Life — December 25, 1884 — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

POEMS BY A MARQUIS AND OTHER BOOKS. Shc the Marquis of Lorne has condescended to let an ordinary world enjoy his poetry, we cannot be sur- prised that Le Marquis De Leuville has appeared in the plebeian ranks of the men of song. His ‘ Poems and Aelia” are worthy of his rank. None other than a full-fledged Marquis, with no end of Stars and Garters (and perhaps corsets), could have written such lines as these: “She is more loved than my heart's first love, For there never was one as this is; Her breath is the swerve of a long lemon grove, And her mouth is the gateway of kisses.” ‘ *. . . ND if you tire of the melodious murmurs of his love poems, you can find depths of philosophy which it would stump the Concord School to fathom. How the venerable sage who invented the “thingness of the here” | would delight in such abstruse verses as these : “While the Past saith to the Is to be: ‘It matters not. It matters not.” . . . HERE have been issued recently anumber of entertain- ing and delightful books of travel, of which, perhaps, the handsomest is Lady Brassey's “ In the Trades, the Trop- ics, and the Roaring Forties.” (Henry Holt & Co.) It is the vivacious record of a cruise of 14,000 miles in the yacht Sunbeam.—Chief Engineer Melville’s volume, on his remark- able trips in search of De Long, Chipp and their parties, is called “ In the Lena Delta.” (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) He has the temerity to propuse a new and elaborate plan for reaching the pole. . . POLITICAL work of unusual interest is soon to be published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. It is a careful analysis of Congressional or Representative government, as it is exhibited in this country and Europe. The aim is to clearly portray the workings of the machinery of government. The author, Mr. Woodrow Wilson, of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, has given this subject years of patient'study. His admirable style of political writing was forcibly illustrated several years ago in his essay on “ Cabinet Government,” in the Jnternational Review. Drocu. OTES.—The Nutshell series consisting of five bijou i volumes comprising Philosophy, Epigram and Epi- taph, Wit and Humor, Proverbs, Wisdom and Sentiment in short, crisp sentences, deserves especial commendation. Their editor, Helen Kendrick Johnson, has shown rare taste in her selection, and the Messrs. Putnam, publishers, have certainly given the lovers of this class of books a novel and attractive set. The same house has published a very artistic volume en- titled the “Land of Rip Van Winkle,” by Mr. A. E. P. Spearing. It is charmingly illustrated by a variety of Ameri- it oh NO ALLOWANCE FOR THE WILLOW'S GROWTH. Pompey: JUSELUM CRICKETS! I HAIN’ A GWINE TO MEASUAH WID YOU NO MO! I'S DUN SETTLED WAY DOWN B'LOW MY LAS YEAH MARK. I'S HEARD A POW "FUL HEAP 'BOUT SHORT HAN’ LATELY, BUD I DID'N’ KNOW DE DISEASE WUS SPREADIN' FREW DE HUL SYSTEM. can artists, making one of the most attractive of holiday books.—Mr. Scollard’s verses, some of which have appeared in our own columns, have been published in book form under the title of Pictures In Song. They make a dainty little volume which cannot fail to please the lovers of vers de socteté, . ‘ . Fr better books have been written for boys than “Captain Phil,” by M. M. Thomas. The story is that of a lad who accompanied his elder brother to the war as a camp follower of a regiment of New York volunteers. The accounts of the skirmishes and battles of the Army of the Potomac (as the little captain saw them) and of Sherman's March to the Sea are told with inspiring vividness and care- ful historical accuracy. The style is spirited and manc-like, but the way in which the horrible scenes of the battle-field are touched upon would seem to indicate that the book is from a woman's pen. BOOKS RECEIVED. In the Trades, The Tropics and the Roaring Forties, By Lady Brassey. “Ilustrated by R. T. Pritchett. “Henry Tolt & Co., In the Lena Delta, A narrative of the search for Lieut.-Com- mander De Long and his companions, followed by an account of the Greely Relief Expedition, by George W. Melville. Edited by Melville Phillips, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. comicbooks.com