The herald., 1896-12-13

mems of the poetry which Yom Noguchi
is moved to write:
"At night the Universe grows lean, sober
faced, of intoxication.
The shadow of the half-sphere curtains
down down closely against my world. like =,
by wrinkled darkness, strain through
out the Universe to be free.
Listen, frogs In the pond (the world is a
pond itself), cry out for the light, for the
The curtains rattle ghostily along. boodi!y
biting my SOUL the winds knocking on
my cabin door with their shadowy
Now, stiffness does not strain" There
Is nothing in the world so quiet in its
ways as stiffness. In fact, stiffness is
the only thing that actually keeps still,
and, by the way, sets all Of US a good
example.
Nor do frogs cry out for the light. 1t
is the last thing on earth that frog
wants, when he is out for business in
his little bog. Indeed, it appears to be
well understood amongst naturalists
that the frog never lets himself out, SO
to speak, except at night.
But this new poet is not yet acclimated.
When the curtains do not any longer
bloodily bite his soul, he may take more
kindly to the night air of the Sierras,
which is always trying to the new
conner.
NOTES AND GOSSIP
The title of George Macdonald's new
novel is A Slave to Sin; the Story of a
Minister. 1t will be published in the au-
tumn of 1897 by Messrs. Dodd, Mead
& Co.
Mr.. Bret Harte has completed the man.
uscript Of a new short story called Under
Kati.
A Singular Life has reached its twenty
fifth thousand, and the publishers re-
port that the demand for it continues
unabated. The popularity Of this story
has also effected in large measure the
resuscitation of many of Mrs. Phelps
Wards other books. notably The Story
Of Avis.
Mrs. Hamerton told an intimate friend
of her husband at the time of his funeral
that this was the last phrase he ever
wrote: "In my dreams have often de-
sired to find country where Justice and
peace would reign; but feel that it is
only a dream, and so long as 1 am in
this world shall not fnd it,
H. T. P. writes. in the Bookman, of The
New Child, pointing out much nonsense
in some of the new methods of teach
ing him, concluding as follows: 1--WE
live therefore in the hope that ere long
will come to children a glorious renais-
sance of the natural, when they will no
more be fed with formulas or MADE TO
learn so many improving things. Child
hood is short enough at best; the dreams
of children vanish all too soon; the facts
of life confront them grimly, even while
the baby look still fingers in their eyes;
and surely he is no real lover of his
kind who would begrudge them this one
small corner of delight and enter with
sullen tread to mar the heaven that lies
about us in our infancy.
The dinner given to Mr.. Barrie on the
eve of his departure for home was very
pleasant affair ,and from the Bookman's S
account Of 1t we make these extract:
In the course of his remarks he SAID
that he had been asked many questions
by the American reporters, but that the
commonest one was, What are the
names of your books?" The next day he
would see the titles displayed in the
newspapers and would read with pleas
ure that he was "Mr. Barrie, whose books
have drawn laughter and tears from all
of U.S." "One reporter" he went on, was
charmed by my Beside the Bonnie Brier
Bush. said he was very kind to say so,
but DIR. Nicoll corrected him. Then he
explained that, of course, he meant The
Stickit Minister, and when he found
that he was again mistaken, declared
that dwhat he really meant was the
charming serial now running in the Gen.
tury called Silly Tommy"
The most interesting question that Mr..
Barrie had put to him, however, was,