LITERARY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 59

LITERARY NOTES.

—It is likely that a third edition of the sixpenny " Alice in Wonderland " may shortly be in demand. The first edition of 100,000 copies was boyght up in a few weeks. The second editon of 30,000 is nearly exhausted.

— Any record of Victorian verse would be incomplete that did not take account of James Thomson's " City of Dreadful Night." It appeared in the day of what it became the fashion to call " asstheticism " : it was a thing apart, but by no means without influence. — W. P-. James.

— The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 has already gathered about it enough of the enchantment of distance to tempt the British novelist. Mr Max Pemberton selected the siege of Strasburg as the subject of a story, and his " Garden of Swords," which has been running in Cassell's Family Magazine for some months past, will be issued shortly by Messrs Cassell and Co.

— • Several years ago, says the Daily Telegraph, quoting* from tKe New York Journal, Fred D. Underwood, now general manager of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, named two stations in the upper peninsula of Michigan "Rudyard" and "Kipling," one being, in an agricultural country and the other in an iron ore district. Some time later Kipling learned of Mr Underwood's action, and the author sent Mr Underwood his, photograph, with some verses on the back; of which this is the first:— '

"RUDYARD" AND "KIPLING." " Wise is the child who knows his sire," The ancient proverb ran, But wiser far the man who knows How, where, and when his offspring grows, For who the mischief would suppose I've sons 'ln Michigan?

— Miss Julia Marlowe, an American authoress, some months back received a gift from Mr Rudyard Kipling, in the form of a copy of his latest book. Miss Marlowe used to pass her summers at Four Winds Farm, an idyllic spot in New Hampshire, where she was a neighbour of Mr Kipling. The book is " The Day's Work," and on the flyleaf, in the author's handwriting, are these lines : When skies are grey instead of blue, •With clouds that come to dishearten ; When things go wrong, as they sometimes do In life's little kindergarten, ' I beg you, my child, don't weep and wail, And don't — don't take to tippling; But cheer your soul with a little tale

By neighbour Kudyard Kipling,

—Mr Barry Pain is publishing, through Mr John Lane, a selection of the amusing verses he has contributed for a long time'! past to the Daily Chronicle on Saturday mornings, in the character of. Tompkins. They were so neatly attuned to the feelings of the moment that it is almosb--a pity to re- I publish them. But everything is republished' now. Mr Clarence Rook is also bringing out in a book (with Mr Grant Richards) the series of Hooligan sketches which appeared recently in the same journal, and which are founded on a close acquaintance with Hooligans. These will be called "The Hooligan Nights," and v will set forth " the life and opinions of a young and unrepentant criminal." As studies in juvenile callousness and depravity, they have much grim humour. —Mi Ignatius Donnelly, the hero of the Shakespearean-Baconian theory entitled "The Great Cryptogram," is on the war path again. His theory seems to be still unexhausted. Mr Donnelly has recently completed another volume on the subject, which is to appear simultaneously in England and Amcric;i shortly. Its title is " The Cipher in the Play:and on the Tombstone. ''

— "The Anglo-Saxon" is the titlo of Lady Randolph Ohi.rehili'a new quarterly magazine, v : i.'<jii Mr John Lane is to publish - the price of one guinea. Its first numba 1 will appear in June. The editress is said to have received the cordial support of many of the best-known writers in Britain, Greater Britain, and, in fact, in the Anglo-Saxon world. Not the least interesting of the many promised features of the magazine will be the occasional publication of letters and other documents from private collections and family papers. Mr Lionel Gust, director of the National Portrait Gallery, is to supervise the illustration department, and the volumes are to be sumptuously got up. — It seems a funny thing that the Queen is not only a printer, publisher, and bookseller, but will not allow anyone else to print and sell certain books. All charts used by mariners, for instance, are printed and published exclusively by the Queen. This is no doubt a very good thing for the mariners, as it ensures the strict accuracy of the chart. Ordnance maps aro alf>o printed by the Crown alone ; and, in fact, it is the Crown alone that can afford the great expenditure incurred in their construction. A third publication which the Queon jealously keeps fo herself is the useful monthly journal of the Board of Trade. Thiß

i 3, or ought to be, a very profitable specul* (ion, as it is crowded with advertisements. -Then., most strange of all is the fact that ,th& Queen, in company with Oxford and Cambridge Universities, has the exclusive privilege of printing, publishing, and selling the Bible. This may be a surprise to most people, but it is a fact. Anyone, however, may publish a Bible provided he adds some annota-' tions. In the matter of copyright the Queea has great advantages over her subjects. Any ordinary person publishing a book has the exclusive right to publish and sell it as long a-s he lives and for seven years after his death, or for 42 years from the date of first publication if that be a longer term ; but the Queen's copyright in anything her Majesty publishes will last till the Day of Judgment.

NAPOLEON AND OSSIAN. 7i Ol i a P° leon asking Lady Malcolm how she liked St. Helena, she replied that she was a Scotch woman and admired hills. '"If you are Scotch," said he, " you must know Ossian's poems." . . . He said he admired them very much, particularly Durthula, and inquired if the controversy about their authenticity had been decided, and whether Macpherson had really written them. He laughed on her replying with quickness that Macphersoc was not capable of writing them. . . .

She asked him if he had read the poems in a French He said there were two, he had them both, but they were not good. The Italian one was excellent, beautiful. She said that they had been more admired on the Continent than in England. He exclaimed with energy, "It was I— l made them the fashion. I have.cv.en .been accused of having my.head filled. with -Ossian clouds." .r. r Lady Malcolm complimented him on his taste. He then said, laughing,' '" But Fingal • was an Irishman." The admiral replied that Lady Malcolm would take that worse than saying that Macpherson had written thepqems. He again laughed, and asked what part of Scotland they (the bards) had inhabited. She replied the western islands and Lochaber, ' where there were many places called by tho names mentioned in Ossian. He said many of tlie naina3 resembled Italian, such .as Malvina, Comala, Hidula, and several others he repeated.—Sir Arthur Watson's ''A Diary of Sr. Helena."