The Portland daily press., 1898-09-27

seventy may regain aIG9f Six small doses,
the age of eighteen. In AN unwary mo-
ment Miss Augusta Semaphore, IA tall,
thin, acidlooking woman of fifty three,
takes an overdose, and Miss Prudence,
ten years younger, coming upon the
scene, finds her sister wailing,
shrivelled, red-faced baby, apparently
but few days old. The fearful expert
ence of poor Miss Prudence with this
aged infant, and the way in which Miss
Augusta resumes her years and a con-
tented mind. is told with much humor,
and is very diverting.
The author of the pretty little volume
entitled The Sleeping Beauty: A Modern
Version. is, believe, Maine woman,
a resident of WatervilIe. The story is a
dainty travesty of the old legend-but the
modern Princess lived on an island in
Penobscot Bay, and the tiny Prince was
Arthur Heathcot Len OK, who only gave
this island baby Elizabeth a goodnight
kiss That was the beginning; but years
went by, and these two met again, and
"the child-ksart lived in them still; and
the wind stealing over the summer sea,
and the sunbeaIns dancing on the dane
ing wave, and the far-away bird singing
in the tree that had it's root in grave
all had one song-'oh, the world will al
ways be sweet, sweet, sweet, so long as
youth and love are in it,.
Last on this list we find Mr.. r. L.
Paget's Poems of American Patriotism,
776-1S98, really valuable collection of
its kind. The poems are selected with
admirable taste, and the volume is "Ded
icated to George Dewey, U. S. NJ The
compiler states in PREDATORY note that
his aim has been to present anew the
noble and popular songs of the past, long
endeared to the country's heart, and
still larger amount of stirring contempor-
airy verse, not little Of which has al
ready begun to sing itself into the mem
DRY of our time"
When we consider that more than two
hundred and twenty-five pages of this
pretty book are filled with songs and
poems ansnt the war with Spain it
makes us feel that the hearts of our poets
were OVERLOOKING with patriotism. The
voices come from North and South, be.
ginning with Danske Dandridge's prayer
to the God of Battles, written on Good
Friday:
"Not lightly, oh, not lightly, Lord,
Let this our awful task begin;
Speak from thy throne a warning word
Above the angry factions din.
IT this be Thy most holy will,
Be with us still-be with us still r.
And ending with the Eight Volunteers
of Lansing Bailey:
"Eight volunteers'' said the Admiral's
flag.
"Eight menl Who speaksP
Who will sail under Ell Morro's black
crags
Sure death he seeks.
Who is there willing to offer his lifeP
Willing to march to this music of strife,
Cannon for drum and torpedo for fifep
Eight menl Who speaks?
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon)
AS yet have seen but two of the new
fall books of Messrs. Odd & Mead 8
list, A Creel of Irish Stories. by Jane Bar
low, and The Grenadier, by James Eu.
gene Farmer, M. A. Ono halls with
pleasure whatever comes from the pen Of
Miss Barlow, and her latest volume is
quite as winning as the Irish Idylls, Bog
land Studies and Kerrigan's Quality.
The present collection we find rich in
Irish wit. humor, pathos and picturesque
ness. The first is Unborn In every man
and woman of the Emerald Isle, and we
have a good specimen of it in McNeill's
Tiger Sheep; but Ireland has suffered,
and her pain is reflected in the strain of
tender pathos which runs through many
of these exquisite sketches.
am sure it is true story which the
author tells in The Keys of the Chest of
an old dusty. half-calf volume in which
WAS story entitled The Churchyard
Prattler, which relates the experience of a
child, aged four, who. as an appropriate
and improving pastime, was sent out pro-
yided with string of his own length,
and instructed to ascertain by measure
ment how many of the graves in his
cheerfully chosen playground were short |
er than himself. He was pictorially at
tired in long bib and broad-brimmed
chimney.top hat, and he moralized his
lively researches into the strains OF a briet
rime-doggerel hymn:
soft may be found
A grassy mound
By the yew tree
Much less than me
1t seems to cry:
Prepare to die!
In another of Miss Barlow's stories, |
An Account Settled, there is an enter |
tanning deoription of Mr.. Natty Grogan |
and his methods. He used to abuse all |
the young Grogans, and ''waa heard to
declare that the lot of them all together
were more different kinds of fools than |
you find anywhere else in the breadth of |
Ireland, and so was their mother before
them. She had died many years since, |
and her husband was reported to have re-
marked that the event would save them
a couple of shillings week anyway, for
milk and chicken BROTH" portland: |