President MUSIC AND DRAMA. NOTES-It is said that the members who are conspicuous in the German Opera Company now performing at the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York, are much flattered by attentions from society people. Cavalazzi, the premiere danseuse, who is the wife of Charles Mapleson, has been the guest of some "exclusive" people, and recently appeared in a box at the Academy with some ladies of a conspicuous Fifth Avenue family.-The Theatre. In the holiday number of the Mirror Mr. Harrison Gray Fiske has produced a memorial copy which is a credit even to the leading dramatic weekly of the United States. Manager Locke of the American Opera Company is getting tired of denying rumors about the financial instability of his organization and threatens to sue any paper which publishes more of these stories. Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett is a warm admirer of Wilson Barrett, the English tragedian, and a few evenings ago, while the actor was playing an engagement at Worcester, Mass., the author of "That Lass of Lowrie's" and a party of literary friends from Boston went to see Mr. Barrett play "Hamlet." Mrs. Burnett threw at the feet of the actor a beautiful bouquet, to which was fastened a ribbon of cardinal silk containing a flattering quotation from Chatterton. Miss Emma Thursby is now in France. Miss Myra Goodwin plays an engagement in London in May. The wife of Moritz Jokai, the great Hungarian poet and dramatist, is dead. She once had a high reputation throughout Europe as a tragic actress. M. Coquelin's aged mother was the only woman present at the great farewell banquet recently given to that actor in Paris. Miss Alice Whitacre, formerly well known in Brooklyn society and much admired as a church choir singer, is announced to have made a great hit at Liverpool as a soloist in oratorio. Miss Adelaide Detchon has achieved extraordinary success with her dramatic readings in Scotland, particularly at Edinburg and Glasgow. The failure of Signor Campanini's voice is said to be due to an over-indulgence in whisky and seltzer, of which beverage he is very fond. Signor Novara, the operatic basso, says that his real name is Naish, which he Italianized because the Italians could not pronounce his right name. Frederick Warde has purchased the magnificent arena scene painted for Salvini, and will use it in his forthcoming production of “ Galba, the Gladiator," at the Windsor Theatre, New York. "The Monk's Wedding," August Klughardt's new opera, text by Emile Pasque, achieved a great success at Dessau. The new play which Edgar Fawcett has written for George Riddle, the elocutionist, is called "The Earl." It was reported that Alice/Oates, the once famous comic opera singer, is dying in want in Philadelphia, but this story is denied. Although she will not probably live long she is surrounded with every comfort and has many friends to care for her. The monument to Mozart in the suburban cemetery of St. Marx, Vienna, is to be transferred to the new municipal graveyard known as the Central Friedhof, and will be placed next to the tombs of Shubert and Beethoven. The cost is estimated at 1,000 florins. The exact spot where Mozart's remains were deposited is not known. His funeral was attended by a sin -- urs," which first appeared serially in Keynote, and was highly praised American and English papers. Miss Charlotte Adams has made a vry clever translation of Alfred Stevens' "Impression of Painting," which George J. Coombs has just published in a neat little volume. It is a book which every artist, however great, should have and own.-New York Evening Star. The past two years have witnessed the death of the Owners of three of the greatest art collections in the United States-Mr. Vanderbilt, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Stewart. The Vanderbilt gallery remains intact, but closed to the public. The Morgan treasures have been scattered to the four winds, and now the Stewart collection is to follow. The latter is valued at about two million dollars. M. Ernest Eugene Hiolle, the distinguished French sculptor who lied recently, was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and one of the nstructors in the Beaux Arts. He took the second Prix de Rome in $56, at the age of 23. Mr. Thomas Buchanan Read may account himelf furtunate to have secured for his poem "The Closing Scene," decribing the death of the year and the close of a sorrow-burdened life, such a beautiful setting as it has received in the volumes lately published y the J. B. Lippincott Company.-The Magazine of Art.-The so-called Lausanne "Raphael" has been sold by public auction in that town, and ealized 200,000 francs. Mr. E. Burne Jones' "Sibylla Delphica," Mr. 1. Clarence Wharte's "Heart of Cambria," and a portrait of the late Mr. V. A. Turner, chairman of the exhibition sub-committee of the corporaion, have been bought for the Permanent Fine Art Gallery by the cororation of Manchester. The Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin celerates this year its centenary, not of its existence, for that dates from 6, but of its exhibitions, of which the present one is the fifty-eighth. It is evident that the Birmingham Corporation Art Gallery is proprly appreciated. In the first ten months since its opening it has been risited by 1,002,207 people, a number equal to two-and-a-half times the hole population of the borough.-The Magazine of Art. John Taylor Johnston, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has written o the park commissioners that he thought the bust of Washington rving, by Dr. Weiner, should be given a place in Central Park; and, ater, the park commissioners, at a meeting recently held, accepted the ust. There is now a bronze bust of William Cullen Bryant that has ot yet been accepted by the board.-Building. · The sales at the ecent exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-colors, ealized £11,217 2s., the prices ranging from five to five hundred guineas. Mme. Rosa Bonheur is spending the autumn at Nice, where she is Forking on several new paintings of American commission. General Burnside's monument will be erected on Exchange Place, in the city of Providence, R. I. Whenever Queen Victoria is not sitting for her wn portrait to an artist or having a photograph of her comfortable proportions taken, she seems to be giving the artists work to do in her amily connection. Groll, the well-known historical painter at Vienna, as been commissioned to paint her a life-size portrait of Prince Alexnder, of Battenberg, and he goes to Darmstadt for the purpose.