Mr. Bird, editor of Lippincott's, is giving his readers much wholesome advice on writing. In the October number he talks out of school on the money value of a popular name in literature. He finds fame a queer thing. "It is gained in such odd ways; sometimes with difficulty by long and hard and honest and worthy work, sometimes, it would seem, by a 'scratch,' by mere luck or near it. It can be lost, too, as well as gained." "An editor or publisher, revering the popular taste and bowing to the demands of his clientèle, orders a new story at ten prices, on the strength of what its author accomplished last year. He expects it to be 'soul-raising and sublime': it ap pears, and proves to be such as he would not have considered if signed by Miss Ignota or Mr. Hardhack. If this sort of thing goes on, perhaps in time the public will allow its caterers to accept or decline manuscripts on their merits, with little reference to their sources, and cease to offer 'names in place of thoughts." There's where the MiddleWestern magazine has an advantage over its rich Eastern neighbors-its readers are out from under the spell of great names; they judge works of fiction, etc., as they judge men and women, on their merits.

Here is a fine sample of the incorrect use of the overworked word "claim" in a recent magazine: "It is often claimed that Americans are declining and that our chief increase comes from abroad. It is part of the general claim that the race is being propagated by the lowest elements." We claim only what seems to us desirable.

"What is American Style?" is a question almost satisfactorily answered by Edmund Kemper Broadus, in The Dial of September 15th. Insofar as this writer can analyze them, "the forces whose resultant is this individuality” recognizable as "American" are: (1) The youthfulness of the national life; (2) Democracy; (3) Heterogeneity; (4) National variety (in scenery, climate and products).

In this connection, Mr. Broadus quotes these suggestive definitions of "style": "The speech of the people in the mouth of the scholar" (author's name not given), and this from Lowell: "that exquisite something... that makes itself felt by the skill with which it effaces itself, and masters us at last with a sense of indefinable completeness." Brander Matthews' definition is more fanciful and pretty than helpful: "The wild flowers of speech plucked betimes with the dew still on them."

TALKS WITH CORRESPONDENTS.

Here is a poet who evinces promise. Noting the appearance of one of his poems in the magazine, and referring to the return of several unavailable poems, he says:

"It is certainly THE MIDLAND'S gain that you did not use them, and I am not sure that it was not my gain too."

As I sent my MS. off in haste I have thought that perhaps some of the lines were not properly placed. have to-day arranged my poem so that I am pretty nearly satisfied with it but am still crowded for time to be as thorough as I would like. If you should find any errors and wish to use any of the rhymes, let me know and I will correct them.

Inev

Never send off a poem in haste. itable as it is in newspaper correspondence, haste is inexcusable in verse-making. You overestimate the editor's leisure and patience, and have a misconception of his mission. He is here to find, if he can, the finished work of authors, not to point out errors. A literary correspondence bureau is a good thing, but our ambition does not now include such a bureau. A writer should in justice to himself do for his MS. all that he sees may be done for it before sending it to an editor.

This is my first story that I ever tried to write and I hope that you will publish it. I have some poetry that I will send if this goes in print-which I hope it will, for I am poor and I would like to make some money.

Neither the editor nor the author can afford to publish this story; for, poor as both are, the story in question is still poorer. This ambitious young writer yet has much to learn about the requirements of successful story writing. Desire to "make some money" is very prevalent, and there are many who would like to make money by writing; but talent must accompany the desire or failure is certain.

If you should conclude to accept the MS. and wish to use the drawing, and if it be too large I could redraw it on any scale in a day's time.

Large sized drawings may be reduced to the size of our page, or to any smaller size, with small loss in quality. In a measure the "ensmalling" process overcomes the loss which follows the transmission of the picture from one form to another.

"If you can find it to your advantage to help me now, you shall not regret it." Answering literally, it is inconceivable that one shall afterwards regret an act which is clearly to one's advantage now. But of course, this correspondent means

more than that. Her meaning clearly is that an acceptance of her MS. will be of profit to us beyond the ordinary advantage we get from the publishing of MSS. that interest and satisfy our readers. Isn't this assurance a little unfair? Isn't it pressing a little on the editor's sympathy for his poor publication? Isn't it fairer to him and better for yourself that you tempt the editor with nothing but the MS. itself?

CARD FROM ARTIST CARPENTER.

I notice in the October issue of THE MIDLAND MONTHLY a reference to the cornstalk design used on the cover of that magazine, as well as on the covers of several of Hamlin Garland's works, among the number "Crumbling Idols." As the use of the design in question has several times been commented upon, I would be glad, even if it is of trifling importance, to have the matter set aright.

As a matter of fact the using of the cornstalk for a book-cover design was suggested by Mr. Hamlin Garland himself

when the writer with this author first strolled out into the country and into the great prairie corn fields of the MiddleWest in search of material for the illustrations of "Prairie Songs" and "Main Travelled Roads." This graceful and beautiful plant was then and there adopted as a particularly fitting decoration and symbolical, in a way, of this Western author's work. In justice to Mr. Garland, I would say here that this was some considerable time before I had the pleasure of designing THE MIDLAND MONTHLY Cover, where the use of the cornstalk seemed hardly less an appropriate feature.

My old sketch-books with jottings from various quarters of our country will attest my personal predilection in favor of the cornstalk as a "thing of beauty," one indeed of the purely American decorative features of our landscape that has always seemed to me to have been much neglected.

HORACE THOMPSON CARPENTER. New York.

