W. H. H. 441 pp. Cloth, 1894.

RACHEL STANWOOD. Lucy Gibbons Morse. $1.25. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. "Rachel Stanwood" is, as the sub-title says, a story of the middle of the nineteenth century" in other words, of the time just before the civil war, when the abolitionist excitement was at its height. The story is written from the abolitionist point of view, and among the characters in it the reader will find real persons like Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Maria Child, Jacob Abbott, the Hutchinson family, Ole Bull, and Frederika Bremer. This use of well-known names, and the evident truthfulness of the book, so far as its descriptions of the abolitionists are concerned, give to it a peculiar vividness which cannot fail to impress the reader. Two interesting love stories run through the tale. Altogether it is an important addition to the too short list of American historical novels.

W. H. H.

THROUGH EVANGELINE'S COUNTRY. By Jeannette A. Grant. Illustrated. 100 pp. Cloth, in box, $2.00. Boston: Joseph Knight Company. 1894.

Now that the attractions of Nova Scotia are becoming more generally known, in consequence of the increase of tourist travel thither during recent years, information about "the country of Evangeline" is generally desired. In this beautiful little volume Jeannette A. Grant supplies the need in a most satisfactory way, combining history, and legend, and description of scenery with such a skilful art that her book has all the value of a guide book, with all the attractiveness of a well-written story. The publishers have enclosed the volume in a dainty cover of vellum cloth, beautified by an effective design in red and gold, and it is illustrated with thirty or forty artistic half-tone pictures of Acadian scenery. There is also a colored frontispiece picture of Evangeline, from a painting by Edwin Douglass, and the book has a map of Evangeline's country, which the reader will find very useful.

W. H. H. RICHARD ESCOTT. By Edward H. Cooper. 251 pp. Cloth, $1.00. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.

No

"Richard Escott," by the author of "Geoffrey Hamilton," is an interesting story. one who reads it will deny that the Honorable Richard Francis Milner Escott was, as the author says, a "phenomenally wicked person." The story of his misdoings is not a particularly edifying one, but, as his wickedness is duly punished, and his life ends with a wretched suicide, which helps to bring happiness to other people, the moral of the book is not irregular, and in the mean time the story entertains.

CATHARINE FURZE. By Mark Rutherford. Edited by his friend, Reuben Shapcott. 325 pp. Cloth, $1.00. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.

Catharine Furze is the daughter of an English iron-monger, whose mother has aspirations toward a higher social position. The girl's father fails in business; the mother fails to attain the position she desires; an honest young fellow who loves Catharine fails to win her love in return; the girl who loves him dies after failing to arouse his interest; and Catharine herself dies at the end of the story, the one love of her life having been given hopelessly to a married minister, who loves her hopelessly in return. The novel is differentiated from the average French novel by the artifice of having both the girl and the minister control the unhappy passion, and, as the author says, even get good from it. The characters are generally well drawn, and the story is fairly well told throughout.

W. H. H.

Two BITES AT A CHERRY. With other tales. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 269 pp. Cloth, $1.25. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 1894.

A Literary "Incubator."- One of the pigeon holes above my desk I have named "The Incubator." Its use, as the name implies, is for the development of idea-germs. When one or more "ideas" seem promising, they are transferred, each in separate envelopes, to the “incubator," where notes or clippings are added to each as the subject develops in the mind or by study. I find the "incubator one of the most useful assistants in my work.

CHICAGO, Ill.

F. E. M.

"who

Learning to Illustrate." C. B. M.,"

and this collection of the latest of them is a delightful one. The book includes "For Bravery on the Field of Battle,' """The Chevalier de Resseguier,” “Goliath,” “My Cousin, the Colonel," "A Christmas Fantasy, with a Moral," and "Her Dying Words." It is a dainty volume, and it will be welcomed by all of Mr. Aldrich's admirers. Already the book has reached its fifth thousand.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

MARION DARCHE.

