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SINOEL
OF
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UNIVERS
ITY OF
KIINNESOTA
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Twin Cities Campus
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Now
CHAT
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VOL . 1.
DECEMBER , 1896 .
Price:
Ten Cents
Dourra á Conr.
Ons
Year .
1
1942
6
クラ
aze
75
A
Monthly
Literary
Magazine
Edited
and
6
Publisbed
09
by
16
000
George
100
వారం
W.
Cable.
Symposium
ugoy
NO . 41 CENTER
STREET ,
NORTHAMPTON , MASSACHUSETTS.
Copyright, 1896 , by GEORGE W. CABLE.All rights reserved.
THE SYMPOSIUM.
VOL. 1. . No. 3 .
TERMS :
$ 1.00 A YEAR.
10 CENTS A COPY.
CONTENTS FOR DECEMBER , 1896 .
JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE .
OLD KING CHRISTMAS.
Frontispiece
CURTIS MAY
A Poem ,
.
CLIFTON JOHNSON
IN THE LAND OF LORNA DOONE,
87
88
With four illustrations from photographs by the author.
A Look up Doone Valley (p . 89) - The Old Bridge at the
Entrance to Doone Valley ( p. 91)-The Valley of the Lyn
(p. 92) - John Ridd's Water -slide (p. 93) .
SUSAN M. KETCHAM
95
RHODA HOLMES NICHOLLS ,
GEORGE W. CABLE
99
With two illustrations from photographs and an original
drawing by Mrs. Nicholls .-A Portrait (p . 95) The Conva
lescent, drawn by Mrs. Nicholls (p . 97 ) - Mrs. Rhoda
Holmes Nicholls ( p. 98 ).
A VISIT FROM BARRIE,
With one illustration from a photograph taken for this
magazine .----Mrs. J. M. Barrie (p . 100 ) .
VERSES FOR A CHILD,
GEORGIANA'S MOTHER .
FOLLY .
A Story,
A Poem ,
LES CHENEAUX ISLANDS .
A Poem ,
102
Zoe ANDERSON NORRIS
103
ARTHUR WILLIS COLTON
108
ARTHUR WILLIS COLTON
109
QUEEN - ESTHER'S CHRIS'MUS GIF '. A Story,
With one illustration by George Henry Clements .
ALICE GALE WOODBURY
III
A VISION . · A Poem ,
MAUDE LOUISE FULLER
115
AN OVERTURE.
MADELENE YALE WYNNE
116
MAUDE C. MURRAY -MILLER
118
MADELEINE WALLIN
119
A Sketch ,
MOTHER AND CHILD ,
A CHRISTMAS VALENTINE .
章
J. D. DASKAM
A Poem ,
EXTRACTS FROM A PLANTATION SKETCH-BOOK, George Henry CLEMENTS
I 20
With ten marginal pen- and-ink drawings by the author.
TO A ROSE IN A BOOK . A Poem , .
MAUDE LOUISE FULLER
I 22
A RAILROAD CUTTING AND ITS STORY,
HOWARD DICKINSON
1 22
GEORGE W. CABLE .
125
CHARLES E. WOODRUFF .
127
ADELENE Moffat
130
|
Illustrated .
DEPARTMENTS :
THOUGHTS AND VIEWS ,
Christmas Customs.- On the Wise Giving of Gifts.--- The
Choice of Gift Books .
IN THE FOREGROUND,
Have You Made Your will ?-A Cause Gained.--After
math . - The Moral Effect of Good Roads.
HOME AND NEIGHBOR,
A Fortunate Experiment.-- Its Growth .-- Some Features of
the Work .
ANNA GERTRUDE BREWSTER .
IN THE READING WORLD,
132
A NewWord for an Old Favorite, Viola Roseboro'.---Booksas
Gifts. SomeBooks about Scotland . - Suggested Readings.
TAIL PIECES,
'sChange of Luck; Marie Manning.Miss O'Shaughnessy
by Helen M. Cox .
135
Drawing
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THE SYMPOSIUM , 41 Center Street, Northampton , Mass.
1
In compliance with current
copyright law , the University
of Minnesota Bindery
produced this facsimile on
permanent-durable paper to
replace the irreparably
deteriorated original volume
owned by the University of
Minnesota Library. 2013
.
JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE.
THE SYMPOSIUM .
VOL. I.
DECEMBER ,
OLD
KING
1896 .
No. 3 .
CHRISTMAS .
THERE journeys yearly through the land
An old man , hale and jolly,
And in his firm and hearty hand
He bears a sprig of holly .
His eyes are bright with love and mirth ,
His lips are red with laughter;
And as he goes around the carth ,
Good wishes follow after .
When in the Saxon baron's hall
The Yule-log red was burning,
This old man through the chinky wall ,
Beheld the great spits turning .
And when the cowled monks in their cells
With frosty breath were singing ,
His spirit woke the pealing bells
Above the cloisters ringing .
Perchance, on kindly errand bent
In rough and boisterous weather,
He and the Wandering Jew have spent
A fleeting hour together.
If so , what words of hope and cheer ,
What tales of toil and danger,
Have started forth the slow , large tear
That long had been a stranger !
1
[Copyright, 1896, by George W. Cable. All rights reserved . ]
THE SYMPOSIUM .
88
Hail, old King Christmas ! What rare saint ,
Enshrined and kept with rigor,
From incense- odors pale and faint,
Can match thy healthful vigor ?
Let scepters fall , if Time but spare
Thy hand and all it blesses !
Let halos fade , so thou still wear
Thy crown of silver tresses !
Curtis May.
IN THE LAND OF LORNA DOONE .
ARLY one June I made a coaching which way it was going, the footman
tour along the coast of North played one of his little tunes on the
E
Devon .
It is a lonely region of long horn and the humbler conveyance
1
great hills and deep valleys, and the drew off by the roadside while we
railroad goes no farther than Minehead , dashed by.
in Somersetshire. There, in the afterOur first few miles lay through rich
noon , toward train time , many cabs ,
coaches, and other conveyances gather
at the edge of the station platform .
The most imposing of these vehicles
farm lowlands, but when we reached
Porlock the driver said we had a bit of
steep road ahead and asked the men of
the coach to walk . The name Por
on the day I left the train at Minehead
was a coach with four horses attached
and the name “ Lorna Doone" painted
in large letters on its rear. The coach
lock ” seemed like an echo from the
pages of Lorna Doone . It was from
this town that John Ridd's father set
out on the night of his fatal encounter
was in charge of an aristocratic - look- with the Doones , and it is often men
ing driver in buff uniform and a low tioned in Blackmore's story . After
black stovepipe hat , with a less elabo- leaving the town we began the ascent
rate footman for an assistant . My traps , of what proved to be a three - mile hill
along with a lot of others , were hustled -a climb of some fourteen hundred
The country on the way up
inside the Lorna Doone , and a moun- feet .
tainous pile of larger luggage was had turned to a barren heath of rolling
heaped up and strapped on top . Then hills that swept away southward as far
a ladder was set against the side of the as the eye could reach .
coach , the passengers climbed to their
places , the driver picked up his lines ,
the footman swung up to the rear seat
and merrily sounded a long horn , and
This barren
heath is Exmoor Forest . It is the
only region in England where the red
deer is still found wild , a reminder of
those rough times when the “ red
away we went with the horn repeating deer " were hunted by the Doones in
itself at intervals through the Minehead the intervals of less innocent expedi
streets .
tions , and of Annie's delicious cookery
Such a ride has a touch of romance of “ red deer collops," which captured
and power about it that thrills and the hearts of all men , -of the king's
inspires one .
We looked down on soldiers and of the counselor of the
everything and everybody . All the Doones alike . The Forest is still a
teams on the road gave way to us. famous hunting -ground and hundreds
When we sighted a vehicle , no matter of horsemen gather at the stag meets.
1
89
IN THE LAND OF LORNA DOONE.
1
Clifton Johnson
A LOOK UP DOONE VALLEY .
The wind blew a hurricane on this last few miles we looked down on
a
hilltop and we were all glad when , a white -capped sea with a few little ves
little farther on , we sighted a group of sels struggling along in it , while far
farm buildings and then drew up in across its level in the west the sun
the lee of a stone barn to change glared from among the clouds.
The
An old lady from the house coast was wild and high - cliffed, with
brought out tea and a platter of but- many bold headlands reaching out
horses .
tered bread , which the passengers sip- from the main .
ped and munched on the coach top .
Our road skirted a steep hillside that
The rest of the journey was nearly fell away almost from the wheel track
all downhill and much of the way we in a tremendous precipice to the surf
slipped along with a clog under the of the shore deep down below .
hind wheel .
called our
On
At one point the driver the heather heights we had crossed I
attention to a distant de- had been afraid the top- heavy coach
pression in the heath where a momentary gleam of sunshine from the
clouded sky touched with emerald a
fragment of woodland , and said there
lay Doone Valley . It was far inland
would be tipped over by the wind ;
now I feared it would get dumped
down the hillside by a jolt or a swing
round a turn in the road . At last we
slid down into the slippery shadows of
and this was the only glimpse of it we the trees in the valley , and across the
had that day, for the coach was bound stone arch of a bridge , - the horn
for two villages on the coast . In the sounded and there we were in Lyn
THE SYMPOSIUM .
90
mouth before a hotel and the passengers ens were picking about the kitchen .
were climbing down the ladder amid a Several small children, also in the
group of solicitous porters . After the kitchen , were quarreling in the uneasy
luggage had been tumbled off, an extra way of children with nothing to occupy
horse was hitched on and the coach them .
Two of the boys were declar
with its few remaining passengers ing stoutly that they were going to
climbed a steep zigzag up a great cliff church that evening (it was Sunday) ,
and a sister was harassing them by
Lynton and Lynmouth are twin vil- snapping out over and over again,
The
lages. Each is a snug hamlet of lodg " You beant , you beant."
ing- houses and hotels, and they are so mother had to threaten to " lick the
near together that you could throw a whole lot ” before they would stop
stone from Lynton's high perch down their religious controversy .
to Lynton high above.
When the sky lightened , I climbed
upon the roofs of the sister village .
Readers of Lorna Doone will remem- a steep hill, passed a little church
ber that it was about a mile to the west with a sun -dial on its southern gable ,
of Lynton , in “ The Valley of Rocks,” and went down into a deep valley .
that “ Mother Meldrum " made her Here was the noisy stream again and
winter home under the “ Devil's some ancient cottages . The cottages
Cheese -wring.”
had piles of turf near them .
One pile
I stopped in Lynmouth. The deep was about ten feet high and eight
green dell , with its huddle of houses square , and had a bit of thatch on
taking up every inch of available space , top . This pile was of the black , rooty
the great hills towering about, and surface turf called " spines,” with the
the streams that come rioting down heather clinging in it .
But spine turf
from the heights, are very charming . is getting scarce in the forest and the
9
The coast beyond the villages , too , is people mostly have to cut “ pit turf ”
very fine.
A path hewn in the hill- (peat) in the bogs .
side leads westerly and entices one on
There were sheep in many of the
and on . The cliffs fronting the sea fields along the road from Lynmouth
grow wilder as one proceeds , till they up .
They seemed to pick about even
rise mountain high in pinnacles of on the most rocky mountain sides .
splintered rock .
Often I met them in the highway and
The next morning was dull and then they would leap nimbly away up
misty , but here I was right on the bor- the hillside , or down , whichever was
They were of a
der of Lorna Doone's own country ; so more convenient .
I put on a rubber cape and started for horned variety and in their alert vigor
a walk up the valley . The road led and look of intelligence were very
up a vast, crooked glen , skirting, half- attractive .
Eight miles from Lynmouth I
way up , the sides of the big stony
mountains that towered all along. reached Malmsmead , a group of two
A stream foamed and roared in the or three small farmhouses , which lies
deep wooded ravine below and the directly at the entrance to the Doone
road on that side was guarded for Valley . The main highway continues
miles by a three- foot stone wall .
straight on and those who choose to
In time the road took a turn down visit the stronghold of the Doones
into a hollow where were several white- have to take a side road that soon
washed cottages .
It had been mist- dwindles to a lane and presently to a
ing all the time , but now the mist rude bridle path .
As the round trip
turned into rain , and I stepped into an is six miles, pony-back travelers are
open door for shelter and had a little common in the glen .
talk with a frowzy woman , who held
I found the valley opening south
a baby in her arms . A hen and chick- ward back among the high , wide sweep
THE OLD BRIDGE AT THE ENTRANCE TO DOONE VALLEY .
UM
THE SYMPOSI
92
.
of the hills . The slopes were some- a little wood of scrubby oak whose
times partly wooded , but in the main branches are strangely twisted and
were
of dull olive-brown
heather. mossy .
The stream here is a succes
Two hundred years ago, when Johnsion of pools, and slides down green
Ridd's mother came here after the mossed terraces of rock .
In the story
murder of her husband , she found her- the boy John Ridd nearly loses his
self “ at the head of a deep green life climbing up the slippery sides .
valley , carved from out the mountains
But here , in real nature , there is
in a perfect oval , with a fence of sheer nothing that need have kept him from
rock standing round it , eighty feet or
a hundred high ; from whose brink
black , wooded hills swept up to the
skyline .” Then , as now , in the hollow
was
· Bagworthy Water ” fretting
along its stony course . This stream
picking his way along the banks, though
there are certain shoulders and ledges
of rocks that push out from the hill.
At a certain point I crept under one
of these ledges to get out of the rain
and the drip of the trees . There was
runs “ into the Lynn about two miles nothing “ jagged, black and terrible "
below · Plover's Barrows ' and makes a about it or about any of them . Yet in
real river of it. ”
a way the spot was very satisfactory .
Nature only gave Mr. Blackmore The germ of it all was here , and trees
hints, his imagination filled in the re- and rocks and banks had a moss-grown ,
There is here no wild glen
with a precipice-guarded entrance . At
the spot where the entrance to the
Doone stronghold should be is a wide
mainder.
lichened look of age full of mysterious
suggestion. I went a mile up the
lonely valley, beyond the water- slide,
and on this whole, hilly, water- soaked
stream —a modest trout brook — that heath saw not even a sheep. I kept
tumbles down a rocky hollow through on until I came to the end of the ra
vine, where can be still dis
cerned a few low , grass-grown
ruins of walls that were once
“ Fourteen
the Doone huts .
huts my mother counted , all
very much of a pattern and
nothing to choose between
them , unless it were the
captain's ," says John Ridd in
describing the den .
towards the
close
Here
of
the
seventeenth century lived this
old band of outlaws.
Tradi
tions of their terrible strength
and cruelty still linger in the
neighborhood . In the end a
particularly fiendish act of
theirs roused the country to
exterminate the entire nest
of vipers."
It is pleasant to
fancy , while on the spot , that
John Ridd was the leader of
the attack and to feel that he
ordered the burning of these
Clifton Johnson
huts so that " not even one
was left , but all made potash
THE VALLEY OF THE LYN .
in the river,”
:
IN THE LAND OF LORNA DOONE .
93
Cliften lokinson
JOHN RIDD'S WATER - SLIDE .
The afternoon was far spent when
I again reached Lynmouth .
The next morning I went again to
I had linger about the little valley where the
tramped nearly twenty -four miles and Doones made their home . Late in the
was footsore and tired , but the bell of day I returned to Malmsmead and
a little chapel hard by attracted me
to evening service . I did not learn of
what denomination the chapel was , but
its members were called “ The Brethren . ”
It was a tiny place with seats
for fifty persons and nearly all the seats
filled .
There
looked more particularly about the
tiny hamlet . By the riverside was a
woman kneeling on the stones , washing.
There had been a pig- killing at one of
the farms and when I spoke with the
woman she informed me casually that
no organ . she was washing out the insides " of
Some man in the pews would start the the late pig , and I thought of Jude's
were
was
tune and then the congregation would first meeting with Arabella , in “ Jude
join in and begin to get up .
The the Obscure .”
Herdaughter was com
hymns were long and there was a ing down soon to help carry up the
chorus to every verse .
tub . Just above this worker was a
The preacher was a bushy -headed, pretty double-arched stone bridge that
uncultured man whose talk was shal- the road climbed over as if it had been
low , wordy , and emotional , yet most a little hill . The woman said she lived
of his listeners seemed interested . One in the thatched farmhouse nearest this
small boy went to sleep and a young bridge .
woman behind him amused herself by
Not caring to walk back to Lyn
pulling sprouts of hair from the back mouth I arranged with her for lodg
of his head till he awoke .
ings.
The thick -walled , tile - floored
THE SYMPOSIUM .
94
kitchen was the living room of the ing after a storm the shepherds go
family, and for the rest of the day it out and poke around with a stick in the
was there I spent most of my time. spots where the snow is deep and dig
Aside from the fireplace, half filled up out the sheep with shovels.
The same
with a modern grate, the chief feature practice prevailed in John Ridd's time
of the room was a heavy plank table and gave that severe test of even his
that ran nearly the full length of one mighty strength in the great snow
At the back was a storm of 1685 .
Usually they find
long seat fastened against the wall . them under the shelter of a hedge ,
side of the room .
On the room side of the table was a where they have gone for protection and
ten - foot bench of home manufacture have been drifted under.
with great wide- spreading legs at each
On Exmoor Forest , when a
end .
snow
I sat on this bench to do some storm threatens, the shepherds drive
writing . Opposite me were seated two the sheep to the hilltops, where the
small red - headed girls who could just snow will blow off. It is the drifts that
manage to get their elbows on the are dangerous.
Part of the time they kept a
table .
Mowing among these Doone valleys
silent watch of me, part of the time is all done by hand . The mowers
looked at a group of callers — friends of start their work about three or four
the family-chatting with their mother o'clock in the morning . By ten the
on the other side of the room , and all dew is dried off and they stop mowing,
the time they nibbled their fingers.
spread their swaths and attend to the
My excellent breakfast the next hay cut the day before . After the hay
morning included Devonshire cream . is turned and dried it is loaded on the
Devonshire cream is a famous delicacy two -wheeled carts and stacked into
in England ; why is it not made in ricks in a corner of the meadows .
America ?
Here is the process : When Toward six o'clock in theafternoon the
the woman of the house finished milk- men begin mowing again and keep at
ing
she put the milk in some great it till ten , or, in good weather, some
earthen pans .
In them it stood till times till after midnight .
The partly
the following morning, when she put dried hay that is to be kept out over
the pans on the fire and let the milk night is raked up in little “ rackrolls,
scald . After that the pans were set or, if it looks rainy, is stacked in
away for another day and then skim- “ pooks."
med .
