the coming season, in several of the Northern cities.

Another of Rinehart's works on public exhibition in Baltimore-his native city-is his "Clytie," the principal attraction in the small art-gallery of the Peabody Institute. This beautiful marble statue well deserves, as far as the figure is concerned, the high praise which has been liberally bestowed upon it; but in the accessories the artist has been singularly unfortunate. Even if the introduction of the actual, embodied sunflower may be considered appropriate or consistent for it really divides the attention more than it helps the meaning—yet it seems unaccountable that the sort of " sunflower" selected should be that unseemly vegetable (Helianthus annuus) which towers in huge ugliness over the dusty yards of suburban shanties, and which was entirely unknown to the white race until after the discovery of America. The heading of Ovid's fable "Clytie Nympha Conjux in herbam Heliotropium shows very clearly what flower was meant; and the graceful European heliotrope, with its delicate white or pale-red flowers, would have formed not only a truer but far more beautiful accessory to the figure, had any been needed. The shade of Ovid might justly be scandalized at seeing our American weed, which sometimes rises, in warmer climates, to the height of twenty feet, made the type of the gentle nymph whose love for the sun-god the poet so beautifully describes. At the same time the artist certainly deserves credit for faithfulness to his model even in this part of his work; for the sun-flowers are presented, in the various stages of their growth, with the utmost exactness and truth to Nature, though the exigencies of art require the stalks to be flattened out against a stump in a somewhat stiff and unnatural manner. On the whole, there can be little doubt that the botanical portion of this work might have been left out with positive advantage to the general effect.

W. W. C.

A VERY beautiful portrait-bust of William M. Evarts, by Mr. St. Gaudeus, has lately arrived at Boston from Rome. Mr. St. Gaudeus has of late made a good deal of reputation by the life and beauty of his works, and this head of Mr. Evarts gained great commendation from the artists in Rome. Every one familiar with Mr. Evarts's refined and intellectual countenance will recognize this bust as a remarkably happy likeness of the original. It is spirited and entirely free from the vulgar clap-trap look of pomposity and self-consciousness by which inferior artists strive to lend dignity to their work, and to atone for the deficiency of their appreciation of fine and important characteristics. Mr. Evarts might be in the court - room pleading a case, so full is his eye of fire, 80 instinct with expression are the mouth and other features, and so entirely free is the face from any vestige of thought of self. Mr. St. Gaudeus bas displayed, in modeling Mr. Evarts's thin face, uncommon appreciation and artistic sensitiveness. Though the jaw-bone is indicated clearly through the somewhat worn lines of the cheeks, this part

of the face is neither coarsely caricatured nor at all unbeautiful, and all the power and massiveness of Mr. Evarts's finely - chiseled brow and forehead have been most truly and delicately defined by the nice instinct of the artist. Hair is very rarely adequately depicted in plaster or in stone, and here also this sculptor has been happier in his effort than most artists. Locks and fine masses of it spring from the forehead, and the beholder notes its turns and delicate curves as it rises from the skin. Hair, as we all know, is as varied in its quality as the individual head it covers, and ranges from stiff, wiry hair, live and full of vitality, where each thread separates and appears to lie apart, to dead locks that seem more like cotton or tow than to have any life of their own. The hair marks different temperaments, and among them the fine hair which tends to mass itself in soft curves, lying one above another, which form and unite its shapes as do the mass of feathers on a raven's wing, or the curls on the ear of a beautiful dog, is believed to belong to the temperament the most sensitive and intellectual. Mr. St. Gaudeus appears to have taken this view of his model, and, while the hair on most busts we see lies in shapeless bunches, and follows meaningless lines, the hair in this one is singularly light, and its locks are massed and curved as if wind could lift them or a shake of the head entirely derange their position.

