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LITERATURE AND ART.

Thoughts that Breathe. From the Writings of Dean | Stanley. Selected by E. E. BROWN. With an Introduction by PHILLIPS BROOKE. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. The character of the writings of Dean Stanley which are best known among us makes them perhaps especially suitable for the purposes which the compiler had in view. They are historical, and possess the vivid interest which belongs to the most sacred or the most romantic scenes in the history of the human race. No writings are richer in the assertion and illustration of those principles of thought and action which are universal and eternal. The appeal to principle or the statement of universal truth made in connection with some event in history, or some question of present life, will always have a clearer vividness and a stronger influence than a purely abstract utterance of wisdom. To those who are familiar with the writings of Dean Stanley, it will be needless to say how largely his character pervades them. The power which this character involves will be felt in these extracts, even separated as they are from the historical events by which they were suggested, as a great portrait makes its power felt even by those who never saw the living face which it portrays.

The thoughts that have been selected for position in this volume are such as may be truly esteemed most forcible and striking, and, clothed as they are in the choicest diction of the English language, deserve to rank as among the fair. est gems of modern classics. No more expressive title for the work could have been selected; for verily they are "thoughts that breathe."

More Ways Than One. By ALICE PERRY. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co.

Miss Perry has succeeded admirably in her labors, and the story before us is significant of the great skill and ability expended by her in its rendition. It is a society story, full of tender pathos and feeling, and told in such a chaste and unsensational vein, that it leaves the reader pleasantly entertained with a realization of some mental improvement having been derived from its perusal.

Nana. A Sequel to L'Assommoir. By EMILIE ZOLA. Translated from the French by JOHN STIRLING. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.

The story of Nana is as real, as intense, and as bold as its predecessor; but it places before us a totally different world. It is elaborated with the same care, and gives us a careful study of the manners and life of that class, as they exist in real life, whose principal business in life is to be amused, and which ordinary romance-writers designate as "people of elegant leisure."

Cincinnati's Beginnings. By FRANCIS W. MILLER. Cincinnati: Peter G. Thompson.

The design of this work, as expressed by its author, is to supply some missing chapters in the early history of the city

and the Miami purchase, chiefly from hitherto unpublished documents. That he has successfully accomplished his task the work before us sufficiently attests. The style in which the work has been gotten up by its publisher is also, we are pleased to note, a great improvement upon the usual style adopted for works of like character, and for which he is deserving of public consideration. Any of our antiquarian readers desiring a copy of the work can obtain the same by remitting the price, one dollar and seventy-five cents, to the publisher, Mr. Thompson, Cincinnati, Ohio.

How She Won Him; or, The Bride of the Charming Valley. By DAVID A. MOORE. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.

This might more properly be called "a realistic romance" than a novel, for every incident in it—and many of them are wild and wonderful to a degree-might have happened. The hero of this story starts for the West, while yet in his teens, leaving his home in a Pennsylvania village, and with his mother settles down in Cincinnati, where he has the good fortune to win the favor of a liberal-minded banker, who gives him employment, and to whom, in the fullness of time, he is able in turn to render essential servicc. When he attains manhood, he follows Bacon's advice, of giving hostages to fortune by taking a wife-not, however, his first love. There is a little mystery here, which the reader will find cleared up very satisfactorily in the end. Leon Gaylord, having a passion for adventure, and a conviction that enterprise, perseverance and good conduct cannot fail to win success, goes to the Pacific coast soon after the wondrous resources of California had begun to be developed, leaving his mother and wife in Cincinnati, and, though not without trouble from the Indians, who regarded all gold-hunters as interlopers, eventually becomes very rich, and even obtains a seat on the bench in a district in California, whence he dispenses justice to the satisfaction of all except criminals. At last, still a young man, for he had begun life early, he returns to the East, with the large fortune he had realized. His wife had died years before, leaving a son. The wealth laboriously and honestly obtained is judiciously and liberally dispensed; but the romance of his life may be said to begin again at Saratoga, the end being a second marriage, with the happiest auspices and under very strange circumstances. The numerous characters in this life-drama are so cleverly sketched that it seems as if they were pen-photographs-if such things are.