The result was " Devonshire "
A laborer's daily wage on the farms
cream , and no one who has tasted it can here is two shillings and his “
forget its dainty sweetness .
mate , "
It is eaten which is the Devon word for food . In
as a sort of sauce with bread , usually the long summer days a man can earn
accompanied by jam or marmalade .
a half crown (about sixty cents) or
I find myself tempted to dwell on the
household life of these simple people of
the Doone's country, but I must not go
too far aside . The family kept two
three shillings (seventy- two cents) and
his “ mate. The rent paid for first
rate land in that region is from three
to four pounds an acre .
sheep dogs.
Such dogs are not taxed
Toward noon I started down the val
‫ور‬
in England . On “ fancy " dogs there
rate of seven -and - sixpence , but
collies are workers—necessary members
of society . Sheep are kept out in the
pastures the year round , but in winter
they have to be fed somewhat , with
hay and oats , or, in snowy weather,
with turnips .
ley and left Malmsmead and the Doone
country behind , but not the memory
of them . In its story interest , in its
picturesque scenery, and in the glimpses
of life I caught among its people I no
where in England found a region more
enjoyable.
Clifton Johnson .
If any sheep are miss
1
o
MRS. RHODA HOLMES NICHOLLS .
INCE Miriam sang and Deborah von Steinbach appears , with such genius
8
judged and Anna prophesied , in sculpture that , although a young
woman's ability has challenged girl , much of the ornamentation of the
recognition .
Strasburg Cathedral was intrusted to
Of women artists Kora of Corinth her, by the architect and builder, her
seems to head the list .
She assisted
father .
Two of these groups were
her father in modeling clay vases , allegorical , representing the Christian
which she filled with flowers, placing Church , and the Jewish . The former
them on shelves in front of the dwell- consisted of figures of noble dignity ,
ing, where passers- by purchased each and gentle grace, each carrying the
day's out - put . But her title to honor cross in one hand and the consecrated
was in sketching with charcoal the fine host in the other. In the latter , each
profile of her Greek lover , as his shadow figure, with downcast eyes and droop
fell on the wall .
This was afterwards ing head, held a broken arrow and the
filled in with clay and modeled—the shattered tables of the Law .
first bas-relief.
In
1741 Angelica
Kauffman ap
Temerata, a painter, followed , whose peared , of whom Raphael Mungo said ,
picture of Diana Pliny saw at Ephesus ; “ As an artist she is the pride of the
and Helena, whose battle piece com- female sex , in all times and in all na
memorating Alexander's victory over tions. Nothing is wanting ; compo
Darius is supposed to be the original sition , coloring, fancy, all are here ."
of the Pompeiian Mosaic .
Down the line of centuries Sabina
Goethe's somewhat modified praise was,
" The good Angelica has a most
IUM
POS
THE SYM
96
.
remarkable and , for a woman , a really painting all she saw, and spending
unheard of talent. "
much
time
on horseback, hunting,
Mme . Vigée Le Brun and Rosa with her brothers, the wild game of the
Bonheur brought the light of genius desert . At the close of that period she
down to our own time .
returned to England , enriched in body
Mrs. Rhoda Holmes Nicholls was and mind and with a wealth of can
born in Coventry, England , only vases .
Mrs. Nicholls ' pictures had already
received recognition , being hung on
the line in the Royal Academy Ex
hibitions . Later she went again to
Venice , where she met her future hus
band , an American artist . At the be
c
daughter of the Rev. George Holmes,
graduate of Oxford , and vicar of Little Hampton—a fashionable watering
place . From a scholarly father and a
mother enjoying all the refinements of
polite society , the daughter inherited
"
intellectuality and a cultured taste . ginning of the following year they were
Childhood and girlhood were devoted married in England , and immediately
to study , vocal and instrumental music set sail for America .
and art being added to the usual school-
Here her rank was at
once
rec
ing. Graduating with honor, she entered one of the schools of Kensington
Museum . Though with no thought
of a professional career, at the end
of the first year she was winner of the
ognized . Honors have fallen plenti
fully upon her.
She has received
medals at the World's Fair, Chicago ,
and in New York and Boston , as well
as in the art centers of Europe .
Queen's prize (sixty pounds a year for
The first characteristics of this artist's
three years), to which the queen added work are strength , accurate knowledge ,
ten pounds in token of high approval . sure intention , and vigor of expression .
Yet the young artist presently sacrificed What she has to express she sets forth
this prize to study in Italy, attracted unhesitatingly with clearness and vim .
by the joyous color of the south .
In There is always great charm in her
Venice she studied landscape painting color ; it is pure , vibrating, strong, and
with Vertunin , and , with Camerano, yet refined . She is master of all
the human figure.
Evenings were mediums, though doubtless best known
spent with the Circolo Artistico, a club
of professional artists gathered from
every civilized country , and representing Dutch, Spanish , German , Italian,
French , and English schools .
by her water-colors ,
reproduction in the
Art Amateur, and
Her
and papers .
because of wide
Art Interchange,
other magazines
highest honors ,
This however, have been won with oil
was the most profitable period of Mrs.
Nicholls' study—an era in her life .
Marguerite , queen of Italy, seeing the
brilliant work of this young artist , sent
for her and complimented her highly
illustration , though she makes no spe
cialty of it . With Childe Hassam and
on both her talent and attainment .
F. Hopkinson Smith , she illustrated
paintings , and oils are the medium she
prefers .
Mrs. Nicholls has done considerable
After three years Mrs. Nicholls went Mr.Howells ' Venetian Life for Hough
to South Africa , where her two brothers ton , Mifflin & Co.
Her wide range of
owned an ostrich farm of twenty - five subjects is remarkable, —the dancing
thousand acres , said to be the largest waters of the lagoon , marble palaces,
Here she spent a twelve- haughty Kaffirs, wide stretches of
in the world .
month , enchanted with the picturesque, desert, ostriches, English gardens,
low dwelling, arched doorways and sunny hedgerows, flowers in still - life ,
courts ; with the strange , wild crea- monks, nuns , monasteries, courts , and
tures , natives of the desert ; with the fountains .
Her manner of treatment
immeasurable stretch of gray sand , is always serious and dignified.
However, her favorite subjects, these
and with the blue lines of mountains ;
.
1
4
Nicholls
Holmes
Drawn
Rhoda
by.
CONVALESCENT.
THE
nicholes
Holmes
Rheda
1
y
UM
OSI
P
THE SYM
98
.
latter days, are her little son and when darkness has blotted out all
daughter. These she has caught “ on color, and her children are happy in
the wing ” -in sunshine and shadow , the land of Nod , Mrs. Nicholls finds
asleep or at play , with fair, flowing refreshment in books .
While she cares
hair, fine features , and dainty limbs, little for society she does not ignore
its kindly offices.
and with grace in every line .
Mrs. Nicholls is vice- president of the
Mrs. Nicholls lives on West 50th
street, New York , in one of the old- New York Water- Color Club, member
time mansions where sunshine can flood of the Women's Art Club of New
the place . The top floor is given up to York , and also of Canada , member of
MRS . RHODA HOLMES NICHOLLS.
her own studio and that of her pupils . the Aquarelle Club of Rome , Italy , of
Below is the home, and the galleries the XIXth Century Club of New York ,
of pictures , and museum of curios . and of the Barnard Club . She is below
This artist “ looketh well to the ways medium height , of slender build , and
of her household , and eateth not the in her bearing shows a winning, un
bread of idleness ."
Her pupils are conscious dignity .
To the beauty of
legion and come from far and near. youth there is added that charm and
Many of them are already teachers of grace which comes only with earnest
art .
At the “ far ends of tired days,” life and serious work .
Susan M. Ketcham .
A VISIT FROM
BARRIE .
SUPPOSE no statement needs less a stage in our cultivation as a race and
1
support of argument than that the as a people, where there is a wide
production of literature in these spread desire to enrich and perfect in
days is a democratic influence of al- our own spirits a fellowship , a fraternal
most unsurpassed power.
Especially intimacy, as far-reaching as a lively and
do the better novels plead constantly loving imaginative realization of con
and effectually with their innumerable ditions of life will let us ; and when
readers , for the widening of human men like Hardy , Meredith , Caine,
kindness and of fraternal justice and
sympathy from every rank of life
and degree of fortune to every other
below and above it . Scarce any other
influence proves itself so strong to keep
our hearts warm and open to brothers
and sisters beyond our sight and reach .
I doubt even if any one will deny that
Watson , and Barrie help us on toward
this happy achievement , turning into
the tenderest and most rewarding
brotherhood a remote cousinship to
men and women whose outward guise
we
w never saw , we are not satisfied
with owning their books or giving
them the legal justice of copyright ; we
the novels of the day , the masterly love them , we long to know and see
ones , are promoting international am- them , we covet and rejoice in their
ity. Certainly the fact is plain as to the personal companionship.
This is answer enough-if, indeed ,
English - speaking races, and I believe
that to be without those revealing and no answer at all were not still better
endearing pictures of their particular to a certain great daily journal that
countrymen's traits, characters, and thinks “ there is something mysteri
conditions which Americans , Northernous about the uproar which has been
and Southern , and Britons, English raised over Mr. Barrie ." There is no
and Scotch , are making, would be a uproar, and there ought not to be any
most untimely lack , a positive mis- mystery in the matter to any one with
fortune . As Dr. Nichol implied at enough human feeling to understand
the dinner lately given to Mr. Barrie one of the happiest tendencies of the
and him in New York by the Aldine times.
Club, the writings of such men have
It was the present writer's good for
made it more painful to Americans tune to have Mr. and Mrs. Barrie as
and Englishmen to disagree than it guests for three days about a week
would be without them .
after their arrival in America on this,
In this matter our British cousins their first visit to our shores . I do not
have somewhat the better of us, and a regard the eagerness with which our
familiar theme is the remarkable hold reading world pursues every revelation
the present day English and Scotch of the private personality — appear
novelists of the first rank—with little
or no design or expectation - have
acquired on the regard and genuine
affection of our vast American reading
public . We actually love the authors
of “ Lorna Doone,” of “ Tess," of
“ Diana of the Crossways, " of
of ““ BeBe-
ance , habits , methods of work , pas
times, etc . , -of distinguished writers
as a merely idle and unworthy curios
ity. Its universality is proof enough
to the contrary .
If it has its excesses,
it has also its good side and commend
able
able meanings.
meanings. Yet I cannot begin to
side the Bonnie Brier Bush ," and of give to the printer my experiences with
“ The Little Minister ” and “ Senti- one so retiring as Mr. Barrie, without a
mental Tommy.” We have come to prayer to be delivered from any word
THE SYMPOSIUM .
100
1
MRS . J. M. BARRIE .
1
that may disturb his alınost intense neither studied nor languorous.
His
reserve .
voice is soft in tone and I do not re
I had never seen Mr. Barrie until I
met him at the train which brought
him to Northampton in company with
Mrs. Barrie and his friend Dr. W.
Robertson Nichol , the famous Scotchman and literary critic , editor of the
member that in my three days of con
stant intercourse with him it ever rose
to a high note. His mirth lies deep
below the surface , kept , like a choice
wine , for moments of choice intimacy ;
but then it flows as pure and fine as
London British Quarterly and early an honest boy's .
His slow smile is
discoverer of both Barrie and Watson . never far off, and , when surprised by
In
the author of “ A
Window
in some sudden call for a pointed utter
Thrums, " I found a smallish , sedate , ance, the flash of his wit is as bright as
reticent man of a breadth and square- it is kind .
When I told him that his
ness of brow that would claim the noted unwillingness to speak to an
attention of any passing stranger. assemblage would not prevent his being
His shoulders, too , were square and solicited to address our nine hundred
sturdy, his eye pensive, and his hands students of Smith College he said
prone to seek his pockets for rest and they would not hear him if he spoke ;
hiding, while he let his fellow travelers that the only time he ever did speak to
order matters as seemed to them best . an audience certain persons cried,“ We
When he spoke , his words came in can't hear you ! We can't hear you !
slow procession as though he were
" What did you do ? " I inquired ,
writing them , and yet with an effect and he answered in his slow , gentle
A VISIT FROM BARRIE .
manner, “ I told them that in that
ΙΟΙ
One of the finest influences in true
case they were getting much the best literature is the sentiment and attitude
of it . "
of unselfishness which it requires in the
I doubt if any one , in those three author and promotes in the reader.
days to me so filled with pleasure, This influence begins to be seen in im
had any revealing converse with Mr. partially written history ; it shows
Barrie as to his views on the literary stronger in faithful biography ; but its
art or his methods of writing. To me beautiful power rises toward its high
he was simply a quiet , sun -lit , incar- est degree in fiction .
Say , if you
nated holiday . We planted an elm choose , that the author writes for a
together at * Tarryawhile ” between livelihood and the reader reads for his
Felix
Adler's
hemlock -spruce and pleasure ; for all that, it calls forth to
Conan Doyle's maple . We drove , all
of us, through the Old Hadley meadows
and village , crossing the Connecticut
on a bridge, and re -crossing, at Hatfield , on
a
SCOW .
ward human life actually fictitious but
speculatively real , an attitude of the
affections and sympathies which meets
the supreme demand of that true reli
It was the most gion which is the art of living.
I
royal week of royal October, and no mean—to quote another Scotchman
other man from either side of the the attitude that regards all nature as
Atlantic have I ever seen drink deeper means of life , and all humanity and
delight from the colors of our Autumn each and every individual of the race
landscape . " It is not the yellows, as an end . The eye with which we
we look upon our fellow man as a means
he more than once exclaimed ,
have those on the other side; it's the to our ends is ignoble and evil .
reds , that fill me with wonder. "
To
make him as truly and wholly as our
With all his shyness — if I may use self an end for which we strive , this ,
that word-one does not see in Mr. and nothing less , is to love our neigh
Barrie any disrelish for the society bor as ourself .
Now , when we read
either of men , women , or children .
Yet take him aside—with his brier- root
pipe_into some woodland path by
glade or brookside , and you shall see
bliss in his face and feel it thrill in his
quiet speech . I am of the notion that
human sympathy is so strong in him
a story- teller's tales this , in emotion
and sentiment at least, is what we do .
We read for our pleasure ; but our
pleasure, if we analyze it , is the sweet
freedom of transferring our interest , for
the time being, from self to lives and
fates outside our own .
as to be a burden , a freight too heavy
This explains to me the impression
for a light heart , or at least for a light- Mr. Barrie makes by his presence and
He loves nature as a companionship . I have known men
Scotchman should ; and yet I am sure —men of goodness and value, all of
hearted habit .
he no more over-exalts her in his affec- whose ends were supposably praise
tions than did Robert Burns . Certain worthy—whose whole presence reeked
it is that nothing during his stay in with the suggestion that they looked
beautiful Northampton so drew him upon you and me and everyone they
out of himself and made him a delight- came
near
as
means to their ends .
ful and confessed surprise to his wife In Mr. Barrie's presence this effect is
and Scottish friend and fellow- traveler, totally absent .
as the fair population of Smith College .
The conspiracy that drew him step by
step to the point of “ speaking in
chapel,” and doing things on the ropes
of the gymnasium, was one of the most
permanently satisfactory crimes the
‫ܙܙ‬
present writer ever had a hand in .
You are sure he is no
more asking himself how he may utilize
you than he is trying to thrust himself
into your use . With a regard for
your liberty nothing less than reveren
tial , he has no more impulse to sub
ordinate you to any pleasure or
purpose of his than of unworthily sub
102
THE SYMPOSIUM .
ordinating himself to yours .
do we say ?
But what author of “ The Manxman " comes on
Are we describing a cer- his noble errand of recasting the laws
tain actual man's personality, or giving of copyright, and asking of us no re
our conception of an ideal story -teller? ward but to understand his errand .
We are doing both in one
But we are touched in a new way and
And this aspect of the Scotch novel- after a manner at least as tender and
ist's personality I see repeated in the uplifting when one comes to us simply
nature of his visit to our country. We to eat and drink and grasp hands with
are glad when his fellow Britons appear
in seven -league boots stepping along
and across the land from platform to
platform ; we are more than glad , we
are great , and grateful , gainers . We
us, to see not the world - wonders of our
land but the beauty and grace of its
common aspects, coming as undesign
edly as a cousin would come to see his
cousins , because he is theirs and they
are rejoiced and inspired, when the are his.
George W. Cable.
VERSES FOR A CHILD .
I.
He slips and slips and slips away ,
I touched his arm — and he was gone !
We lived out under the pear tree ,
We dined upon tarts and cream ,
I married vou there , for ever,
But, dear, ' twas only a dream !
We sailed away in the branches
To countries strange and new ,
For we owned estates in Dreamland ,
I cannot see his face , can you ?
What wall can that be painted on ?
Because they say he is not real ,
They say he's but a flattened form ;
But nay , I don't believe it's true ,
I touched his arm , and it was warm .
But , sweetheart it isn't true !
Right through the wall he slips and
sinks ,
We made a church in the pear tree ,
Where the angels came to sing,
The room behind, you know , is
We stroked their wings—but , dearest , Whatmine
can. he want there in the dark ?
You mustn't believe a thing !
He never makes a sound or sign .
We cut our names in the tree trunk ,
So the bark could never grow .
He never goes there in the day ,
Only at night, right after tea .
And the Dryad cried ! -But , my dar And then I go to bed , you know
,
ling ,
And then he runs ahead of me .
' Twas none of it really so !
II .
If you should hold my hand quite
close ,
If you and I should join our hands
And creep along quite still with me ,
And go at night soft through the hall , We'd make a sudden jump — but no !
I wonder, could we hope to catch
That shadow sliding from the wall ?
For -- we might touch him , then ,
you see !
J. D. Daskam .
GEORGIANA'S MOTHER .
HE was only a gaunt , raw-boned stove , “ but if I kin help it Georgiana
8
Western woman who mouthed shan't work a lick ! ”
She shook a white Swiss dress of
frightfully while she talked the
twangiest of Western twang; but she Georgiana's out of the clothes basket,
was more interesting to me than Geor- where it had been sprinkled down , and ,
giana herself. We called her “ Geor- lifting it tenderly, fitted it over the
o
giana's mother ” because everything on ironing -board, leaving the waist hang
the place seemed to belong exclusively ing limply to the floor.
She spread a
to Georgiana . It was Georgiana's cat , newspaper on the floor for fear of soil
Georgiana's pet canary , and Geor- ing the sleeves . The dress was a mass
giana's pug dog.
Georgiana's mother was wiry and
wrinkled . Her pioneer life still clung
to her , and she told blood - curdling
tales of Indian warfare before the country was settled . She had had so many
narrow escapes from being scalped that
I looked upon her with awe , and often
of lace and ruffles.
Georgiana shall be a lady , if I have
anything to do with it, ” she went on ,
beginning to use a fresh iron . Geor
giana was at that moment dangling in
a hammock outside under the trees .
