The record-union., 1899-10-15
Literature and
Literary Workers,

Inc mysteries OF foreign eXcnanSe
| have long befuddled the average citi-
zen, and while our newspapers glory
| in gold imports, they tread gingerly
when it comes to explain the more
painful phenomenon of gold exports.
| Older theories of the balance of trade
| are not outWorn, but have been so
| strangely modified by the growth of
! international money markets that even
| those who know them best have diffl-
Guilty in recognizing them. 1t is the
intervention of Wall. street and the
Stock Exchange which has wrought
this change, but it would be a mistake
| to infer that it is wholly a machina-
| tiOn of the evil one. Charles A. Conant
/ in a recent essay on Securities as a
| Means of Payment nas laid bare the
mechanism of these operations with a
firm hand, and has shown clearly the
advantages which modern commerce
| draws from them. By the aid Of eX-
amples from critical periods in the his
tory of our own and other countries,
he has shown how the existence Of
these securities has facilitated opera
! tiOns which to the unframed mind were
vaguely portentious Of national ruin,
! but which have been effected with
scarcely more than a ripple on the
financial seas.
| Mr.. Sidney, in the 'Athenaeum" eX-
plains why the recent copy of the first
Shakespeare folio, just sold at a Lon
don auction, brought such a large price.
! The book realized $500, or double the
price of an ordinary copy in late years,
! The folio was entirely unknown until
/ it appeared in the Auction room, it
having been in the possession of a
! family in Belgium FOR more than 100
years. 1t is perfect as TO text, though
| the margins of a few leaves are torn,
and It was probably bound 200 years
ago. The measurements are l2bxS33s
! inches, so that it is not as tall a copy
as three well known examples owned in
| England.
The fall lists OF publishers are begin
ming to come in, ana promise a season
of much activity. Ne do not discover,
| however, among the announcements
many books of great note on the pure
| ly literary side. In this respect the
! lists of a year ago We're superior.
! A new novel by the author of THE
Courtship of Morrice BuckIer," Will be
published this month. Many readers
will remember the stirring and clever
work which first gave A. L. Mason
his reputation. and will look forward
to his new book miranda Of the Bal
cOny' with some interest The scene
of this story is laid chiefly in Spain
and Morocco, and the story, which is
/ a 4 of
a woman, under a contemplate pres
sure placed upon her ny a blackmail-
| ing acquaintance of her husband, who
| is separated from her. The hero OF
| the story is young engineer.
1.-The Choir Invisible" has been dram
atized by>Miss Frances Hastings. Her
work has received the approval of
James Lane Allen, and the play VIII
/ be produced in October by the Henry
Jewett Dramatic Company in New
York. The management Of the Under
taking is in the hands of Clarence
Fleming, who for so many years di-
rected the tours Of Rosina Vokes and
subsequently has been associated with
John Hare, Beerboh:n Tree and others.
| 1t is said that single Paris pub
Usher has on his list nearly ninety
publications relating to the Dreyfus af-
| fair
! A new and cheaper edition Of the
complete works OF Edgar Allan Poe.
| edited in four volumes by J. II. In
gram, will be published Immediately by
| the Macmillan Company. II will con-
! tain, as formerly. the memoir by the
! editor, a portrait and other iilustra-
| tions. The paper used in this second
edition will be such as to make it even
more handy than the first and a more
| expensive issue, while the typography
will be the same as formerly.
| New York Tribune: A book which is
| full of tragedy, but not Without comic
I interludes, is that in which Jacob Riis
! is preparing to set forth his observa-
! tions of slum life in this city No stu
/ dent of that life can rival him in clear
| sight and in the sympathy which he
! has never allowed to become senti-
mentality; and his suggestions for i'm
/ provement in the future are as prac-
tical as his descriptions of the piteous
! paper on the genesis of 1.-The gang" he
| has something vigorous to say about
| the schools, which have not done
| enough to oppose the lawlessness of
the street Too many of them," he
! declares, lin my unprofessional judg-
ment, need yet to be made over until
! they are fit to turn out whole, sound
boys, instead of queer manikins stuffed
with information for which they have
! no ues, and which is none of their bus
! mess, anyhow. It seemed to me some
times, when watching the process of
! cramming the school course with the
! sum of human knowledge and conceit,
as If it all meant that we distrusted
natures way of growing d man from
boy, and had set out to show her a
shorter cut. A common result was
the kind Of mental befogment that had
! Abraham Lincoln murdered by Bal
lington Booth, and a superficiality, a
hopeless slurring of tasks, that hitched
perfectly with the spirit of the street,
and left nothing to be explained in the
verdict Of the reformatory, No moral
sense. There was no moral sense to
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