-The Independent. Alma-Tadema, the artist, has fitted up a new house at London in a queer fashion. Its exterior presents in little bits nearly all he styles of all the ages, from the days of classic glory to the present ime. Within, the mingling of various effects is even more bewildering-gle friend, his grave was forgotten almost as soon as it closed on his ne vista suggesting Pompeii and another Athens, a third Rome, and the hole gothic in its disregard for symmetry. Governor-elect Oliver Ames has declined a renomination as president of the Boston Art Club. Munkacsy is painting a portait of President McCosh. M. Rajon, well-known French artist, is to make a portrait of Mrs. Cleveland in Vashington. Messonier's picture of Napoleon reviewing his troops, nown as "1807," for which A. T. Stewart paid $60,000, is painted on two pieces of canvas. The original canvas was found by the artist to be not ong enough, and so he lengthened it after most of his work was done. It is not believed that at auction the painting will fetch its original price. -Ezekiel, the well-known American sculptor, who is now in Rome, as finished a figure, life-sized, of General Lee as a boy, which is to be placed in front of the General's birthplace, in Westmoreland county, a. This year the French Academy gave its chief prize "for virtue," 500, to the Abbe Lemoine, who has brought up 750 Alsatian orphans and attended 336 hospital patients. The past two years have witmessed the death of the owners of three of the greatest art collections in he United States-Mr Vanderbilt, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Stewart. The Vanderbilt gallery remains intact, but closed to the public. The Morgan reasures have been scattered to the four winds, and now the Stewart ollection is to follow. The latter is valued at about $2,000,000. It will De placed on public exhibition in February next, and the sale will begin March 23. The month of exhibition will give the public their first and ast view of this magnificent collection in its entirety. the INVESTMENTS.-The attention of investors is called to the advertisement of the American Investment Company, of Emmetsburg, Iowa, with an office at 150 Nassau street, New York. They have a paid-up capital of $600,000, with a surplus of $75,000, and are situated in the midst of very best loaning sections of Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebrska. They offer first mortgage farm loans paying 7 per cent. interest. They also issue 6 per cent. debenture bonds running ten years which have the security of their paid-up capital and surplus, together with the mortgage loans deposited with the Mercantile Trust Company of New York. Investors would do well to write to them for their explanatory pamphlet and reference.—(Adv.). coffin, and it has taken the town of Vienna almost a century to find a commences on the Monday after Christmas. The Metropolitan 'Opera House at New York closes the week with a matinee performance of "Tannhauser," in which Herr Niemann again appeared in his great impersonation of the erring Minnesinger, Heinrich von Ofterdingen. The great Berlin tenor has now appeared in four of his greatest rôles-as Siegmund, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan and as John of Leyden. - J. H. Mack has the sole rights to play "The Gladiator," having purchased it from the Guarantee Trust Company, Philadelphia, administrators of the McCullough estate. It will be remembered with melancholy interest that this was the last play in which the late John McCullough appeared. In New York this week Robert Downing appeared as "Spartacus" in a grand production of the play. Mr. Frohman's plan of " Hats Off" won't work, and if the women will not change the style of head-gear, then our managers must change the style of their theaters. A little more slope to the floor-why not the same declivity as in the first circle?-would mend matters.-The Theatre. sun. LITERARY. THE LITERARY CRITIC-It seems to me that if a true critic should arise in the world he would be as worthy of homage and reverence as the noblest philosopher or poet who ever lived. He would be as dispassionate as the law of gravitation and as charitable as the all dispensing But, alas! when and where have we had a true critic? Emerson? He is as divine in his misjudgments as he is trustworthy in his splendid intuitions. Carlyle? He was a poseur, a shrieker, who scolded ostentationsly and made people remark his tempest because it was inclosed in so fantastic a teapot. Besides, these men were not literary critics in any true sense. But Taine, the remarkable and brilliant Taine, is a literary critic; and yet who can forgive him for being so much of a Frenchman as to put De Musset above Tennyson? There is no criticism at all except that which founds itself upon inflexible, logical science. If beauty, eloquence, poetry, rhythm, harmony, style, taste, insight, into human character, sympathy with the phases and subtleties of nature, are not susceptible of scientific definition and classification, they are not truth, for all truth is so susceptible, sooner or later. It will not do for A to tell me that Poe's" Annabel Lee" has an "indefinable melody," an "unfathomable tenderness." B, who does not see with the eyes of A at all, may think "Annabel Lee" a mere sensuous and senseless jingle. Both sides may rave, for and against, over the merits or shortcomings of these stanzas. But enthusiasm settles no more than vituperation does. I do not mean that he who tells me why a poem is beautiful should explain to me what beauty is. He can no more do that than he can tell me what matter is when he states that one mass of it, the earth, moves round another mass of it, the sun. But he can find some living law-as I almost believe the German thinker, Schopenhaur, has done-which governs beauty in all its forms of development and manifestation. All modern criticism is summed up in this: "I, John Smith, declare that John Brown has or has not genius, has or has not ability, is or is not a poet, a philosopher, a historian, a novelist." We are overrun with essays and disquisitions on writers; we are surfeited with ipse dixi; we have had