James Barnes.

the army or navy. Mr. Barnes was a student at St. Paul's School in Concord, and after three or four years of life in the west he entered Princeton, and was graduated in the class of 1891. While in college he was an editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine, and after leaving college he was connected for a time with Scribner's Magazine and with Harper's Weekly.

The author of "Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto," Abraham Cahan, was born in

Abraham Cahan.

Wilna, Lithuania, Russia, in 1860. His father was a teacher of Hebrew, his grandfather a rabbi, and Mr. Cahan was intended for this profession at first and studied the Talmud with his father. Later, however, he became a pupil in the Government school, and finally, graduating from the Teachers' Institute, he became a teacher in the public school in the Government of Vitebsk, but after a year he was forced to fly from his country to avoid arrest as a member of the Revolutionary party. On reaching New York, in 1882, he obtained work in a factory, and spent his evenings in studying English and writing for Russian papers. After mastering English he taught it to Jewish laboring people, and for ten years he was a teacher in a night school. He was interested in the establishment of an Yiddish publication and is the editor of the weekly and monthly editions. In "Yekl" Mr. Cahan has opened a new field in American fiction, and it is within bounds to say that the life of the Ghetto has never been treated with such exact knowledge and truthfulness.

J. Bloundelle Burton was born in 1850. His parents intended him for a military life, but when at twenty-one he came into a comfortable inheritance, he determined to see something of the world. Already familiar with the continent, he turned to fresher pastures and came to Canada; then running over the border into the " States," he lived down South for a considerable period. Going back to England, he flitted between London and Paris, the latter being his favorite abode.

Mr. Burton's first long story was "The Silent Shore," which had quite a career under several different guises. Originally published in volume form, it later appeared as a play at the Olympic Theatre;

then ran as a serial in Spanish in a South American paper, and ended up as a serial in several English provincial papers. His next story was "His Own Enemy." "The Desert Ship," Mr. Burton's next book and the first to bring him genuine fame, was published by Hutchinson and Company, in London. He is also the author of "In the Day of Adversity, "Denounced," and "The Hispaniola Plate."

J. Bloundelle Burton.

Current Literature.

Robert S. Hichens, author of "The Folly of Eustace," is a young man of thirty-two. As a boy he was devoted to music, though he manifested early a distinct gift for writing. At the age of seventeen he had completed a novel, and found a publisher for it. After a course

at the Royal College of Music he began as a lyric writer, and produced some two or three hundred copies of verses for music. His first short story, "The Collaborators," was brought out in the Pall Mall. In addition to his literary work, Mr. Hichens is the musical critic of the London World, and his articles are said to be both just and ingenious. His power as a writer of fiction has been shown in The Green Carnation,' and "An Imaginative Man."

NOTES FROM BOSTON.

NATHAN HASKELL DOLE.

BOSTON, February 15, 1897. Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts passed through Boston a few days ago on his way from his home in Fredericton, to New York, whither he has been called to collaborate with Mr. Francis Bellamy in the editorship of the Illustrated American. Lamson, Wolffe and Company have just issued his latest volume of poems: "The Book of the Native." It is a book of about one hundred and fifty pages, containing just half a hundred lyrics. Only three of them are sonnets and I believe there is not one reference in them to "the great god Pan." For a poet in these days to write sweetly and sympathetically of nature and to refrain from raving over that goat-legged old humbug whom not one of them would introduce to his wife orif the poet be a woman-would speak to in the woods, is surely as high commendation as the average book buyer would desire. To write genuine simple musical lyrics, without any hysterical attempts to be decadent or to twist words and phrases out of their natural meaning is certainly an unusual spectacle—I almost said-in a Canadian poet. And so although Mr. Roberts may not write such astonishing verse as his cousin, Mr. Bliss Carman, or shine quite so dazzlingly by reason of originality, he is a steadier and serener poet. But what promise would not have been detected in our early American poets if they had begun with such triumphs of verse as some of our recent poets have brought forth. have just finished reading the advance copy of Mr. Roberts' Acadian romance The Forge in the Forest." The hero of it is the Ranger, Gaston de Mer, the Seigneur de Briart, who after the frank and generous style of Stanley Weyman's chief characters, tells his adventures on land and sea. Mr. Roberts' canvas is not on a very extensive scale; he does not cover such a series of adventures as befalls the hero of Mr. Gilbert Parker's "Seats of the Mighty." He has not so complicated a plot as M. J. Stimson has spun for "King Noanett, but there is not a word wasted, there is not one scene too many and the language is exquisite in its grace and polish. I will not spoil a single reader's enjoyment of the story by giving a hint at its construction; but I will say there is a devilishly-crafty Abbé who is constantly outwitted and though there is some fighting, Mr. Roberts has kindly spared us the unmitigated "blood and thunder" which are the baneful Siamese twins of modern fiction. It is healthily exciting; there are hairbreadth escapes; the Indian appears in all his war paint, but Mr. Roberts agrees with the late Fenimore Cooper that a romanticallygenerous and brave Indian is not an unpleas

