THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN RAILWAYS. The condition of our railways, and their financial prospects, should interest all of us. It has become a common remark, that railways have benefited everybody but their projectors. There is a strong doubt in the minds of many intelligent persons, whether any railways have actually paid a return on the capital invested in them. It is believed that one of two results... more...

"WAKE UP, ENGLAND" Thou careless, awake!Thou peacemaker, fight!Stand, England, for honour,And God guard the Right! Thy mirth lay aside,Thy cavil and play:The foe is upon thee,And grave is the day. The monarch AmbitionHath harnessed his slaves;But the folk of the OceanAre free as the waves. For Peace thou art armedThy Freedom to hold:Thy Courage as iron,Thy Good-faith as gold. Through Fire, Air,... more...

AFFGHANISTAN. There are those persons now living who would give their own weight in sovereigns, though drawing against thirteen to sixteen stone, that all of this dreadful subject might be swallowed up by Lethe; that darkness might settle for ever upon the insanities of Cabool; and the grave close finally over the carnage of Tezeen. But it will not be. Blood will have blood, they say. The madness which... more...

OLD HALL, IN DERBYSHIRE. This picturesque specimen of olden architecture stands upon the Norton Lees estate, on the northern verge of Derbyshire upon the adjacent county of York; about a mile from Sheffield, and eight miles north of Chesterfield, and but a short distance from Bolsover Castle, pictured in No. 566 of The Mirror. "The estate, in the reign of Henry VII., was the property of the family... more...

AUSTRIA, LOWER (Ger. Niederösterreich or Österreich unter der Enns, "Austria below the river Enns"), an archduchy and crownland of Austria, bounded E. by Hungary, N. by Bohemia and Moravia, W. by Bohemia and Upper Austria, and S. by Styria. It has an area of 7654 sq. m. and is divided into two parts by the Danube, which enters at its most westerly point, and leaves it at its eastern... more...

AN HISTORICAL ROCKY-MOUNTAIN OUTPOST. GOING TO THE JUDGE'S. The day might have graced the month of June, so balmy was the air, so warmly shone the sun from a cloudless sky. But the snow-covered mountain-range whose base we were skirting, the leafless cottonwoods fringing the Fontaine qui Bouille and the sombre plains that stretched away to the eastern horizon told a different story. It was on one... more...

"WE ARE ALL LOW PEOPLE THERE." A TALE OF THE ASSIZES. IN TWO CHAPTERS. CHAPTER THE FIRST. Some time ago, business of an important character carried me to the beautiful and populous city of ——. I remember to have visited it when I was a child, in the company of a doating mother, who breathed her last there; and the place, associated with that circumstance, had ever afterwards been the... more...

CONFESSIONS OF A DUFFER. V.—THE DUFFER AT CRICKET. To hear my remarks on the Cricket, in the Pavilion, you might think that I had been a great player entirely, in my day. "Who is that fine old English sportsman," you might ask, "who seems to have been so intimate with MYNN, and FULLER PILCH, and CARPENTER, and HAYWARD and TARRANT and JACKSON and C.D. MARSHAM? No doubt we see in him the... more...

The Menorah By Theodor HerzlTranslated from the German by Bessie London PouzznerDEEP in his soul he began to feel the need of being a Jew. His circumstances were not unsatisfactory; he enjoyed an ample income and a profession that permitted him to do whatever his heart desired. For he was an artist. His Jewish origin and the faith of his fathers had long since ceased to trouble him, when suddenly the... more...

GRANDMOTHER'S CHAIR. Grandmother sits in her easy chairSoftly humming some old-time air;And as she sings, her needles keep paceWith the smiles that flit o'er her wrinkled face;While the fire-light flickers, and fades away,And comes again like the breaking day. From morning till evening she knits and sings,While ever the pendulum tireless swingsThe moments around, with its tick and stroke,Nor... more...