The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-21
CURRENT PERIODICALS.

/ HERBERT
H. Hamblen will relate his autobiography
! as passenger engineer, telling of collisions
| with excursion trains and encounters with
traln robbers, and also describing how he
| helped TO organize and lead a great strike
among railroad men. The article will be
Illustrated with drawings from life by W.
| ID. Stevens
| A new serial by Richard Harding Davis
begins in the April Scribner, with the title
The Kings Jackal." 1t is to be the dra-
matte story of the plot of an exiled king
| 10 Dlackmaii his late subjects. The setting
| Is HANGERS, and several Americans figure
| IN the story. Mr.. Gibson is making a fEll-
page picture Tor each number while spend
ing the winter on the Mediterranean
The international Studio opens with an
account of the work of E. Borough John
sen, an artist but little known in this coun-
| try. but with a growing reputation in Eng
| land. description of the work of the
French caricaturist, Caran D'Ache is ac-
Gompanied by some striking Illustrations
| he is q remaTka BILE draughtSman and is es-
peclal.y happy in his drawing of the horse
The April Century is to contain a number
| OF articles on Pennsylvania coal mining
one or them by Jay Hambidge, the artist
VINO contributes IAN Artists Impressions
OF the Coll1ery Region" The illustrations
include views in Lattimer, where the recent
strikes occurred, and Mr. Hambdge has
made great number of interesting sketch
es OF the many types of people that lie
| found in the collieries. The italians are
gained Hikes, and the other foreigners
the name of Hunks"
In the Writer for March the editor of the
National Magazine makes some suggestions
10 inexperienced contributors as to how
they may make their manuscripts pass
muster Ruth Hall points out latter-day
fault of authors-that of sacrificing accu-
IIdcy OF statement to grace of style. THE
EASING OF the Capital Letter is the sub
lect OF another paper. The purpose of the
| Writer, published in Boston, is to initiate
Would-be authors into the secrets of the
| literary art, and each number contains q
| variety of practical hints.
| The Mothers Magazine is a. new monthly
publication brought into being as a result
| of the Mothers Congress started in Wash
| ington last year. The character of the Pc
| r1odical is indicated by the table of con-
| tents of the opening number The leading
| article is THE Scope and Aims of the Ma
| tional Congress of Mothers" by the presi-
| dent of the congress, Mrs. Theodore w. Bir-
| ney. The principal articles following this
are: Home Decorations for Children" by
| j. f. Douthitt, illustrated; "A Baby Incu-
| bator," by Prof. Edwin l.. Scott, four Illus
trations "A Trouble of Some Mothers. by
| Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford; an illus
| trated story by Mllicent Gray, "A Colonial
| Damsel;' In South America" by George
II: Baker; the beginning of a serial story
| Sister Serena" by Gordon Graham; THE
Don't Worry Movement" by it's founder
Prof. Theodore F. Seward Following the
ntErr faere are ten hdTen named
WORK. Rests All ' over the House,
Where Baby Hold. Holds Sway" The Chill
Home" Fashions of the Day" Discus
| sions" and Fun" The magazine. which is
| geographically pleasing, is published at l
| Madison avenue, New York
ID LII -
erary quarterly published by the University
| of Sewanee, Tennessee, Prof Joachim
Reinhard, of Purdue University, has a
| scholarly paper on 1.-THE Literary Sgnifi-
canoe of the Greek Fathers" He does not
| touch upon the theology of those fathers
of the church, st. Basil, st. Chrysostom,
| st. Gregory of Nyssa st. Athanasius, but
points out the fact that they were rhetori-
| clans as well DIS men of sanity lives, and
the influence of this requirement gained
through preparation for worldly career,
had upon their teachings. 'Howbeit," he
| says, sit is but a fair and well-founded
| suppoSition that in most cases the fathers
| performed their literary labors in spirit
| Of sincere devotion, feeling their hearts
beating joyfully while penning what they
| intended for a humble, though not glaringly
| inadequate, tribute to the great mysteries
of the Christian religion. 1t is indeed from
this view point that the whole work of the
Greek fathers should be judged. They
might be styled a school of rhetoricianS let
loose upon Christian dogma, but the defini-
ton would not be an exhaustive one. They
were filled with admiration for the Platonic
philosophy as taught by the lecturers of the
day but their laboriouSly acquired dex-
terity in the handling of Platonic terms
served them only as means OF eiucloating
and solidfying the various departments or
Christian belief And precisely for these
reasons did they value rhetoric so highly,
because by nothing else, or SO it seemed to
them, might that same belief be as properly
and splendidly adorned.
Stephen Crane, writing in the Chap Book
about Harold Frederic, puts into words the
thoughts that must have occurred to more
than one reader of that authors novels.
He expresses wonder that Frederic's earlier
books are so little known in this country,
dealing, as they do, with American life and
phases of it touched by no other writer,
and fulfilling, as they do, the insistent de-
mand of the critics that American authors
should come down to the soil and write of
the common life of their own people. Mr..
Frederic was a boy living in central New
York during the civil war, and the events
of that period made great impression on
his mind Those were supreme years"
says Mr. Crane, land yet for the great pal
plating regions it seems that the mind of
this lad was the only sensitive plate ex-
DOSeQ TO the SunllSnL Oh loOl-OO Inc DOCK,
In the Sixties which contains The Cop
perhead,' Marsena, The War Widow
The Eve of the Fourth and My Aunt SUI
SAN breathes the spirit OF a Titanic con-
fict as felt and endured at the homes. One
would think that such book would have
taken the American people by storm, but
it is true that an earlier edition of The Cop
perhead' sold less than a thousand copies
in America" Another series of tales de-
scribing rural life in the Mohawk valley
and one two of an historical character,
having their scenes laid in the same region,
met a similar fate Few people read them,
apparently, and they caused little comment,
yet like the others, they are wonderfully
graphic and convey the impression of be-
ing transcripts from the actual life of such
people as we all know. tine Damna ton
of Theron Ware" was the first book by Mr..
Frederic TO secure wide reading, and Vet
it is by means equal in literary work.
manship to the others. and though anus
ing, by no means SO representative of Amer
lean life. Mr.. Crane does not attempt 10
explain the lack of recognition for these
first books but il may be accounted for on
the simple fact that they did not receive
the advertising of the last one. Theron
tige of British approval, which was duly
heralded here. and, like sheep, American
readers followed where English critics led.
Had THE CopDerhead' or In the Valley"
been published in England first they might
have had equal fortune. For the present,
at least Mr. Frederic has discontinued the
writing of American novels, and devotes
himself to British themes.
Indiana RefOrmer Abroad.
Philadelphia Telegraph.