an authorized English translation by R. F. Fenno & Co., of New York, with all the original illustrations, including many interesting photographs of Bismarck and his surroundings

which are not to be found elsewhere. The illustrative part forms quite a particular attraction for this volume; also the text, although written from a French standpoint yet admirably just and in an exceedingly entertaining style, will prove of great interest to American readers as it contains much new personal and anecdotical matter which shows this great man en famille or we might say en déshabille. The volume forms an interesting and characteristic personal memoir and a supplement to the many works on Bismarck which treat of him more as a statesman. As it has attracted a great deal of attention in France and Germany, so it will, in the English translation, surely be appreciated and widely read by friend and foe also in this country, where Bismarck has, even by those who diverge from him in their political views, been admired for his undoubtedly great qualities as a statesman, which place him foremost in the history of our times.

Carl Schurz has retired from his editorial connection with Harper's Weekly and has identified himself with the Westliche Post of St. Louis, one of the most prominent German dailies of the West, with which he was connected many years ago as an editorial writer. The Westliche Post has recently been amalgamated with the Anzeiger des

Westens and Mr. Schurz is the president of the new company. Mr. Schurz, by the way, is also reported to be engaged in writing his memoirs, which bid fair to be a valuable and interesting contribution to contemporary historical literature and political life in the United States during the last 40 years.

A paragraph or two with special meaning for Americans at this time. occurs in Conan Doyle's last book, A Desert Drama.(*) Apropos of England's occupation of Egypt, says Colonel Cochrane, a character who apparently represents the author's own sentiments: "I think that behind national interests and diplomacy and all that, there lies a great guiding force, a Providence, in fact, which is forever getting the best out of each nation and using it for the good of the whole. When a nation ceases to respond, it is time that she went into hospital for a few centuries, like Spain or Greece -the virtue has gone out of her."

Headingly (a typical educated Yankee) nods approval, and the Colonel proceeds: "Each has its own mission. Germany is predominent in abstract thought; France in literature, art, and grace. But we and you for the English-speakers

a

are all in the same boat-we and you have among our best men higher conception of moral sense and public duty than is to be found in any other people."

It is in such chance rays that we may judge of the inner light of amity between "English-speakers.

(*) A Desert Drama. By A. Conan Doyle. 12mo. cloth. Price 80 cents. By mail 95 cents.

The Critic, apropos of Gladstone's death, mentions that his birthyear (1809) is marked by the following celebrities having been born in the same year: Prof. Blackie, Mary Cowden Clarke, Darwin, Edward Fitz Gerald, Gladstone, Dr. Holmes, Lord Houghton, Lincoln, Mendelssohn, Poe and Tennyson.

The Musical Courier makes the

following strong but not unfounded promulgation in a recent number:

"Matthew Arnold once wrote that the Goddess of Lubricity was worshiped in Paris. At least she is worshiped in the market place and not secretly, as in this country, giving rise to the indescribable hypocrisy of our national life, the insincerity of our culture, religious and æsthetic, and to the depressing morale of village life from New England to California. Little hope for broad, generous and ennobling culture, musical or literary, when when the masses are ruled by the bigots, prigs and prudes. Pfui Teufel!"

The Lippincotts come to the front with the timeliest of volumes on the whole history of native warfare by sea, down to the victory of Dewey. The book is entitled The Nation's Navy, (1)and is written with engaging directness and careful research by Charles Morris, author of HalfHours of History and other widelyknown books. The illustrations form in themselves an excellent pictorial history of American sea-power.

The original of Du Maurier's character of Sandy, Laird of Cockpen, in his famous book Trilby, (2) Mr. T. R. Lamont, has recently died in London. The Chap Book of June 1 gives the following biographical sketch of this immortalized man :

"Mr. Lamont was the son of a manager of a bank at Greenock, and, having shown an ardent interest in art, went to Paris, where he entered the studio of M. Gleyre, the famous teacher. This is Du Maurier's in

troduction of his friend: 'Another

inmate of this blissful abodeSandy, the Laird of Cockpen, as he was called-sat in similarly simple attire at his easel, painting at a lifelike little picture of a Spanish toreador serenading a lady of high degree (in broad daylight). He had never been to Spain, but he had a comtoreador's plete kit-a bargain, which he had picked up for a mere song in the boulevard du Temple— and he had hired his guitar. His pipe was in his mouth-reversed;

(1) The Nation's Navy. By Charles Morris. 8vo. cloth Illustrated. Price $1.10. By mail $1.25.