A book that holds the superficial reviewer to his reading through 350 pages, and that, too, without plot or much anecdote, is a book with rare staying powers. "The Story of the Cowboy,"* by E. Hough, is a marvel. To begin it is to read it through-not at some more convenient season, but at once if possible. And, having finished reading it, one enjoys talking knowingly about life on the plains and airing the new knowledge derived from the book. And, finding his neighbor interested in the subject but wofully unenlightened, he forces him to read the book also, that the two may have a new subject of conversation for an indefinite time to come. Mr. Hough is a natural story-teller. Readers of this magazine who recall "Belle's Roses," a frontier tale, will bear witness to that. But this Story of the Cowboy is not fiction; it is truth-fact. It is more than that it is history. It rescues from ignorant or wilful misrepresentation by the novelists and the playwrights an intensely interesting type of American that is fast disappearing. The author finds his subject originally operating in the far Southwest. The pioneer cowboy learned his trade of the vaqueros of

*D. Appleton & Co., New York, $1.50.

Mexico, and the cattle he herds are wild descendants of Andalusian stock. The author takes the reader with him on the long trail in the Sixties, from the far Southwest to the far Northwest, and familiarizes him with the most stupendous movement recorded in the history of the the animal kingdom-from the Flood down. He vividly pictures the ranch in the South, and next, the ranch in the North. He describes the cowboy's outfit, his horse, marks and brands, the drive, the round-up, the stampede, life on the ranch, with its society and amusements. The nester and the rustler are pictured to stay in the mind. Wars on the range are thrillingly described. All this and much more. The book concludes with a rare bit of picturing, a sunset on the range. It is finely illustrated with drawings by William M. Wells and C. M. Russell.

If this work doesn't bring the author fame, then all the moralists say about the vaporous quality of fame will have been proven true. Mr. Hough's life on the plains, covering several years, followed by years of close observation as the far-western representative of Forest and Stream, have together given him two rare qualifications for his task; intimate first-hand knowledge of the subject,

and trained observation from an outside stand point. To these qualifications should be added two prime essentials for such a work, a vigorous, out-door style, free from affectation and from straining for effect, and a keen love of nature and of life that is close to nature.

"Citizen Bird-Scenes from Bird Life in Plain English for Beginners," * by Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues, is a book to delight the eyes of boys and girls who have reached the period that comes to the normal child-mind, when they cease to be satisfied with simply seeing birds flit over their heads, and hearing them chirp and sing in the trees; but must know their names, their ways, their home life, their social economy, etc. This work is illustrated with over a hundred fine engravings, from drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes. These pictures help the reader to identify the birds of his acquaintance and help prepare him for chance visitors. The scene of the story is an orchard farm in the bird season of the year. Dr. Roy Hunter, a naturalist, his daughter, nephew and niece, a country boy, a nurse and a fisherman, are the characters introduced. It opens with an overture by the birds and closes with a procession of the bird families with which the reader has by this time become acquainted. Supplemental to the story, and in finer type, is given a brief and simple account of every bird mentioned, its size, appearance, disposition, habitat and family. This is a good book for parents to read with their children. The ignorance of otherwise well educated and knowing people as to their bird neighbors is one of the mysteries which they themselves find it hard to explain.

"How Money is Coined"† is a neat little book, profusely illustrated, describing a visit to the United States mint at New Orleans. Its author and publisher, Mr. E. S. Gardner, has made the work a source of reliable information, free from political speculations, and presenting only facts relating directly to the operations of coinage. There are only four mints operated by government. These are located in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Carson City and San Francisco. Few have visited them and not one in a hundred thousand know half the contents of this little work.

The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.50. +E. S. Gardner, publisher, Des Moines, Iowa. 25 cents.

Myths of Greece and Rome, narrated with special reference to literature and art, by H. A. Guerber, lecturer on Mythology,* is a book worthy a permanent place in the student's library. Miss Guerber has done good work in collecting, arranging and presenting the subject matter. The book's 428 pages include all the best preserved myths relating to gods and heroes from Jupiter to Æneas, with the story of the Trojan War, the Calydonian Hunt, etc. It also gives a scholar's analysis of myths, a genealogical table, an index to poetical quotations and a general glossary and index. The work is well paragraphed for ready reference, and is profusely illustrated with plates reproducing the most famous paintings of mythical subjects.

Mrs. Isadore Baker's little book of "Sonnets and other Verse,"† like her "In Memoriam," evinces a genius for the expression of elevated thought in sonnet form. Though several of the poems in other forms abound in rare lines and fine suggestion, yet the poet is found to be at her best in the sonnet. We have space for only one specimen of Mrs. Baker's best work, "The Madonna:"

The light that falls athwart this pictured face,
Hath richer tint than that of common day,
As if suffused by some diviner ray
Than art may give of holiness and grace.
O spirit type, or dream beyond compare,
Of womanhood divine in human guise,
The source from whence redemption's blest

emprise,

For aye, in earth or heaven beloved and fair. And thus there blooms on altar-piece and shrine This flower of art.-a pure ideal face;

Soul-lit with holy joy of mother love
In Christ, new-born, foreknown by mystic sign
Of alien star aflame in midnight space,

And seraph greeting from the Throne above.

The Werner Company has added to its valuable State Government series a work by two of Iowa's ablest educators, entitled "History and Civil Government in Iowa," by H. H. Seerley, A. M., President of the Iowa State Normal School, and L. W. Parish, A. M., Professor of Political Science in the same institution. Two better men for the preparation of such a work could scarcely be found, their abilities and experience all admirably equipping them for the task. To the book proper is added Part III., "The Government of the United States," by B. A. Hinsdale, Ph. D., LL. D., author of the series above mentioned, thus rounding out the subject to completeness. This work is worthy a place in every school library in Iowa.

*American Book Company. Chicago. Iowa City, Iowa.

The Werner Company, Chicago.