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The Review of Reviews. 



THE AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



The February number of the American Reviau of 

 Reviews is full of articles of strong topical interest. 

 First, of course, as always, comes Dr. Shaw's survey 

 of the world. I gather that he thinks it probable 

 that Roosevelt will be nominated despite Tafif's 

 efforts to secure re-nomination. He is willing to 

 allow the Arbitration Treaties to be ratified on the 

 understanding that they do not amount to much any- 

 how. I am glad to see he insists upon the duty of 

 being on the best of terms with Russia, and maintaining 

 and improving friendly relations with that country, even 

 though, with England's support, it has " waged a short 

 but bloody war of infamous conquest in Persia wholly 

 unprovoked." From which it would seem that the 

 Persian news that reaches New York must be — well, 

 let us say, very Persian in its character. 



The character sketch section is devoted to Yuan 

 Shi Kai, a supreme type of the self-seeking opportunist; 

 to a man of the very opposite type, Dr. Parker, for 

 forty years President of Grinnell College, Iowa ; and 

 to Oscar Hammerstein of the London Opera House. 



An interesting article describes the aims and 

 objects of the International Opium Conference which 

 met at the Hague last December. A brief paper 

 gives a sketch of Gilbert Bowles, the Apostle 

 of Peace in Japan. Dr. Hosmer describes Mr. 

 Pulitzer's ideals for the Columbia School of Jour- 

 nalism. Mr. C. M. Dow describes " A Great Living 

 Tree Museum," the Letchworth Park Arboretum. 

 Miss Rosa Pendleton Chiles discusses the question 

 whether the National Archives are not in peril. 



The range of the articles from other sources is wide, 

 but they are chiefly devoted to foreign periodicals, 

 ignoring more or less systematically the reviews and 

 magazines of the English-speaking world. 



"THE WIDOW IN THE BYE STREET." 



The February number of the Eiiglis/i Review con- 

 sists of Mr. John Masefield's poem and a number of 

 miscellaneous stories and essays, which are completely 

 eclipsed by the poem which fills half the Review. 

 " The Widow in the Bye Street " is a work of genius. 

 It is coarse, no doubt— coarse as the everyday talk of 

 the country folk whose doings it describes. But there 

 is a marvellous simplicity about the verse. It is 

 almost written in words of one syllable, but it touches 

 every note in the gamut of human emotion. The 

 story is sombre. The widow in the Bye Street 

 in a Shvop.shire village is left with an only son. She 

 rears him to manhood, only to lose him to a light-o'- 

 love of the village. The lad is discarded for an elder 

 paramour, whom in his jealous rage he slays. For 

 this the lad is hanged and the poor old mother 

 mercifully goes insane. The portrait of the light-o'- 

 love and her ways with men and youths is a master- 

 piece. But so is the picture of the poor old mother 

 and her son. It is a pity Mr. Masefield should feel 

 compelled to make such liberal use of the Saxon 



equivalent for prostitute. " Strumpet " and " harlot " 

 serve his turn once, but I humbly submit that to use 

 the other word nine times in a single poem is just a 

 little too much. Mr. Masefield's latest and greatest 

 poem may be described in the terms of the stud-book as 

 by Don Juan out of Crabbe's Parish Register, and in 

 some respects it is an improvement upon both its 

 parents. 



The Art Journal. 



AViTH the January number the Art Journal begins 

 its seventy-fourth annual volume, having been founded, 

 at the instigation of Mr. S. Carter Hall, in 1839. 

 Mr. Hall held the position of editor till 1880. In 

 1849 a pew series was inaugurated, and the original 

 name of the magazine, the Art Union Mont/ify four- 

 nal, was changed to the contracted title, and the 

 present familiar format adopted. For about forty 

 years after the magazine was started the engraved 

 block continued to reign supreme ; but the metal 

 block engraved by photographic processes gradually 

 asserted itself. Among the earlier contributors were 

 numbered Ruskin, Mrs. Jameson, and other well- 

 known names. Messrs. Virtue have been the pub- 

 lishers from the beginning. 



Hispania. 



IHE second number of this important Spanish- 

 American monthly more than maintains the high 

 standard of the first. Two of its articles are authori- 

 tative pronouncements upon matters of burning 

 interest in South America. The first is by the Chilian 

 Minister, and deals with the disagreement of Chili 

 and Peru over the annexed province of Tacna ; the 

 other is by ex-President Reyes. The former chief of 

 the Colombian administration tells about the official 

 negotiations he conducted with President Roosevelt 

 about the Panama Canal. A most interesting history 

 it proves. Mr. Cunninghame Graham gives another 

 instalment of his experiences in Argentina before 

 there was any settled government in the country. 

 Amongst other notable contributors is His Excel- 

 lency S. Perez Triana, the Colombian Minister in 

 London. 



Scribner's. 

 The February number makes a special feature of 

 coloured and other illustrations of Mr. Warner 

 Robinson's "new cattle country," Mexico. Mont- 

 gomery Schuyler declares that in ten years the capital 

 of the United States has become a new Washington, 

 the Senate having ten years ago authorised the im- 

 provement of the park system of the district of 

 Columbia. " The chief element of wonder is the 

 costliness of the new erections." Mr. S. S. Howland 

 describes with many illustrations Cuzco, the sacred 

 city of the Incas. ('aptain J. M. Palmer, of the 

 United States General Staff, insists, as becomes a 

 soldier, that the development of war power is the 

 best guarantee of peace. 



