell, Rabbi Solomon SCHNEIDER
Rev. Samuel d. Fuller, Ebert Hub
bard, and the editor. The publisher
announce that The Arena will hence
forth be enlarged to 144 pages instead
of 1913 as heretofore. This will make
it the largest monthly review published
Mr.. GEORGE DU MAURIER's novel
Trilby," as it develops in Harper's
is the most delightful picture of artistic
Bohemia that has been drawn for man,
day. A happy cosmopolitan famil,
is depicted in its studios and cafes, will
the three British heroes established il
the readers good graces. Mr.. Fred
= erick Remington's elm the Sierr
Madre with the Punchers," illustrate
with pen and brush some little-knowl
life in the outposts of Mexico. A
though the conditions are hard, MI
Remington did not find the wild, open
air life altogether unpleasant, and h
has embelished his description with
humor that is very engaging. Mis-
Constance Fenimore Woolson's stor
of "a Transplanted Boy" will be rea
= with tender interest since the deceas
OF the gifted author. The story deal
!. with mother and son whose lives ar
bounded by the narrow limits of a
Italian clearinghouse, until the mothe
is obliged to go north for her health
leaving the son to develop an unsu
pected strain of heroism.
. A PROMINENT feature of the MID
} winter Century is its fiction, which ha
not little variety of scene and styl'
In Mark Twain's novel of Pudd'nhes
Wilson " the action is advanced by
dramatic interview between Tom, tn
d reputed white boy, and his moth'
T. Roxana, the negress. Its effect upo
IS Tom as the representative of the ant
bellum sentiment is described, an
r Pudd'nhead Wilson's fads in regard
| palmistry and thumb-record becon
efficacious in the plot. A town-meetins
personal encounter, and confiagr
ton add to the rapid action of the stor
which has full-page illustration
Loeb. In" Topics of the Time" a
= editorial articles on "The Rights