PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 65

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

The Windsor Magazine for January presents its readers with an exce'lent and vai'ied bill of mental fare, in which articles on the actualities of modern art, travel, traffic, and amusement well balance the seductive charms of fiction and verse. The opening article, on the art of Mr Breton Riviere, is finely illustrated from some of that artist's most delightful and appealing pictures. "Great Woikers and Their Methods" is devoted to the working habits of modern writers, and is as interesting and graphic as Harry Furniss's telling little portrait sketches can make it. That notable etatistician, Mr Holt Schooling, has one of those wonderful articles in which he fairly revels in the figures* pertaining to "Local Rates and Taxes." The carefully written and lavishly illustrated series of articles on railways which has recently been contributed by Mr Charles Grinling- receives a species of supplement in the same writer's "Railway Companies as Road Carriers," with its numberless pictures. In fiction, the place of hotiour is filled by Rider Haggard's "Ayesha," the return of "She." most dramatically illustrated by Maurice Griffenhagen, whose work, by the way, is much better here than in the illustrations accompanying "The Garden of Lies," and is followed by Egerton Castle's "If Youth But Knew." There are other =hort stories, articles, and verses-, all eood enough to maintain the excellent reputation of the Windsor.

The Pall Mall Magazine for February.— Its new gjxiise as a sixpenny magazine, while making itself lightly perceptible in difference of paper, is not noticeable in the smallest degiee so far as contents are concerned, either as legards letterpre«» or illustration*. Among the articles, an extiemely interesting one is that entitled "From Steam to Electricity."' describing the transfoi mation of the Underground, tlie numerous illustrations accoinpan3"ing the text rendering it technically absorbing to a class of leaders not usually interested in such magazines a« the Pall Mall. "The Minor of the Sea" is the title under which we are to enjoy the writing of a rare author — Joseph Conrad, — and hi<s first number is "Up Anchor." Under "Studies in Personality " Mr Herbert Vivian discourses first of Lord A\ebury. and the text is illumined by a remarkably pleasant portrait : second, of Mr John Hare, who is most successfully and satisfactorily interviewed. Perhaps the February number is a little strong in personal items, for under a ' a title of "A Lincolnshire. Trcasura House"

