The times., 1899-02-12
LITERARY NOTES.

Somebody has unearthed an old p!aybill
printed more than century ago, which
indicates that the modern vaudeville bur-
lesque is not exactly new. In it one finds
| that Mr.. Kearns was expected TO appear
! as Hamlet, and would, between the acts,
! play several solos on patent bagpipes.
| Ophelia was played by a lady who intro
duced several topical songs in the part,
and the characters of the King and Queen
were, by order of one Father O'Callaghan,
| omitted. being considered too immoral for
| any stage We are informed that no per-
| son whatsoever could be admitted into the
| boxes without shoes or stockings, and that
| the price of the tickets might be paid in
| candles, bacon, soap. butter. cheese, or
other commodities which could be used by
the obliging inn-keeper who sold the tick
cts.
| Phil May is preparing book OF sketches
which will be called Songs and their
| Singers" and will portray the various
| types of street minstrels TO be found in
London.
Miss Mary Johnston. whose story entitled
Prisoners OF Hope" is one of the most
| successful American books of the season,
| is still under thirty, and was born in Vir-
| ginia. In her sixteenth year the family
| removed to Birmingham, Ala, her father
being engaged in building the Georgia Pa
cific Railroad, OF which he was president.
Her home has been mainly in Birmingham,
although she has Travelled both in this
| country and abroad. prisoners of Hope"
| is now in its fifth thousand. and deserves
| its popularity. 1t is remarkably faithful
| picture of life in old Virginia in the reign
| of Charles II.
| be published in the autumn. One is to be
called 'Scoundrels All and the other
Dead Faces"
"Ten Drawings in Chinatown" by Err
nest c. Peixotto, is book which halls from
San Francisco and has a fascinating title.
1t may be added that the drawings are as
clever as the name.
| The "Bookman" for February contains
| an article called The Little Touches" by
that consummate Philistine, Harry Thurs
| ton Peck. There are writers who can mix
with usual people" and find much TO love
and admire even in n man who uses bad
| grammar and woman who likes Longfel-
| low better than Maupassant; but the
unusual Mr.. Peck is not one of them. His
| is not the faculty possessed by Little Bill
| lee who could fraterniZe with duke or cos
! termonger and find the latter, perhaps,
| little the more interesting of the two. No;
| Mr. Peck might enjoy the duke, but he
would certainly squirm and fret If thrown
| into the society of the cockney. He de-
votes nearly seven large pages TO the task
of defining ones duty to the English lam
guage, and proving that for the sake of
social salvation one must give especial
| thought to this matter. The only cOnclu-
| sion which he seems to be able to reach is
that some people know by instinct how to
| speak and write properly and some do not.
The unfortunates who do not possess this
| instinct are supposed to be outside the pale
of good society, or at least, OF all human
| charity. When a man spends so much
time in explaining unimportant matters OF
taste one somehow is impressed with the
idea that he himself is not quite sure
| where he belongs in the social scale.
| OF all the books which this war has thus
| far brought forth, there seems TO be but
one which can really be called literature,
and that is the work of the inimitab.e Mr..
| Dooley.
Among the spring announcements of the
! New Amsterdam Book Company is Dick
ems and His Illustrators by Frederic q.
| Kitton. 1t will contain twenty-five por-
traits and over seventy original drawings
| by Crukshank, Seymour. Buss, "Phiz,
| Cattermole. Leech, Doyle Staniield, Mac
| lise. Tenniel Marcus Stone, Landseer. and
| Luke Fields. The illustrations are OF CX-
traordinary interest. They are not mere
reproductions of plates which have been
published in the novelist's various works.
but on the contrary many of the most in
| teresting have never been published any
| where before. The career OF each artist
| is briefly sketched by Mr.. KittOn.
| NJ. f. Mansfield & Co., are about TO pub
| lish reprint fac-simile of the first Ia
| hore) Public Document edition OF Kip
| fol Sol rara