(2) Trilby. By George Du Maurier. 8vo. cloth. Illustrated. Price $1.25 By mail $1.40.

for it had gone out, and ashes were spilled all over his trousers, where holes were often burned in this way.'

"Mr. Lamont was about the same age as Mr. Du Maurier. He had attained a fair amount of success as an artist in water-colors, and as an illustrator. He was an Associate of the Royal Water Color Society, and was an intimate friend of another North Country artist, Mr. Frederick Shields. Mr. Lamont was well described in Trilby as possessed of 'a face so blithe and merry, and well pleased that it did one good to look at him.'"'

Mr. George W. Cable, who is visit ing with Mr. J. M. Barrie, is much in evidence at present in London literary circles, although only three of his works are familiar to English readers. On the strength of his reception new editions are being issued of John March, Southerner(1) and Bonaventure, (*) in Messrs. Sampson Low's half-crown library of standard novels. Messrs. Hodder

(1) John March, Southerner. By George W. Cable. 12mo. cloth. Price $1.08. By mail $1.23. (2) Bonaventure. By George W. Cable. 12mo. cloth. Price 90 cents. By-mail $1.02.

Maria Louise Pool, the author of Mrs. Gerald, (*) In Buncoombe Country,(3) Against Human Nature,(4) In a Dike Shanty(5) and other novels, which have been widely read, died suddenly on May 19, at Rockland, near Boston. She was born in 1845 at Rockland, then called Abingdon, Mass., and was for many years a writer for the New York Tribune. Her name is also familiar to magazine readers, as a frequent contributor to Harper's, Lippincott's and others.

Her last

Mlle. de Bury says in her charming book of essays on " French Literature of To-Day,"(*) that "in order to be interested in critics and criticism one must know the writers who are discussed." This applies pre-eminently to her own book. Her style is fluent and clear, her ideas and criticisms are put forth in an exceedingly intelligible manner; yet she is so thoroughly well versed in the whole wide range of French modern literature, that she often forgets that not all of her readers are equally well acquainted with the writers, which she frequently quotes by way of comparing their style and sentiment with those under discussion. To make critical essays useful and enjoyable to everybody, even to those unacquainted with the subject, to awaken the interest of the uninitiated and to induce them to acquaint themselves with the writers and their works, as a result of such essays, the critic will either have to place intimate details of the writer's individuality of general humane interest in the foreground, or will have to speak abstractly of the purposes and qualities of the works, without bringing other equally unfamiliar points by way of comparison into play. This Mlle. de Bury fails to do. Hence her book will perhaps not have the desired effect upon readers in search of information about modern

(*) French Literature of To-day, By Yetta Blaze de Bury. 8vo. cloth. Price $1.10. By mail $1.25.

French writers and their works with which they are not familiar. On the other hand, this book will prove of great value and interest to teachers and students of French literature and to all persons who have already read more or less of the works of Loti, Maupassant, Zola, Edmond de Goncourt, Jean Martin Charcot, Bourget, de Vogué, Brunetière, Lemaitre, Anatole France, Madame Blanc Bentzon and Paul Verlaine. To those the book will have a great charm, bringing out certain qualities which, while reading, they may have overlooked, and making them more intimately acquainted with their characteristics and beauties. The enthusiasm with which Mlle. de Bury writes cannot fail to affect and influence the reader, and no such reader will lay the without having greatly and been benefited by it.

book aside enjoyed it Her essay

on Verlaine for instance, will show this great writer with all his eccentricities, and frequently apparent coarseness to many, in an entirely new and more amiable light. Perhaps the most charming of her essays is the one on de Vogué, where with all her careful impartiality she speaks with such unrestrained delight, that it shows her unpremeditated sympathy with and innermost appreciation of his works. as her favorites. Even in the articles. on Zola and Brunetière, which are not exactly in harmony with our