I

I should think that

ing object in fiction. "The Forge in the Forest," though it follows closely in the line of all recent historical fiction, would delight an immense circle of readers; it is fresh, stirring, pure and chaste, and evidently written with the keenest enthusiasm and not because the author set himself to accomplish a tour de force. In his researches for materials for his "History of Canada,' which the same publishers have in hand, Mr. Roberts must have found many equally good plots for novels.

The Forge in the Forest" contains seven illustrations by Mr. Henry Sandham. The originals have during the past ten days made a part of Mr. Sandham's exhibition at the rooms of the Boston Art Club. Few artists -in Boston at least-I doubt if any other, could have gathered together so large a collection representative of so many phases of their individuality as Mr. Sandham has done. Portraits, landscapes, genre pictures and pictorial poems as well as the abundant fecundity of his illustrations in black and white display a distinct character that marks them as his.

Mr. Sandham's exhibition at the Art Club has been followed by an interesting exhibition of rare books, gathered together under the auspices of the Club of Odd Volumes, which thus celebrates the tenth anniversary of its existence. Among the treasures displayed are the famous " Cambridge Platform" of 1649, the first book printed in the Colonies ; William Hubbard's Narration of the Troubles with the Indians of New England, 1667;" "John Higginson's Election Sermon of 1663,' the first printed in America; many copies of Mather literature, a first edition of the Eliot's Indian Bible, beautiful bindings, fine old MSS., and specimens of curious revolutionary and colonial prints, and no less than three hundred and sixty engravings from portraits of Washington.

The public library has also its exhibition. In the Barton room are displayed a complete colection of all the works issued by William Morris from the Kelmscott press. There are five or six copies of some, thus enabling various pages to be shown in the cases. few specimens belonging to the library are supplemented by borrowed volumes.

The

Since I am destined this time to write desultorily I may here mention an interesting exhibition of posters which Mr. Louis J. Rhead showed for a few days at the establishment of L. Prang and Company. The exhibition was on its way to Paris where Mr. Rhead has been invited to display it. The artist gave an explanatory talk on the art of poster designing and certainly it seems to me that a man who has manifested such surprising ingenuity and invention, such charming color effects and

such capital drawing, ought to have felt called upon to defend himself! Of course it may be that he would not have succeeded in the higher branches of art, but if he could it seems a sheer waste of genius to do the ephemeral. But then the "ephemeral" is only a matter of time and time is nothing!

