The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-02
CURRENT MAGAZINES.

Not the least of the benefits that children
derive from such publications as St.
Nicholas is that of becoming accustomed to
good drawing In the current issue of the
magazine, for instance, an illustration in
the story of the fireman's dog affords a
study of fOreshortening we'll worth a young
artists attention.
The August number of Four O'Clock
(Chicago), the odd little cent magazine
whose illustrations are pasted to the pages,
is attractive to the eye from its very novel
ty, but it's literary features, approached
warily by the reader who from much eX
perience has learned to expect little from
such periodicals, bear perusal surprisingly
well, though they bear an undergraduate
stamp.
In his "Story of a Play" just completed
in Scribner's Magazine, Mr.. Hdwells adds
another to the long list of fool women"
which he is SO fond of depicting. Admit
ting, for the sake of argument, that the
average woman in real life is a ninny, it
must yet be said that she is not so hopeless
a simpleton as Mr. Howellss Louise
Maxwell
Mr.. Frederick Macmonnies and his work
are illustrated in the August Month; ana
there are biographical studies ana like
nesses of the late Mrs Oliphant and the
Rev. Gerald Stanley Lee, with various es-
says, reviews and portraits of many nota-
biitieS, including President Cleveland the
sculptor ST. Gaudens, Mrs. Deland, Mr..
Howells and Anthony Hope. (rhe Critic
Company New York;
The Century Magazine will offer twelve
prizes of $3.50 each, three a year, for four
successive years, to college graduates re-
ceiving the degree OF bachelor of arts. for
the best poem, the best essay and the best
short story. Graduates must submit their
work before June l of the year succeed
ing graduation, and the young men and
women who came out of college in June,
IN have chance "A
The character of Japanese dramatic art
is we'll set forth in an illustrated sketch by
Robert P. Porter in the Cosmopolitan of
Danjuro Japans greatest actor. A notable
contribution to current educational litera-
ture is a paper by President Dwight, of
Yale, on Modern College Education" He
dwells much on the silent forces not al
ways considered in measuring the value or
possibilities of college life-the indirect in
tiuences of the professors and of the en-
Vironment in the character of the students.
Julian HaWthOrne's account of the starva-
ton in India-the most striking and COM
pTehensive story yet told-is the special
feature of this issue of the magazine, and
has been already commented on by the
Journal
In a brief paper in the Bookman on Vic
torian literature Clement Shorter points
out that it's keynote is morality. 1T has
been," he says, "a literature of the pulpit
always self-conscious, always moral
Fine, healthy inspiriting preaching
most of it-and one cannot doubt that it
has been much better than more graceful,
artistic unconscious work would have been.
The reputation, however, of its writer's is
prehapS less assured (than that of the
eighteenth century, with future ages. That
matters very little. Every age must write
it's own books, or, at least, the books for
the age succeeding, Emerson tells us, and,
after all, literature was never so great an
influence upon vast masses of men as it
has been during the past sixty years"
In the Atlantic for August is a clever
satire, in which the writer relates how he
was driven to reading THE Pirates Own
Book" He had always possessed a liking
for romantic fiction, but the condemnation
by apostles of realism of this class of nov
els led him to give them up. He did not
enjoy realistic fiction, and CHANGING upon
a copy of the Pirates own" which pro-
fesses to be a veracious history of the
gentry as they were known in the early
history Of this country, but which had also
spice of romantic adventure mingled with
the facts, he found the recreation that was
forbidden him in his faVorite fiction. He
does not recommend the book, but con-
cludes that our novelists must do something
more to make home happy than they are
now doing, else they viii drive many OF
their readers to it in very desperation. The
policy OF the absolute prohibition OF ro-
nance, while excellent in theory, he says,
has practical difficulties in the way of en-
fOrcement. Perhaps, under certain restric-
lions, license might be issued to proper per-
sons to furnish stimulants to the imag1na-
ton OF course, the rOmancer should not
be allowed to sell to minors, nor within a
certain distance of a schoolhouse, nor to
habitual readers"
The August Bookman devotes several
pages to a study of Richard Harding
Davis's literary work by Harry Thurston
Peck. Mr. Peck thinks he has discovered
that Mr.. Davis is writing for the American
aristocracy his characters being drawn
from swelldom and the life depicted being
that of ease and luxury only to be enjoyed
by the wealthy. Mr.. Peck does not wish
to convey the idea that the author is snob-
bish-far from ii. He believes that he has
the reporters instinct. and seeing that the
young men and women of the wealthy and
luxurious class were not especially catered
to. writes what he thinks this audience
will enjoy, putting his own tastes and
preferences aside as the reporter does in
telling a newspaper story. This is an in
genious theory, but is probably incorrect.
1t is we'll known that the stories In which
lords and ladies dispOrt themselves, and in
which such unpleasant things as poverty
are never mentioned. are the faVorite liter
allure of kitchen maids and factory girls.
How does Mr. Peck know that Mr.. Davis
has not selected these two large and re-
spectable classes of society as his particu-
lar audience? incidentally. too why does
article that has his personal signature at
tached?
Han