LITERARY NOTES. Among the •• topics of the times " reviewed in the editorial department of the September Review of Reviews, the recent convention of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union in New York City, Russia's abo lition of private saloons, the Atlanta Exposition, the dedication of the military park at Chickamauga, the Northfield Conference, the ••New Puritanism" in politics, the massacres in China, the extent of the Liberal reverse in Great Britain, and the Cuban rev olution receive extended treatment. Of the manuscripts left unpublished by Robert Louis Stevenson at his death (not many, by the way), the first to reach the public is a collection of very original '• Fables" in the September number of McClure's Magazine. One of them is a conversa tion between John Silver and " Cap"n " Smollett of "Treasure Island," which is as delicious in its way as anything those worthies do or say in " Treasure Island " itself. In the same number, Anthony Hope relates another adventure of the ever-charming Prin cess Osra, an encounter in the forests of Zenda with an attractive and most courteous highwayman . There is also a romantic tale of court intrigue, by Stanley J. Weyman, and a new Drumtochty story by Ian Maclaren, the author of " Beside the Bonnie BriarBush." ••Why Women Do Not Want the Ballot" is thoughtfully discussed by the Rt. Rev. Wm. Croswell Doane, Bishop of Albany, in the September number of the North American Review. This number also contains an exceedingly valuable paper styled " Trend of National Progress," by Prof. Rob ert H. Thurston, of Cornell University, in which the future progress of the United States is most happily outlined. The Atlantic Monthly for September contains the first installment of a three-part story, by Charles Egbert Craddock, entitled " The Mystery of WitchFace Mountain." The second of Dr. John Fiske's historical papers has for a subject "John Smith in Virginia," in which he reopens vigorously the discus sion in regard to this interesting character. Brad ford Torrey contributes another Tennessee sketch, "Chickamauga," which will be of special interest in view of this summer's memorable gathering at Look out Mountain. The paper in the August issue by James Schouler, upon " President Polk's Diary," is ably supplemented in this issue by " President Polk's Administration," by the same author. The usual in stallments of the two powerful serials now running will add interest to the issue.
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Fiction and travel are the strong points of the September Cosmopolitan, which, by the way, illus trates better than any previous number the perfection of its plant for printing a magazine of the highest class. Conan Doyle, H. H. Boyesen, and Clark Russell are among the story-tellers. A well-known New York lawyer relates the story of "A Famous Crime," — the murder of Dr. Parkman by Professor Webster. A delightful sketch of "An English Country-House Party" is from the pen of Nina Larre Smith, — the house at which she visited being no less than the historic Abbotsford, still occupied by the di rect descendants of Sir Walter Scott. " The Realm of the Wonderful " is descriptive of the strange forms of life discovered by science in the ocean's depths, and is superbly illustrated in a surprising and mar velous way by the author, who is a member of the Smithsonian staff. An article on Cuba is timely. The leading feature of The Bostonian for Au gust is the giving up of sixty-eight pages to a very comprehensive condensation of the " History of Blue Lodge, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar Masonry in the United States," fully illustrated, with interior and exterior views of Boston's Masonic Lodge-rooms, and of many of the old buildings which have figured in the city's Masonic life, which cannot be found else where, — such as the former Masonic Hall (afterwards the United States Court-House), which stood at the corner of Tremont Street and Temple Place, and the Winthrop House, which occupied the site where the Masonic Temple now stands, and which was burned in 1864. Mark Twain contributes to the September Har per's Magazine a paper in which he gives an account of some curious personal experiences in telepathy, or second-sight, or coincidence, or whatever it may be. These are in continuation of an account published in December, 1891, of some earlier experience:; of the same sort which Mr. Clemens gave under the title ".Mental Telegraphy." The success of a magazine serial dealing with contemporary American affairs has been abundantly demonstrated by the wide and permanent interest that has been aroused by President Andrews's " His tory of the Last Quarter Century in the United States," now running in Sckiuner's Magazine. The September instalment includes episodes of such variety as the third-term contest of President Grant, Conkling's great feud with Garfield, the assassination of Garfield, the Star Route and Whiskey Ring frauds — all of which topics are illustrated with a unique series of pictures collected with great pairs from authentic sources.
