The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-08

That's the way to fool en- that's the
way to bring
All the world to praising any vague old
thing.
The English have just Caught ON"
to David Harum" 1t puzzled them for
time, but two large editions have now
been sold out, and it promises 10 be the
most successful American book of the
year, in England as well rs i'll this
country
Rider Iaggard's "She' no .doubt at
tracted attention in part by the odd
brevity of its title-more OF a novelty
then than now. An English woman
novelist has just established new
record by publishing story with the
title Il" and after that the only way
to beat it is to publish a book with no
title at all. Some one has already writ
ten a short story with the title "?''
but surely &C." and ~" might follow,
says the Springfield Republican,.
1t is reported that the whole edition
Of Lionel Decle's book, Trooper 3S09.
was sold out within week. Mr.. Decle
when the attention of the whole world
was ccntered on the French army scan
dial, and his caustic portrayal of the
abuses of the conscript system has excl
ted much interest, both in England and
i'll this country.
1t is said that Rudyard Kipling and
Ernest SetonThompson met last win
ter, and spent an evening telling each
other animal stories. The interpreter of
the jungle wanted Il story Of Il grizzly
bear. Mr.. Thompson had one ready
for him. 1t took an hour 10 tell Il.
When he had finished, Mr.. Kiping ex-
claimed: That's fine. Tnompson; why
don't you write it?'' Mr.. Thompson has
since written it, under the title of 'fhe
Biography of a Grizzly" and its publ
cation will be begun n the November
number of The Century Magazine. II
is the first long story ny the author Of
"Wild Animals | Have Knowr. Need
less to say he will illustrate it himself.
The decorative arrangement of rhe pages
will be the work of his wife.
1t is said every sheet Of the collected
edition of Mark Twain's writings is to
have the Mark Twain watermark on
it, and the first volume OF each set will
contain his autograph Only GOO acts
are to be sold in England, and their
publication is to begin in November.
The edition will be illustrated and the
works he has published up to date are
to go into eighteen volumes.
Mrs. Humphrey Ward has been staying
in the bleak scenery Of the Yorkshire
woods. so as to get the genius loci into
her preface about Charlotte Bronte.
She has son at Balliol who won a uni
versity prize this year. Ability is GER
tainly hereditary in some families. Here
we have it conspicuous in four gener-
ations-the young priZeman, his eminent
mother, her father and his yet more fa-
nous brother, Matthew Arnold, and her
grandfather, the great Thomas Arnold,
the greatest figure in five centuries of
English public school life. This rivals
the records of the Coleridges and the
Wordsworths.
Apropos of the forthcoming volume re-
cording the doings of The Brownies
Abroad" it is reported that of Palmer
COx's various Brownie books over $780,
600 copies have thus far been put upon
the market.
1t is not for nothing that Miss Brad
don has written something like three
score novels. Few popular writers of this
time has achieved a more steady and
continuous share of pecuniary success or
have brought to the work of authorship
Il larger measure of business aptitude
The results are seen in the two delight
full homes between which the author of
Lady Audley's Secret" divides her
time.
The present generation Is only now
coming to understand the meaning of
the word work" 1t applies to all
classes, rich and poor alike, and Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson has under
taken to make this clear in her arti-
Gle, What Work Is" which apears in
the October Cosmopolitan"