LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 30

LITERARY NOTES.

Two Indian philologists are* expected! shortly in St. Petersburg for the purpose of compiling a " Eusso-Indian Dictionary," tobe published at Constantinople.

All journalists of the higher order respect and maintain the old principle oi anonymity. The names of the bast writers in the best newspapers are in mosti- oases known only tothe editors thereof. The men who publish 1 themselves as " on " this or " on " that great journal are usually the least important of them, and are often mere hacks and " outsiders." — St. James' Gazette,

Of the important newspapers of the world, the Figaro is the least reputable and the most frankly mercenary. Its columns are for sale to the highest bidder. Its financial review, and with this the right to control every par. in the paper bearing in anyway en the money market, are sold openly to the Banque Parisienne for a sum exceeding £10,000 a year.

No literary composition is more difficult than the composition of genuine nursery rhymes, and none more imperatively demandsa special strain of genius. Composition, indeed, it hardly is— nothing so artificial. Itis more like a natural spontaneous growth, to> which the mosses that were the beginnings . of our fine well-ordered gardens might becompared. That any grown-up nineteenthcentury man or woman should make real' nursery rhymes is almost as if a new and original folk-lore should be excogitated by some Christian Young Men's Society in South. Kensington.— St. James' Gazette.

It is generally believed that the Times of London and the Gazette de France of Parisare the oldest papers in existence, but thisappears to be a mistake. The honour belongs to the Chinese, who possess a journal started nearly a thousand years ago. Its name is the " King-Pan." It was founded,. says a learned bibliophist, in the year 911 of the Christian era. At first it was published! at irregular periods, but in 1361 it became a. weekly. In 1804 it underwent another transformation, and appeared daily. It costs a halfpenny, and issues three editions. The morning edition, printed on yellow paper, is devoted to commerce ; the noon edition, printed on white paper', contains official acts and miscellaneous news ; while the evening edition, printed on red paper, is taken up with political information and leading articles. It is edited by six members of theAcademy of Science, and the total sale of' the three editions is 14,000 copies.

Anthony Trollope may not, perhaps, beclassed among the great novelists of our century. He cannot rank with George Eliot,. Dickens, and Thackeray. But ho was giftedwith an extraordinary faculty of faithfullyrepresenting the society of his own day r especially the educated, civilised society of the upper and middle classes ; and his works will in future times possess an intrinsic value peculiar to themselves, and superior in that one respect to the productions of far greater writers — they will give to our descendants the most accurate picture extant of the manners, modes of life, and habits of thought which prevailed among ladies and gentlemen, whether rich or poor, during the 30 years which comprise the middle of the nineteenth century. His men and women are real, even commonplace ; there is no particular sensation in his stories ; his plots are as humdrum as the events of daily life generally are ; his heroes are faulty in ths most natural fashion, his heroines have all the small frailties of their sex and condition. Yet, under all their faults and frailties lie the sense of failh and honour, of refinement and truth, which are still the distinguishing marks of tho gently-born Briton ; and the gradual development of their characters is carried out with that highest kind of art which makes one feel that the author's creation is no ideal personage, but only a faithful reflection from the mirror which he holds up to Nature. Troll ope's readers always persisted in hunting up his chief characters amongst living personages, and often believed themselves to have succeeded in finding his original models. — Spectator.

—It was very careless leaving the parrot in the parlour on Sunday evening ; but she never thought anything about it until Monday morning, when he roused the whole house by making a smacking noise and crying, "Darling Katie! Darling Katie I" He kept it up all day, too, and the old folks are much interested in the case.

Sufferees from Bheuraatistn, Lumbago, Sciatica, and especially Neuralgia fa all its protean forms— a disease that may be sajd to be indigenous to New Zealand— should never be without a bottle of Freeman's Original Ohlorodjne. This wonderful medicine rapidly cures the above diseases. In Gout, which is allied %o them, it is largely prescribed by the Faculty and Lajty. No out-station or sheep-run in New Zjsafoud should be without Freeman's. Original Chlorodyne, happily described by the New Zealander as the best and most compendious T%<dtm» in parvo medicine chest that the Colonistshave ever been presented with. People leaving fortheinterior invariably take a sufficient supply to lasb them a twelvemonth. Insist upon having "Freeman's " only. Trade mark, an Elephant. — Soldi everywhere. Obtainable from all chemists aa^ storekeepers.