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ublishers to realize that it would be interest to leave offensive language heir publications.

nly excuse that I have ever heard its insertion is that it is "realistic." mentably true, but far from sufson for its use. There are many es which, if printed, would give an realistic" tone, but which would lerated for a moment even by these - publishers.

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hould they make an exception of ? And why will their readers tol

who do not approve of such landrop a line to the publishers of dical or other publication in which asking that such language be disit will probably have a great inchecking the repulsive evil; and mild measures fail to accomplish it a few names withdrawn from seription lists of such periodicals

pretty certain to lead even unpublishers to realize that it is rtant to make their productions than it is to make them disgustlistic." The Continent.

"'s Bank.-A" poet's bank" for poets not yet won recognition is the ggestion of some Paris writers. ations the French capital has been of struggling artists, literary and frequently are confronted at the tarvation or disease. Tide them. preliminary period, and they can themselves. The plan is so simis nothing less than tragic that thought of long ago. The poet in raits goes to the bank, we suphis verses in his pocket. There examine his manuscript with the tention that in other banks is beon other kinds of collateral. Findthe writer is a genius, certain of if only he can keep body and soul toa few years longer, they advance him essary number of francs to buy lunchdischarge the rent of the attic that home, and he returns to his abode

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with renewed spirit, to write more verses to submit as collateral upon the next pressing occasion. The idea is capable of wide application, New York Evening Post.

Conversations in Character. In the August number of one of the magazines there is a short story entitled, "From Hell, Hull, and Halifax." The narrative takes the reader to India and introduces him to the Viceroy and to the Commander-in-Chief, who are discussing various problems connected with Indian administration. The conversation includes the following gems of realism :

The Commander-in-Chief (addressing the Viceroy)" Good times ahead at last, old man?"

The Viceroy (addressing the Commanderin-Chief) "Would it seem like butting in

if I made a suggestion?"

May I beg that on some future occasion the ingenious author introduce into one of the products of his pen the following dialogues :

Prime Minister Asquith (addressing George V)-"I say, old top, the Lords have been and chucked out the Home Rule bill." His Majesty (addressing the Prime Minister)"I should worry."

The Lord Bishop of Oxford (addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury)—"Buck up, Tommy, and let's go 'round the corner and get a pint of 'arf-and-'arf." His Grace (addressing the Lord Bishop)—"Quit yer kiddin'; I'm on the water wagon."

The Master of Balliol ( addressing the professor of Greek epigraphy) - "Who was that middle-class rotter I saw you coming out of the Spotted Dog with yesterday?" The professor of Greek epigraphy (addressing the master)—"Aw, forget it." - Alleyne Ireland in New York Evening Post.

Adjectives. A clergyman criticised Mayor Gaynor's address on "Sunday Observance." The Mayor answered: "Your letter has rather too many adjectives to be sincere." It may be thought that this answer was not conclusive. It reminds one of the answer made by a Boston railway man a good many years ago. He had received a long and abusive letter concerning his transportation of

form. Milton could hardly have been Miltonic on a lesser theme than the "Fall of the Angels," and Walter Pater wrote of the Mona Lisa, not Lizzie Smith of Davenport, Ia. It is doubtless of interest to learn about Lizzie, but she hardly inspires us to rhythmic prose. -Atlantic Monthly for July.

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Records in Writing. — “Michael Fairless," according to her biographer, wrote her masterpiece, "The Road Mender," in nine days. A remarkable feat, but by no means a record, for did not Johnson write "Rasselas " -a book of about similar length to "The Road Mender" in the evenings of a single week? Dumas undertook, for a bet, to write the first volume of the Chevalier de la Maison Rouge," to consist of 10,000 words, in seventy-six hours, and won with six hours to spare! Among modern writers Sir Arthur Wing Pinero turned out his play "Two Hundred a Year" in a single afternoon. On the other hand it took Gray years and years to write his elegy. So you cannot set the record of time and achievement. London Chronicle.

