EDITOR'S TABLE.

WE give place here to a brief paper by

one of our contributors, which touches upon a subject we have often discussed. We cannot agree altogether with the writer's estimate of lower-class dwelling-houses abroad, but in the main the views expressed are quite sound, and our national deficiencies, so well pointed out, call for attention. Many of the poorer dwellings in the London suburbs are to us excessively ugly, and many of the better class are wholly uninteresting in their style of architecture. But, however mean or ineffective an English house in itself may be, it is always rendered in a manner attractive by the adornment of flowers and vines; and everywhere in England supreme neatness is the rule. The slovenly streets of American towns, the untidy condition of railway-stations, village roads, and commons, the generally unkempt air that pertains to all our country-houses and city-dwellings below the best, strike one fresh from English travel very forcibly. At the same time he discovers more variety, vivacity, so to speak, and picturesque character in many of our town as well as country houses. In England the houses are flat and bare to the light-necessarily so, perhaps, in that climate while with us the deep porch, the veranda, and the balcony, break up and vary the surface with picturesque projections. English streets are often very bare, cold, and uninteresting, on account of the long, flat line of houses, although the mellow tints of Once age often in part redeem the fault. transplant here English neatness and care of detail in garden, lawn, and street, and then we shall not have cause to fear, taking our structures as a whole, a comparison with modern domestic architecture anywhere. But hear what our contributor has to say upon this subject:

"One of the greatest charms to American tourists in Europe consists in the finish and simple adornment of the outsides of the homes of the lower classes. The natural order of things would lead us to suspect elegance in palaces, but, from our usual association of thought at home, poverty is synonymous with roughness of exterior arrangements. Of course, we are painfully impressed nearly everywhere in Europe by the squalid wretchedness of the habitations of large classes of the people, but side by side with these indications of ignorance and misery are significant marks of refinement and an old civilization. The history of the architecture of these dwellings of the poor is difficult to reach, but some obvious features of it have certainly arisen from the circumstances of climate and from the supply of building materials. The deficiency of wood, xcepting in Switzerland, makes briek or stone o be used nearly everywhere; and the great heat of Southern Europe, and the necessity of making the house a stronghold, to some degree, against outside violence, have led to

ing impression, strong enough at times to eclipse the charm of all that Nature had done in the large features of the place. Succory and sorrel sprung up in every direction, interspersed with patches of rough earth and unkempt grass. Scarcely a cultivated flower appeared in the town, and no bit of garden, even a couple of feet square, gave indication that the least interest in the tasteful side of life existed in the mind of one of the inhabitants. Yet these people have time enough, and, except in the short summer season, are without pressing employments. Geranium slips planted in boxes of earth in the winter, or verbenas or

spring, with a little thought and a little time could relieve this disheartening aspect of a neighborhood whose untouched wild beauty has been blighted by man.

the building of very thick walls. The Swiss chalets, with their low, overlapping roofs, shed the snow readily, and their eaves furnish convenient lean-tos, where fagots and household commodities are conveniently stored. But almost everywhere in Europe we see striking evidences of good taste and industry in the decoration of even the rudest dwellings by means of flowers, and, in many parts of the Continent, by the use of home-made lace as an ornament. The women of Europe, in fact, seem to use their hands more industriously than our women generally do, and are seldom idle, even when they are watching their children or sitting beside baskets of fruit or flow-mignonette started in the stormy days of ers in the market-place, and the fruits of this universal industry present themselves not only in the lace of commerce, but in the lace that beautifies their homes internally, and in the external ornament of lovely flower-gardens. As we walk through the clean, winding streets of Antwerp, or toil slowly up through the Swiss valleys, in many a nook and at many a turn we see two little windows clad in the whitest net-work of lace, made by the poor people in the midst of their important duties; and behind or above this simple lace drapery the room glows with flowers, varied and thriving as a conservatory. In the dark cottages of England the same sight appears, and where these adornments do not exist, the beholder instinctively feels that hope and cheerfulness are absent as well as the flowers. In scraps of ground so small that in America they would be almost sure to be wasted, around the little railroad-stations on nearly all the lines in England, and in the little strip that divides the sidewalk from the house, are splendid clumps of roses, mignonette, fuchsias, and the best of our hot-house plants, most carefully tended and trained to cover a homely wall or to convert an ungraceful door or window into a pleasing one.