A number of Americans of note have of late been elected honorary members of the Kauai Kodak Club in the Hawaiian Islands. Now several years ago there were received by some of these same individuals most flattering letters announcing that they had been. elected honorary members of the Trinity Historical Society of Dallas, Texas. And more than one I am sure went into a dark room where there was a mirror to see if there might not appear a slight evanescent gleam of a greenish halo. But whatever a Theosophist might have seen, others were disappointed; the halo was not there. The invitation to reciprocate the honor conferred by sending specimens of your literary or artistic work was only a trap set by the Pooh-Bah President of chat fake society. The Kauai Kodak Society has for its secretary Mr. E. S. Goodhue, a cousin of the Hawthornes, and author of a volume of delightful verse which has been commended by some of the best critics in this country. Mr. Goodhue sends a gentleman in Boston an extract from the constitution of the Club outlining its objects:

"The cultivation of something besides sugar-cane. This is an out-of-door club devoted to all that is cloud-roofed and air-exposed in this land of isles. We shall meet in Monkey-pad Hall, as need be, to compare snap-shots, plan excursions on foot or otherwise, to every nook and corner of our realm.

Those who object to such trivial matters may retire to Kodak Hall and continue the exercises, study the lives and works of our honorary members and discuss other pleasant and profitable subjects. . . . We sipe ourselves agreeable to any reasonable out-door scheme, whether it be mountain-climbing or sea-diving, holding ourselves the ready servants of Nature. . . One of our objects is to share our enjoyment; so we invite to Hawaii pleasant men and women, and receive and entertain them when they come, making them members."

When Mr. Grant Allen was elected an honorary member he wrote that at first he was afraid that the club was "trying to make an autograph rise out of him.” Mr. Goodhue in his letter says We hope no one else has such misguided ideas; we care nothing for autographs."

Roberts Brothers are preparing to bring out shortly a new book by Olive Schreiner, entitled "Trooper Peter Halket, of Mashonaland."

It is confidently expected that this book will show up the unfair treatment of the African in much the same way as Ramona," or "A Century of Dishonor," painted the American maltreatment of the Indians. Incidentally it scores Cecil Rhodes. Roberts Brothers will publish a posthumous book by Philip Gilbert Hamerton, entitled The Mount," being the record of a visit to the site of an ancient Gaulish fortress on Mount Bonvary, together with a description of the neighboring city of Autun. They have a new novel by Miss Anna Farquhar, one of the Musical critics of The Transcript. It is entitled "A Singer's Heart." The sixth volume in Copeland and Day's Oaten Stop Series will be "The Heart of Life,' by Mr. James Buckham, of the Youths' Companion. Mr. Buckham is a son of President Buckham, of the University of Vermont. He is a very modest and retiring man, but everyone who knows him admires him and speaks of him in the warmest terms.

The title of Mrs. Spofford's forthcoming volume of poems will be "In Titian's Garden.' That ought to insure it a large sale-at least here in Boston, where a lady whose name is constantly appearing in the social columns of the Sunday papers and whom everyone knowing her likes, and everyone not knowing her criticises out of sheer jealousy, has recently bought a genuine Titian for which she paid $100,000, considerably overbidding the authorities of the Louvre who wanted it.

Messrs. Crowell and Company have almost ready for publication a new edition of Cary's blank verse translation of Dante's "Divina Commedia," together with a new edition in the same volume of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's classic translation of the "Vita Nuova." The introduction and revision of the notes, as well as a large number of new notes, will be furnished by Professor L. Oscar Kuhns, of Wesleyan University. The edition will be handsomely illustrated.

The Spring number of Poet-Lore will have an unpublished romance, written by Charlotte Brontë when she was a girl of about seventeen. It will be called A Leaf from an Unopened Volume."

Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, has been giving at the Twenty Century Club and elsewhere, interesting talks on social questions in Chicago.

Mr. Clinton Scollard has been making an extended visit at Cambridge. Mr. Henry M. Alden, on his way home from Montreal, spent a day or two in Boston, and was the guest of honor at Mrs. Stillman B. Allen's last Monday afternoon "At Home."

Professor Camille Thurwanger, the god-son and biographer of the artist Corot, is engaged on a long article on "Modern French Art." He is also writing a book dealing with some

what the same general subject. Professor Thurwanger has arranged to conduct a party during the coming summer to Europe, visiting England, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria, the Tyrol and Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Morocco. Mr. Thurwanger's acquaintance with foreign artists gives him exceptional opportunities to take his disciples into the inner circles of European art, as was discovered by the enthusiastic party who accompanied him on a similar tour last summer.