Glimpses at Olden Arts.-Among the most interesting of the collections at the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, are those illustrating the development of the arts among the mound-builders of this continent. The mound-builders were rude jewelers. Carved discs of shell, often with the heads of birds outlined thereon, a ring of steatite, and a copper ornament of cross-like form, are among the decorative relics of these people. The cross is represented upon articles of shell and copper found in the graves, evidently made from

native copper, hammered and cut into shape. A small per- | foration at the upper border still contains a fragment of the string by which the article was suspended, preserved by the action of the copper; and on the surface of the copper are slight evidences of its having been in contact with a finely-woven fabric, thus showing, says Professor Putnam, that this ancient people, who were well advanced in the ceramic art, also possessed the knowledge of weaving.

One jar now in the museum, taken from a stone-grave mound in Tennessee, is made in the rude image of a woman, represented as resting on her knees. The hair or head-dress is distinguishable. Some ordinary jars of moundbuilder manufacture are made with care and skill; their good proportions and well-made curves equalling and closely resembling in outline some of the best of the early Old World forms which were produced by the aid of the wheel, while their very simplicity is the perfection of the art. Bones were used for many implements. Splinters of bones, as the museum collection shows, were utilized as awls and needles, and it is not improbable that the grandmothers of moundbuilding days knit their grandchildren's stockings with bone knitting-needles. That combs were worn in the hair seems sufficiently proved, as is known to have been the case with the aborigines of Peru. One jar, taken from the grave of a child, is mounted on three hollow legs, the cavities of which connect with the body of the jar, while the cross-bars between them are solid. A bowl, also from a child's grave, is well executed, duck-shaped, with natural head and bill. Another jar is a fairly faithful representation of a bear. This latter jar is remarkable for its showing that the moundbuilders were acquainted with decoration in color. On this jar had been painted a number of concentric figures, perfectly apparent when the jar was first removed from the grave, but as they had not been burnt in, they are now but faintly indicated.

The Bayeux Tapestry.-The oldest piece of needlework in the world is the Bayeux tapestry. Tapestry, you know, is a kind of woven hangings of wool or silk, often enriched with gold and silver representing various figures. In the Middle Ages queens and noble ladies had not much else to do to employ their time, and so they wove and embroidered tapestry to cover the cold stone walls of their prisonlike castles. A great deal of labor and skill was sometimes expended upon these productions. The tapestry that is preserved at Bayeux, France, is said to have been worked by Queen Matilda, the wife of William the Conqueror, though if she did it all, she must have done it as Solomon built the temple, "with a great deal of help." It is a long linen web of the color of brown holland, about two hundred and thirty feet in length, and a little over twenty inches wide. Upon this is embroidered a series of historic groups illustrating the various events and incidents of the Norman conquest. Some have called it a sort of pictorial history of that age, which indeed it is, and in some respects better than Mr. Freeman's or Mrs. Strickland's. The embroidery is woolen, the thread used being about the size of our common yarn. It was of various colors-blue, red, green, black and yellow predominating. There are fiftytwo scenes represented, and one gets a very interesting and

graphic picture of that age from that parti-colored web. The designs of course are very simple. Neither Matilda or any of her maids knew anything of perspective or the principles of coloring; but with this lack of the rules of art, and her paucity of material, she produced a work which few of the women of the nineteenth century would care to undertake.

Mr. Reinhart has several small pictures of interesting motive. One is of Franklin before Governor Keith, who, it will be remembered, professed greater interest for the young American than was proved by his acts; and that after offering to give Franklin letters of credits abroad to enable him to buy type, and so to be set up as State printer, not only did he neglect to send any letters after him, but had in fact no credit to give. In this picture the Pennsylvania governor sits in his library beside a table, in picturesque and elegant costume, and the young man stands at the other side of the table, holding his hand on an open book, and with an enthusiastic expression, as he seeks to make an impression on his patron. Another picture is the "Pride of the Village," in which an effort is made to realize the tenderness and sweetness which Irving represented of the subject.