"The resources of flowers and vines are generally known to the wealthy class of Americans, and in their country-houses they have usually availed themselves of landscape-gardening. But it is only very lately that plants and vines have been introduced as an element of architectural effect. In the new houses in our cities whose walls are varied by balconies and by bay-windows of different shapes and of different colors of brick and stone, vines trail from story to story, and parlor gardenboxes full of flowers of every hue combine in a graceful mass one story of the house with another. Mingled with these aro birds in their hanging cages, and tall plants growing in pots on the marble floor of the vestibule, which modify the dry, hot character of the house, and substitute for it coolness, elegance, and repose. But these villas and elegant town-houses form but a minor feature of the aspect of our country, and it is especially on its great democratic middle and lower class that we must rely for indications of the civilization and character of the people at large. The apostle of a good household taste in arranging and furnishing the interiors of our houses does real good, and helps to promote a healthy condition of society. In the same spirit we believe that whoever teaches people how they can make their villages and farm-houses more attractive does a really

mind of everybody who looks upon a house and door-yard which, though humble in its material and construction, has been made beautiful by the expenditure of a little thought, and time, and taste. No house is so plain and homely that a woodbine, or ivy, or morn

"In striking contrast to this tasteful and elegant finish, formed out of the cheapest and most accessible materials, are the rough, uncared-for towns and villages so generally found in the United States, and which are said to be consequent on a newly-settled country and the high price of labor. There is a great difference of taste as to the merits of a highly-patriotic act, while he pleases and cheers the artificial landscape, but in regard to the general qualities of the color of dwellings and the beauty of simple adornment there is no question. Within a few years, a number of wealthy and intelligent New-Yorkers, who make their summer home in one of the hill-towns of New England, have carried out the idea of improving-glory, growing on a trellis over door or ing the appearance of the village by forming a club with the permanent inhabitants, in which simple principles of good taste in dwellings and landscape gardening are discussed. The influence of this club has been most encouraging, for the staring white cottages and houses that formerly appeared bare of vines and destitute of shrubbery in the midst of rough fields, stony and overgrown, are now turned into unobtrusive dwellings, brown with the tints of natural wood and the earth, the doorways shaded by woodbine and delicate and beautiful flowers lighting up and lending elegance to the little streets.

"In these days of household-art, when it is sought to put beautiful and useful furniture within the reach of simple families, the adorning of the outside of our houses does not seem to have kept pace with the embellishment of their interiors. In a visit this summer to a popular New England resort, where sea, mountain, and climate, have done their best to make the place beautiful, the sight of the rough and vulgar door-yards made a dispirit

window, may not soften its rugged lines, and gray colors that tone with the landscape are usually more pleasing and not more costly than plain white paint. In time picturesque architecture will come everywhere, we doubt not, with red roofs, clustering chimneys, and pretty projections; but in the mean time, and while we cannot pull down and build over again our plain, square farm-houses and tedious rows of dwellings all alike in the village street, let all in town or country do what they can to vary and make beautiful their own and other people's bit of landscape."

THE little ones suffer and die these summer days, say the good Samaritans that go about among the poor. The air in the tenement - houses is close, the odors from the streets are unwholesome, and the little creatures hence need, we are told, the tonic of the sea-side and the healthful breezes from

the hills. The charity of the better-to-do, it is urged, should organize excursions to the country, and establish low-priced boardinghouses in rural places, where the sickly infants of the streets may be sent for recuperation and health. The sickness of the summer season being due, according to many urgent sympathizers, mainly to the confined quarters and bad air of the poor districts, the great remedy is an exodus of the sufferers.

But, unfortunately, with the best exertions of the charitable, very few of the poorer classes can get even a day's exchange of fetid gutters for grassy meadows. It is the dire necessity of the many to remain in town, during August suns as well as in January snows, and the sickness and mortality among this class can never be measurably changed by occasional episodes of fresh air. The evils which they suffer can be mitigated only by changes that reach their daily lives, by the acquisition of habits of cleanliness, and by a little knowledge in the elementary principles of hygiene. Children during the summer season perish by thousands mainly because their parents are hopelessly slothful, ignorant, and careless. Even the bad air the little ones breathe is a result of vicious indifference; gutters would not be foul if the parents of the children did not fill them with refuse, nor would the living-apartments be unwholesome if habits of cleanliness prevailed.

