mastery of English. And this mastery must not only be a scholar's. Too many translations have been made by scholars -worse luck. The man to succeed in this field must be an artist, because he is dealing with art, and no man can deal successfully with what is strange to his own nature.

The man who is himself an artist can never, for one thing, be guilty of that all too frequent abomination which is generally referred to as "a literal translation." There is no more illiteral or unliteral translation than one of this kind, for it means a translation of words and not of meanings. It disregards the idiomatic peculiarities of both languages involved. It leads irresistibly to formal awkwardness and to spiritual falsification.

To do the work rightly, the good translator who is also an artist must consider the masterpiece with which he is dealing· let us assume it to be one - not only word by word and sentence by sentence, but in its entirety. There is a certain logic that runs through every smallest part of it, and whenever an attempted English phrase, however closely identical with the words of the original, seems to violate this logic, the translator knows that he is on the wrong path the letter is leading him astray, and only the spirit can save him.

He must then search out just what the author meant in writing the passage under analysis; what part it was to play in the growth of the story or the drama; what bearing it has on the characters and the plot. Thus, and thus only, can the proper English version be won, and that version must be an equivalent, not a "transliteration," of the original. Oh, this fight about the relative value of the letter and the spirit, the meaning and the word, is as old as Dryden, and yet it is still raging. When it is settled once for all we shall have no more bad translations, except by accident.

One of the main charms, as well as one of the main sources of power, in all poetry, is its imaginative language, its use of words and terms and passages that are full of meaning reaching far beyond that of each single word. Each word, of course, is a

symbol, a picture, back of which lies the whole world, all the universe, wrapped as in a cocoon which may be unraveled by a sympathetic imagination. But groups of words are symbolical in a still higher degree, and such groups correlated on page after page have in them as many possibilities as a human life at its highest.

How can any man hope to get at those possibilities by picking the pages and the groups and the single words to pieces? What he has to do, and this applies to the reader no less than to the translator, is to get off into the distance, upon some spiritual mountain, if possible, and from there survey the work in perspective.

The poet put into the work his very blood, his own soul; can the translator hope for success if doing less? But do not mistake me as meaning merely toil and long hours. Oh no, for although hard labor is essential, it will not in itself bring the desired results. By believing that it may, the man thus deceiving himself has already proved himself the wrong man, a man not stirred by the divine gift of the artist.

Art is the result of labor plus vision. The labor may sometimes, though rarely, be dispensed with; the vision never. Ibsen said once that the first essential of artistic creation was "to see." That is just what the translator has to do; he must see what the man who created the original saw; and how can he if his vision be limited to the pages of the dictionary? - Edward Bjorkman, in New York Sun.

BOOK REVIEWS.

THE MAKING OF A NEWSPAPER MAN. By Samuel G. Blythe. 239 pp. Cloth, 50 cents. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Company. 1912.

In frank autobiography Mr. Blythe, whose success both in newspaper and in magazine work has been exceptional, tells in "The Making of a Newspaper Man" the story of his career, recounting with special detail the events of its earlier years, when he was being developed by variegated experience into a trained newspaper man. Any one interested in newspaper work will find it a fascinating tale, with the reality of truth and all the attractiveness of fiction. In his concluding chapters Mr. Blythe summarizes his ideas about the newspaper business as a

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life work. "I do not contend," he says, that a man can get rich or even well-to-do in newspaper work, except as an owner; but I do contend that if a man has an aptness for the business, and will take the time to learn it, he can do about as well as if he went into any of the other professions and have a thousand times more fun. . . The work of the reporters is the heart's blood of the newspaper. Wherefore let us look a little into the question of good reporters. There are two broad classes: The good reporter who can get the news but cannot write it except in an ordinary way, and the good reporter who can get the news and write it in an extraordinary way. The reporter who gets anywhere is the chap who not only can find the news, but, having found it, can write it. Writing is just as much a trade as laying bricks or putting in plumbing. The only way to learn to write is to write. You cannot get it out of books, or by any other method than grinding it out. Learning to write is hard work. It takes years to perfect the good writing mechanic. I do not care how much imagination, how much facility of expression, how many ideas a man may have, he wastes seventy-five per cent. of his effectiveness unless he has learned his trade. After he has learned it is when his imagination, his facility of expression, his knowledge of words, his assortment of ideas come in and make him, not only a good writer, but a great writer. . . . Think of what it means! If you develop yourself on a newspaper to be a good writer, if you get the reputation, as you surely will, you have the world by the tail, for it is n't necessary to remain with a newspaper. The whole field of literature is yours. You have learned your trade. You can go out and do what you please, where you please, and there will be no lack of a market. I am not speaking about geniuses. I mean good, skilful workmen. Why is it that in periodical literature, for example, the same names are constantly recurring in the tables of contents? Not because of office favoritism, as many amateurs hold, but because these are men who have learned their business. They know how to write. They can take an idea and make out of it the kind of a story the editor wants. They had talent to begin with, of course, but they developed that talent by hard work and pains-taking application of it. . . . I am not saying that every man, or that even onetenth of the men going into newspaper work can learn to write well, but I am saying that not one-tenth of the men who do go into it with that latent talent do so develop themselves. . . . In my opinion newspaper work offers better opportunities, aside from

WHAT AMERICANISMS ARE NOT. Thomas R. Lounsbury. Harper's Magazine for March.

