EDITORIAL NOTES. 255 
RECENTLY a well equipped expedition has 
been dispatched to Central America, charged 
with the work of systematically searching 
for everything that may tend to place within 
the domain of history the facts connected 
with a people whose career must have been 
one of the most interesting in the general 
development of the world’s civilization. The 
founders of these cities were our precessors 
on this continent; their peculiar civilization 
and their esthetic development are of the 
highest interest as regards the question of 
the origin of man himself; their history is, 
in fact, the first chapter of the general his- 
Though 
we are not the lineal descendants of these 
builders of the cities that must have rivaled 
even Babylon and Nineveh in some of their 
architectural features, the results of their 
culture have been left to our safe keeping, 
and from these results it is evidently our 
duty, as far as possible, to gather the mate- 
rials for filling up the unwritten first chapter 
of our history. 
tory of the American continent. 
A full account of the ex- 
plorations of the party comprising the expe- 
dition is to be published from monh to 
month in the Worth American Review, with 
illustrations of the most important objects 
discovered. The August number of the 
Review contains an article by the editor in- 
troductory to the series, entitled ‘‘ Ruined 
Cities of Central America.’”’ Other articles 
in the same number of the Revzew aré ** The 
Law of Newspaper Libel,” by John Prof- 
fatt; ‘‘The Census Laws,’ by Charles F. 
Johnson; ‘‘Nullity of the Emancipation 
Edict,” by Richard H. Dana; ‘ Principles 
of Taxation,” by Prof. Simon Newcomb; 
‘*Prince Bismarck as a Friend of America 
and as a Statesman,” by Moritz Busch; and 
““Recent Literature.’’ by Charles T. Cong- 
don. 
Mr. HENRY SHAW, whose name has been 
, rendered illustrious in connection with the 
botanical horticultural history of St. Louis, 
by the establishment of the new world-fa- 
mous Botanical Garden bearing his name, 
and of Tower Grove Park, which he so 
munificently donated to the city of St. Louis, 
celebrated on July 24th, the eightieth anni- 
versary of his birthday. 
Professor F. E. Nipher, of the Washing 
ton University, St. Louis, Mo., who has been 
spending part of his vacation in verifying his 
magnetic observations, writes: ‘‘ Our results 
are wholly in accord with the work of the 
two years before, and show that the conduct- 
ing power of the soil. is what determines 
the /arger abnormal deviations of the mag- 
Before I leave it I mean to 
settle the matter so that it will be evident 
netic needle. 
enough. We start this evening for another 
tour from Salem southward to the Arkansas 
lining”? 
THE sixty first volume of Harpers Maga- 
zine began with the June Number. In the 
July Number was begun a new serial novel 
by HENRY JAMES, JR., entitled ‘‘ Washing- 
ton Suqare’’—an American story of unusual 
interest. The September Number will con- 
tain the continuation of WILLIAM BLACK’s 
«‘ White Wings;” the third part of ‘* Wash- 
ington Square,”’ by HENRY JAMES, JR.; ‘¢ The 
American Graces,’’ a biographical sketch of 
the three Misses Caton of Baltimere—Eliza- 
beth, Mary and Louisa, who married respect- 
ively Baron Stafford, the Marquis of Welles- 
ley, and the Duke of Leeds—with beautiful 
portraits of each; the second part of W. H. 
BrsHop’s ‘* Men and Fish in the Maine Is- 
lands,”’ illustrated by Burns; ‘‘ The Family 
of George III.,”’ with twenty-one portraits— 
fac-similes of old engravings from paintings 
by the best English artists of the latter part 
of the eighteenth and the first quarter of the 
nineteenth centuries; the third part of RE- 
BECCA HARDING DAvis’ ‘‘ By-Paths in the 
Mountains,”’ illustrated by GRAHAM; ‘‘ The 
Seven Sleepers’ Paradise Beside the Loire,” 
an illustrated paper by M. D. Conway; a 
beautiful poem by WILLIAM M. BriGGs, en- 
titled ‘«*Amid the Grasses,” illustrated by 
WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBson; ‘‘ Squatter Life 
in New York,” by WILLIAM H. RIDEING, 
with characteristic illustrations by SHULTz 
and KELLEY; and the usual variety of short 
stories, timely articles, etc. 