A work believed to be a valuable treasure of art has recently been found in a pawnbroker's shop in San Francisco. A brooch was being shown by the dealer, when the discovery was made by a person present that the miniature which it contained was by Richard Conway, the favorite of George IV. and of the English nobility of his day. By more careful inspection the artist's initials were found inscribed beneath a glass covering, and within the reverse, where was set a wreath of auburn and golden hair intertwined; under another covering, his full name, with one supposed to be the maiden name of his wife. The picture is that of a beautiful woman, and the painter's wife, if the supposition about the feminine name be correct. The history of the brooch is traced by the person holding it in San Francisco to its purchase at auction by a titled Englishman, from whose son the pawnbroker received it a year since as security on a loan of ten dollars.

At the Chicago Academy of Design is exhibited a portrait of De Lesseps, the great French engineer, by Healey. It is a composition representing, apparently, the conclusion of the canal conference held in Paris. M. De Lesseps, a threequarters length figure, is standing near a table, over the edge of which hangs a map of the two American continents. With the index finger of the left hand he indicates the location of the canal which is to connect the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. Standing on the opposite side of the table is Mr. Nathan Appleton, of Boston.

Miss C. L. Ransom has been commissioned by the Treasury Department to paint a portrait of Alexander Hamilton from original pictures in New York.

Mrs. Vinnie Ream Hoxie has completed her statue of Farragut, which is to be cast in bronze at the Washington Navy Yard.

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GOSSIP AND NOTE BOOK.

We very well know that our readers are considerably in- | terested in the travels of their funny friend of the Detroit Free Press, and feel no little concern over the trials and tribulations that beset him in his peregrinations through Detroit's lively every-day life. He is always on hand just at the right moment to catch the good points, and he returns them to us in most excellent shape. Here are several of the latest :

Not His Darling.-After a down-town young man had been keeping company with a girl at the north end of Third street for several months, her father suddenly got the idea that a salary of $7 per week would not support his daughter

in proper style, and he forbade the young man to come to
the house. Letters were exchanged and stolen interviews
followed, but nothing of the sort will occur again.
The other night the old man observed his daughter acting
nervous and queer, and he scented cologne in the air. Whis-
pering in the old woman's ear, he dodged out doors and
took a position favorable for one determined on evil. Pretty
soon soft steps were heard. The old man coughed. The
gate opened, the steps came nearer, and a voice whispered:
"Is that my darling?"

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Not hardly!" replied the old gentleman, as he rose up and reached out for a coat-collar, and next moment a pair of polished boot-heels revolved in the air, swept off the top of a rosebush, came down and demolished a flower-pot, and then shot out of the gate at the rate of a mile a minute, bearing away a young man whose hair had pushed his hat off.

Who He Was." Now, then, who is the plaintiff in this case ?" asked his Honor in Justice alley yesterday, as a case was called.

No reply.

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"You needn't grin," she said, as she rolled up the card again: "I'm heavy on foot, and the walking is bad, but I'm going to walk this town till I find the man who got this thing off on Samuel for 'God Bless our Home.'”

Lawyers. Some years ago two wealthy farmers of Western Pennsylvania had a serious dispute in a business transaction, and determined to have the matter settled ac

cording to law. One of them accordingly repaired to the County-seat and stated his case to a lawyer, who said he regretted that he could not undertake his cause, as he had been already retained by his opponent. He would, however, do all in his power to serve him by recommending took from him a letter of introduction to his friend. The another and able lawyer. The farmer thanked him, and gum of the envelope being still wet, he thought he might as well take a peep at its contents before delivering it. This he did, and to his astonishment and indignation read as follows: Two plump geese have come to town. You pluck the one, and I the other." The farmer immediately waited upon his adversary, and showed him the letter. The matter was speedily and satisfactorily arranged without the aid of the lawyers.