enough and more than enough of a priori dogmatism. I know that there are a great many people who are prepared to shudder at the thought of science being applied to any of their æsthetic pleasures. Whenever it is a question of their bodily health, of the bread they eat, of the air they breath, of the clo hes they wear, of the colds they catch, of the deaths they are likely to die, they accept the only aid and guidance which their reason assures them to be the potent one. But with literature they must indulge a sentimental acceptance of the inscrutable. It appears to me that newspaper critics and all the numberless foibles which their random dicta beget are a result of just this drowsy bigotry. * The paths of the essayist and the analyst are widely divergent. One is full of the pretty buds of rhetoric-the flosculi sentintiarum-which it is hard not occasionally to stop and pluck. The other is bloomless, and even granitic, with no temptations for the rhapsodist over florticulture and a very stern method in the recurrence of its mile stones. * * If all the misery, the despondency, the feeling of brutal wrong and the despairing apathy which has resulted from newspaper criticism could be massed together in one dolorous chapter, such accumulation would form a tragedy horrible past thought. No writer has ever been young and striven who has not passed through stages of needless pain at comments which are sometimes bruited abroad concerning his work by people who might not wish, in the ordinary following of their lives, to injure a fly.-Edgar Fawcett in Lippincott's for January. WRITERS WHO LACK COLLEGE TRAINING.-The advantage of what is called a classical education of a baccalaureate at college, has always been overrated, not so much by those who have received it as by those who have not received it. The former know how little it amounts to; the latter surmise what they have lost, and greatly exaggerate the loss through their imagination. It is entirely possible for any young man to be graduated with honors, and yet remain a booby, even on subjects to which he has given most attention. It is not long since Greek, Latin and the mathematics were the principal studies of an academic course-they were of almost no value to the mass of alumni--and, since, graduates who claimed to have completed their education, entered the world with no A 1 sort of equipment for success. Things have improved recently, but are still bad enough. Hardly any seat of learning, even now, furni its bachelors of arts with anything like practical education. number of them would have been better off if they had gone with degree, or if, indeed, they had not begun the curriculum. The best legiate education is only a basis to build upon, though many youths sider it a complete mental endowment. The essential of any true tem of instruction is an accurate, complete knowledge of one's own guage, so as to be able to use it in speech and writing correctly, fluc and gracefully. Not one graduate in forty of Harvard, Yale, Darting Brown or Columbia can do this. It is not uncommon to find posses of diplomas, from those and other institutions, disgracefully ignora to the proper employment of their mother tongue. Few persons have not looked carefully into the matter are aware of the vast prac benefit of this sort of knowledge, immeasurably superior to any o knowledge of a single branch which they can acquire. We natu judge whether a man is educated or not educated by his mode of sp and writing; yet we frequently meet graduates whose phrases are al inably ungrammatical, and whose pronunciation is barbarous. The t is, that hardly one of our most pretentious universities takes partic pains to teach English to its students. Those who know how to use vernacular have learned it by a natural aptitude for and interest i How many of our literary men, conspicuous for clearness, vigor. pu and elegance of style have gone through academic courses? Only a s proportion, though the popular notion is that most authors of disting have been college graduates.-St. Louis Globe-Democrat. SOME QUEER TITLES.-The story "Red as a Rose is She" forms a se in another, entitled, "Black as a Pot is He." Mrs. Edward's n 'Why Did He Die?" called forth the answer: "Because he w not take his medicine." "Pray, sir, Are You a Gentleman ? In Parts," is the title of a story now running in a Boston daily n paper. Miss Warner wrote a story some years ago entitled, "My De a Tale," which created the impression that the author must be a winian. Miss Phelps began a series of literary works with "Gates A followed it up with "Gates Wide Open," and wound up with the nat consequence," Burglars in Paradise." A customer created a sensa in a bookstore by rushing in breathlessly and exclaiming, "I wan Woman in White,' 'Far from the Maddening Crowd,' with 'Bread Cheese and Kisses.'' A student at Cornell wrote a burlesque on ten-cent novel, and called it "Hildebrand, the Horrible; or, the Hau Pig-Sty," and sent it to a sensational publisher as a rebuke. It wa cepted with thanks, paid for, and the writer was requested to furni second story.-New York Graphic. LITERARY CONGRESSMEN.-Massachusetts will have two authors of b in Congress when Henry Cabot Lodge and Governor Long meet th She always has somebody with a literary atmosphere about him in body, though of actual authors she has seldom numbered any in delegation. Congressman Baldwin, of Worcester, the predecess George F. Hoar in the House, wrote a book on "Prehistoric Man" w serving his term at Washington, and used to spend much time in library for this purpose. Edward Everett and Charles Sumner m books of their orations and lectures, but Mr. Baldwin was the only m ber who was primarily an author before the days of Governor Long Mr. Lodge. Mr Everett and John Quincy Adams wrote poetry in e youth. Mr. Sumner was too deeply in earnest to dally with the Mu George Bancroft held many political offices, but was never choser Congress. Webster is renowned in literature entirely through speeches.-Boston Herald. NOTES.