The Financial Story of "Fine Feathers." - The story of how Eugene Walter's play, "Fine Feathers" was developed from the. scenario, “C. O. D.,” which its author, Walter Hackett, the actor, pledged to cover his board bill, was told in court before Justice Guy, when the lawyer for the playwright and actor petitioned for an order compelling Frank M. Case, proprietor of the Hotel Algonquin, to surrender to them all interest in the play. Justice Guy reserved decision on the application.

Hackett, according to his lawyer, had run behind $3.000 for board, and proposed to the hotel proprietor that he accept in lieu of other payment twenty-five per cent. of all royalties from "C. O. D." This Mr. Case agreed to, and Eugene Walter, the playwright, was called in to whip the play into shape for production.

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entirely paid. Now that this debt has been settled, the makers of "Fine Feathers" want all royalties from their work. To this Mr. Case's lawyers say that the contract calls for twenty-five per cent. of all the royalties, and that after waiting through so many failures for his money he intends to make some profit from his risk. New York Times.

To Improve One's Handwriting. There are a number of us that could profit well by a few rules that would tend toward making our writing legible:

1. Keep the letters separate, as half the trouble in poor writing is caused by jamming the letters together.

2. The most difficult letters to form are

i, e, m, n, u, and w. Make these perfectly.

Let there be a distinct difference between u and n. Try writing "minimum."

3. Almost as difficult are b, v, o, w. Make the bottoms of your v's and w's sharp-cornered and not rounded.

4. Never loop the tail of the q, but always do so with g and y.

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7. In writing r always form it in the same style.

8. Join the hinder part of the h, y, and p to the stem.

9. Keep your a's, d's, g's and q's "fat." 10. Always loop your I's and never loop your t's. Make your I's taller than your t's.

II. In dotting the i and j place the dot directly over the letter. - Van V. Boyce, in the American Printer.

Profanity in Magazines.-Most of us have noticed the frequent occurrence, in recent years, of profanity in publications supposedly high class and which would therefore be expected to be free from such seriously objectionable matter, and the practice is apparently rapidly increasing.

Is it not high time that a halt was called on this practice, so degrading to all, and especially to youthful readers? If the matter were taken up by ministers' associations, Y. M. C. A.'s, Christian Endeavorers, and other young people's societies and men's church organizations, it would not take long

to lead publishers to realize that it would be to their interest to leave offensive language out of their publications.

The only excuse that I have ever heard given for its insertion is that it is "realistic." This is lamentably true, but far from sufficient reason for its use. There are many expressions which, if printed, would give an article a "realistic" tone, but which would not be tolerated for a moment even by these regardless publishers.

Why should they make an exception of profanity? And why will their readers tolerate it?

If those who do not approve of such language will drop a line to the publishers of any periodical or other publication in which it appears, asking that such language be discontinued, it will probably have a great influence in checking the repulsive evil; and if such mild measures fail to accomplish this result, a few names withdrawn from the subscription lists of such periodicals would be pretty certain to lead even unprincipled publishers to realize that it is more important to make their productions fit to read than it is to make them disgustingly "realistic." - The Continent.

A Poet's Bank.- A " poet's bank " for poets who have not yet won recognition is the brilliant suggestion of some Paris writers. For generations the French capital has been the resort of struggling artists, literary and other, who frequently are confronted at the start by starvation or disease. Tide them. over this preliminary period, and they can take care of themselves. The plan is so simple that it is nothing less than tragic that it was not thought of long ago. The poet in financial straits goes to the bank, we suppose, with his verses in his pocket. There the officials examine his manuscript with the same attention that in other banks is bestowed upon other kinds of collateral. Finding that the writer is a genius, certain of success if only he can keep body and soul together a few years longer, they advance him the necessary number of francs to buy luncheon or discharge the rent of the attic that he calls home, and he returns to his abode

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May I beg that on some future occasion the ingenious author introduce into one of the products of his pen the following dialogues :

Prime Minister Asquith (addressing George V)-"I say, old top, the Lords have been and chucked out the Home Rule bill." His Majesty (addressing the Prime Minister) "I should worry."

