Whatever the critics may say, or disdain to say (for their silence is more destructive than condemnation), of Mr. Gunter's tales, those imaginative works possess that most salient of merits which belonged to Tupper in the past, and to the razors in the ballad; they "do sell." In "That Frenchman" he frankly assaults and triumphantly carries the reader's curiosity with a method borrowed from Gaboriau and Du Boisgobey; indeed, his treatment is more advanced, more Gallic, more eminently active, than theirs. Something remarkable happens on every page; events tread on each other's heels and tumble over one another to such an extent that it is difficult to remember them all; they sparkle and gleam and coruscate, till one is bewildered by the rockets and Roman candles incessantly shooting through the air, and the fire-crackers sputtering about one's heels. No wonder, when the characters are perpetually "astounded" by their own performances. From the latter part of this book you get such a light on the intricate tanglements of Russian policemen and Nihilists as Stepniak and Mr. Kennan together are wholly unable to afford.

It is not easy to follow in the footsteps of an illustrious predecessor and at the same time maintain a character of one's own, but Dr. Lyman Abbott seems to be doing it at Plymouth Church. His "Signs of Promise" are worthy of the place, and of the time. A disciple of Mr. Beecher, with (inevitably) less than his master's magnetism, expansiveness, and brilliancy, he is equally earnest and more logical. These sermons were reported, but there is about them nothing of the mental looseness so often characteristic of the extempore discourse; they read as if they had been carefully written. They are not lacking in frankness: the New England theology, we are told, "made man an automaton and God a glacier;" the controversy which divided Presbyterianism into Old and New School" would have rent the Congregationalists into two denominations,-only you cannot rend a lot of separated threads." As to formal doctrine, "man's character is not made by his creed his creed is made by his character. Dogmas are creatures, not creators." But Dr. Abbott is not merely destructive; he builds up valiantly, holding the theology of the past to be in no vital relation to the essential truths of Christianity, but merely a human accretion, a fungus which has grown upon the tree of life. Robert Timsol.

RECENT LIPPINCOTT PUBLICATIONS.

EXTRACTS from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker. From 1759 to 1807 A.D. Edited by Henry D. Biddle.

To Philadelphians, and especially to Philadelphians with Philadelphia grandfathers, this journal has a particular interest on account of the great number of old names which are mentioned in it. But the book has a much wider interest than a merely genealogical one, and has for the general reader a peculiar historical value: a glance at the dates between which the Journal was kept shows that events fraught with the greatest importance occurred while the Journal was being written, events which even the quiet Quaker author could not allow to escape without comment, nor keep from disturbing the peaceful current of her life. Elizabeth Drinker was the daughter of William Sandwith, a native of Ireland, who early in life emigrated to America and became a prominent merchant in Philadelphia. Elizabeth was married to Henry Drinker, a shipper and importer, in 1761: hence her diary commences a few years previous to her mar

riage. The general reader must not be discouraged by the first few pages, which chronicle only small happenings, and especially such a number of tea-drinkings that we cannot but feel the appropriateness of the name which the young Quakeress took to herself in marriage. As the Journal progresses it increases rapidly in interest, and suddenly the storm of the Revolution breaks in upon it without previous warning, almost the first indication being given in this quaint and Quakerly way :

A part of Washington's army has been routed, and have been seen coming into Town in great numbers; ye particulars of the Battle I have not attended to; ye slain is said to be very numerous. Hundreds of their muskets laying in ye road-which those that made off have thrown down.

"I was a little fluttered by hearing a Drum stop at our door, and a hard knocking succeed; it proved to be men with orders for H. D. to appear, or find a substitute. There has been a meeting this afternoon at ye State House, on what account I know not. 'Tis supposed that G. Washington is in Town this evening."

We are apt to imagine that during the occurrence of such great events as the American Revolution, all the people who are not actually taking part are kept in a continual state of agitation and suspense, and have scarce a thought for anything save the great struggle; but in this Journal we are given glimpses of quiet peace-loving people who cared little for the war or its results, save only when the tide of battle set immediately in their direction and forced itself upon their observation. This is the way in which the surrender of Cornwallis is noted:

"Ye 17th of this month, October, Gen'l Cornwallis was taken, for which we greviously suffered on ye 24th, by way of rejoicing. A mob assembled about 7 o'clock, or before, and continued their insults until near 10, to those whose Houses were not illuminated. Scarcely one Friend's House escaped. We had nearly 70 panes of glass broken; ye sash lights and two panels of the front Parlor broke in pieces-ye Door cracked and violently burst open; when they threw stones into ye House for some time, but did not enter."

