The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-01-05

| tOW VI thO tOT tu6
coming year. While the Journal will
be more useful and practical than ever
before, II 10 made apparent that it's lit
erary features will be strengthened,
and that pictorisly it will be more at.
tractive and artistic than ever. A no
table feature, 1.-THE Inner Experiences
Of a Cabinet Members Wife," series
OF letters from the wife of cabinet
member to her sister, will, it is said
reveal some startling and graphic pen
pictures Of Washington social and off.
cial life. They are 80 realistic that the
letters will be published anonymously
and are likely TO attract national atten-
ton.
THE current number of HaTper's
Bozdr contains the first installment of
q new story by William Black, entitled
"Wild Eeliu: Her Escapades, Adven-
lures, and Bitter Sorrows" 1t is said
to have all the characteristics which
have made this authors novels well
come to go many readers. The scene
is laid in Scotland, and the opening
chapters relate the incident of blind
old Scotchman returning from Canada
to the home OF bis earlier manhood.
He arrives there on the Sabbath day,
hoping to enjoy again the well.remem-
bered Sabbath calm OF the spot; but
findsl mansion tenanted by young
lord who has married variety actress,
and is engaging in wild debauch with
his visitors. The story begins 10 move
from the start; the locality lie briefly
but unmistakably represented, aud the
characters seize hold of one as real
men and women.
The January number of the RevieD
of ReUieWS is one of the best issues in
the history of that magazine. From
cover to cover it is thoroughly "hve,"
alert, and forceful The opening edi.
torisl department of ''The Progress Of
the World" gives clear and exhaust
i've New YEARS. summary of political
conditions in both hemispheres at the
threshold of 1898 The elaborate ar
ticle on 1.-The Future of Austria Hun
gary" by an Austrian, is by all odds
the best account yet given in the Eng
lish language of the warning forces
which threaten to undermine the dual
monarchy OF central Europe; Mr..
Charles A. Commits clean-cut analysis
OF the present demands for currency
reform in the United States is some
thing that no practical man of affairs
should fail to read; DR.. W. H. Toll
mans summing up of the municipal
progress of New York City under May.
or Strong is just what is needed at this
time as an encouragement of efforts
for civic betterment everywhere; Lord
Brassey's remarkable paper on "The
Position of the British Navy" with
| Assistant Secretary Roosevelt's COM
ments is full of food for thought when
read in connection with the compact
digest of the United States annual
naval report.
THE Outlook for 1898 will contain,
besides very many other things, rich
ly Illustrated series OF papers by Ed
ward Everett Hale on "James Russell
Lowell and His Friends; series of
articles by Lyman Abbott on 1.-THE Life
and Letters of ST. Paul"; group of
papers on municipal questions (and on
municipal franchises in particularly, by
DR.. Albert Shaw, Professor E. W. Be-
mis-, Lee Meriwether, j. G. Brooks and
others; three photographed articles
by Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
called "Abolition Days." s'The First
Black Regiment" and "My Literary
Neighbors'; three or four articles by
Mr.. Hamilton w. Mabie on 1.-THE Great
English Schools" finely illustrated;
and hundreds of pages of news, re.
views and editorials. The Outlook will
continue to be, as heretofore, both a
weekly "History of Our Own Times "
and a monthly illustrated periodical
the two included under one subscrip-
ton. ($3 year. The Outlook Com
pany, 10 Astor Place, New York.
The complete novel in the January
issue of Lippincotts is "John Ohm
stead's Nephew" by Henry Willard
French. A hurried marriage is neces-
sary to secure some solid interests and
defeat an enemy, and thereon hangs a
romance. "Christmas Gold" a tale Of
Australia, by Owen Hall, and "Christ-
mas Eve at Bilger's," which was in a
mining camp, by Frank H. Sweet, cell
citrate the season. Why should Christ.
mas stories appear a month ahead of
Christmas? These are just In time.
Philip G. Hubert, Jr., tells at some
length, but in lively way, of GA De.
tective Who Detected" He was a
newspaper man; it was literary crime
| tudt uC wan ooI W uctcCI, huu Wullc vi
the trail of it be found something else.
Under the heading, "To-day in the
Bibls," William Cecil Elan collects
many familiar expressions, strokes OF
humor, observations and reflections on
life and human nature, sharply pointed
sayings, and what not, which people
often use without knowing their origin.
If an American citizen of even fifty
years ago, who had known nothing of
what has gone on in the mean time,
was suddenly to become resident of
any of our American cities now, he
would be amazed at the increased scope
of government. Whereas the govern
ment formerly collected his taxes,
brought in his letters, and guarded his
property, he would find now that it
touches him at every point in his daily
life, and regulates him to a degree
that he had never dreamed of. The
astonishing increase in the scope of
government is forcihly explained in an
article in the Atlantic Monthly by Pro-
fessor Eugene Wambaugh, of the Har-