I could hear the creak of the ropes as
she swung to and fro . “ And talkin '
suppressed an inclination to pull her about hard work , I guess I know a thing
iron -gray locks to see if they were or two about that . We wus the first
really attached . Still , it was not so settlers to come to Kansas . We lived
much her thrilling power of narrative in a dugout for years and years. You
that attracted me as her intense tiger- don't know what it is to live in a dug
like mother love forGeorgiana. Geor- out, do you ? Well , you don't want
giana was her idol , her queen , and she to know . It ain't nice . Many and
salaamed before her, offering her wor- many a time, the rattlesnakes has
ship far more fervent than that of the dropped down from the ceilin' right on
most devout heathen who prostrates to our bed . One time , I come home
himself in the presence of his squat an' found one in the door to the dug
out a rattlin ' an'a hissin ' as if he owned
china image .
I wondered how it would be if the place . My old man had to kill
Georgiana ever married , and I some- him with his shotgun .
times fell to pitying the poor fellow
“ Shotguns come in mighty handy
who would some day find himself con- them days,” she said , changing her
fronted with this savage old mother- iron again , “ what with the rattle
1
in - law .
She was my nearest neighbor .
snakes an ' the Indians .
I don't know
She which was worse , but I believe I prefer
never went anywhere , she said , but the rattlesnakes a leetle .
They allus
she finally came to see me because I let you know when they wus goin ' to
was just across the fence , and she found
it difficult to ignore so near a neigh-
She did all the work , the cooking, ironing, washing, and scrubbing.
" I've bin used to hard work all my
life ,” she said when I returned her visit
one day in June and found her ironing Georgiana's dresses over a red hot
bor .
strike. "
“ Do you remember the grasshopper
year ? ” I asked .
“ Remember it ? well , I reckon I do !
Them grasshoppers went through
everything I had . My clo'es was all
out on the line , an ' when they left,
there wa’n't no clo'es, an ' no line ; all et
}
104
THE SYMPOSIUM .
completely up. An ' my little garden
a comin ' up so fine an ' green like, there
wa'n't nothin' left of that but the dirt
it wus planted in , no radishes , no
onions , no nothin' . I nat'rally sat
down an ' cried when I saw that garden .
I'd put it all in myself . My ole man
ain't worth shucks when it comes to
doin ' anything about the place , or doin '
anything at all for that matter ; not
that I want to run him down , he's good
enough in his way , but he's allus bin
kinder delicate or something."
She seemed unable to get out of the
no new ones.
Sometimes their folks
back East sent them out a box of cast
off clo'es , an ' sometimes they didn't ;
oftenest they didn't . Some of them
women got so homesick , they jest died
of it , that's all there wus of it. They
might fool themselves callin ' it malaria ,
but they couldn't fool me . An ' when
they died , we buried them out on the
prairie , and the buffaloes stamped out
their graves, so's you couldn't tell
where they'd bin . There wus plenty
of buffaloes them days , though you
couldn't skeer up the ghost of one
rut of the old man and his attainments now .
I'll tell you , pioneer life ain't
1
what it's cracked up to be , not by a
or non- attainments, so I helped her.
" I wonder you are alive, with your long shot . It's hard , awful hard . If
Indians and rattlesnakes and grass- I had it to do over I'd starve in the
East before I'd come West agin .
hoppers ," I said .
I've
with
“ O yes, we lived through it some- had about enough of ' growin ' up man
,
She slipped Georgiana's dress the country ,' myself. My old
how . "
over the board , the ruffles and lace now
ironed without a wrinkle , and hung it
carefully on the clothes - horse. “ An'
now an' then we managed to have a
pretty good time."
now , was jest crazy to go to the Strip
when it opened , but if ever I set my
foot down, I set it down then . · No,
sir, ' says I , ' I've had enough of pioneer
life in mine, I don't want no more of it . '
She put a tucked and ruffled skirt of
Georgiana's on the board as she talked .
The week's washing, like everything
else , seemed to belong to Georgiana.
The clothes -horse was full of her dainty
things , and I could still see laces and
hamburg edgings peeping from the
Because you see it's like this ; pioneer
life's harder on women than ' tis on
men . Look at me, now ; a hard
worked , broken - down woman before
my time, fit for nothin' but to drudge,
drudge , drudge from mornin ' till
night.
great clothes basket under the ironing
She pulled the skirt from the ironing
“ We used to go to dances board as carefully as if it had been
twenty miles away and back before sun- Georgiana herself, and held it up for
up .
You wouldn't believe that hardly inspection . There was no crease to be
board .
now , would you ? but it was a fact .
seen .
She smiled, well satisfied, and
Twenty miles wa'n't no ride at all.” hung it on a hook in the wall , for the
(She said “ a - tall . " )
" Our nearest clothes -horse would hold no more .
neighbor lived that far away , an ' you
" That's the reason ," she concluded ,
could see the light in his window at night . “ I say , if I have anything to do with
I know you'll think that's one of my it , Georgiana shall be a lady ; she
yarns, but it ain't . It's gospel truth shan't be no drudge."
as I'm standin ' here .
You could see
As I rose to go , " Come into the
mighty fur them days when there parlor," she said , “ an' look at Geor
Lots of nice people giana's paintin '. "
wa'n't no timber.
came West them times to take up
She pulled up the blind and showed
You could get ' em for nothin' me a chocolate set spread out on a
you know , an' they wa'n't worth much little table which was covered with
claims .
after you got ' em .
You could allus linen doilies worked in the daintiest of
tell jest how long the people had bin Mexican patterns . The chocolate set
here from their clo'es . They never got was painted in violets . She looked
1
GEORGIANA'S MOTHER .
anxiously into my eyes for approval of
Georgiana's work .
“ It is very beautiful," I said , and
the look which transfigured the pathet-
105
had been so careful to keep white, she
was gone , her big trunks following in
the baggage -wagon, filled to the brim
with her " things " ; and her mother
ically wrinkled face was a sufficient rested from her labors with a wistful
reward for the polite fib . “ Yes," she look of yearning in her hard , bright
said smilingly , “ I think Georgiana eyes .
does mighty well for the chances she's
o
had . If the crops is good this year,
we're goin ' to send her to Chicago , her
father an ' me , to learn paintin ' .
Georgiana's mother always dragged
her father in as an important factor ,
though he was about as complete a
nonentity as the cat ; but that was part
when the snows, banking the streets ,
kept other friends away , I grew a little
tired of hearing about Georgiana. Now
that her mother was no longer able to
wash and iron her clothes, she brought
her hemstitching and sat with me by
of her pride .
the hour.
It was late in August when she
called to me over the fence that they ,
the father and herself, were going to
send Georgiana to Chicago sure enough .
“ The crop's bin middlin ' good , good
as it ever is in Kansas , and Georgiana
wants to go . I want she should have
hemstitching that she might add to the
beauty of the girl's clothing. The
delicate work looked out of place in
her bony fingers.
Through that long, cold winter,
She had taught herself this
Georgiana's paintin' such beauti
ful things now ," she said ; " she's
paintin ' a flowerpot, she calls it a Jar
all the advantages we kin give her. I jar.”
ain't never had none myself, goodness
Jardiniere ,” I suggested .
knows. I've allus bin a Kansas JayThat's it ," she said . " Some new
hawker, an'allus will be , I suppose , fangled thing, I guess . But she says
but my Georgiana shan't be like her it's awful fine and big . I guess it must
old mother .
To think of her havin ' be , too , it costs a dollar every time it's
that talent for paintin '! I'm sure I fired — is that what you call it - fired ? ”
don't know wherever she gits it .
" Yes, " I answered .
“ She says it's going to be her chef
never could draw a straight line myself.
I'm bound an' determined she shall --wait a minit . I've got her letter
have a chance in the world if it takes right here in my pocket.
She always
the last rag off myback ! ” Her rugged carried Georgiana's letters about as if
old face was radiant when I looked up they were love letters .
" You can
from the morning -glory vines I was read that word better'n I kin pro
training , but in an instant she was gone nounce it.”
with a hurried “ but I must be gittin '
Chef d'euvre ,' I read . " . That
her things ready . '
means her masterpiece."
1 .
You should have seen the line for
“ Yes, I guess that's what it is—her
the next three days . I marveled at so masterpiece," she said , folding the
much dainty lingerie, such lace - be- letter carefully . “ Anyway, it's about
trimmed dresses , such transparent or- the biggest thing she's done yet ; all
gandies ; for her mother was not rich , double roses , an ' tintin ' an ' frescoin ' .
she was not even in what one would She's takin' orders right along now ,
call “ good circumstances.
It was, she says."
This was a surprise to me ,
perhaps , as she said , that “ she would but it accounted somewhat for a change
take the last rag off her back for in Georgiana's manner of living which
Georgiana.”
showed now and then in her letters .
At last she was off, this Georgiana . She had moved into a more stylish
The hack came for her in style , and boarding house , the one selected by
waving her little hands that her mother her mother was so very ordinary .
THE SYMPOSIUM .
106
There was very little difference in the “ an ' they're mostly farmers' wives .
price , she said . She could easily make It's the wind ," she continued in a
up that difference with the money she whisper that made my flesh creep.
received from her orders .
Really it “ Howlin ' an ' howlin ' like some livin '
was wonderful . The idea of this little thing, an ' the lonesome prairies
Kansas girl going up to Chicago and stretchin' to meet the sky . How
taking orders!
would you like to live where you
We talked it over privately , my hus- couldn't see nothin' but prairies an'
band and I , and came to the conclu- sky ? You'd find it mighty lone
sion that some ancient grandmother of some, I kin tell you . I've bin there ,
Georgiana's must have painted tapestries , and her talent , skipping generations, like insanity , had cropped out
in Georgiana's “ china paintin ’.”
an ' I know . It takes a mighty strong
minded woman to stand it , an' some
times I think that's the reason there
ain't any but strong minded women
When I could listen no longer to the left in Kansas . All the others died or
accounts of the girl's marvelous pro- went to the asylum . Think of listenin '
gress I introduced the subject of cy- to the wolves howlin ' night after
clones. The old woman was great on night , in a dugout all by yourself ; be
cyclones .
cause a man kin allus find a place to
" I've bin in nearly every cyclone go to see another man
in Kansas, ” she was wont to assert , howlin ' wilderness .
“ an' that's sayin ' a good deal .
seem to kind of foller me around .
even
in a
I tell you these
They prairies is cruel , they've cost many a
I'm woman her life or her senses."
Then , dropping her needlework of
When I hear a noise like judg- dainty ruffles and sitting awhile with
ment day, and Gabriel blowin' his folded hands, thinking over the old
gittin' so I ain't skeered of 'em any
more .
trumpet for all the dead to rise , I prairie life with its hardships when even
don't pay no ' tention . Sometimes I the good Lord had seemed to have a
go down in the cyclone cellar, an' " grudge agin her," she would take it
sometimes I don't .
It's jest as the up again and begin afresh
about
notion takes me. I believe I'm cyclone Georgiana .
proof. Some funny things do happen
Thus the winter passed . Early in
in cyclones though . Now that one at the spring, Georgiana's mother came to
Towanda . I can't help thinkin ' some- me with a puckered brow . She held
times of that feller that was blown a letter in her hand .
away jest as he was tellin ' his sweetheart
“ See here , Georgiana's comin '
good - by at the door. "
home ,
an ' she wants that I should stain the
“ I've often thought of that myself," floors. She says everybody in Chi
said I , “ and wondered if he hadn't cago's got hard-wood floors, an' if
grown tired of her, and just took that we can't have ' em we must have the
opportunity . "
next best thing, an ' that's stained
“ Mebbe so," she said , “ mebbe so , floors.
Now how on earth do you do
but ' tain't likely .
Mor'n likely his it ? "
bones is bleachin ' somewheres out on
I hunted
up a receipt for stained
the prairie , an ' the coyotes has eaten floors and gave it to her. Then I lost
all the flesh off long before this. The sight of her for days. One morning
girl's lost her mind , I hear, but that's she appeared at the back fence.
nothin ' uncommon for a Kansas “ Come over," she said , triumphantly .
woman . ”
I went over and there was the house
said I had heard there were more metamorphosed. The worn carpet
women than men in the Kansas had disappeared , and the floors were
asylums .
stained a rich , dark brown . A few
“ That's true enough ,” she said , pretty rugs were scattered about , and
GEORGIANA'S MOTHER .
sheer Swiss curtains gave a charming
effect of freshness to the rooms .
107
But by and by , from a garrulous old
I woman , she suddenly grew to be a
told her so .
silent one , like a clock with a broken
“ It does pretty well,” she said with spring. There were no more gaily
some show of pride , “ but wait till colored reminiscences of pioneer life
china ; with its somber background of toma
hawks ; there was no more talk of cy
In due time Georgiana arrived , and clones, where the wind cut such capers ,
Georgiana
comes with her
that'll set it off.”
her china followed in a great wooden thrusting straws through the great
box .
I was called in to admire it . bodies of the cottonwood trees , and
Her “ chef d'euvre," the jardiniere , sat leaving the chickens stripped of all
in state on an onyx table before the their feathers in the path of the hurri
front window . It held a palm pro- cane. Instead , she sat with her bony
cured from the greenhouse on short hands folded in her lap . There were
notice .
no more little ruffles of hemstitching
It was indeed a beautiful thing. It between her fingers. I fancied that
was hard to realize that this little her work had not been sufficiently
Western girl had developed such talent dainty for Georgiana's advanced ideas.
It was impossible Perhaps she had found those ruffles
in so short a time .
to say whether the artistic touches had unused at the bottom of one of the
been put on by her teacher, but there big trunks. It was pathetic to see
was a certain chic about her work that those busy fingers idle, and to know
commanded admiration . A flower here , that the brain was all the more busy
a bit of scroll work there, had produced with some knotty problem of life that
exquisite effects.
looked wistfully out of the half - shut
But Georgiana had more chic than eyes .
When I asked after Georgiana , she
her china . I had never before seen so
much style in the little town , such im- answered in a desultory way , and then
mensity of sleeve , such amplitude of spoke of something else or dropped
skirt ! She quite overwhelmed me , and into silence .
dwarfed her surroundings. Dainty as
In a few months , the house was sold ,
her mother had made the house , it was and she moved into another part of the
not dainty enough for the girl's beauty. town , where I seldom saw her. When
She looked like some rare hothouse I did meet her, she had the appear
flower set in a tin can in the window of ance , I thought , of slowly descending
in the scale of fortune .
a hut .
Her dress,
Her eyes had a look of dissatisfac- always neat , grew shabby gradually,
tion with her surroundings, and also, I and showed
thought , of contempt for the awkward places .
too careful darning in
She seemed to have lost her
angularities of the gaunt woman who old energy to do battle with life , or she
was carrying out her plan of making a
With all her style , perhaps because lady of Georgiana if it took the last
of it , Georgiana did not " take " in rag off her back . I wondered at the
so humbly worshiped her.
the little town .
The girls held aloof heartlessness of the girl .
from her, and the boys seemed afraid
of appearing countrified in the presence
of so elegant a creature . So , with the
coming of the first fall months , she
My inclina
tion was to offer her help , but there
was still a look in the eyes of the proud
old Kansan who had fought Indians
and rattlesnakes , that forbade such an
offer ,
flitted back to the city .
“ There wa'n't nothin' she could do
The winter passed into spring, and
in this little town, " her mother ex- spring into summer again , and I had
plained , “ an' she can make her way almost forgotten Georgiana's mother
in the city, takin ' orders ."
in the absorption of another interest
108
THE SYMPOSIUM .
that had come into my life , -- a chubby
“ Why, Mrs. Smithers ! ”
I cried ,
stranger with eyes like his father's, - rushing to her with outstretched hands,
when, walking along a shady street with “ is this you ? Have you been ill ?
a friend , wheeling this precious bundle and how is Georgiana? ”
in his perambulator, I met her.
Her upturned face , from wistfulness ,
At first I did not recognize her. The turned to a kind of white despair, and,
erectness of carriage which she had pre- covering its misery with her poor,
served through her years of hard work hard -knuckled hands , she turned and
had degenerated to stooping shoulders , moved away as if she had not seen me
and her step , formerly light and swift or heard my questionings.
as a girl's, was reduced to a slow walk
Then I noticed that she was dressed
which spoke of tardy recovery from from head to foot in black , and that a
recent illness .
She turned a face to threadbare black veil hung limply from
me from which all the old healthy tan her shabby bonnet .
of her life on the prairies in the wind
What on earth is the matter ? ” I
and storms had fled . It was bleached asked . " Is Georgiana dead ? "
white , and furrowed with infinitesimal
" Worse than dead, " she answered
lines , while under her eyes the baggy pushing the baby- buggy back and forth
skin was shrunken as if she had wept to quiet the child , who was beginning
to cry , “ worse than dead ."
the fountain of tears dry .
Zoe Anderson Norris .
1
1
FOLLY .
BLITHE little maid with lifted lips ,
Red as a bunch of holly ,
What , may I hold your finger tips ,
Dear little sweetheart, Folly ?
List to a whisper in your ear,
Pink little ear , dear Folly :
While you were gone some one was here ,
The Lady Melancholy .
Yes , and she sat in your old place ,
This Lady Melancholy .
Ah, well , but she had a lovely face ;
Will you sip from her glass , sweet Folly ?
Arthur Willis Colton .
LES CHENEAUX
ISLANDS .
THERE is a wistful , lingering regret
Ever for those whose feet are set
In other ways than where their childhood moved ,
And having loved
The old colonial hills , no level fields,
No grand primeval forest the same comfort yields ;
By the northern lakes I stand unsatisfied ,
Watching the lurking shadows start and slide ,
Hearing the listless waves among the stones,
And the low tones
Of a breeze that through the hemlock creeps .
Veiled in gray ashes sleeps
The camp fire, and thin streams
Of beckoning smoke float off like dreams
Of peaceful men ; around me broods
A sense of wooded solitudes ,
Of lonely places , where
Cold winds have torn blue midnight air ,
Or dipped beneath the edges of the leaves
To moons unchronicled .
We bring
The talk of cities and of schools ,
Yet , to these quiet pools ,
Calm with a thousand silent morns and eves ,
It seems no alien thing .
The stars , whose bright eyes glisten ,
Lean down and listen ,
And the deep , earnest shadows of the wood
Are brothers to our mood .
Nor more in green , unvisited retreats
Is Nature than in crowded streets
And libraries with long rows of mouldering thought ;
And the same message shall he hear ,
Who leans a patient and an eager ear
In ways of meditative feet unsought ;
In some deep breathing hour shall feel
The richness of the brown earth steal
Into his spirit , and reveal
Primeval truths of growth and birth ,
That we , the kindred on the earth ,
Are kindred with her, to one issue moving on
Of melancholy night or shimmering dawn .