But bad air and close apartments are really but minor causes of summer mortality. The main reason is the idiotic blundering of the elders in the way of food. It is in these wretched haunts of the poor that the unripe fruit, the unwholesome meat, and the stale fish, find their ready consumers. It is here that brats abide after the model of Hood's "Lost Heir," and here that distracted mothers rave after the fashion set down by the poet :

66 ... To think of losing him after nussing him back from death's door,

Only the very last month, when the windfalls, hang 'em, was at twenty a penny, And the threepence he got by grottoing was spent in plums, and sixty for a child is too many.” The green apples and pears at twenty a penny" have very much to do with the dreadful mortality that the sea-air and the rural farm are designed to remedy. The rotten or unripe fruit is not, however, the sole responsible cause. The neglect and the blundering that accompany the sickness are potent agents in the cause of death. The untimely exposure, the injudicious medicine, the ignorant treatment, all contribute to the fatal results, and make us wonder how it is that children, thus exposed on all sides to danger, ever manage to pull through to manhood and womanhood. Mismanagement is the great criminal in our summer mortality; and mismanagement is formidable in other quarters

than the poor tenement-house. There are far too many deaths among the children of the better classes-too much neglect of wise precautions; too much ignorant administering of medicine; too little heed of the laws of ventilation, cleanliness, respiration, exercise; too much indifference and indulgence in food; in brief, too much dire mismanagement in all things. Common-sense and good judgment in the rearing of children are much needed in all ranks of life: in the better class they will come, perhaps, by experience; in the lower classes they can come only by general elevation and education. There is no remedy for the evil that does not strike at the root. Our Samaritans must labor to inculcate industry, self-reliance, and self-respect-with this moral elevation will come habits of cleanliness, order, and sobriety-a general better management in all practical things, out of which shall come bloom and health to the little ones.

INNUMERABLE have been the plans submitted to the New York Rapid Transit commissioners, and if out of the confusion of projects and the clash of opinions a good design is accepted, we shall have reason to praise the acumen and judgment of the gentlemen composing the commission. The perplexities pertaining to the subject are greatly increased by the contradictory opinions of engineers and experts. Those whose professional knowledge would seem to warrant confidence in their judgment are of as many opinions as persons. It will be necessary

for the commissioners to be governed by the practical results of railroading the world over, and to turn a cautious ear to all projects, and to all arguments in opposition, that cannot find some measure of support from the testimony of actual experience. It would be well if the commissioners could run abroad for a few weeks and examine the operations of some of the roads there before deciding définitely upon any plan. This impresses us forcibly as a necessary preliminary in view of the many strange opinions uttered by engineers and others in the newspapers. One writer, for instance, asserts that an elevated track must be enabled to support cars and locomotives as heavy as those upon our ordinary surface steam-roads. Those who have traveled upon European roads are not likely to acknowledge the necessity of this, inasmuch as there the carriages and locomotives in ordinary use are much lighter than ours. Solid and substantial tracks with comparatively light-running stock would appear to an unprofessional observer sufficient reasons to account for the immense speed obtained in England with so little wear and tear-a speed that here would prove exceedingly destructive to our lighter-built roads. Most assur

| edly, it would be a blunder to mount upon an elevated track the ponderous cars now in use with us. A good deal is said about stopping and starting trains, about brakes, etc. The American car is peculiarly awkward in cases where passengers must be taken up and set down expeditiously. In an English carriage there is an exit for about every six or eight passengers, and hence a car is emptied almost instantaneously. Here, on the contrary, all must enter and leave by one very small door at each end of the vehicle. It is obvious that cars on a rapid - transit road, where there are frequent stations and brief stoppages, should be so constructed as to admit of the utmost celerity of the ingress and egress of passengers. And if we are not in error, we are behind our English friends in the matter of brakes. The ease and rapidity with which a train on the London underground railway is brought to a stand is almost marvelous. The train comes dashing into the station apparently at full speed; the inexperienced observer feels certain that it is going to rush by without stopping; but in an instant almost the train is stopped, and this with not so much jar as one feels on a New York horse-car when brought up quickly. The brakes are apparently worked by steam, and they are noise-r less as well as effectual in operation. No one could see the working of the European railway-carriage without feeling its superiority over the American long box, with its col-h liding tides of travel struggling through narrow apertures, against busy brakemen, and over cramped platforms-its superiority, at least, for the expeditious movement necessary for rapid local transit.

