Los Angeles Herald from Los Angeles, California • Page 21

BOOKS AND THOSE WHO MAKE THEM MASTER ARDICK, BUCCANEER. By F. H. Costello. Appleton This- Is No.

204 of the Town and Country Library, and Is a.thrilling story of seventeenth century times when blue-water sailors were the real heroes and makers of romance and commerce. From the very hour when Master Ardlck fell Ih with Capt. Houthwlck In the little taproom in Portsmouth, and went aboard- the Indlewater for a voyage to Havana, his life became a lively one for rare adventure. It is a boldly conceived and carefully written story of the old-fashioned sort. It telis of old-time handling of a ship, and oldtime sea fighting.

Nothing belter of Its kind this whole season. THE LITTLE REGIMENT. By Stephen Crane. Appleton Co. While this volume, which contains, besides the opening story, five lesser ones, would not have given the author much fame; still.

It shows excellent work and makes it very plain that "The Red Badge of Courage" was not an accident. All these sketches are In keeping with that notable creation and supplement it. attitude of Dan Demstor and Blllte towards each other seems a trille overwrought, but It Is skilfully handled at the Inst, and appears to have been entirely understood by all the rest of the little regiment. They deprecated each other's actions and opinions, and disagreed on all matters, Yet when one was in danger the other dragged him away and saved him. The climax comes when, after a battle in which Blllie was felt to be lost, he finally turns up.

However great might have been the joy in their hearts, they only said: "Hello, Dan." "Hello, Billee." The descriptions of camp and bivouac life, the weary waiting after sharp skirmish, and all the rest, are excellent. Nothing better in its line has ever been done, as we said of The Red Bedge of Courage. But whether this can be kept up Is doubtful. Will there be such a theme for Mr. Crane again? Is there another phase of Imaginative writing whioh can equal the one caught at and wrought out so thoroughly? These are questions that only the future can answer.

MIDSHIPMAN FARRAGUT. By James Barnes, author of For King or Country, etc. Appleton Co. This handsomely illustrated volume tells the story of the boyhoodi life of the greatest naval hero of his time. We are assured that the characters of the volume are mainly historical.

The most Important events of the young midshipman's first sea experience relate to Captain Porter and the cruise of the old Essex. It was amid) such scenes that the great naval commander In the history of the rebellion learned what it meant to be an American sailor. It Is flne to read of his early faithfulness to every duty: for it was this which prepared him for the later deeds that have made his fame Immortal. This Is a volume fit to be in every boy's hands. TOTEM TALES.

By W. S. Phillips. Sear Publishing company, Chicago. Boys will revel In this rich gift book.

These are not the ordinary stories about Irdlans. but the stories from the Indians themselves, their myths, and legends, their superstitions and folk lore. They are taken down, many of them, from the Hps of the tribal story tellers, of whom aech tribe has one, and the drawings were made on the spot. These story tellers are trained for their duies, and teach the legends to their sons In the same words they reclved them from their fathers. They are the minstrels of the American forest.

But, alas, their career is nearlr.g its end, for with the advance of education and civilization among the Indians the professional story teller is fast disappearing, and in a few years both he and his tales will have passed out of mind. For this reason Totem Tales Is all the more timely and Interesting. In that it gathers up some of these strange myths while they still can be heard from original sources. The book has a valuable vocabulary and historical appendix. COLUMBIAN PRIZE CHARADES.

By Herbert Ingalls. Author of The Boston Charades. Price JI.OO. Lee Shepard, Boston. The charade is having its day as never before since the art of printing was made known, and this new volume by the author of The Boston Charades will certainly give pleasure to many who are fond of this kind of entertainment.

In the new volume there are one hundred and sixty numbers of thi3 sort of puzzle. Prizes, in a series of ten, are offered to persons more or less successful in recording the solutions. The particulars regarding the competition are given in the book Itself. The newer volume gives, lna appendix, the solutions of The Boston Charades. ft ft THE WAMPUM BELT; or, THE FAIREST PAGE OF HISTORY.

By Hezeklah Butterworth. Author of The Patriot Schoolmaster, etc. Appleton Company. Here is a splendidly printed and happily illustrated volume which tells the of William Perm's famous trade with the Indians. It is, by the way, the sixth volume of stories of the Creators of American Liberty, In which Mr.

