The San Francisco call., 1905-04-30

ed in Naples. which is Madame serao's
home.
II seems that. in this country at
least. the family Bible is going out"
Henry Provide, who is the head of the
Oxford University press, said the other
day that whereas from 1875 the yearly
sale of Bibles in general had risen from
half million to a million, his asso-
citation was now selling only one family
Bible for every ten sold thirty or forty
years ago. Folk who read Bibles prefer
the smaller book with large print to
the formal heavy volume of holy writ
The official registra ton of births, mar
riages and deaths has also dealt a
heavy blow to the sale of the family
Bible. in which these events used to be
so conscientiously recorded by humble
folk
One of the newest curiosities in
Biblical publications is an edition of
the New Testament in Scotch dialect
Here is a sample of the text: Than
sal the kingdom y heaven be like to
ten maidens, taken ilks ane her ain
cruste. and gaun ootsto meet the bride
groom.
Apropos Of the movement to erect an
adequate monument over the grave of
Fanny Burney's some interesting de-
tails have just been published regard
ing the prices which the author re-
ceived for her books. 1t seems that
on the whole Madame d'Arblay evened
things up very we'll. for although her
best story, "Evelina," brought her only
SloO, she got at least $500 for The
Wanderer," which is probably the dull
est oook In this or any other language
ever written by an author with so
sprightly an early record as "Evelina. >"
Within six months $500 copies of THE
Wanderer' were sold- and paid for at
the price of $40 apiece. For Cecilia"
the author got only $3.50. though it was
a good story-en the other hand Ca
milla" brought her in 5000 guineas. or
$4,000, though it was decidedly poor
stuff This makes a total of sor1etf,ine
like S25, 600 for the four novels
Writing in a French literary iour-
nal, fAdolphe Brisson has just made the
interesting announcement that Jules
Verne was indebted to George Sand for
the idea Of Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea" Proof of this asser-
tion is furnished by Brisson in the
shape of a letter addressed by the
author of Consuelo" to jules Verne
In this Madame Sand writes to thank
her fellow craftsman for the relief
which she had derived from his ro-
mances at a time of trouble
have only one regret" she saws
that / have finished them, and that
there are not a dozen more for me to
read. And she adds: Il hope YOU
VIII presently conduct us to the depths
OF the sea. making your characters
travel in such submarine vessels as
your knowledge combined with your
imagination will enable you 10 invent. :"
Evidently Verne lost no time in TAX
ing the hint and the result was his
great story of Captain Memo. which
almost every American boy has read.
Roger Pocock, whose books. The
Frontiersman" and Curly" were most
~ written from his own experiences
in the Far West. is secretary and one
Of the leading spirits of a so-called
Legion Of Frontiersmen,' which has
just been formed in London. This
body, which is intended to be useful
to the British Empire in case of war.
will be much on the lines of the Ameri-
can Rough Riders" the chief quaIi-
fication for membership being expert
ence either in shooting, mining or pros