THE death of William Oliver Stone, N. A., which was announced in the daily journals last week, is notable from the fact that he was one of the very limited circle of artists in this country who have attained any great degree of renown as portrait-painters. Mr. Stone was a pupil of Nathaniel Jocelyn, of New Haven, but at an early age, comparatively, set up his easel for himself, and assumed a distinctive position as an artist. He was never strong as the painter of men, although he at times produced meritorious pictures of this class, but his special forte lay in the execution of the heads of women and children. In the treatment of such subjects he had no superior in this country. His works were graceful in drawing, and marked by unusual richness of color and delicacy of treatment. Mr. Stone, like many of his contemporaries, delighted to paint the portrait of a pretty woman, and, when treating such a subject, while he preserved the portrait, it was invested with a feeling of ideality which gave evidence of a high aim and an imaginative and inventive faculty of more than usual power. The ordinary portrait-picture, such as we see scores of in our public exhibitions every year, rarely attracts the attention of the multitude, but those of Stone's women and children always appeared to be possessed of some magnetic power, however plain the subject might be, which arrested attention at once. Baker's portraits of women and children also appear to possess this power. In 1865 Mr. Stone exhibited at the Academy a portrait entitled "Bessie," which was marked by many rare qualities. In 1867 he exhibited two portraits of ladies, which were remarkably brilliant in color and pure in tone. They are now in the collection

of Mr. J. Yeoman and Mr. J. C. Derby. His three-quarter length likeness of General Van Vliet, exhibited the same year, was one of his strongest pictures in male portraiture. In the following year he painted a portrait of Mrs. Hoey, which perhaps excited more general praise than any other picture exhibited in the Academy that season. Mr. Stone exhibited last year life-size portraits of the late James Gordon Bennett and Daniel Leroy. He was an industrious painter, and examples of his work exist in the collections of a large number of the old families of New York. During his leisure hours, Mr. Stone painted an occasional fancy head, but they were rarely exhibited out of his studio. Several of these ideal studies were left in his studio at the time of his death, and if offered for sale now they will doubtless find ready purchasers. Mr. Stone died in the prime of life; he was a genial companion; and, in personal appearance, a noble specimen of vigorous manhood.

A STATUE of Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, has recently arrived from Leghorn, and has been placed over his grave at Hingham, in which town he lived for many years. The statue of the great war governor is of slightly-gray Carrara marble, a color in the full light of day superior to white marble, which often appears sheeny and dazzling under such conditions. This statue is by Thomas R. Gould, the well known-artist, who is now living at Florence, and it is rather larger than life. It represents the governor standing, dressed in a double-breasted frock-coat, and with a long military-cloak hanging from his shoulders, and fastened across his chest by a cord and tassels. Upon the collar is carved the star of the Commonwealth's escutcheon. Governor Andrew, as all will recoliect him, was a short and stout man, with a firm, broad-shouldered figure, well knitted and determined. But his beauty lay in his fine and well-poised head. No subject could be better adapted for the sculptor than his clean-cut Roman nose, with nostrils flexible and energetic, his well-marked, handsome mouth, with full lips and rounded chin, dimpled in the middle, and his large eyes, and forehead crowned by closely-curling hair. A face mobile and brilliant, it afforded every advantage to the artist. At first sight the statue looks a little under-sized, though it is really larger than life, but a further impression dispels this feeling, and, while many persons may regret that it has not a more public situation in Boston or perhaps Washing ton, it is, on the whole, well placed on its simple pedestal in the old graveyard at Hingham.

A COLOSSAL portrait-bust of Goethe, which, it is said, is intended to be placed in the Central Park at some future day, was placed on exhibition at Tiffany's jewelry establishment last week. The bust is about thirty inches in height, and is the work of Professor Fischer, of Berlin, or rather is the reproduction of the original by that eminent sculptor, which was executed in 1849. The head is not particularly striking, and as a work of art it utterly fails to convey to Goethe's ad

mirers of to-day an idea of his genius or of the poetic inspiration with which his writings are endowed. Although the features are clearly defined, the modeling appears to have been carried to a degree of finish which has effaced every trace of individuality. This criticism may not apply to the original bronze, which exists in Berlin, we believe, but particularly belongs to the reproduction, which is cast in some base metal, shows no marks of the sculptor's chisel, and has been stained and varnished in imitation of the genuine material. It is not probable that this bust is to be offered to the Park authorities, but that a real bronze will be substituted. Such a work would be a worthy companion to the bust of Schiller, which was presented by the Germans, and now ornaments the Park ramble, near the lake.

