ANNONE

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 46

ANNONE

The Ludgate for August (received from Messrs W. J. Prictor and. Co., publishers, Stafford street) brings a welcome change in its table of contents from the customry magazine fare — a little less fiction, a little more interesting article, sketch, and travel note. The^change, we fancy, will be a welcome one. In outward appearance the number is extremely attractive, and is not one whit behind its foremost competitors. There is great variety and a wide scope in the sketches and ai'ticles. From " Modern Stage Dancing," illustrted by photos, to "A Peep into Palm Land," and from "Male Millinery" to " Nature's Secrets " readers of The Ludgate, no matter how diverse their tastes, will surely find something to suit them. Mr Prictor also sends us the August number of The English Illustrated, really a dainty and marvellous sixpence-worth, the coyer itself being a charming piece of colour printing. Several fine full-page illustrations appeal to the artistic among us, and while fiction does undoubtedly " rule the roost,' it is well interspersed with some interesting and well-written articles — as, for example, "A Woman's Chance in Life," by Mr Holt School- j ing, that master of quaint conceits in statis- i tics; Napoleon Buonaparte, "the Great Ad- ! venturer " as he is aptly termed ; and a charming article on those quaint ivory masks so prized in Japan and so coveted by collectors. With such a list of contents The English Illustrated may confidently expect to find its own public. The current number of the Windsor Magazine — received from Ward, Lock, and Co. — is doeketted "holiday number," and well deserves its title. No less than seven stories aro provided for the incorrigible lover of fiction, while" Pharos, the Egyptian" deftly reveals still further clues to its mysteri- j ous plot. That popular naturalist Gambier Bolton, F.Z.S., contributes an interesting and splendidly illustrated article on " Some Eccentric Animals " ; " With N&nsen in the North " is continued, and gains interest from the excellent little Arctic pictures ; while Kipling's poem " The Grave of the Hundred Head " appears by special arrangement. In Aiistral Light (September number) we note several well-written papers as well as a character sketch of the American Cardinal, James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, There is a reply on the Federation question, addressed to Mr Benjamin Hoare. All this is very good, but the magazine in its present form will only appeal* to the limited circle of readers who read to instruct or improve themselves.