Omaha daily bee., 1894-12-17
THE OMAHA DAILY BEE MONDAY DECEMBER IL 1884,
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS.

Cloth, 2ST pages, $1.25 F. Tennyson Nsely
Chicago, From Megeath Stationery Com.
pany. Omaha
Horkshirss famous Deepdale mills 20 on
buzging day in and day out, its wheels throb-
bing like the pulsatious of the heart for
its wheels are the real heart of the little
community whose affairs are all set in mo-
ton by the movements of the spindles and
looms OF the mills. The sturdy character
of its people, their quaint, broad dialect so
many times portrayed, has perhaps never
had so dramatic and beautiful a setting as
is given in the story Of Rachel Dsne. 1t
opens at time when all England was in a
fever heat over the exciting news of the
massacres at Cawnpore. Only a short time
previous couple OF young oilic rs. newly
married. had together with their wives left
the village TO serve in the Indian army. In
the midst of the excitement now, while tn
cloud OF doubt and anxiety lowered around
the homes they had left, the community
was further shocked one night by the dis
covery of the wife of one of the officers
found lying in the snow within a few ya,d
Of her former home, newborn babe in hsr
arms The description of the scene that
followed the recital of the terrible news of
the butchery Of the men in view Of the
surviving females and the final words of
the expiring woman form one of the most
sad and pathetic pictures pen has ever por-
trayed. The whole story Is told so true to
life, so delicate in touch, and yet so power
fui In its presentation that it is bound to
live as classic as long as truth and good
English are admired and revered. Care and
thoroughness throughout mark the story as a
masterpiece.
THE BIRDS CALENDAR-By II. Il. Park
hurst. Cloth. ornamental, $50 pages, 1.50.
Charles Scribners Sons New York. From
Megeath Stationery Company, Omaha.
The authors aim in this work Is evil
IDENTIFY to present our brilliant nomads of the
air as active. living creatures, remarking in
his prelude that, "In counting the number of
feathers in the wing and in examining the
anatomy of a birds foot, for tests of rela-
tionship, we hardly penetrate deep enough
into the real nature Of a bird to feel any
intense glow of enthusiasm" Swallows.
warblers and inches are temperamentally
different-a difference by no means accounted
| for by existing criteria of classification"
Typography and illustrations are simply
superb, making it an elegant holiday souve-
mir.
HYPATIA. BY Charles Kingsley. Illus
trated from drawings by William Martin
johnson, vols. Silk, gilt top. Harper &
Brothers. From Megeath Stationery Com
pany Omaha.
This famous romance has at last received
costuming, so to speak, that enhances its
charm as only artistic dress can enhance
the charms of a beautiful human figure.
The two exquisite volumes are distinguished
among the excellent companions that the
season of gifts-and especially of the best
of all good gifts, good books-has already
begun to bring forth. 1t is not necessary
at this time to speak of Kingsley's creation
that sympathetic figure of gentle phioso-
pher and fautless woman whose name gives
to the romance its title. Her mental strug-
giles, her physical disaster, the sad barbaric
ending of it all--these things are familiar
to very many cultivated readers. But it is
just to say, and it is almost a duty to say,
that few books that have ever been written
lend themselves naturally n surh i'll
lustration as the publishers have given to
this through the work of William Martin
Johnson. 1t becomes almost necessary to
re-read famous book admirably pre-
sented to the eye, and with such pictorial
values added to the story.
THE LADY OF FORT ST. JOHN. BY
Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Paper, so
cents. Houghton, Mifiin & CO., Boston.
"That sty-sweet-sorrowful Acadian
| world" which lives again in these pages,
is as alive with the pulsing tremors of ro-
| nance as Provence in its palmiest days, or
any romance land Of them ALL The story
| is one very cunning'y devised. 1t is tale
| thrilling and beautiful, and full at once of.
| the fervor of love, the fire of heroism, the
weirdness Of the uncanny, and the salt of
| pathos. The beautiful! figure of Marie de la
| Tour stands out against "the dark back
ground of that old time as lovely and as
| lustrous as star. This is the true use
which fiction should make of history, and
| Mrs. Catherwood is deserving of all graft
tude that she has been able to write a story
so full of beauty, and no less full of the
highest and most moving truthfulness.
THE oDEs OF HoRAcE.-Iranslation ion by by
Scribners Sons. New York. From
| Megeath Stationery Company, Omaha.
translation by Mr.. Gladstone might seem
| to need other apology than the desire OF
| this distinguished ''scholar in politics. to
make his own version; yet in the preface
| Mr.. Gladstone says: 'There is one special
necessity of translation from Horace, which
| has, SO far as l know. heretofore received a
very inadequate share of attentions that Is to
| say. the necessity of compression.
| And without compression, in my opinion,
translation from Horace ceases to be
| Horatian."
WHO WAS LOST AND is foundry
| Mrs. Olphant. Cloth, 249 pages Harper
| G. Bros. New York. From Megeath Sta
tionery Company Omaha.
An only son, the scrapegrace child Of
| Scotch widow, runs away from his mothers
| home and vanishes from her world for fifteen
| years. She longs for him. saves for him,
| canonizes him in her imagination At 30,
without warning. he returns-a rude-mannered
being, his gentlemanhood fawed. his char
| acter what his mother dares not ask; ap-
parently outlaw, probably a criminal.
| Such is the very strong situation, full of
| dramatic possibilities, with which the story
opens, and the readers sympathies once won
| are held till the last page is turned
MUSICIANS AND MUolC LoN
William Foster Apthorp. Cloth, $l.5O.
| Charles Scribners Sons, New York. From
Megeath Stationery Company. Omaha.
In the opening essay Mr.. Apthorp notes
| that the musician and the music-loyng lay
man are usually at cross purposes in con-
versation on music, since the former really
talks about music, and the latter talks about
how music makes him feel; which shows
| fundamental difference in the point Of view.
Besides the delightful essay which gives the
| title to the book Mr.. Apthorp writes about
| Bach, additional Accomplishments" to Bachs
and Handel's Scores" Myerbeer, Ofenbach,
1.-TWO Modern Classicists in Muse" (Robert
| Franz and Otto DreseD. J. S. Dwight Some
Thought on Musical Criticism" and Music
| and Science"
In McClure's Magazine for December Miss
Tarbell's second paper on Napoleon treats of
| Napoleon's passionate love for josephine In
the early period of their relations, and Of
| Napoleons swift rise to fame and supreme
power through his brilliant achievements in
tho Italian and Egyptian campaigns. There
are fourteen more por,ralts OF Napoleon, show
| ing him at different times in this most in
| teresting part OF his career, and six other
| portraits, including one of Josephine, most
Of these pictures being after portraits from
| 4 h,r tba inf of ba ina in