Music and the Drama.

THER

HE announcement that an arrangement had been made with the prima donna Mdlle. Tietjens was a double pleasure, inasmuch as it removed the fear that we were to have no Italian opera this winter, and also promised a hearing of a singer who, in some respects, stands alone in her art. Mdlle. Tietjens has for a number of years been known almost exclusively in England, having become such a favorite with that public as to make any other nearly unnecessary. England has been for many years the favorite home of oratorio. Her musicians, both singers and composers, have assiduously culti

A FINE bust, in white Carrara marble, of Charles Sumner, has recently been presented to George W. Curtis, by the city of Boston. The bust was executed by Milmore, in Italy, and is more than full-size. It is a strong likeness, and all the features are life-like aud well marked. The attitude of the head is very erect, and the eyes and mouth are energetic and animated, as if Mr. Sumner were speak-vated this style of music, and the numerous ing. The best likenesses are those of course which are made either directly from life or by those who are familiar with the look and attitude of the original. The portraits, therefore, which are made now of Mr. Sumner, are the most valuable ones that will ever be produced, and for such reasons a bust like this by Milmore is of historical value, as it is one of the few which will be made now while Mr. Sumner's looks are vividly remembered, and before time has dulled the impression of his stately and intellectual head.

As costume is one of the arts, we quote here from a London journal the subjoined in

เ

formation in regard to the latest development of Paris fashion: "Designs, it is stated, are 'not only floral and geometric in their tendency, but zoological.' Exquisite brocades are sprinkled profusely with lions, tigers, and panthers, medieval-looking beasts' that are by no means life-like in their proportions or coloring, and far more nearly allied to the fabulous creatures in stone that decorate a Gothic cathedral than the savage denizens of a modern menagerie.' Artists, it seems, have also gone to museums and borrowed old heraldic devices with which to ornament the robes of ladies who value their personal appearance. Unicorns, winged bulls, and birds, are used profusely. Oriental writing, the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians, Persian arabesques, and Chinese and Japanese signs, are artistically converted into patterns. One design is mentioned as being 'peculiarly pretty; it is a scrawl studded here and there with keys some three inches long. There are at least thirty sorts of keys of different epochs, capitally rendered. Of all the pleasing novelties, however, which are being introduced, there are none to equal a design in which ' various insects are introduced.'"

festivals held every year in the principal cities attest the popularity of it. It is in oratorio that Malle. Tietjens has of late years achieved her principal triumphs, no other living singer being supposed to be her equal in this style of singing, which differs widely from that required in the opera.

Mdlle. Tietjens has reached nearly if not quite the limit of years at which great singers are ordinarily supposed to cease their efforts, but, if we may judge from the English .accounts, her voice remains unimpaired. Perfection of art rarely is attained till the freshness and beauty of the organ of singing have bequently the case that singers, as long as gun to decline. Indeed, it is not unfrethe voice retains its youthful bloom, neglect the more finished graces of the art, and think only of them when the necessity of replacing departed powers exercises a stern compulsion. It is said of Mario that, when that marvelous voice of his was in its golden prime of youth, he was so little dramatic or sympathetic in his style as to call forth the severest criticism. It was only when the organ lost its youth and bloom that the greatest of dramatic tenors attempted to develop the peculiar powers which afterward made him so fa

mous.

