The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-04-08
CURRENT LITERATURE.
The April Magazines.

SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE contains
very unusual number of articles of i'm
mediate interest in connection with
current events of the first Importance.
The leading article is sympathetic re-
view of the late Lord Leighton, P.R.A.,
by Cosmo Monkhouse. The illustra-
tons, which are of remarkable richness
and beauty, were selected with the as
sistance of the artist himself, and the
whole article was completed before his
death on January %. 1t is the most
complete record Of his artistic career
that has, or will be, furnished by any
periodical.
The OUTLOOK contains an article on
William H. Prescott, by Kenyon West.
1t is in commemoration of the centen-
airy of the great American historian,
who was born May 4, 1906 The ar
ticle is enriched by numerous portraits
and other illustrations contributed from
the private collections of members of
the Prescott family, who have been in.
terested in Kenyon Vests tribute to
Prescott. Among these are Mr.. Ar
thur Dexter of Boston, the nephew of
the historian; Mrs. Roger Wolcott,
Prescott's granddaughter, who lives
also in Boston; and MIR. Linzee Pres
colt of Greenwich, Conn.,, who is the
son of Prescott's eldest son.
MCCLURE's contains what is about
the first really authoritative and direct
account yet given of Professor Rontgen
and his discovery of the cathode rays.
Immediately on the announcement of
the discovery, the editors of the maya
zine cabled Mr.. H. j. W. Dam of London
to hasten to Wurzburg, and talk with
Professor Rontgen in his laboratory, and
learn all there was to be learned of the
new marvel in photography. The paper
is illustrated with portrait of Professor
Rontgen and numerous photographs by
the new process. A supplementary
article by Cleveland Moffett tells what
has been done in America with the
cathode rays.
IT is not generally known that there
were four conspiracies against President
Lincoln-three to take his life and one
to kidnap him. Victor Louis Mason,
an attache of the United States war de-
partment, has written an article for
The Century on " The Four Lincoln
Conspiracies," which gives the first
complete and consecutive account of
these attempts. A number of people
were connected with the flight of Booth
after the assassination of Lincoln, but
the fear of prosecution has hitherto
kept them silent. Now they are will
ing to talk freely, and Mr.. Mason has
taken down from their lips the story of
the last days of Booth. Pictures of
scenes and objects connected with the
assassination, many of them hitherto
unpublished, accompany the article.
The ATLANTIC MONTHLY contains
the opening chapters of 1.-The Old
Things" four-part story, by Henry
James, one of his delicate and yet dra-
matte delineations of character. DR..
T. G. Mendenhall contributes an able
article on "The Alaska Boundary
Line" DR.. Mendenhall was one of the
government commissioners concerned
in determining this line. Lafcadio
Hearn seeks to set forth the great con-
sequences of the Chinese Japanese war
and its bearing upon western civiliza-
ton. His article, "China and the
Western World" will be read with
widespread interest. Other features are
can Archer's Sojourn in the Okefino-
kee," by Maurice Thomson; "a Son
of the Revolution" short story by
Octave Thanet; poems by j. Russell
Taylor and Stuart Sterne; book re-
views, and the usual departments.
MANY people think Cuba's Lafayette
will come out of America, and that he
will render as much help and encour-
agement to the distressed but plucky
islanders 80 near our coasts as did the
gallant French marquis to our forefa-
theirs. If you read the impassioned cry
of " Cuba to Columbia" taken from
Every Where, Will Carleton's newspa-
per-magazine, and published elsewhere
in this issue of the WATERMAN, you
will wonder that some one has not
already rushed to the front to fill that
honorable place. The various depart
ments of this model magazine are all as
instructive and as luminous as ever.
"The Pauper Soldier" also published
by US this week, is one of the two poems
that Carleton contributes to the current
number. Try the magazine for year
by sending fifty cents in cash or stamps
to Every Where Publishing Company,
Brooklyn, N. Y"
LOUISA M. ALCOTT is said to reveal
herself in most interesting way in a
number of letters (written to five little
girls) which appear in the Ladies'
Home Journal. These letters were
written during the busiest period of
Miss Alcott's life, and present pen
picture of the author, drawn by hel
own master hand. In these she talks
with singular frankness of herself, hei
work, her aims, her home, her spiritual
belief, and of the influence that di
rected her to literature. She never saw
any of her five correspondents, bu
their Youthful frankness intense inter
est in all her writings, and their love
for the author and for the characters o.
her creations, impelled her to turr
aside from her work and cares to fine
diversion in chats with such eagerly en-
thusiastic, admiring and sympathetic
friends. Miss Alcott's fret letter i
dated 1872, and the others were writer
at intervals up to within short time o