The herald., 1897-05-23
EDITED BY ENocn KNIGHT

of old:
The age of bargaining said Burke,
Sleep on, nor from your cerements start.
(Sleep, Richard of the lion heart!
Sleep on, nor from your cerements start,
Is England's friend and fast ally:
The Moslem tramples on the Greek,
And on the Cross and altar stone.
And Christendom looks tamely on,
And hears the Christian maiden shrek,
And sees the Christian father die;
And not sabre blow is given
For Grece and fame, for faith and heaven
By Europa's craven chivalry.
And the greatest pity of all this SEEM
ing and all this actual shame of Turkeys
attitude before the world is that she IL
tolerated because the creditor nations
do not dare to assail her. She is protected
in her accursed power because she is 9
debtor that must be kept alive.
GENERAL BOOK GOSSIP
The number of first-class works, con-
sidered commercially announced fol
early publication is surprisingly large
and the spring of 1897 bids fair to be re.
markable for the richness Of its literary
output. The demand for new books
which is largely stimulated by the CO.
pious and extensive reviews and literary
notices in the daily press and the month
ly magazines, is increasing all the time
and q heritorious book Is hailed gladly
The popularity of paper-bound books
is q thing of the past, as Illustrated hg
the remark heard at a Chicago news
stand: Everything of Importance is now
published in cloth binding" The publ
cations in paper novels have been limit
ed this month, The Yellow Kid, by Y. w.
Townsend, being the most successful.
The Chicago book market report for
April shows that apart from Nsnsen' s
"Farthest North" the following vol
umes sold best, and in the following Or
der: 1.-THE Pomp of the Lavelettes," by
Gilbert Parker; trooper Peter Halket
of Mashonaland." by Olive Sthreiner;
"Ziska," by Marie Coreli; 'The Spirit
of an Illinois Town." by Mart Hartwell
Catherwood, and 1.-THE Sign Of the Spi-
der" by Bertram Milford In other
classes, "The Middle Peribd." in the
American History series; Memories Of
Hawthorne" by Rose Hawthorne Lath-
rop, and upon the Tree Tops" by Olive
Thorne Miller, were verypopular.
In general, however, 'Quo Vadis" still
continues to lead. 1t 1, easily the first
favorite amongst works of fiction, the
country through, andin most reported
sales comes first, at least in the large
eastern cities.
1t may be remarked, in passing, that
some of the cheaper magazines show
decided signs Of failing off, and the de-
mise Of some Of them is predicted soon.
~ \
D,5,-o~5 y;~Iyr rv,c ctropc- or3oottov, 81
the setting to music Of his verses by com,
posers has brought up curious ques-
tion with regard to the extent of an au-
thor's control over his published work.
OF course, If the work is copyrighted the
author can prevent its republications'
but any. one is at liberty to set music to
any words who chooses. provided the
words are not printed with the music. AS
q matter of fact most writers are glad,
to have their verses made into songs.
The objection Of Mr.. KipHng has been
explained by one of his friends: "Kip-
ling's songs" he says, always come to
him first as music. Then he simply adds
words to them"
The Lark, the latest example Of freak
not die in springtime, but 1t had to; and
20 when the flowers Of May were at their
best, 1t scared into the vast empyrean,
and is forever lost to sight.
y + =
The "truly" lark never sits on fence or
tree, nor has any other resting place
known to most mortals, but floats and
sings in space generally beyond the
reach of the eye. The San Francisco
lark, too, never had resting place upon
the solid earth, and was out of sight in
most ways. We are sorry it is gone, for
1t sometimes printed very funny rhymes
and drawings. 1t never made any ex-
cuses for being. and, consistent to the
end, 1t died without reason-at least
reason given.
One thing its brief life accomplished,
at any rate. 1t made market for the
bright young men who planned it, and
these can now go into other fields and
live happily ever after.
MUST WE HAVE AN ACADEMY?
Are we grammarlees nation? Some
foreigners have called us so and is there
not reason for it? We have no exact
standard of spelling and pronunciation,
and yet we have the most important and,
on the whole, the most scientific langu-
age in the world. Neither texts nor
usages of form agree and all the time
dictionaries are NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ing mainly because our differences are
increasing in numbers and difficulties
all the time. Must we have an institu-
ton like the French academy, in order
to have a f1nality as to what good usage
Is? Who can see any other end to the
terrible confusion that now compasees
US about?
II HAS COME AT LAST
''The English lecture tour Of MY Paul
Dunbar, the colored poet, has proved
failure. He returns to America, while
Major Pond, his manager, stays in Eng
land. The lecturing business seems to
be as much of a lottery as any other"
The above extract from a New York
letter tells a story not wholly unwel-
come. Like him who has made the.
Journey, he who achieves notoriety from
the writing OF book feels called upon
is called upon by some showman-to lee
ture. The business of trying to make
q literary sensation over every appear
ance of a new author has been grossly
overdone, and we are thoroughly glad
that the great public is awakening to
the fact. Mr.. Paul Dunbar is a worthy
young man who has made the most OF
his opportunities and his talent; but no.
~ nn.rxk oov1 Il = =, l.,