Mdlle. Tietjens has for years been recognized by the English critics and public as the leading dramatic prima donna, even in competition with all the great singers whose annual appearance in London make that city the first musical capital of Europe. The great rôle of Medea, for example, in Cherubini's great opera of that name, has no other adequate interpreter, and it is never attempted except with Tietjens. In the same way Leonora, in Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio," is the monopoly of this lady on account of the breadth and beauty of her vocalization, and the intensity of her dramatic power. We are promised that a hearing will be had of Tietjens in her great rôles later in the season,

The latter department of music is pecul. iarly adapted to this artist's style and pow er on account of the broad phrasing and pure declamation required. The London papers are already lamenting the loss of Tietjens for the coming festivals as irrepara ble, although there are many clever and ac complished singers eager to fill the gap, and make the most of the opportunity. We may anticipate such an interpretation of oratorio music as has not been heard among us since the last appearance of the lamented ParepaRosa, who, in many respects, may be likened to Tietjens.

To support her in oratorio there will be the Centennial Choral Union, an organization which has been working under the auepices of Messrs. George F. Bristow and Charles E. Harslee, with special reference to the Philadelphia Centennial of next year. The chorus will consist of eight hundred voices, which have been carefully selected from the best available material, and certainly, with the time and care expended in their preliminary rehearsals, should do their work in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. The orchestra, we are told, will also be one of the largest with which oratorio has ever been given in this city. The three oratorio performances in New York will be on the evenings of Wednesday, October 20th; Friday, October 29th; and Wednesday, November 10th. The works to be produced in their entirety are Händel's "Messiah" and Mendelssohn's "Elijah." The last performance will consist of a miscellaneous programme from the great composers of oratorio. Tietjens first general concert will be on the evening of October 4th, and consist of a popular programme of operatic selections and ballads.

MR. BYRON'S " Our Boys," produced last week at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, is a very charming comedy. The reason of its two hundred nights in London is clear enough. It cannot be ranked with the great English plays-it is far too slight in story and in character-drawing for that; but it is a very delightful production of the lighter kindpleasant in story, wholesome in tone, animated in action, and bright in dialogue. The story is of two boys, one the son of a baronet, the other the son of a retired tradesman. The two fathers are friends, and so are the two sons, notwithstanding the great difference in their social rank; and both fathers and sons are very happily contrasted for stage purposes. The baronet is dignified and high-bred; the tradesman is vulgar in speech, and undignified in manner; but both are men of principle, and animated by strong fatherly affection for their boys. The "boys" have been traveling in Europe; they return at the opening of the play. The son of the baronet has all the affectations of a blasé youth-the son of the tradesman is full of heartiness, naturalness, and ambition. Each father has selected a wife for his son, and by a rather stale derice each of the boys manages to fall in love with the woman designed for the other. The baronet has brought up his

boy to implicitly respect his authority; the son of the tradesman has been governed only through his affections. Each parent is confident of the success of his plan of domestic government in this emergency, but both theories come to naught, for neither of the boys will consent to marry the woman of his father's choice. The result is a domestic revolution. The boys go off together to London, bent on making their own way in the world, become very poor, suffer not a little, but at last are sought out by the not very obdurate fathers; and, in the end, all is made well. This is the story, in the main; but the dry plot of a play thus narrated gives the reader but little idea of the touches of humor, the flashes of wit, the phases of character, the many minor incidents, that make up the pleasant whole.

Plays like "Our Boys" make the theatre a delight; their effect upon every listener cannot be otherwise than wholesome, even if they do not possess high imaginative power, and make no attempt to do more than to present a slight but charming picture for the recreation of an hour. "Our Boys" is very well acted by every person in the cast, and is well mounted.

general harmony of the sketch to effect. It lacks color and breadth, perhaps, somewhat. One would not dislike a little more heartiness and resonance; but every one must admire the severe fidelity with which the idea of the character is worked out.

