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have been, however, not unfavorable. Statistics demonstrate that in some parts of the West «farm lands are selling for much more than they brought half a dozen years ago, and mortgages are being paid up. Uncertain climatic conditions have had to do with the distress in certain sections, also competition, over-production, and other causes not allied to currency conditions. The questions for inquiry are as to the true causes of discontent and as to practicable and genuine cures.

It has always been a desire of THE CENTURY MAGAZINE to make each section of the country known to all

other sections. Hence the «Great South and the Great West» papers; the papers on farming in different localities and by different methods, and on great features of natural scenery; the recent papers on forestry, irrigation, etc. The magazine expects to continue in this line. For while actual travel cannot be forced, as the writer of the open letter generously wishes to force it, it is possible, and it is a public duty, to cultivate mutual understanding and good will by means of those «fireside travels» on which the illustrated magazine can conduct its immense company of tourists.

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Sloane's Napoleon.

(SEE PORTRAIT ON PAGE 912.)

OU are to be congratulated upon the publication of the most satisfactory life of Bonaparte which has yet been presented to the public. Professor Sloane deserves the highest praise for his recent contribution, in the pages of THE CENTURY MAGAZINE, to the verities of history. He will receive it not only from the lovers of a vivid and picturesque style of historical writing, but also from the scholar who searches the historic record with an impartial spirit, that the very truth of motive and of character may be ascertained. A still higher aim of the true historian is the interpretation of the underlying providential order of cause and effect which science finds in nature, and which the historian should find in the progress of humanity.

I have never read a story of Napoleon Bonaparte's life or career which so nearly attains this sum of attractions as does the work of Professor Sloane. While escaping the influence of the blinding hostility of English criticisms of the Corsican adventurer, he equally refuses to subordinate his judgment to the adoring enthusiasms with which the French surrounded their military emperor. He never loses sight of the man, whether his ambition is limited to the partizan seizure of a fortress on his native island, or contemplates the partition of the world between himself and the Emperor of Russia. The man is always revealed, within the lieutenant's uniform, or behind the embroidered robe of this ruler of kings. Nearly all previous writers upon this brilliant theme-the twenty-five dramatic years of France-have been thrown off their mental balance by the scenic glories of the stage as the curtain was lifted and revealed the greatest actor of modern centuries. This author, on the contrary, keeps his feet on the ground, and his eye steadily fixed upon the central figure, and the studied effects which he produces, from his first entrance to his final exit. And so he has been able to tell us the true life-story of the most astonishing international actor in all history.

Such a book is needed in all our libraries. The author has evidently put his material under great pressure of condensation. I could have wished to read his more com

plete portraiture of other great characters of the time associated with or against Napoleon, and drawn with equal candor and accuracy. But within its constrained limits the book is a treasure, is almost the only life of Napoleon to be safely submitted to the youth of the country as a part of its culture in history. Its characteristic portraits add a charm to the text.

John A. Kasson.

"The Century's» American Artists Series.

FRANK W. BENSON. (SEE PAGE 917.)

FRANK W. BENSON, the painter of «Summer,» was born in Salem, Massachusetts, thirty-four years ago. When eighteen he entered the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he studied four years. In 1883 he went to Paris, and became a pupil of the Academy Julien. There he had the benefit of two years' study under the eminent masters Boulanger and Lefebvre.

In 1889 he was chosen instructor in his former school, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a position he now holds.

Mr. Benson is a member of the Society of American Artists; a winner of the Shaw, Hallgarten, and Clarke prizes, National Academy of Design, New York; Jordan and Art Club prizes, Boston; and the third prize in the recent competition for the decoration of the Philadelphia City Hall. He is one of the artists at present engaged in the decoration of the new Congressional Library, Washington.