-Peterson announces for immediate publication a new no translated from Emil Zola. It is called "Christine, the Model," an said to be intensely drama' ic. The authorship of a volume of ve entitled "The Heart of the Weed," just published anonymously Houghton, Miffiln & Co., is exciting a good deal of curiosity. It take title from the line of Lowell, "To win the secret of the weed's p heart," which is quoted on its title page. Browning and Swinbu will issue new volumes of poems in January. — “Iphigenia," a n by Hugo Furst which Peterson has just published, is a most peculiar baffling piece of fiction. It is a mixture of philosophy and infide and the characters converse in aphorisms more than everyday spe Tichnor & Co. have published a new volume of Nora Perry's e plete poetical works, containing the ever-popular verses, "After the B Frank Dempter Sherman, the clever young society poet wh verses form one of the most interesting features of the Century's bri brac department, is preparing a volume of his poems, which Wh Stokes & Allen will publish early in the spring. Van Schaick, ar.ist, and J. K. Bangs, of Life, have joined forces in producing a handsome volume called "The Lorgnette," which George Coombes published. It contains fifteen sketches from scenes of social life v appropriate text, and is superbly bound in parchment covers. publishers of the Brooklyn Magazine have concluded to defer the propo change in the name of their periodical until April, in order, principa that more time can be thus secured for the development of certain posed improvements which are now under consideration. giana Clark's new novel, "A Daughter of the People," which Harpe Brothers have just published in their Franklin Square Library, dese to rank with her best works. It is a very masterly performance throu out, The many admirers of "J. S., of Dale," who have been in Miss G " 99.66 y looking forward to a new story from his pen, will be glad to know 'Summer Solstice,,' "Some Day," "Love's Fount," "Daisies and Buter he February number of Scribner's Magazine will contain a novelette im called "The Residuary Legatee." cups, Burns," "Unknown," "Storm on the Matterhorn" and "Hope The author of that as and much-ridiculed poem, "Beautiful Snow," John W. Watson, and Memory." The last of these is illustrated by a beautiful engraving of an elderly gentleman and the author's daughter, Myla, then a little paring a volume of reminiscences for publication. The recollec-girl. An excellent profile of Mrs. Charles forms the frontispiece. The second edition of "Lyrical Poems" is now in press. will deal chiefly with prominent literary and theatrical people of past with whom the author enjoyed personal friendships. He was ate for years with Artemus Ward, William Cullen Bryant, Charlotte man, Anna Cora Mowatt, Fanny Osgood and others. The LowHawthorne trouble is reviewed by Mr. George William Curtis in 's for January. Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher has contracted an English publisher to write a series of articles on topics relating omen for a religious periodical. Although several years beyond the e-score-and-ten limit, Mrs. Beecher is continuously engaged in ary work, besides attending to nearly all of her famous husband's e correspondence. Archdeacon Farrar is engaged upon his article, erica's Share in Westminster Abbey," to be published in an early of Harper's Magazine. The article will discuss the various Ameriwhose memories are preserved in the Abbey, and will be made tionally interesting by a series of illustrations made especially for the Je. - The Scribner's have been peculiarly successful with many eir books during the year now closing. Of six of their most recent s they have sold nearly 120,000 copies. These several books are: Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," 28,000; the same author's dnapped," 12,000; Mrs. Burnett's "Little Lord Fauntleroy," 15,000; Gladstone's great pamphlet on "The Irish Question," 36,000; Mr. ston's novel," The Late Mrs. Null," 21,000, and the anonymous work, w to be Happy, Though Married," 5,000. The New York Inde. nt says of Lord Tennyson's latest poem, "Locksley Hall Sixty Years :""We believe this is the longest poem ever cabled across the sea; are sure it is the finest." The new life of Shelley is the ary bonne-bouche in London. It seems to be particularly explicit o the amours of the poet and some of his friends. It is that the novels by "Ary Ecilaw," which have excited such a tion in Berlin, Vienna and Paris, and of which_an_immense ber have been sold, are really written by Mme. de Kalomine, divorced wife of the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. editions of "Une Altesse Imperiale" were sold within a week, and demand is still in excess of the supply. The late Empress of Russia, present Czar and Czarina, and the Grand Duke Sergius and his wife, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse Darmstadt, figure prominently in the A rumor is afloat that the next romance by "Ary Ecilaw" will with the royal family of England, and the scene will be laid in that try-a prospect which is certainly not calculated to increase the ty of the court circles at Windsor Castle.-The Argonaut. ge W. Childs, of Philadelphia, has contributed $500 toward the iment for the poet Hayne. Bjoursjerne Bjornson has gjone bjack ard Njorway, where he expjects to spjend the sjummer. Don't stjop -Boston Record. - It is said that Arsene Houssaye, the French r, is contemplating a lecturing tour in the United States. ennyson, the Laureate's eldest son, has set the old nursery story of k and the Beanstalk" in "English hexameters" to a series of hes, very rough ones, by the late Randolph Caldecott. Mr. TinLing, the eminent Chinese literarian of Paris, and the close friend ne. Judith Gautier, is dead. Her romance of "The Usurper" was o him—a charming work. Mrs. Crawford, the widow of Captain ford, U. S. A., is called in army circles the original of Captain King's Stannard," well known through the pages of his novels.wall's widow (Mrs. Proctor) will next year witness her second royal - Barry e, as she well remembers that of George III, in 1809. She is coned a most interesting old lady, full of humor and entertaining remnces. Mme. Rattazzi, a cousin of Louis Napoleon, widow of an n statesman, and married again at fifty-eight to a young Spaniard, thoress and still pretty, is one of the most desperate gamblers in all De.— The article " United States," in the new edition of the "Enxedia Britannica" will be written by Prof. J. D. Whitney. