NEWS AND NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 1514, 9 November 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

" I would rather be a writer than bo an angel," says Kate Douglas Wiggin (Mrs. George C. Riggsl, author of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch."

The American Shakesperean scholar, Dr. Horace Howard Furness, who died a few weeks ago, had of late years devoted much of his time to the study of the monkey tribe, in order to establish his theory that- they haw absolute reasoning power requiring only to be trained.

"Mary, Queen of Scots." the well-known five-act drama by Bjornson, the Norwegian, lias been translated by Aug. Sahlberg and published by the Speciality Syndicate Press, Chicago, U.S.A. The drama is one of the greatest of the famous Scandinavian writer, and tho translation is air excellent one.

An amusing story is told in Lady Frances Balfour's "Life of the late General Booth." Once, when addressing a huce audience, the officers, fearing the General would not be heard, began to close the windows of the hall Half were shut, when, peremptorily, he bade the officers stop. "Don't suffocate them till the collection is taken!" said the General!

Mr. H. S. Fletcher's new story, " The Golden Venture" (London: Bell), is a thrilling and well-written account of a dastardly conspiracy to deprive a brilliant young 'inventor of the credit and the rewards due to him as the discoverer of a potent new motive power for aeroplanes. Tho characterisation and the dialogue are considerably above the average in books with a plot of this kind.

In spite of tho deaths of airmen, flying is still pursued with undiminished zest. It is the opinion of orover Cleveland J/oening, B.Sc.. that many of the accidents which befal airmen are avoidable. This and very many other points he discusses in his "Monoplanes and Biplanes: their Design, Construction, and Operation," (Messrs. Sampson Low, London, publishers, who issue also I'red T. Jane's "All -.-tiiii World Airships.")

The 1912 edition of "Fighting Ships," (Sampson Low, London), in addition to the usual features, is rendered even more interesting and useful than usual by the fact that the pages dealing with moat of the principal Navies have been officially revised by order of the various Miuisteis of .Marine concerned. Tlie French, Italian, Japanese and Russian Navies are particularly interesting in this respect, since there lias' hitherto been little but surmise as to the newest designs in these navies.

Two authors, Mr. Pett Ridge and Mr. G. R. Sims, have recently been subjects.l to the annoyance of finding unknown writers trying to publish stories under their names not written by them. in the case of Mr. Pctt- Ridge, the free lance succeeded if getting bis production accepted. This trick is not like stealing a literary composition, because cop.yi'-g'nt is not" infringed, but there are speculations as to whether a prosecution would not lie for obtaining money under ials© pretences if payment were made to the trickster.

Sir Francis Burnard, late editor of Punch, has been reading "Trie Modern Market Place/' a novel written by a wellknown author who, at present, conceals his identity under the sobriquet ot "Coronet," and 'writes to the publishers as totlows: — "The Modern Market Place is certainly one of the few best novels 1 nave read for some time Ihe characters aie boldly conceived and described with great originality. Equally so the plot, tragic as lie lias chosen it to be. It is a tale of class humanity without any conception of divinely beneficent interference; nothing but the long arm of fate with the gripping lingers of destiny. Emphatically as Thackeray would have styled it 'a novel without a hero, —and without a heroine. The sketches of character in modern phases are masterly. My criticism shows how greatly I enjoyed the book."

The Society of the Do fob; i- an association of hook collectors of Chicago, whose mysterious club name is said to be made of the initial letters of Damned Old Fools Over Books, according to the Publishers' Weekly. They first put this ingenious society name upon the "Love Letters of Nathaniel Hawthorne." Now they bring out a publication of manuscripts of Lord Byron, reproduced in exact facsimile from those in the great- collection of W. K. Bixbv. These manuscripts wore in the possession of Byron's haltsister until 1848, when she sold them to John Dillon, 'who sold them to Sir Theodore Martin, from whom they were acquired by Mr. Bixby in 1902. The volume is a. quarto oil Italian 1 hand-mado paper, printed at the De Vinne Press, 52 copies only. Reproductions of five portraits of Byron, two from drawings by George Henry Harlow, add to the interest of the publication.