If what the distinguished French critic Albert Wolf said is true, « What gives value to a work of art is the artist's own sentiment added to his science,» Mr. Benson's works are precious. His sentiment seldom rises into poetry, but it is often akin to it. His science is excellent (by science I understand mastery over paints and brushes, and knowing how to make a picture). He composes with taste and rare decorative perception, and executes with charming freshness and delicacy of color.

W. Lewis Fraser.

Some Results of the Higher Education of Women. MOST readers of THE CENTURY are familiar with the work of Toynbee Hall, in the east end of London, where

a number of Oxford graduates live for various periods of time, following their own personal business or study, yet taking part as neighbors in the life of the people of that neglected region. They are probably not as familiar with an enterprise of English college women on somewhat similar lines, whose modest beginnings antedate our American women's college settlements. In the spring of 1887 certain members of the Oxford and Cambridge women's colleges organized the community known as «The Women's University Association for Work in the Poorer Districts of London.»>

The germ out of which grew this organized work of college women-individual workers having for years filled the positions which the University Association recommends to its members-was the conviction of Miss Grüner, the gifted first head worker of the association, and her chief assistant, Miss Elder, that they could do better work if they lived, for a time at least, among the people they wished to aid. An organization was consequently effected, and a house was taken at 44 Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road, Southwark, where the founders felt they could be most useful, while at the same time it would be near enough to other parts of London to serve the convenience of resident workers and those who might wish to help in special evening entertainments.

The chief object of the community is the promotion of the welfare of the people of the poorer districts of London, more especially of the women and children, and the lines along which the association works tend more particularly to the giving of better opportunities for education and recreation. An executive committee is formed exclusively of university women, and consists of seven members: two representatives of Girton College, two of Newnham, one of Somerville Hall, one of Lady Margaret Hall, and the head worker, the resident worker appointed as mistress of the house and director of all work. The committee has full power to arrange and control the work of the association, to appoint or remove the head worker, to admit or dismiss the resident workers, and to administer the funds of the community. The weekly expenses of the house-about $3.50 for each person—are divided among the «residents,» and each one, if able, is invited to help pay the rent of the house, etc. Each one must make to the head worker a daily report of all work done by her, and no one can undertake, without permission from the executive committee, work not already organized. Private almsgiving is not allowed.

The head worker is assisted by four or five residents in the settlement, who remain there for not less than two weeks, and in some cases indefinitely, as the good these women hope to do as members of various local committees and in direct work among the people must

depend largely upon the personal influence that only time and knowledge can give. There are also non-resident workers, who either help occasionally in special work, or regularly on one or two evenings in the week, when there are meetings of library club, part-singing club, art-needlework club, or sewing, reading, and writing classes, lectures, etc. Most of the young women entering into the scheme have occupations of their own aside from their work in the settlement, as the committee think it an advantage for workers to have such occupations, partly because a variety of interests helps to keep the minds fresher, and partly because workers are more likely to be in sympathy with other workers.

The duties assumed by these social missionaries are numerous. As managers on the local committees of board schools, which correspond to our public schools, they have an important influence upon educational work, and as associates of the girls' division of the London Pupil-teachers' Association, they take parties of pupilteachers to the National Gallery on Saturdays, and give evening receptions to the teachers of board schools, for the purpose of introducing a higher element and a broader interest into preparatory educational work. Also, as members of the Education Reform League and the Recreative Evening Classes Association, they aim to give a more general use of school buildings and grounds to the whole population, and to encourage boys and girls who have left the board schools to join evening classes in studies in which physical and technical elements are prominent. As active members of charity organizations and local sanitary aid committees, and as zealous workers for the spread of the coöperative movement among women, and the undertaking of fresh-air funds for the benefit of children, they are doing a work of incalculable value. The latest development of this London Settlement's work is an arrangement for several scholarships in social science, open to students of the several women's colleges at Oxford and Cambridge; they entitle the holders to two years' instruction and work at the settlement, and offer valuable preparation to women who wish to fill posts in charity organization societies, reformatories, and other philanthropic and governmental institutions.

