With the next issue of THE BOOKMAN we shall begin the publication of a series of illustrated articles dealing with the subject of the foreign stage in New York. There have appeared from time to time in the newspapers short descriptions of certain phases of the East Side stage, but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to treat the subject in anything like a complete and adequate manner. The first paper, to be written by Mr. Norman Hapgood, will treat of the German theatre. This will be followed by articles on the Yiddish theatre and the Italian theatre, the series to be concluded in the September number with a paper on the Chinese theatre, by Mr. Edward W. Townsend.

In a recent number we had occasion to say something concerning Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith's collection of short stories and sketches, published under the title of The Other Fellow. In conclusion we expressed the opinion that the book was as distinctively the work of Mr. Smith, Lecturer, as Tom Grogan was of Mr. Smith, Contractor; Caleb West of Mr. Smith, Lighthouse Builder, and A Day at Laguerre's of Mr. Smith, Horrible Painter. Now all this seemed to us to be quite innocent, yet the number had been out but very few days before the mail began bringing us sorrowfully indignant. communications from Mr. Smith's admirers. These letters were in tone, as a rule, measured and urbane; yet we fancied that we detected a disposition to

bring down the bludgeon upon our unoffending pate. Our correspondents, one and all, insisted, with a gravity and sincerity that left us deeply touched, that we had been guilty of injustice and unkindness in applying to an artist of Mr. Smith's standing so scathing a term as "Horrible Painter."

Now the point of the story ends with the above paragraph. However, under the circumstances, we think it best to go a little farther, and say that the objectionable words were in no way meant as a criticism of Mr. Smith's work with the brush or pencil, but were used simply because the term "Horrible Painter" plays an important part in the initial story of A Day at Laguerre's, where it is applied to the artist by the genial Madame Laguerre in remonstrance at the enormity of his appetite and not at his graphic shortcomings. We really hope that we make this quite clear.

We have been receiving of late a number of letters asking for information about the career and personality of Mr. John Uri Lloyd, whose Stringtown on the Pike is now running serially in this magazine. Mr. Lloyd was born in West Bloomfield, New York, April 19, 1849. When he was very young his family went to live in Kentucky, where the future. chemist and author received his early education at private schools in Burlington, Petersburg and Florence. At a very early age he developed a preference for

the study of nature, and thus became interested in chemistry, which same trait led his younger brother, Curtis Gates Lloyd, into the realms of botany. By

dint of hard work and close observation he made rapid advances in chemistry and pharmacy, and in the year 1871, when he was but twenty-two years of age, he became manager of the laboratory of H. M. Merrell and Company, of Cincinnati. In 1877 Mr. Lloyd was received as a partner into this firm. He became professor of pharmacy in the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, resigning the chair in 1887, in which year he was elected president of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He is now Professor of Chemistry and President of the Board of Trustees at the Eclectical Medical Institution of Cincinnati. Some idea of Mr. Lloyd's position in American chemistry may be conveyed by calling attention to the fact that he is one of the five Americans who were included in Raber's Biography of the Eminent Pharmacists of the World, published in Geneva, Swit

zerland.

The list of Mr. Lloyd's scientific books includes Chemistry of Medicines, A

Study in Pharmacy, and Drugs and Medicines of North America. He was the collaborator of Dr. John King in the compilation of King's American Dispensatory, and has been a frequent contributor to pharmaceutical and chemical journals. His Etidorhpa, The End of Earth created a great deal of discussion among people interested in speculative fiction. His literary work in scientific lines is largely the record of his own original chemical and pharmaceutical laboratory experiments; his work in fiction (so called) the recording of speculative, metaphysical thought and the study of Kentucky folklore and character sketches. While entirely free from superstition himself, he keenly enjoys studying the superstitions, the sign-lore and the emotional phases of the people he meets and in working them into stories. Mr. Lloyd has been twice married, and at present, with the second Mrs. Lloyd and their three children, lives in Norwood, a suburb of Cincinnati. We present herewith an hitherto unpublished photograph of the author of Stringtown on the Pike.

A correspondent in Syracuse, New York, who takes exception to a sentence in an article that we recently published concerning the wane of the dime novel, gives us some very interesting information about early American "polite letterwriters." He speaks of having in his' possession a book entitled The Art of Epistolary Composition, by Captain Alden Partridge, superintendent of the A. L. S. and M. Academy at Middletown, Connecticut, and published in 1826 by E. and H. Clark, of that city. The letters stand for "American, Literary, Scientific and Military." Models are given of various styles of epistolary composition: "Of epistolary decorum," "letters for commercial correspondence and letters of business," "letters of thank, of reproof, excuse, farewell, congratulation, condolence"; the book opening with thirty rules to be observed by letter-writers.