W. H. H.

A Story Without Comment. By F. Marion Crawford. 309 pp. Cloth, $1.00. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.

PIETRO GHISLERI. By F. Marion Crawford. 429 pp. Cloth, $1.00. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.

best learn to draw well enough to make simple illustrations for his stories, might derive some benefit from reading the Art Student for November, which contains the original of an illustration reproduced full size, and then the same illustration reproduced as it appeared in the magazine for which it was made. A visit to any of the large publishing houses and a view of the many originals of illustrations would be of great benefit to one who wished to illustrate his own articles. SING SING, N. Y.

L. E. W.

Saving Telegraph Tolls. Telegraphing at press rates nowadays is comparatively cheap, but where messages are sent over long distances, as from Chicago to San Francisco, for example, the telegraph tolls are considerable and the saving of superfluous words is a matter of importance. In news despatches it is customary for correspondents to mark the filing. time at the beginning of the message, thus: "Filed 8.30," or whatever hour the message is sent. These words are included in the telegraph company's count of words; signatures are not; accordingly, some regular correspondents indicate the hours of filing by using

For

different given names in their signatures. instance, Charles Diehl is manager of the Pacific Associated Press, and he appears under many aliases during the night. At 7 o'clock he is "Paul" Diehl, at 7.30 "Peter," at 8 "John," and so on. The manager of the Associated Press at Chicago, who, of course, has a key, can tell the filing time of any despatch from Diehl by looking at the signature. A story is told, by the way, of a new telegraph editor on the Chicago Tribune, who wondered at the number of different Diehls sending despatches from San Francisco, and who swallowed whole the ingenious story that there were thirteen brothers who worked harmoniously togetherthe most wonderful group of newspaper men in all the world.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.

R. T. S.

Enlarging One's Vocabulary. For the purpose of enlarging my vocabulary, I keep a (sometime) blank-book, divided into twenty-six different parts, thus giving a proportionate amount of space to each letter of the alphabet. When, in my reading or in conversation, I am confronted by a word with which I am not wholly familiar, I immediately jot it down in my "private vocabulary," with list of synonyms, definitions, examples of use, etc. I find this practice very useful as an aid to memory.

SKANEATELES, N. Y.

E. N. B.

LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS.

[The publisher of THE WRITER will send to any address a copy of any magazine mentioned in the following reference list on receipt of the price given in parenthesis following the name. Readers who send to the publishers of the periodicals indexed for copies containing the articles mentioned in the list will confer a favor if they will mention THE WRITER when they write.

Helen

Charles Dudley

THE ENDING OF BARSTOw's NOVEL. A Story. Campbell. Harper's ( 35 c. ) for January. ILLUSTRATORS AND ILLUSTRATION. Warner. Harper's (35 c.) for January. WHITTIER DESULTORIA. Charlotte F. Bates. Cosmopoli tan (15 c.) for January.

HUMOR: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN. Agnes Repplier. Cosmopolitan (15 c.) for January.

EDWIN LASSETER BYNNER. With portrait. Edward Everett Hale. New England Magazine (25 c.) for January. MATTHEW ARNOLD. With portrait. Joseph Henry Crooker. New England Magazine (25 c.) for January.

TEN LETTERS FROM COLERIDGE TO SOUTHEY. Atlantic (35 c.) for January.

LOWELL, BROOKS, AND GRAY IN THEIR LETTERS. Atlantic for January.

FOLLOWING DICKENS WITH A CAMERA. H. H. Ragan. Outing (25 c.) for January.

ELISÉE RECLUS AND HIS OPINIONS. With portrait. Helen ZIMMERN. Popular Science Monthly for January.

TENNYSON AS THE PORT OF EVOLUTION. Theodore Watts. Reprinted from Nineteenth Century in Littell's Living Age (18 c.) for December 9.

