Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-06
CURRENT LITERATURE.

ObpN. Dy AuIutDy IlOUc, lO DC RhOAioiNh l-thissmonth by Messrs Platt, Bruce &
 Co.,, of New York. It is claimed that it's
 intensely modern and piquant contents
 cannot but add to the reputation and
 popularity of the talented author of the
 Prisoner of Zenda"
 According to the "Bookman," the same firm have made very good start with their first publication, The Kings Strat- egem," by Stanley J. Weyman. of which
 over 1000 copies have been sold in three weeks.
 The New Commander of the Army.
 A member of various social organiza- tions, General Miles yet takes much more pleasure in home than in club life. He has the happy art of making strong and loyal friends. He has always enjoyed
 outdoor sports and athletic exercises,
 and did not miss, you may be sure, be- ing at the Americas. cup races in Sep | tember. He is fond of horseback riding, and appears to great advantage mount | ed, but has come to prefer the bicycle | and in his daily spins on the wheel, his | daughter or his son, a lad about to enter | his teens is invariably his companion. | He likes to have pet animals about him, especially good dogs.f"and his pets,' as a friend once said, "are the pets of the | whole family" In manner the general is quiet and self l controlled. but none the less affable and | courteous, and it has been remarked that | he never refuses to see anybody who calls | upon him. Perhaps 1t is a systematic method in routine work, with a habit of beginning as soon as possible whatever | has to be done, that gives him this abun- | dant leisure for visitors. The members | of his family have access to his library | In his working hours, and never seem 1 to disturb him. He is free from affecta- | tions, and presents no eccentricities or angularities with which to point a "char- acter sketch. George E. Pond in Me | Clures Magazine for November
 Robert Louis Stovenson's Last Letter to Sidney Calvin.
 October, lS94-4I know am at climac- | teric for all men who live by their wits, l so I do not despair But the truth is am pretty nearly useless at literature. Were it not for my health, which made | 1t impossible, I could not find it in my | heart to forgive myself that l did not | stick to an honest, common place trade | when 1 was young, which might have | supported me during all these ill years. But do not suppose me to be down in anything else; only for the nonce, my | skill deserts me, such as it is, or was. | It was very little dose of inspiration, | and pretty little trick of style, long lost, | improved by the most heroic industry. | So far have managed to please the jour | nalists. But I am a fictitious article and have long known 1t. I am read by jour | nalists, by my fellow novelists and by | boys; with these, incipt ct explicit my vogue. Good thing anyway And I look | forward confidently to an aftermath; do not think my health can be hugely im- proved without some subsequent i'm provement in my brains. Though, of | course, there is the possibility that liter | ature is a morbid secretion, and abhors | health! I do not think it is possible to | have fewer illusions than I. I sometimes | wish had more. They are amusing. But l I cannot take myself seriously as an ar | tist; the limitations are so obvious. did | take myself seriously as a workman of | old, but my practice has fallen off. I am now an idler and cumberer of the ground; | it may be excused to me perhaps by twen- ty years of industry and ill health, which have taken the cream off the milk.
 am almost ready to call the world ari error. Because? Because I have not drugged myself with successful work, | and there are all kinds of trifes buzzing | in my ear, unfriendly trifies, from the | least to the-well, to the pretty big. All ] these that touch me are pretty big; and l yet none touch me in the least if rightly | looked at, except the eternal burthen to | go on making an income. If could find | place where I could lie down and give | up for (saD two years. and allow the | sainted public to support me, if it were | lunatic asylum, wouldn't I go, just! l But wd can't have both extremes al once, worse luck! I should like to put my say | ings into proprietarian investment, and | reire in the meanwhile into a communis- | tic retreat which is double dealing. But | you men with salaries don't know how l family weighs on a fellows mind.--Mc- | Clure's Magazine for November.