The San Francisco call., 1897-07-11


| Yelled Man."
READING.
Just dropping off the harness from our over
wearied thought.
And resting in the beauty that anothers brain
hiss wrought
Carrie Lake Morgan in July Lippncotps.
| The copyright of "John Halifax Gentle
man" will expire next year, and in anticipa-
| ton OF this event 100 900 copies of a sixpenny
| edition will be gotten ready for issue. 1t is
said that the circulation OF the novel has
reached 250, 900.
| 1t is SO frequently and wrongly stated that
Miss Kingsley, the traveller, is daughter of
the late Charles Kingsley that this lady's true
parentage may as we'll be recorded again.
Miss Kingsley is not the daughter but the
niece of the late Charles Kingsley. She is the
! daughter of George Kingsley.
1t was necessary to put the Appleton presses
at work again on Edward Bellamy's Equal
ity" within three days after publication. 1t
was supposed that the exceptional first edition
| would prove sufficient for time, but the de-
mand has made it necessary to rush Jery
large second edition through as rapidly as
possible.
Bookmen will be glad to know that for
malin will destroy the croton bugs responsible
tor the ruin of so many fine bindings. DR..
| John s. Billings director of the New York
| Public Library, has made @ number OF success
| full experiments with ormalin in destroying
bacter germs in books and papers as well as
| in getting rid of other book-pests.
For many years copies of Tauchnitz editions
have been introduced wholesale into England,
but within the last few weeks a special order
has been issued to all customs officers at Do
| yer, Foikestone, Queens borough and Harwich
! to search carefully for any concealed books,
with the result that hundreds OF copies are
| daily confscated Al Dover a whole portman-
teau full of new Tauchnitz editions was seized
by the customs officers, and five minutes later
| lady was discovered with no fewer than
eighteen of the neat little volumes carefully
packed at the bottom OF her trunks. In fact
in almost every persons baggage there are
one or two of the books.
Frank A. Munsey editor and publisher of
Munsey's Magazine, The Areosy and The
Puritan, on the 9th ult entered the field OF
book publishers by bringing out a first edition
! of 10000 copies OF story entitled ga Prin-
cess and Woman" written by Robert Nc
| Donald. The venture is remarkable for the
fact that his first book, while well printed on
fine heavy paper and bound in cloth, will be
sold to the reader for 25 cents. This revolu-
| llOn III Prices Oi pOOkS Is Ell OubBION III VI Lue
reduction in the cost of magazines, which was
brought about, we believe, by Mr.. Munsey
and has been followed successfully by several
periodicals other than his. The next book
from the Munsey press will be "The Affair at
Isington," by Matthew White Jr.
According to German chemists, writing ink,
whether it be black, blue or red, is dangerous,
it being the home OF disease-breeding bac-
| terra, micrococci and saprophytes. This con-
| clusion has been reached after an examina-
tion of German school inks, bacillus from
which was cultivated and proved fatal to mice
in four days. Writing ink and its cousin,
printing ink, have always been considered
somewhat dangerous materials, ana both of
| them have been known to lead 10 fatal results,
especially in the South and West This dis
covery. however, according to the American
! Ststioner, demonstrates that there Is new
use to which the former can be put. For in
stance, instead of returning tender missives
they can be used TO cleanse house OF mice,
while creditors bills and dunniug letters can
be substituted for rat poisons.''
NJ. Paul Bourget is about to lecture a Ok
ford on the subject of French novels, which
he proposes to defend against the structures of
English critics. The lecture would, perhaps
be anticipated with a liveier interest if the
! lecturer had not announced his intention of
going back to Flaubert as the shining example
of French romantic genius. Every serious
English critic admits the greatness of Flau-
bert as cheerfully as he admits the greatness
! of Balzac and of Zola in the days when he
wrote novels instead OF treatises on the topics
| OF The day. The real stumbling block is the
French novel of the hour-the novel as written
| by the more daring spirits OF the present day.
! Against their work the British reader kicks
finding it either ponderously dull or distin-
| euished only by IN ingenious and elaborate
| indelicacy; and this is the sort of thing which
NJ. Bourget ought. as patriotic Frenchman. to
defend. If he draws the line at the defense of
Flaubert he will only have proved something
as obvious as an elementary proposition of
Euclid.
The art of secret writing, or writing in
cipher was, according to Polybius, invented
by Eneas, author of treatise on tactics and
other works. He produced twenty methods
OF writing in cipher, which no person could
unfold; but we doubt much whether they
would preserve this quality at the present
day. Ii is no less strange than true that this
arr, so important in diplomacy, as long as
couriers are liable to be intercepted, was held
in ahhorrence by the Elector Frederic the Sec
ono, who considered it diabolical inven-
tion. Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim, had
| com posed several works to revive this branch
| OF knOWleQEet anu DONlliep III ignorant
| mathematician, being unable to comprehend
| the extraordinary terms he made use OF to ex-
plain his method, published that the work
| was full of diabolical mysteries. Poissevin
peated the assertion; and Frederic in holy
ZEAL ordered the original work of Trithe mius.
which he had in his library, 10 be burned, as
the invention of the devil.
Mark Twain really ought to come home and
! collect his life insurance. The newspapers
have had him sick and then dead-latterIy
| they have modified 1t to dead broke. Br'er
| Twain he jes' lies low in London and gets his
new book out. AS matter of fact, our genial
| veteran is living in substantial luxury in the
| literary capital of the world, where he can
| most advantageously launch his new round
! the-world story book, and where if he likes.
he can en- JOY that distinguis he'd personal con-
! sideraton which is denied prophets in their
| own country. His daughter is completing her
musical education on the Continent Mr..
! Clemens has not taken mansion on Carleton
terrace for the jubilee season. as most of the
other disting nisLe ed Americans in London are
| doing. but he gets along somehow. An auto
graphic statement of his. lately in circulation,
/ is: "Be good and you will be lonesome" His
| humoristic Dredecessor Artemns Ward who