The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-14
LITERARY NOTES.

Mr. Clark Russell will publish new sea
story in the Autumn entitled THE Ro-
nance of Midshipman."
The author of "Dodo" has written new
story dealing with the life of modern So
ciety. He has entitled it The Money
Market
Hall Game will sail for New York at the
end of August for short visit to attend
the rehearsals of his play based on The
Christian
1t seems that Kipling has had the manu.
script of book on hand for two or three
years. writing when he liked on this lony
tale 1t is now announced for the last Of
September, and its title is The DAYS
Work"
1.-THE Companions of Pickle" is the title
of the volume in which Mr. Andrew Lang
intends to give set of eighteenth century
portraits derived from an examination Of
Jacobite documents made after the publica-
ton of his work, pickle the Spy"
There is much-needed warning for some
writer's in this awful example of the femini-
cation of words which is quoted by Notes
and Queries from Thomas Nugent. trans
lator of Hist. of Friar Gerund:' She was
not a common woman, but geniusess and
an elegant writrix.
What a change for H. Rider Haggard
from the CORY atrocities of king Solo
mons Mines" to "A Farmers Year: Being
His Commonplace Book for 1898" Yet that
is the title of Mr.. Haggard's new bucolic
novel, which is to appear in Longman's,
farm from January to December. They
say that Mr.. Haggard is a good farmer
and this book may prove to be worth
wilderness of shes" and king Solomon's
Mines
A Boston correspondent of the Springfield
Republican. in a review of current maya
zines. says: There is an overproduction Of
monthly magazines-the demand being so
81 eat and the advertising facilities in them
so ample, the venture3ome publishers have
rushed in with forty-magazine power. not
only here but in England, where HARMS
worths monthly is doing what Munsey and
Mcclure have long been doing for America
The supremacy of w. H. Smiths magazine
agency is threatened by the success Of
Harmsworth, and literary England is
watching the fray much as the upper circles
are observing the peer-Smirching campaign
of the desperate and now popular Hooley
So vast has become the reading public that
well-puffed venture is apt to succeed for
a time, without much reference to its merit;
after that the survival of the fittest or the
yellowest comes to pass, and the unsuccess-
full ventures perish, Literature, or the imi-
tation OF 1t, is now one OF the roads to great
and sudden riches. for publisher and author
and the commercial spirit was never more
marked in the writing class than now
This interesting note is taken from the
New York Critic: A number of the friends
and admirers of Count Leo Tolstoi in this
city, among them w. d. Howells. Ernest
Crosby, DR.. Lyman Abbott Dr. Hamilton
w. Mabie and Whidden Graham. propose
to celebrate the SEVENTEEN birthday of the
distinguished Russian novelist the Sth Of
September next. This date will also be the
fftieth anniversary of his entrance upon
literary career, so that those who may not
feel like indorsing all OF his political
1~t<.- Il l1.,fw- fha
wreath of the novelist. AT the present writ
ing it has not been decided just how the an
niversary will be celebrated. A dinner has
been suggested, but that idea has not been
received with much enthusiasm. Any novel
list can be celebrated in such a conventional
way as that, but not many could be cele-
brated with a public meeting enivened by
the speeches of distinguished men without
being made to appear somewhat ridiculous:
Tolstoi could stand such celebration ana
that is the sort that is most likely TO De
given in his honor.
The death of DIR. Georg M Ebers will
occasion widespread regret for the loss OF
the novelist rather than of the Psychologist
Despite his PROFESSIONAL career and his
triumphant discovery of the now famous
Eber papyrus his greatest work has been
a master of antiquarian fiction. 1t is the
fashion, says a writer in the Philadelphia
Record to decry his roma noes as being de-
void of poetic imagination and lacking III
the true depletion of human character anu
it is no doubt true that on the antique
stage, perfect in every detail which MS
learning constructed. he introduced nothing
but worthless puppets. Nevertheless. hlgn
praise must be accorded to the mastery
style in which the erudite novelist cor
related his fund of ancient fact and sci y
forth in an impressive whole FOR popular
comprehension. Lepsius was provoked thar
his brilliant disciple should stoop TO mover
writing, but thus Ebers became the greatesI
teacher of the masses among an the am ~.
Quarians. And while his work has no m
vulnerable and immortal part, SIM, t Li
many a long day readers will yet ENJOY Ils
Egyptian Princess "Uarda' and HoIno
Sum- the last being, perhaps, his MASTER
piece.