Two more ancient landmarks of London are threatened. "Doctors' Commons," gloomy and musty old building which chokes light and air out of St. Paul's Church-yard, will speedily become but the shadow of a

name.

Christ's Hospital, a much handsomer and more imposing edifice, but equally in the way of the busy folk of the "city," will also, it is probable, give way to modern and commercial necessities. Doctors' Commons is not properly one of the sights of London inasmuch as it provides nothing worth see ing. As the seat of the terrible office, how ever, which so long dispensed marriage-li censes, it has had a certain interest for Lon don lovers. Like Gretna Green, its tradi tions are chiefly matrimonial. But Doctors Commons had a still graver significance few centuries ago; for it was there tha were held the sessions of the court which corresponded to the Inquisition; many heretic and witch was formerly sentenced t the fagots there in the olden time. Withi the memory of men still living, curious pun

its readers by praising any thing." His literary practices are illustrated by his treatment of "Criminal Queens:"

with the artists rather than the critics. Of course he could not know beforehand that such pictures would be interpolated into the text of "The Way we live now;" but we think we could name several previous works of his in which the engraver has dealt far harder with him than even the Evening Pulpit.

READERS of the JOURNAL are already so familiar with Christian Reid's work that it is unnecessary to dwell at any length upon its special qualities. "A Question of Honor " (New York: D. Appleton & Co.), her recent

"In spite of the dear friendship between Lady Carbury and Mr. Alf, one of Mr. Alr's most sharp-nailed subordinates had been set upon her book, and had pulled it to pieces with almost rabid malignity. One would have thought that so slight a thing could hardly have been worthy of such protracted attention. Error after error was laid bare with merciless prolixity. No doubt the writer of the article must have had all history at his finger - ends, as, in pointing out the various mistakes made, he always spoke of the historical facts which had been misquoted, mis-ly-published novel, is the most elaborate she dated, or misrepresented, as being familiar in all their bearings to every school-boy of twelve years old. The writer of the criticism never suggested the idea that he himself, having been fully provided with books of reference, and having learned the art of finding in them what he wanted at a moment's notice, had, as he went on with his work, checked off the blunders without any more permanent knowledge of his own than a housekeeper has of coals when she counts so many sacks into the coal-cellar. He spoke of the parentage of one wicked, ancient lady, and the dates of the frailties of another, with an assurance intended to show that an exact knowledge of all these details abided with him always. He must have been a man of vast and varied erudition, and his name was Jones. The world knew him not, but his erudition was always there at the command of Mr. Alf and his cruelty. The greatness of Mr. Alf consisted in this, that he always had a Mr. Jones or two ready to do his work for him. It was a great business, this of Mr. Alf's, for he had his Jones also for philology, for science, for politics, for poetry, as well as for history, and one special Jones, extraordinarily accurate and very well posted up in his references, entirely devoted to the Elizabethan drama."

All this, it strikes us, is unworthy of Mr. Trollope, and if one were foolish enough to argue against palpable satire, we might ask him what substantial fault he has to find with Mr. Alf's literary staff. Since books (and very worthless books) of history, philology, science, poetry, and politics are written, is it not desirable to have Joneses who have special qualifications for passing judgment upon them in the various departments? or should we leave it to some popular novelist to measure their merits for us? Again, conceding Mr. Trollope's fancy that the "erudition" of critics comes from facility in consulting cyclopædias and the like, is it not a service to the public to expose, even by their aid, the pretensions of books which can err in the matter of such easily accessible knowledge? That the errors are really errors is what it concerns the public to know; how they were discovered is of little consequence.