6
Yet the fire of the future is in our souls ,
Our hands shall shape and our courage save ;
We shall mount with Nature from grave to grave ;
God's law is a sea that lifts and rolls ,
And we ride on the crest of the wave .
How many years soft- winged have flown
Since to the island tribes, alone ,
Cross clasped in hand and pale face set ,
Came the great Jesuit , Père Marquette ?
A sombre people they , the damp
THE SYMPOSIUM .
IIO
Of dead leaves in their blood ,
And the eager priest into their solitude
And melancholy mood
Flashed like a shining lamp ;
Out of the east , where mornings rise ,
Came like the morning into ashen skies,
With the east's subtle fire and surprise .
His words are mist , but the gaunt form stands
With gleaming eyes and trembling hands ,
And the hot wind comes from a burning soul
Whose banners are lifted and armies wait .
The world moves on to the front , it says ,
And the word hath come after many days :
Ye shall walk no more in your ancient ways.
Father, the word hath come and gone ,
And torpid souls still slumber on .
Is all then vanity ' neath the sun ?
Dear patient Earth , across whose face
The restless generations pace
Finding their graves regretfully ,
Is there no crown , nor any worth ,
That men should toil to build , O Earth ,
What Time treads down forgetfully ?
Dark , calm , and cool the broad earth lies,
Bright , calm , and cool the broad blue skies :
Their orders are silent trust, but here
In the human heart is written clear
The law that knows not far or near,
Self - sacrifice .
From dark through dusk toward light we tread
On the thorn - crowned foreheads of the dead .
The law says not , there is nothing lost ;
It only says that the end is gain .
The gain may be at the helpless cost
Of many hands that give in vain ,
And in this world , where many give ,
None gives the widow's mite , save he
That , having but one life to live ,
Gives that one life so utterly .
Ah , now it seems that life might be
One seaward gliding stream , and we
In ships go down it peacefully .
But then we know that there will come
Once more the myriad voices , like the hum
Of bees in murmuring summer days
And call us back to tangled ways ,
And know that a man's life can hardly be
Arthur Willis Colton .
One river moving to one sea .
C
Lit with the fire the Titan stole ,
And proud with the pride of kings' commands.
Lo ! an edict here from the throne of Fate ,
QUEEN- ESTHER'S CHRIS'MUS GIF '.
" JOOKS like dish yer washin ' goes hunt you fuh to git runned , nuther, '
mighty slow ,” said Aunt Mahaley added Aunt Mahaley . “ I ain't got er
reflectively, as she prodded the nickel to buy no " Chris’mus 't all !
boiling clothes with the end of a Folks whut owes me fuh cleanin ' up
broom handle . " I cayn't wuk to- las' week , ain't pay me yit . Some
mor-r, sho ! an' I cayn't finish dish time's hit looks like de big white folks
yer to-day, an' dat kine o' doin's ain't ain't got no mo' money'n po' folks.
gwine bring me in no money to buy Leastways dey don't pay po' folks de
money whut's comin ' to ' em .'
de chillun a Chris'mus."
Mammy , I wish hit's like hit uz
Mammy - aw Mammy," called
' Rastus, from without. Aunt Mahaley been when you wuz a li'll’gal," said
slowly opened the cabin door, and Queen -Esther, crouching on the floor
looked forth , while the steam from near the fire, and holding out her small
the washing within enveloped her head claw- like hands toward the warmth .
" Um - m -m ! ” mumbled ' Rastus, set
like a cloud .
“ Ain't tomor- r Chris’mus , Mam- tling down on the other side of the
my ? " asked ' Rastus.
stove .
“ Hit seems like I fa'rly kin
“ Ain't tomor- r Chris'mus? ” he re- smell dat ham er fryin ' , an ' dem roas'
sweet ' taters , an ' de whole bobbycue,
“ Hit sholy an ," sighed his mother, -um -m -m ! "
resuming her work .
G’long, boy ! Dey ain't no bobby
peated .
Presently through the half-open cue 'roun ' Chris'mus. How dey gwine
door, and up to Aunt Mahaley's side, bobbycue an' de yeath froze stiff ? ”
crept a little figure shawled in the said Aunt Mahaley.
remnant of a pieced bed quilt. It
' Rastus ignored the question .
was Queen - Esther, Aunt Mahaley's
youngest .
“ When you uz a li'll ' gal , Mammy,
what Santer-Cloze brought you fuh
Mammy,” she said plaintively, y'all's Chris’mus ? '
" ain't we gwine have no Chris'mus,
“ Dellaw ! How I gwine ' membuh
sho nuff ? ' Rastus say we ain't.”
what he done brought , plumb ' tel now ?
" Ef dat ' Rastus done gone up'n I know mighty well he never brung me
town an ' projic roun ', ” said Aunt no stick , fuh my ole mammy to paddle
Mahaley , “ ' stead o' dev'lin ' wid dat me wid ; but I ain't sho efn he ain't
po' trash out yondeh , he'd git to hole gwine bring one roun' hyere dis Chris'
hosses , er run airrons [errands] .
But mus.”
' Rastus looked conscious and
he's des ez triflin ' an ' no 'count
" I done been up'n town,
his
inter- mother continued : “ We-all use tuh
posed 'Rastus in the door , _ “ I done have er fine time ketchin' Chris'mus
been up'n town an ' ever'body's a- gif' ' on ole Marst’r an Mars' Jone, an'
walkin' .
Nobody ain't
ridin' .
I de white chillun .
Den , of co’se , dey
all'd give us sump'n — money -- an '
reckon dish yer's hosses' Chris'mus."
“ De hosses sholy ain't comin ' an ' candy-an ' li'll’tricks dat way. Ole
run dey heads plumb into yo' han's, Mars' Santer- Cloze he ain't fool roun '
de quahters much . He spen ' his time
to git you to hole 'em ."
“ Well, dey ain't no airrons , er mos’ly wid de white chillun's stock
>
in's .
-An ' de airrons ain't gwine to
" Yo' reckon Santer- Cloze ' ll come
nuthin ' ! "
THE SYMPOSIUM .
I 12
QUEEN-ESTHER GAZED IN ADMIRATION .
dish yer way ? ” asked Queen- Esther, ' Chris’mus gif' ' sassy-like but sez it
with wondering eyes. Queen - Esther sof' , like yuh ve’y mo'nful ; caze big
had been sickly since her birth , and white folks allus likes to see po ' chillun
was only just beginning to grow strong mighty glad on Chris'mus, an ' efn dey
and to run about with the other chil- ain't glad—de mos' of folks 's gwine
dren in the alley .
give ' em er nickel - er sump'n , sho ;
( 6
' No , honey, ole Mist ' Santer-Cloze speshully efn dey's cryin '."
don't come to no po ' folks' house ,
" Huccomeyo ' know all dat? " asked
" less'n some big white folks sen's him . Queen -Esther, having had previous
1
An ' he ain't comin' hyere, sho , caze experiences of her brother's false doc
dey ain't no mo ' lef ' o' ou ' fambly, trines.
Caze I done tried de two ways .
an ' dey ain't nobody lef' whut keers
' bouten we - all .
Dish yer's gwineter l’ze tried bein ' glad , an' I’ze tried
be a po' Chris'mus — fuh fac' ; but des cryin ' , an' I know hit's de cryin' whut
same , yo' mammy gwine thank de brings de mos' nickels.
“ Tomor -r I gwine bring you out ,
blessed Lawd fuh takin' off dat sick-
ness fum her baby . Dat sholy is er good an ' stan ' you ' cross in de big lot
Chris'mus gif' if we ain't git no mo' ! ” yonnuh , close by de sidewalk, whar
' Rastus had sauntered out into the de big white folks goes by to chu'ch ;
yard again , where the sun now shone an ' yo'gwine ac' ve'y mo'nful, an ' say,
cheerfully upon the bricks . Queen- Chris'mus gif' , ' like you gwine cry de
Esther followed him .
nex ' bref. ”
white folks," said ' Rastus .
“ Whut white folks? ” queried his
sister .
“ You say I ain't ? ”
“ No, you ain't. Mammy'd t'ar up
de yeath !
But she gwine like it
“ De white folks whut goes by to mighty much , all same, when you po'
chu'ch . Dey allus goes to chu'ch en de nickels in her han ' like dey's black
Chris'mus . An' dey's mighty sho to ber -rs."
give yuh er nickel , efn yuh don't holler
Queen - Esther's eyes glistened at the
o
“ Hit'll be a mighty po' Chris'mus,
Queen- Esther gazed in admiration .
fuh fac '," she said , echoing her mother.
“ Yuh ain't gwine tell Mammy nuth
“ We kin git Chris'mus gif' on de in' bouten it , nuther," he added .
QUEEN - ESTHER'S CHRIS'MUS GIF '.
113
thought. “ We-all gwine give Mammy of Queen-Esther climbing back over
the hill to her former stand .
a s'prise-Chris'mus ; ain't we? "
“ Let's catch her napping ! just for
“ We sho is, " said ' Rastus . He had
laid his plans skillfully, and he looked fun ,” said one of them with eyes full of
forward to a harvest of small change fun , and , before the child could speak,
that would personally enable him to cried out to her, “ Christmas gift !
indulge in all the " Christmas "
he
might desire .
The next moment they were lost to
sight among the adjacent houses .
Little Queen- Esther could hear their
Christmas morning was bright and footsteps growing fainter and fainter,
warm .
At the first sound of the church until they at last died quite away .
0
bells , ' Rastus and Queen - Esther, hand- Then she called in tears, “ Aw 'Ras
in-hand , sauntered down the alley into tus ! "
the adjacent street , and took their
' Rastus quickly made his appear
stand in a vacant corner lot near the ance .
sidewalk .
" A lady done
“ Now you mine whut I tell yuh ," on me des now . "
admonished ' Rastus, posing his sister .
"
“ You say “ Chris'mus gif , ' an ' you
“
say hit mo'nful . An ' you make out An '
like you gwine cry er time er two.
“
got Chris'mus gif"
Whut kine er lady ? ”
Er white lady , same's de balance .
dey all gone off up de street."
I done tole you to watch out ! ”
I'm gwine off roun ' by de alley , an ' said 'Rastus, looking earnestly up and
watch out dat Mammy don't fine out ; down the thoroughfare for more be
caze hit won't do to spile dat s'prise , lated church - goers; but such as he
nohow ."
saw conveyed no moneyed possibilities
A small hillock rose between ' Rastus to his covetous soul , so he returned to
and the spot where he had left Queen- his crestfallen sister.
Esther, but occasional cat - calls and
“ Come awn , " he said . “ I gwine
bird -like sounds reassured her of his up yon’ ' n see efn I cayn't git Chris’mus
proximity.
gif' on de gen'men by de pos’- office.
The bells began to toll, —and as the You gwon home , an' mine you don't
church -goers,
fresh
from
pleasant tell Mammy nuthin ' bouten de s'prise .
homes and with the laugh of happy Whut yo' cryin ' fuh ? ” For Queen
children ringing in their ears , passed Esther was quietly weeping, her face
the lot, a pathetic little voice greeted gathered in a most pitiful pucker.
them with the familiar words , “ Chris'-
" Whut yo ' cryin' fuh ? ” repeated
mus gif'.”
' Rastus , irritated .
' Rastus had not planned in vain .
“ Wh -wh - ut I g -gwine - givede la-dy
The nickels and pennies were plentiful , fuh Chris'mus gif' ? ” sobbed Queen
and as the bells ceased tolling, and Esther.
even the stragglers grew scarce , Queen“ Whuh — whut? ” stammered 'Ras
Esther ran gleefully to her brother, tus, hardly able to believe his own ears .
and handed him her gathered treas- “ Who ?-you ? Yo' ain't gwine give
ure .
de lady nuthin ' !
Whut you gwine
Dish give de lady sump'n fuh ? You reckon
yer ain't de end ! Dey's mo' com- big white folks gwine take Chris'mus
in ' , sho ! caze dey's some folks whut's gif' off'n po' folks like we-all ? Yo '
Gwon back—gwon · back !
allus late to chu'ch . You bettuh watch sholy is gittin ' biggety ! '
out ! ”
“ I gwine give de lady Christ'mus
As ' Rastus and Queen- Esther talked , gif ,” said Queen- Esther, firmly wip
two young girls came rapidly down the ing away her tears . " I sholy am
street, toward the vacant lot. As they gwine ter; caze she done cotch me,
turned a corner they caught a glimpse same's as I cotch de res' er de folks.”
THE SYMPOSIUM .
114
' Rastus thanked his stars that the
“ I'm afraid you want it-don't
money was safely in his pockets, and you ? Are you quite sure you don't
after administering a few more words want it ? ”
of warning and advice , he resorted to
“ Dat don't make no mannuy dif
funce, " replied Queen- Esther. " You
jeers, and finally disappeared .
.
Queen - Esther sat down upon a stone , done cotch me fa'r, an ' I'ze bleeged to
and pondered . She realized that ' Ras- ' bide by de ketchin '."
tus had vanished with the money , and
" Well, I shall prize it very much ,"
it was doubtful if he would return
before night . Her obligation to the
young lady stared her in the face ; for
she saw no reason why, after being fairly
caught , she should fail to respond ,
any more than the white people , who
had smilingly given her nickels as they
said the surprised and embarrassed
young woman as she carefully stowed
the lamb away in her muff. Then
she hurried on with her companion .
The gait and carriage of the retreat
ing Queen- Esther would have indicated
a depth of sorrow , had the two girls
passed , in response to her “ Chris'mus looked behind them ; but they were
gif' . "
Was there nothing in the world hastening to reach a point beyond the
child's hearing, where a laugh would
that she could give?
Suddenly her face brightened .
“ I be safe .
kin give de lady my candy lamb," she
“ It's a shame to laugh , " said one ,
“ Caze I’ze bleeged sobering. “ It's positively lovely !
to give her sump'n .” Then she sprang And the other thought so too , although
said to herself .
up joyfully and ran across the street she called the lamb a back number .
and up the alley to her home .
" Perhaps she hasn't had any Christ
Aunt Mahaley was away somewhere, mas , " said the first. “ I really believe
recounting Christmas recollections and she hasn't , she looked so forlorn . I'm
neighborhood gossip with friends. going home and fix up a Christmas
Queen - Esther climbed upon a chair, box. And the two girls quickened
and soon had the lamb in the skirt of their pace .
her dress , carrying it tenderly . It was
It was nearly dark .
no longer pure white, this lamb , its
The gas lamps
lengthy residence on a shelf had gained were being lighted in the street. Aunt
for it the tints of the household smoke. Mahaley had given Queen -Esther her
Yet this did not lessen its value in supper, and the child had crawled ,
Queen- Esther's eyes . She once more silent and sad , to her pallet , and cried
reached the vacant lot, and sitting herself to sleep.
Aunt Mahaley was singing as she
down on a stone , near the walk, gazed busied
herself about the cabin : upon the lamb tenderly, and kissed it.
It was her sole treasure .
Presently the sidewalks were again
filled with people , returning from
church . A few noticed the child with
a pleasant smile.
" Whar we gwine
When we leave dis weary sho ' ?
Wha- r we g- wi - n -e
When de
"
A loud rap put an end to the song.
stepping down upon the sidewalk , held shoulder.
out the candy lamb, saying : “ I'ze
Howdy , Aunt Mahaley ! ” he said
got de Chris'mus gif' fuh y '-all."
in a cheery but somewhat superior
The two maidens exchanged hurried tone .
How you fine yo’se'f dis
glances.
Then one asked : “ Do you Chris'mus? "
“ Po’ly, thank yuh , Jim. Won't yuh
mean this for me? ”
" Y -yass'm .
walk in ? "
o
After a time Queen -Esther saw those Aunt Mahaley opened the door. Jim ,
for whom she watched , approaching. Colonel Cary's driver, stood on the
As they came nearer she arose and , step , holding a large box upon his
A VISION .
No'm , thank yuh .
My Miss
Ethel send me down wid dish yer box
fuh yo' li'll’gal . Leastways she sayd
it uż fuh dat chile whut live down by
Brick- Alley , who uz mighty clean
115
key ! and a ham ! soon cured her fright
and presently she was rushing about
from one thing to another in wild
delight , exclaiming : co Ole Mist '
Santer-Cloze sholy did come! ”
lookin' but she ain't strong ; an' I
And when ' Rastus — who had been
dat uz yo ' chile , Aunt absent all day-appeared, first at the
window , and then in the doorway ,
Mahaley."
knowed
“ Dellaw !” exclaimed Aunt Maha- Aunt Mahaley was too overjoyed in
ley, throwing up her hands .
“ Huc- Queen- Esther's
happiness
to scold
come Miss Ethel spen' time stedyin' him ; so he smiled blandly, and said :
bouten my Queen ? ”
“ Mammy , dish yer's er s'prise
But Jim had hurried off, whistling. Chris'mus , fuh fac ! Hit sho am !
Hit
Aunt Mahaley shook Queen- Esther better not be anymo's'prise dan what
to awaken her until the child shrieked hit already is ! "
in terror .
Then , unseen , he
But the sight of her mother helped himself to a paper bag of candy,
unpacking dolls — and wagons ! —and and smiled again . When he fell asleep
candy !-and - oh joy ! -another new the smile was still on his face.
candy lamb ! -- not to mention a tur
Alice Gale Woodbury.
A VISION .
Last night , dear love, I dreamed you stood
Within a place where flowers were all in bloom .
The moonlight fell upon your face ,
Then turned to silver all the garden's gloom .
The lilies bent to touch your gown
And claim you for their stainless sisterhood ,
The pansies whispered tenderest thoughts,
The violets murmured you were kind and good .
One flower alone in that fair place
Was mute for joy no language could impart ;
Dear love , it was my crimson rose
That laid its weary head against your heart .
Maude Louise Fuller .
AN OVERTURE .
By the author of “ The Little Room ," etc.
HANK you , sir !
That
No , you need not seem to be proclaimingmyself as such ,
hold your umbrella over me . I unintentionally . I suppose it is my
am quite sheltered by this awn- own valuation of myself that sets the
pace . Whatever and wherever I am ,
ing.
Yes, it does seem like a clearing up I am the cheap man , —that is , as to pay .
shower. Not a bad rhythm , is there, I often have the honor to be called in
to the drops as they fall on that tin valuable . It seems to please my em
gutter up there ? that is, if one can ployers to say when they pay me,
judge by the circling foam coming out which they do with a friendly smile ,
of the pipe ; quite a valse fantastique, “ You must stay with us, we find you
Somehow that always
a sort of piquant addition to the classic invaluable.”
j
musical programme we have just heard . pleases one , though it has its humorous
Yes , I agree with you , it was fine in its side . Once I tried to get at the
formal quality , perhaps not quite the financial value of my invaluability , and
best of the season , but fine.
asked for a rise in my salary, but I
Oh yes , I suppose I might be called
musical in a certain way , though my
sort may not be justly classified under
that head .