Butterworth has aimed to trace and teach history by fiction founded in notable incidents in the lives of the heroes. This story relates to the wampum belt which was delivered by the Lenape Indians on the Delaware to William Perm, at the great treaty made under the elm tree at Shakamaxon In 1682. It has always been known as the "peace belt," and millions of our countrymen have gazed with awe and reverence upon it, as It reposes in the rooms of the Philadelphia Historical society. This long struggle of the Quaker colonists to subdue the fierce Indians through a course of absolutely open and generous dealing, has been called "the fairest page of history." It ended at last in "the only treaty never sworn to and never broken." Throughout this engaging volume runs the thread of a charming story. There is enough of history to bear it up and make it wholly credible and of practicable value; and there Is enough of romance to give it action and grace.

THE VACATION AND OTHER STORIES. By Sophie Swett, author of Penroyal and Mint, etc. Ewtees Boston. For yearj the readers of St. Nicholas have been delighted with the short Stories by this author, the beat of which are now attractively presented in book form.

The most desirable of the original Illustrations are used and a large number of others by Ethelred B. Barry, the well-known illustrator of children's stories, have been added. It will no doubt prove to be a favorite in the holiday sales, for it is a volume which so many people will take on trust, knowing what Sophie Swett writes for young folks has merit. THE RULERS OF THE SEA. By Edmond Neukomm.

Illustrated by G. Roux and L. Benett. An interesting historical story.lllustrated with numerous full-page half-tones. Estees Lauriat, Boston.

The story deals with the discovery of America in the year 1000 by the Norsemen; the early Norsemen's colonies In America from the tentfeavafcp fourteenth EDITED BY ENOCH KNIQHT century; the new discovery of America at the end of the fourteenth century, and explorations in Brazil four years after Columbus' discovery of America. The author of this very handsome and thoroughly interesting volume relates in his preface how he came to undertake the writing of it. He was recently staying in Rouen, working In the great library there, when ho became aware of his unusual opportunities to gather material concerning the voyages of the Norsemen explorers and their descendants and followers. The large volume had its real beginning in what the author discovered there as to early navigators and their new world voyages. The book opens with an account of Herwolf the Jarl, that old northern pirate, whose ships had "furrowed the seagull's realm" for half a century.

Part I relates to tho earliest voyages to the American continent, about the year 1000, followed with Norsemen cruises and colonies from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. The history of the happenings along the North American coast from Newfoundland to the Oulf of Mexico, reads like the remarkable romance that it is, and, although there is little that is valuable for historical accuracy, the story answers the main cuds of such a volume. It treats of great events in a swift, dashing way, and the volume Will be found very helpful to the general reader, especially younger ones, who can gain from It a fair idea of the tremendous events that led up to the building of new nations. THK LAND O' THE LEAL. By David Lyall.

12mo. 11. Dodd, Mead publishers, New York. American readers will be interested In the latest addition to the successful Scottish books of the year, by David Lyall, whose work, The Laud o' the Leal, has Just been published by Dodd, Mead Co. i While this book does not show the distinctive genius that has marked some of the recent volumes of Watson and Crockett.

It does show a gentle but stronghand at depicting Scottish village life. It is a tender and touching picture of real life among what is called, for a better name, the middle classes. It is faithful to truth, ioyal to the hearts and homes of Scotland. These pictures are not overdrawn, nor Is there any undue straining for effect, and yet on many a page there are "full of hope and yet of heart-break, full of all the tender pathos of the here and the hereafter." EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VIGNETTES. By Austin Dobson.

With portraits in photogravure. 12mo, cloth, gilt top, $2. Dodd, Mead publishers. New York. This book treats exclusively of eighteenth century themes.

The papers are in every way fascinating. Mr. Dobson understands thoroughly how to convey to his readers the charm of that epoch which produced Swift andi Addison, Pope, Garrick and a host of other immortals. These are names which have for the modern world an Interest and a charm quite out of proportion to the influence which they are exercising In present-day life and literature. The photogravure illustrations add not a little to the attractiveness of one of the most noteworthy of the season's holiday publications.

WITH FORTUNE MADE. By Victor Cherbuliez, author of Samuel Brohi etc. D. Appleton Co. Here is still another of the really famous Town and Country Library series, and a very strong story it Is, indeed.