has written since her first two, and, if it shows no decided advance upon the standard therein established, it is at least equal to them in point of literary merit. Few of our novelists have a purer ideal than Miss Reid, few rely so little on sensational incidents and melodramatic "effects," and fewer still have command of so vivid, flexible, and polished a style. Her dialogue at its best possesses the spontaneity, ease, and aptness of genuine conversation, and scarcely ever loses its naturalness of tone. Quite often she exhibits a true insight into character, and an instinct of personality which enables her to individualize distinctly her various dramatis persona. Almost the only serious deficiencies of her work are, exaggeration and a total lack of humor. Of course no sane critic demands that a novelist shall neither rise above nor sink below the level of average people and every-day events; but a novel which departs widely from the very human experience which it proposes to depict, loses almost the only quality that gives it a raison d'être. Now Miss Reid's good people are a little too good, her foolish people a little too foolish, her refined people too refined, and her "chivalrous" people too chivalrous, to recall to our minds what we know of actual life. She has probably never encountered a real, orthodox villain, and she has the good sense and the good taste not to attempt to create one; so that her bad people are seldom too sinful to purchase the reader's forgiveness on easy terms. A sense of humor is more valuable to an author for its negative influence, probably, than for the positive advantages which it confers. Had Miss Reid possessed it, for instance, we are certain that "A Question of Honor" would have been different in many respects from what it is

now.

The very point on which its plot hinges would have been presented less nakedly, and there is no important character in the book whom its chastening hand would have left untouched. Even in matters of style its influence for the better would be felt-for one thing, it would induce Miss Reid to discard utterly the use of the word "chivalry" and its derived adjectives, and the word "knight" with its derivatives. It would require an

To return to our general estimate of Mr. Trollope's work, it is marvelous that, writing so much, what he writes should be so uniformly good. Nevertheless it is certain that, while he produces at the rate of two or three bulky volumes a year, we can expect no more such novels as "The Last Chronicle of Barset, ," "Barchester Towers," and "The Small House at Allington." We would suggest, too, that his most plausible feud would be | ordinary descriptive terms.

elaborate treatise on the social differences between our own day and the middle ages to explain why the word "knightly," when used in describing a well-meaning young man, causes us to smile at him instead of to revere him; but the fact that it is so should be sufficient to eliminate it from the vocabulary of

It is plain, we hope, that in speaking thus of Christian Reid's work we are applying a rather higher standard than it is customary to apply to current fiction. Compared with the average novel that claims our attention weekly, it is as unexceptionable in point of art as it is wholesome in tone and interesting in story.

2

THE Contemporary novel is devoted so exclusively to subjective study of character, or to delineation of the social circumstances which produce bigamy, seduction, forgery, and the other highly-civilized vices, that a tale like "Harwood" (New York: E. J. Hale & Son), with its deer-hunt, its panther-fight, its solitary and revengeful Indian, its sword. duel, its mottoes and coats-of-arms, its haunted trees, and digging up of buried treasure, seems old-fashioned and out of date. Perhaps it is this very novelty of method and of incident which constitutes the chief attraction of the story; but its plot is dramatically conceived, and the narrative portions at least animated and well written, and it holds the reader's attention with a firmness of grasp which it seems difficult to account for when we lay down the book and come to analyze its contents. In truth, however, "Harwood" is a good specimen of that objec tively realistic species of fiction which Pot carried to such perfection in his short sto ries, such as "The Gold Bug;" and it is simply in masquerade when it puts on the paraphernalia of a novel. The interest is confined wholly to the narrative, the personal adventures, the unraveling of a piquant mystery; the characters are a conventional collection of lay figures, and the dialogue, love-making, and the like, could hardly be made more perversely unnatural. We do not wonder that the author found it impos-i sible to comply with the publishers' sugges tion that his tale should be lengthened. He would have found it much easier to cut out half the included matter; and, if the cutting out were done judiciously, the story would be greatly improved in an artistic sense.

