THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



327 



Every now and then 

 ar C eod P o a rS n " bursts forth upon a 



trembling literary world 

 a spasm of the superlative. Some 

 sybil propounds the question 

 "Who are the world's best five, 

 ten, fifteen, twenty, and so on, best 

 authors?'' Tot homines tot senten- 

 tiae, one would rationally reply. 

 Yet this does not satisfy the 

 inquisitors. They demand a cate- 

 gorical answei as illogical as the 

 formulated subject of debate in the 

 colored society. "Which is 

 mightier the pen or the sword?"' 

 Affirmative Messrs. , ; negative 

 Messrs. , . This is all very 

 harrowing to those who have 

 staked their happiness upon fame. 

 To find the reward of genius for 

 they, of course, all share the gift 

 to be only oblivion! Pephaps the 

 slyest commentary on the exclusive 

 literary mania was that of Mark 

 Twain, who, upon being requested 

 to name the twelve books he liked 

 best, addressed to the corres- 

 pondent a list of his own most 

 remunerative works. 



Ideal 

 .Royalty. 



The unhappy de- 

 thronement and broken 

 hearted decline of Dom Pedro II 

 has left to the world but one inter- 

 esting monarch, King Oscar of 

 Sweden and Norway. We are 

 never tired of reading of him of 

 his remarkable literary and musical 

 gifts, his artistic talents, his ideal 

 domestic life, and the charm of his 



unaffected manners. No wonde 

 he is endeared to his people and 

 that all classes regard his kingly 

 character and conjugal devotion 

 with national pride. His scholarly 

 tastes never seem to render him re- 

 mote from popular feeling, and the 

 anecdotes illustrative of his sim- 

 plicity of demeanor and goodness 

 of heart towards the humblest sub- 

 ject are innumerable. Had Dom 

 Pedro been reared in the freedom 

 of the Reformation, in place of ser- 

 vile deference to Jesuitism, he too 

 might have lived to wear a crown 

 of happy years like Oscar. 



Once was the Swedish monarch 

 sorely tried when his parental 

 heart was rent sorely by the mor- 

 ganatic marriage of Prince Oscar 

 to his mother's maid of honor. He 

 had stoutly opposed the union, 

 which necessarily involved his fa- 

 vorite son's abdication of all 

 rights to the throne. With chival- 

 rous devotion, however, the king 

 finally yielded to the entreaties of 

 Queen Sophie, and the nuptials 

 were duly celebrated. How per- 

 fectly the hopes of that true love 

 alliance have been fulfilled is at- 

 tested by twelve years of the hap- 

 piest wedded life. The Count and 

 Countess Wisborg, as they are 

 known, are nobly devoted to 

 charitable work; their home life is 

 enlivened by the presence of sev- 

 eral beautiful children, and a whole- 

 some rebuke administered to royal 

 customs and the cruelty of consti- 

 tutional and political bonds and 

 their too frequent misery. 