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Two Hal to the bewildering variety recently introduced into the size and form of printing paper the designation of books, as 4to, švo, 12mo, dc., gives little indication of size; we shall fore, in order to be of most service to our readers, give the measures of books in inches quarters, the number first given being the length. We shall also add the number of pages kind of binding. 8 x 6. L POEMS. Songs, pastorals, roundelays, war poems, madrigals. By Emily s is an exquisitely bound volume, by a poet who has more than Brook" and as HUMOROUS MASTERPIECES FROM AMERICAN LITERATURE. Edited by Ed ward T. Mason. HOME LIFE OF GREAT AUTHORS. By Hattie Tyng Griswold. 8 x 5. Pp. 385. Cloth The author of these sketches says that they were written, not for the special student of literary biography, who is already familiar with the facts here given, but rather for those busy people who have little time for reading, yet wish to know something of the private life and personal history of their favorite authors. The sketches are not intended to be critical, or to present anything like complete biographies. They are devoted chiefly to the home life of the various authors, which, though an biographies. The author's womanly instincts have enabled her to see, instructive and fascinating study, seems commonly neglected in popular in the private lives of the authors whom she describes, in their loves, their habits, hopes, successes and disappointments, all their faults as well as their virtues, and she presents the picture in each sketch as it appears to her unprejudiced eyes. She has made a book which possesses an interest that, at times, becomes thrilling, as in the death-bed scene of pital in Baltimore. The value of the work is enhanced by copious and Poe's wife, and his own tragic death from delirium tremens, in the hosjudicious extracts from other writings. UNCLE SAM'S MEDAL OF HONOR. Some of the noble deeds for which the medal has been awarded, described by those who have won it. Collected and edited By Theo F. Rodenbough, Brevet Brigadier-General, U. S. A. 8%1⁄2 x 6. Pp. 424. Cloth. Illustrated. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. There is no reward for military merit dearer to the soldier's heart than the decoration bestowed by his government for brave deeds in the line of duty. Promotion, power, wealth are to him trifles compared with the Iron Cross of Germany, the Victoria Cross of England, the Cross of the Legion of Honor of France, the Russian Cross of Saint George, or the Medal of Honor of the United States. The record of many of the exploits for which the medal has been given shows that they have been as grand as any in the so-called Age of Chivalry, and that they shed a brilliant luster upon our national escutcheon. The names of those whose deeds are described in this book were taken at random from the official list published by the War Department. Concerning this decoration great ignorance prevails in this country on account of the simplicity which has marked the method of its presentation. The work is an interesting and fairly-comprehensive resume of some of the most notable incidents of the civil war, and is tastefully bound and handsomely illustrated. CIVITAS. A romance of our nation's life. By Walter L. Campbell. 6% x 4%. Cloth. "Civitas" is a study of the entanglements of liberty with the various Other notable poems are "Myla Petite," problems of socialism, communism and anarchy. It is in verse, the style of a century ago. It is allegory on socialism; the hero, Civitas, marries Libertas, but after a time turns away to a harlot, Anarchia. The issue is a son, Plutocrat. Through the controlling influence of Anarchia and her son the progress of everything is rapid toward ruin. After many woes Liberias, who has never lost sight of or love for Civitas, wins him back, and soon regains full control over him. Together they open hot battles against the elements of disorder, and finally prevail. From that time the life of Civitas is filled with good. Mr. Campbell, the author. is well known throughout Ohio as an able editor and writer, and this his latest work will create much interest. The book is full of keen comment on social and political philosophy, and can safely be judged one of the masterpieces of contemporaneous literature. THE MIDNIGHT SUN; THE TSAR AND THE NIHILIST. Adventures and observations in Norway, Sweden and Russia. By J. M. Buckley, LL. D. 9 x 7. Pp. 376. Cloth. Illustrated. D. Lothrop & Co., Boston. This volume describes the portions of a journey of nearly ten thousand miles in Norway, Sweden and Russia, most likely to interest others. It imparts to such as have never seen those countries as clear a view as can be obtained from reading, and is an aid to those who contemplate a similar journey to prepare for it. The style of an animated narrative has been followed, and the work is replete with valuable information and beautiful description. It is new and interesting because it is new, the best of us being able to boast of but a limited knowledge of the countries of northern Europe, our peregrinations having extended usually to the south. The author states that his chief reason for traveling in Russia was to study the "burning question," Nihilism, and kindred subjects. These he has treated thoroughly, without repetition or dullness, and the book gives, perhaps, the best insight recently published into Nihilism and its tendencies. THE STANDARD ORATORIOS. Their stories, their music and their composers. A hand. book by George P. Upton, author of "The Standard Operas," "Woman in Music," etc. 7x5. Pp. 335. Cloth. $1.50. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. "The Standard Oratorios" is intended as a companion to "The Standard Operas;" and with this purpose in view the compiler has followed as closely as possible the same method in the arrangement and presentation of his scheme. As in the case of "The Standard Operas" the work has been prepared for the general public rather than for musicians, and as far as practicable, technical terms have been avoided. Like the valuable art handbooks of Mrs. Jamison, these volumes contain a world of interesting information, indispensable to critics and art amateurs. The volume under review is elegantly and succinctly written, and the subjects are handled in a thoroughly comprehensive manner. The favor which has been so generously accorded to the "Standard Operas" leads us to believe that "The Standard Oratorios" will also be welcomed by those who enjoy the sacred music of the great masters, and that it will prove a valuable addition to other works of musical reference. RECOLLECTIONS OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. By Frank Wilkeson. 