Besides the narrative proper, " Harwood" contains a half-dozen preliminary chapters, in which the author professes to relate his experiences with various editors and pub. lishers in his efforts to get the book published. These chapters were confessedly added merely to increase the bulk of the vol ume, and the questionable taste of the per formance is not disguised by their egotistic frankness and "smart" style. We advise whoever may be attracted to the book by our notice to begin with "Herbert's Journal," and this advice is given as much in the in terest of the author as of the reader.

"EGLANTINE," on the title-page of which the author of "St. Olaves," etc., for the first time reveals her name,* is an unpretentious story, almost commonplace in its plot and incidents, but interesting and exceptionally well written. It is autobiographical in form purporting to be written by a middle-aged

Eglantine. A Novel. By Eliza Tabor, Anthor of "St. Olaves," "Hope Meredith," etc. New York: Harper & Brothers.

woman, who, looking back over her past, yields to a longing to “write the story of that past, so that when the evening comes, and the companions of my life have dropped -away from me, and I wait alone till the time comes for me to go to them, I may not be quite alone, having them with me still in what I can remember of them." This sentence from the introductory chapter strikes the key-note of the story as to both substance and style; for the narrative is one which might really have been written for her own satisfaction by a refined and cultivated lady, whose life had been spent "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife," whose experience had scarcely transcended the bounds. of the domestic affections, but who had passed beneath the chastening hand of sorrow. Skillful as it is in construction, however (and ew fictitious autobiographies maintain the llusion more perfectly), the strength of the book lies in its character sketches. None of the characters are distinctly new, perhaps, hough we do not at the moment recall a prootype of Mr. Leslie, the retired mathematiian and student of science; but the special elations and circumstances in which they are laced are sufficient to individualize them dearly. "Tyne" (Eglantine), for example, elongs to a not unfamiliar type of heroine, et the tenderness, the reserve, the entirely 'eminine stand-point from which she is here revealed to us, give her the freshness and charm of an entirely original creation. The same may be said of Miss Leslie, the narrator, of John Elphinston, the curate, and of Joe Rollekins, the coast-guardsman, who, out of somewhat conventional types, are gradually converted into persons whose complete individuality it is not at all difficult to concede. "Eglantine," in short, is a good illustration of the kind of success which may alays be achieved by an author who is satised to aim at what is clearly within her power to perform, and who respects that aim ufficiently to spare no pains in carrying it out. It is in no respect a great novel; but it is thorughly good of its kind, and will add to the eader's stock of "harmless pleasure."

THE quarterly reviews have now begun to dicate their (presumably weighty) opinion "Queen Mary." The Quarterly, analytical d mildly laudative throughout, says: um up our opinion of Queen Mary,' we are clined to think it the best specimen of the erary drama which has been written in our ae. It is, at least, admirable in form. It is tter than Mr. Browning's dramatic studies, ich have no form at all. It is better than The Spanish Gipsy,' which has a hybrid m. It is better than Bothwell,' as it has re backbone, and less of the enormous vole and verbosity which, we think, would alys prevent Mr. Swinburne from achieving cess as a dramatist. Of the dramatic spirit, the Shakespearean sense, the play, as we re said, has nothing; it lacks the personal arest which might recall the genius of naal action, and excite the ardor, of patriotby the representation on the stage of at historic examples. It is guilty, too, of blunder, at once historical and dramatic, aking a heroine out of Bloody Mary. Of se, it will be acted. Tib and Joan will ear in miraculously accurate costumes of

the period; Aldgate will be very 'richly decorated;' we shall be delighted with the exact representation of Lambeth Palace and St. Mary's Church; and a popular actress will doubtless draw tears from sympathetic eyes when she exclaims that she has slain her

Philip! It will be acted, and then, like all plays that want the soul of action, it will disappear from the stage. But, as an intellectual exercise, as a scientific study of abstract motives, as a stimulant of those subtile ideas which the luxurious modern imagination delights.to substitute for action, as a monument of ingenious and refined expression, in all these points Mr. Tennyson's drama may long continue to afford pleasure to the reader. more than this, at a time when the tradition of the poetical drama has been forgotten on the stage, it would perhaps be idle to expect."

