The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-09

the usual literary apprenticeship in disap-
pointment and poverty. His first work was
a success and he was born rich.
Next year the centenary of the birth of
PusIkin. the popular poet of Russia. viii be
celebrated. Like the great romancer Dumas.
he was of African descent, his grandfather
having been q ful-blo0ded negro. He
showed precocious gifts. and when he was
twenty years old his works were known
throughout Europe.
How did Longfellow pronounce the pretty
name of his Acadian heroine? Miss Alice
LongfelIow says in a note to the poets pub
lishers: My father always pronounced
Evangeline with the t. short. Indeed /
never heard it with a long i until quite re-
Gently. 1t seems to me very Objectionable,
and | trust it will not become prevalent"
That omnivorous reader Macauley wrote
to his little niece: IF anybody would make
me the greatest king that ever lived, with
palaces, and gardens, and fine dinners, and
wine, and coaches, and beautiful clothes,
and hundreds of servants. on condition that
l would not read books / would not be a
king. / would rather be poor man in a
garnet with plenty of books than a king who
did not love reading"
Tolstoi leaves all practical matters relat-
ing to his publications to ffs wife. She
supervises the printing. attends to the CORE
spondence and reads the proofs She has
brought out two complete editions of his
a cheap edition for the public. Their text
is identical, but the edition de luxe has a
number Of portraits of the author, some OF
which cannot be obtained elsewhere.
A writer in the New York Times giving
advice to young man who wants to study
literature tells him he should never read just
from a sense of duty what does not really
appeal to him. "A book, he says sis a
singularly shy and sensitive thing, never
truly revealing itself save to those who love
1t. H. B. must bear in mind that 1t avails
nothing to be able to say 1 have read such
and such a book Only the book that has a
message for u.s. only the book that bites in
is the book that gives culture to mind and
character
Mr.. w. L. Alden says, in his London lit
erary letter: Il begin to hope that some
day the English-speaking public will dis
cover that Matilda Serao is great nov
elist. She is known in England and Amer
lea only by one of her books, Fantasia,
which Is by no means her best, while d An
nunzio is, SO it seems to me, vastly over
estimated Matilda Serao, who is as far
above him a novelist as Thackeray is
above Crockett. remains unknown outside
of Italy. But at last the Saturday Review
has discovered her"
The New York Outlook. which is very dis
eliminating in it's literary reviews, speaks
highly of Miss Mary Krout's book on Ha-
wall, recently mentioned in the Journal,
calling it timely volume and commencing
it for the important information it gives
concerning the education, religion, COM
merce, customs of the natives, etc. Miss
krout has another volume ready for the
publishers 1t is entitled 'Lookers-on in
London" and treats of the jameson trial,
the Queens Jubilee and the attitude of the
English people during the progress of the
Venezuela affair. The volume will be issued
simultaneously in London and New York.