TO $20 PER DAY easily made by any one. We want men, women, boys and girls all over the country to sell our Fine Steel Engravings, Chromos, Crayon Drawings, Iluminations, Photographs, etc., etc. We now publish the finest assortment ever placed before the public, and our prices are marked down so low as to defy all competition. No one subscribes for a premium-giving paper in order to get a picture after seeing our pictures and learning our prices. We have many old agents at work for us who have made canvassing for books, papers, etc., their business for years, and they all report that they can make much more money at work for us than at anything else. Our prices are so low that all can afford to purchase, and therefore the pictures sell at sight at almost every house. New beginners do as well as agents who have had large experience, for our beautiful subjects and low prices are appreciated by all. To make large sales everywhere all an agent has to do is to show the pictures from house to house. Don't look for work elsewhere until you have seen what great inducements we offer you to make money. We have not space to explain all here, but send us your address and we will send full par ticulars, free, by mail. Don't delay if you want profitable Now work for your leisure hours, or for your whole time. is the favorable time to engage in this business. Our pictures are the finest and most pleasing in this country, and are endorsed by all the leading papers, including the New York Herald. Those who cannot give the business their entire attention can work up their own localities and make a handsome sum without ever being away from home overnight Let all who want pleasant, profitable employment, without risking capital, send us their addresses at once Address and learn all about the business for themselves. GEORGE ST NSON & CO., Art Publishers, Portland, Maine.

And back numbers of some Three Thousand different Periodicals.

For sale at low prices at the

American and Foreign Magazine Depot,

24 DEY STREET, NEW YORK.

Address J. W. CHRISTOPHER.

Vol. VI.

LITERARY (AND OTHER) GOSSIP.

The Title-pages and Indexes for the BIBLIOPOLIST for 1872 and 1873 are both printed, and will be mailed on receipt of 10 cents each. The Index for 1872 was announced a long time ago as ready; an accident with the type at the printers, and the delay of an assistant in rearranging the matter, prevented its actual issue.

In London, on May 18th, 1874, will commence the sale of perhaps the most extensive, interesting, and valuable collection of books that has been sold

in half a century. The books comprise Original Editions, Books of Hours, Specimens of the Early Painters, Early English Poetry, a grand collection of Shakespeariana, including several of the original 4to plays, all the four folios, and numerous rare miscellaneous books relating to the great poet and his works. The collection generally is surpassingly rich in dramatic literature. The books were the property of the late Sir William Tite, who possessed not merely the fondness for collecting, but joined with the ardor of bibliomania a refined and cultivated understanding. He is author of numerous addresses and lectures, and occupied a high position in the society of architects. He gave considerable attention to the collection of manuscripts, and wrote a monograph upon the subject. We shall attend the sale, in London, and in our next number take pleasure in giving a short account, with prices of the rarer books.

Our friends the bibliophiles and bibliopoles of Paris were surprised the other day, when they assembled to view the books of M. Dancoisne, previously to their being disposed of by auction, by the appearance among them of a commissary of police and another officer of justice. These came to claim, on behalf of the Bibliothèque Nationale, and in the name of M. Taschereau, its chief, a certain MS., entitled "Gratiani collectio SS. Canonum et Decretorum, cum veteribus glossis," &c. The work in question, which is a highly valuable MS. of the fifteenth century, ornamented with thirty-eight grand miniature paintings, and the pages richly illuminated throughout with 600 heads introduced at the beginings of the chapters, was claimed by M. Taschereau as having belonged originally to the library at Troyes,

Nos. 63 & 64.

from which it was to have been transferred to the library at Paris in the year 1804, and a receipt was then actually given for it by M. Chardon de la Rochette. Before it reached the Bibliothèque Nationale, however, it was stolen, together with a quantity of books. M. Taschereau consequently claims the MS. as being the identical one thus lost or stolen, and it has been surrendered to him, of course under protest. But immediately there arises this difficulty, namely, that the MS. offered for sale came from the Perkins Library, which was disposed of last year by auction in England. It was then purchased by M. BachelinDeflorenne for the sum of 260l., after a sharp contest with M. Fontaine, of Paris, and Mr. Quaritch, of London. There is no mark of any kind to identify it absolutely with the copy in the Troyes library, which, by the way, was said to be in a binding of black velvet, whereas the Perkins copy is bound in Russia leather, with the Perkins mark upon it. Moreover, the Troyes copy was alleged to have a frontispiece at the commencement, whereas in the Perkins there is only a blank leaf. When it is remembered that there are duplicates and triplicates of some of the valuable MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, very closely corresponding with each other, we think it will prove a difficult matter for M. Taschereau to establish the right of ownership claimed for the Bibliothèque Nationale.

The highest prices fetched at M. Dancoisne's sale are the following: "Euvres d'Alain Chartier," Paris, 1529, 40/. 125.; "Fables Choisies de La Fontaine," vols., 1755-59, 52/.; "Contes et Nouvelles," by the same, 2 vols., 1762, 50l.