You see , my calling takes
found that " invaluable " meant invalu
able at that price. I modestly judge
that the estimate is a true one . And
besides that , I stay where I am for my
me to the source of some of it .
own reasons .
I am
As I said before, I am
in a violin shop.
Very interesting in- always at the shop early in the morn
deed , certainly it is , so interesting that ing, so that I manage to get certain of
I get down there every morning before my duties done and I can spend the
sunrise, and that makes it pretty early fifteen minutes of first sunlight near
in summer.
I make it a rule to be the east window .
The firm is an im
there at least half an hour before sun- porting one as well as a manufacturing
rise ; and we have the good fortune to one.
They import violins , cellos , and
have a window that catches the sun all bass viols, but mostly violins .
The
the year round . In fact it runs round main room is shaped like a capital T ,
the corner and fronts at once east and the upper left hand being where the
We have the sun for fifteen
minutes at least every morning. I am
a clerk , on a small salary ; mybusiness
is to keep the violins strung up and in
tune .
Queer business that, for me ,
south .
east window is, but the whole room ,
even the upright of the T , is lit up by
reflection , when the sun shines. The
fact is , I ought to tell you that I have
a perquisite that compensates me for
for you may have noticed that I am my small pay.
deaf ; I have been reading what you you know.
Every man to his taste ,
My privilege is to be the
say from your lips ; you have the good sole occupant of the shop for the few
fortune, for me, to stand where the minutes that the sun shines in at the
window . It is not a stated privilege ,
As I am the clerk with the smallest but it chances so .
light is in your face .
There are many thousands of violins
all the odds and ends of work fall to in the shop ; they hang tier over tier in
my share. Naturally the cheap man rack compartments built through the
is the hardest worked ; and I am middle of the room .
On the side walls
essentially and by special gift a cheap near the window hang the curiously
man . It is curious how quickly the shaped ones ; old Italian violins with
world spots the cheap man .
I always carved heads, cherubs mostly, with
o
salary , above the office boy , of course
1
AN OVERTURE .
117
some freaks as to shape . Then there only knows how many hearts it kept
are collections from certain periods or from breaking, both under the blue
countries , and some instruments made and the gray jackets .
Sometimes I get tired of people ,
of peculiar woods , ebony- headed , or
wonderfully inlaid . Freaks , I call them , but never of violins. When the sun
but it is a matter of dress rather than shines in at the window at the
upper
of soul . And in the little cemetery, part of the T- shaped room , it is a
as I call it , all the violins lie in little revelation ; it is heaven . It is light
coffin -like boxes . Some of the best made celestial . First , the primal light ;
voices are laid away in them , waiting then this light is taken up and reflected
for a resurrection .
G
But I bore you .
by thousands of lesser bodies , reflected
I forget , when I back and forth from violin to violin ,
am talking about my world , that the
dwellers in other spheres are not as
much interested as I am . Really ?
Thank you , then I will go on , till the
from outer gleam to inner glow , till
there is a palpitating stream of glory .
Not a corner but becomes an eddying
spot for the undulating amber and
shower lets up .
gold waves, while the worlds of light
The nobility of my world live in that we call dust float rhythmically
glass cases , as befits their high estate . within the stream . And the sound ! -Beautiful beings , they are , so aristo- Yes , I expected you to question that ;
cratic in line and color , so perfect in I am afraid I may not be able to ex
proportion , so noble in breeding . I press it to you, but I somehow thought
find all violins interesting, but there is you would catch the idea . I tell you
a world of difference between the that in this vast world of sound , where
peasantry and the nobility. Of course every vibration hasitcadence or rhythm
you understand my meaning ; “ A --in all this world , there is no sound
violin is a violin for a' that , and a' that touches the height and depth and
that . ”
It is only when it reaches per- the very center of musical beauty that
fection , in the violin world , that it is reached by the response of those
becomes a noble .
The matter as to thousands of violins played upon by
where it was born then becomes inter- the sun's rays.
esting for the first time.
I stated it
Yes , I am deaf, “ stone deaf, ” as the
rather strongly when I said all violins
are interesting ; I should say violins
are interesting in all their manifestations . There are whole strata of the
ignorant phrase is—as if a stone were
with any certainty to be called deaf !
Who knows! I am deaf, and yet I can
tune violins, and I have a memory of
commonplace sort, with nothing par- sound that is recalled by sight, when I
ticularly amiss , and nothing freakish ; hear the orchestra play . In a sense I
just like people with no individuality ; see the music, and that is a great pleas
made from a pattern , they come in sets ure ; but that is nothing, nothing to
or by bulk , or in streaks.
Some instruments are
C
by association .
the music that I hear when the sun
interesting strikes the violins .
I am a cheap man ,
I should like some- and deaf, and out of the flood - tide of
time to show you one of that kind ; it human affairs. Yet — well , you know,
really ought to have its biography I suppose it sounds selfish , but my
written , poor little flat, loose-grained , compensation is almost more than I
yellow thing.
It went through the can bear - when God himself plays the
war, the War of the Rebellion , you Overture just for one deaf, old , cheap
know .
It was made in a prison , with man to hear.
Thank you , no !
I do
a jackknife . There's a whole history not need any umbrella . Good night, sir,
in its homely little body, but the Lord good night!
Madelene Yale Wynne.
!
MOTHER AND CHILD .
ERBERT SPENCER has said : “ Al- glory is not in never falling, but in
ways remember that to educate rising every time we fall."
HE
rightly is not a simple and easy
Perhaps the first thing to teach a
thing, but a complex and extremely child is obedience — and it can easily
difficult thing ; the hardest task that be taught if the mother is always posi
devolves upon adult life. ”
tive in her statements and firm in her
Some one once remarked that as discipline. A child should not be told
God could not be everywhere, he it cannot do a thing and then be al
made mothers . They carry the larg- lowed to do it ; much less should a
est burden of responsibility , for it is mother allow herself to be coaxed and
they who must set the leading example teased into a thing.
If crying will
which they wish their children to fol- carry a point , a very young child will
low .
Children , we know , are great soon learn it , and themother's wishes or
imitators , and if mothers will watch commands will amount to nothing.
their children they will often see themAfter obedience , truthfulness ranks
selves in miniature-in speech , lan- in importance , and the mother should
Is it not very teach the child that this should be
necessary then to guard themselves in highly regarded in the most trilling
She can the more easily
matters .
all things ?
guage , and actions .
Many mothers of to-day are clamor- accomplish this by excusing the child
ing for wider fields of usefulness.
Can for a slight misdemeanor, but always
a field be wider , or more important, punishing a falsehood . Honor and
than that one inclosed within the four truth go hand in hand , and should be
walls of
the home ?
The ordinary the very foundation walls of character.
duties of everyday life may not seem It is a singular fact that children of the
heroic, but they afford opportunities noblest and best parentage will be as
for gigantic results .
In childhood untruthful and dishonest as those of
the mind is so impressionable that
ideas are grasped quickly and retained
almost indefinitely, so the mothers will
find their tasks easier then than after
the most debased if they are not taught
the horrors of lying and stealing, and
the mother makes a mistake who sup
poses her own child will be free from
the almost indefinable line between those faults because of her own ir
childhood and youth has been passed. reproachable character .
The conscientious mother will begin
To teach a child methodical habits ;
to mold her child's character as soon and orderliness, no way is better than
after its birth as she finds will over- to require it always to put away its
coming impulse, and that is almost as toys after it is through playing with
soon as the little one can distinguish them , and to brush and place its clothes
between a smile and a frown . She where they belong .
will make many mistakes , for human
In this workaday world there comes
nature is weak , and in her own child- to everybody so much of the seamy
hood she may not have been trained side of life that the mother who best
in the way best calculated to make her fits her child to assume the responsi
The
a noble woman and a wise mother ; but bilities deserves most praise .
perseverance will work wonders in any- groundwork of this may be made by
one, and she may hug to her soul that assigning to each child some one thing
saying of Confucius, “ Our greatest to do for which he or she will be held
A CHRISTMAS VALENTINE .
119
responsible . There are so many things house may be small , but the true spirit
to be done around a house that a of home may be there . Neatness and
mother can easily decide what each harmony are more beautiful than hang
child can do , and when as men and ings of silk and lace .
As long as we
women they are brought face to face live these early impressions are with
with the sterner realities of life , they us , and even the aged , when almost
oblivious to present surroundings, talk
will know how to meet them .
Punctuality is another of the car. much of their first home .
dinal virtues which a child should be
The mother is often called upon to
taught, for no one can be successful decide problems as grave as those
in business who does not regard time which taxed the wisdom of Solomon ,
ance
C
of import
.
As soon as a child is and in her little court at home she
permitted to eat at the family table , it must be as impartial as the wise man
should be required to be punctual at was in his own stately palace . Jus
meals , and when sent upon an errand tice must be given in all things if there
no loitering should be allowed .
No is to be an harmonious home . Children
business man will tolerate a boy who can discriminate as well as adults in
is not punctual in the discharge of his such matters , and never forget an un
duty , and , unless he is taught the value just punishment .
Neither will a child
of this virtue at home , he is apt never ever long resent a just one .
The one thing which more than
to appreciate it .
Reverence for God
that most sub- another wrecks the mother's influence
lime sentiment of the human heart- over her child , is too much indulgence.
must not be neglected in the building It seems hard for a loving mother to
of character. It helps one to lead a punish her child for an offense which
pure and holy life , and to practice appears trifling, and although it may
those two commandments of Christ on have been a direct violation of her
which , he said , hung all the law and the commands she is tempted to let it go
unnoticed .
prophets .
But it is not unnoticed
And now as to the mother herself . by the child , and the next time it
Being, whether she wills it or not , the wishes to disobey it will do so. Little
model for her child , she must school thirgs make up the grand total of
herself to be all she wishes her child to
be .
The home is the child's first
school — the source of its first impressions; let the mother see to it that
character, and the mother who hopes
for the best results must not overlook
them . Good mothers and good homes
elevate and civilize the world , and no
these impressions are pleasing ones. country can be greater than the mothers
The furniture may be inexpensive , the it produces.
Maude C. Murray -Miller.
A CHRISTMAS VALENTINE .
I love you , Dear !
There is no more to say .
And could my fancy fashion other words,
To wing the space between us ,-fluttering down
A chorus gay of honey- throated birds,
To carol at your window Christmas day,
Methinks one modest songster, coated brown
Mid gayer plumes , would still your listening ear
Caress (old words are best) :
Madeleine Wallin .
“ I love you , Dear ! ”
EXTRACTS FROM A PLANTATION SKETCH - BOOK .
PLANTATION pig, born ing, high notes accompanying the
amidst
Africans, sport .
mules, and dogs , and
There is one family , however, that
constantly liable to enjoys the respect of all knowing dogs
being kidnapped, and some negroes.
bruised ,
develops
They are cadaverous, close -eyed
differently razor- backs , that defy the common
and
torn ,
from the tame north- enemies, including the vice of gluttony .
ern
VaR
variety,
that
Having a sense of humor as scant as
sleeps and eats in their appetite , they prefer the unsocial
perfect security-un- life of the woods , where they valiantly
til the sausage man maintain their independence and ac
calls for him .
The very hustling for food and break-
centuate their savage traits .
Only a darky would care to own
ing of fences bring out latent talents one
of
these
and a bold , brisk mannernot expected l y en a - like
in members of his family .
Like our- beasts , and it
selves the may be that
piratically the
starving
inclined rations meted
are
ished
pun- out to his do
in mestic animals has caused the evolution
various of this and other types , almost invaria
ways ,
es- bly to be found in ' the inclosure of a
pecially by plantation cabin .
the
yoke
In contrast with the razor- back is
that chafes the neck of many a clever the amorphous bulk of the swine owned
young fence - breaker .
by the white planter, and the same
You will observe (next page) that contrast exists between the other ani
these prong- yokes also plague the in- mals.
The difference is reversed as
nocent sleeper that happens to occupy regards the human family , the negro
the lower berth on one of the crowded being invariably well - nourished and
July excursions to Dreamland .
muscularly powerful , whereas the
Ear -marks indicate the different “ boss ' seems dyspeptic , — perhaps
families and it is a misfortune to be- because of his incessant irritation at
long to a much the thieving habits of his “ hands."
adorned aristoc- I believe that racial prejudice and its
racy , for the accompaniment of persecution would
gaunt curs vary moderate in the South were it possi
their pursuit of ble for a black
by the
delight of serving
as porcine earpendants. Then
life becomes unbearable not only to
feas
screaming
man ' to resist
the impulse to
capture stray
pigs belonging ,
to his white
neighbor .
the immediate victim but also to such From whatI heard , during a six months
human beings as possess nerves near visit on a cotton plantation , I might
enough to vibrate to the earth- shak- have judged that the penitentiaries
EXTRACTS FROM A PLANTATION SKETCH - BOOK .
I2I
their human mamma that she had to
Su #.Cloth
remove them to the hog-lot , for they
pursued her with screams and grunts
through the house , upstairs, and into
the parlor, clamoring for food . When
I saw them they were amidst the com
mon herd, but came forth fearlessly to
be scratched or fed by the white folks .
were inhabited entirely by negro hog-
The chickens are vividly associated
thieves, and that those not yet con- in my impressions of the lazy, sleepy
demned were living with the striped pigs , for they not only fed with them
but on them , and are always in the
To return to the more cheerful aspect midst of the scramble, as will be seen
uniform in full view .
3
ment
#che
of the barnyard , I must mention the in these sketches , which I hope may
dear little runt, that is petted by every be enjoyed by those lovers of animals
one .
He is supposed to be the latest who care more for the beast than for
born of the litter ; but I was told by a its pedigree .
northern farmer that this puny , scraggy
little fellow has suffered from the choos
ing of a dry teat at birth . He assured
me that a pig never changes from this
first choice , and will
starve rather than
taste of the milk
within an inch of its
nose .
The “ Missus'
told me of a litter left
by a sow that died
at their birth , which she raised by bot
tle.
They became so dependent on
George Henry Clements.
TO A ROSE SHUT IN A BOOK .
LITTLE rose , I shut thee in
From the darkness and the din ,
From the heartache and the tears
Of the everchanging years .
Dearest , deem me not unkind ;
Sweeter fate thou couldst not find ;
Thy companions fade to- day,
Thou art kept and loved for aye .
Dost thou deem thy prison small ?
Ah ! it was a poet's all .
Dear, to write this little book
All his life and love it took !
Maude Louise Fuller.
THE
RAILROAD
CUTTING AND
ITS STORY .
HE book of nature is always open ; for the soil and the landscape to which
T
but not all can read it .
The they have been born .
If we want to check somewhat the
landscape ought to be a story of
thrilling interest , a record of daily restless or weary spirit which the same
evolution , a history of ages , to every ness and narrowness of a country life
one who looks upon it .
To the dwell- induces in us or in our children , there is
ers in regions remote from centers , life probably no better and no easier way
is often drearily monotonous , for the than to make ourselves, or them ,
reason that the available sources of students and thereby lovers of the
interest , especially in nature , are not endless story of nature under our feet ,
made use of .
One does not need to and about us within the circuit of our
be a college professor; a perusal of own immediate surroundings; a story
even one of the science primers which every day's reading of which is full of
now abound will open his eyes to new charm and use , and yet for whose ex
wonders of creation and development . haustion the longest lifetime would be
The government stands ready to assist all too brief .
with the fine topographical and geo-
A short tramp that I was once com
logical charts which have been com- pelled to take in western Ohio showed
piled under its direction at great cost , me what wonderful story -tellers rail
but which can be obtained without
difficulty through the proper channels
and , if we mistake not, without price .
If classes of young people could be
gathered at almost any season of the
year to study nature intelligently, life
would seem more to them , and they
would always have a lasting attachment
road cuts may be . I was on my way
to visit a friend and took the last few
miles on foot rather than wait three
hours for an accommodation train .
When we ride on the cars we get a
fairly general idea of the region through
which we pass, but have time only for
a glance at this and a peep at that as
THE RAILROAD CUTTING AND ITS STORY .
123
we whiz along through cuts and over told me that he lived a few miles below
bridges . When we drive, though we the edge of a “ terminal moraine,"
may take a more leisurely view of the where the great glacier that once cov
surroundings, yet we see only the outer ered Canada and the northern United
But when we walk along a States, slowly grinding its way south
railroad track we may take now and ward , had melted and deposited the
surface.
then a look under the surface and see , in burden of rock - rubbish which it had
the cuts and ravines, how the top layer brought down from the far north .
of the earth has been put together.
Many , many centuries have elapsed
About half a mile down the track I since these bowlders and pebbles left
entered a cut through an immense their native land . I stopped and gazed
gravel -bank . Large bowlders peeped long at a bowlder of red granite and
o
out here and there , and an irregular tried to picture to myself the incidents
row of them lay along the ditches be- of its vast journey. Perhaps it was
side the track . Mingled with these once part of a granite cliff not far from
As the ice stream
bowlders were sand , and pebbles of Hudson's Bay .
1
A RAILROAD CUTTING .
all sizes, jumbled together as if all
were some gigantic sweeping. These
rock fragments were of quartz ,granite ,
trap , hornblende, and other of the
harder varieties of rock , and I won-
ploughed along it was broken off. It
lay on top of the ice for a time, till it
was covered with snow , the snow
hardened above it and it was lodged in
solid ice with other similar fragments.
dered how they came there in that Perhaps it traveled in this way for
I knew that there hundreds of years , till , when it reached
were no cliffs or ledges of granite or a warmer region, the ice melted and it
strange confusion .
any other of these rocks in that vicinity, was tossed roughly about by the roar
for in hundreds of miles of travel ing stream which was formed at the
through Ohio , Indiana , and southern lower end of the glacier. It sank to
Michigan I had never seen a single the bottom , perhaps , and lay there , till
ledge from which any of them might
have been broken , though I had seen
rocks of these varieties in abundance in
Canada, in New England, and in the
Rocky Mountains . Through Ohio and
the climate became cooler and the end
of the glacier advanced . It was pushed
along with a great mass of other bowl
ders and pebbles, it was jostled about
by ice and water, it was rubbed and
Indiana the rocks are mostly sand- ground till its sharp edges were all worn
stones , limestones, and clays.
Then , smooth , and till it wasnothalf as large
how did these others come here ?
I remembered that my friend had
as when it was torn from its native cliff.
Finally the climate grew warmer and
THE SYMPOSIUM .
124
as the lower end of the ice receded positing sand on the inside and form
the bowlder was left covered by an im- ing these terraces and level stretches .
bed of débris, and there it
The next cut I entered was through
mense
stayed till man finally cut à way a ridge of limestone . The rock was
through this débris and it was exposed shelving and worn away in places , but
to view .
