LITERARY WORLD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 50

LITERARY WORLD.

* . * The Czar is muoh interested in the progress of a commission with the inception of whioh be had a good deal to do. Its object is to make a collection of the popular songs and national ballads of Russia.

• . • Mr Archibald Porbes's new work, "The Black Watch; the Record of an Historic Regiment, I ' is now ready for publication, and will be sent out by Messrs Oassell and Co. at an early date.

. * Many literary men owe at least a good measure of tbeir success, whether in the line of inspiration or of mechanical aid, to tbeir wives. It was Mrs Thomas Hardy who urged her husband to adopt literature as a profession. Thin done, she copied out (he entire manuscript of Mr Hardy's first novel, "Desperate Remedies," and sent it to the publisher. ■ . • The forty-fifth volume of " The Story of the Nations " will be pnblished in January. It is entitled " British India," and is from the

pen of Mr R. W. Fre.zer r LLB., late of the Indian Oivll Service, who at present holds the position of lecturer in Telega and Tamil at University College and the Imperial Institute. The work is divided into 16 chapters following closely the commercial growch of our Indian Empire, with all the wealth of phrase which we ehonld oipecfc from the author of " Silent Gods and Sansteeped Lands." An account of the Burmese war has been judiciously included. An edition of the work has been prepared for the colonies. •.■ After such. a piece of work ro "Rodney Stone," it might well be thought that Dr Conan Doyle would settle down to the enj 1 . ymect of a rest aftsr bis recent campaign in the Egyptian desert as a special war correspondent. But, no 1 he is already busy with a small volume entitled " Uncle Bernac," which deals with the Napoleonic era, and which is to run serially in the columns of the Queen next year. Further, Dr Doyle is literally steeping himself in as much of the old pirate and bucanneer lore as he can conveniently lay hands on, with a view to some short stone*. And, withal, he manages to cram in several hours of recreation in the beautiful neighborhood of Haslemere, where he has taken a house and settled down. ■ ' Mr Fisber Unwin 'will publish in January Mr A. P. Harper's work on the Alps of New Zealand. It is a record of seven consecutive years of pioneering, undertaken at first from motives of private enterprise and pleasure, and subsequently carried on on behalf of the Government of the colony. Mr Harpsr has shared in the first exploration of nearly every glacier in the central position of theso mountains. His book is divided into 19 chapters and seven apendices. It is exact and scientific in point of detail, but the narrative form has precluded any negligence of the picturesque. Namerons plates accompany the work. A special edition has been prepared for the colonies. •. • The author of "At the Relton Arms" has tried her hand at a bcok of fairy tales. They concern "Wympa," who lived at the back of the sun, and amused them* selves mostly by taroieg •onaersaalta

and giving mortals the gift of tailing <jtber people exactly what they thought of them. The consequences in the special instance recorded here were somewhat disagreeable. We are also told the disconcerting experiences of a boy who looked like a girl, while " the 'little witoh of the plain," " the exceptional, tadpole," and suoh creatures get as many pages as they deserve. There is also a soft-hearted prince thrown in, while Toyland and the king who tried to make ice padding oat of moonshine are much in evidenpe. There are eight coloured illustrations, and a cover by Mrs Percy Dearmer. ■ . ■ The second issue of the Year's Music is now In the press, and will be published about Christmas by Messrs J. S. Virtue and Co., Limited. The volume will contain many alterations, improvement*, and muoh new matter, which the experience of the^flret issue showed the publishers to be neoesßary and advisable, although it was very favour* ably received by the press. The Year's Musio for 1897 will give account* of orchestral, choral, and personal concerts, festivals, provincial doings, opera, novelties and unfamiliar works, lectures, legal, presentations, organ recitals and organ-builders' doiDg?, musical instruments, patents, Musical Trades Exhibition, exnmlning bodies, appointments, obituary, chronology, -literature, and other information of great value to all lovers of musio — in faot, the Year's Musio takes the same place in the mußioal world as the Year's Art in the artistic. Considerable space is devoted to provincial musical doings. *.* Mrs Hodgson Burnett wrote "Little Lord Fauntleroy " at Washington in five or six weeks. Daring tbis time she kept steadily to her rule of writing only^n the morningii, as she distrusts work by gaslight. The authoress is one of the moit levelheaded women,' and never allows her literary affairs to interfere with daily duties. The proprietors of the New York Ledger onoa cabled to her at Queenstown, when she was returning to Amorioa, to know if she would write a serial for them, and sell them all rights, for the sum of IC.OOOdoI (£3000), which should be paid direotly she landed. Mrs Burnett, instead of .being elated and flattered by this noble offer, calmly weighed it in her mind, and cabled back a reply that *he would not decide until she arrived in New York. Afterwards she reserved to. herself all but the serial rights, and accepted the 15,000d01. As a child Mrs Burnett was very studions, and at the age of seven she had spelled through the whole of Shakespeare's plays. " HE DOETK ALL THINGS WELL." " Ho doetta all things well," in glad wrapt voloe A young girl spoke — a fair, iweet .bride, The watchword of her life as yet " Rejoice." borrow had ne'er stoqd grimly by her side, And now, when happiness would seem to overbrim, Her young heart swelled with Gratitude's deep swell, And not forgetting that all was from Him, Tollriivdn she looked— "He doefch all things well." ' ' "He dooth all things well." A woman toiled For dying husband and three children small, Yet clung she still to God with faith unsoiled Through pain, through hunger, cold and sickness all, Believing still that God would guide her thro' ] For not a sparrow to the ground e'er fell Unmarked or lost to its great Maker's eye, So her heart sighed " H« doeth all things well," " He doeth all things well." The words burst now From bursting, anguished, writhing, bleeding heart— A strong man's heart, which scarce had learnt to bow Before the Almighty will which bade him part With her who was beyond all others dear — To whora he gave a lovo no words could tell ; Yot with a heart that felt God still was near He groaned the words "He doeth all things well." —Marian Campbell Riddle. Pabin, January 1897. — The crocodile requires 80 seconds in whioh to tarn round. — There are several ".noble lords" in Great Britain who derive a large portion of their revenues from hotel;, while on the Continent, Duke Charles Louis of Bavaria, brother of the Empress of Austria, owns and personally mannges a summer hotel on the shores of the picture! quo Tegernsee in the Bavarian Tyrol. At Btuttgarfc /the principal hotel and the best restaurant in tba town are the property of tne King of Wurtemberg.