PERIODICALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4029, 16 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

PERIODICALS.

The yellow covers of Oliambers's, always a pleasant sight to magazine-readers, contain more in the October number than usual. The novel, indeed, is neither ■as sensational nor as well written as usnal, but the small stories more than compensate the readers. "What's His Fault ?" is a very smart little story which we do not remember ever to have seen before, of how a clergyman bought a good horso cheap, and continually asked the question that heads the story, until he found out that the horse had been— stolen.

"My Adventures in the French War," in three chapters, deserves especial commendation. The recruit who tells the story says :—

I was somewhat roughly disturbed from my sentimental contemplation by a hand heavily placed on my shoulder. Turning round, I found myself face to face with a captain of (/enduvmerie.

"What is your name? Who are you?"' he asked in a rude voice.

"Before answering these questions," I interrupted, politely raising my %i, "might 1 inquire on what authority 1 am thus questioned ?"

"I am the provost marshal," was the re^ ply, "and my business is to arrest all sus^ picious persons."

"Suspicious persons!" I said in honest astonishment. "Surely there must be some mistake. 'My name is ; I am a lieutenant in a volunteer regiment now at Chagny, as my uniform indicates." " Quite so ; we know all about that," was the gruff reply. "Be kind enough to hand me your papers, and to follow me to the headquarters."

There was no arguing the point ; so, handing him my coinmissioa and a passport, I followed him to a small house in which the general had established his quarters, wondering oil the time what might be the cause of my arrest, I was not, however, kept long in suspense, for on arriving thero, I was placed between two long booted gentlemen, and told unceremoniously that I was a spy, a Prussian spy. My thoughts were at that moment far from agreeable. I felt humiliated, and the blood rushed to mj' face at the idea that I might die the ignoble death of traitors.' I had travelled more than seven hundred miles, I had given up my position, } was ready to sacrifice everything for the defence of France, and now," I wa.3 a priscmer, liable to suffer the fate of murderers and deserters. Where wore all my bright visions of victories, of rewards and crosses '? My military carear was to be of short duration, asiil was to end by b;-ing shot as a spy, and hustled into a ditch—dograd jd ; my name struck from the roll of tlie defenders of Prance, instead of boing read out at para-Je with the glorious answer of, (;])iecl on the field of honour !';

Then I tried to persuade myself that it wa3 only an error, which they would soon find out. What had I done to mako them suspect me of such a lninous crime ? I was unconscious of having done any wrong. True, that envelope and its mystic; writing ware certainly very suspicious, but was it enough to condemn me ? " Go;ne," I thought •" you must not ijivo yourself up to despair ; this mystery wiji soon be cleared away."

I expostulated with my keej,^, asking mildly if he had ever scon spies, and if. 1 looked liko one.

" We shoot, ou an average, fifteen a day," was the reply, and I foil agaia iuto a state of despondency.

Plow long I was tortured by these m;.\.ed feelings of anger, sbaine, anguish, and hope I do not know, but I remember suddenly hearing a well-known step, and the sound of a friendly voipe fell upon my ear as balm on a wound, and with a loud exclamation my colonel burst iuto the room.

Chambers ia always great on emigration, and a very nice review of " The Gentleman Emigrant" will interest all of us. Canada, is the field to which most uttentjem is devoted, and from the first word of direction to the las,t of comment, it is plain that the writer is a practical man. Now let ns " cat-head our anchor, top our boor.!, and till away for the shores," first of all, of America ; for oiji- gentleman emigrant is bound for the Cauadis. In what part of the ship shall we look for him? If he ha a married man, wjth a few thousands to his credit," the cabin is the proper place ;" but if his "capital is limited to alow hundreds," and he 1)8 unmarried, he should "go intermediate or steerage" In either cas*, "the pnssigc is a short on°;" and " if he he of the right stuff," he will have forgotten all dis comforts, and have recovered his spirits, when we bid k.iir. farewell "on the wharf at Montreal," leave him our adclri.-3s, ami promise to pay him a visit so foon as he lets '113 know that he has settled down and can rc r ceive us.

New Zealand does not come uncle?? review, but Australia is thus treated, and With much truth—

What Mr Stamer has to s.iy aboiit Australia is likely to bo found less Gnooura«in? than any other part of hi? book to&the possible gentloraau-emiara-iit; and ho declares, iv so many words, that " Australia, although, under certain conditions, a very good country, is, as a place of residence, far—very fay—behind Canala and the United States ;" that it is only a " bedlamite hke Geor^n Francis Train who would exclaim, 'Of all cities in tho world &ivo me Melbourne !'" and that, thouah " shopp farming and stock raising" aro " the pursuits best suited to the gentleman emigrant of average intellgcnce and limited capital," besides bung "almost the only ones which can be followed without loss of caste," yet ■" the lonojy existence of a squatter for 15 or 20 long yeays" is such a pj.-osprct .vi might well scare the most determined, the most patient, and the toughest of men. And should the g^ntl^man emigrant who contemplates " squatting" be a married man, he ought to reflect that " clearings life is not particularly lively, but. in comparison to that led by the wife of an Australian squatter, it is as May Fair to thi Hebrides," the expression "clearings-life" being applied to that which was described in the account of the married genfcleman-emiuiaut's seltlerr.ent in the Oanadas. "Tn the Ouiartas," we are toM, a there i 3 a constant demind for help—help which ia not mom al—and the young man who is smart, sober, an<l wiTmw. has not to search very f.ir to find a job of some description. In Australia, the demand is iimilbifi to s'ijl'ed artizins, domctic servants, farm lafoom-ei'3, aiul station hands ; for every other vacant situation there are a hmi'lred applicants ;" and Mr Stamer solemnly asseris " that any father who packs off his son to the anMpnd.es without firs!; providing him with sufficient inoncy to make a fair start-, is as guilty of that son's death, if any evil befall him, as though lie had knocked him on the head with a handspike."