The Old Wayside Inn at Sudbury, which Longfellow made so famous, has been bought by Mr. E. R. Lemon, and will be opened for the accommodation of guests. One of the Boston papers made the rather remarkable statement in announcing this fact, that Mr. Lemon was "An ancestor of old New England families, and a collector of articles of historic value."

That is almost equal to the story which Colonel Higginson tells of a servant girl, who when reprimanded by her mistress for not having washed the clothes cleaner, defended herself by remarking, "But Ma'am, ther's so much sentiment in the Cambridge water." Colonel Higginson explains the presence of the sentiment by the fact that the Cambridge water comes from the valley of the Mystic.

The Peter Paul Book Company, of Buffalo, have in press a volume of poems by Irving Browne, who was for many years editor of the Albany Law Journal. Few of them have been published, but those have had a popular acceptance through several of the leading literary newspapers. The volume will contain none of his numerous legal poems, but only lyrics and ballads, grave and humorous, and the title and arrangement are quite novel and ingenious. Under the title, "The House of "The House of the Heart," they are distributed under the following sub-headings, according to their pertinency : the Windows looking over Sea, on the Street, the Woods, the Churchyard; By the Hall Fire; In the Bedroom, the Nursery, the Library, the Garret, the Tower. The edition for sale will be limited to 300 copies.

Copeland and Day announce for early publication "A Writer of Fiction," by Clive Holland, author of "My Japanese Wife," which so pleasantly introduced this young Englishman to so extended an audience. This new volume is a psychologic study of a woman's conscience in regard to a posthumous novel written by her husband, the manuscript and proof-sheets of which she heroically destroys to save his hitherto unblemished reputation.

WITH THE NEW BOOKS.

BY TALCOTT WILLIAMS, LL. D.

The English pastoral is a Greek foundling which has passed through the Roman asylum to reach an unfriendly climate. For Theocritus the pastoral note was natural, for Virgil, affected, and for Herrick, artificial. Yet out of the pastoral came the romantic perception of nature which delines the poetry of the nineteenth century from all the past. No man can quite understand the poetry of this century who has not read the English pastoral, and no man who knows what poetry is, will fail to see that the pastoral of English poetry, though sheer poetry is essentially artificial. In the "Warwick Library," which is doing a most useful service in grouping certain literary chapters, Mr. Edmund K. Chambers has brought together the succession of English pastorals from Henryson to Ramsay. thing was natural in the Elizabethan age, everything was artificial in the age of Pope, until there began to be, as Ramsay prefigured in his verse, a new heaven and earth of those of whom Burns was the John the Baptist.

Every

"Evil and Evolution," by the author of the 'Social Horizon," reminds us all how old new books are, for this is a careful argument for the real presence and power of Satan as the simplest explanation of evil, written by one much imbued with the results, though not the It is not what is methods, of modern science.

called convincing, neither is it conclusive, for if Satan accounts for Evil, who accounts for Satan? But this modern man's dream is interesting.

*

**

But

Polemic is always dreary. Devotion always interests. This is because men are nearly always wrong when they want their own way, and always partly right when they worship. The Protestant mind will be shocked by the second part of Dr. Richard Brennan's Explanation of the Our Father and the Hail Mary." the first portion, simple, earnest, devout, magnifying prayer or communion as well as petition, is the common ground of all Christian souls. The book, which is small, gives insight into the spiritual life of a great Church, of which most Protestants know and see only its differences and do not see that it, too, has its share of truth, denied by a common Lord to none who serve Him in sincerity and truth.