How FAUNTLEROY REALLY OCCURred. Frances Hodgson Burnett. Ladies' Home Journal ( 10 c.) for December. MY LITERARY PASSIONS. - I. William Dean Howells

Ladies' Home Journal ( 10 c.) for December.
THE LITERARY REMAINS OF THOMAS BRAGDON. A Story.
John Kendrick Bangs. Harper's Weekly (10 c.) for December
16.

JOHN TYNDALL. With portrait. Professor N. S. Shaler. Harper's Weekly ( 10 c.) for December 23.

T. W. HIGGINSON. With portrait. Chicago Graphic (10 c.) for December 2.

THE IDEAL LIBRARY: OF WHAT SHOULD IT BE ConstiTUTED? Sarah K. Bolton, John Habberton, Mary Lowe Dickinson. Chicago Graphic ( 10 c. ) for December 9.

AN ALASKA NEWSPAPER. Chicago Graphic (10 c.) for December 9.

CELIA THAXTER. With portrait. Chicago Graphic (10 c.) for December 9.

W. T. STEAD. With portrait. Charles F. French. Chicago Graphic ( 10 c.) for December 16.

ALPHONSE DAUDET. With portrait. Chicago Graphic for December 16.

With por

DONALD GRANT MITCHELL ("Ik Marvel "). trait. Chicago Graphic for December 23. JOHN TYNDALL. With portrait. Chicago Graphic (10 c.) for December 30.

VICTORIEN SARDOU. With portrait. Chicago Graphic (10 c.) for December 30.

THE FORUM AND ITS EDITOR (Walter H. Page). With portrait. MAIDA, THE REPORTER. A Story. Frank W. Bolande. A MIDNIGHT MISTAKE. A Newspaper Story. Thomas F. Anderson. THE SCIENCE OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM. Robert F. Walsh, etc., etc. Christmas Journalist (25 c.).

DEALING WITH EDITOrs. (10 c.) for December 30.

Wilder Grahame. Journalist

THE STORY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMES. With portraits of E. L. Wilson, J. Traill Taylor, W. J. Stillman, Charles Ehrmann, W. I. Lincoln Adams, Walter F. Woodbury. Photographic Times Christmas number ( 25 c. ).

A CASE OF AUTHORSHIP. A Story. Thomas R. Van Reed. Californian (25 c. ) for December.

LITERARY COMMERCIALISM. William B. Chisholm. New Peterson's Magazine (10 c.) for December.

JOURNALISM AS A PROFESSION FOR WOMEN. Emily Rawford. Reprinted from Contemporary Review in Eclectic (45 c.) for December.

CHURCH AND PRESS. J. Thackray Bunce. Reprinted from National Review in Eclectic (45 c. ) for December.

REALISM IN LITERATURE AND ART. Clarence S. Darrow. Arena (50 c.) for December.

GERALD MASSEY: PROPHET AND REFORMER. B. O. Flower. Arena (50 c.) for December.

MR. HOWELLS AGAIN. Celia Parker Woolley. New England Magazine (25 c. ) for December.

Professor John Tyndall died December 4 at his home in Haslemere, county of Surrey, England, aged seventy-three.

M. F. Sweetser, long a resident of Boston and well known in the book business, has removed with his family to Denver, Colo., where he intends to reside for several years, or until his health is sufficiently recovered to warrant his returning to Boston.

John H. Whitson, who had an interesting article on the Ramona Indian School at Santa Fé, N. M., in the November number of Worthington's Magazine, is spending a part of the winter at New Orleans, making a study of the French quarter of the city.

Tom P. Morgan, whose Western stories in the Youth's Companion, Harper's, Golden Days, etc., have attracted much attention, is at his home in Rogers, Ark., working away earnestly on humorous paragraphs and sketches to make the public laugh.

Lorettus S. Metcalf, formerly editor of the Forum, is now proprietor of the Florida Citisen, a daily newspaper published at Jacksonville.