7 x 5. Pp. 246. Cloth. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. The chief histories of the war, thus far written, have been the work of commanding generals. The private soldiers who won the battles, when they were given a chance to win them, and lost them very often through the ignorance and incapacity of commanders, have scarcely begun to write the history from their point of view. The author is well known in Western literary circles, and has been for a long time contributor to the New York Sun on Western topics. He was a private soldier from 1861-'5, and as one of them makes an able contribution to the history of the war. He discovers two capital errors in the conduct of the war on the Union side: First, the calling for volunteers instead of creating armies by drawing soldiers ratably; and, secondly, the officering of the commands with West Point graduates by preference. It is a book that is well worth reyding. AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN AND ASS'YA. By Ivan Sergeyevitch Turgenief. Translated from the Russian by Henry Gersoni. 8 x 5. Pp. 160. Boards, half cloth. Both bound in one volume. 75 cents. Funk & Wagnalls, New York. Able critics pronounce Turgenief the foremost European novelist of recent times. Enthusiastic scholars in England are even learning the Russian language in order to read his works in the original. Those who would write in the same vein get merely his admirable manner, full of reserve and self-restraint, of joyless patience; but while under this surface, with Turgenief, lie throbbing arteries and quivering flesh, his imitators offer nothing more than lay figures, in whose fortunes it is impossible to take any lively interest. The success of Mr. Gersoni's translations of "Mumu" and "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" caused his pub lishers to honor him with an order to translate some of the other works of Turgenief, and he selected "An Unfortunate Woman" and "Ass'ya," all of which afford an excellent introduction to the greatest Russian novelist. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Its Mountains, Valleys and Streams. Its Animals, Birds and Fishes. Its Climate, Farms and Gardens. By Theodore S. Van Dyke, author of "The Still Hunter," "The Rifle, Rod and Gun in California," etc. 8 x 5. Pp. 233. Cloth. $1.50. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, New York. There are few men who have traveled so widely, who have studied nature so thoroughly and are so fully conversant with her various moods in many countries, as the author of "The Still Hunter." After long years of residence in southern California-not in its cities and seaports, but in its mountains and valleys and by its streams, camping, hunting and studying the country-he now sends forth his book as the record of his experience and knowledge. The chief value of the work lies in its great fund of information, which only a naturalist and a keen observ could bring together. In addition, it is written by a man who know how to write the English language correctly in a bright, vivid, dashin style, and, moreover, without display of local prejudice or state conce THE TRIAL OF GIDEON AND COUNTESS ALMABA'S MURDER. By Julian Hawthorn 8 x 5. Pp. 96. Boards, half cloth. 75 cents. Funk & Wagnalls, New York. In this story Hawthorne seems to be aiming at the weird, the stran and the picturesque in novel writing, and at the same time he is maki it a success. This novelette possesses the same charming characteristi and absorbing interest that have distinguished his other works. I writes the purest English, without being overstrained, of any of the ne generation of novelists. And while he writes prose he thinks poet planning a surprise now and then, or contriving with necromanic & some delusive spell whereby to enchant his readers. WHO SHALL WEAR THE CROWN? A colloquy in three parts. By Ernest. 8 x 5. Pp. 1 Cloth. F. H. Revell, Chicago. As its title indicates, this is a religious poem in the form of a colloqu It is divided into three parts: The Old Creation, The New Creation a Faith's Coronation. The characters are three in number, and are nam Herman, Julian and Ernest. It contains a great deal of philosophi discussion of the mysteries of divine truth, and is a work of no lit power and beauty. It is dedicated "to all honest seekers after truth, all that are striving to uphold it, and especially to all fellow-laborers, t home and foreign missionaries." Written by himself. MY LODGER'S LEGACY; or, THE HISTORY OF A RECLUSE. Co piled and arranged by Robert W. Hume. 8x5%. Pp. 186. Boards, half cl Funk & Wagnalls, New York. This is an exceeding fascinating story, possessing the peculiar a tragic interest of the arrest, trial and acquittal of a supposed murder who lived for twenty years in his "landlady's" house, and at his dea made her his sole legatee and left for her to publish a history of mysterious life, "if she thought it worth while to inflict it on the tience of the American public." The introduction is by the "landlady JANUARY MAGAZINES. THE MAGAZINE OF ART for January has for its frontispiece a striking reproduction sanguine of Gustave Jacquet's painting, "Pandora's Box. ' The opening article an account, by Mr. Charles DeKay, of "Movements in American Art," accompan by reproductions of paintings, by F. S. Church, Thomas Eakins, H. Siddens Mo bray and Gilbert Gaul. Other articles of interest are, "The Paris of the Revolution by Richard Heath, with four engravings. "A Sketch of Mrs. Siddons," by E. B ington Nast, with several portraits. "Art in South Australia and New South Wale by Arthur Grey. "Van Dyke at the Court of Charles I," by F. Mabel Robinson, & a second paper on Houghton Tower, by Prof Mandell Creighton. Cassell & Co., N York. 35 cents; $3.50 per year. THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. The January number contains two serials of exceptional terest, "The Second Son," by Mrs. Oliphant and Thomas Bailey Aldrich in collab ation, and "Paul Patoff," by F. Marion Crawford. Two short stories, "Ze Swift's Ride to Roxbury," by Edgar M. Bacon, and "The King Who Went Out G erning," by Margaret Vandegrift, are uncommonly bright and clever. The rema ing contributions include articles by Philip Gilbert Hamerton, E. R. Sill, Arthur Hardy, Agnes Repplier, George Frederic Parsons, Edith M. Thomas, and poems Charlotte Fiske Bates and 8. V. Cole. The usual brief notices, and a clever C tributors' Club complete one of the best magazine numbers that January will bri Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. 