Freaks of Accident.-Strange mischances, with fatal results, are happening daily, here and there, over the country. A Boston butcher ran against a knife that lay on a block, severing an artery, and bled to death. In New York a man, hastening by a meat stand, had his eye caught and torn out by a tenter hook fastened to an awning-post. A Denver woman caught her foot in a frog, and could not extricate it before a train ran over her. A horse kicked a Michigan boy into a deep well, where he was drowned. A

I ask who is the plaintiff in this case?" continued the Vermont farmer sneezed while holding a straw in his mouth,

court.

"I don't know anything about plaintiffs," replied a man in the corner as he slowly rose; "but if you are asking for the chap who was chased a mile and a half, and then mopped all over his own barn-yard by two desperadoes, I'm your man!"

The case went on.

Not Her Motto.-A Woodward avenue policeman was the other day halted near the City Hall by a two-hundredpound woman with a parcel in her hand, and she requested, to be directed to the store where they sold mottoes. He asked which particular store she wanted, and she explained: "Well, I can't tell. My old man came to town yesterday, and I wanted him to buy the motto of God Bless our Home.' He got in somewhere where they told him that stylish folks no longer hung up that motto, and the old idiot went and brought home this one."

drew it into his lungs, and choked to death. In Nashville a shoe flew off the foot of a kicking mule, and fractured the skull of a baby. While standing on his head on the top of a high fence-post, an Iowa youth lost his balance, fell into a tub of boiling water, and was fatally scalded. An Oregon girl swallowed her engagement ring, and lived only a week afterwards. A stone, thrown by a playfellow, broke a glass from which a St. Louis boy was drinking, driving some of the pieces down his throat, and he died a few days after in great agony. Looking up to watch the flight of an arrow, a Nashville woman did not see it descending directly over her head, and the sharp metal point penetrated her brain through one of her eyes, killing her instantly. In Ohio a five-yearold boy went to feed the pigs; the pen was furnished with a sliding door, moving up and down, which, as he poked his head in, suddenly fell on his neck, strangling him. A bachelor in Philadelphia met with a curious death; he held a button in his mouth while threading a needle, and acci.

She unrolled the parcel, and held up a card which was dentally swallowed it, and it so lodged in his throat as to tastily painted:

"Don't ask for credit-Our terms are cash."

result fatally. In Cincinnati recently a young man was leaning upon his gun, watching a game of base-ball, when a

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The Advantages of Women Over Men.-A woman may say what she likes to you without running the risk of getting knocked down for it. She can take a snooze after dinner, while her husband has to work. She can go forth into the streets without being invited to treat in every coffeehouse. She can paint her face if she is too pale, and flour it if too red. She can stay at home in time of war, and wed again if her husband is killed: She can wear corsets if too thick, other fixtures if too thin. She can eat, drink and be merry without costing her a cent. She can get divorced from her husband whenever she sees one she likes better. And she can get in debt all over, and he must pay it, until he warns the public by advertisement not to trust her on his account any longer.

How Sharon was once Beat.-A good story is told about Farmer Treadway of Carson, and Sharon, in the Caison Appeal, as follows. The writer has never seen this story in print, but it is so good that it ought to have been, and may have been years ago for all he knows. Sharon once built a saw-mill on some government land, and ran it three years on government timber. This was in early times, and wood-sawyers were not always particular to secure a proper title. After sawing up all the wood in sight, Sharon abandoned the mill, and immediately old Farmer Treadway, who had an eye on the property, entered the land in the regular way, and came down on it like a thousand of brick with a United States patent. Presently Sharon began to move the machinery of the mill, when Treadway served him with a notice to keep his hands off. Sharon paid no attention to the old farmer, and the next thing he knew he was sued for eight thousand dol lars. Treadway showed his documents all correct, and the jury awarded damages in full. After the suit Treadway walked up to Sharon, and remarked: "Bill, you may be pretty good at minin', but you're a shiftless land-sharp. I ain't much on quartz ledges, but when it comes to realities I'm a terror. No hard feelin', Bill? No hard feelin' I hope?" The crowd roared, and Sharon good-naturedly set up the drinks.