A VOLUME entitled "Hamlet; or, Shakespeare's Philosophy of History: a Study of the Spiritual Soul and Unity of Hamlet," recently published in England, is commented upon in the Athenæum as follows: "The wildest extravagance of German speculation upon the remote significance of Shakespeare seems tame beside this attempt to solve the mystery of 'Hamlet.' At the outset, the author asserts that his book is 'not addressed to those who can see no mystery in the works of Shakespeare.' Without being sure whether we are of this bat-like few or many, we can at least see no such mystery as Mercade suggests. According to an ideal key to 'Hamlet' which he prefixes, and to the disquisition which follows, Shakespeare in 'Hamlet' had the intention of suggesting many very remote and remarkable things. 'He fathomed,' says Mercade, 'the great dynamical principle of modern history in Europe. 'Time is the stage upon which the play is built, Mankind the actors; Truth and Error the action of the drama.' Claudius thus presents 'Error, injustice, etc.' Gertrude Human belief and custom.' Their marriage indicates the corruption of Christianity,' while Hamlet's father presents 'Unadulterated Christianity prior to the second century-ideal truth and justice.' The bulwarks of Error are Polonius, presenting 'Bigotry, intolerance, absolutism; ' Reynaldo, 'discouragement of learning, probably inquisition;' Voltimand, repression by force, persecution (?);' Cornelius, 'Hard-heartedness (?);' Rosencrantz,'opposition of those who benefit by abuses;' Guildenstern, 'Sophistry, casuistry, hypocrisy, evasion;' Ophelia, 'Church;' Laertes, historical continuity of authority, orthodox literature, conservatism;' and Osric, 'Society and criticism.' On the other side is Hamlet, representing Progress.' With him are Francisco, Bernardo, Marcellus, 'typifying the end of dark ages, first movement of the growth of knowledge (revival of learning), probably reading, criticism, inquiry, and printing.' Horatio comes as the spirit of justice,

NEW YORK is likely to be blessed with a large amount of oratorio music this season, and the true lovers of the art will be likely to say, "The more the better." The "Oratorio Society of New York," under the direction of Mr. Leopold Damrosch, and with the noble coöperation of Theodore Thomas's orchestra, and Mr. Dudley Buck on the organ, will give a series, Mendelssohn's "Paulus" for the first, and the "Messiah" for the second. Afterward a number of short choral works from the old Italian and German masters, and parts of Liszt's "Christus " (for the first time in America), will be offered. We have not yet learned what solo talent has been secured, but can hardly expect it to equal the orchestral and choral ability enlisted in the enterprise. It is a delightful and encouraging fact to see New York taking so deep an interest in oratorio, and we trust to record the deepening and strength-independence, and scholarship, resulting from ening of the taste in the future. No more auspicious omen of the organic growth of real musical culture can be found than this.

above. Fortinbras is 'Liberty; 'the first Clown is an artistic double to Hamlet,' and the Ghost is the revival of Christianity.' The interlude, it may be added, is the Reformation. We have shortened some of the explanations of the Key of Mercade, which is advanced as ideal, but have endeavored to preserve the sense. Those who see any benefit to philosophy, science, or common-sense, in such speculations, will find abundance of similar matter in the book. To us the whole is 'Midsummer madness.'

In the poorest of Mr. Boucicault's plays he never fails to develop at least one good dramatic character. This is notably true of "The Flying Scud," a drama which in motive and story has nothing to commend it, but escapes entire condemnation by the very fine delineation of Nat Gosling, the eccentric and superannuated old jockey. Just now this THE last number of the transactions of the poor but turbulent play is temporarily re- German society for the study of the natural rived at Booth's Theatre, in order to afford history and ethnology of Eastern Asia, in the New York public an opportunity of wit- Yokohama, gives an interesting account of nessing Mr. George Belmore's excellent per- music in Japan. The Japanese musicians are sonation of the part of the old jockey. Mr. usually divided into four classes: those who Belmore is an English actor who has made a play religious music only, those who play secular music, blind musicians, and female mureputation in his own country as a finished sicians. The musicians who possess a theoactor of eccentric parts. His Nat Gosling is retical knowledge of music, and even those remarkably close and truthful performance, who know their notes, are very few in numsubdued in tone, accurate to the minutest ber; they are scattered all over the country, detail in every accent, gesture, and facial ex- and belong only to the class of those who ocpression, and never sacrificing truth or the cupy themselves with sacred music. Both the

