Large as the literature on Alaska has grown since the discovery of the gold fields, there are still comparatively few exhaustive descriptions of the country and its people, most of the books and pamphlets published of late being nothing more than guidebooks or practical hints for gold seekers. An exceedingly interesting, exhaustive work on this still almost unknown, interesting country has recently been published under the title "The Rainbow's End: Alaska," (*) by Alice Palmer Henderson. It is the very entertainingly written narrative

(*) The Rainbow's End: Alaska. By Alice Palmer Henderson. Illustrated. 12mo. cloth. Price $1.08. By mail $1.23.

of

a journey to to Alaska, full of details, vivid description and valuable information, which will not fail to attract and please the many eager to read about this ice-clad fairyland. We can give our readers no better idea as to the scope and contents of this interesting volume than by quoting the headings of its twenty-one chapters: Toward the North Land-Dutch Harbor and Unalaska-Behring Sea and St. Michael

The Little Eskimo Town of Stebbins The Potlach-Kutlik, Hunting and Fishing-Andreafski and Ikogmute-Holy Cross Mission and Indian Myths-Anvik and Indian Death Customs-Nulato, 648 Miles

from St. St. Michael-The Tanana, Minook and the Rapids-Coal, Quartz and other Minerals of Alaska -Alaska Dogs-Reindeer-Sheldon Jackson's Monument-Resources for Permanent Settlement in AlaskaWhat Shall I put into My Pack?A Mine is Mine!-Ft. Yukon; The Flats; Circle City-Beyond the Boundary Line The End of the Rainbow and Sundry Pots of Gold. The book is illustrated with many half tones from original photographs, taken by the author. It is a book as fascinating and entertaining for the pastime reader as it is valuable for the seeker of information.

lished by the Monarch Book Co. of Chicago. It is a splendid tribute to the great reformer, dictated by the love and admiration of Miss Willard and by an enthusiastic, earnest adhesion to her cause. Hers was a life of unselfish, incessant work in the interest of all the pertinent questions of woman's emancipation and elevation and of temperance, and while one may not be of the same opinion with her in all her ideas and efforts, yet the nobility of her character, the unselfishness of her work, the strong conviction and belief in her cause, forces admiration even from her adversaries. The book before us, while being a beautiful souvenir for all her friends and followers, certainly will not fail to impress deeply even those who may be sceptical to her endeavors.

It is reported from Paris, that Pierre Louys' charming, but not very chaste novel, Aphrodite is to be dramatized for for Madame Réjane. We can hardly conceive how it is possible to dramatize and worse still-produce on the stage such a work, which, though written in a most graceful, artistic and even

(*) Frances E. Willard. A Memorial Volume, by Anna A. Gordon. Introduction by Lady Henry Somerset. Character Studies and Memorial Tributes by Dr. E. E. Hale, Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, Dr. N. D. Hillis, Dr. Lyman Abbott, Archbishop Ireland, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Mary A. Livermore, Susan B. Anthony, Bishop Potter, Julia Ward Howe, Louise Chandler Moulton, Consul BoothTucker, Maud Ballington Booth, Rev. Dr. E. G. Hirsch, etc., ctc. Illustrated. Large Svo. cloth. Price 90 cents. By mail $1.10

poetical style, consisting of characteristic and very realistic sketches of ancient Demi-Monde life, has very little plot, and offers hardly any chances for the costumer. We might, if anything, think of it as a ballet with living pictures and a tragic tableau-but a play! In making a play out of such a book, it would be deprived of the poetical charm which lies in the author's artistic style, and would only become a vulgar, even repulsive production. It is just as impossible as to attempt a translation of it. Pierre Louys, by the way a young author

who has ascended the ladder of fame in a jump, has lately published another novel, entitled La Femme et le Pantin, which is having an equally tremendous sale in Paris as his Aphrodite has had. Mr. Comstock and Mrs. Grundy don't live in Paris, you know.

A murderous playwright is Ulisse Barbieri, a prolific Italian author, whose plays are among the most popular ones in the land of the stiletto. A literary statistican has

counted out no less than 111 assassinations in his plays; 985 villains perish at Barbieri's instigation in wild brawls; 13 innocent girls he lets be buried alive, and 18 children strangled; he drove 42 old men and 69 lover couples to commit suicide, and 227 wives have to pay death penalty for their faithlessness. The number of persons whom he corrupts to commit thefts and other crimes of every imaginable kind, amounts to 1356. The total sum of crimes committed by his creatures is 2838, distributed over 1473 acts, amounting on the average to almost two crimes in every act of his plays. Truly a bloody record!