Diaries such as Mrs. Drinker's form valuable supplements to history, for they give accurate accounts of the every-day life of the people, or of certain portions of the people, while history devotes itself to the leading political

events.

After notes of the Revolution have quietly slipped out of the entries in the diary, the next important event noted is the yellow fever scourge which first visited Philadelphia in 1793. Such entries as the following show that in our times we certainly have improved in methods of caring for the sick and of suppressing contagious diseases:

"The poor sick man who has lain two nights in ye fields, was found this morning by the 7th milestone vomitting-he had now got among the inhabitants. J. Perot and others raised 4 dollars, for which sum a man took him away in a cart."

Many other events of an historical nature are touched upon: the administrations of Washington and Adams, the French Revolution, the killing of Hamilton by Burr, and other important occurrences. The diary gives frequent glimpses of the life in the quiet Quaker circles of old Philadelphia which are very interesting. The editor, Mr. Henry D. Biddle, has done his work carefully and well, and has added many valuable foot-notes.

UNDER the taking title of "Gold that did not Glitter" the clever author of "The Story of Don Miff" issues a new novel. Virginius Dabney has a peculiar and whimsical style which gives a decided stamp of originality to his stories. Gold that did not Glitter" is full of bright and clever things, and the story skips along at so lively a rate that the reader hardly stops to take breath before he has finished it. The scene opens in New York, where we catch glimpses of a New York boarding-house and of a Bohemian restaurant, and then is shifted to Virginia, where the author treads his native heath. The hero, an Englishman, is a kind of Lord of Burleigh, who makes a penniless Virginia girl very happy by winning her love as a poor man, and then showering his wealth upon her.

WHEN Mrs. Josephine W. Bates published her "A Blind Lead," about a year ago, she showed herself to be a novelist of considerable ability and power. Her last novel, "A Nameless Wrestler," cannot fail to add greatly to her reputation. The plot is an exceptionally strong one, and is very skilfully wrought out; the problem of evil enters into it, and the manner in which retribution dogs the path of the ill-doer is very powerfully portrayed. There are capital descriptions of Western life, the scenes being laid in Portland, Oregon, during its transition-stage from a trading-post to a flourishing town, and among the Rocky Mountains during the gold-hunting period. The rough characters of the miners are described with a realistic pen, and there is a very exciting account of a raid upon a mining-camp by Nez Percé Indians, and a subsequent rescue. But the book does not rely upon mere excitement of scene to give it interest, for the author has a grasp upon life and its problems that lends to her book its real charm and power.

A VERY clever novel in "Lippincott's Series of Select Novels” is “Julian Karslake's Secret," by Mrs. John Hodder Needell. Julian Karslake, the hero, is a fine-strung, high-minded character, with perhaps a too quixotic sense of the responsibilities of a promise made in boyhood to his dying mother. The promise made was to shield a younger brother from harm at whatever expense to himself. The younger brother turns out badly, and becomes a roué and a forger. To keep his promise and screen his younger brother becomes the paramount object of Julian Karslake's life. The sins of the guilty brother are for a time visited upon the head of the innocent, who bears his trials bravely. The younger brother is believed to be dead, and Julian Karslake feels that he cannot reveal the secret of his existence, for by so doing he will bring him to the criminal dock, while, on the other hand, as a consequence of keeping this fact a secret, public disgrace awaits himself, as well as separation from a lovely and loving wife. All this he is prepared to accept, when luckily an old friend appears on the scene, who knows Julian Karslake's secret, and reveals it, so that the innocent may not suffer for the crimes of the guilty brother. The book is full of strong scenes, and never allows the reader's interest to flag for an instant.

CURRENT NOTES.