.

secular and religious performers belong to certain societies or guilds, which meet at prescribed periods and for prescribed purposes, and there are large numbers of musicians who play in private houses for a stipulated fee. The members of these guilds have various privileges. At one of the sittings of the German society a musician presented himself who had the right of setting the first string of the "koto" (a seven-stringed instrument) an octave lower than any one else. The Japanese use string, wind, and percussion instruments. These are divided into pure instruments (for religious music only) and impure, which are used only for secular objects. There are no instruments of metal. Twelve keys are used, one for each month, and each key has twelve tones. Tuning - forks of various shapes, all different from those known in Europe, are in The strings of the instrument are of silk, covered with wax; and the notes simply give the number of strings to be struck, or, in the flute, of the hole to be stopped. Semitones are distinguished by a sign placed against the number of the preceding tone. The notes are written downward, and the words to the left of them. Songs are always in unison with the principal instrument in the accompaniment. On the whole, Japanese music is very similar to that of China.

common use.

IN

From Abroad.

OUR PARIS LETTER.

September 7, 1875. a work recently published by the Abbé Riche, there is to be found an account of the saving of Notre-Dame from the flames. during the Commune. The abbé was charged by the court-martial with the painful task of preparing for death those of the insurgents who were condemned to be shot on the 25th of May, 1871. Among them was a young workman who, on learning the fatal news, fell as though thunder-stricken against the wall; then, striking his brow violently with his clinched fist, he cried, "I knew that such a deed would bring me ill luck!" Surprised at this excla- · mation, which was uttered with an expression of heart-rending sincerity, the abbé persuaded the condemned man to confide his secret to him.

"See here," he said, after besitating for a few moments, "I will confess every thing, but hasten to make use of what I shall tell you, for in an hour it will be too late. Yesterday evening I carried to Notre-Dame myself two barrels of powder and two cans of petroleum. I placed the two barrels of powder in the pipes of the furnace, one on the upper part of the church and the other on the lower. As to the petroleum, I put one can, not in the big chair where folks preach, but under another chair near the benches where folks sit, and the other I placed among the wood-work under the organ. But I repeat, hasten to send to Notre-Dame to have all that taken away!" Then, interrupting himself, he asked, "What o'clock is it?" "Half-past nine," answered the abbé, looking at his watch.

"The petroleum was to be set on fire between nine and ten o'clock."

Not an instant was to be lost. The confessor at once informed the provost of the revelation that had just been made to him. A battalion of policemen started immediately for Notre-Dame, taking with them the criminal, so that he might guide them in their researches. Every thing that he had said was

true, and several chairs were already on fire, but assistance had arrived in time. The flames were speedily extinguished, and the powder and petroleum were removed. The Abbé Riche, moved by a truly Christian inspiration, then took the provost aside.

"You cannot," he said, "shoot the man to whom we owe the revelations that have saved Notre-Dame. Remember that a few yards from the cathedral stands the hospital of the Hôtel-Dieu, crowded with invalids. Had Notre-Dame been blown up, what a horrible catastrophe would have ensued! This man must be pardoned."

A council was held, and the Abbé Riche gained his point. The man's life was spared.