The Lord Bishop of Oxford (addressing the Archbishop of Canterbury)—“Buck up, Tommy, and let's go 'round the corner and get a pint of 'arf-and-'arf." His Grace (addressing the Lord Bishop)—“Quit yer kiddin'; I'm on the water wagon."

The Master of Balliol ( addressing the professor of Greek epigraphy)" Who was that middle-class rotter I saw you coming out of the Spotted Dog with yesterday?" The professor of Greek epigraphy (addressing the master) "Aw, forget it."— Alleyne Ireland in New York Evening Post.

Adjectives. A clergyman criticised Mayor Gaynor's address on "Sunday Observance." The Mayor answered: "Your letter has rather too many adjectives to be sincere." It may be thought that this answer was not conclusive. It reminds one of the answer made by a Boston railway man a good many years ago. He had received a long and abusive letter concerning his transportation of

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His

Mayor Gaynor, who in his hours of relaxation reads the Discourses, Encheiridion, and Fragments of Epictetus, and thus learns valuable lessons in private and public conduct, writes many letters, in fact he has been dubbed, "The Complete Letter Writer." Perhaps his epistles do not have the charm of Mme de Sévigné's correspondence, the sparkle of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's letters, the malice of Horace Walpole or the urbanity of Lord Chesterfield, yet they are generally lucid, incisive, unmistakable. remark about the abuse of adjectives may well be pondered by writers, young and old. Was it William Cobbett, that master of sinewy English, who said: "When a man comes to his adjectives I tremble for him”? One that uses adjectives loosely and thinks that every noun should be accompanied by a descriptive word may not be insincere, but his style loses force, the adjective often lessens the strength of the noun, the diction is slovenly.

It is said that Kinglake, writing his Invasion of the Crimea," left each morning blank spaces for adjectives. He then rode horseback and thought as he rode. Returning, he filled the spaces. Yet Kinglake's style is prolix and often sophomorically rhetorical. It would have been better if he had written out his adjectives in the first draught and then done heroic surgery.

Mayor Gaynor is right: the fewer adjectives the better, and each adjective should be illuminative, the inevitable word. Mr. Seward may not have appreciated Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, although he did not presume to suggest verbal corrections; but when Mr. Seward before the civil war described the impending conflict as "irrepressible" he chose the one, the fitting word. Boston Herald.

BOOK REVIEWS.

AN ADVANCED ENGLISH GRAMMAR. By George Lyman Kittredge and Frank Edgar Farley. 333 pp. Cloth, 80 cents. Boston: Ginn & Company. 1913. This advanced grammar, written by Professor Kittredge of Harvard and Professor

Farley of Simmons College, is the latest English grammar, and perhaps the best. It treats with unusual thoroughness the use of "shall" and "will," "should" and "would," the infinitive and the infinitive clause, conditional sentences, indirect discourse, and the combination of clauses in sentences of different kinds. The sentences used throughout the work as examples are taken from standard English and American writers, and the book is peculiarly fitted for use as a reference book in connection with work in English literature and in composition and rhetoric. Old usages found in the classic English writers are cited and explained in notes throughout the text.

LILT OF THE BIRDS. By Emile Pickhardt. Illus trated. 19 pp. Cloth. Boston: Sherman, French, & Co. 1912.

This attractive volume contains a score of bird poems, with illustrations, in which bird lovers will take delight. Mr. Pickhardt's verse is distinguished by poetic fancy and facility of expression which give it special charm.

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CORRESPONDENCE OF NIETZSCHE AND STRINDBERG. Herman Scheffauer. North American Review for August.

ROMAIN ROLLAND, AUTHOR OF "JEAN-CHRISTOPHE." With portrait. Alvan F. Sanborn. Century for August.

