The herald., 1896-10-04

genuine old-fashioned recital of events
very serious and very sad, by turns, and
just the kind of a romance that one can
once in awhile safely and profitably read,
to keep just balance.
THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS.
By Albion w. Tourgee Putnams
For sale by Stoll & Thayer.
The tremendous interest in the i'm
pending currency problem is shown in
no more significant way than by the
great mass of books and pamphlets
which have been written on the subject
during the year-something over one
hundred. OF course, no account can be
made of the leaflets or other documents
sent out by campaign committees.
OF all this vast number the pamphlet
of Judge Tourgee is one = the most Wig
orous 1t takes sides against silver
as sure to put us on a silver basis, If
issued without government control or
other restrictions.
The reason why Gail Hamilton has
so little written about her is shown by
the following extract from a letter to
friend. She left no account of her life:
I'm declining to furnish you with ma
terial for sketch of my life for publi-
cation, I act not from caprice, but on
unvarying principle. Every person has
a right to his own privacy. What he
himself puts before the public in book or
periodical belongs to the public, which
has full right to read, reject, criticise.
But his personality belongs to himself.
To violate this law of private right is an
outrage. / -deprecate no severity of lit
erary criticism. l resent, and so far as
possible, repe every interference with
private night. There are many persons,
perhaps, who feel differently If any
such choose to be biographical during
life, their taste may be questioned but
the biographer is guiltless. obj 1T to
it utterly"
President Walker deplores the demon
etization of silver by several nations,
but suggests that they should get to-
sether and agree on a plan of bimetal-
lism, and discredits the plan of any one
nation doing it alone. On this point he
says, in the recent work published by
Henry Holt & Co.:
Should binletallism ever be estab-
lished it will be through diplomatic ne
gotiations quietly conducted, without
speech making or ceremony, between
the four nations, France, England, Ger
many and the United States, any threa
of which can, at any time, bring about
the result If those four nations, or any
three of them, shall ever agree to act
together in this matter, the program
thus formed would secure the immediate
and unquestioning assent Of sufficient
number Of the less important states to
carry it to triumphant ISSUE"
Bangevil has this to say Of famous
new American novel:
Tom Grogan" halls from America and
the author of her being, Mr.. F. Hopkin-
son Smith, may be congratulated on the
creation of strong woman in an origi-
nal setting. Hold on, We wall-eyed
macaroni!" are Toms first words, as she
marshals her dock laborers; and
throughout the book this Clorinda-like
creature. although no lady of quality,
INDUCES in what Mrs. Hodgson Burnett
calls spirited colloquialism." Her in
nocent habit of signing herself by her
dead husbands name leads her into le-
gal complications, and the situation is
new and pathetic"
Tolstoi has been working for many
months over novel which has more
than once been announced, but at the
last moment he has put the task by and
taken up another. This preferred book
upon which he is now engaged, is dedi-
Gated to children. and aims at setting
forth in way calculated to touch their
young sympathies the principles of a
good life. The celebrated Russian is
said to have thrown himself heart and
soul into the work, and to be more inter-
ested in it than he has been in some more
important books.
Mark Twain, who has been staying
for the last few weeks in seclusion in
Surrey, is occupied upon volume. re-
counting his adventures during his tour
around the world. He works upon it
continuously and hopes to see it pub
lished in December. There are so many
people who feel that the peculiar humor
of Mr.. Clemens has Of late been wasted
upon fields uncongenial and difficult,
that the announcement that he is once
more returning to the form of literature
which he has made SO insistently his
own will be greeted by hearty welcome.
e. J.. Godkin, editor of the New York
Evening Post, in an article on 1.-THE Ex-
pendltures of Rich Men," in the October
Scribner's, says that rich Americans, by
building great houses for a Display of
their wealth, excite envy, hatred and
malice, and he advises them to avoid
this by expending it in erecting great
public monuments, such as picture gal
leries, museums, arches, statuary, etc.,
which will perpetuate their names and
rid them completely of the imputation i
of selfshness.
Mr.. AStOrS magazine, Inc Pau Mall,
will shortly publish verses by an Amer
ican poet, George Edgar Montgomery,
on two British themes, England" and
Queen Victoria" Mr.. Montgomery, by
the way, is writing series of New
York poems for Harpers Weekly. A few
of these have been published. Others
to follow Immediately are Fire Island
and Fifth Avenue. These verses viii be
collected later in a book. They are In
vein Of serious poetry, yet realistic.
AS there have been many rumors con-
cerning the sale of the North American
Review and the price paid for it, rep
of The Critic called upon
Gen. Lloyd Bryce for information, and
was told that the price paid by Mr. Mum
ro was $140,000, including interest, and
that this sum was based upon the earn
ings of the Review during the past seven
years--that is, since it came into Gen.
Bryce's possession.
The increase in the number of mono-
logues in literature is remarkable. The
first writer of note who adopted this dra-
matte form seriously and Intentionally
was Browning. Nearly all of his writ
ings, except his plays, are monologues.
His longest poem, The Ring and the
Book, is series Of mdnologues. For
many years there has been a rage for
monologues in Paris.
The American Publishers corporation
is the result of the organization Of the
following companies. The United States