Under the title of "Shakespeare's Plutarch," Mr. Skeat will edit, with introductory notes and glossarial index, those entire biographies and scattered passages from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, which Shakespeare drew upon in so many of his plays. The volume will be published by Messrs. Macmillan.

Prof. Von Ranke is engaged in re-editing his "History of the Popes," with reference to the rela tions between Pio Nono and the German Empire. The professor is now more than seventy-five years old, but is as active as ever.

"Edward the Third" is on the list of works to be issued by the New Shakespeare Society; but that the doubts entertained regarding the propriety of ascribing the play to Shakespeare, and the existence of an edition, published by Prof. Delius, have caused the Society to pause before proceeding to bring out an edition of its own.

Mr. William Cullen Bryant, assisted by Mr. Sydney Howard Gay, has in preparation a "Popular History of the United States." The work will be in three volumes, and is to be illustrated.

Mr. Percy Fitzgerald is editing a new edition, in three volumes, of Boswell's "Life of Dr. Johnson." Boswell issued two editions of his book, the first in 1791, the second in 1793. At his death, when the preparation of a third edition had just begun, Malone took up the task, and under his supervision no less than four editions were issued. The sixth, or fourth from the author's death, was issued in 1811, and was the last superintended by Malone, who died in that year. From the date of his death this edition remained the standard one, un'il the year 1831, when it was supplanted by Croker's edition in five volumes, which under various forms has held its place until the present moment. Malone's and Croker's are substantially the ground-work upon which all succeeding editors have worked. Malone seriously exceeded the privileges of his literary executorship in converting notes into text and vice versa, in shifting the place of notes, and "revising "the text itself. Croker's performance was nearly unique in the annals of editing. Not only did he make interpolations in the text on a vast scale, but he overloaded the whole with elaborate notes. This extraordinary treatment of an author was long ago exposed by Mr. Carlyle. Croker admitted his mistake, and in a later edition withdrew the bulk of the intruded matter. In this new edition, the reader will have the original text of Boswell's first edition exactly as it was printed, with the old spelling, punctuation, paragraphs, &c. Text, notes, and alterations will now, for the first time, be given complete, distinct, and fenced off, as it were, from such notes and illustrations as are supplied from other sources.

A grant has been made by Her Majesty of 751. out of the civic list to Mrs. Moxon (Lamb's " Isola”). Mr. Tennyson has headed the subscription for her benefit with 100/.; Lord Houghton gives 201.; Mr. Murray, 21; Mr. Forster, Icl. 10s.; and Messrs. Longmans, 10l. At the same time, it is due to Messrs. Ward, Lock & Tyler, who at present publish the works belonging to Mr. Moxon's estate, to say, that they have scrupulously fulfilled the obligations imposed on them by the trust deed. Mrs. Moxon's difficulties are not owing to them.

Under the heading of "A Singular Coincidence," the Paris Figaro contends that the libretto of M. Offenbach's "Orphée aux Enfers was suggested by one of the light pieces written by Mr. Disraeli, a classical squib, a translation of which, by M. C. de Franciosi, was published in 1855 in the Revue du Nord de la France. The entrance of Orpheus into Pandemonium, the imprecations of the Furies, the intercession of Proserpine to induce Pluto to depart with Eurydice, the protests against any refraction of the fundamental laws des Enfers, which forbid the departure of any mortal therefrom who has once crossed the Styx, and the consequent resignation of Pluto's ministers, are amusingly described.

Last March, at Paris, a bust of the first Parisian printer, Ulrich Gering, was inaugurated at the library of Sainte Geneviève, by M. de Fourtou, minister of public instruction, assisted by M. Ferdinand Denis, keeper of the library, and by several representatives of the printing and publishing interests in Paris. It is now rather more than four centuries since printing was introduced into Paris, the first book having been printed without date, but in or about the year 1470. This was 66 Gasparini Pergamensis Epistolæ," in the colophon of which appear these lines, containing the christian names of the three printers :

Primos ecce libros, quos hæc industria finxit
Francorum in terris, ædibus atque tuis.
Michael, Udalricus, Martinusque magistri
Hos impresserunt, ac facient alios.

The full names of these printers were Michael Friburger, Ulrich Gering, and Martin Crantz, so that Gering can scarcely be called the first printer, but one of the first three printers at Paris. Gering, again, was not a Frenchman, but a foreigner, having been born in the diocese of Constance. Our first English printer, William Caxton, was an Englishman of Englishmen, born in the Weald of Kent. When may we expect, says The Athenæum, to see a statue or even a bust of him in the British Museum ?

Mr. Blanchard Jerrold will write a personal and biographical sketch of the late Shirley Brooks, with the aid of materials in the possession of the family, for the May number of the Gentleman's Magazine.

