The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-03
OF BOOKS AND AUTHORS
CORD-UNION'S'' GLEANINGS
IN LITERATURE.
Leading Books-Literary Curiosi.
tdes-Famous Writers-The
Publishing World.

to the statement of the photographer,
he drank at one sitting twenty-five
cups Of tea, what fluid measure would
that many cups represent? From ac-
tuad measurements to-day, these tWen-
ty-five cups of tea are equivalent to
six quarts. Somebody writes to Notes
and Queries that the tea cup of the
last quarter Of the eighteenth century
was by no means as large as is the
cup of to-day, and that the twenty-five
cups of tea DR.. Johnson guzzled would
not be more than a fluid pint and
half. We question the accuracy Of the
Notes and Queries " correspondent.
Balzac used to hunt names for the
characters in his romances. He would
not be satisfied with one Of his own
invention. 1t had to have actual ex-
isltence. So perambulating Paris or
Tours, he would study the signs, and
was delighted when he found name
which suited his personages. Dickens,
we fancy, rather invented his funny
names. 1t is said, however, that he
took Oliver Twist from an omnibus con-
ductor. There was bus driver, and
as the conductor shut the door of the
vehicle he cried out to the jehu, go on.
Oliver Twist" and Dickens who was a
passenger at once adopted the name for
the boy who asked for more"
New York Times: Fiction takes on
to itself the more positive garb of
reality when what is the commonplace,
or the apparently irrelevant, is pur-
posely introduced. Studying the men
tai effects brought about by such inter-
polations, it is as if when the stress
is suddenly relaxed and the strain on
the attention again sets in during the
brief moment of rest, emotional in
stincts are intensified When Defoe
writes it is precisely these Intentionally
made breaks which render him the
great master Of realism. In orchestral
music the stretto is but noise when
overused. An instance of natural eff
feet is unwittingly presented in Cap
tain Sigsbee's Personal Narrative of
the Maine" to be read in the Gen
tury'' for this month. The sad story
is admirably told. An hour before the
terrible calamity Captain Sigsbee
changed his undress uniform His
cabin mess attendant, James Pickney,
colored man, brought him light
summer coat, for the night was hot and
oppressive. In the pocket of that coat
Captain Sigsbee found an unopened and
undelivered letter. (which / had car
ried in that pocket for ten months a
letter to my wife from one of her
friends of long standing" Thereupon
Captain Sigsbee sat down to write to
Mrs. Sigsbee, and struggled to apollo
gize to the lady for the nom delivery Of
the letter Poor Jim Pickney, who
spent much of his spare time in sing
ing, playing the banjo and dancing
jigs, was for some reason in an es-
pecially happy frame of mind that
night. Poor fellow, he was killed. as
was also good old John r. Bell, the
colored cabin steward, who had been
IN the navy twenty-seven years. How
strangely plated are the strands of
comedy and tragedy in life!
You see, if you don't watch out care
fully you are bound to put your foot
in it. A maker of romance, having
emphasized that his hero is drinking
out of pint cup, will sometimes make
the vessel hold an imperial quart The
Academy" says that Rudyard Kipling,
in his story THE Days Work." de-
scribes steamer Of $500 tons and her
measurement is 24O feet long by 81
feet wide. Then the steamer takes
aboard of her 1000 tons dead weight
Most shippers would know that
steamer with the dimensions as de-
scribed never could take such a 1000
ton load. But then, Rudyard Kipling's
readers are not all freighters or ship
brokers.
A paper dealing with the suppressed
etchingS Of Thackeray and including
reproductions of these plates will ap
pear in the January number of the
Pail Mall Gazette
There is report that Mr. Kipling is
receiving something over $4,000 on
the sales of "The Days Work"
II
John Morley, when he began work
upon the Gladstone biography, thought
it possible to complete the book in a
year at most. Now, however, he be-
lieves that at least two years must
elapse before he can even collate the
mass of documents before him. He
regards the preparation of this biogra-
ply as the greatest and most enjoyable |
task of his life.
Many drawings not yet published
will appear in the collection of a hun
dred and fifty sketches by Aubrey |
Beardsley, just coming out in London. !
Z The letters which John Stuart Mill |
wrote between 1871 and 1916 to Au-
guste Comte are soon to be published |
fnr GrCf iy1n &C. I'D hot
in this correspondence light is thrown |
on the English subsidy" which was
the occasion of the estrangement be-
tween the Englishman and the French |
man. Comte having lost his engage |
ment at the Ecole Polytechnique. Mill
generously arranged with two friends |
to provide sufficient resources to enable |
Comte to carry on his work in the year
1914. Comte apparently thought that |
the subsidy would be renewed from |
year to year, and was annoyed when
it did not come in 1916. Mill with the |
greatest delicacy and tact, tried to ex-
plain the error, observing that his |
1914 were not disciples of the French
philosopher, and had not engaged |
themselves for the future.
There is a touching glimpse of Marie
Antoinette in new English volume OF
"reminiscences of foreign courts and
foreign homes. The writer. when a
child, lived for time in Cherbourg, |
and paid daily visits to a bed-ridden
old Breton called Old Jean Old Jean
was the nephew Of one of the national
Guard who kept watch over the I'M
1T