The herald., 1896-10-25

mend the work for its directness and
thoroughness of treatment, and it would
be of inestimable benefit to our people
If they would, in times of ordinary quiet,
read and digest the economic-social
question, and not put off these things
till some political campaign brings them
into view and yet prevents their suita-
BILE consideration.
A good story is told of Mr.. Dunbar.
the new colored poet. which is we'll au-
thenticated. He was asked by the edi-
tor of a prominent New York magazine
to recite some Of his verses, and, after
the office staff had been called in, Mr..
Dunbar asked permission first of all to
take sweet revenge by reading a poem
which he had sent to the self-same edi-
tor year previous and which he had re-
Jected. The poem in question is the one
printed in his little volume as when
Malindy Sings.
In connection with Madeleine Yale
Wynnes psychological story, The Lit
tie Room, which gives the title to a
volume of short stories published by her
last Christmas, correspondent calls
in letter of Longfellow's, published in
the, Life by Samuel Longfellow, and
dated from Gottingen, March %, 1929;
Since I left America I have hardly
put two lines together, and no
soft poetic ray has irradiated my heart
since the Goths and Vandals crossed the
Rublcon of the front entry, and turned
the sanctum sanctorum of the Little
Room into a china closet"
Miss Katharine Pearson Woods long
promised novel dealing with the times
of Christ and entitled John; Tale of
King Messiah, has at last been success
fully launched.
The very newest thing in periodical
literature is the Magpie, monthly pub
lished in Charlottesville, Va.
A new work on an old subject, an inter-
esting one, however, at this season of
the year, when the first "eager and nip
ping frost" finds us facing the double
prospect of an empty coal bin and an
Anthracite Trust-The Story of American
Goals, is announced for publication this
fall by j. B. Lippincott company.
The author, Mr. w. j. Nicolls, has
covered in his book the whole ground
OF this important subject, from the first
discovery of coal in this country by the
Jesuit missionary, Father Hennepin,
Along the banks Of the Illinois river
In 1879, to our present scientifically de-
veloped mines, equipped with modern
electrical machinery, and competing in
quantity and quality with the source of
Great Britain's prestige and wealth.
her coal mines.
Joseph knight Co. of Boston announce
number Of volumes, some of them
classics Of their kind. in continuation
OF their Cosy Corner Series. Their two
NJ ri
vat, edited by Mr.. N. H. Dole, will be
veritable clycopedia Of the literature
of the subject.
On the first of June there were in ex-
istence in Paris 2291 periodicals Of all
kinds, classified as follows: 800 month
lies, 669 weeklies, 1877 dailies, 237 with no
fixed dates of publication. The others
are semi weekly, etc. France as a
whole. including the colonies, issues 1866
periodicals, Of which 1886 are dailies.
THE STORY OF AARON, THE SON
OF BEN ALI, by Joel Chandler Har-
ris, author of Uncle Remus. Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston.
Another chapter in the history of the
queer people we begin to learn about in
Little Mr.. Thimblefinger. And who is
tHCIc tIdI uOeS uOL recall with rare IN
terest Buster John, Sweetest Susan and
Drusilla?
A new and strange figure comes into
this latest volume, volume that tells
us more about that wonderful region in
middle Georgia which is SO like the rest,
only 1t is SO much warmer. It is Aaron,
the son Of Ben Ali. Now Aaron was the
most remarkable slave in all the coun-
try round-not because he was tall and
finely formed, nor because he carried
himself as proudly as a military officer.
but because he had well-shaped head,
a sharp black eye, thin lips and nose
prominent but not fiat. Another re-
markable feature was his hair, which,
instead of being coarse and kinky was
fine, thick, wavy, glossy and black as
jet.
He was foreman of the fields and a
leader in all ways, the wonder and ad-
miration of all his fellows and all the
younger people for miles around. The
great secret Of his dominion over all
these persons, however, was because he
knew the language of animals.
The mission and scope of the volume
can be partly guessed from this, and we
leave 1t in the hands of the thousands
of admirers of the delightful drolleries
of this wonderful interpreter of life in
the Old South as we'll as the New South.
POEMS OF ROBERT BROWNING.
Edited with biographical and crit
ical introductions and notes by
Charlotte Porter and Helen A..
Clarke, editors of Poet Lore; two vol
umes, portraits and illustrations, in
dex, ETC.; cloth, gilt top, per set,
50. T. G. Crowell & Co., New York
These two fine volumes, in handsome
box, and at a very reasonable price, will
commend themselves not only to all stu
dents and admirers of Browning, but
to the scholars everywhere.
The claim of the publishers is that
these volumes are arranged upon plan
which Browning himself formulated. 1t
is said that he strung together number
of pieces on what he called "the thread
of an imaginary personality" my
Star" says his editor, striking a pre-
luding note Of love, seems to usher in
poems broadly capable of being grouped
together on the score of their expressing.
in fresh way, indicative of youthful
attitude toward life, varioYs phases of
love-either as sensation or as observed
or recorded experience. Poems follow
of more active sort, adventurous and
venturesome in spirit-the Good News,
the Lost Leader and others, which be-
long to the outlook Of manhood; and
these pass again, in subject, into the
groove of love, but from the standpoint
now Of the stress and trial belonging to
maturer life and thought. Larger themes