From Provence to the Dakotas and the Rockies is a far stretch, but even between these widely separated points the scenes of the story change back and ftfrth. It Is a "rattling" story, and well holds up this brilliant series. A GENUINE GIRL. By Jeanle Gould Lincoln, authoress of Marjories Quest, etc. Houghton, Mifflin Boston.

This story is on the same lines as Marjories Quest. Although nominally a continuation of that volume, which first brought the authoress Into notice, it is, in fact, a separate and distinct story. Some of the characters in the former volume are used here. The volume is not of a high literary character, but it is written in excellent style and has isweet and bracing atmosphere. It will be found a welcome and befitting holiday gift to any young woman.

CAPTAIN GORE'S COURTSHIP: His Narrative of the Affair of the Clipper Conemaugh and Loss of the Countess of Warwick. By J. Jenkins Haines. Lippincott company. This sprightly story comes to us in the Lotos Library series, a handsomely illustrated little volume, pretty to look at and handy to carry in the pocket.

A sea story like this is almost always wholesome and Invigorating. There is a freedom and a tonic in this one that is really refreshing; and not even Clark Russell has written a much better one. There is little plot but much swift varying of scenes, and a breezier book one does not often see. THE SEVEN SEAS. By Rudyard Kipling.

D. Appleton 12mo, $1.50. To think what Mr. Kipling has tlone in the ten years since we had Plain Tales from the Hills, with their remarkable freshness and soundness, albeit there was a trace of "manly coarseness" in some of them! Not even Robert Louis Stevenson had a swifter rise into fame, or gave to the world more books during a like period. And there is a sanity in all Kipling has written which is the highest testimony to Its right to endure.

The real basis of his success is not hard to find. He made himself master of the matter of his work. He knew the country, the few people, and he even made the animals of the jungle tell a strange, new story. He brought a new element Into fiction and Into song, but it will not be as a novelist that he will be best known in the future. He will be known for his short sketches, his phantasies like some of the Jungle Book creation, but mainly for his poetry.

This latter shows great possibilities. If only he would throw off something of the roysterer habit, mature and refine his artistic bent somewhat, go a little deeper in his quest for enduring attainments, he could become a leader among British poets. He has a national pride, and a national mode and swing of expression that will -easily make him Laureate some day, if only the next few years bring becoming chastenlngs and devoutness of literary spirit. He who reads and re-reads ths poems that make up the present volume will realize that the praise and prediction here recorded are fair and reasonable. RODNEY STONE.

By A. Conan Doyle, author of the exploits of Brigadier Gerard, The Stark Munro Letters, etc. Illustrated; cloth, $1.60. Appleton Co. Next to The White Company, this volume of Dr.

Doyle will no doubt be set down as the rie.hest in invention and development. It tells of England and English ways in the days of Ldrd Nelson, of Pitt and Fox of the famous men, not to omit Brummel. The story opens with an account of Rodney Stone's youth, and his friends, "Champion Harrison" and "Boy Jim." From Friar's Oak he then goes to London with his uncle, Sir Charles Tregellis. in Loudon he saw a great drama played. In no former story of Doyle's has high life been so fully and successfully delineated.

And now we come to a paradox, for the most LOS ANGKEjLES HERALD: SUNDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 1890. audacious feature of modern novel writing Is here Introduced less than several chapters devoted to boxing and actual mills In the ring. This feature Is at once the attraction anil the blot of the volume. Interesting as it momentarily may be made to appear in th" reading, one feels that it is a lowering of the standard of literary art.

One admires the man who "can put up his hands" on occasion in a good cause, but one does not take quite kindly to a description of a supper at a long table filled with bloated prizefighters. Nor does one deem It quite natural that "Boy Jim" should have run away to London to blossom out at once at the ringside; that is to say, the average reader -will fec-l. we fancy, that the experiment Dr. Doyle has tried has not quite been a success. But in the mystery of Cliffe Royal, the tragedy which drove Lord Avon Into years of hiding and the final confession of Ambrose, the valet, there Is displayed Ingenuity and vigor which It were hard to match in modern fiction.

If the objectionable matter in the volume had been more lightly touched upon, if it had been more incidental and not upon a main line, we should not feel compelled to register this objection, but the honest old blacksmith's light in the rain and mud of Crawley downs, while his poor heart-broken wife was waiting outside the ring to bear him away, was too brutal a business. Such a thing is not nice, nor Is it true art. PENNYROYAL AND MINT. By Sophie Swett. Estes Lauriat, Boston.