35 cents; $4 per year. 44 THE CHAUTAUQUAN for January contains the following list of contributions by w known writers: "Journalism," by George Parsons Lathrop; "The Universal Co Maker," by Charles Barnard; "Sunday Readings," selected by Chancellor J. H. V cent, LL.D.; "Out of-Door Employments for Women." Helen Campbell; "Studie Mountains," Ernest Ingersoll; "In Hopeful Admonition," Ada Iddings Gale; Age of Caricature," Frank Beard; "Claimants at the Doors of Congress," S. Clark; "Government Secret Service," Ben: Perley Poore; "Among Insects," M Treat; "Superfluous Women," Mary A. Livermore; "The Mid-Winter Harve Charles Ledyard Norton; "How the Chautauquan 18 Made," illustrated, and ot good things. The Chatauquan, Meadville, Pa. $1.50 per year. CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE.-The January number presents an unusually bright a of interesting articles. "Life's Fitful Fever," a serial by Arabella M. Hopl son, commences in this number. Among other contributions are "Phases of a man's Life-Childhood and Girlhood," by Eliza Clarke; "Why Can't I Sleep." 1 Family Doctor; "The Building of the Ships,' by J. W. S.; "December Gardenin "Two Musical Colleges," by J. Cuthbert Hadden; "Some Hints About Hand Pain Furniture;" "A Step in the Dark," a story by Kate Erye (continued); "Impress of a Noticing Eye; "A Mouth Harmonica," a story in one chapter, by Matth Barr, etc. Cassell & Co., New York. 15 cents; $1.50 per year. " DEBENTURES ISSUED AGAINST FIRST MORTGAGES.-Gne of the difficult experienced by investors who have taken mortgages upon Western la has been obviated by the organization of such companies as the Fidel Loan and Trust Company, of Storm Lake, Iowa. This company has b organized with a paid-up capital of $100,000, by gentlemen who have l large experience in placing loans upon property in the Western Sta and Territories. Their plan has been to loan money upon real est security in no case worth less than two and one-half times the amoun the loan. The value is determined by the special examiner of the co pany and sworn to by the borrower and two appraisers, and the t carefully searched and abstracted. With these precautions it is strange that no investor has ever suffered any loss by taking these lo The company is now issuing its own debentures, redeemable in 1 years and payable in ten, and bearing 6 per cent. interest. Against th debentures are pledged an equal amount of first mortgages placed un the restrictions described. These mortgages are deposited with Metropolitan Trust Company as trustee in this city, the investor t having the advantage of a local trustee, with interest and principal I able in this city. These debentures have found a ready sale, and likely to grow in favor as affording the legal rate of interest with the r imum of risk.-New York Mail and Express.-Adv.) VOL. II. PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE PUBLIC OPINION COMPANY. WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1887. POLITICAL. THE DEATH OF SENATOR LOGAN. SENATOR JOHN ALEXANDER LOGAN, of Illinois, died at his residence in Washington, D. C., on Sunday, December 26, 1885, in the 61st year of his age. From the many hundreds of editorial and individual notices of the dead statesman which have come to hand up to the time of closing the forms of this issue-Wednesday night, December 29-the following have been selected as fairly representative of all. It is impossible, in the brief space of time allowed, to quote from the press of the most remote sections. Congressional Directory, Forty-ninth Congress. JOHN A. LOGAN, of Chicago, was born in Jackson county, Illinois, where he received a common-school education, and subsequently graduated at the Louisville University; enlisted as private in the Illinois Volunteers and became quartermaster in the war with Mexico; was elected clerk of the Jackson county court in 1849; studied and practiced law; was elected to the Legislature of Illinois in 1852, '53, '56, and '57; was prosecuting attorney from 1853 to 1857; was a Presidential elector in 1856; was elected to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses; resigned and entered the Union Army as colonel, and reached the rank of majorgeneral in the war for the suppression of the rebellion; was appointed Minister to Mexico in 1865 but declined; was elected to the Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses; was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican to succeed Richard Yates, Republican, serving from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877; resumed the practice of law at Chicago; was again elected to the United States Senate as a Republican to succeed R. J. Oglesby, Republican, and was re-elected in 1885. Chicago Inter-Ocean (Rep.). THE death of any man of large experience and influence in statecraft is a public calamity. In the case of General Logan the calamity is the greater because of his character. his position, and because of the ripening possibilities of the future. He was the best living representative of the spirit of the old Union armies in political life. He had more steadfast, ardent followers among the veterans of the war than any other leader of his party, and Republican sentiment in the West was solidifying about him in a way that marked him as the chosen leader in the next Presidential campaign. To his party the loss is not only great, but far-reaching in effects. To the country at large the loss is that of one of the most conspicuous figures in the war for the Union, one of the most courageous, most fearless, and most useful men in public life. General Logan was one of the remarkable individualities of the times. He was not like Lincoln, nor Douglas, nor Grant, nor Greeley, nor Sumner, nor Stanton. He was simply, straightforwardly, and positively John A. Logan. He was pre-eminently and unmistakably a positive force. He had no negative qualities. He was positive in his friendships, in his integrity, in his partisanship, and in his patriotism. He was aggressive