A certain young man brought his affianced down from the country to see the sights. One day, while they were passing a confectioner's, the swain noticed in the window a placard bearing the announcement, "Ice cream--one dollar per gal." "Well," said the young man, as he walked into the saloon, "that's a pretty steep price to charge for one gal; but, Maria, I'll see you through, no matter what it costs. Here's a dollar, waiter; ice cream for this gal.”

The Schoolma'am at Court,-Lena Morgenstern, the respected inventor of the kindergarten, attended the court held in the Berliner Schloss, recently, in celebration of the golden wedding. Royal pages, gorgeous in scarlet and white favors, were in attendance at the throne-room to

spread out the trains of the noble dames and damsels privileged to appear before the presence and perform the homage of curtsies prescribed by etiquette. These high-born youths executed their functions with admirable neatness whenever the ladies requiring their ministration happened to be ambassadresses, peeresses, or even members of the numerous untitled aristocracy; but when a lady of the middle class, haply representing a deputation of a charitable society, presented herself at their post, they were observed to hang back and withhold their services. When Lena Morgenstern's turn came to enter the throne-room, she paused at the portal, expectant of the assistance eagerly afforded to her predecessor, the Countess D-f; but in vain. Turning sharply round upon the "proud pyets" who disdained to. notice a mere "burger liche," she addressed them: "Who are you, young gentlemen ?" "I am Prince H-." "And you?" "I am Count K-" "Well, then, Prince H- and Count K-, be so good as to arrange my train properly!" With cheeks as red as their liveries, the youthful nobles hastily did their office, having learned a salutary lesson from a lady whose exceptional experience in managing ill-conditioned children thus stood her in good stead at the court of her sovereign.

Dr. Mary Walker has a pretty long range for one of her calibre.-Exchange. Would it be at all improper, then, to call her a breech-loader?

"Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, did you say, Mrs. Caddy? You may be right; and, to judge by the size of the opening, the spoon must be there yet, handle

and all."

Leap Year Law.-Girls, just listen to the funny man of the Philadelphia Record. He has interested himself to the extent of looking up the legal provisions for such of you who are troubled with a beau who will not pop the question. For your benefit, we quote him at length:

Girls, this is Leap Year! Now is your chance. Tempus fugit. It will be four years before Leap Year turns up again; and it may be forever to your matrimonial hopes. The manner of securing a masculine attachment is very simple, and the world is full of gudgeons who swallow smirks-and-smiles bait with as much delight as the whale took Jonah in out of the deep waters. In the chivalrous days of Merrie England there was enacted a law that made liberal provision for young women troubled with young men who would spark but never blaze into a proposal. In Colonial times this law was incorporated in the statute books of Penn's Colony, and there it still reposes, unrestricted in its application to modern cases of long-drawn-out courtship.

Stripped of its almost impenetrable cloak of legal verbiage and old English, it is found to contain these provisions for 'ye maydns and spinsters" who seek redress under "ye act of ye Leap Year:"

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Any girl who has set every night to twelve o'clock since the last Leap Year with the same young man, eating twentyfive cent candy, has an inalienable right to pop the question. Should the same girl devote all Sunday afternoon to the same young man, and feed him liberally and frequently during this period, his refusal to take her makes him liable

to be fined and incarcerated in the deepest dungeon beyond the moat.

(As dungeons and moats were never imported to this Land of the Free, we must mentally substitute the House of Correction and Pennypack Creek.)

If it can be shown that any "maydn" between the ages of thirty-six and so on has for the said period of time (viz., since the last Leap Year) focused her affections on any certain particular young man—that she has diligently sought to keep and hold him by divers means known to the sex, and striven to kindle the ardent flames in his bosom-she can, under the provisions of this act, drag the said hardened young man to the nearest magistrate and give him the choice of supporting her for life as her lawful husband or enlisting in the service of his Gracious Majesty, the King.