We learn that M. Alexandre Dumas contemplates collecting Mdlle. Aimée Desclée's letters, and publishing them with a preface and a portrait of the unfortunate artiste. All those who knew her, will remember how gifted she was with wit in conversation and letter-writing.

Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. have in the press "The China Collector's Pocket Companion," by Mrs. Bury Palliser. It is meant to supply the want of a portable guide to marks and monograms, and as such may prove useful to the lovers of the "ceramic art."

A portion, consisting of Ic,000 copies, of a recent issue of the Dundee 1dvertiser, was printed on a paper manufactured from reeds grown on the banks of the Tay. The paper is said closely to resemble that made from jute. As far as the experiment has been tried, it is said to be satisfactory.

In France, the ruling passion of bibliomania has, for some years past, been for Grolier bindings; and people pay most extravagant prices for them. Quite lately, a provincial amateur wrote to a Paris bookseller that he was the fortunate possessor of a Grolier, which he was ready to dispose of for the moderate price of 2,200 francs. The bookseller readily accepted without seeing the book; but, lo! when it arrived, it was found that the binding was a mere remboitage: a real cover put on a worthless book; the whole, cover and contents, scarcely worth 30 francs. On his refusal to pay, the bookseller was summoned before the Tribunal de Commerce" of Paris, The court, composed of tradesmen, who, it appears, are no adepts in bibliomania, decided in favor of the plantiff against the defendant, because they said the former announced that the book was in a Grolier binding, and not that it was bound for him. There is but one explanation of this. The court must have mistaken for a bookbinder the clever bibliophile, born in 1479, died 1565, whom Francis the first selected as his ambassador at Venice, and who left a worldrenowned library. A book which cannot be shown to have actually been in Grolier's possession is not worth purchasing, should the wolf be disguised twice over in the shepherd's clothes.

A correspondent, who lives at Rochester, writes

to us:

"Permit me to suggest that an edition of Dickens' works should be brought out in classical English, The words used in the author's works are extremely disagreeable to read. I think that the language of the lower orders ought never to appear in print."

Our correspondent should confine his reading to the "Spanish Armada." Mr. Puff was "not for making slavish distinctions, and giving all the fine language to the upper sort of people," and therefore his work would suit our correspondent's taste. A prophet is not without honor, &c.

A new theatre, styled the Criterion, has been opened in London, and it is introduced to the public with a play by H. J. Byron, entitled "An American Lady." Mr. Byron has sought to combat that English form of "chauvinisme" which asserts itself in the condemnation of all things American. He brings to England an American woman of a pronounced type, and betroths her to a young English aristocrat of average emptiness of head. Each, as a means of proving agreeable, points out the deficiencies of the other. A nasal accent is arrayed against an aristc

cratic mispronunciation of letters, and the caprices of American phraseology are shown to be equalled by the eccentricities of English slang. Meanwhile extravagance is proved to concern externals only, and a good heart is shown to exist in each case. Harold Trivass is a fine fellow in spite of his sleepy airs, his affectations, and his rudeness of speech. So brave and self-denying is, moreover, the restless, loudvoiced American, that she breaks off her engagement to the man she loves when she finds persistence in it will bring upon him the discovery of his father's baseness. British and American honor and goodness are thus vindicated, and the fact no one in his sane mind ever doubted, that Nature has produced such a thing as an American lady, is triumphantly established.

Those who wish for an interesting souvenir of the late monster trial in England, will do well to secure a copy of a volume of some 100 pages, put in evidence by the prosecution, and entitled "Letters and Documents written by the Claimant." In these letters we have in brief, not only a history of the fraud, but also a singularly happy and complete picture of the impostor himself. Indeed, as a study in abnormal ethics, they are something sui generis. In them are to be found the references to "Waping' as "a very respectiabel place "; to "that scamp Bowker "and" his tricks"; to "the blessed Maria"; to the defendant's fondness for "small" pork; to the " who made their "affidavids " pore fellows very "strong"; to the " which anormous intress the defendant had to pay, and which was to "play the duce with him when he came "into proussion "; to the "timper" of Mary, and the "sluvenly ways" of Rosa, and most of the gems of Mr. Hawkins's speech. An article upon their "Beauties' will shortly appear in one of the monthly magazines. The "Tichborne number of the Graphic, the letterpress of which, by the way, was written by Mr. Moy Thomas, is said to have attained a sale of over 200,000 copies.

"

SO

The Athenæum regrets to notice the death of Mary Wilson, the second daughter of "Christopher North," and the widow of the late John Thomson Gordon, Sheriff of Midlothian. Mrs. Gordon's life of her gifted father, published in 1862, is not a work of much literary merit, but, from the interest of the subject, it went through several editions. Few men who wrote so much ever left behind them such scanty material for biography as did Professor Wilson. Mrs. Gordon's elder sister, the widow of the late Professor Ferrier, survives her.

Miss Meteyard (author of the "Life of Wedgwood," and compiler of several works on his manufactures) is preparing for publication a "Handbook of Wedgwood Manufactures."