Suerely there is enough here to make would-be gentlemen - emigrants and their friends pause aud ponder.

" Anecdotes of Doctors," and "A Word on Fish eating." are the other goms of the month. We counsel our readers to see the whole number if they can. ur,Aeivtt--oor», in an essay upon Mr Picton, entitled School Board Religion, is at much pains to show the absurdity of Secularism.

We contend that the Bible wisely '-aright does afford that " ground work of moral training for which Mr Piefcon seems tn think it is so inadequate ; that a teacher who desired (to quote Mr Pieton's description of what moral training ought to he) to " imbue his pupils with reverence for the Divine mystery that enshrouds us fill ; to touch them with tint awe of the Infinite in which all men alike realise the ultimate sanction of morality ; ana to quicken thr-ni with svmpnthy with all the spiritual aspirations of the past and preaeuV'--m'ght Seek long for examples more fit to llluctrftte his meaning than the history of the livea of Abraham, Mose3, J)a.vid, and Jesus Christ; and that the enforcement of those moral laws which are received as binding not only by 'Episcopalians, Wesieyans, Gongregationalist3, and Presbyterians, but universally by all sorts and conditions of men, will be made mora impressive by means of the book which contains the history of the moral development of the people who had in such an unexampled degree, in spite of all their shortcomings, bplief in " the Eternal Power that makes for righteousness," and determination to search out and know the laws of that power.

To illustrate our meaning ■with one of Mr Pieton's own examples. If a teacher wants to impress upon his pupils tlig moral person

for the ouservanua of Sunday—how the real law of the Sabbath ia written, as Mr Waugh said, nob only iv the Decalogue, but in the constitution of human muscle, brain, and nerve—does it weaken or strengthen his argument to point out that thousands of years ago, when life was much less of a whirl and turmoil than it is now, the eternal law of the need of rest to the body and mind came home with such strength and force to the consciences of the Jews, that they embodied that law of ro3t in the same code with "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not steal ? " That the law which was framed for their happiness and welfare became petrified till its purpose was forgotten, and it was necessary to break it to show them the true meaning of it, is set forth as forcibly as it well could be in another part of the Bible, when the disciples were taught that the Sab' bath wi s made for man, and aot man for the Sabbath.

The Founders of Modern Liberalism is a critique on a book entitled Wilkes Sheridan, and Fox. Further explanation as to the way Blackwood treats the subject is clearly unnecessary. International Vanities is very interesting. THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY

gives us a Rebel's Recollections. The conduct of ttie women, ia very charming—

I remember a conversation between two of them—odo a young wife whose husband was in the army, and the other an elderly lady, with no husband or son, but with many friends and near relative* in marching regiments. The younger lady remarked " I'm sure I do not hate our enemies. 1 earnestly hope their souls may go to Heaven, but I would like to blow all their mortal bodies away as fast as they come upon our soil."

'" Why, you shock me, my dear," replied the other. " I don't see vhy you want the Yankees to go to Heaven 1 I 1 hope to get tlii re myself some day, and I'm sure I should' nt want to go if I thought I should liad any of then), there."

Was it any wonder the men foug 1. $ when women talked like this ?

In New Orleans, soon after the war. I saw in a drawiug-room, one day, an elaborately framed letter, of which, tlie curtains being drawn, I could read only the signature? y/.rich, tq my astonishment, was that of Qoiieral Butler. ■

"What is that?" I asked of the young gentlewoman I was visiting. '!Oh, that's my diploma, my certiScate of good behayionr, from General Butler ;" and taking it down from the wall, she permitted me to read it, telling me at the same time its history. It seems that the young lady had been very active in aiding captured Confederates to escape from jNfew Orleans, and for this and other similar oltences she was arrested several times. A gentleman who knew General Butler personally had interested himself in behalf of her and some of hep friends, and upon making an appeal for their discharge, received this personal n-.te from the commanding general, in which he declared h.:s willinguess to discharge all the others, " Bjt that black-eyed Miss 8.," he wrote, "seems to mean incorrigible little devil whom even prison fare won't tame." The young lady had framed the note, and she cherishes it yet, doubtless.

The ingenuity with which these good lulujs discovered or maimfautiued onerous it'itio? for liheunsolvea was surprising, and having disco verr-d or imagined scmiiu 113,1----duty they straightway proceeded to do it at any cost. _ An excellent Richmond dame was talking with a soldier friend, when he earelessiy remarked that there was nothing wliiclj. sq greatly lielpui to koap i]p a cqutpnfcod r,ad cheerful sDirib among the men ag the receipt of letters from their woman friends. Catching at; the suggestion as a roveLitiou of duty, she asked, "A,nd chqerfulqcss makes betfcur- soVJicrs or the men, does it not?"' llaceiving yes fur an answer, tho frail Ufctla woman, already overburdened with cares of an unusual sort, sat doivn and made out a list of all the men with whom she was acquainted even in the smallest possible way, and from that day until the end of tho war she wrote one letter a week to oac-li, a task which, as her acjquaintanf.j wag large, taxuil her 'time and "strength" very severely. Not content with this, she wrote oa tho subject in the newspapers, earnestly urging a like course upon her sisters, many of whom adopted the suggestion at onoe, iVfiich to tl>o delight, of tiie soldiers, who little dream 3d that; the kindly, clperfu'l, friendly letters which every mail bronght into camp, were a pnvfc of woman's solf-ap-pointed work for the success of the cow. 11011 cauFo.

We regret fh-it we have no space to notice K;tty's Fortune, and an Easy Lesson in Money and Banking.