Middletown transcript., 1897-10-02
LITERARY NOTES.

Captain Mahan's article on "The Strate-
gic Features of the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean Sea, y in the October Harper's,
is companion and sequel to his article
in the September issue of the same maga-
zine, in which he gave the reasons for the
belief that our propinquity to the Orient
even more than our interest in European
affairs will force us at no very distant day
to take leading part in those great move
ments which shape the destinies of nations.
In the present article Captain Mahan, who
is the leading authority on naval history
and strategy, present timely discussion
of the advantages which Cuba possesses
over Jamaica and other neighboring islands
as basis Of naval operations for the pro-
lection of the mouth of the Mississippi,
and of the proposet channel of communi-
cation through the Isthmus with our ports
on the Pacific. The bearing OF such a pa
per on the Cuban question and the impor-
tance of an inter-oceanic canal is obvious.
An article entitled "The Making of q
Regiment" in McCIure's Magazine for Oc,
tober, will describe what has hitherto, we
believe, never been set forth-the curious
moral press by which, in the late war, large
bodies of men with no taste for military life
and no training in it became. in remarkbly
brief time, disciplined to perfection and
capable of any service, however hard or
hazardoue It will be illustrated by R. F
Zogbaum. In McClures Magazine for Oc-
tober their.will be published for the first
time the long hidden and supposedly lost
| life masks of John Adams, jefferson, Mad
ison, Lafayette, and Charles Carol, taken
about 1925 by the sculptor Browere, by q
refined process that he devised and of
which her never told the secret. The story
of the making of these remarkably truth
| full masks, and of their subsequent hiding
away, is most romantic one, and will be
told in the same number by Charles Henry
Hart, the highest authority on such sub
jects.
Inside of a Hundred Homes, "the first of
q succession of articles picturing interiors
of the most artisticaIly- furnished houses in
America. is one of the notable features of
October Ladies' Home Journal" Another
| of special interest introduces 1.-THE New
Tenants of the White House" through
photographs of the Mckinley household.
The pictures were made expressly for the
magazine, and nave never before Deen pup
lished. Lillian Bells chat-bright and
witty, it is needless to state-of her prepara-
tions and departure for Europe is also n
| interesting feature. 1t is the prelude to
series of letters Miss Bell will write to the
Journal, giving her impressions of the Old
| World, In the same issue Mrs. Lyman
| Abbott begins series of Peaceful Valley"
papers, in which she will portray the life
| of an rural community. Edward W. Box
points out to young men where the best
chances of success await them, and coun-
sells young women who object to the word
stobey" in the marriage ceremony. Will
liam George Jordon tells of the Wonders
of the Worlds Waste"-the astonishing
and profitable uses to which refuse of
manufacturing, etc.. is put In a lighter
vien are Charles Dana Gibson's Dickens
| drawing-"Caleb Plummer and His Daugh-
teri; Mary E. Wilkins sketch of a New
England apple-paring bee; the conclusion
of 1.-THE Spirit of Sweetwater," Hamlin
Garland's serial, and deliciously y-reminis-
cent poem, ''Leisurely Lane" which w. Il.
Taylor has illustrated. Mrs. 8. T. Rorer
solves the economic problem of feeding a
family of eight at an aggregate cost
of ten dollars a week. She fully de-
tails her plan, and presents daily bills-of-
| fare. There is timely article on Hallow-
cen games and pastimes, and others touch
| ing every phase of woman's work and
home life. By The Curtis Publishing Com
pany, Philadelphia. One dollar per year;
ten cents per copy.