(Doing service for the King is sheer nonsense. The way to do it now is to snatch the young man by the lappel of his Ulster and give him the choice of taking you or parting with his garment. In nine cases out of ten he will save his Ulster and take you. As the divorce lawyers put it, this will prevent the publicity of going before a magistrate.)

If the young lady cannot muster courage, this antique law clothes the parent with certain powers. Any time during Leap Year he is privileged to drop in on the young man at any hour (it makes no difference whether the young man is weighing the old man's darling on his knee, or is glued to her side by a cramp in the arm), and say to him:

"Young fellow, biz is biz. There is my lovely daughter. Here is a lovely bill for

"Sixteen gross of Candles,

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used and consumed by you and that girl, during this courting spell. Which will you take?"

The modern degenerate young man would no doubt close solemnly his off-eye at a parent, and remark:

"Biz is biz, old man; but knock off the candle charge; no light, you know, for three years. Cut down that fire bill one-third; we have been too snug to use much heat. Substitute sliding down baluster for gate hinges. And, as for chairs, that's sheer extortion; one chair for two has been the rule. But, give a fellow six or eight months to think it over, and I'll let you know."

Indulgent parent, beware!

Tender-hearted female, nail him! Do not falter.

Pop the question at once.

If he declines, fire him out!

Brother Gardner has the Floor." What I was gwine to remark,” began the old man, as the calcium light at the lower end of the hall shone full on his clean shirt and garnet necktie, “am to de effeck dat you can't depend on a man till you hev gone ober a mill-dam in de same boat wid him, an' eben den it am safer to keep de doahs locked. I am led to dis refleckshun by de fack dat about fo' days ago a strange nigger knocked at my humble doah. He was a meek and humble-lookin' man, an' he tole me a story of woe an' misfortun' dat almoas broke my heart. I took him in. I fed an' warmed him an' felt bad fur him. Yesterday, while I was out lookin' fur a job fur him, he dodged de ole woman an' made off wid all my summer 'skeeter-bars, an' I hevn't cotched him yit. De ideah of a man stealin' 'skeeter-bars in de winter am bad 'nuff of itself, but to steal 'em from a fam'ly dat had warmed his heels, clothed his back an' filled him up with bacon an' 'taters, am sunthin' dat I can't get ober right soon. I shell go right on trustin' folkses same as befo', but in de sweet bime-by dar will be a clus board fence, eighteen feet high, 'tween me an' sich people as can't eat two meals a day an' pay a hundred cents on de dollar. We will now enter into de reg'lar concordance of de meetin'."

Twin Stories. Good stories are always born twins. We all remember the quaint saying of Rufus Choate, who, when told that if he pursued his hard work he would ruin his constitution, replied that the constitution was gone long since, and that for years he had been living on the by-laws. Of Sheridan the counterpart is told. He was somewhat given to indulgence in strong drink. When remonstrated with, and warned that the quantity of brandy he drank would certainly destroy the coat of his stomach, he quietly poured out another glass, and replied, "Well, then, my friend, there is nothing for my stomach to do but to digest in its waistcoat."

When Patrick was told that the price of bread hað fallen, he exclaimed: "That is the first time I ever rejoiced at the fall of my bist friend."

"When the swallows homeward fly"-after midnight.

"Robin Adair-y," the milkman sang, as he scattled away with the cans; he is singing now, "By the sad sea waves," for Sing Sing quite altered his plans.

A true American's a man of feeling-when he gets busted, too proud for begging, too honest for stealing, then he gets trusted.

"When we are married," said Widow Wagstaff to her new adorer, "I think it no more than fair that you should give up smoking your cigar, as I must give up my weeds."

The man who called a bow-legged individual a perambulating parenthesis had his remark brought to a period by the interrogation of his exclamation point.

A disappointed literary aspirant remarks that, asbestos being fireproof, he would recommend that it be thoroughly applied to the shrouds of dead editors, that they then need have no fears of a future life.

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