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as Shakespeare's. Some singularly sweet and girlish speeches there are, too, such as: "He thinks girls are all thirteen. I guess some of us remain thirteen when we are quite old." But let not every Western girl who goes to New York expect such a summer. It is nice to read of but it doesn't happen so, at least, not often.

The book is by Edward W. Townsend. Henry Holt & Co., Publishers, New York. Price, $1.25.

A Comedy of Conscience.

The changes on the title of comedy seem to be rung frequently of late. Such title naturally tells somewhat of its own story, and this one in particular bubbles with humor that is even, at times, mirth. A favorite subject at present, the love affairs of persons who have passed their first youth, is one of the motives of this tale, and the difficulty with the conscience of the heroine gives a chance for some of that fine analysis of which the author is so able an expounder.

"A Comedy of Conscience," by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. The Century Co., publishers. Price, $1.00.

Scholarly as well

Of Graver as ethical is all the Import. work put forth by Dr. Adler, and the simplicity of his style often makes one forget how intense and abstruse are the subjects to which he invites the reader's attention. Whatever be the theme, there is always something uplifting in the writer's view of it, even when the reader differs with that view. One may not, in this volume, for instance, wholly agree with the ideas expressed on "Love and Marriage," since there seems to be too much stress laid on theoretic ethics and the practical working of such theories is not reckoned with. This essay, fine as it is, yet leaves one with the wish that the entire address of Dr. Adler on this subject had been given, for in that every word is golden. All of the subjects

of this little book are treated in paragraph, each of which offers an individual thought which may be considered separately as well as in connection with the rest.

"Life and Destiny," by Felix Adler. McClure, Phillips & Co. Price, $1.00. When Mr. Van How to Look Dyke says that at Pictures. Andrea del Sarto "knew how to fill space if not how to paint soul," he expresses what less competent judges have often wanted to say of Del Sarto and others, but dared not, mistrusting the accuracy of their criticism. Pictures, like music, do not always carry to the uninitiated the meaning intended by their creator, and the soul of a great canvas sometimes could be supplied only by such a title as the small boy wrote beneath the sketch he had made on his slate: "This is a cow." The meaning of pictures is sometimes hidden even from the wise, if it is not revealed to babes, and this little book will be instructive also to those who have thought they understood the fine significance of art in pictures. The chapters are compiled from lectures given for Columbia University at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

"The Meaning of Pictures," by John C. Van Dyke. Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers, New York. Price $1.25.

In a most attracReminiscences of tive way and a Statesman. pleasantly unlabored style, Sydney Whitman has put together his recollections and personal experiences with the Iron Chancellor, of whom it would seem so much has been written that there cannot remain more to write. The author of these memoirs has proved, however, that there are still things interesting to learn of the great Prince and his extended career. Not long ago the public was reading Bismarck's Love Letters, and it was noticeable then

(Victor Hugo's Love Letters were coming out about the same time) that there was an aspect of the German's character almost unsuspected, which would do the world good to know. Strange as it seemed, it was not the great Frenchman with his reputation as a poet who wrote the tenderest love letters, who showed the greatest solicitude in private life for those about him, but the stern Teuton, the wrestler with men and affairs. Mr. Whitman shows every appreciation of such

traits, as well as of many others in the man of whom he writes. He makes the home at Friedrichsruh as real as it is charming, while he draws the master of it in both his strength and weakness. The volume is brought out in convenient form, and most excellent print, and its 340 pages have not an uninteresting sentence.

"Personal Reminiscences of Prince Bismarck," by Sydney Whitman. D. Appleton & Co., Publishers, New York. Price, $1.60.

EDITORIAL DIGEST

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A Memorial and an Anniversary.

I'

T is with reverent appreciation of all that this magazine owes

to the efforts of one of the most earnest men this coast has ever seen that the presses are stayed on last days of publication of this issue in order to enable the Overland to pay tribute to the memory of its founder.

The news of the sudden death in the railway accident of June 21st, of Anton A. Roman, brings a shocked surprise to a sympathetic public, but it also takes on a personal aspect to those who are working in various ways upon the periodical which owes to the aged publisher its inception and establishment. It seems, moreover, a significant and pathetic fate that should make the July

number the one to record his death. It may be said that the July Overland could be always considered as an anniversary number since the birth of the periodical took place in this sunny month of mid-summer, a fitting period for any enterprise to be begun in the Golden West. Life is thought to be good to have, and the life of the Overland Monthly is no less full of hope, vigor and earnestness on this its thirty-fifth birthday, than it was when Mr. Roman asked of Bret

Anton Roman.

Harte the labor and co-operation necessary to make its first issue a success. Yet its founder has quickly followed its first editor to that bourne whence no tidings can be heard, and we say of these tireless workers: "They have passed away -for them life is over."

But not so their influence. There has been left, as a portion of the heritage which their best effort in life gave and still gives their fellows, the same incentive to thought,

and mental exertion, that was instilled by Mr. Roman into miners to whom he first began to to sell books, and that inspired him and induced Harte to venture this magazine, which has become so much a part of California as to be known and named simultaneously with it. Because he labored to offer to the minds of his contemporaries what other projectors offered to their material consideration, the work of Anton A. Roman will be forever remembered, even if monuments erected to deeds of arms crumble and perish; even if civic divisions should change and make of this new land a newer one; even if the city in which the work was carried on should be shaken from its foundations and disappear from the face of the earth, the names of Harte and Roman will need no tablets or monuments to preserve them. And while Mr. Roman was the first who credited the West with the desire for intellectual food, and the ability to assimilate it, with the capacity for appreciating the wealth of the mind as well as the riches of the earth, it is yet true that he saw it was best to present this food and wealth in form to suit the needs of the day. And in his contribution to the Overland Bret Harte Memorial Number of September last, speaking of his considering Bret Harte as an editor, he said: "I had some objections to Mr. Harte, for I feared he would be likely to lean too much towards the purely literary article," an objection that has often been made in the west through that same fear that the intellectual will not be appreciated. Yet yearly more and more strong mental work is turned out from the West, larger and larger are the number of readers, and Mr. Roman found that choosing Bret Harte for his editor established because of that writer's literary standards, the reputation of his

magazine. magazine. No section of the United

States has so profited by the reputation it has gained through the literary way in which it has been described, as has this same coast which the publisher of its first magazine thought at first would not read purely literary contributions. Yet he ventured, and succeeded.

Death, in claiming these men, Roman and Harte, has removed two examples of fearless energy in carrying out a work that promised to be unpopular, or at least not wholly approved by the public. They accomplished a great undertaking, and there is left the undying influence of their effort to advance the mental and intellectual as well as the material condition of the West, and that effort has been re-inforced by the work of others, by the establishment and generous endowment of universities, art schools, institutions of all kinds for the development of citizens, whose eager acceptance of opportunities shows their profound appreciation of all that is offered them.

That the end of Mr. Roman's days should have been so sudden and tragic is saddening, for, aged though he was, life was still precious and desirable. For the comfort of those near to him, it may be said as truly of the old as of the young, that "The child who enters life, comes not

With knowledge or intent,
So those who enter death must go
As little children sent.

Nothing is known, yet who believes.
That God is overhead,
Knows, as life is to the living,

So death is to the dead.

And for those who find encouragement in an example of courageous effort, there is in the life just closed an inspiration to persevere to the fulfillment of great purposes. FLORENCE JACKSON.

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