LITERARY COLUMN. CURRENT LITERATURE.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 120, 17 November 1900, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY COLUMN. CURRENT LITERATURE.

The October St. Nicholas contains the usual budget of stories and articles suitable for young folk. Among the "wonders" described at© Saturn as seen through the' great telescope at the .Lick Observatory in California ; "A Yacht Race in the Clouds " ; "A Boat that pulls itself up stream," and "White Magic in a Bicyole Wheel." Something also is told of the protective shapes and colours of moths and butterflies, and there is ' a letter explaining the position, in China. The Magazine is well-illustrated throughout, i In the October number of the Century Magazine a considerable amount of space is devoted toi China and things Chinese. Wu Ting-fang," the Chinese Minister at Washington, who is, we , believe, a member of one of the English Tuns of Court, contributes under the title of ."A Plea for Fair Treatment," a logical and vigorous article advocating forbearance towards his native country. His arguments are reinforced by those of Bishop Potter, of New York, who, in his paper ton "Chinese Traits and Western Blunders," proves that during hds recent visit to the Far East he kept an open mind as well as open eyes. Mr {Sheridan P. Read, formerly U.S. Consul at Tientsin, discusses "The Chinese Business Men," and exjiresses the .opinion that the present disturbing elements, both popular and official, would have yielded, even* without foreign intervention, to pressure from the Chinese merchant class and its following. Sidelights on the condition of o^ina abound in Ernst yon Hesse-Wa-rtegg's "China's Holy Land," a profusely illustrated account of a visit to the tomb of Confucius, and in "oninese Education" (also illustrated), by Romyn Hitchcock. Governor Roosevelt's essay entitled "Civic Helpfulness," written before his nomination to the Vice-Presidency, points out what is being done uy individuals and institutions, other than official, to help the V ea^ c an( * unfortunate in American communities. Sir Walter Besant continues in "East London Types" his picturesque studies of slum life in London, with pen sketches by Joseph Pennelland L. Raven-Hill. The fourth and concluding budget of Dr. William Mason's "Memories of a Musical Life" contains andcdotal reminiscences of Raff, Rubinstein, yon Bulow,' and i'aderewski. and of the violinists Vieuxtemps ; Ole Bull, Wieniawski, Wilhelmj, Joachim, and Remenvi. Miss Runkle's adventurous romance, "The Helmet of Navarre," is continued ; Dr. Mitchell's "Dr. North ; and His Friends," is concluded, and there are short stories by Virgina Frazer Boyle, Annie Steger Winston, and Ellis Parker Butler. Serious poetry is represented by James \v nitcomb Riley's' meditative lines, "The Bed," and John Vance Cheney's sonnet, "The Cup of Bliss " ; and art by a reproduction of W. M. Chase's "The -Lady with the White ouawl," in the "American Portraiture" series, and by an illustrated paper on "American Miniature Painting," which in the form of an engraving from a portrait of Laura C. Hills furnishes the frontispiece. The present number, which finishes the magazine's sixtieth volume, contains .the final chapters of Mr. Morley's important work on Cromwell.