Elsewhere in The Herald, and many times before, we have had occasion to speak of the excellence, of Sophie Swett's writings. Again is her quality shown In the striking sketches which make up this volume. They will add to her fame as one of the acknowledged leaders In short-story writing. Most of these sketches have already appeared In leading periodicals and are not put in bookform for the first time. It is a handsome and in all ways deserves to prove a popular one.

From the same publishers we also have FIELD CLOVER AND BEACH GRASS. By Susan Hartley Swett. Te author has been for years a regular contributor to the best known magazines anil periodicals her stories, like those of her sister, Sophie Swett, are well-known as being typical ones of New England life. These quaint stories of old-fashioned people will readily appeal to all lovers of wholesome literature. THE CRYSTAL CITY.

Translated from the French of Andre Laurie by L. A. Smith. Estees Lauriat, This fine, large volume is brimming with events which bear the charm of much mystery, though related In the greatest simplicity of style. The illustrations are many and excellent.

The most romantic chapter of the book is th" prodigious adventure of the officer who was washed overboard In the storm. What happened to him cannot be told in the necssary limits of this mention. The journal of a diver is also a most ingenious creation, as is the account of the torpedo boat "Vitanla," which could fold its sails as a duck does its wings and sink beneaththe waves and again spread them as the bird does when it came to the surface. It would seem that never was such a vessel before, for It was able any moment to shut Its two halves together and disappear from view to make short voyages of discovery. On the whole, It Is a thoroughly engaging volume, and will no doubt receive its due share of attention.

THE LAND OF SUNSHINE. The Christmas number of this rich periodical Is out. and it Is by far the most Interesting number yet. Indeed, it seems as if it were almost a new birth if there were need of its being born again to entitle It to live and prosper forever. And again let us ask: What's the matter with making it unanimous? But IT not that, there are at least a thousand more persons In Los Angeles who ought to take it and send east after reading.

PHYSICAL CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE VOICE. By Helen Willard Merritt. This small volume Is intended to outline "The Merritt System" of oaring for the body and developing the voice The author Is now a resident of, Los having come here from New York, and' we believe, Is now lecturing and teaching upon the lines of her plan. The volume is Illustrated with cuts showing the correct positions of the body standing, sitting and at rest. NOTES.

Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the author of a volume of verse entitled In This Our World, has been lecturing in England. A curious contribution to fiction will be Prof. Mahaffy's fragment of a Greek novel, found on a papyrus at Fayoum, the date of which is 100 B. C.

The late Edgar Wilson Nye Introduces his last book, A Guest at the Ludlow, with a few lines of verse: "Go. little booklet, go, Bearing an honored name, every where that you have went, They're glad that you have came." A writer In The Independent comes to the help of my correspondent who expressed his unfamlliarlty with poems celebrating electricity. The Independent writer says: "Sydney Lanier, who had an interest in scientific knowledge of all sorts, affords a few pertinent quotations on this topic, as: 'Snatching Death's hot bolt ere hurled Flash new life about the world'; 'the subtller essences polar that whirl In the. magnet earth'; And he devotes several stanzas to the havoc of the lightning: 'Cold cloud, but yesterday Thy lightning slew a child at play. What myriad righteous errands' high Thy flames might run etc." See also Dr.

Van Dyke's Princeton sesquicentennial poeia. Mr. J. A. Mitchell of Life seems to be making a reputation for himself ns an author.

He will follow up the successful Amos Judd with a volume of short stories, That First Affair, and Other Sketches, to be published by the Messrs. Scrlbner. I was talking the other morning with a man who has had peculiar opportunities of observing the trend of current literary taste, and he told me that booksellers are beginning to notice a growing demand for works dealing with natural history and country life. My friend, who is evidently a master of the Tendenz theory, was inclined to attribute this the perennial bicycle. I think myself that the argument was rather ingenious than convincing; but his view was that the city clerk o' Sundays, resting on a stile thirty miles from town, with his machine beside him, espies the homely tomtit which he has never seen in Pentonville.

and longs to identify its species. Consequently he rides home and gets Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's volumes from the free library. Vaugh. in London Letter.