THE OVERWHELMING PREVALENCE OF FICTION. W. D. Howells. Editor's Easy Chair, Harper's Magazine for March.

A FOREMOST AMERICAN LYRIST (Florence Earle Coates ). William Stanley Braithwaite. Lippincott's for March.

AMERICAN LIBRARIES AND THE INVESTIGATOR. Herbert Putnam. North American Review for March. SOME NOTES ON HAMLET. Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr. Modern Language Notes for February. LONGFELLOW "LIED AND SCHILLER'S GLOCKE." John William Scholl. Modern Language Notes for February.

VON DER

PHONETICS AND POETRY. Lascelles Abercrombie. English Review for February.

HERDER AS FAUST. Günther Jacoby. Open Court for February.

METHOD OF INTERVIEWING. W. B. Jones. National Printer-Journalist for February.

POETRY AND THE AVERAGE ΜΑΝ. Harold T. Pulsifier. Outlook for February 1.

COPY. Illustrated. Henry Farrand Griffin. Outlook for February 22.

LITERARY GENIUS AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE INSANITY. Eva Charlotte Reid, M.D. Medical Record for February 8.

THOUGHT AND ITS EXPRESSION. Richard Burton. Bellman tor February 8.

OLD BOOKS AND NEW. Richard Burton. Bellman for February 22.

BRITISH AND AMERICAN BARDS. ruary 22.

Bellman for Feb

Rev. Charles P. Wiles has resigned his pastorate in Washington and will go to Philadelphia about April 1, to become editor of the Sunday school literature of the Lutheran churches belonging to the General Synod of that denomination.

Porter Garnett, recently of the teaching staff of the University of California, and formerly connected with the San Francisco Argonaut, has become literary editor of the San Francisco Call.

Dan R. Hanna, proprietor of the Cleveland Leader and News, has offered to Western Reserve University ten thousand dollars a year for establishing a School of Journalism. Both men and women will be admitted as students.

S. S. McClure, editor and publisher, is writing his autobiography.

George Earle Buckle, formerly editor of the London Times, is to carry on the biography of Disraeli left unfinished by the late William F. Monypenny, for which Mr. Monypenny left a large amount of prepared material.

"Browning and His Century," by Helen Archibald Clarke, is published by Doubleday, Page, & Co.

"The Drift of Romanticism," by Paul Elmer More, editor of the Nation, is a group of papers upon such authors as William Beckford, Cardinal Newman, Walter Pater, Fiona Macleod, Nietzsche, and other leaders of the romantic movement. The book is published by the Houghton Mifflin Company.

T. C. DeLeon has written a book of biographical reminiscences of Augusta Evans Wilson, which the G. W. Dillingham Company will publish.

A careful and comprehensive history of the Académie Francaise from the year 1629 to 1794 has been written by Frederic Mas

son.

"Two Masters: Browning and Turgenief," by Philip Stafford Moxon, is published by Sherman, French, & Co. of Bos

ton.

The estimate of Chaucer by Emile Legouis, Sorbonne lecturer at Harvard this year, has been translated and issued by E. P. Dutton & Co.

"Irish Plays and Playwrights," by Cornelius Weygandt, published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, contains critical studies of the work of W. B. Yeats, Edward Martyn, George Moore, Lady Gregory, Synge, Padraic Collum, Lenox Robinson, Norreys Connell," and St. John G. Ervine.

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The Play of To-day: Studies in Play Structure for the Student and the Theatregoer," by Elizabeth R. Hunt, is published by the John Lane Company.

Hodder & Stoughton (London) are offering $5,000, in four prizes, for the best novels written by residents of Greater Britain. Sir Gilbert Parker will judge the Canadian stories, Charles Garvice the Australian, A. E. W. Mason the Indian, and Sir Rider Haggard the African.

Thomas E. Edison wants scenarios for photo-plays, either dramas or comedies, for use with his new invention, the kinetophone, which simultaneously shows moving pictures and reproduces spoken dialogue. The playlets must run for exactly six minutes and must be clean and free from all offence.

Citizens of Los Angeles have raised $10,000 to be awarded to the composer of a prize opera, to be of distinctive American origin and to be staged during the progress of the Panama-Pacific exposition. The competition will be under supervision of the American Music Committee.

Reilly & Britton (Chicago) offer $10,000 for the novel adjudged the best from those submitted to them in manuscript before next September.