Jules Lecomte published in 1840 a work on the then celebrated authors of France. Here is a sketch of Eugène Sue, then in the height of his renown:

"M. Sue is a tall young man, and rather stout as well. He wears boot-heels some two or three inches high, and my informant tells me that M. Sue is in despair because these heels are not red. He is a dandy in the full signification of the word. He is pale and very dark, with abundant hair and beard, his nose is twisted to one side, and he carries a little cane covered with precious stones. He is quite wealthy, the paternal fortune amounting to twenty-five or thirty thousand francs of revenue. In the winter he resides in Paris on the Rue Caumartin. His furniture is extremely splendid, of the styles of the Renaissance and Louis XV. It is said to have cost over twenty thousand dollars. His study is in antique carved oak, ornamented on all sides with ancient bronzes, old Flemish pictures, and all sorts of arms and curiosities in the severest taste. Antique colored glass of the fifteenth century only permits a sort of mysterious twilight to penetrate this apartment; it is hard to understand how M. Sue can see to write or even to read amid these shadows, which have something religious about them. His salon is all satin damask, gilded furniture, buhl furniture, marquetry in copper, enamels, old tapestry hangings, Japanese vases, and other ruinous fancies. The dining room is in the transition style of Louis XIII., but, by a caprice which seems like an infirmity in the host of these brilliant apartments, the same obscurity reigns everywhere."

It was at this time that Eugène Sue purposed writing the "History of the French Navy." Long before the publication of the first number, several fragments of it had appeared in the Parisian reviews, and had been severely criticised. One day, when he had just given a foretaste of his "History of Jean Bart," by a chapter à la Walter Scott, which had been printed in some literary collection, M. Sue received a packet from Toulon, transmitted through the Ministry of the Navy. It was formally unsealed, and within M. Sue found a gilt medal, on which was inscribed, "To M. Eugène Sue, from the French Navy in Gratitude." Beneath this inscription was a tiny line, which looked like an ornamental flourish. M. Sue showed this medal with great pride to forty of his friends, the forty-first discovered that the little line was really composed of this conclusion, in almost imperceptible letters, to the inscription, "For his not having written its history!"

Here is a picture of George Sand of those days as she appeared at the opera:

"At that moment the Baroness Dudevant (George Sand) entered the foyer, leaning on the arm of M. Charles Didier. On seeing her, Alfred de Musset, whose journey to Italy with

that celebrated woman is an interpreted fact, slipped behind M. de Balzac and fled from the

room.

"Madame George Sand is a small lady of a rather delicate aspect, about thirty years of age, having fine and abundant tresses and a very noble countenance. Her profile is of the style that the French call Bourbonian. Her foot is irreducible and her hand improbable. A court of young artists followed her, and celbrated men ranged themselves on either side to salute her. The warm pallor of her countenance brought out the lustre of her black and sparkling eyes."

Heavens and earth! how plain she is now, that celebrated and fascinating woman, whose heartless immorality has disgraced her sex even more than her genius adorned it! Old, fat, and commonplace-looking, with a stiff range of little false curls surmounting her prominent forehead, with deep indentations in her heavy cheeks, and with eyes sharp and keen as a gimlet-point, George Sand retains not a vestige of the Cleopatra-like fascination wherewith she won the hearts and blighted the lives of Chopin and of De Musset. Such women ought to die in their siren prime, not live to grow old and stout and ordinary-looking. She is very pious now, I hear, and very domestic in her tastes. "When the devil was sick"-we all know that adage, and, I suppose, it is pretty much the same with the devil grown old.

The Revue des Deux Mondes for the 1st of September contains the opening chapters of a new novel by Octave Feuillet, entitled "A Society Marriage." It begins in graceful and interesting fashion with the love-affairs of two young people betrothed by the efforts of an inveterate and amiable match-maker, one Madame de la Veyle. The style is, as is usual with this exquisitely graceful and charming writer, at once sparkling and forcible. Here are one or two observations culled from the pages at random:

"Without being armed with very solid or very elevated principles, Madame Fitz-Gerald possessed in the highest degree the religion of ermines and of women of the world-a horror of stains! Evil was for her not only evil, it was an impropriety."

"Remember, dear child, that woman is made to endure, and man to be endured."

