Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-10-05

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American men of letters continue to
gravitate eastward. Booth Tarking-
ton, the Indiana novelist, who has been
nearly year in Europe, spending most
of the time in Rome and Paris, de-
clareS his purpose to live in New York
for year or more and give his time
to studying and writing stories of
political life. This probably means
that he will stay there permanently
and it will be interesting to observe
the effect 1t varies widely with differ
ent people; Howells and Bret Harte,
for example.
Moncure Conway's autobiography
should be one of the most remarkable
books Of the season. He is 80 years
Of age and thirty years of his life were
spent in London. He is Virginian by
birth, connected by family ties with
the Washingtons and other historic
rare and intimate picture of life in the
South in his boyhood in the '40ss and
SOS of the last century. 1t will pre-
sent also the matter of the authors
conversations with Emerson, Thoreau,
Hawthorne, Lowell, Garrison, Tenny-
son, Disraeli, Carlyle, Browning, Glad
stone, Burne Jones and many other
men of distinction.
Hamlin Garland describes himself as
novelist, dramatist, and farmer. Writ
ing to a friend recently Of his farm at
West Salem, Wis, he says: My life
here goes on like the hands on town
clock. write three hours in the morn
Ing, and work in the garden, do car
pentering or build fences in the after
noon, go to bed at nine, and rise at
half-past six the next day, to take up
the same routine. .. sold
twenty-five dollars worth of straw
berries and forty dollars worth Of
early potatoes that sounds too
much like bOasting. !. I've got
the dog gonedest patch of hubbard
squashesr
One Of the literary periodicals
sQuints trifle toward sensation in an
announcement that 1T will be news
to the reading public that Russia has
counterpart to the shrine Of
Lourdes" in the Sarov spring on the
site Of the hut of st. Seraphim, and
promises the story Of the canonization
or the saint year ago, when the
whole royal family took part in the
cnrnmOpv Tho yna0e1;ro,e op,,o,,~oo,.
is mistaken. 1t is not news" unless,
perhaps, to a few. The story was told
in print some time ago of how her.
NIT OF century or so ago was really
one Of the czars, who, suspected, Justly
or unjustly, Of having joined in the
murder Of his uncle, abdicated the
throne and lived ever after as ssholy
hermit" 1.-THE reading public has
been told all about the growth Of the
absurd myth.
In this period Of Lewis and Clark
celebrations the appearance Of a fine
library reprint Of Gass' Journal is espe-
cially pertinent. Sergeant Patrick Gass
was the dominant figure among the
rank ana lille in the celebrated eXpedi-
ton across the continent, and although
an entirely unlettered man, his diary,
brought out in the first years of the
nineteenth century, was one of the
most valuable contributions to the lit
erature of the subject 1t has, how
ever, been for many years unavailable.
The volume is edited, with an intro
duction, by DR.. James X. Hosmer, and
has an analytical index and fac-similes
Of the quaint original illustrations.
The same house will also issue
"Short History of Oregon compiled
by Sidona B. Johnson, which will cover
the early discoveries, the Lewis and
Clark explorations, settlement, govern
ment Indian wars, and progress.
WHAT RUSSIANS M WITH