A very typical model is that for a letter supposed to be addressed to "a lady in whose society the writer has passed a summer." It runs as follows:

My days have ceased to be pleasant, madam, since I have ceased to enjoy the continual de

lights of your society. Where shall I seek for the charm which your amiable disposition diffuses around you, the cool shade under which you discoursed so agreeably on the enjoyments of a peaceful life and the advantages of solitude, those charming conversations in which you astonished me by the brilliancy of your wit, and displayed all the benevolence of your heart in the beauty of your maxims? Your absence occasions a vacancy which I am unable to supply. I was indeed gloomy on leaving it, but I console myself with the thought that you will sometimes deign to remember me; and I sincerely hope that your joy may be equal to the regrets which I feel on account of your absence. I am, etc.

We reproduce herewith a recent photograph of Jerome K. Jerome, whose Three Men on Wheels has just been published by Messrs. Dodd, Mead and Company. Mr. Jerome had an exceedingly eventful life before he finally decided upon taking up literature as a profession. He was in turn clerk, schoolmaster, actor and newspaper writer. His first book, On the Stage and Off, was published in 1888. The following year Three Men in a Boat and The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow were given to the reading public. Mr. Jerome's latest book deals with the careers of the three Londoners whose adventures and misadventures on the Upper Thames provoked so much hearty laughter. The scene of their more recent exploits is the Black Forest.

There is considerable mystery concerning Mr. Kipling's new story, which will begin running serially in this country in the autumn. The first draft was given to the printers in England before Mr. Kipling's departure for South Africa. In its original form it made about one hundred thousand words. The proofs have been forwarded to Mr. Kipling at the scene of the war, and the author has been obliged to make his corrections and alterations under trying and picturesque circumstances. However, we hardly think that this is a drawback. We have been taught to expect more of Mr. Kipling blackening sheets of paper, by dim light, in out-of-the-way places, than of Mr. Kipling doing his work under the most favourable conditions in Brattleboro or Rottingdean. The American publishers

JEROME K. JEROME.

of the story expect to have all the "copy" by July 1. Mr. Kipling is very reticent about the title and the subject. An English literary weekly recently said that the scene is laid in Upper Burmah. It is also hinted that Mr. Kipling has gone back to the field of his early triumphs, and that Mulvaney, Otheris and Lleroyd are to be introduced under new circumstances and in a new environment. The very startling guess was recently hazarded that the story would bring the "Soldiers Three" into the war of the Transvaal.

Mr. Kipling, who has temporarily gone back to journalism, and is hard at work at Bloemfontein assisting to edit The Friend, contributes four lines on the death of Mr. G. W. Steevens to the issue for March 24, running:

G. W. STEEVENS.

Through war and pestilence, red siege and fire, Silent and self-contained he drew his breath; Brave, not for show of courage-his desire Truth, as he saw it, even to the death.

We present herewith a portrait of Miss Mary Devereux, whose historical ro

mance, From Kingdom to Colony, is one of the most important of the recent publications of Messrs. Little, Brown and Company.

A volume of short stories which should attract considerable well-deserved attention is The Son of the Wolf, by Jack London, which was published about the middle of April by Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. The nine tales which make up the book are all striking as examples of word-painting. Mr. Morgan Robertson, the writer of sea stories, speaking of Jack London recently, compared him to Kipling. Now so many men have of late years been compared to Kipling or have been said to have his style, that the author of The Man Who Would be King as a criterion is becoming

In this in

just a little monotonous. stance, however, the comparison, for a wonder, seems to be very fitting. The stories of The Son of the Wolf were unquestionably written under the Kipling influence, but this influence has acted as a spur, and not, as is usually the case, led to mere servile imitation. Very few readers who take up this book will lay it down without feeling more keenly than ever before all the ghastly horror and loneliness of life in the frigid zone. The author, despite his extreme youth, has had a very varied career. At the age of seventeen he went to sea as a foremast hand. Since then he has hunted seals in Behring Sea, shipped from port to port, and lived the actual life of the tramp. In 1897 he left the State University of California, where he was studying, and joined

the rush to the Klondike, being one of the few that crossed Chilicoot Pass that winter. He is at present living quietly at his home in Oakland, California.

.

The honours of song, Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll very pertinently remarks, like the honours of war, are to-day with Ireland. The best of England's younger poets, Mr. W. B. Yeats, is Irish of the Irish. There is a very brilliant galaxy of Irish women who are now writing verse-Miss Katharine Tynan, Miss Jane Barlow, Mrs. Dora Sigerson Shorter, and two recent additions, Miss Nora Hopper and

Miss Moira O'Neill. While it would be invidious and indeed impossible to award the palm among these writers, one has no hesitation in saying that the best work has been done by the religious, writing of religion. Some of Miss Tynan's religious poetry is exceedingly rich in colour and fragrance. Miss Hopper is always pleasing, but her devotional tone lacks depth. Mrs. Shorter is perhaps the most thoughtful among them all, but her poetry is hardly touched by religious faith. and hope. Miss Barlow here and there has struck a note of tender, passionate intensity not sounded by the rest, and she