The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-05

upon fanciful subjects and it is doubt
full whether the result will be of any
real value to literature, though the
prize winner will be materially assist
ed by the money. There are not very
many instances on record of a writer,
introduced to the public through OBJ
tanning a money prize for his work
amounting to much afterwards and
making name for himself. The posi-
ton of reader of the manuscripts that
Will be sent in to contest for the prize
is not one to be envied.
Explorer Once in ST. Paul.
Carl Lumholtz, the explorer Of Mex
leo, has recently published a work in
two volumes on the early inhabitants
of Mexico as a result of his sojourn
and researches in that country. Just
before leaving for Mexico to begin his
work Prof. Lumholtz was in this city
The guest of friends and outlined what
he intended to do. After this he dis
appeared for several years. He is a
Norwegian, not an old man, and met
we'll known st. Paul family in Paris
years ago and offered to name his ex-
plOring expedition after a rich ST. Paul
girl If she would finance the party he
was going with. But the st. Paul girl
did not quite see the advantage in hav-
ing her name go down to posterity in
that manner, so the negotiations came
to naught. Prof. Lumholtz has been
in London and is going to Paris before
returning to New York His book is
interesting and instructive.
Lists of Best Books.
New lists of the best 100 books are
constantly appearing gotten up for Ii
brary or other purposes. One which
has recently been made up by the
library of the Wilmington institute in
Delaware includes such old timers as
"Evelina," Jane Austen's Emma" and
Elsie Venner." But this list does not
include "Pickwick Papers," without
which no list of the best books can
possibly be complete, nor "Barnaby
Ridge" nor Felix Holt Tess of the
D'Urbervilles," the latter not so strange
an omission as some of the others, by
the way. There is very little value in
these lists, as they are the arbitrary
decision of a possibly pedantic some
body who includes every scratch of the
pen of his favorite writer and leaves
out much standard literature that
would go in the most ordinary list
After all the public reads pretty much
what 1T pleases and lists like this are
only valuable when they assist the
buyer for library to know what is re-
garded as standard literature and what
is not. The man who would leave
Pickwick Papers out of any list is
hardly fit for the position of literary
arbiter
Early Life in White House.
An interesting book recently pub
lished relates to social life in this
country at the close of the Revolution
and under the first occupants of the
White House. The book is by Anne
HollingsWorth Wharton, CT whom it is
of y.nn Id 11A4
OF Edith Wharton, although it is be-
lieved that they both reside in Phila-
delphia. She tells entertainingly Of the
customs, dress, table manners and dec
orations of an early day, and devotes
an interesting chapter to the causes
that led to the selection of WASHINGTON
as the seat of government. The writer
quotes a letter of a lady written at the
close OF the eighteenth century and re-
lating to the fashions CT the time:
Small beaver hats are very much
worn, not with caps; ribbons through
the hair, with a rose on thye side. or
half handkerchief put On turban fash
ion with the corner down behind, the
hair cut short at the side, the cllrls
craped out full smooth on the forehead.
l had it in contemplation to get wig
but 1 have got what 1 like so much
better for myself. 1t is called a bando.
I heard the ladies with whom I was in
| company last night say that the fash
ionable manner of dressing the hair
| was more like the Indians--the hair
without powder, and looked sleek and
hung down the forehead in strings.
| Mine will do that to a nicely. / OBJ
| serve powder is scarcely worn; only.
believe, by these who are gray, too
| much SO to go without powder, I mean
| How these ladies in the Indian fashion
| dress their hair behind 1 cannot say;
| but those out Of that fashion that I
| have seen, and who do not wear wigs.
have six or eight curls in their necks
| and turn up the rest ana curl the ends"
Here is something about an old-fash-
! Toned entertainment that will interest
| the modern housekeeper:
TN the middle COT the tabie} was
! an orange tree with ripe fruit; and
| where q common spectator might i'm
agtne the root was. 1t was covered with