The times., 1899-02-05

forthcoming According to the lady who
tells the story the child was led into this
deceit by the influence Of fairy tales; and
the old Saxon legend is offered as an an
tidote. 1t is not explained what the pa
rents had been reading to cause their
amazing foolishness
The Princess de Metternich is about TO
publish her memoirs. The London Daily
Chronicle" says that considering the con-
spicuous part the princess played in Paris
ian society between 1860 and 1870 these
should be OF especial interest.
William Michael Rossetti has just pub
lished volume entitled 'Ruskin: Rossetti:
Preraphaelitism." 1t contains some of
Ruskin's criticisms of Rossetti, one of
which is as follows:
Please ohligc me in two matters. or .you will
make me i'll again Take all the pure green out
of the flesh Of the "Natiyity' | send, and try TO
get it little less like worsted work.
1t appears from advance sheets of THE
Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll that
we are indebted to George Macdonald for
Alice in Wonderland The author had
no idea of publishing the book. but Mac
donald persuaded him to do so. and on July
4, 1865, just three years after the row up
the river on which the story was begun,
Alice Liddell, the Alice" of the tale, re-
ceived the first presentation copy. The
second was sent to Princess Beatrice.
So good an authority as the Critic"
should not refer to Nellie Blanchan if
she were u man. II the reviewer of her
latest book, Birds That Hunt and Are
Hunted" had only read the preface. this
mistake would have been discovered. And
the name is spelled ''Nieltje!"
A Ruskin House is to be established at
Oxford for the diffusion of light on labor
problems.
This story of Riley comes from Cincin-
natl book reviewer:
When James wltcomb Riley was last here his
friend Dr. Hayes, took my umbrella with him
to indianapolis by mistake. On New Years Day
Riley sent copy OF his latest book, THE
Golden Year with the following verse written
on the fyleaf:
In this existence. dry and wet
win overtake the best of men III
Some little skift o clouds II shet
The off and then.
And. maybe, while you're wundern who
You've, foOl-like, lent your unbrelr to,
And want it-out'n pop the sun,
And you'n be glad you hain't got none!
Doubleday & Mcclure announce for pub
lication in February a new novel by Maui
rus Jokai, entitled An Hungarian Nabob.''
1t has been translated by r. Nisbet Balm
and is said to be one of the most thrilling
and adventuresome of the Hungarian au-
thor's many tales.
Frank r. Stoekton's idea of shop where
poetry might be repaired, which forms a
part of The Late Mrs. Null has coun-
terpart in the late Alphonse Daudet's
Dealer in Happiness" mentioned in the
memoir by his son. Daudet imagined
shop in a poor quarter, where the misera-
bic might come TO obtain happiness.
The new American author, Edwin Cas-
koden," who has come into sudden promi-
nence through his novel When Knight
wood was-in Flower" is in private life
Mr.. Charles Major. an Indiana lawyer. Mr..
Major was born in Indianapolis in 1856, in
n house which stood where the city library
now stands. lie lived there until his four
teenth year. when the family moved to
Sheibyviile. where they have remained
ever since. After graduating from a three
year course at Ann Arbor he began reading
law in the office of his father. Judge Major,
and was admitted to the bar in 1877. Al
though Mr.. Major has held some city
Offices, and was one year sent to the State
Legislature by the Democrats, he has no
political tastes or ambition and refused Il
denomination.
the way in which authors are confused
with one another in the mind of the pub
lie. Mr.. George Meredith, he says, is still
believed to be the late Lord Lytton by
many worthy but unthinking people. "a
lady once told me that of all Mr.. Matthew
Arnold's poems she preferred the Light
of Asia l answered that, of Sir Edwin
Arnold's verses. the Scholar Gypsy was
most to my taste"
Small. Maynard & Co., will publish i'm
mediately the first four volumes of the
Beacon Biographies" which are edited
by NJ. a. de Wolfe Howe. The volumes
are Admiral Farragut.' by James Barnes:
James Russell Lowell by Edward Ever
EFT Hale, ir.; Robert E. Lee" by Pro-
fessor Trent, of the University of West Vir-
ginia and Phillips Brooks" by the editor
of the series. The same firm will soon
publish a volume entitled MIR. Dooley in
the Hearts Of His Countrymen."
Charles Herbert Moore's Development
and Character of Gothic Architecture" is
to pass into new and revised edition,
which will contain n number of very fine
pictures reproduced by Photographic pro-
cess. and also large amount of fresh ma
terial, gathered at first hand from the
monuments.
One Of the most awful problems of mod
ern life is the devising of means of amuse-
ment for people who do not or must not
dance. Ii is evident that such people will
assemble in force at the church sociable.
and as raffies. amateur theatricals and
card parties are prohibited, as well as
dancing there is really some difficulty in
solving the problem. A small book entitled
Church Sociables and Entertainments"
which explains not only how to entertain
fsl Ff.h
masks, mysterious package sales which are
not lotteries, and marches which are not
dancing, will prove Il godsend to weary
committees on entertainment There are
really some very good ideas in this little
work, and. what is most pleasing they
can be adapted TO the means of cOngrega-
tions without much ready money. (New
York: Doubleday Mcclure Company.
Fifty cents)
The New Amsterdam Book Company is
soon 10 publish The Downfall of the
Dervishes,' by Z. y. Bennett. This book
| contains a vivid account of the last expe-
dition to the Soudan under General Kitch-
ener. and graphically describes the battle
Of Omdurman and the capture of Khar-
| toum.
| Mr.. Frank Norris will publish in Feb
| ruary, through the Doubleday & Mcclure
| Company, a long novel called ''McTeague."
! Like the authors first book. il is story
| of San Francisco. but it is Il much more
ambitious work than that story of ad-
! venture. The principal figure is a hercu-
! lean dentist, In accommodation
street" on whom the veneer of edrcation
and civilization is really very thin indeed;
| and the study of this man-sluggishly
| good natured until roused-with his
| gradual relapse into the primitive man.