Christopher Marlowe is a man to be read rather than studied, because it is really of no consequence when plays like his were written or where he got his themes. They are by themselves. Still his " Dr. Faustus" is a favorite with the professors of literature; it is

such a good peg on which to hang much knowledge of Dr. Faust, though the way to know our friend is not to look out and read books but to look in and read yourself. Dr. Adolphus William Ward, Principal of Owens, Manchester, and a most exhaustive scholar, has joined Marlowe's "Faustus," and Greene's "Baron" both plays of demon oppression, prefaced a full history of Faust myth and added full notes. This volume of the "Old English Drama," has just been revised and reaches a third edition, and it has in it all one needs for study. Now, reading Marlowe himself is better.

*

* *

Mr James Radway has filled up a readable book, The West Indies and the Spanish Main,' with the annals of the islands of the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. The book is thrown together by chapters and the chapters condense familiar volumes on the discovery, the search for Manoa, Drake, Raleigh, the Buccaneers, the struggle of England for trade, the long wars which ended in Rodney's great outcry and the negro risings in Hayti and San Domingo, with the Jamaica "White Terror, thirty years ago, and other phases of the English colonial negro labor question. There is a mixture of illustrations, new and old, and a deal of discursive historical information, but no history.

**

Mrs. Flora Annie Steel has written in "On the Face of the Waters," a novel of the Indian mutiny, covering the siege of Delhi, which is the first clear account yet laid before English speaking readers of the true position of women in the Moslem world and in general in the world of the East. Taken as a story, the novel breaks down towards the end. It is marred by some weak and mistaken sentiment. It has some poor English, as "like the King had done." But Mrs. Steel knows her ground thoroughly. She has gone to the bottom of bazaar and harem life. She understands the native and what is more difficult can describe him to others, though she never, English like, ever quite accepts him as a human being. Her history is most exact and carefully studied though at some minute points Lord Roberts' autobiography alters matters. The atmosphere of the time is presented, but some phases of British brutality are not. Soldiers are soldiers everywhere. book has absorbing interest, has gone through three editions in as many weeks, as it deserves, and is a book no one can leave unread. Painstaking readers will find in Lord Roberts' work a map of Delhi, which will make the reading easier for "On the Face of the Waters' bristles with locality.

The

"The Year of Shame," by William Watson, collects his sonnets of the Purple East and some additional poems full of the same hot wrath against bloody wrong; but these poems illustrate what cannot be said too often, that poetry is neither emotion nor knowledge, but form. Mr. Watson feels all Milton felt, but no one of his sonnets "flames in the forehead of the dawn, as does the older poet's utterance on Piedmont. Mr. Watson has elevation and he has expression, but never that rushing wind of the spirit which fills the round, full sail of verse borne to greatness.

*

**

William Barton Rogers, whose memoir now appears fifteen years after his death, at the age of seventy-eight, played two widely dif ferent parts in his life, to which each of the two volumes of his life is devoted. He was one of the earliest of American geologists, and his reports on the geology of Virginia, published sixty years ago, became so rare that almost alone among such issues they figured in the lists of rare Americana. These reports were prepared while he was for eighteen years (1835-1853) professor at the University of Virginia. In 1860, after seven years residence at Boston, he led in organizing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of which he was the first president. His biography is pieced together of correspondence. The letters record the life of a Virginia professor among turbulent students-one of whom killed a professorand of the head of the first of our greater scientific schools in Boston. The book has a

technical interest of American education and the personal history in American science. lacks any clear statement of Professor Rogers' relative contributions to geology, and the story of his life is not told save as letters tell it. There is, therefore, here very useful material for a comprehension of the period, an acquaintance with the early days of our scientific education-Harvard forty years ago had its first class experiments in chemistry, students had before committed the text,—and a knowledge of the man; but such raw material is not biography.

**

Mr. George Sidney Fisher has written an agreeable roving history of Pennsylvania as Colony and Commonwealth. Penn and the proprietary governments, the Indians and the Revolution make the substance of this book, which owes its value to the great skill with which the material is handled. With the companion volume, "The Making of Pennsylvania," the two will be invaluable to those who teach history and to those who desire to understand it. Nor is it necessary to agree with Mr. Fisher's reasons for the decline of