PROSPECTIVE CHINESE WEDDING Chief of Police Glass has received from Sheriff Kayos at the Needles a letter stating that in that town there Is a very pretty Chinese girt who has but lately arrived and whom one of the celestial residents of Needles is about to marry, the license having been already taken out. Mr. Kayes suspects something wrong in the matter as the parties concerned were desirous of the strictest secrecy, and wants to know whether or not any Chinese women are missing from Los Angeles. No suoh case has been reported to the police, although weeks ago it is said that a woman was abducted from Chinatown and no trace of her has been found since. ARIZONA NEWS "Black Jack" visited the Helming Brothers' ranch the other day and told a story of the fight at Deer creek, which varies slightly from the one told by the officers.

It was Black Jack himself, not Jeff Davis, who was riding with Bob Hayes. When the shooting commenced his horse began to buck and his pistol flew out of his holster. Then his horse was shot and fell on his Winchester. Ho turned the horse over, got his gun and then ran and hid behind a cactus. The officers hunted for him, and at one time were within twenty feet of him, but failed to see him.

When they abandoned the hunt lie gracefully retired. He was not hit by a bullet. He was riding a Diamond A horse when at Holnrmg's ranch. Liberal. Mr.

James P. St. Clair, a mining man interested in Picaeho mining district, near Yuma, is a visitor to Tombstone. Mr. St.

Clair states that his section is proving a bonanza producer. capitalists have acquired some property there, which in every instance are proving valuable producers for their owners. The Capella, White Gold, Golden Dream, Noonday and Leon groups of mines, owned by various companies, are among those working, and the erection of mills on two of these properties will soon be in progress. Mr. St.

Clair states that a rich strike of $2000 ore was found in one of the mines last week, being a big chamber the extent of which has not yet been determined. It Is cautiously guarded and Prospector. The special train bearing the officials of the Santa Fe system returned Saturday from the tour of inspection to tiuaymas and southern points, and continued their Journey north. In the party are Mr. J.

J. Frey, general manager of the Santa Fe system: John Player, superintendent of machinery; H. C. Whitehead, general auditor; H. C.

Short, general traveling auditor, and John Mc- Carthy, private secretary to Mr. Frey. The local officials of the N. M. and A.

and Sonora roads. Assistant General Manager Naugle, Roadmaster Montague, Trainmaster Gibson and Master Mechanic Johnson accompanied the party to Benson. The whole party will probably, pass over the new line of the S. F. P.

and via Phoenix. The Vldette thinks it is understood that tho company have in contemplation some decided Improvements In the service between Benson and Prospector. Ernest Walker nf Phoenix has an Interesting collection of confederate mnney.which can hardly be equalled outside a museum. It comprises authentic samples of nearly all the currency Issued by the southern confederacy during the time of the late unpleasantness. In evidence are $500 bills and treasury notes of smaller denominations, the notes of state bankers and those of firms privileged to Issue currency and several thousand-dollar bonds, with many of their forty-dollar coupons still Contracts for new buildings are being let daily in Jerome.

More building is being done at the present time in this city than in any town in Arizona. The committees have the work of instituting an Odd Fellews' lodge well in hand anil Jerome will do herself grand, on the 7th of December In the way of entertaining the grand officers of Governor Franklin and his staff. The grand officers wiil be here on Sunday, the 6th, and the governor and staff with other visitors on Monday morning. On Monday afternoon the grand officers, governor and his staff and visiting Odd Fellows will be given a banquet at the Grand Viewhotel; during the day the lodge will be instituted, and at 8 oclock in the evening the public installation of officers will take place, after which there will be a grand ball with a supper at the Grand View. The Whipple band will furnish music for the banquet and the ball.

Every citizen of Jerome should take an interest in the success of this affair, it being the first undertaking of the kind ever attempted In Jerome since she has thrown off her infant Mining News. Five counties will unite this year in a joint institute, to be held in Phoenix from December 2S to January 1 Inclusive. These counties are Coconino Yavapai, Pinal. Pima and Maricopa Three days will he devoted to institute work, and the latter two days to the Arizona Teachers' Gazette. Colonel Brooks, who recently took a trip across Death valley, thus speaks to a Yuma Sentinel reporter ot that wonder of nature; "It Is truly regretful that this phenomenal country cannot he seen by the thousands of people who read of Its indescribable wonders," He says that when the descriptive powers of our most able writers have been exhausted in an effort to convey to the public a correct impression of the precipitous depths, grandeur nf its confines, combinations' of all known minerals, and adding to this the solemnity of awe, of future, of death to many travelers, the reader's most grasping imagination is still vague and as far short of the reality as is the possibility of an ox drinking the waters of the San Francisco bay.

