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RANDOM READINGS FROM THE REVIEWS. 



'; I Have Only On'e Head." 

 A SKETCH of Christina of Denmark, Duchess of 

 Milan, whom Holbein painted, by Julia Cartwright 

 in the March Century, contains the following retort 

 courteous : — 



Eighteen nioiulis afternanl, when Christina was rejoicing 

 over her first-born son, and the head of another of Henrys 

 wives had fallen from the block, one of the duchess's_ ladies 

 asked how it came to pass that she had not married the King of 

 England. Then Christina gave the memorable answer "that 

 unfortunately she had only one head, but that if she had 

 possessed two, one might have been at His Majesty's service. ' 

 It was a characteristic speech and has p.assed into history. 



A VoLLMiNous Author. 



Fiftv-five plays, varying in length from the single 

 scene of " The Stronger " to the mighty trilogy named 

 " To Damascus " ; six novels ; fifteen collections of 

 short stories ; nine autobiographical novels ; three 

 collections of verse ; four volumes of historv ; five 

 volumes of science ; seventeen collections of literary, 

 social, and scientific assays, nature studies, etc., repre- 

 sent the achievement of .\ugust Strindberg.— Euwin 

 BjORKMAN, in the Forum for March. 



The Beautific.\tion of Commerce. 



Under this heading the Orienlal Revieiv for March 

 says : — 



As the commercialisation of art has come to be considered 

 an economic necessity, so our moral nature demands a beauti- 

 fication of commerce. .\s the Chinese proverb has it, ".V 

 sufficiency of food and raiment is the beginning of politeness " ; 

 and this politeness is, after all, an initial step to art and beauty. 

 Human nature is never satisfied without the enjoyment of some 

 sort of beamy. To take from commerce its sharp slings and 

 lake its practices as polite and as artistic as possible, is the 

 r^t pie-requisitc to the making of life truly livable and lovable ; 

 tor there can be no war in the fraternity of a fair exchange and 

 a common cnjoynient of things beautiful as well as useful. 



The Preston Art Gai.lerv. 



Of our pros incial art collections one of the most 

 interesting is that at Preston contained in the building 

 known as the Harris Free Public Library, Museum 

 and Art Gallery. In an article on the Preston Art 

 flallery in the Nfarch number of the Windsor Magazine 

 Mr. William !!. iiarton explains that it was the munifi- 

 icnce of Edmund Roliert Harris, a Prestonian, which 

 gave life to thi.- scheme. On his death in 1877 he left 

 the sum ol (^00,000 for the iienefit of his town, and a 

 large proporimn of the money was devoted to the 

 fine treasiire-housc which Mr. Barton describes in his 

 article. When the building and its decorations were 

 lompleted, another townsman, Richard Newsham, 

 gave the equi|)ment of the .\rt Gallery an effective 

 start by bequeathing to it his collection of pictures by 

 British painters, over a hundred in number. Fourteen 

 are by i)avid (ox ; Turner is represented by a small 

 pastoral landscape ; David Roberts by his " Antwerp 

 Cathedral," and works by other artists, such as E. M. 

 Ward, John I.inncll, W. P. Frith, etc. are included. 

 The committee have made additional purchases of 



works by living artists, and there ha\e been other 

 legacies and gifts. A marked feature is the collection 

 of seascapes. At the present time Mr. John Somer- 

 scales is engaged in decorating the second and third 

 balconies of the gallery with a series of illustrative 

 panels, with the monuments of Ancient Egypt and the 

 temples of Greece for their subject. 



Where Brides Wear Mourning. 

 In the Oriental Review we are told that a Japanese 

 bride generally dresses in white : — 



" They are usually clad in resplendent garments of white silk, 

 the sleeves of the costume usually being about three feet in 

 length, while the sash, an important feature, measures about 

 eleven feet in length." It is not correct to say that the wearing 

 of a white costume by Japanese brides is in any way a copying 

 of the Western custom. \Vhite is the mourning colour in Japan, 

 and the bride, leaving her parents' house, considers herself de.id 

 in the sense that she will never return alive, preferring death to 

 divorce, and in consequence wearing a white costume. 



In the course of the ceremony the bride changes 

 her white dress into red. " Red is supposed to have 

 a purifying power, and perhaps clears the minds of 

 the parties of all association of mourning." 



The People " a Great Beast " or a Fair Scholar ? 

 Mr. R. A. E. Ross, Professor of Sociology, in his 

 study of the Middle West, which he contributes to 

 the Century for March, describes " the reassertion of 

 democracy." He speaks of the growing intelligence 

 of the people : — 



It has been computed that in 1800 the average adult 

 American had had eighty-two days of schooling. Hamilton 

 had such in mind when he smote the dinner-table with hi> 

 fist and shouted, "The people, sir— the people is a great 

 beast !" In 1900 the average .American had had 1,046 days of 

 schooling, — twelve times as much .as his great-grandfather, — yet 

 Hamilton's sneer is still flung, and popular control is decried as 

 " government by the mob." And fit guides of public opinion 

 are growing in number. In thirty years the secondary schools 

 of the nation have grown from 1,400 to 12,000. During the 

 last eighteen years the proportion of youth receiving high- 

 school instruction has doubled, while the enrolment in the 

 public high schools has more than quadrupled. .\s for the 

 colleges, their attendance increased 400 per cent, while the 

 population was gaining 100 per cent. 



Common Sense i.n the Social Evil. 



In all discussions of the causes and reform of the 

 " social evil," let it become clearly understood that 

 prostitution requires for its diminution not only laws, 

 well enforced, to abolish the tralTic in womanhood ; 

 not only better social protection against harpies who 

 seduce young girls seeking an honest livelihood ; not 

 only better chaperonage of young girls in exposed 

 occupations ; not only better opportunities for natural 

 enjoyment of youthful pleasure under morally safe 

 conditions ; not only these— but most of all, greater 

 power on the part of the average young girl to earn 

 her own support under right conditions and for a li\inii 

 wage. — Ansa Garlin Spencer, in the Forum (or 

 March. 