Jones's Daily Magazine is a newspaper syndicate feature controlled by Seymour Eaton, 1530 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. He offers good pay for original stories of from 8,000 to 10,000 words each, original humor in prose or verse, humorous drawings or comics of high grade.

The first issue of the Constructive Quarterly, to appear March 1, and to be published simultaneously in London and New York by Hodder & Stoughton and George H. Doran Company, will endeavor to provide a platform upon which the entire body of the Christianity of all nations and all churches may stand. Its editor will be Silas McBee, for sixteen years editor of the Churchman.

The New York Evening Post has begun the publication on Saturdays of an illustrated magazine supplement, called the Evening Post Saturday Magazine, which will not be syndicated to other newspapers. It will be the exclusive property of the New York Evening Post, and its entire contents will be protected by copyright. Henry Edward Rood, for ten years on the editorial staff of Harper's Magazine, is the editor.

The French Bulldog, a new monthly dog magazine, published under the auspices of the French Bulldog Club of America, aims to present to its readers everything relating to the French bulldog likely to be of value or interest. O. F. Vedder is the editor, and the magazine is published at No. 1 Liberty street, New York.

The new name of Every Woman's Magazine is Housefolks, and the George H. Currier Company has resumed its publication.

The Twentieth Century Magazine (Boston) under its new management will limit itself mainly to discussion of public control or ownership of public utilities.

Charles Scribner's Sons will send to any one on request pamphlet biographies of Sir Gilbert Parker, Maurice Hewlett, and John Galsworthy.

By arrangement between the University of Cambridge and the University of Chicago the following periodicals will be issued in America, in the future, under joint imprint: The Modern Language Review; British Journal of Psychology; Journal of Agricultural Science ; Biometrika ; Parasi-'

tology; Journal of Genetics; Journal of Hygiene.

In "The Note-Books of Samuel Butler " the style of Walter Pater is compared to "the face of some old woman who has been to Mme. Rachel and had herself enameled."

Five new publications came into existence in the United States every day in 1912 according to figures compiled for the 1913 American Newspaper Annual and Directory, but while 1,686 new publications were born, 1,650 died during the same period, making the net increase but 36. There are 2,633 dailies published in the country, 17,285 weeklies, and 3,069 monthlies.

A. C. McClurg & Co. (Chicago) have published a revised edition of their Classified Catalogue of Selected Standard Books Suitable for a Public Library," containing approximately 4,500 titles, selected from the publications of various American publishing houses.

Anne Warner French died at Mainhull, England, February 1, aged forty-three.

Lilian Shuman Dreyfus died in Boston February 2, aged thirty-six.

Mrs. Cora E. Whiton-Stone died at Ports-. mouth, N. H., February 5, aged eighty-one. Mrs. Irene Elliott Benson died in New York February 6, aged sixty-three.

Charles Major died at Shelbyville, Ind., February 13, aged fifty-six.

Joaquin Miller died at Oakland, Calif., February 17, aged seventy-one.

George Louis Becke died at Sidney, Australia, February 18, aged sixty-five.

William Foster Apthorp died at Vevay, Switzerland, February 19, aged sixty-four.

Dr. Benjamin Eli Smith, editor of the Century Dictionary, died at Rochelle Park, N. Y., February 24, aged fifty-six.

THE

It has come to be more and more clearly recognized of recent years that story-writing is an art, and that like other arts it can be taught, not successfully to every one perhaps, but, like painting and music, to those who have natural talent and are willing to study and practise and work to develop their talent with the best results. A few years ago there was practically no printed guidance for students of the art of story-writing excepting what they could get from reading criticisms and reviews, with a few books and occasional periodical essays treating in a broad way of the general principles underlying the art of fiction, with reference chiefly to the novel. Of late

No. 4.

years, however, there have been published a dozen or more books dealing with the art of short-story writing in a definite practical way, so that the technique of storywriting is now set forth in rules, which the writer may study and apply with more or less advantage, according to his natural ability. One of the latest of these books, "The Art and the Business of Story-Writing," by Walter B. Pitkin,* is in a certain sense authority, because its author is associate professor of philosophy in the school of journalism of Columbia University, and he expounds in the book the principles which have guided his instruction in the school. He tells us that these principles have been employed during the past three years in teaching about two hundred students, of whom nearly fifty have been journalists and unattached professional writers. "Stories prepared merely as class exercises in that period have been sold to all types of periodicals. including the Atlantic Monthly, Everybody's, the American, the Outlook, and many others equally prominent. Incomplete records show that for these same schoolroom products the students have received nearly five thousand dollars. Most of the manuscripts, though not the best of them, came from previously unsuccessful pens."

After discussing in his Introduction the purposes of writing fiction, Mr. Pitkin in his first chapter takes up the question, "What is a short story?" "The short story ideal," he says, "is a fusion of two artistic ideals, one American, the other French. Poe best ex