New-York tribune., 1901-11-24

(fTOrn a recent ptotoSieApl-'
does not consider that wessex is yet e1ha4sted
as field for fiction. and we may look, there
fore, for new stories from his pen
Nobody could devise a better epithet for the
verses of the present poet laureate than that
applied by Robert Browning. "Strum-strurn-
was what the author Of 'SOrdello'' called them
and the latest edition OF them more than 1ustlneS
the title
Great is the enthusiasm Of Germany now and
| then over a favorite poet statue OF horIs. lth
has just been naugurated at Chemnltz WIN
Imposing ceremonies. 4 children's festival pre-
ceded the inauguration, and in the evening
K0rner's dramas were played at the theatres
Felix" is to be the title Of the novel which
Mr.. Robert Hichens is writing in Tanglers Mr
Hichens who is now about thlrty-seVen' pegan
to write novels when ne was SeFenteeh. l T.. ou.
made his first success later with The Green
Carnation' He has had a musical education,
and is musical critic or The LONDON
World" He is a short. lark. clean ShaVen man
Alas, it continues to be hard for the Briton
10 consider gently the questions Of American
taste and American humor one tart Islander,
writing IN ''Macmlan'S Magazine complains
that the eXagSerative and bolsterous qualltles
of Dickens have chiefly enthralIed Americans,
and ne adds: With natural appreciation OF
extrava ganCes. such those they thought they
had found in Dickens, American humorists- irnt-
tating consciously or unconSciCusy. sought to
create effects similar for instance. TO Mr..
Dounce's duandarv in the Sketches by Boz,'
by inventing q of ride ulous situations
But the result has been something essentially
different from anything in Dickens. because
with him the occurrences are always coordinate
emanations from a central character. with the
Americans they are successive tours de force
of the authors inventiveneSS-
Sfgnora Matilde Serao whose novel THE Bal
let Dancer" has Just been published here IN
English. is about forty five years old. She is of
Italian and Greek parentage. though her profile
would hardly indicate it She began her literary
work a a journalist in Naples
A friend of Cardinal Newman says in Tho
Cornhilr' that that eminent spent every
day from to or 3 o'clock in his study. He
always kept on his table the edition of Gibbon
with the notes of GuiZot and Milman D0Inger's
Heidenthum und Judenthum almost always
the copy of -Athanasius' which had belonged
Bossuet. and which contained in the margin
notes in the handwriting of the great bishop,
the last of the Fathers as Newman delighted
to call him. Newman had also always near at
hand some Greek poet or philosopher Talking
to me one day about Greek thinkers. he said
and | believe he has mentioned it others
that he owed little or nothing intellectually to
any Latin writer. with exception The ex-
CeptiOn was. not st. Augustine. but Cicero He
always maintained that he owed his marvellous
style to the persistent study of Cicero This VIII
strike, no doubt many people as most strange.
St Augustine. one would think. would have ap-
pealed to Newman; and his Latin was moro
picturesque than that of Cicero. Again
thorities say that Newman wrote better English
than Cicero Latin Nevertheless. ne constantly
insisted on his Obligations to the great Roman
statesman"
1t is stated in the Supplement- TO the pic
tonary OF National biography" that. while
prison. the late oscar Wilde wrote a kind Of
apology for his life. Il MS amounting to about
4JOUO words. now in the hands OF his literary
executor
The celebrated arch;eoIogist Professor Hill
precht, has nearly finished his history of As
syrian and Babylonian exploration in the nine
teenth century, and the work will be brought
out at the beginning of the year. He describes
therein the researches he has been making dur
ing the last twelve years, including his excava-
tion or no less than sixty thousand cuneiforI2
texts.