The herald., 1896-01-26
H@0(lK5 fANAsl.1If AA1 rf1sE: SC:
Nv -. WWHu MAKE. Y
EDITED BY ENocH KNIGHT

beautiful young girl whose father and
lover had been compelled to fise from
a prosecuting religious sect.
The narrative, never over-interesting,
| becomes marred by the situations at
| the close, and the story ends in way
not altogether nice or reputable.
BROWN HEATH AND BLUE BELLS. BY
WILLIAM WINTER. Mcmillan & Co., New
| York. For sale by stoll Thayer.
This charming pocket-volume is
made up of sketches of Scotland,
and other papers of Mr.. Winters
not heretofore included in his pub
lished works Mr.. Winter is an all
around critic, perhaps better known
than any other in the land. He has
made reviewing a pursuit, business,
and won first rank. Besides this dis
tinctive literary work he has travelled
widely and written much excellent
prose and verse. His word upon dra-
matte affairs comes very near being
the law of the case, and his nature has
not been embittered or narrowed by
the business of his life, as has too
often happened to professional critics.
To the main sketches of the present
volume there have been several trib.
| oOOo VI poIoOHdl lIiCAOohAPy oAA u
poem, On the Verge The most STIR
ring number in the dainty volume is a
poetical tribute to Joseph Jefferson.
& Il =
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, in recon t
article on "Girls and Politics." in the
Golden Rule, says that girls should
study politics because "when they are
women they will probably come into
full citizenship" She refers to the
large suffrage rights which the women
of England now enjoy, and says that
the same rights will soon come to the
women of this country. From this she
proceeds: What then? Shall the
great and sacred right Of citizenship
overtake a girl leaning on fence and
chewing gum? or buying bead trim
ming? or selecting feather tips? or
reading serial love stories? or coquet-
tishly dressing for parties? absorbed
in her own little selected occupations,
or aspirations, or dedications; drowned
in one, or two, or three, but none of
these the things to teach her how to
make laws and to execute them for the
salvation of society and Of the land.
The mind of an actual or possible voter
in country like ours needs special
training. It is no more possible to
vote stupidity than to pray stupidity, or
marry stupidity, without bad results.
You can't throw a vote into the ballot
box as you sew braid upon dress
skirt and think no more about it. It
is serious an act as your prayer at the
weekly Christian Endeavor meeting,
and may have a more Immediately i'm
portant consequence"
From the very latest work about Ma
poleon, by Constant, his valet, the
following account of his cramming, for
use on the road, is very interesting:
"He took with him manuscript books
relating to the cities and countries he
was to visit; these he learned by heart
an hour before he was to give audience
to the officials of the different places.
Then he appeared, talked about every
mind embraced ali the vast conntry
that he governed, and left the good
people wrapt in admiration. An hour
afterward he no longer knew word of
what excited their admiration"
1t may be of interest to know what
our own poet, Stedman. thought of
Alfred Austin, the new laureate of
England. We quote from the Victo-
rian Anthology, published before Mr..
Austin was thought of in this connec-
ton:
"Alfred Austin's essays on 'The
Poetry OF the Period justly attracted
notice. They were epigrammatic, con-
ceived in a logical if disciplinary spirit,
and almost the first severe criticism to
which our chief musicians' have been
subjected. Here was one who dared to
lay his hand on the sacred images. He
bore down mercilessly upon the 'femi-
nine, narrow, domestlcsted, timorous'
verse of the day, calling Tennyson
feminine, Browning studious, Whitman
noisy and chaotic, Swinburne and Nor
ris not great because the times are
bad, but only less tedious than the
rest. While an ioonoclast, his effort
was constructive in its demand for the
movement and passion that have ami
mated more virile eras. When 80 lusty
critic himself comes out as poet, it
might fairly have been expected that
he would at least, whatever his demer-
Its, avoid the tameness thus deplored
But movement and the devine fire are
precisely what are lacking in Mr.. Aus
tins respectable and somewhat labored
books of verse;"
Il = <
n Wlltol III Cu6 DrlCISQ weekly lS
severe on the failings of the late ID. G..
Rossetti. He calls him weak sem
sualist who WAS addicted to drugs and
liquors. Even something worse is
mysteriously limited at. His wife was.
it seems. an artists model for several
years. She was an invalid and took
opiates and stimulats alternately dur
ing her short and unhappy life.
~ ~
Planted on rostrum which he calls
the hilltop" and essaying to teach
what he supp oses to be profound
truths in the guise of story book.
Mr.. Grant Allen is lamentable Spec
tacle. When it is said that he succeeds
in making ridiculous even those prop
ositions which people with their eyes
open are disposed to accept, we get a
sufficient measure of his capacity as
prophetic romancer. Unhappily, that
is not all. Mr.. Grant Allen is serenely
unconscious of the initial blunder
which makes his British Barbarians
pretentions, dull and ludicrously in
effective. 1t is not his preface, thou gh
that, in its way, is monumental. y " y
He prefers to indulge in a futile
philosophy which justifies us in saying
that, as Podsnappery is the expression
OF the narrowest and most conventional
ignorance, so Hill-Toppery is the ex-
preston OF the shallowest pretence of