"An indefinite idea of" the exceeding grandeur of the salt in Is situated at the head of Death valley, as the sun shines upon it each day of tho 365 of the year, may be obtained by directing one's thoughts or imagination to the sublimity of Niagara Falls, when its dimensions have been multiplied by one hundred, and the water is converted Into transparent icicles the reflecting brilliancy of ten thousand chandeliers, and then by some unnatural expanse of the Imagination an appreciative sense of the stubborn facts is had; of the deep brown or oxide of iron color, the crystallizing salt extending over fifty miles in the lowest depth of Death valley. "There Is nothing, not anything, that has a name or a shape, more abrupt, uneven or topsy-turvy, than is this mas-, of salt as spewed from the unknown depths of the earth. The projecting points, one above another, are generally oblong, nnd of all dimensions, from one inch tn flye feet, and as the Inner pressure of the unknown forces have thrust and crowded the millions of varied forms and sizes of fragments promiscuously to the surface, it presents a distressing confusion. The salt is of the ordinary hardness of stone." JOTTINGS Lieut. Charles P.

Keiss and family passed through Phoenix last week on their way to Port Whipple, where the lieutenant will be stationed. lie fcas been at Fort Clark, Texas. During the next three or four months Pima und contiguous counties will be enjoying a great revival In gold mining. If what seems to be well authenticated reports prove true. Several remarkably good discoveries have been made.

Which are being developed and the Showing is Star. Grand Master Workman A. E. Pierce came up from Casa Grande Thursday evening and was tendered a grand Thanksgiving banquet at the Williams house by Florence lodge No. 4, A.

O. TT. W. Some sixty people sat down to one of the most elegant suppers ever given in the town, and all participating expressed themselves as delighted with the festivities of the occasion. At the hall a delightful evening was spent with music, dancing and social conversation.

Tribune. The Hon. Whltelaw Reid publishes an article in the New York Tribune giving the facts as he found them in Arizona concerning weather, temperature, air, humidity. ruin. altitudes, society, schools, churches and the desirable good points of various localities.

He says of the oft repeated question, "Is It a lawless country?" "The man that goes to any considerable Arizona town with the Ideas of the southwest derived from novels or the Arizona Kicker, will be greatly mystified. He will find as many churches as in towns of corresponding size in Pennsylvania or Ohio and probably more school houses." In short he represents the people as they are, about the same as in other regions of no better, no worse. His letter win be of great value to the territory and to the people of the east, who will begin to realize from such experienced and authentic sources that the representations that our local papers have been making for years are true to the country, nothing more. Capt. J.

C. Beatty arrived here TVtomday from a short business trip to Los Angeles. The genial captain paid the Sentinel office a pleasant call Thursday. In speaking of his mine he said the vein at the 100-foot level was forty feet In width and continues to grow richer and wider as depth is obtained. He had ordered a ten-stamp mill, but as the mine was proving a bonanza he countermanded the order and will erect In the near future a much larger mill.

The fnlne is known as the Buena Vista and is located some twenty miles above this place on the Colorado river. Mr. T. W. Johnston of Prescott, attorney for the holders of the Prescott and Arizona Central railway bonds, called upon Governor Franklin yesterday to make a formal demand that the loan commission Issue territorial bonds to the amount involved.

$21.1.000, In accordance with the provisions of the funding act of IROO. The governor assured Mr. Johnston that nothing could be done In the matter until the return of Secretary Bruce to the territory. It Is likely that no action will be taken until The Gazette proposes to have the Democratic legislature freight and fare the railroads again and to swipe the express companies nn the Jaw, to lift the canal and water companies out of their boots. How beautifully quiet It will be.

however, when the time comes for doing it Messrs. Latin and Defranoe shipped three pounds of placer gold the other day to the mint from their claim In the Ohemehuevis district. This will make a nice addition to their bank account. They are now engaged in erecting, or rather excavating, a winter residence, which, when completed, will be one of the most elegant and elaborate dugouts in the Miner. TALKS FROM TOWN" TOPICS.