in his impulses and convictions and purposes, but never an extremist. He was a hard hitter, a relentless fighter, but never a vindictive enemy. He was a good political diplomatist and a sagacious party manager, but to his generalship as a politician added a personal honesty and integrity that no one ever questioned. In the army he was one of the few officers without a military education, who immediately won the favor and confidence of West Pointers. During the war he was counted one of the boldest and at the same time one of the safest of the more prominent commanders. In the Senate he was an originator of legislation, a leader in debate, and always ready to do battle for his party or his principles. In private life he was the model husband and father, exceptionally favored in his home relations and in the warm attachment by friends. St. Louis Republican (Dem.), WHEN Gen. John A. Logan died the Republican party lost its most aggressive partisan and the most picturesque character among its prominent public men. He is the very last of the men whom the events of the war made Republican leaders, and with his death the martial factor in politics loses half its strength. General Logan had no traits that were not prominent. He was incapable of concealments-so frank in the expression of his feelings that those who differed with him founu it often impossible to admire and sometimes hard to forgive his blun. No. 38. ness. If he was ever logical in his life the memory of the occasion does not remain, and this is enough to say of his failings, since all his failings may be traced directly or indirectly to the warmth of his emotional nature and the lack in him of anything resembling the analytical faculty. If he was hearty and unrelenting in his hates, he was warm and generous in his friendships; never forgetful of a favor, and never slow to repay it. If his bluntness caused him to have fewer friends than others, more politic and suave, the circle of his friends was still not a narrow one, and it comprised few whom his own his strength of friendship to his friends had not inspired with a like loyalty toward him. His freedom from anything like aristocratic pretensions gave him elements of political leadership where he might otherwise have failed of it. As a man of the people, he had his chief hold on the people, and the persistence with which he held his own against circumstances won him admiration, even from the opponents whom his own partisanship embittered towards him. He lacked the power over circumstance-or the "luck," if anyone chooses to call it so that made General Grant's career so remarkable; but, with even lewer advantages of birth and education, he pushed himself to the front and held his position there "by main strength and awkwardness," if we may use one of those expressive colloquialisms in which he knew so well how to convey an idea. The idea of harshness and coldness has somehow come to be associated with the typical "self-made man," but Logan, who owed everything to himself, had no calculation in him. He was strong always, but strongest in his impulses, and most successful when ne followed them with the least question. He had a native talent for military affairs, and, had it been trained properly, he would have been a great general. As it was, he had no superior as a corps commander, and was the greatest of the untrained volunteers of the grand army of the republic. Minneapolis Tribune (Rep.). GENERAL LOGAN was intensely American. Every fiber of his being pulsated for the old flag, American citizenship, and loyalty to the party which he believed had saved the Nation. General Logan had no use for traitors nor cowards. Hence his unyielding hostility to the Fitz John Porter bill. Logan believed that Porter was a traitor to his country and took the risk of losing a great battle and uncovering the capital of the Nation to the rebel army merely to gratify a pique against General Pope. Military orders to General Logan meant obedience or death, and he had no patience for that class of men who would dally with such an offender. As a debater Logan was not brilliant, but he was forcible, solemnly in earnest, and marshalled his arguments like an army. As a politician he was pure and upright, loathing the tricks and methods of small minds. As a citizen he was just to his neighbor and his country. As a general he was brilliant, dashing, brave, always leading his army, never following. As a husband and father he was of the most devoted. His death comes like an electric shock to the country, and will cause wide spread grief and universal mourning. Verily, a great man has past away. Nashville American (Dem.). SENATOR LOGAN was one of the few distinguished Federal soldiers who carried with them to the last the animosities and bitterness engendered by the civil war. He never learned to look upon the South otherwise than as a hostile people in arms against the Federal Government. He was proud of his record as a soldier, as he had a right to be, but his disposition to seize upon every opportunity and to make opportunities for dilating upon his services in the rebellion made him frequently appear as a boastful proclaimer of his own prowess. In spite of all this, however, Senator Logan had many qualities to admire. The narrowness and intolerance which he displayed in public life seemed to be no part of his character in his social and friendly relations, and he was thoroughly liked and admired in private life by his Congressional associates of all parties. He was incorruptibly honest, and no shadow of taint ever rested upon his good name, and not even suspicion assailed his integrity. Charleston News and Courier (Dem.). GENERAL LOGAN was a peculiar compound. No personal dishonesty was ever imputed to him. Nor was he mean or jealous. Vigorous in intellect, desperately in earnest always, in temperament fiery and impetuous, he scorned restraint and gave scant heed to usage. But he was impartial in these respects. The canons of grammar were as cheerfully violated as were the rules of war or the etiquette of debate. General Logan was an uncompromising partisan, but he had a good heart. There was nothing malevolent in his character. The country could far better have spared some reputed saint or actual iceberg in our politics than hotheaded, ambitious, volcanic, but able, faithful, and generous Jack," of Illinois. "Black |