The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-11
LITERARY NOTES.

Marion Crawford's new book will be en-
titled Ave Roma Immortalis' and will be
presented in two volumes and will be ade-
quately illustrated.
John Ruskin is not a poor man, as has
sometimes been reported. His publishers
pay him $4,000 annually as royalty on the
SiXJy-tOur books he has written.
Hannis Taylor, late American minister to
Spain, has completed the second volume Of
his work on 1.-The Origin and Growth of the
English Constitution" and it is announced
for immediate publication.
A literary gossiper says of w. w. Jacobs,
author of The Shippers Wooing," that he
Lives at Stoke Newington, is unmarried
and wears the sad and chastened express
sion of an elderly maiden aunt.
Heard in a Boston electric car, according
to the Transcript: ''Well, I'm as patriotic
as the next one, but with lola and Hall
Game both coming over here to lecture, |
can't help feeling as if it would rest me to
love my country and leave it for awhile.
A writer in the London Mail says: Mr..
Henry James is in literature what the
Dutch painter is in art-the depictor of
the veins in a cabbage leaf. He shows his
peculiar talent, or, rather, mis- peculiar
genius to excellent advantage in his new
study of humanity.
A great many Philistines far and wide,
have relieved themselves, says a reviewer,
DV Sue SnOIS DIT Matthew ATuOlO. Jew VI
them have hit more cleverly than Leslie
Stephens, when he rounds off one of his
Arnold paragraphs, in his Studies of a
Biographer," with the gentle reflection:
And l often wished that I, too, had little
sweetness and light, that / might be able to
say such nasty things of my enemies.
Professor Momsen, the historian, has writ
ten, declining to support the proposal for
the erection of a statue to Heine. That
Heine is one of our most eminent poets he
admits, but" writes the professor, "he
was not only ill-bred darling of the
graces, but a man of no honor. What l
know about his personal character. and po--
litical life is simply shameful, and even If
genius makes up for all errors, it does not
excuse Infamous DEEDS.
Mr.. Walter H. Page, who has been edit
ing the Atlantic Monthly for the past year
in the absence of Mr.. Scudder. and who has
been made the regular editor, is South
Carolnian, and graduate of Johns Hop
kinS University. Like so many other of
our literary men, he began his career by
teaching school, but this work he found dis
tasteful and he turned his attention to Jour-
nalism. He went from the New York World
to the Forum and became its editor and
business manager. From there he went to
the Atlantic.
In Edmund Clarence Stedman we have at
least one distinguished American man of
letters who has divided his time between
literature and business. In England such
cases are more numerous. AS The Athe-
naeum points out, Charles Lamb and John
Stuart Mill used to adorn the old India
House, Austin Dobson, Gosse and Cosmo
MonkhoCse are in the board of trade, Ben
jamin Kidd and W. M. ROssetti were for
merly at Somerset House, while D. e. ROs-
setti narrowly escaped being a telegraph
clerk. AS is well known, Anthony TrouOpe
divided his time between noVel-Wrltlng ana
the duties of poStotf1ce inspector.
People who want to know a little what
Nalays are like and what the life of a white
trader is in the islands off ASIA are read
ing Joseph Conrads "Almayer's Folly"
AN Outcast of the Islands and other nov
els, says Boston writer. Conrad is placed
by some in fiction beside Robert Louis Ste
venson. He will be known by tens Of thou
sands by and by where now he is read by
thousands. But it will not turn his quiet
head. He is working in good material, and
rot in the stuff of which fads are made.
Conrads power is large and sympathetic,
and he is not afraid OF grim truths, or
shadow more than of tropic sunshine.
The late Mrs Lynn Linton, in spite of her
innumerable prejudices and controversies.
was a very kind soul. "She was always"
says Beatrice Harraden. most generous
and broad in her appreciation of other peo-
pies work. and very humble about her own.
And even when she did not specially adj
mire she was always ready to help and
advise. l know she waded through endless
manuscripts, often correcting most minute
ly. She spoke SO little of what she did
for others that it is not generally known
how kind O. she was ana how healthy IN I hef
comfortable little fortune, willed her writ
ing desk to the author of Ships That Pass
in the Night"
|, The manuscript of an article by r. L.
Stevenson on books which had influenced
him is offered for sale in London for 500.
The article was originally printed in the
British Weekly and the editor of that pa
per presented the manuscript to an adj
mirer OF Stevenson. Many an "admirer"
knows how to turn nimble pennies out of
autographs acquired from trustful authors.
Not all the writing gentry are as canny as
is Mr. Kipling, who recently received, a
polite note gravely inquiring whether his
remarkable story THE Man Who Would be
King was founded fact Kipling re-
turned a sheet of paper with a London club
heading bearing in the center, neatly
pasted three words 1T is not" these words
being clipped from his correspondents own
note.