Even then it was not suf- generally it was quite compact.
I
fered to lie in peace , for the rains washed found a place where some blasting had
away the surrounding sand and pebbles been done , and climbed up to see the
and it tumbled down into the ditch freshly exposed rock .
What a rev
where it now lies and where it is slowly elation it was ! There , in that rock ,
crumbling before the subtle work of hundreds of miles from the ocean , were
frost , wind , and rain .
fossil coral and seashells ! There can
About a mile further on I came to a be no doubt that these were marine re
cut through a bank of yellow clay , and
again I was led to think of glacial
times, when the melting of the ice
made great streams and many lakes
and ponds. The water in these was
murky from the ground - up feldspar
mains , for, though they were now hard
ened into solid limestone , they retained
their original shapes perfectly . Not
only there but all over the Middle
States I have found these remains
which could have been deposited only
which it contained , and this sediment , on a sea bottom .
So we must con
as it settled , had formed great clay clude that this region of country was
once a part of the ocean bed, and that
beds .
Over the top of the bank I saw a it has been lifted , covered with verdure ,
smoking chimney, and down a switch and made the abode of man .
track I came upon a kiln where brick
Right under my feet was the fossil
and tile were made from this glacial of a long, straight chambered shell,
clay . What wonderful things nature rather like what the shell of the “ nau
has done for these United States ! And tilus ” might be if it were uncoiled.
In this shell lived an “ orthoceras,'
how wonderfully, yet how simply, she
has done them !
Canada has never
an animal which was probably a lit
missed the granite she has lost , and tle similar to a cuttlefish .
Supreme
yet how important this disintegrated monarch of animals was he then, as he
granite is to us !
reached out his “ feelers ” from his
As I approached a railroad bridge I shell armor and preyed on the living
found the bank of the river steep and things within his reach . Now we walk
rocky , and the river deep and swift ; over his form in the limestone of our
but as I crossed I found that on the city walks where his remains lie , more
other side, which was the inside of a perfect than the mummies of Egypt ,
bend , the stream was shallower and though many times as old .
the current slower.
The bank was
The end of this limestone was near
low and marshy , and I walked over the end of my journey , and I was really
From this the track sorry to see my friend's hospitable
crossed a flat, sandy stretch , and en- home ; for I had had a glimpse of the
a long trestle .
tered a cut through a bank of sand . I divine wisdom with which nature's
could see that this was the work of the forces have been directed towards mak
river, which had cut its bed deeper and ing this world such a beautiful home
deeper, wearing away the bank on the for man , and storing it with those
outside of the curve , and exposing the things which he might use .
Howard W. Dickinson .
bare rock , and at the same time de
THOUGHTS AND VIEWS.
ND now comes on the bright season make the kingdoms of this earth the
kingdom of Bethlehem's Babe . Would
it not be a custom as spiritually valu
tude which , just in so far as it is ex- able as beautiful for every household on
tended abroad beyond the confines of Christmas eve to hang one little stock
of the giving of gifts ; season so
ANemblematic
of that unselfish atti-
our own household and blood - kindred , ing for that Babe, in which should next
tends to make the world one family morning be found as many sacrificial
and one home .
gifts as there are members of the re
To the men of our households, with joicing family ?
the opening of the month , the nearness
There are parts of our country where
of Christmastide only begins to be felt . it has become a custom to make Christ
But among our mothers and sisters , mas eve hideous with the blowing of
wives and children , the first of Decem- tin horns literally in the ears of the
ber finds it drawing near its noon . In
every question every female or juvenile
member of the family asks you, you
may look for a trap to betray you into
an intimation of some personal want
of yours which you must not forget to
be surprised and
otherwise peaceful and happy sidewalk
crowds. In other parts this custom
belongs exclusively to the Fourth of
July . Surely there is no decent argu
ment for the defense of a ribald treat
ment of either of these holidays . If
delighted to find our American notion of freedom
supplied “ on Christmas day in the which is sometimes saved from being a
9
morning.”
very vicious one only by being so very
Along with all the other worthy or good - natured-allows grown-up fools
mistaken efforts to mend our world's and tipplers this saturnalian liberty ,
manners, it is a wondermore zealotshave let us at any rate see that the practice
beyond
sort . Lines to
their
not tried to reform our mod- goes not
I say more , an American mother : Dear madam :
because there have been , and If you want your boy to grow up a
there are , some . You may gentleman through and through , a per
Christmas ern Christmas .
Customs.
have heard of one, for instance, who is fect gentleman to everybody - and that
—rather laudably, it strikes me — trying is the larger part of being a Christian
to get us all to devote our entire Christ- don't let him snort a tin horn in the
mas spendings to the cause of Him for ears and faces, or even under the win
whom the glad day is named . The laud- dows , of lovers of peace and order.
ableness depends , to be sure , upon how
In many lands certain holiday eves,
broadly or narrowly that “ cause " is
defined . To limit its meaning to the
support of mere church-work , however
noble or world- wide , would be a very
as that of Easter in the countries of
the Greek church, are celebrated by
the sudden lighting of countless candles .
How such a feature would beautify an
Pharisaic thing. Nevertheless, we must American Christmas eve !
Start it ,
admit that any heavenly host appear- you ; why not ? Get just your few
ing again on Christmas eve , would nearest neighbors to join with you in
hardly be filled with admiration to see your street . Scarcely anything, for
more money spent for dolls than the so little trouble , makes so pleasing a
spenders had given for a year to help show as rows of candle-ends arranged
126
THE SYMPOSIUM .
along the window sills. Light them choice might be ; and that I may never
and throw wide the shutters ; or better give him anything he cannot hide away
yet , if there are children in the house , if he feels like it .
People have a fancy that books
It costs a are especially fit for Christmas giving .
Scarcely
Well , of course , they are .
few cents, but—so do the tin horns .
let them do it . If there are not , borrow
some .
Let there be light !
Or why should we not cultivate the anything else responds to such an un
bounded multitude of tastes ,
lovely old - world practice of children
singing under windows from house to The Choice or has such a range of prices .
house at daybreak, or even at sunrise , Books.
of Christmas morning ?
I saw it done
a Christmas or two ago by three children under one young lady's guidance .
No gifts were thrown to them , to spoil
the exquisite quality of the hour ; but
it gladdened a whole neighborhood,
You may make your gift
book cost a thousand dollars
a quarter of one dollar . On a
or
neighboring page of this magazine is
some account of a wide variety of
books good for holiday gifts , none of
whose prices is above one dollar-and -a
cost nothing, and , I warrant , will be half .
remembered by those children with
But it is another fact that one may
pure delight when their children's chil- make woful mistakes among books
dren sing in like manner to them .
also . When we reflect that virtually
In many parts of our land we have every buyer of holiday gifts has seen
the habit of hanging Christmas wreaths and used books from his earliest child
at our front windows .
It is a charm- hood, it is a veritable wonder how
ing way of wishing the passing stranger ignorant the majority of people are of
a merry Christmas , and of disseminat- how to know good print, good pictures ,
ing Christmas out of doors , and from good paper , or good binding, from bad ,
neighbor to neighbor, both in the ordi- and how contented they are to remain
nary and in the broadest sense of that so . As to almost anything else which
Remind your florist, or they buy they know the names of the
the country boy who brings you fresh makers who make the best ; but as to
good word .
eggs , that this Christmas you will want the value of publishers' imprints they
a double supply of evergreen wreaths. scarce know the best from the worst ,
It was almost a current precept in or have ever reflected that there must
the last generation that in making be a certain number, more or less , of
presents one should rather give some
product of his or her own skill
On the Wise than anything bought from a
Giving of shop . Sometimes, when the
Gifts .
publishing houses whose standing will
not allow them to put their name
upon the title page of a slovenly or
counterfeit piece of bookmaking. You
skill is really skill , the prin- whose powers of sight have not yet
ciple works well , though there rebelled against the cruel misuses to
is always risk in it ; and sometimes , which nearly all of us daily put our
frequently, the result is awful. Lucky eyes, and whose sketchy notions of
are not , even now,
feeling obliged to keep glaringly displayed in your house some work of
amateur art so bad as to be a perpetual
offense to you and the choicer half of
your friends , because some one whom
you must not mortify has given it to
you . I hope I may never be tempted
to bestow as a gift to a friend any
choice of my æsthetic taste , without a
pretty positive knowledge of what his
are you if you
utility and grace make little or no
discriminations against uneven print
ing, battered type , fine print, poor
proof-reading, coarse or flimsy or
shiny paper, tawdry or badly drawn or
rudely printed illustrations, or gaudy
or stupid cover designs ; how is it ,
that you are so careful and so canny
as to the quality and style of the dry
goods you buy ?
Of course , you are not bound to
1
IN THE FOREGROUND .
answer, especially as long as you buy
only for yourself. But - will you take
it kindly if I tell you ?-I cannot help
wanting you to know , that that " complete " edition of a certain great author's works, which you bought the
other day , and have laid by to give to
A. B. on Christmas is from the press
of a concern that never gets out,
nor tries to get out , a good piece of
publisher's work ; that it is printed
from worn -out plates , bought ofa dealer
in rags and old metal , and that it is
127
not
complete," nor “ authorized,"
nor “ revised by the author, ” as it
claims to be . It is hoped to give in
this magazine, before long, some pages
designed to show how to judge a well
made book . Meantime consider , please ,
that if you are insensible about such
things, A. B. is not , and that he will
know the work's inartistic wretched
ness'at a glance. Allow , at any rate ,
this one suggestion : don't give it to
him on Christmas ; don't spoil , for him
(or her), the sweetest day of the year.
Geo . W. Cable .
IN THE FOREGROUND.
CERTAIN man in the land of Uz
X
began it .
than
one
public institution .
Who
Very likely there knows how many benevolent inten
were others before him who tions have failed of execution for want
referred to the uncertainty of earthly of attention to the one contingency of
“ Have you existence , but they are not decease ? That hope which springs
made
your of record . A marked facility
Will?
of expression , an aptness in
stating conditions , which must ever
exist while life lingers, make the words
of Job always appropriate . There is
no disrespect intended in the assertion
that were Job living now , he would
eternal , fosters the belief that our end
is not yet—that life has years of limi
tation . A duty which can be attended
to at any time is the one most likely
to be left undone .
The law attempts
to provide for individual omission , by
its provisions relating to inheritance ,
present the cause of life insurance in and the settlement of estates, but it is
terms too convincing to admit of dis- at best only a substitute for the better
thing, the formal testament , and the
You , who lately waded through resulting apportionment may be far
pages of words discussing the standard different from that which a will would
of value during our latest unpleasant- have designated . If you have not
pute .
ness, you surely will not turn away made a written will you ought to do it
from a subject equally important , be- at once .
cause it may be a trifle dry . It conIt really makes no difference whether
cerns you whether you have property an estate is large or small . Its distri
and family, or not ; you will have both , bution may be as important to the
individual who leaves a few thousands ,
we hope , some day .
This matter, so often neglected , or even hundreds, as to him leaving a
concerns those nearest and dearest . fortune . A will may simplify the set
It affects the personal relation in its tlement of the estate , and reduce the
many sided complexity. It may reach expense thereof. This is of more ac
farther than
mere personality , and count to the beneficiary in the case of
have a bearing on the welfare of more a small estate than a large one .
128
THE SYMPOSIUM .
There is the temptation to treat this tion of withdrawal at the close of the
subject lightly ; to refer to the law's present year is now announced .
delay , the contests of the courts , and
Civil service reform has become an
the broken testaments . Cynics say assured fact. Like most reforms it has
wills are usually made to be broken , been of slow growth . It has been a
and the humorist may find here a field factor in all presidential elections held
for untimely jest ; but the subject is in the last quarter of the century , al
too serious for this. The facts are though , in the case of Mr. McKinley,
against a certain popular fallacy ; a the financial question overshadowed all
will contested is , after all , a rare ex- others . The radical difference between
ception ; to have it broken is still rarer. the platforms of Chicago and St. Louis
It is true that of all legal documents
the drawing of a will is most difficult.
The most skillful lawyers have failed
to draw their own so clearly that their
regarding the issue under consideration
was not without influence. When the
history of to- day is written , this will
be brought out more clearly than it
interpretation could not be mistaken . can be
seen
at present , while the
Simplicity is undoubtedly of the larg- smoke of battle still obscures the vis
est importance , and the tendency of ion .
the legal fraternity is apt to be toward
Started during the administration of
wordiness . Yet the ancient and vener- President Grant , when competitive ex
able proverb which says : " He that aminations were first held , developed
would be his own lawyer hath a fool under each successive president , it has
for his client," applies here with marked come to pass that nearly one hundred
appropriateness .
Any one who would make a will had
best employ a lawyer, for there are
many questions to be taken into consideration of which a layman is ignorant , notwithstanding the fact there
thousand places are now filled by these
examinations , in compliance with the
law . There is still opportunity for
farther extension, particularly in the
minor offices in the department of
foreign service.
has been attempt on the part of law-
It is not the purpose here to enter
makers to make this part of juris- into any discussion regarding this
prudence as simple as possible. We measure once scoffed at and ridiculed,
may add , too , that taking all of the but now admitted a benefit by all who
states into comparison , there is no desire the welfare of the nation . It
subject treated in the statute books , is only to note another step in advance ,
concerning which the laws are so uni- to show that public opinion favors a
form in their provisions, as those relat- righteous cause , and reform means
something with us after all .
ing to the making of wills .
The legal formalities of execution
In giving due praise to the Civil
can easily be learned . No one of prop- Service Chronicle , we may mention
erty can afford to put off this matter incidentally, that any paper, or maga
indefinitely. Life is uncertain
uncertain .
you made your will ?
Have zine , started to champion any par
ticular cause ,
or
work
only along
prescribed lines, must necessarily be
limited in its field of work , and inost
The Civil Service Chronicle , that likely limited in its existence .
well known journal , published in the
interest of the cause indicated by its
title , has served its day and
A Cause
Gained.
There is really no danger that polit
generation . Having fought ical discussion may become a chronic
a good fight, it has only to habit , with either the newspaper, or
retire from a field occupied with credit the individual , to the exclusion of
for the last eight years. This inten- other topics .
IN THE FOREGROUND.
129
Although the election is a thing of causes, that have brought this about ,
the past , argument still goes merrily but only to call attention to one phase
on. It is only the aftermath , but it of this feature of development . The
Aftermath. may contain conclusions of æsthetic and even moral effect, caused
The most common by the improvement of the country
value .
topic of discussion , just at present , con- highway, is distinctly noticeable . The
cerns our electoral system , and some casual observer cannot fail to take
of the most reputable journals of the account of this, although he may not
country are putting before their readers trace the sequence of events to logical
the theory that a plurality vote ought conclusions.
The donning of his best clothes has
to elect . They argue, that in the recent contest a small portion of the probably influenced the behavior of
million votes cast in favor of the win- more than one boy . The contiguity
ning candidate would have elected his of cleanliness and godliness may be
opponent , had they been distributed open to dispute , but it cannot be
The argument is
not sufficient to prove the case of those
who would have the present system
changed . Their citation of fact cannot be disputed , but it is the exception
that proves the rule , and the fact , that
in the close states .
denied that cleanliness promotes self
respect . Even improvement may be
contagious , and betterment in one
particular breed desire for a higher
state . Take the highway for example
the village highway. It needs no halt
popular majority has been against the ing footstep, in order to see this truth
electoral college two or three times , illustrated. It is so plain , that even
has been accounted for in each in- he who runs—or wheels—may read .
The village roadway is graded and
stance .
There would be vastly more opportunity for fraud , in the case of a close
election , than under the present plan .
There would be
but stop a moment !
This question has been discussed in all its bearings for many years .
The law was decided on, after most
careful consideration , by some of the
wisest statesmen . Times and conditions change, it is true , but the arguments long ago presented still apply in
this instance . The editors of some of
our leading papers might well be em-
macadamized , and straightway some
resident facing thereon is moved to
construct a walk alongside , if nothing
better than one of ledge gravel . His
turf is trimmed a few days later, then
the front fence straightened , or, what is
often better, taken away altogether.
One step leads to another ; there is a
general “ slicking up,” as he terms it ,
about the yard. Suddenly the dis
covery is made , that the house needs a
coat of paint, to correspond with im
proved surroundings . It is hard to
ployed in looking over, and reading, tell where these improvements may
some of the early files of the records end , perhaps one might better say
of Congress .
they do not end .
There is the neighborhood effect,
too , which we might mention .
There
He movement for good roads is is a desire to equal , if not to surpass ,
well - nigh universal. It is not on the part of another . It may be
even confined within the limits the result of pride , but pride is a very
T"
of our land , but in older countries, pardonable , if not commendable, qual
where the highways have long been ity sometimes.
The Moral
Effect of
Good
Roads.
Good roads and walks
superior to ours, new impetus bring neighborhoods nearer. Sparsely
has been given of late toward settled communities are thus more in
their improvement . It is not touch with each other. The building
proposed to discuss the cause of a good road brings its own reward ,
and effect, or the combination of but there are clearly defined benefits
THE SYMPOSIUM .
130
aside from those so often enumerated , these also count as benefits, and is it
and which are distinctly material . The not more difficult to measure their ex
moral and ästhetic
effects - do not tent and influence ?
HOME AND NEIGHBOR .
ow that the cold weather is driving drawn in it and the other cut into shoe
N
the young people indoors and strings .
Perhaps pirate literature led
taxing their elders ' powers to some one or two to take up the gauntlet
keep them contented there , an account so innocently thrown down; but it is
of an experiment in this direction may more likely that these young fellows ,
be of interest to those who look in rough, idle , careless , and very shy,
this column for news of organizations resorted to this dark threat in self
having for their end the betterment of defense . The place had been theirs
the social body .
for a year. They had accepted it with
Eight years ago the Home- Culture out question and had enjoyed it after
Clubs, a group of small fireside clubs their own fashion , and now the Philis
having their headquarters in North- tines were upon them - petticoated
A Fortu
ampton , opened a reading Philistines too.
Next time the intruder came she
room , feeling that while they
nate Ex
periment. provided for existing homes, kept her gloves on and was met by
some provision ought also to what was in effect a counter stratagem ,
be made for those who had no homes, but was in reality only shyness panic
or whose homes were ill supplied with stricken .
There was a stampede and
reading matter.
she was left in undisputed possession
Cheir policy of leaving the place for
months entirely unhaunted by their own
presence proved successful . A few of
the more adventurous boys of the street
of the empty rooms. She had a most
unwelcome opportunity for reflection,
but I doubt if any other hour she has
ever spent in study has brought such
were the first to find their way to this satisfactory results .
reading - room .