The second volume of the "Memoirs of Odilon Barrot" is to appear on the 1st of October. The first volume has already reached its third edition. It will take two more to complete the work. The Bibliothèque Charpentier is shortly to issue a complete edition of the poetry of Théophile Gautier, which will include a number of unpublished poems. Among the late publications of the Librairie Illustrée is comprised a reprint in fac-simile of the number for September 4, 1870, of all the leading newspapers of France, and also a reprint of the "History of the Revolution of 1870-'71," by Jules Claretie. The almanacs for 1876 are already advertised; they comprise a vast variety of styles and subjects. There is the literary almanac and the culinary almanac, the musical, the matrimonial, the historic, the prophetic, the epistolary, the facetious, and the medical almanacs, and many others that I have neither the space nor the patience to enumerate. They are not very expensive, varying in price from six to thirty cents a piece.

It appears that the recent exhibition of the antique treasures of Alsace and of Lorraine has been the source of unheard-of fortunes to many of the exhibitors. Old hoards of bricà-brac, porcelain, illuminated manuscripts,

etc., have been disposed of at immense prices. All the bric-a-bric merchants of Paris and of Germany are ransacking Nancy for similar treasures, and are inviting, by advertisements and placards, all the inhabitants to bring out their antique valuables. The St.-Charles Hospital possessed a series of vases in faïence, the gift of King Stanislas to their pharmacy, and used by the good nuns to contain ointments; before the exhibition no one thought much of them, and after its close a bric-a-brac merchant offered two thousand dollars for the two principal vases. One of his confrères offers one hundred dollars a piece for the two hundred small vases belonging to the collection, and twenty thousand dollars for the set of large ones. The Evangeliare of St.-Ganglin, Bishop of Toul, which belongs to the Cathedral of Nancy, is estimated by these enthusiasts as being worth sixty thousand dollars. An enormous valuation has been set upon the Graduel which formerly belonged to the ancient Chapter of St.-Dié. These prices have thrown all possessors of antiquities in these regions into a fever. The heirs of M. Charles de Gouvain possess a livre d'heures in perfect preservation, and closed with clasps most exquisitely and delicately worked. This treasure has caused quite a commotion among the parties to which it belongs. One wishes to keep it, a second to sell it, and a third wished to have it exhibited among the precious objects collected at the Hôtel-de-Ville of Nancy. But so many precautions and so many formalities, so many keys and so much glass-case, were exacted from the director of that exhibition, that he refused to have any thing to do with the priceless prayer-book. By a decision of the court it is to be sold for the benefit of the heirs. It is to be brought to Paris by M. Renard, the oldest lawyer of the tribunal, who engages to take personal charge of it, and to place it in the hands of M. Pillet, the celebrated commissaire priseur, or estimator of antiquities, of the Hôtel Drouot. It is to be exhibited under his charge for a month in a glass case under lock and key, and then to be sold at auction. If the object in question were a monster diamond instead of an ancient manuscript, the owners thereof could not make more fuss about it.

It is doubtful, after all, whether we shall have the pleasure of hearing Massé's muchtalked-of opera of "Paul and Virginia the Opéra Comique this winter, some difficulty on the question of salary having arisen between Mademoiselle Heilbron and the management. It is the old story, so say the critics, an American tour having spoiled the lady for Parisian prices. The Théâtre Lyrique is very anxious to get possession of the work in question, on which great hopes are founded. But the Théâtre Lyrique is in the very odd position of an opera with a director and a subvention, but lacking a theatre. There is in this city of theatres not a single one available for the reconstructed organization. Two directors in face of this difficulty have already resigned without directing monarchs, like Louis XVII., deposed before they had ever reigned. "Faust" is to be given at the Grand Open to-morrow night at last. The rehearsals take place every off-night, so the consumers of Pilsen beer at the café just behind the operahouse have been treated to about fifty repetitions of "The Soldiers' Chorus" on every alternate evening, as in this warm weather the windows are all left open during rehearsals. The cast of the opera is not at all strong. Faure will not be the Mephistopheles; the tenor, though young, is short, and fat, and vulgarlooking, and Madame Carvalho will be the