THE sword of Damocles forever hangs over the head of humanity, from the cradle to the grave. In this degenerate age, when every man's gain is another man's loss, the sword has assumed gigantic proportions. We all know man is born to die, but that he should be hustled into the grave before his allotted threescore years and ten, by the hidden crimes of his brother man, is a wrong that the laws of the country should right. 'Tis bad enough when indiscretions and the frailties common to humanity bring the painful rewards, but when suffering and death are hidden from knowledge by the wicked machinations of our fellowmen, 'tis a fearful crime for which to be responsible. Two-thirds of the suffering, the pain and misery of this world, is due to the ignorance of the sufferer and the cupidity of his neighbor. We instinctively cling to the law of self-preservation, and yet every day of our lives through want of knowledge and investigation we may be taking into our system death-producing substances. If a man commits a murder, by common consent he is hung; if a man forges a note or makes counterfeit money, he goes to the penitentiary by general acclamation; but if a man adulterates the food of his fellow-man, he climbs easily and high toward the pinnacle of success and is cheerfully urged to go higher. Manslaughter runs riot in everything,-in our tea, coffee, sugar, bread,-in almost everything we eat and drink that can by perverted ingenuity be adulterated. That men prosper by deceit is bad enough, but that food producers and sellers thrive by manslaughter is enough to make one shudder. Every effort to mitigate this evil should be applauded, and when men of scientific knowledge and experience, having the welfare of humanity at heart, give to the public a pure, nutritious, strength-giving food product, authorized and accepted by all scientific heads, there is no excuse for suffering the pangs of death in the tortures of dyspepsia, headache, and all human ills. So little attention has been paid to adulterated food, that few physicians recognize it as an important cause of disease that menaces every community; invalids and little children falling victims to the fraud. One of the first to wage a war against food adulteration was the Price Baking Powder Co. Their earnest efforts to protect the public health and bring the bread-tainters to exposure and conviction will not be forgotten. The issue of their war was purity in human diet, and the decision of the National Food Analysts was that Dr. Price's Cream Baking Powder was the only one they could recommend to general family use, being free from ammonia, lime, and all drug taint.

VOL. XLIV.—48

A POET-EDITOR.-Sir Edwin Arnold, author of "The Light of Asia" and many other exquisite poems, is the editor of the London Daily Telegraph. He is now making an extended tour, and has been received with much distinction in this country. When in London he goes but little to the office of the Telegraph, but does his editorial writing at home. Although a poet, he is very methodical in his work, and supplies punctually a stated amount of editorial matter each day. His editorials bear an individual stamp, and are readily recognized, though unsigned. His wife was an American woman, very gifted and charming. Since her death Sir Edwin has retired from society and accepts but few invitations.

MAKING THE MINUTE.-In a recent article Max Müller explains the wherefore of our divisions of the hour and minute. He says, Why is our hour divided into sixty minutes, each minute into sixty seconds, etc.? Simply and solely because in Babylonia there existed, by the side of the decimal system of notation, another system, the sexagesimal, which counted by sixties. Why that number should have been chosen is clear enough, and it speaks well for the practical sense of those ancient Babylonian merchants. There is no number which has so many divisors as sixty. The Babylonians divided the sun's daily journey into twenty-four parasangs, or 720 stadia. Each parasang or hour was subdivided into sixty minutes. A parasang is about a German mile, and Babylonian astronomers compared the progress made by the sun during one hour at the time of the equinox to the progress made by a good walker during the same time, both accomplishing one parasang. The whole course of the sun during the twenty-four equinoctial hours was fixed at twenty-four parasangs, or 720 stadia, or 360 degrees. This system was handed on to the Greeks, and Hipparchus, the great philosopher, who lived about 150 B.C., introduced the Babylonian hour into Europe. Ptolemy, who wrote about 150 A.D., and whose name still lives in that of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, gave still wider currency to the Babylonian way of reckoning time. It was carried along on the quiet stream of traditional knowledge through the Middle Ages, and, strange to say, it sailed down safely over the Niagara of the French Revolution. For the French, when revolutionizing weights, measures, coins, and dates, and subjecting all to the decimal system of reckoning, were induced by some unexplained motive to respect our clocks and watches, and allowed our dials to remain sexagesimal, that is, Babylonian, each hour consisting of sixty minutes. Here you see again the wonderful coherence of the world, and how what we call knowledge is the result of an unbroken tradition of a teaching descending from father to son. Not more than about a hundred arms would reach from us to the builders of the palaces of Babylon, and enable us to shake hands with the founders of the oldest pyramids and to thank them for what they have done for us."

THE BARBER'S POLE.-The barber formerly was a surgeon as well as a barber, inasmuch as he practised blood-letting. The pole was used by the barber-surgeon for the patient to grasp while his blood was let, and a fillet or bandage was used for tying the arm. When the pole was not in use, the tape was twisted around it, and it was hung out as a sign. Afterwards, instead of hanging out the actual pole used in operating, a pole was painted with stripes around it in imitation of the real pole and its bandages: hence the barber's pole.