The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-14

good is something rare noWdudyN' anu this fact lends additional interest to the announcement of the Diamond King and the Little Man in Cray In setting her small heroine amid the elves, gnomes, and giants Of fairy kingdom, Mrs. Wesselhoeft has taken up a somewhat different line of juve- nile literature from that of her other books, line, however, in which she Is no less successful than in the popular stories that have made her reputation as favorite writer for children.
 In Harper's magazine for October Prof. Thomas R. Lounsbury exposes the fallacy of the notion that concise- ness is in all cases a virtue:
 The gospel of conciseness. like the gospel of silence, is proclaimed in hundreds of articles and books. Every one, however, little he himself follows its precepts, recommends them to his | friends and charges disregard of them upon his foes. Now, concisencss is neither a good thing nor bad thing | in itself. Its value. likeits appropriate ness, depends upon the subject upon the occasion, upon the audience ad- | dressed. But the success of its depends most of all upon the personality of the speaker. If terseness can be united with vigor of expression which con- veys the idea powerfully to sho mind and with point which fixes it there, nothing can be more all-sufiicieft. Conciseness, then, has done its perfect work ut to effect this result requires great ability, if not genius; and great ability, to say nothing of genius, is very exceptional. On the other hand, when brevity is united with dullness -as it is very apt to belt loses not Tmerely the power to influence and to inspire, but to inform. To be concise, without being bald and iejune, Is grant ed only to the higher order of minds. On the other hand, condensation, even when the matter is particularly yalu- able, is rarely entertaining. Intellectual 1 fare can no more be made palatable by compression than can bodily Penmi- can is described as a food intended to comprise the greatest amount of nu- triton in the smallest space. It is use l ful-infact, invaluabe-on certain oc- casions and in certain places. But no one is likely to choose it as a regular article of diet, still less to entertain his friends with it at a least."
 In the World To-day for October James WestfalI Thompson tells how the wine trade of France has been ruined by artificial wine:
 Tt is sugar that has killed the wine trade of France. Within limits the use of sugar in wine is legal The wine oi the early vintage in many of the de partments is green and weak in. .alco- hol, averaging from six to eight de- grees, but 1t can be fortified. Five kilos of sugar per hectoliter will make the Igreen wine similar to that of the later Ivintage. If the practice of using suEai
 were confined only to the early vint- age there would be little complaint
 but it is not, The later vintage is dilut, cd with water and treated with sugar and enormous quantities of the poorer wine are bought up, doctored and put
 upon the market at a low price. BuI this conditions is not the worst AT ingenious chemist, had discovered tha'
 with the aid of sugar an artificial wint
 could be produced very cheaply Two
 hectoliters of sugared water alcoholizet
 to ten degrees and properly treated
 with tartaric acid, tannin, glycerint
 and so forth, will make wine whicf will return twenty francs to the man
 ufacturer Another3 way is to mix { lhectoliter of Algerian wine, which i
 heavy in alcohol (12-14 degrees) anC
 costs 15 francs in Paris, with other in
 gradients, so that three hectoliters 0
 wine are produced at a cost of thirty
 five francs, or eleven francs eight.
 centimes per hectoltei This is sup
 posedly good wine. having 10 degree
 of alcohol Tn contrast with this cost
 compare that borne by the siNnpl Vineyard man who is trying to sell hi
 product .n Paris. Unless he can sell hi
 wine at eighteen francs he loses mon ley"
 Robert Kennedy Duncan, author o l "The Chemistry of Commerce" pub lished by the Harpers, is professor O
 industrial chemistry in the Elniversit
 of Kansas He Is a brother of Norman
 Duncan, the novelist. author of nh , Cruise of the Shining Light" Proi Duncan was born in Brantford, Can in 1868. He was graduated with first class honors in chemistry and physic from the University of Toronto, an , was afterward fellow in chemistry Q , Clark University and the University 0 } Chicago He was for some years pro i. lessor of chemistry at Washington an Jefferson college, but relinquished tha position to accept chair in the Uni
 versity of Kansas. He has invente , lseveral processe in the handling c l lphosphorous, glass, and other things. l The Mcclure Company are just is I lsuing a volume of stories dealin F with Western life by 0. Henry, en
 titled Heart of the Vest; ''Th
 Blazed Trail" by Stewart Edwar , White; a volume of narrative sketch ' es, entitled 'Oid Indian Days" by DI Charles A. Eastman; a book for yer
 young people by the sister of Kat Douglas Wiggin, Nora Archibal 5 Smith, The Adventures of Doll B Wine, Women and Song" an essa
 on the mediaeval haun student