General Lew Wallace consulted more than fifty books in the preparation of his novel, "The Prince of India," and for a time before beginning work he studied astrology in the congressional library at Washington, the necessary books being obtainable in this country only there. He spent five years in research, and six more in writing the novel. His wife was the only person who knew the scheme of the novel, the only one who had access to his manuscript, and the only person with whom he consulted while writing.

With the January number Current Literature will go back to its original large form, becoming again an eclectic magazine of ninety-six broad pages monthly. The change is one that will be welcomed by many readers.

Florence Hull, co-editor of Childhood, will go upon the staff of Godey's in January, as editor of the Home Department, which Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher has resigned. Besides her editorial work in Childhood, which has brought her into considerable prominence, Florence Hull is known as a contributor to various magazines and journals, writing both stories and essays with equal facility - a facility gained by many years of hard, self-imposed toil, which few excepting French authors ever consider neces-sary to their profession. But her most ambitious work is in preparation, a complete work, in three volumes, upon race culture, the first volume of which has appeared as a series of papers in Childhood during the past year and is to be brought out before long under its title, "Preparation for Parenthood."

The first purely literary work produced in America was a translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," by George Sandys, of Virginia, made in 1774, and published in 1776. The first original work published in New England was a volume of poems by Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, daughter of Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, published in 1640.

Papers in the January Atlantic of uncommon interest to students of literary history are ten letters, hitherto unpublished, from Coleridge to Southey, and "Down to Tower'd Camelot,” a “Talk at a Country House," by Sir Edward Strachey, himself the editor of the Globe edition of Sir Thomas Malory's "Mort d'Arthur," with which the "Talk" is concerned.

The Critic for December 2 publishes a remarkably good portrait of Madame Sarah Grand, the author of that popular book, "The Heavenly Twins." Madame Grand's real name is Mrs. McFall.

The Pope Manufacturing Company's Columbia pad calendar has been sent to 6,000 authors and literary people this year, as in previous years. It is a useful article on any writer's desk, and at the same time serves as an excellent advertisement for the firm that sends it out.

The American News Company ordered 200,000 copies of the December Cosmopolitan — more than 100 tons of a single magazine.

THE

VOL. VII.

ENTERED AT THE BOSTON POST-OFFICE AS SECOND-CLASS MAIL MATTER.

CONTENTS:

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I read the other day, in THE WRITER, of a man who had coolly papered the walls of his study-room with a varied assortment of his editorial "declined-with-thanks" slips. The idea is certainly original, and in these days a most economical one, for the average writer, at least. Until the long-delayed coming of the author's millennium there will probably be a goodly supply of such wall-paper.

But why so many rejections? It's the old, old question, and it is hard to answer in general; but in particular cases it is possible to find a reply.

"Now, why was not my story of On the Boulevard' accepted by the I should like

No. 2.

to know?" ponders Miss A. at one end of the line.

66

At the other end the editor had said regretfully to himself, -as no one else happened to be present, Why did this writer send a story of genuinely 'swell' life to us, when she must know that our aim is to make a study of and try to help the poorer class of people? Otherwise, the story is cleverly written, and it is very interesting."

Ah! there was the rub! As "Manette," the maid, would say, the manuscript was not "appropriate."

It is love that "makes the world go round," we know; but if Miss A. had sent her next effort - a charming love story—to its proper destination, instead of to the religious weekly which she did try, she would not have had the tale "returned with thanks."

"There is nothing new under the sun," may be the criticism of some reader at this point. "We have heard all this many times before." Very true; but truth will bear repetition. And simple as this statement is, it is the fact, nevertheless, that many hundreds of manuscripts find their way, more or less promptly, back to their owners, for the reason of their unsuitability for the periodicals to which they are sent.

"This story was surely comical enough. How the Wilsons laughed when I read it to them!" He had chosen the goal carefully. It was a popular "comic" paper which had returned the manuscript "with regret." But the manuscript in question contained 900 words. That seemed to Mr. B. exceedingly. short. Had he studied the "comic" a little more thoroughly, however, he would have discovered the fact that no issue had ever contained an article or a story of more than 300 words.