Life — October 8, 1885 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

GENERAL ITEMS. HE cattle men are moving out of the Indian Territory so rapidly that the grass still grows where they have been along. THERE seems to be no truth in the statement that General Logan's forthcom- | ing history is designed to be ir.corporated in a grammar school curriculum. THE English are raising a pecuniary testimonial for Walt Whitman. It is pro- posed thus to honor the self-restraint of a clever man who has lived to extreme old age without writing poetry. THE report that Tennyson and Brown- ing intend to come over and spend the winter with Rollin Squire seems to need confirmation. It is not true that the owner of the Genesta has employed John Roach to build a yacht with which to beat the Puritan, THE Virginians are divided ; some try- ing to steer the ship of State to Leeward, and some otherwise. J. A. Macon, “ HE lady-bird,” says an exchange, “is nota bird, but only a beetle.” That's right ; continue in your icono- clastic career. Thenext thing you know some idiotic scientist will be coming along with the announcement that the lady-bird is n't a lady either, and then there will be trouble. MENTAL SUBTLETY. On the steamer in mid-ocean. First Old Chappie: GOING ACROSS? Second O. C.: Yes. You? HE stories of E. P. Roe are seldom praised by anyone who has a true regard for the literary welfare of America. They are a kind of moral mutton-broth or Sun- day-school picnic lemonade. They will do no harm to the most delicate organization ; neither will they add one particle to a manly, vigorous character which is founded on some- thing stronger than attenuated and effeminate passions, incongruously made up of love and religion. There are, however, in his latest story, “An Original Belle,” several chapters describing the battle of Gettysburg which are graphic and exciting, with a great deal of true local color about them. The charge of the fifteen thousand Confederates is finely pictured, but it has been more clo- quently done by the Rev. John R. Paxton, of this city. The dramatic and romantic possibilities of that beautiful region of Pennsylvania, on the border of Dixie, have never been fully apprehended. Mr. Roe has certainly not given them full expression. . . . [> REDERICK B. VAN VORST, author of the recently published novel, “ Without a Compass,” is a son of Judge Van Vorst, of this city, was graduated at Princeton in 1876, and was one of the honor men of his class. He has had the advantages of European universities as well, and is a man of brilliant attainments. It is said that the Appletons consider it the best novel which they have published within seven years. Droch. . . . NOTE. [3 the current number of that valuable little periodical, the Book Buyer (Charles Scribner's Sons), there is begun a series of portraits of famous writers whose features have not heretofore been reproduced so often as to become a drug on the market. Richard Henry Stoddard leads the list, and the publishers promise the prepossessing physiognomy of the heretofore unphotographed G. W. Cable as the leading attraction for the November issue. Such features as these will undoubtedly add largely to the success of an already successful publication. BOOKS RECEIVED. Love. OR A NAME. A story by Julian Hawthorne. Ticknor & Co. Keran Kringle’'s Journal, By Miss Karan Kringle. Philadelphia : T. B, Peterson & Brothers. Boston :