In the September Cosmopolitan Oscar Hammerstein tells his story under the title of The Romance of an Emigrant Boy. He was born in Berlin. When he was sixteen he left his home because his father beat him for playing truant. In New York he became a cigarmaker, saved money, made money out of patents and real estate and finally became

interested in theatres. His account is both interesting and amusing. He writes:

"When I had a little extra money I connected myself with Mr. Neuendorf. I wrote three plays at a time, which were produced in New York at the German Theatre. One was called Solo Sixty, the name of a game of cards. The others were called Our Poor Relations and Antonio Lobster, the latter a farce. I cannot say that they achieved great popularity. I wrote them more for pastime than for anything else.

"A little later I rented the Stadt Theatre for three months and man

aged it myself. It was at this time that I produced the first German translation of the Two Orphans.

"I followed Mr. Neuendorf up to the Fourteenth Street Theatre, always acting as a silent partner. In my speculations I was more or less successful. I liked the stage. I connected myself with its affairs because I loved it.

"The first theatre which I built was the Harlem Opera House. For three years it did nothing but lose money. It lost more than two hundred thousand dollars in that time. Then I determined to build another theatre in Harlem. People thought that I was insane, but I said to myself:

"When the Harlem Opera House does begin to pay some one else will divide the patronage with me after I have borne the brunt of the pioneer work.' So I decided to be my own competitor. I went over to the east side of Harlem and built the Columbus Theatre. It was most successful from the very start. It was in

the settled district and was conducted as a popular house. For a time the losses of the Harlem Opera House were covered by the money made at the Columbus Theatre.

"After a few years the Harlem Opera House began to show a profit. Since then it has been a profitable property."

After that he started the Murray Hill Theatre, built Koster & Bial's, built the Olympia-and ended where he began. He concludes his story with the words:

"I am not, however, discouraged. I shall profit by my experience, I shall persevere.'

Franklyn Fyles has written in the Sun a very interesting review of the new play in which Annie Russell is to star this season. He says among other things:

"The selection of Henri Lavedan's Catherine for Annie Russell's debut as a star is interesting apart from the possibility that it may prove a drama suited to her talents. It is the first play really typical of the present French stage that has been attempted here in several years. The farces of Bisson, Feydeau, and their

of the younger French writers than are the melodramas of Sardou and

୫୫୫

Daniel Frohman is back from London with a pocketful of plays. The Lyceum is to open with Pinero's comedy of the stage, Trelawney of the Wells. Mr. Frohman has also

secured a dramatization of Rupert of Hentzau (3), Anthony Hope's

(1) Vanity Fair. (Biographical Edition of William Thackeray's Works.) 12mo. cloth. Price $1.08. By mail $1.25.

(2) The Light That Failed. By Rudyard Kipling. 12mo. cloth. Price 45 cents. By mail 57 cents.

(3) Rupert of Hentzau. By Anthony Hope. 12mo, cloth. Illustrated. Price $1.08. By mail $1.23.

Decourcelle. Such men as Lavedan, Donnay, Hervieu and Becque represent a wholly different movement that is chiefly responsible for the disappearance of the contemporary serious plays of France from our stage. The pieces they write are intimate, analytical studies of human

character and social relations in the

generally pessimistic vein of Ibsen, Pinero, Suderman and Giocosa, None of these writers has won a place in our theater, with the excep

(1) Prisoner of Zenda. cloth. Illustrated. Price $1.08. (2) Pride of Jennico. Castle. 12mo. cloth. Price $1.08.

By Anthony Hope. 12mo.
By mail $1.23.
By Agnes and Egerton
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tion of the Englishman, who has recently shown himself quite indifferent to retaining it. So the Frenchman who writes in the modern way has remained quite unknown here. One of Lavedan's plays was here three or four years ago, but it came to our stage stillborn. It was Le Prince d'Aurec, a study of the influence of money on French society of the day, and the process of adaptation which turned it into An American Duchess was one of the most fearful specimens of that bungling art which has ever been put before the public. The piece met with the inevitable fate, but Lavedan was not in the least prejudiced by the result. He had really been a very small figure in the affair.

"Catherine, which is the story of a young girl of humble family, loved by an aristocrat, was a notable success at the Comédie Francaise a year ago.

It did not meet with the same fate in all countries. In Italy it was practically hissed off the stage at the first production. Another sign that the serious works of the contemporary French stage are again to have a hearing here is found in the case of

Zaza, in which Mrs. Leslie Carter is to be seen. That will, of course, justify adaptation. It would not be possible in English without it, and is luckily in the expert hands of David Belasco. Thus two plays in a high degree typical of the younger French dramatists are to be seen here this winter.

"It will be interesting to observe the result. If these plays succeed there are many others of the same character that have been acted with favor in Europe, but are still unknown here. Serious plays of the kind that used to be called emotional have either come from England during recent years or they have been the work of native writers. Formerly they came almost exclusively from France. They made the fortune of one historic theatre in this city, and when the supply of them failed the theatre failed too. There is little probability that the inundation of former years will ever be repeated. The activity and attainments of our own dramatists put that out of the question. But the importation of some of the best contemporary French dramas is certain to add interest to Charles Frohman's season."