butt end of the gun and thus scared him away. He replied, saying, " I would have done dat, but de bull pup he not come at me dat way and so I tenk I better use safe end of my gun on him." This man knew the dog as he is, not as one would wish to have him, and he came out safe, while one, a theorist and a dreamer, who imagines that a dog does not know enough to brood over his wrongs, and carries no malice in his heart, will find to his sorrow the seat gone from his trousers before he knows it. Never take any chances with a dog and never go into Iowa courts with a dog case, for you will not be permitted to prove that he can treasure up wrongs, nor remember in malice. IT is not generally known that the genial au thor of " Bab Ballads " and the collaborator with Sir Arthur Sullivan in the production of many charming comic operas enjoys the dig nity of being a police court judge. But such is the fact. In the stuffy, ill-ventilated police court at Edgeware, England, W. S. Gilbert, J. P., and playwright, occasionally presides, and metes out the justice of the land to evil-doers.
LITERARY NOTES. Two of the freshest and most important of recent articles on China, namely, Mr. Gundry's account of 41 The Last Palace Intrigue at Peking " and Mr. Douglas's hopeful view of " The Intellectual Awak ening of China " will be found in THE LIVING AGE : Mr. Gundry's article in the number for July 7 and Mr. Douglas's in the number for July 21. THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY for July will be read with pleasure. Prof. Robinson, in an article criticising methods of writing history, takes occa sion to introduce examples of the treatment which should be accorded striking events in history, as, for instance, the policy of the church in the times before and during the Reformation. Prof. Wilson writes on the advance in the science of biology and describes the wonderful experiments in the lower forms of life which have shown that fertilization of the female is not dependent upon the male in all cases, and which throw light upon the influence of heredity and the question of sex. • Dr. Edson has a paper on the bubonic plague, which tells the history of that terrible scourge with which we are now threatened, and its development and methods of prevention; there is only one chance in twenty of a
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cure. Mr. Payne writes interestingly on the subject of American literary criticism and critics; and the famous French thinker, Th. Ribot, continues his article on the creative imagination, devoting this installment to the question of invention and inspira tion, two topics of especial interest to Americans who take the lead in invention. EX-PRESIDENT CLEVELAND opens the July At lantic with his discussion of The Independence of the Executive. He describes the intense pressure for office at the beginning of his first term, and follows with a graphic account—interspersed with characteristically pungent comments—of the politi cal controversy that ensued in and with the Senate from the attempt of that body to control the re movals and appointments made by him, by reviving against him the old-time Tenure of Office Act of 1869, which had been practically a dead letter for many years. The struggle was long and bitter; in the end the President maintained his ground, the Senate gradually receded, and the contest subsided. A few months later the law itself was repealed, and "thus was an unpleasant controversy happily fol lowed by an expurgation of the last vestige of statu tory sanction to an encroachment upon constitutional, executive prerogatives, and thus was a time-honored interpretation of the Constitution restored to us. The President, freed from the Senate's claim of tutelage, became again the independent agent of the people, representing a coordinate branch of their Government, charged with responsibilities which, under his oath, he ought not to avoid or share." EXCELLENT character sketches of both the Re publican and Democratic Presidential Nominees will be found in the American Monthly Review of Reviews for July. Dr. Charles B. Spahr writes of Mr. Bryan and the principles that he represents, while a friend of President McKinley tells of his personal traits and the record made by his admin istration. THE timeliness of the July Century is due in large measure to its literary and pictorial treatment -of the present Mecca of holiday-makers. Eight fullpage drawings by Castaigne illustrate the Exposi tion, and four other full-page and several smaller drawings from the same pencil form a pictorial commentary on Richard Whiting's paper on Artistic Paris." Having begun life as an artist, Mr. Whiting writes with keen appreciation of his subject, in a style, moreover, that has many of the qualities distinctive of the French man-of-letters. In the matter of full-page pictures, The Century probably makes a record for itself this month, the