She saw that the
Others followed, until reading- rooms , however misused, were
on every night except those on which certainly better than the street in
the fire department, the band , or a which the boys had taken refuge ; also
street
accident furnished
a
counter that they could not or would not meet
attraction there might be found there her on her ground , therefore she must
a roomful of boys between the ages of meet them on theirs . She spent the
twelve and twenty , gathered appar- rest of the time mastering the broad
ently to prevent each other from reading .
They became thoroughly at
home and were inclined to resent
intrusion from any one more formal
than the shirt - sleeved janitor.
outlines of a recent prize fight . She
counted safely on the strength of the
boys' established habit of coming to
the rooms, and the next evening she
The found them all there again . She entered
general secretary of the clubs , carrying
some magazines to the place one evening, left her gloves on the table.
When she looked for them again she
found one with skull - and - cross -bones
the group this time with the assurance
of one who knows herself to be en
rapport with its best . A woman who
knew the difference between a “ light
weight " and a “ welter weight " was
HOME AND NEIGHBOR .
131
The 'clubs had twice moved to larger
neither to be feared nor despised. She
confessed to but a superficial knowl- quarters , when a church property in an
edge of the subject , and her education admirable location came into the mar
was undertaken by the boys with a ket .
It was a two - story building and
zeal that later might have put their needed but few alterations to make it
own teachers to shame.
in every point suited to the growing
In this little class , where there were demands of the clubs .
a dozen teachers and one pupil , in a
“ up two
Its Growth . little back room
fights,” were laid the foundations for the fifty classes which now
meet every week in the Northampton
Home- Culture Club House .
From
prize fighting it was but a step to war-
It has an
as
sembly room seating four hundred and
fifty, a reading room , bath room , lava
tories , and class rooms capable of ac
commodating ninety- four classes a
week . A large basement awaits the
further development of the work and
is at present used as a play room for
fare in general and from warfare to boys under sixteen .
history.
In the half hundred classes that meet
A little club was formed to find here weekly the subjects vary from the
banjo and dancing, to Shake
out . “ what the English and Ameri
Fea speare , geometry , and Latin ,
then followed Some Feacans fought about,” then
another to study the rights and duties the work . and the personnel of the
of citizenship , another of older men
classes , or clubs as they are
Almost every
to study Bryce's “ American Common- called , is as varied .
wealth .”
About this time a group walk of life which the town affords is
of students of Smith College (King's represented. The class rooms are ar
Daughters ), eager to do something for
others, asked if they could help in
some branch of the Home -Culture
The only practical opening
Clubs .
was the further development of this
, the
. But , unf
class work
ortunately
ranged so that there need be no embar
rassing collisions. It has sometimes
happened that parents learning to read
and write wished to do so without the
knowledge of their grown sons in the
reading room , or a foreman learning
youths in question had no desire to short cuts in arithmetic wished to avoid
They had
become accustomed , however , to the
presence of women in the rooms and
they graciously consented to belong
to the classes if the college students
better their educations .
meeting the men under him in the mill .
Therefore the main class rooms have
their own outside entrances and in
every other way possible it is the
practice in the club - house to respect
had really set their hearts upon it . So natural sensitiveness or timidity . It is
again the pyramid was standing on its perhaps due to this tacit understand
apex and the intended beneficiaries ing that it has been possible to substi :
were the ones who conferred the favor . tute for the more formidable rules of
Their generosity was mixed with the earlier days this one notice , posted
curiosity concerning this new type of in the hallway : “ The only rules are
womanhood , a type which invariably those that you would make for yourself
commanded their respect and which in if you were visiting in the home of a
Last year the
friend ."
own womankind . It was at the sug- average monthly attendance at the
gestion of the young men themselves rooms was one thousand and seventy .
wor wa ex
a measure interpreted to them their respected
that women and girls were later invited
to share the privileges of the clubhouse . Curiosity , which had led many
of the boys to join classes , soon became
genuine interest and the classes steadily
increased in number and effectiveness.
At first the class
k
s
clusively in the care of college students .
This seemed inappropriate , since the
club - house was distinctly a town and
not a college institution . Recently an
effort has been made to enlist perma
THE SYMPOSIUM .
132
nent residents in the class work . Twen- side clubs which will appear later in
ty per cent . of the teachers are now these columns .
This union of town and
If the work in the Northampton
townspeople .
gown is valuable in many ways and
their hearty co- operation in good work
does much to establish cordial relations often perceptibly absent in col-
club-house has made any contribution
toward the solution of some of the
social problems of small cities it is that
it has proved it practicable to unite the
lege towns .
different social elements to the advan
It is natural that this club- house
work should frequently be confused
with the true Home - Culture work of
which it is the outgrowth . But though
closely associated with it , it is quite
different. A few fundamental principles they have in common , namely
tage of all and without conflict with
inevitable class distinctions . Perhaps
nowhere in the country could there be
found a more ideal democracy than
exists in these rooms , or a better un
derstanding of the distinctionsbetween
public and private social relations . A
that a feeling of genuine friendship stranger present at a representative
ought to underlie all efforts to help or
be helped by others ; that such friend
ship is unlikely to be either frequent ,
effective, or permanent unless based on
assemblage of the club said once ,“ You
say there are all classes of people here ,
students, clerks, servants , mechanics,
laborers, and professional people ? You
somethingmorethan mere philanthropic would never guess it from their manner
impulse, and that such a basis is apt to toward each other ; in that respect they
be found in the effort to learn some- are the most well -bred people I have
thing together, even if it be only how ever seen ! ”
to enjoy an hour of each other's soAnother point proved is that it is
ciety . They also believe that benefits safe to allow work of this sort to de
should be reciprocal .
velop without hard and fast plans ; to
In the practical application of these let it be a natural growth determined
principles they are quite different, as by those for whom it is intended .
Adelene Moffat.
will be seen in the account of the fire
IN THE READING WORLD ,
WANT to recommend to every one
who loves literature , and who is not
already recommending them himself , the works of Mrs. Juliana Horatia
Ewing. Everybody who has
A New
Word for read them recommends them ;
an old
Favorite. so I have an extraordinary
1
noted that a vast variety of writers,
from Matthew Arnold down, quote
“ Alice in Wonderland ," but among
the people I know in the flesh , “ Jack
anapes,” “ The Story of a Short Life , '
“ Lob -lie -by- the- Fire ," and " Daddy
Darwin's Dove-Cot,” will do more than
hope of increasing human hap- these to make the lion and the lamb
piness in trying to widen the circle of pasture contentedly together.
That is
More different kinds and surely a consideration to make readers
grades of minds like her work than I and clubs of readers value them . Mrs.
her readers .
have for myself observed in accord on Ewing wrote other things, and I love
any other writer. People all claim , to them all, but those I have named are
be sure, to like Shakespeare , and I have the best , and also the most popular, for
!
IN THE READING
WORLD .
133
the curious good taste the public shows long to read them through , it is a bless
edly long time before one is through
in loving this writer extends to its dis- reading
them .
crimination between her works .
And
it has judged them for itself.
Mrs.
Ewing has had a peculiar fate as to ap
preciation ; there is a very cultivated ,
very fastidious, very small class that
Viola Roseboro '.
HAT the gift of a book cannot fail
to please is a safe principle upon
which to act in making our selec
tions for Christmas . After we have
provided for our friends to
Books as
whom the ownership of a book
Gifts .
is a pleasure fixed , there are
still those who feel that booksare fine
to have on the parlor table , and look as
THE
- per reviewer, who more or less worship
does not include the ordinary newspa
her ; and there is a great world of people who pay no attention whatever to
reputation or criticism , but who buy
and read what they like , chiefly dread
ful stuff I fear, and who like and buy
thousands upon thousands of copies of
Mrs. Ewing's stories every year ; which if the folks in the house knew a lot,”
is about the most hopeful sign for litera- as a maid, about to become a bride,
said to her mistress when planning the
ture I know .
Nearly every person gives you a dif- furniture of her future home .
Aside from the satisfaction of giving
ferent reason for loving Mrs. Ewing :
Her sweetness is praised; then someone something that we know will be ac
who scorns sweetness by itself, just as ceptable , to give books seems especially
he would loathe an exclusive diet of to be “ s more blessed ,” for few things
loaf sugar, praises her shrewdness, her are so pleasant to buy and in few
knowledge of human nature , of na- things is there so great a variety to
tionalities, of types , and then probably choose from . Careful selection , more
adds , " and withal she has such a over, is the basis upon which the truth of
lovely, tender spirit.” He likes sweet- our statement depends .
ness, too , when it sweetens knowledge
Since most of us are of those who
Another praises her re- have to shun the alluring special edi
finement, the poetry of good-breeding tions and the exquisitely bound and
of the world .
that marks all she does ; and I heard an illustrated holiday books, we make our
old soldier say that what he doted on selections from the old favorites , kept
was her knowledge of the body and in stock by the booksellers all the year,
soul of military life .
I'll add to all this but which at this season stand forth
that humor, subtle humor, quickens with an expectant air, confident, in
all she does , and that at her best she is their respectable everyday clothes , that
as faultlessly true as an artist as she it is from their ranks that the Christ
is as an observer , -the two are not mas buyer draws most largely .
Among these books we can spend
the same thing, though the self-styled
“ realists ” seem to think they are .
the pleasantest hours of the Christmas
0
The only reason for not recommending you to begin with “ The Story of
a Short Life” is that even “ Jackanapes” might disappoint you after
shopping, finding unexpected treasures
at every turn and continually surprised
that modern publishers can offer us all
the riches of thought and expression
that ; whereas if you begin with “ Jack- of all times , at sums that enable us to
anapes” or “ Lob -lie -by -the -Fire " you buy for every one on our list without
will believe, it is the best and be mis- going in any case beyond the limits of
taken . These are all little stories ; all one- dollar-and - a- half . For this price ,
together they would not make a book or less , there are the standard poets
as big as the average novel ; but if ever and novelists .
There are essays or
there was such a thing these are little biography and the best modern novels
classics ; and if it does not, alas ! take for friends whose collection of books is
THE SYMPOSIUM .
134
For the boy who is volume that will repel tired readers.
starting an historical collection there “ The Story of Scotland " by John
miscellaneous .
are Parkman , Prescott, and Fiske , in Mackintosh , published by G. P. Put
low priced volumes for sale singly . nam's Sons in the “ Story of the Na
Students of Shakespeare are glad to tions ” series , meets such a need for
add to theirlibraries,volume by volume, this course. It is clear and interesting
the pretty Temple edition of the plays , and gives the leading events in Scottish
the most attractive edition yet offered history in a story- like way that holds
the attention throughout.
in pocket volumes for frequent use .
The favored children of to - day are
Laurence Hutton's " Literary Land
richly provided for with their special marks of Edinburgh ,” Mrs. Oliphant's
books , to which Mrs. Ewing, Susan “ Royal Edinburgh," and James F.
Coolidge , and Mary Mapes Dodge are Hunnewell's “ Lands of Scott ” are
favorite
contributors .
Stevenson's valuable
additions
to
this
course ,
whose
se readers will also welcome
“ Kidnapped," “ Treasure Island ,” who
and “ The Black Arrow ; " Howard “ Robert Bruce " by Sir Herbert Max
Pyle's books , and Rossiter Johnson's well , just published in the “ Heroes of
- Phaeton Rogers ” are irresistible the Nations " series.
among boys' books . And to give
Kipling's “ Jungle Books ” to a boy
is to give delight to every member
Many lovers of “ Lorna Doone "
Another department will turn again to the story after read
of his family .
among books foryoung people isformed ing “ In the Land of Lorna Doone " by
by books in which classical literature
Mr. Clifton Johnson in this
is adapted for them , as Charles and Suggested number of The SYMPOSIUM .
Readings.
The charm of Blackmore's
Mary Lamb's “ Tales from Shakes
peare," Lang's ““ Blue Poetry Book , " story is so living that anything which
and Lanier's
Boy's Froissart," and leads us back into its influence is an
addition to the sum of our pleasures .
“ Boy's King Arthur. "
But the good books in every de- Mr. Blackmore himself has thus led us
partment are so many, that with
а
back to the scene of his most famous
little thought to the kind of books story in “ Şlain by the Doones, ” a
which already characterize the libraries short story which describes more of the
of our friends, or to the sort of collection that it would best please them to
start (for the ownership of even one
book of the right kind is a strong incentive to collect books), our Christ-
Doone outrages and mentions, though
not prominently, John and Lorna.
About the time that “ Slain by the
Doones " appeared , Mr. W. H. Rideing
described the romantic country where
mas visit to the bookseller may be the action of both stories takes place
very effective in making more univer- in a book bearing the same title as Mr.
sal the right appreciation of the value Johnson's present article.
of books .
The pictures with which Mr. John
son illustrates his article are charming
specimens of his art , which has also
A natural result of the present popu- illustrated a new edition of “ A Win
6
larity of Scotch stories is to make dow in Thrums" this fall . “ A Window
Scotland a pleasant subject for club in Thrums" has made Mr. Barrie known
reading In such a course the demand to so many people that Mr. Cable's
is for something entertain- words about him are a welcome fur
Some Booksing, vivid enough to impress therance of acquaintance rather than
land.
the important facts upon
the an introduction .
Another means of
mind and that will be attrac- promoting this acquaintance , which
tive and stimulating rather than a dry readers of “ A Window in Thrums ”
TAIL PIECES.
135
and “ Auld Licht Idyls" have been perience as Mrs. Nicholls' . Aside
quick to avail themselves of, is “ Senti- from her art -student life in Venice ,
mental Tommy,” just closed as a serial with its background of “ literary land
in Scribner's for November, and now marks, " which Mr. Laurence Hutton
issued in book form , will find even has made familiar to us, the year
more readers .
in South Africa adds an unusual touch
The full , well- rounded life of the of interest . We are not yet accus
modern woman finds typical presenta- tomed to think of South Africa as a
tion in the career and attainments of home of civilization , or at least as
Mrs. Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, as outlined by Miss Ketcham . Mrs. Nicholls
is not a “ bachelor," but the spirit of
the age , of which her life is characteristic , is the same spirit of which the
life of “ women bachelors, " as described
by Mary Gay Humphreys in the
November Scribner , is a product .
Not all lives, even of " women bachelors,” are so full of delightful ex
a congenial place of residence for a
cultivated artist , even since - The
Story of an African Farm " has made
it the scene of romance , but a more
intelligent idea of the life there will be
a certain result of Mr. Poultney Bige
low's papers upon " White Man's
Africa , ' now appearing in Harper's
Magazine .
Anna Gertrude Brewster .
TAIL PIECES .
MRS . O'SHAUGHNESSY'S CHANGE OF LUCK .
Mrs. Crimmins, what's
*WeELL,
the news? ” I asked of my
O'Shaughnessy, your luck's bound to
change sooner or latether'- not that I
laundress when she had fin- was begrudgin ' her, ye understhand .
" Sure enough , the other day she
ished her weekly arithmetic regarding
the price of my clothes.
come in ravin ' , . an ' sez she to me :
" D'ye remember hearin ' me spheak ' Mrs. Crimmins, will ye lind me th'
av me neighbor, Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, use av your front window ? '
“ Fwot's goin ' on ? ' sez I. • Is ut
her thot got t'ree hundhred dollars
a funeral , or a murdher , or some wan
' Twas havin ' a fit ? ' There do be a deal av
along av her husband fallin ' off
buildin ' an ' breakin ' his neck ?
a
not that I begrudged her her prosh- inthertainmint in our neighborhood .
" It's no pashtime I'm borrowin '
perity ; but I sez at th ' toime , an ' I ridin '
to the funeral in th ' twinty -siventh car- your window for, Mrs. Crimmins , ' sez
riage from th ' hearse , an ' the flowers ! she ; ' I want th ' loan av it to curse
an ' the band ! and herself overcome me daughter Mary Ann from , as she
iviry tin minutes !
I sez to mesilf , dhrives from the church in a hack ;
• Things can't go on like this, Mrs. she's there this minute gittin ' morried
|
THE SYMPOSIUM .
136
to a man widout the price av a license I'll put an her ! Wait till ye hear ut !
in his pockut !!
Faith , an' ut ull cruddle your blood . '
" Not Mary Ann O'Shaughnessy ! '
“ An ' she kept on braggin' about
sez I , “ wid the bringin' up she's had ! ' th ' iligant curse she had , till the door
" . The same , ' sez she .
flew open , an ' in walks Katie Foley .
*** Th' ungrateful hussy ! ' sez I.
" ' Fw'y ain't ye all at the weddin ' ? '
* Have th' window an’welcome. Fwot sez Katie .
Mary Ann O'Shaugh
a pity they're not walkin ' , an ye cud nessy's come from th ' church an ' her
t'row a han'ful avrid pepper along mother-in -law's sent for a keg ov beer. '
wid th ' curse . '
Ye niver can be sure
6. Holee
Schmoke ! '
sez
Mrs.
whether th ' curse ull hit or not , but O'Shaughnessy , ' thin I'm too late to
th ' pepper's a matther av aim .
curse her ! It must be done as they
" ' I spint a forthune on her school- come from the church , or ' tis no good .
in ' , ' sez she ; ' iviry cint av poor Pat's Werra , werra, thot I shud sthand here
broken -neck money that was lift from talkin ' an ' lose th ' chance ! '
the funeral wint to buy her accom" Mrs. O'Shaughnessy, ' sez I , ' so
plishmints .
I giv' her a quarther av long as you've lost your chance at curs
music
ing her ' twould be a pity to lose your
"6. She niver had but six weeks to chance at th ' beer ! '
music , ' me own daughter sphoke up
" « « ' Tis true for ye, Mrs. Crimmins , '
from th ' nixt room .
sez she ; ' we'll all go round to old
“ . An' thot was long enough to
have th ' whole thing at her fingers'
ends if sh'd been payin ' attinshun ,' sez
Mrs. O'Shaughnessy. “ An' Frinch ; I
giv? her tin lissons to Frinch , an' she
marryin' a man widout a penny in his
pockut ! Wait till ye hear th ' curse
woman Dolan's an' make ut up. '
“ An ' make ut up they did, the auld
woman beginnin' to cry into her sic
ond glass. Sure'n they're both livin ’
off'n her now , an' he nothin' to do .
' Twasn't thot I begrudged her, but I
knew at th' time , her luck ud change."
Marie Manning
HMS
Evangeline: 0 Tommy , wouldn't you like to go to heaven and be an angel with a harp and crown ?
Tommy:
Yes — but not till after Christmas .
ADVERTISEMENTS.
An Old Favorite with New Features.
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LIVING
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Founded by E. Littell in 1844 .
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A WEEKLY MAGAZINE OF
FOREIGN PERIODICAL LITERATURE,
Giving yearly 3500 Double Column Octavo Pages of Matter ( making four
large volumes) unequalled in quality and quantity .
It is Issued Every Saturday
and Contains
ARTICLES OF STANDARD AND POPULAR INTEREST
INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY READER OF INTELLIGENCE AND LITERARY TASTE .