' w~ obtain a glimpse not only of the nistori-f^lcpdour-s ot the Duke of Bedford s seat. but aUo an li'lcre-tmg -ke<eh ot the owner. More widely and geiieraily interesting are tlio-e aincl-. , deal wilh "The Buried Tr t £"=ure- ot the Tiber anc 1 "London at Prayer." in nhieh 1-UK r. with its quaint illu-tratio!.-. v, c a.o gnui a graphic ske+eb of "The (.in'cit Sj.dgogb^' in London, and oi the r._eih<jd~ and \k\oticnul _ exercises of its congregation, lMttiou i- p'uticularlj good in the Fi. binary uvmber. Mamott Warson ■ ha= a -toy wh.ch mi^ht hr\\e been written. by Kipling in hi- caiiicr and bettor uajs; Mi"? Bea'niv- H.a-r«den has a short story v.h'oh ac f L'al'v frrl- hanpiy: and Mr \VeHVs new ■-eripi progie^ey. while there j are other shoit -stoiie- and -sketches. 1 The New Id"a for February goe-^ through , it? Uiual programme of vanelie= gleaned I from very many =ou>ees, ?nd | at intervals by pome- original lKans. such I as- Mrs Helen baud's aiticle on "'Ausua.ian 'Women in Uaol" ; "The Auu.ituic? of an ' Australian Artist." by -Mrs Ellis Rowan, in ! which one would hope the letterpress reacinble* Nature- more --10-rh than the li'usti?tions; "Australian Fairy Tales'" by those clever young ladies, j:he AJi-=v, Rentoul : land one or two -minor items, including- a , good deal of verse. Cookery hoi.ssiccc ping 1 , I health, beauty, the toilette, ihe work-table, i and many other matteis iill their rppoi.-ied , page-s, and make, up a programme of \ omen's everyday ph>-irul nred^ raid l mii tcvcsi.- ; while under ju=c as many c'.ilerent I headings the mental y\ elf-ire of the seoc is J entered for in copious and varied elections I iiom good magazines and iournal-. Princes, Court is a recieation rendezvous in Melbourne, the ground;, covnns; an area of five aore=. hems laid out in shrubbery. fernery, rockery, etc.,' and ainusemeats of , -various kinds being provided for \i=itors. I The proprietors have issued a pretlily-got-up ' souvenir descriptive of the vaiiml attractions of the court, and which should bo of use to tourists and visitor?. j The World's Work for Febiuary is a i capita] rianbar, strong in good thinss. and I amply illustrated by the actual verities of j illrstrations from photographs, perti-ait and ' sc-enic. Notable among the articles is that I on "The Far East After the War." by i Baron Kaufcaro_ Kanoko. a Japaneso nobleman, who write* LL.D. after hi.- name. Again, the illustrated article entitled ■'Building a Wonderful Community, '* and describing the mai-vellouj evolution of ' Fresno County and Ci(y. California. fro>n , a sandy waste to one of the achievements j of "the world's work. ' reacU like a fairy 1 story, for what shall we say to a melon i patch of 160 acres, where a man may wall: i uLout half a mile simply stepping from on« (melon to another! ""Making a Treatj ' with Menelik"' contains the graphic account. , written and pictured, of the American mis1 sion to Abyssinia, and is full of very interesting- illustration. "The March cl Events" is naturally seen from the Amer"- | can point of view, and the =ame remark I applies in a less degree to "Among- the ! World's Worker*" : but '"A Plan for Simpler Li\ing," '"The Advance of Wire- ' less."' and other articles are of entirely cosmopolitan interest and information. Of fiction, fortunately, there is none — except thpt truth which i= s-tranjjer than fiction. — and thus the World's Work creates its own place in the immense field of magazines and journals, and justifies its title very fully. The February number of Everybody's Magazine starts the casue! idler with a smile as he glances a,t the cover — a smile which no doubt turns him from a casual idler to a possible purchaser, for this is the deliciously audacious legend he reads beneath the illustration of a little new axe*, half buried in the rough wood bark : " I cannot tell a lie." Not one lie in this \t eighty, well-filled magazine, crammed with fact and fiction, set between its countless outer pages of splendid advei'tisernents ! Well, it's a clever conceit, anyway, and. following it. we find, under the heading of Portraits.' a quartet of feminine portraits all as diverse in tastes and position as are two — viz.. Mrs Cornelius Vanderhilt and Mi=s Eva Booth. "The Players" gives a capital ser.es of character portraits of notable actors and a,ctresses. "Frenzied Finance"' is a noteworthy literary production by a. Jio->tcn millionaire, who, under the title of "The Story of Amalgamated." gives to the world, to use his own words,the revelation of a system which "is a device or process for the incubation of wealth from the people's sa-vings in the banks, trus*- and insurance companies, and the public fund?." The immediate outcome of this bomb thrown into American financial circles was to send the circulation of Everybody's Maaazine from 100,000 to 700,000. Life for February swims the cream of the world of journalism in politics, progress, art. science, literature, and, in fact, a little of any and everything one likes to think of. A little, you observe — just a very little pom- times, but well selected always, large levies being now made on two magazinas not yet very familiar to Australasian readers— the World's Work and Everybody s. A fre~h inducement to subscribers is being held out in the form of cheap coupons for Gibson pictures, of which a large number of exemplar reproductions in miniature are given. "The Cotton Industry of Queensland'"' forms the topi, of an illustrated article. Mr W. H. Firehett continues bis reminif.cenoes in the page devoted to the "Hew I Wrote My Book"' series; and "Rolf Boldrewood" discourses on the "Wild Adventures of Wild Days." The usual departments of current event? a>-e filled, as usual, from nianv and raiiocT sources, offering to the reader a rcmarkablv wide field of information. The author has spnt v* a copy of a little brochuie. entitled "The Clevedo-i Propositions : A T)isquisit : on on Axiom 12,*' by H. Atkins, schoolmaster, Mauna-atautari. Waikato. The work will, no doubt, meet with appreciation at the hands of those for whom it is written — schoolmasters and randitatcs for the Civil ftoi-iicc examinations.