The Portland daily press., 1897-12-16

SPEARS Vigilante, and in Destiny at
Drybone, the last two having for hero
inc tpye of young woman unique in
fiction and wholly native to the Vast.
Bound Volume No. XVIII of Harpers'
Round Table. New York: Harper e.
Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony This volume of nearly 1909
pages, profusely illustrated, is practically
q number of books bound up in one. For
example, there are no less than eight
complete serial stories, of dash and ad-
venture ON land and sea, by such well
known authors as, among others, Kirk
Munroe, Capt. Charts King, Molly Elliot
Seawell, and Ellen Doulgas Deland. The
snort stories are too many to enumerate,
and cover the whole field of subjects
which appeal to boys of energy and pluck.
Further, there are descriptive articles Of
travel and hunting in many lands by
writers who have lived through the scenes
they describe Readers who have me-
chanical tastes will find explanations of
how to make ali sorts Of useful and inter
esting things, such as model yachts, ster-
eopticons and Blue Hill kites. There are
articles on the years athletics in the prin-
cipal schools, and papers discussing the
English schoolboy, his work and his
sports, which afford an interesting com
parison with our American system. The
Camera Club notes in the mass, repre-
sent practical treatise on amateur pho
Biography, and the collector Of stamps and
coins will find his hobbies fully treated
Scattered through the volume is pienti-
full supply of humorous STORIES many of
them by John Kendrick Bangs; while
there is also due proportion of
articles upon subjects of national import
ance--as. for example, on naval admins
tratlon and the machinery of our politi-
cal system.
The Wooing of Mslkatoon: Commodus.
A Poem and Play. BY Lew Wallace.
Illustrated by F. v. Du Mond and j.
R. Weguelin. New York: Harper &
Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
LILO VI lS1tlll, Sarls-
tianity overthrown by Mohammedanisn
the cross displaced by the crescent: this is
the theme of the poem, The Wooing of
Malkatoon, by the author of Ben Hur:
Tale of the Christ. 1t is to read and to
be judged solely as work of literary art,
without the faint of didacitc purpose.
The author divests himself of all aooiden-
tai prejudice in order to attain the heart
of the Eastern faith.
The heroic Gilman (Osman) whom AL
lab chose, for his strength and genius
and beauty, to be the first great leader of
the Osmanli and founder of the Ottoman
Empire, becomes the object of the poet
affectionate regard. He is "our'' 9th
man, the enemy of 'our' enemies, the
Christians. And even stubborn reader
shares the poets sympathy as he traces
the beginning of Othman's love for Nal
katoon; the years of trial in which his
wild nature got it's discipline from eagles
and lions; his subsection of the tribe
that supplied the first sOsmanli warriors
his victory over the Christian Lord of Els
kisoheer; the splendid vision in which
the Mohammedan Empire was promised
to him. In other words the sympathy
and the imagination of an American
writer have achieved an epic OF Islamisn;
an absolute novelty in English literature
The play that fills the second half of
this volume celebrates the courage of an
outlawed chieftain named Maternus, who.
when the Roman Emperor, Commodus,
had sent his legions SO that AN army
closed upon them from the north, anoth-
er from the south, another from the east,
and from the west one," conceived
gigantic enterprise, in which the means
were as audacious as the purposes: his
followers were to make their way, Sin
twos and singly." from the Danube to
the Tiber; to rendezvous and first to rec
ognize each other at the gates of Rome
BY way of answer and reprisal to an
edict which consigned him to persecu-
ton and death, Maternus crossed the
Alps in quest of it's anthor, sought him in
the inner recesscs Of his palace, and there
would have lodged dagger in his heart
but for the treachery of his lieutenant. -
The Court street Free Baptist church of
i. i