The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-12-09
Literary News and Notes.

j. X 4
The Metropolitan Magazine shows con
slant Improvement under its new man
agement, and is forging rapidly to the
front. A very attractive feature is the
''Notes and Pictures. - The notes are.
cleverly written and the pictures are
timely. The Christmas number has an
attractive cover picture showing young
lady returning from Christmas shopping
laden with packages, and there are
Christmas stories and pictures with
much other entertaining matter.
Recreation for December has one of
the most attractive three-color cover
designs from photograph we have yet
seen. 1t combines the spirit of Christ
mas with that of outdoor life in it's holly
decorated border encircling the vigorous,
athletic winter girl, and the hundred or
more photographs and score of articles
contained in its Ga pages, seem to bring
the very breath of the big out of doors
to the reader Interspersed with the
"Beep There" stories, are practical ar
ticles which will be of great help to the
hunter, fisherman, automobilist, and, in
fact, to any sportsman.
To the issue of Harper's Weekly for
November Goth, Lewis M. Terman con-
tributes startling Indictment of modern
methods of education. Given though
the child survive temporarily the dangers
incident to breathing impoverished and
dust-laden air. he says, "his body be-
comes cramped by too much sitting, and
develops, in almost every case, greater
or less deformity of spine, shoulders, or
limbs The school is frequently instru-
mental in stunning the development of
the chest and reducing vital capacity
by from ten to thirty per cent. The
school all but deprives the child of the
opportunity to exercise the large, or
fundamental, muscles of his body, and
sets him instead to wagging the little
muscles Of the eye, hand and tongue
An original conception in Christmas
greeting is found upon the cover of the
National Magazine for December. 1t is
planned for 1910. In full uniform he is
represented dragging home a generous
sized Christmas tree, with smile on his
prosperous Santa Claus. In his hand is
shown the axe with which he captured the
Yuletide trophy. The National sparkles
with the Christmas spirit, and even the
stern dignity of officialdom at Washing
ton, in the glow of Christmas good cheer,
is portrayed by Editor Joe Chapple in his
own congenial way. The felicities of the
season adorn the stern business letters,
and the reader begins feeling Christmas
sy before he has been long submerged in
the pages of the December National.
To the December Atlantic DR.. Samuel
McChord Crothers contributes one of the
most diverting of all his essays. The
books of all the ages hold convention in
order to have full and frank discussion
of their readers, and in the sequel Dr.
Crothers' humor has the freest oppor-
tunity to play. The opening article in
this issue of the Atlantic forms the first
installment of series of letters written
from Japan during the last years of his
life by Lafcadio Hearn to his close
friend, Professor Basil Hall Chamber
lain. These letters, discovered too late
to be Incorporated in Miss Bisland's
Life and Letters give vivid idea of
| the astonishing range of Hearn's intel
lect and the luxuriance of his tropical
imagination. Another paper in the same
issue which attracts involuntary COM
ment is Henry D. Sedgwick's "The Re-
ligion of the Past" which suggests,
though it does not express, an argument
directly in reply to President Eiot's ia
nous Religion of the Future" while
the Atlantic's vigorous discussion of the
problem of the American merchant
marine is continued by a paper on the
question. ''Can America Produce Mer-
chant Seamen?"