LITERARY COMMENT.
Under the title of "Education in France" there appears in this, the initial number of The Pacific Monthly, the first of a series of articles from the pen of that most clever writer, Samuel Jaques Brun. In 1896 Doxey brought out a limited edition of Mr. Brun's charming "Tales of Languedoc." This volume is, both in style and subject matter, delightfully original, and deals with the hitherto unwritten folklore of Southern France.
Among the new books issued this month from the publishing house of F. Tennyson Neely is "A Platonic Experiment," by Landis Ayr, an extraordinary story of unusual interest and quite impossible conclusions. That is to say, the conclusions are impossible, judged by complex human standards. But the author has written above the commonplace and the ordinary, and shows man and woman not as they are, but as they ought to be. The success of such an experiment as this portrayed by Landis Ayr may be beyond the realms of possibility, but it is well worth trying. Only to have tried is something noble, even though the attempt result, as it must in real life, in failure. The book is an expression of the higher moral tendencies of the age.
"The Rainbow's End" is a Klondike story by Alice Palmer Henderson, and is published by H. S. Stone & Company. It is a woman's account of life and conditions in the gold fields of the frozen north, and is a dispassionate view of the situation as it exists today.
"In the Saddle With Gomez," by Captain Murio Carillo, is a series of short stories dealing with the adventures of many of Cuba's famous soldiers. The capture of St. Clara, the charge at Lequetia and the attack on Camajuani, three of the most important events in Cuba's fight for freedom, are vividly portrayed. The book is both pleasant and instructive, and comes at a time when public interest in its subjects is intense. Mr. F. Tennyson Neely is to be congratulated upon the appearance of the volumes that come from his house. They are always well printed, well bound and of high-class literary merit.
Harper Brothers have just issued the last volume written by the "Daughter of the Confederacy." Winnie Davis was a bright and charming writer, and this book, "Romance of Summer Seas," is no less delightful in style and composition than those preceding it.
One of the interesting books brought out recently by Macmillan is "Brown Men and Women," from the pen of Edward Reeves. The subject is not new, volume after volume having been written descriptive of the inhabitants of the fascinating islands of the southern seas, but no author ever handled the conditions of life existing in those favored regions in quite the frank and fearless manner that characterizes Mr. Reeves' work. He spares none that are guilty, and does not veil his accusations in vague or ambiguous terms.
In the Portland library there is a copy of the history of the Plymouth colony, printed under direction of the secretary of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, by order of the general court, from the original manuscript which has recently been returned to the United States by the hands of Thomas F. Bayard, lately ambassador at the court of St. James. The restoration, as every one probably knows, was ordered by decree of the consistory court of the diocese of London, and the manuscript, all in the handwriting of Governor Bradford, with the exception of a part of the last page, is erroneously known as the "Log of the Mayflower." In 1856 a transcript of the document was secured from London through the efforts of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and put in print, but this later edition differs from the first in that it contains only the matter embodied in the original, with a brief account of the restoration, and is, of course, limited. Mr. F. K. Arnold, who presented the volume to the Portland library, is a lineal descendant of the first governor of Massachusetts.
Madame Amelie de Fonfride Smith has made a valuable contribution to the military records of the state of Oregon in the form of an "Official Roster," which is illustrated, and is a comprehensive history of the officers and enlisted men of the year 1898. It is a register that no patriotic citizen of Oregon will care to be without.
The O. R. & N., the pioneer transportation company, has recently issued an attractive book on "The Resources of Idaho. The text is the work of Colonel P. Donan, and is written in his best style. And while the salmon story and the potato picture may tax the credulity of Eastern readers, it is but fair to say that here in the West the truth of these things is never questioned.
