Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/421

This page needs to be proofread.
390
The Green Bag.

gives the devil l1is due, it lakes care to restrict his dues as much as possible." And still further : — "The pleader does not slaughter his cause of action by the way he deals with it in pleading. In point of fact, pleading merely describes it, and failing to mention some of its parts is only omitting to tell the whole truth about it. It might as well be said that a man or an animal is killed by a def1cient description." Amendment "neither creates nor raises from the dead; its function is neither generation nor resurrection, but is rather one of development, nutri tion and medication." "A cause of action, if alive at all, is alive all over; each fragment is living matter, and has neither more nor less vitality in consequence of being put in or left out of the declaration."

CURRENT EVENTS. In Jetmore, Ks., not a single house is rented nor to rent. The man or woman of the house owns the house in every instance. There are 350 people in Jetmore. Underground and underwater railway schemes are becoming more common every day as the only available solution of transportation problems. Be fore long there will be another road under the Thames, in London, in addition to those already in existence or proposed. The London County Coun cil has just decided to apply to Parliament for author ity to proceed with this structure, which will provide not only a railway, but a path for pedestrians also. It will lie about midway between the Tower bridge and the Blackwall Tunnel, and will run from a point near the St. Katharine's docks on the Middlesex or northern bank to Rotherhithe, where there is also a great system of docks, on the Surrey or southern side of the river. The total length of the structure, including the approaches, will be a mile and a quar ter, or a little longer than the East River bridge here, and the cost is estimated at about $1 1,000.000. Recent engineering improvements greatly facilitate the construction of works of this kind.

LITERARY NOTES. The serial attraction of The L1v1ng Age for the summer months is a story by " Neera " one of the bestknown of contemporary Italian writers. It is called "The Old House " and the opening chapter, in the number for July I, is full of color and romantic charm. The July number of Harper's is especially in teresting for the unusual number of short stories it contains, and in this respect is admirably suited to

summer readers. Israel Zangwill contributes •• Tran sitional," a touching story of how a little Jewess renounced her Christian lover for her father's sake; •• The Wrath of the Zuyder Zee,"' by Thomas A. Jan vier, is in many respects the best of Mr. Janvier's short stories; Frederic Remington is both the author and the illustrator of " The Honor of the Troop "; "Matilda's Address Book," by Margaret Sutton Briscoe, is one of the most entertaining features of " The Drawer "; Jessie Van Zile Belden con tributes "Not on the Passenger List," and Wolcott Le Clear Beard tells a pathetic story of a telegraph operator in a rough western town. Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge brings to an end his "War with Spain," and Mr. Russell Sturgis contributes the third paper on "The Interior Decoration of the City House." Herbert C. Macllwaine writes of "The Australian Horseman," and describes his life and customs. The July Century is a story-teller's number, and is novel in its make-up, not only because it has a large amount of original fiction by ten living storywriters, but because it contains also articles on seven of the world's most famous makers of fiction, two only of whom are living. In only one or two cases do these articles consist of criticism. Two hitherto unpublished portraits of Sir Walter Scott, accom panied by a sketch of the artist who made them, are followed by a detailed and authentic account of the romancer's unhappy love affair, which cast a shadow over his entire life. Mrs. James T. Fields tells of a visit to George Eliot; "Stevenson in Samoa" con tains such reminiscences as might be expected from the story-teller's step-daughter and secretary; "The Making of ' Robinson Crusoe,'" gives the true story of Alexander Selkirk and his sojourn on Juan Fernandez, with reproductions of his gun, his trunk, and other relics; Victor Hugo as an artist is the subject of a paper by Le Cocq de Lautreppe : "Bret Harte in California " was well known by Noah Brooks, who fills several pages with entertaining gossip of a period that seems more remote than it really is. L1pp1ncott's Magaz1ne, which starts on an en tirely new career with the July issue, brings out —complete — a Japanese novel, by John Luther Long, the author of "Madame Butterfly"; "The FoxWoman" deals with the half-humorous, halfpathetic infatuation of a little Japanese artist for a wilful American beauty, who never realizes the tragedy she heartlessly compels; " The Teller," by the author of " David Harum," and the only existing fiction left by Edward Noyes Westcott, is a story in which the pathetic incident of every-day life is treated with a power never surpassed and seldom equalled in contemporary literature.