One of the most pronounced features of social development in modern society is an increased sensitiveness on the part of educated men and women to the claims of their wide outside duties toward humanity; and must not the most conservative admit that the growth of the movement for the higher education of women is reassuring, when the association of graduates and students of the women's colleges at Oxford and Cambridge presents among its first fruits the University Settlement in Southwark?

Catherine Baldwin.

IN LIGHTER VEIN

Arcadie.

TRAVELED many winding ways That weary seemed to me, In cloudy nights and windy days, To find sweet Arcadie.

The shepherds stand on either hand: « We fain would go with thee,

Save for our sheep, to that sweet land, That far-off Arcadie.>>

Along the selfsame way I fare,

And shepherds ask of me:

«Hast found those green fields anywhere?»> << Yea; but the people dwelling there Know not 't is Arcadie.»

Arthur Willis Colton.

Honey.

DERE 's honey in de roses when dey 're bloomin' roun' de door,

An'dere's honey in de water where it laps along de shore; Dere 's honey in de dewdrop as it glistens on de grass, An' dere 's honey in de glow-worm when at night it flutters past;

Dere 's honey in de flicker o' de mellow yeller moon, An' dere's honey in its shadders, an' de cryin' o' de coon; Dere 's honey in de chirrup o' de frogs up in de trees, An' dere 's honey in de soo'in' an' de sighin' o' de breeze;

Dere's honey in de sunlight dat is shinin' from on high, An' dere 's honey in de cotton fleece a-floatin' roun' de sky;

Dere 's honey on de hilltops, an' dere 's honey down

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In an Old Garden.

THE roses blossom on the wall,
The larkspur clusters by the gate,
And stately lilies grave and tall
Sway to the breeze. In twilight late
The garden long untenanted

Lies vague, mysterious, and it seems
Enchanted land where memory dreams.

Adown the prim box-bordered walk

Perchance young lovers one time strayed In twilight hours with tender talkAh, quaint, old-fashioned, pretty maid! I fancy how you bent your head Listening, and how the whippoorwill Called from the meadows past the hill.

The breezes whispered to the pines

Perhaps just as they do to-night, And where the Provence rose-bush twines, Pink as your cheeks, the petals light Soft fluttered down, a rosy snow;

On this crape myrtle scarred and dim I trace the letters dear to him.

The flowers are blooming, starred with dew,
Bright as they did that yester-year;
The mocking-bird which sang to you

Trilled the same songs to-night I hear.
But youth and maiden-many a day
Has waxed and waned and passed away
Since, last borne through this narrow gate,
They left the garden desolate.

Irene Norman McKay.

Interpretation.

THOROUGHNESS.

«A STITCH in time saves nine; > But I would rather wait,

To let the tailor sew more fine And take the other eight.

PUBLICITY.

"T is said that good wine needs no bush,
Since he who's tasted buys it;
But dealers who their trade would push
Had better advertise it.

ACTIVITY.

« A rolling stone gathers no moss » (Which the stone may account little loss); And if it will roll in the snow

In bulk it will certainly grow.

THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK.

H. G. Paine.

(The entire contents of this Magazine are covered by the general copyright, and articles must not be reprinted without special permission.)

CONTENTS FOR OCTOBER, 1896.

Napoleon at St. Helena

Engraved by Charles State, from the painting by L. Kratke.

About French Children

With pictures by Maurice Boutet de Monvel.

If Only the Dreams Abide

With decoration by Henry McCarter.

A Little Fool. By the author of "Our Tolstoi Club".

With picture by W. L. Metcalf.

The Silent Ones

Frontispiece.

Th. Bentzon..

An Open-Eyed Conspiracy: An Idyl of Saratoga. Conclusion. William Dean Howells
With pictures by Irving R. Wiles.

803

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836

A Study of Mental Epidemics.

Boris Sidis..

849

Prisoners of Conscience. A Story of Shetland in Two Parts. Part II Amelia E. Barr
With pictures by Louis Loeb.