In 1896 the subscription price of THE LIVING AGE, which had been Eight Dol
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hundreds of new names to the subscription list.
Encouraged by this response to their efforts to enlarge the constituency and
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sional translations of note
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2d . The addition of a Readings from American Magazines .
Monthly Supplement Readings from New Books .
containing three depart
A List of Books of the Month .
ments , namely :
This Supplement will add about three hundred pages annually to the magazine,
without any added cost to the subscribers, and without diminishing in the least the
space given to the features which have made THE LIVING AGE for fifty -three years
a household word among intelligent and cultivated readers.
The weekly numbers of THE LIVING AGE contain choice fiction ; essays ;
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science, and politics in the broadest sense ; poetry and general information : in a
word, whatever is best and most important in current periodical literature.
The
wide range of subjects and the high standard of literary excellence which have
characterized the magazine from the beginning will be preserved .
PUBLISHED WEEKLY at $6.00 a year, free of Postage.
G
TO NEW SUBSCRIBERS for the year 1897 , remitting before Jan. 1 , the week
iy numbers of 1896 issued after the receipt of their subscriptions will be sent gratis.
Rates for clubbing with other periodicals will be sent upon application .
Address
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Note . - LITTELL'S LIVING AGE for $6.00 and THE SYMPOSIUM for $ 1.00 will be sent on one order
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ADVERTISEMENTS.
THE CENTURY
IN 1897
12
ALL NEW FEATURES .
THE CENTURY will continue to be in every respect the leading American mag
azine, its table of contents including each month the best in literature and art.
The present interest in American history makes especially timely
A GREAT NOVEL
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ,
its leading serial feature for 1897 and the masterpiece of its author, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. The
story, “ Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker," purports to be the autobiography ofits hero, an officer on
Washington's staff. Social life in Philadelphia at the timeof the Revolution is most interest.
ingly depicted, and the characters include Washington, Franklin , Lafayette,and others well known
in history. It is safe to say that the readers of this great romance will obtain from it a clearer
idea of the people who were foremost in Revolutionary days and of the social life of the times
than can be had from any other single source. The work is not only historically accurate , but
it is a most interesting story of love and war. The first chapters are in the November number,
Howard Pyle will illustrate it.
“ CAMPAIGNING WITH GRANT,"
By General Horace Porter,
is the title of a series of articles which has been in preparation formany years. General Porter
was an aide on General Grant's staff and a close friend of his chief, and the diary which he kept
through the war is the basis of the present articles,which are striking pen -pictures of campaign
life and scenes. They will be fully illustrated.
The first one is in the November CENTURY .
A New Novel by Marion Crawford ,
author of " Mr. Isaacs,” “ Saracinesca ,” “ Casa Braccio, " etc., entitled “ A Rose of Yesterday,"
series of engravings, made by the famous wood - engraver, T. Cole, of the old English masters
also is in this issue. New features will be announced
a story of modern life in Europe, with American characters, begins in November. The first of a
from time to time.
The Best Short Stories.
Superb Art Features.
DECEMBER IS THE CHRISTMAS ISSUE,
a number of great pictorial beauty and full of entertainment. New subscribers who begin with
December may have the November number free , and so get first chapters of all the serials.
$ 4.00 a year. All dealers take subscriptions, or remittance may be made directly to the pub
lishers, The CENTURY Co. , Union Square, New York.
THE CENTURY CO
UNION SQ , NEW YORK
ADVERTISEMENTS.
.
ST. NICHOLAS
FOR YOUNG FOLKS
CONDUCTED BY MARY MAPES DODGE
SCHE best of all children's magazines " is the universal verdict on
St. Nicholas. It began existence in 1873, and since that time
has gradually merged in itself all of the leading children'smag
azines in America . The greatest writersof the world are its
regular contributors. The supreme quality of St. Nicholas
is its bright, healthful, and invigorating atmosphere.
THE COMING YEAR will be a great one in its history. It will have a more varied
table of contents and more spirited illustrations than ever before. The leading serial will be
A STORY OF THE TIME OF SHAKSPERE :
“ Master Skylark , " by John Bennett. Illustrated by Birch.
This is a live story, full of action,color, merriment, and human nature. The world's greatest
poet figures as one of the principal characters , although the hero and heroine are a boy and girl.
It is poetic in treatment, but full of the romance of the Elizabethan age, and very dramatic in
plot. Another serial beginning in November is
A GREAT WAR STORY FOR NORTH AND SOUTH :
“ The Last Three Soldiers,” by William H. Shelton .
A strong story with unique plot. Three Union soldiers, members of a signal corps,
stationed on a mountain -top, cut a bridge that connects them with the rest of the world and
become veritable castaways in the midst of the Confederacy. Fully illustrated .
“ June's Garden ," a Serial for Girls, by Marion Hill.
This story is addressed specially to girls , and is by a favorite writer. It is full of fun, the
character-drawing is strong, and the whole influence of the story is inspiring and uplifting.
SHORT STORIES.
There will be many tales of brave effort and adventure. GEORGE KENNAN has written
three exciting storiesof his experiences in Russia ;WALTER CAMP will have a stirring
accountofa bicycle race, and J. T. TROWBRIDGE villcontribute astory of thesea. Every
thing in St. NiCHOLAS is illustrated , and every month will have articles representing
ALL THE BEST WRITERS.
Patriotic Sketches,
Historical Stories,
Helpful Articles,
Tales of Travel,
Fanciful Tales,
Bright Poems,
Spirited Pictures,
Prize Puzzles,
Etc., Etc., Etc.
December is the beautiful Christmas num.
A Christmas Present
ber. New subscribers who begin with that
issue can have November free of charge, and
of a Year's Subscription . $3.6e, and no better Christmas gift can be
thought of. We send a handsomely printed
certificate for those who wish to use a subscription to ST. NICHOLAS in this way.
All dealers take subscriptions, or remittance may be made by check , draft, or
letter, directly to the publishers, THE CENTURY Co. , Union Square, New York.
THE CENTURY CO
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registered
ADVERTISEMENTS.
BOOKS FREE !
22
Opportunities for Self-Education,
Mutual Improvement,
and Enjoyment,
Are results of advancing civilization.
2
It has come to pass that in most of the larger cities, and
numerous smaller towns, free libraries have been established.
But how fares the dweller in the country village, the smaller
and more scattered neighborhoods, or even in large towns
where there is no free library ? There is still opportunity for
the resident of these places. By becoming a subscriber to
The Symposium ,
Books may be borrowed from the
Home-Culture Club's Circulating Library
for the cost of postage one way .
Write for particulars to
41 Center Street, Northampton, Mass.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
HY
W
DO YOU NOT
ORGANIZE A
HOME
CULTURE
CLUB ?
The expense is nothing ; the benefits too numer
ous to mention in brief space.
Any number of persons from four upwards may
constitute a club .
The national headquarters, building, and general
secretary of the association are at Northampton, Mass.
Address for particulars ,
MISS ADELENE MOFFAT,
General Secretary.
ADVERTISEMENTS.
She
Illustrated American .
Pictorially Perfect.
Brilliantly Edited .
A WEEKLY EPITOME OF THE NEWS OF THE WORLD .
THE EXPONENT OF PROGRESS AND PATRIOTISM .
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THE EDITOR ,
A monthly Journal of Information for Literary Workers, con
tains the latest news regarding the manuscript market, and practi
cal articles upon all branches of literary work. It exposes all
publications which deal dishonestly with writers , and promptly
The Symposium .
Now is the time to subscribe for your next year's
magazines .
The editors of THE SYMPOSIUM re
warns against bankrupt or suspended periodicals.
spectfully invite your
1
PRIZE OFFERS .
Attention
Nearly $ 60,000.00 in prizes for literary work announced by us
during the past year. Early information , regarding all prize offers
made by reputable publications, is given each month.
LITERARY AGENCY .
to the club list printed on another page of this
magazine.
THE SYMPOSIUM is particularly adapted for club
subscriptions. It does not displace any old favorite ,
Authors' manuscripts read and advice given as to the best
markets. Critical revision and correction of manuscripts. Man
uscripts correctly typewritten. Good MSS. accepted for sale.
Full information furnished upon request.
it comes forward into a new field . The reading
public will find in it monthly guides to their own
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Send 6 cents for sample copy of The Editor and get acquainted
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ELDREDGE & PENNY,
DENTIST ,
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WITHOUT PAIN ,
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Opticians...
And all dental operations are performed
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10
Jewelry ,
Books for everybody - little tots,
big ones, young men and young
C
Crowns, and Crown and Bridge Work ,
are my specialties .
Imported
Pottery.
women , older folks, lawyers, doctors,
laymen, professional men—truly,
We make a specialty
of Fine Repairing .
Nobody in
books for everybody.
this region goes into book business
as thoroughly or nobody cares to
287 Main Street , Opposite Post Office ,
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sell for as little as we do.
Our 1897 book catalogue is hot
from the press .
It contains
128
Thousands of
pages , or more, of lists of books that
Every
body who sends or asks can have it.
we have on our shelves.
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Residents
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With this issue .
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The same offer, for the
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of
time , is open to residents of any part of the
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ADVERTISEMENTS.
PHOTOGRAPHS .
HOLIDAY
CRAYONS .
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both Photographs and Portraits .
GOODS .
Christmas and New Year's Cards, Calendars,
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P3a65Fniaeii3rprsinofild
mounted Photos, Lithographs, Prang's Holi
day Publications.
c
Artists' Materials . A very large line of Nov
elties for decorating, new designs . We shall have
the finest display of artistic goods for the holidays
ever shown in Springfield . Prices low .
Headquarters for the International Art Pub
lishing Co.'s goods . We can supply the trade
with these goods in quantities at regular wholesale
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Water Colors for school use .
Varnish Stains , Enamel Paints , and all kinds
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17
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Webster's International
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WEBSTERS
INTE
DICRNAT
TINIONAL
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Dictionary
IT IS A THOROUGH REVISION OF THE UNABRIDGED ,
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of the
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Thje
osmeon
Symposium's
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COSMEON
for
Possible subscribers are invited to consider the
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“ COSMEON " is a name
Regular With the
Price. Symposium.
we have given to toilet
articles we make of alu
minum . Aluminum is bet
ter than silver. It never
tarnishes. It is lighter.
It can be decorated ashighly
as sterling silver itself. And it
costs much less.
But we don't
use aluminum , remember, because
$ 2.00
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4.00
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4.25
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American Amateur Photographer,
it's cheaper, but because it's so
much better for toilet articles .
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The finish and color on Cosmeon
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Harper's Monthly ,
3.00
3.00
3.00
4.00
4.00
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articles should not be con
founded with other alumi
num goods. Nobody else
equals thefine, white finish we give it .
Cosmeon brushes for the clothes and hair are
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The bristles are fastened in with air-tight, water
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no place where the dirt can lodge. The bristles
are the best that the world produces.
Cosmeon Mirrors are furnished with the finest
French plate beveled glass . The glass is fastened
in so tightly that it cannot be removed without
breaking it . It is put in to stay, and it stays.
There are Cosmeon Brushes, Mirrors, Combs,
Trays, costing from 75 cents to $ 4 . You cannot
take that much money and buy anything else so
beautiful or so acceptable as a Christmas gift for
either ladies or gentlemen.
Cosmeon articles are sold by most jewelers, druggists
and fancy goodsdealers. If you cannot find them,we will sup
ply you by mail. Ifyou decide you would ratherhaveyour
money than the goods,send them back and it will be sent
by return mail, unless they have been especially en
graved .
the year .
Current Literature ,
Forum ,
Harper's Weekly ,
4.00
Illustrated American ,
4.00
3.00
5.00
Independent ,
Judge ,
Ladies ' Home Journal,
Life ,
Littell's Living Age ,
McClure's Magazine,
Munsey's Magazine,
Nation ,
North American Review ,
Public Opinion ,
free to any address.
FLORENCE MANUFACTURING CO.
107 Pine St., Florence,Mass .,U.S.A .
COPYRIGHT 1896 -BATES-WHITMAN CO.N.Y.
1.00
5.00
6.00
1.00
4.40
2.40
4.40
4.25
3.50
5.40
1.75
5.40
6.00
1.60
1.60
3.50
5.40
3.00
5.40
3.00
5.00
2.50
.50
Youth's Companion ,
4.40
3.00
5.00
2.50
Review of Reviews ,
Romance ,
Scribner's ,
Short Stories ,
St. Nicholas ,
3.75
3.40
3.50
1.00
Puck ,
Our handsome catalogue, giving full par
ticulars, and pictures of all the various articles
in the different styles of engraving, will be sent
2.00
3.00
2.50
3.00
1.75
1.20
3.50
3.00
3.50
2.00
ADVERTISEMENTS .
The Home-Culture Clubs
The Christmas
Are small fireside clubs, meeting once a week for unlaborious ,
systematic reading, or for any light pursuit that is at the same time
entertaining and profitable.
Their purpose is to combine the stimulations and pleasures of
mutual improvement with the promotion of a kinder, fuller, and
Symposium
Contains a specially fine list of contributions.
more active neighborliness than ordinarily results from merely
drifting with the current of one's social preferences.
The artist GEORGE HENRY CLEMENTS illustrates a
story of the South, and also writes and illustrates with pen
Any Two or Three persons
drawings his own
may start one of these Home-Culture Clubs . They are with
out red tape , without machinery , without dues or fees .
are lent to them by THE SYMPOSIUM with only the
Books
expense of
postage one way.
" Plantation Sketch Book . "
Mr. GEORGE W. CABLE writes of J. M. Barrie's visit to
him in Northampton , the paper being illustrated by portraits of
Mr. and Mrs. Barrie taken expressly for this magazine.
Mr. CLIFTON JOHNSON writes , and illustrates his own
They have been
paper, on the land of Lorna Doone.
In successful Operation
for Pine Vears ,
DASKAM, MADELEINE WALLIN , MADELENE YALE WYNNE,
And at the close of the last season numbered seventy - five clubs
scattered through thirteen states.
Sketches and verse by the following well known writers :
ARTHUR Willis COLTON, MAUDE LOUISE FULLER , J. D.
besides considerable editorial work.
Mr. GEORGE W. CABLE is
chairman of the movement, and Miss ADELENE MOFFAT, one
of the assistant editors of The SYMPOSIUM , is the general sec
This special number will be sent to any address
retary .
Free
Letters inquiring for full particulars and addressed to
Miss MOFFAT, HOME-CULTURE Club House, NORTHAMPTON,
MASSACHUSETTS, will receive cordial attention .
If the request is accompanied by 40 cents for six months'
subscription to the magazine. ( See ad. on another page. )
Start a home-Culture Club
Here is a good chance to present a literary, artistic magazine
How in your heigbborbood.
of culture to your friend as a Christmas present.
He will like it .
A BICYCLE FREE
To any person who will send in $150.00 of subscriptions
at regular rates to Romance , Current Literature, or Short
Stories, between the 1st day of October, 1896 , and the 1st
day of May, 1887, we will give, free of cost, one $ 100
BICYCLE of STANDARD make, lady's or gentleman's
model. Full particulars on application by enclosing 10
cents for samples and instructions.
CURRENT LITERATURE is a magazine of information .
At once the largest
magazine published , it contains an endless amount of interesting material — the cream of
the thought and intellectual development of the day: 25 cents a number— $ 3.00 a year.
SHORT STORIES is a magazine of short tales — the original and best of story maga
zines - handsomely illustrated by the ablest illustrators of the day. The new departmentof
anecdotes offers a monthly prize for the best one sent in . 25 cents a number— $ 2.50 a year.
ROMANCE portrays the romantic side of modern life, its art, its celebrities, its wonders,
its peculiarities, its varied developments . Light yet serious. Cheap yet respectable .
10 cents a number- $ 1.00 a year.
For list of prizes see the advertising pages each month .
THE CURRENT LITERATURE PUBLISHING COMPANY,
52-54 Lafayette Place , New York .
One Dollar a Year.
Ten Cents a Copy .
The Symposium .
An Illustrated Monthly Literary Magazine edited and published by
GEORGE W. CABLE.
Devoted to every form of knowledge , speculation and experiment
designed to make homes better homes and neighbors better neighbors.
The systematic conduct of
Private and Clab Reading
is a special feature of THE SYMPOSIUM .
Outlines of courses are
published every month , with timely hints to readers, suggestions as
to lines of reading, etc.
A Plan for Lending Boks.
In regions where library facilities are few , THE SYMPOSIUM proposes
to offset, in part at least , the absence of the circulating library . We
will treat any subscription to THE SYMPOSIUM as a fee for membership
in a library , and mail the books required , the cost to the subscriber
being merely the postage one way.
Commendations .
1
The number of THE SYMPOSIUM'S
The illustrations and the spirit that
pages is not great , but their contents are
breathes in THE SYMPOSIUM are
satisfactory . Both the literature and
the pictures can be described as very
good. New York Sun.
fined , and will secure entrance into
many homes for the editor's well-known
re
humanitarian propaganda.– New York
Evening Post.
Address,
The Symposium,
Ten Cents a Copy .
Northampton ,
One Dollar a Year.
Press of Springfield Printing and Binding Company , Springfield , Mass.
Mass.
|
ULTZIZ
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
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COMPOUND IODO -OXYGEN
Address:
E. W. HIGBEE, M.D.
NORTHAMPTON , MASS.
T
R HIGBEE'S Gough Gold and Grip Powders.
New Fancy WorkBook
for 1896. Second edition. Just out. Glves explicit
instructions for embroidering tea cloths, centre
pieces ,anddoil.es in all the latest and most popular
designs, including Rose, Jewel, Delft, Wild Flower,
and Fruit patterns. It tellsjustwhatshadesof
silk ,to useforeach design, as wellas complete
directions for working .Also , rules for knitting
Baby's Shirt and Cap andcrocheting Baby'sBon
net. 96 pages over 80 illustrations. Sent to any
address for 6 cents in stamps . Mention " for 1896
Florence Home Needlework ."
Quickest cold -cure ever seen .
single powder will often break up
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The samedirections for headache .
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Sent by return mail on receipt of
Price 25 cents .
price. Agents wanted.
Nonotuek Silk Co. 93 Bridge St., Florence, Mass.
R HIGBEE'S Gough,Gold and Grip Powders.
DR25c by mail. 281.Main ,Northampton Mass.
THE NORTHAMPTON
At the Front for Lightness,
WE MAKE IT Durability, Speed, Economy,> YOU TAKE IT
Beauty, and Grace.
The Wheels of 1897 .
Two Models, Ladies' and Gentlemen's.
THE NORTHAMPTON CYCLE CO .
NORTHAMPTON , MASS,
Send for Catalogue and you will buy our Wheel.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
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