And

THE Paris correspondent of the London Daily News gives a bit of entertaining gossip about the habits and occupations of M. Thiers. "There is nothing the matter with M. Thiers," he says, "beyond his seventy-eight years. His health is excellent, his spirits are elastic, and his activity is unabated. He is on foot between four and five in the morning. On getting out of bed he takes a cup of chocolate. He then runs about the garden, looking at the flowers, visits the greenhouse, and goes to see his horses. After doing this he ascends to his library, on the first floor, to work at his desk or to classify his papers. M. Thiers has several literary irons in the fire. He is still engaged on his philosophical treatise, and he is writing memoirs. A "History of Modern French Art" is also said to be in course of progress."... The Athenæum observes that

young poets are apt to be low-spirited, not to say disdainful of happiness and regardless of mirth." ... Two new and important documents relating to Shakespeare have been discovered lately. One is said to show conclusively that there was no substantial foundation for the scandal concerning the poet and Mrs. Davenant, of Oxford; and the other is a quarto volume containing six plays issued during the life of Shakespeare, including the first edition of "Troilus and Cressida." . . . Some of the best European novels are being translated into Spanish, and published under the title of "Biblioteca de Buenas Novelas." Works by Hendrick Conscience and Xavier de Maistre have been selected to begin the series.. A rumor which will delight all true lovers of literature is to the effect that Mr. James Russell Lowell will begin to publish next autumn eight or ten volumes of English plays and poems, from Marlowe to Dryden, which he has undertaken to edit. The first volume will probably be devoted to Marlowe. . . . Dr. R. B. N. Walker, who has been ten years located at the Gaboon, and with the French expeditions, is now on his way home with the intention of publishing his twenty-five years' experiences in Equatorial Africa, during which time he has visited nearly all the colonies and countries on the West Coast.

The poet

died at the age of seventy-five, lost his eyesight in early youth, but was nevertheless an indefatigable student, and during the half-century that intervened between his death and the occurrence of the calamity which brought on his blindness he devoted himself to the study of classical and modern poetry. Among his numerous works special attention is due to his translations from Ovid, Goethe, and Shakespeare, while his collection of original poems, entitled "Primavera," many of which treat of blindness are very highly esteemed by his countrymen. A public library has recently been established at Yeddo for the use of both natives and foreigners. It is open all the year round, from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M., except on national and general holidays. Readers are allowed to make excerpts, but are not allowed to borrow books from the premises without the special permission of the Minister of Education. . . . The tireless Mrs. Oliphant begins a new novel in the August Macmillan, entitled "The Curate in Charge."

...

...

The

new sixpenny English monthly, entitled The London Magazine, of which our London correspondent, Mr. Will Williams, is editor, will contain in its first number articles by Henry J. Byron, Charles Gibbon, Edmund Dicey (editor of the Observer), Charles H. Ross (editor of Judy), William Sawyer, Dr.. N. C. Bennet, Harvey S. Leigh, Austin Dobson, Frederick Locker, Lady Duffries Hardy, William Black, and Hon. Rodney Noel-certainly a goodly array.

THE

The Arts.

THE Inter-States Industrial Exposition at Chicago is announced to open September 10th, and the display promises to be unusually comprehensive and fine. In addition to the exposition of the industrial products of the West, it will embrace a large collection of paintings, sculptures, and other art-objects. Last year the art display, which was organized under the direction of Mr. Henry W. Derby, contained nearly six hundred works, the majority of which represented foreign names, and were selected from the best private collections in this city. The galleries for the exhibition of art-works in connection with the exposition building are six in number, and have skylights, and are in every respect admirably adapted for the purpose intended. This year the organization of the exhibition has been placed under the control of Mr. Stafford, who has made it his aim to give it more of an American character than the corresponding display had last season, and, with that object in view, he has secured the coöperation of Mr. R. E. Moore, of Union Square in this city, and Mr. William H. Beard, the animal-painter. By well-directed efforts they have already sent forward upward of four hundred works of art to Chicago. Of this number, at least three hundred and fifty have been contributed by New York owners, both artists and collectors, and a large proportion of the paintings represent American names. The arrangement of the exhibition is under the direction of Mr. Beard, and the plan is to form groups, so far as possible, of the works of the leading artists. Although the works of our New York artists will largely predominate in the exhibition, those of Boston, Philadelphia, and other lead