In the obituary list of the past few months are various names not to be omitted from a literary chronicle. there has been ihe death of Dr. 'Iheodor Gomperz, the author of a- famous book on The Greek Thinkers:" of Alexis Sergievicli Suvorin, editor and proprietor of the still more famous " Novoe "Vrcmya, the freat Russian journal; and—to come to names of less European importance—of Ladv Lindsay, who wrote agreeable verse, and Dr. Andrew Wilson, who furnished popular science for the newspapers. Finally we have lost two of the sporting authors in the excellent Badminton Library — Mr. Heatheote, the great tennis player, and Mr. Dent, the mountaineer. Mountaineering has its own well marked and well worked field in literature, and Mr. Dent's work in the Badminton Library was an admirable contribution to it. He was also the author of that capital mountaineering book, "Above the Snow Line," and always a welcome contributor to the Alpine Journal.

In a review of the old-fashioned publishing house of Macmillans a contributor to T i\'s Weeklv recalls that one of the historic successes" of the firm was the publication of " Tom Brown's School Days. The Macmillans and Hughes had become intimate through their mutual friendship with F. D. Maurice and their intimate concern with .Social Reform. The following extract from a letter (1856) affords an insight into tho way in which a publisher obtains some of his MSS: — Dear Mac,— How's yourself, and wherc's yourself? My chief reason for writing is that, as I always told von, I'm going to make your fortune. I've Wen ami gone and written or got in my head, a one volume, a novel for boys, to wit. Rugbv in Arnold's time. Do come up, and we'll 'have dinner and nox together, with baccy and toddy, and I'll tell you all about our Welsh tour." Charles Kingsley was very keen on the book, and urged tho Macmilians to boom it, both on the grounds of its knowledge of slang and bov's life, and also because of the idealism that runs through it. Mudie ordered a thousand copies, and the book was a huge popular success.

That sex disability, which, according to Mrs. R. Walker, has been the means of turning women from journalism into the ranks of fiction writers, does not operate in the last-named profession is the impression created by Miss Beatrice Harraden's remarks, when discussing her own experiences with a representative of Woman's Platform of tiie Standard. " Whether or not a woman journalist is at a disadvantage on the ground of sex," said Miss radon, " I am not in a position to say, and as regards fiction I should not ea.re to lay down any definite, rule. So far as my own personal experience as a writer goes I have never suffered from any such disability, and it is on this account that I consider it mv duty, and that of others similarly situated to myself, to help on the cause of women' in otlior walks of lifo who do suffer in that respect. Going back to the time when I first started my literary career, 25 years ago, I think perhaps tho fact of having B.A. after my name was an advantage in those days. It served as a sort of guarantee that I was an educated woman, and I think gained mo interviews which might otherwise have been refused, and ensured my work being read. That work is judged on its merits, apart- from tho writer, seems to me to be the general rule. If an author has anything striking or original to say, she is pretty certain to find a market for her work. Editors and publishers are always on the look-out for new writers. If the" work is suitable they accept- it, and neither 'interest' nor knowing 'the right people' are of t.he slightest use to tho would-be author. Pei-sonally I have never had ' intioducf ion ' in my life."

Black Wings is the expressive title of some verses by .Mr. Will Ogilvio in the Spectator, describing the übiquitous crow that haunts the tracks in Australia. We quote some of the lines—-

Sexton? of the Overland! Buriers of the dead. Where graves are lone and shallow and winding-sheets are red! Wardens of the waggon track, watchers by the creek, Loiterers in the lignum where the blacksoil traps the weak!

Feasters at tho wayside, guests at the lagoon, Gloating- over dead sheep rotting in the noon! Robbers on the red roads, highwaymen of Drought , Settlers of the issue that tho dawn lias left in doubt!

Ever trod a bushman, tramp, or pioneer. O'er the plains of Famine, through the scrubs of Fear, But darker than liis danger, closer than liis dread. Shadows on bis pathway, flapped yo overhead?

Call to mind th? stock routes, north and west and east!— ... , Every heap of white bones fashioned you a feast!! Call to mind tin sandhills-every wrinkled Made your perch at banquet tlio day a dumb beast died!

Surely, at God's muster, when our mobs again, xl Trample through the star-grass up the purple plain, When from the creek and sandhill crowd our western dead. He shall suffer only white wings overhead!