854

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Sonny "Keeping Company." By the author of "Sonny's Diploma." Ruth McEnery Stuart ................. The Eclipse of Napoleon's Glory. The Constitutional Empire

874

879

Ligny and Quatre Bras-Waterloo-The Surrender-St. Helena.. William M. Sloane
With pictures and portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Rouillard, Crofts, Shee,
Checa, Chartier, Orchardson, Harry Fenn, Steuben, Eric Pape, J. Ward, Malcolm
Fraser, H. A. Ögden. Map by J. Hart.

William Milligan Sloane. Painted by

What Became of Dennis Martin?.

With picture.

Summer ("The Century's” American Artists Series) .

Glave in the Heart of Africa. Peace and War between Lakes
Bangweolo and Tanganyika. From the journals of the late E. J.
Glave

With pictures by the author, Harry Fenn, and from photographs. Map by J. Hart.

Sir George Tressady. XII. Conclusion.

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Government by Hysteria-The Workingman's Interest in the Gold Standard-Silver's Worst Victims -An American Statesman-Lifting the Lid from Central Africa - A Little “Rift within the Lute."

Open Letters

Sloane's Napoleon (John A. Kasson) – "The Century's" American Artists Series: Frank W. Benson (W. Lewis Fraser) – Some Results of the Higher Education of Women (Catherine Baldwin). In Lighter Vein..

954

958

Arcadie (Arthur Willis Colton) - Honey (George Orne Percy) — To Chloe (Robert Bridges) — In an Old Garden (Irene Norman McKay) — Interpretation (H. G. Paine).

960

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Oct. '96.

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:

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THAT LASS O' LOWRIE'S.

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The theme of M. Bourget's new novel is the warfare between love and friendship. It is an elaborate social study as well as a novel of absorbing interest, distinguished by the author's wellknown analytic power and individual style. The opening scene is in the famous gambling Casino of Monte Carlo, and the reader is introduced at once to the cosmopolitan society which M. Bourget knows so well how to depict.

Fifth Edition.-Outre-Mer. Impressions of America. By PAUL BOURGET. 12mo, $1.75.

JERSEY STREET AND JERSEY LANE.

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"In all of them the reader finds qualities which have heretofore charmed him-the playful humor, the sense of duty, the companionableness, the right-mindedness.”—New-York Times. THE SPRIGHTLY ROMANCE OF MARSAC.

66

By Molly Elliot Seawell. N. Y. Herald Prize Story. Illustrated by Gustave Verbeek. 12m0, $1.25. Marsac is a real discovery of Miss Seawell's. His character and conduct are best described as sprightly," and the way in which the wit and good-nature of this Bohemian of the Latin Quarter triumph over adverse circumstances and land him and his friend in affluence and bliss is told in a brisk narrative that recalls Mürger. The illustrations are numerous, and as original as the text.

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A narrative of visits to Zara, Constantinople, Damascus, Smyrna, Alexandria, and Cairo, and other interesting places in Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine. Mr. Russell brings to the portrayal of the scenes and types of these localities a fresh eye, a contagious enthusiasm, and a picturesque style. AN ILLUSTRATED FLORA

Of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British Possessions, from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102d meridian. By N. L. BRITTON, Prof. of Botany, Columbia Univ., and Hon. ADDISON BROWN, President of the Torrey Botany Club. In three volumes, 8vo. .Vol. I, special net, $3.00; postage 36

cents extra.

This work is the first complete Illustrated Flora published in this country. Its aim is to illustrate and describe every species, 4000 in number, from the ferns upward. The first volume, now ready, is entitled "Ferns to Carpet-Weed."

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Now Ready: One of the Visconti. By EVA WILDER (MCGLASSON) Brodhead.

A charming love story, the scene of which is laid in Naples, the hero being a young Kentuckian, and the heroine of the old and famous Visconti family.

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