Periodicals Books

November 18, 1914. Contrary to the usual custom there were no official dinners on the eve of the opening of Parliament. The explanation of this is clear to the German Press. It was due to scarcity of food. Upon receipt of the Japanese ultimatum, the Kaiser, it may be remembered, cabled to the commander of his Chinese fortress:—"Bear in mind that it would shame me more to surrender Kiaochau to the... more...

THE MYSTERY OF MR. E. DROOD. AN ADAPTATION. BY ORFHEUS C. KERR CHAPTER XIX. THE H. AND H. OF J. BUMSTEAD. The exquisitely sweet month of the perfectly delicious summer-vacation having come, Miss CAROWTHERS' Young Ladies have returned again, for a time, to their respective homes, MAGNOLIA PENDRAGON has gone to the city and her brother, and FLORA POTTS is ridiculously and absurdly alone. Under the... more...

WALT WHITMAN IN EUROPE. With the death and burial of Walt Whitman passes away the most picturesque figure of contemporary literature. It is true that in England the name of the poet is more familiar than his poetry, and that students of literature are more conversant with the nature of his writings than are the mass of general readers; yet the character of the man and the spirit of his compositions... more...

NOTES. OLD SONGS. I heard, "in other days," a father singing a comic old song to one of his children, who was sitting on his knee. This was in Yorkshire: and yet it could hardly be a Yorkshire song, as the scene was laid in another county. It commenced with— "Randle O'Shay has sold his mare For nineteen groats at Warrin'ton fair," and goes on to show how the simpleton was... more...

THE STORY OF JOSIAH HENSON No one ever uttered a more forceful truth than Frederika Bremer when she said in speaking to Americans: "The fate of the Negro is the romance of your history." The sketches of heroes showing the life of those once exploited by Christian men must ever be interesting to those who would know the origin and the development of a civilization distinctly American. In no case... more...

Science needed two thousand years to disentangle the earth's orbital movement from the revolutions of the other planets, and the incomparably more arduous problem of distinguishing the solar share in the confused multitude of stellar displacements first presented itself as possibly tractable a little more than a century ago. In the lack for it as yet of a definite solution there is, then, no... more...

HANSA, THE LITTLE LAPP MAIDEN.BY KATHARINE LEE. Once upon a time, in a very small village on the borders of one of the great pine forests of Norway, there lived a wood-cutter, named Peder Olsen. He had built himself a little log-house, in which he dwelt with his twin boys, Olaf and Erik, and their little sister Olga. Merry, happy children were these three, full of life and health, and always ready for... more...

AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF VENTILATION. "The House [of Commons] met to-day [27th April] after the Easter holidays—and honourable members, on entering, seemed highly to appreciate the unusual luxury of a little fresh air."—The Times, 28th April. The failure of some late attempts to ventilate public buildings invites me to set forth an Encyclopædia of ventilation—at a cheap rate, and in a... more...

VOCES POPULI. AT THE REGENT STREET TUSSAUD'S. Before the effigy of Dr. KOCH, who is represented in the act of examining a test-tube with the expression of bland blamelessness peculiar to Wax Models. Well-informed Visitor. That's Dr. KOCH, making his great discovery! Unscientific V. What did he discover? Well-inf. V. Why, the Consumption Bacillus. He's got it in that bottle he's... more...

THE MUD LARKS. Yesterday morning, a freckled child, dripping oil and perspiration and clad in a sort of canvas dressing-gown, stumbled into "Remounts" (or "Demounts," as we should more properly call ourselves nowadays) and presented me with a slip of paper which entitled him, the bearer, to immediate demobilisation on pivotal grounds. I handed it back to him, explaining that he had come... more...