The record-union., 1899-03-05
RECENT LITERARY NEWS.
"RECoRD-UN1oN' NOTES OF
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
Historic Matters-New Works
Bookmen of the World
Critical Comment.


Critical Comment.
Paris de 1900 1900, is the title Of
a big work to be issued in weekly
numbers and finally in three volumes
We are told that when completed at
the end of two years the work will
contain about 1900 pages and 1900 IL
Illustrations. Everything that has in
structed, amused, excited and absorbed
the great city during the century will
be dealt with therein About fifty of
the leading men of letters and artists
of France are engaged upon the work.
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me?
And may there be no moaning of the bar
When l put out to sea.
This is the bit of Tennysonian verse
which certain British Town Council
sitting IN committee as burial board,
was called upon to consider as the pro-
posed inscription for local tombstone.
That Town Council knew not Tenny-
son, and had no use for Crossing the
Bar" Il object" said one Councillor,
as quoted in the London Daily News"
That's what l call doggery" And the
Council promptly ruled out the Laure-
ate'S lines.
Among the Hardwicke papers to be
sold within a few weeks is a letter i'll
| which Dean Percy writes Gin 17SD:
In the book-making art the celebrity
of name is of so much consequence
that it is not unusual for the trade to
hire popular name to be prefixed to
work which the owner of that name
never saw. Poor Goldsmith picked up
many guinea by this kind of traffic,
and we have accordingly a ''Grecian
History a version of Scarron, and
many other things, which, to the hest
of my belief, he was utterly uncon-
cerned in.
| J. w. Stillman, who is now 20 years
old, is preparing to publish his autobi-
ography.
| Those who think that it is necessary
| for a man of genius to be absurd-es-
pecially in the article Of clothes-will
relish Miss Blantyre Simpsons descrip
ton of the two occasions on which t.
l.. Stevenson was persuaded to wear
new, well-made suits. He had prom
| ised," she said, ito officiate as grooms-
man at friends marriage. He al
lowed himself to be led to the taiors
and have his clothes ordered for him.
Their rightly terrified him. He begged
for a velvet collar and cuffs to a frock
coat, a gayer waistcoat; but his tailor
! backed by his two boon companions
who had escorted him to prevent his
escape, demonstrated: ION this occa-
sion, Mr.. Stevenson, you must allow M.
| to use my judgment. You can order
what vagaries you choose when YOU
have only yourself to please" This
rebuke from the man Of scissors Queliei
him. He was dressed for this feast at
our house, as his people were at Swans
ton, and the bridegroom feared, unless
| under surveillance to the last, he might
appear in his usual locked velveteen
jacket But he was childishly inter
ested in these novel clothes. He felt
so strange in orthodox attire that We
had difficulty in persuading him that
we were not chatting him when we did
not laugh when he, holding himself
erect, strutted in. Just as we thought
he was safely started for his post of
duty he rushed back and stood on a
chair to see himself once more in a
sideboard mirror, and, with a smile Of
incredulity, he sailed forth, apprehens-
i've of hearing jeers from an astonished
populace.
" He came in one Sunday evening,
saying he had gone to church with his
parents in these wedding garments. He
was honestly chagrined that they had
commended his appearance, and he
kept marveling that what to him was
y
ing notice down on his tall-hatted head
The other suit of feasible clothes he
was cajoled into ordering cost him a
mauvais quart dheure. They We're
singularly light-colored tweeds, and he
wore them one day that he Joined US
in London He made frequent calls on
us to admire him, and we fattered and
praised their make, for in them and
that wedding garment (Which he was
never seen to wear again since his
church. going in them was not consid-
cred a joke, he looked slight and grace
full. The padding hid his high snoul-
ders, and good cutting hid his spare
ness Walking up the pathway by
Holland House some smuts fell, and
Stevenson scudded like a ghost in his
light robes along the alley till. breath
less, nS SlOppOO diiQ 6dSPAA6iS e.r7iASA'
| Have any blacks fallen on my angel
clothes? !"
Vienna correspondence London Post:
Austria shares the doubtful honor
with Turkey of having a Government
tax on each newspaper printed in or
introduced into the country, and the
privilege with Russia of prohibiting
the sale of journals in the streets. The
removal of this unpopular tax on
knowledge has been a matter of con-
slant agitation. and promises OF a
speedy reform have been made by the
present Government. The obstruction
| ist policy of the Opposition in Parlia-
ment. however, has rendered the pros
pect of legislation on this point hope
less-at least within any measurable
space of time. The Social Democratic
party has, nevertheless, taken a very
pronounced position in the matter, and
| is agitating for an abolition of the OBJ
noxious laws. At the head of the
present movement are many compos-
itors. who fear that the number of the
employed will be considerably reduced
by the pending Introduction of compos-
| ing machines unless in the meantime
the existing tax is removed.
1t is a noteworthy feature OF the
present agitation that paper manufac-
1oi,. r.