The herald., 1896-07-26

While noisy showmen bang the gong,
To advertise their efforts lame,
Ny modest mas terpieces throng
The porch, and urge a constant claim,
An eloquent appeal they frame.
In periods terse and metres Tree,
But their reception is the same,
My suitors of Penelope
Yet here is poetry sweet and strong,
That none can criticise as tame.
And prose. or am l strangely wrong.
Moreover sponsored with my name.
And lowered with stamps TO pay the fee'
They face each failure Of their aim,
My suitors of Penelope.
ENVOY.
Friend, when devoted to the flame
Their end shall blackened ashes be,
None shall deny they perished game,
' 9'''''' " Pail Mall Gazette.
And still the tide of trashy literature
flows in not only reprints but new pub
lication of the magazines and weekly
newspaper sort. The result is that there
are thousands of these that do not de-
serve to live-indeed. do not half live
but give to their proprietors a chance to
add to the perpleXity and persecution OF
the general reader, and the man OF busl-
ness. There is not a community in which
tradesmen are not actually prosecuted
by solicitors to advertise in our paper,
q concern that nine times out of ten has
no excuse for being. When will the tide
begin to recede and a suffering people
find relief?
What was said last week about the
light magazine continues TO be in order
in the way of comment still We are
sure that the sales of the cheaper month
lies are falling off, and the matter of
them, as a rule is constantly cheapen-
ing. There is an end to exploiting"
anything; and the publishers of the sem
sational weekly has latterly found HIM
self in constant and sharp competition
with the swarm of cheap monthlies. un-
til the two are contending for every inch
of debatable ground. The end cannot
be very far away, for the people are get
ting very tired of it. if one can judge by
the common voice on the subject, and the
still more significant sign of lessening
sales. 1t is all very nice to be amused,
but there is such thing as carrying this
so far in literature as to take the charac-
ter and life out of it.
GOLD OR SILVER? With pen pictures
of the Times. BY NJ. A. Miller. f.
Tennyson Neely. New York.
Here is another popuar treatise on
what, despite of all that may be said or
done about it. has come to be the main
issue before the American people in the
pending political campaign. The author
evidently aims to be fair to the other
side but is solid for the gold standard.
The book starts out with the PROPOSE
tion that money is but a convenient
medium of exchange, measure by
which the worth of all commodities is
determined when they are transferred
from one to the other
'It is unjust to assume that the rich
u. AL, ,xrt1 a frnx tAaa
prosperity of the poor. that the higher
classes desire to destroy the prosperity
of the middle classes that it is to the
Danhers interest to destroy the pros
perity of the merchant, the mechanic,
the farmer-all his customers. No: the
prosperity of one class is enjoyed by the
other; the adversitieS of the one are suf-
fered by the other"
Mr.. Miller does not agree with those
who would antagonize other countries.
On this point he says:
Some so-called enconomists contend
that one country is trying to rob or break
down the other; that England wants to
make us paupers. Such teachers are
unreliable Men may be avaricious and
grasping-they are: but it would be hard
to find a nation or class of people at this
present state of high civilization who
would wllfully destroy the market in
which they sold their goods, and this is
1t willfully destroyed the prosperity of
the other"
Our author believes that all attempts
to keep gold and silver at parity, with
free coinage of both. will fail, as it always
has failed. He says:
"As large and powerful is the United
States Is we cannot perform impossible
tiles. we cannot regulate the laws of sup.
ply and demand. or control the laws of
gravity or the tides of the ocean. NJ
government has ever been able to coin
the two metals and keep them a a parity
but short time, and most governments
have tried it,"
The volume resembles Coins Financial
School, but is fairer in tone than that
famous publication and answers its al
guments.
1t is a valuable book. for though the
doctrine would not suit the advocate of
free coinage. it can be made of great
service in the consideration of the alb
sorbing questions now before the cour-
try, because of the valuable facts and
statistics it contains.
For instance. it gives the primary
money systems of the world. tables Of
prices, wages and the purchasing power
of money in the country for a period of
fifty years.
1t also gives the official figures a S to the
production and coinage of the precious
metals, the whole history of our COIN
o8C laws, anu lIle illdlll ldctS needed Dy
all students who would study for them
selves the great question of the day
THE PURPLE EAST.-By William
Watson. Stone G. Kimball New York.
This little volume contains nearly a
score of sonnets on English desertion of
Armenia. All have been written within
year and half and most of them
have been published in the last few
months. These sonnets have an added
interest because of the fact that the
present poet laureate wrote A Vindica-
tion of England in reply to them, which.
coming from one who had surpassed
Watson in favor with the queen, aroused
the latter to a great effort in the poems
that followed on the Armenian question.
Those who have followed Watson's
recent career were prepared to expect
something fine and strong in his last
published volume, entitled the Father of
the Forest and other poems. and were
not surprised when they found them
selves compelled to advance him to
place alongside SWinburne and other
great British poets.
These sonnets which make up the
present volume, as we have said. are all
within a realistic field of effort but thev
are very strong and show great heights
and depths of poetic feeling. We can
not do better than subjoin two of these
Sonnets:
THE KNELL OF CHIVALRY.
o vanished morn of crimson and of gold
O youth and rosellght and romance where
in