O. HENRY IN HIS OWN LETTERS. Arthur W. Page. Bookman for August.

MRS. BARR AND HER STORY. Bookman for August. GRUB STREET IN POE'S TIME. Bookman for August. EDUCATION THROUGH READING. Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews. Popular Science Monthly for August. WHEN MCCLURE'S BEGAN. Jeannette Gilder. McClure's for August. ELIZABETH

BARRETT

BROWNING: WOMAN AND POET. Emily Hickey. Nineteenth Century for July. MINOR POETS AND THE LAUREATESHIP. T. H. S. Escott. Contemporary Review for July.

A REMEMPRANCE OF GEORGE ELIOT. Mrs. W. K. Clifford. Nineteenth Century for July. JOHN MILTON. Henry Newbolt. English Review

for July.

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF NIETZSCHE WITH BRANDES. Translated by Beatrice Marshall. English Review for July.

WRITING PLAYS. Arnold Bennett. English Review for July.

TRAILING BRET HARTE BY MOTOR. Peter B. Kyne. Sunset, Pacific Monthly for July.

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, David Marvin Key. Methodist Review for July.

A WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE IN JOURNALISM. Mrs. Juliet Strauss. National Printer-Journalist for July. SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND THE EDITOR. Charles J. Downer. National Printer-Journalist for July.

GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO. E. S. Romero-Todesco. Author (London) for July.

THE LETTERS OF AN ORDINARY AUTHOR. Collected and edited by John Haslette. Author (London) for July.

A SAD AGREEMENT. Author (London) for July. ALFRED AUSTIN. Author (London) for July. LORD AVEBURY. Author (London) for July. RABINDRANATH TAGORE, INDIA'S GREATEST LIVING POET. With frontispiece portrait. Basanta Koomar Roy. Open Court for July.

FROM POETRY TO PROSE. Richard Burton. Bellman for July 5.

BARRIE AND THE BARONETCY. Richard Burton. Bellman for July 12.

A HAPPY CHOICE FOR LAUREATE. Bellman for July 19.

LITERARY DIPLOMATS.

for July 19.

Richard Burton. Bellman

A POET OF THE I. W. W. (Arturo M. Giovannitti). Outlook for July 5.

GOING THROUGH THE NEWSPAPER MILL. Roy S. Durstine. Outlook for July 5.

POETRY AND THE SCHOOL. Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer. Outlook for July 5.

POETRY AND THE HOME. Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. Outlook for July 12.

THE LAUREATESHIP. Reprinted from the London Times in the Living Age for July 12.

THE FORTUNES OF CITIZEN CREEL (George Creel). With portrait. Peter Clark Macfarlane. Collier's for July 19.

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Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, of the University of Wisconsin, has been named as minister to China.

Frederic Courtland Penfield has been named as ambassador to Austria-Hungary. Included in the new British civil list pensions are six hundred dollars a year to Arthur Symons, in consideration of the merit of his writings and the breakdown of his health; an annuity of three hundred and seventy-five dollars to Miss Charlotte McCarthy in consideration of the services to literature of her father, the late Justin McCarthy, M. P., and her inadequate means of support; and to Mrs. Jacinta Leigh Hunt Cheltnam, daughter of the late Leight Hunt, an annuity of two hundred and fifty dollars for similar reasons.

Five unpublished poems of Emily Brontë have been sold in London for nearly $200. The three Brontë sisters once published a volume of poems. The trade returns at the end of a year showed that two copies had been sold, and the remainder of the edition. was then given away to friends.

Lord Halsbury at the age of eighty-seven is undertaking the general editorship of "The English Digest," a new work in which the whole case law of England, from early times to the present day, will be given in twenty-four volumes of from 800 to 900 pages each. For several years Lord Halsbury has been editing another work, "The Laws of England," in twenty-eight volumes.

"The American Drama," a study of the pure native growth of recent years, by Richard Burton, will be published by the T. Y. Crowell Co., in September.

"The Adventures of a Newspaper Man," by Frank Dilmot, is published by E. P. Dutton & Co.

Routledge will have ready in the autumn "A Dictionary of Universal Biography," by Albert M. Hyamson. There will be about a quarter of a million brief entries.

John Lane has in press a biography of Trollope by T. H. Escott, who was a personal friend of the novelist, and has collected much material from others who knew Trollope well.

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