Mr. John Qllllat of Boston has written a strong story tor the current number of Tales From Town Topics. "On tlie Altar of Passion" Is a title that Inspires In itself; and a perusal of the tale brings to light a variety cf character studies that are more than Interesting. Mr. Gllllat Is evidently a cynic of the first water.

Some of his characters are of the same mould, but they are clever cynics, who always have something sprightly to say and occasionally spout epigrams worthy of the company of a French court. By way of contrast to may call It the an up-to-date society story. Mr. Gilliat gives us. in the earlier pages of his narrative, as dainty and tender a love scene as ever refreshed'a wenry mlndi The spice of a perilously close approach to lndlscretlon indulged in by a pa.lr of toodevoted and world-weary married people is atoned for hy their sudden determination to forsake the pursuit of illusory joys and obey the; laws of the society they have learned to despise.

Some decidedly pnthetlc reconciliations follow, and the reader closes the hook with a feeling that he has been cleverly entertained and taught a profitable lesson or two besides. "On the Altar of Passion" is hy turns sensuous, dramatic, sad. sprightly nnd (Town Topics Publishing Company, 20S Fifth avenue, New York.) WHY DONALD LEFT THE KIRK "What's wrong with things. Donald, since we lay in Edinburgh twenty years ago. and you used to give me bits of Free Kirk sermons?" "It iss all wrong that they hef been going these last years, for they stand to sing and they sit to pray they will be using human himes.

And it iss great pieces of the Bible they hef cut out, and I am told they are not done yet, but are going from bad to worse," said Donald. Inviting questioning. "What more are they after, "It will be myself that has found it out. and It Iss only what might be expected, but 1 am not saying that you will be beleving me." "Out with it. Donald; let's hear what kind of people we've come amongst." "They've been Just fairly left to themselves, antl the godless bodies hef taken to watering the Kate Carnegie.

Rochester papers are making merry with Buffalo folks for mistakes they committed at a recent club reception to Barrio. They say one man gravely congratulated Barrle upon his Bonnie Lilac Bush and his Widow in Thrums, while another, having told him how much he enjoyed his Three Men In a Boat and The Little Minister, returned to him after a while with profuse apologies for having stupidly credited him with Tho Little Minister, when, of course, it was Maclaren who wrote It. At the dinner-given to him by the Aldine club In this city last Thursday evening. Mr. Barrle referred to these and other mistakes made by people whom he had met In this country, and it was obvious that, tbe credit for them belongs nol to Buffalo any more than to some other parts of America.

In the remarks which Thomas Nelson Page made later In the evening it was seen that he also is not unacquainted witli this, kind of error. At a newsstand in a hotel he once inquired how Meh Lady was doing (It was a way he had "in keeping tab on his The clerk assured him that it was doing well. "But the best book you ever wrote. Mr. Page." added the young man.

"is Col. Carter of Cartersville." To which Mr. Page replied: "Yes, I quite agree with York Times. David R. Atchison, a Missouri statesman of fifty years ago, has been exhumed from oblivion as the man who, though his name does not appear in the list of this country's presidents, was for twenty-four hours the possessor of ail the rights and powers incidental to that great office.

President's Taylor's term expired In one of the rare years when March 4th falls on Sunday, lie became a private citizen of the republic at noon on that day. and, as Presidentelect Taylor refused, from religious scruples, to take tlie oath of office on the holy day. as president pro tempore of the senate, was constructively the nation's chief executive until tho next noon, when the conscientious general was sworn in. March 4th next comes on Sunday in 1921. and then there will again be a president for a Chronicle.

A HAIR-RAISING SIGHT. "Oh, what is that queer looking thing, mother? Pray, what can it ever he? I have pictures at home on he beasts that roam, And the tlsh in the deep, deep sea. "Oh, the quilled porcupine I have seen, mother, And the trrtble grizzly bear: Tlie sacred cow, and the winged: bow-wow, But nothing like this, Iswear. "I have looked on the google-eyed snipe, mother; Gazed' long at the Zulu chief. The Borneo wild, when he's good nnd riled, And fierce creatures beyond belief." "The 'If that you're looking at now, Willie, With the far-away vacant stare.

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Uadtr.l.ail Offaoj and Lost Vitality. NO 121 SOUTH aiaUN nTHiST.