When he returned from Europe after that disap pearance, he and I were closeted for months together in the office of Mr. Hulbert's New York World. Then it was that he told me the truth about his disappearance, and without knowing whether or not it has been published in America, I will repeat it briefly. He said that one morning he woke up in a hall bedroom in Mayfair, in the heart of Lon don, and as he lay in bed looking with wonder at his surroundings, a woman knocked and en tered the room. She asked him if he would have his usual breakfast. He inquired what his usual breakfast was, and she, astonished in her turn, told him that he always had a pennyworth of tea, a penny roll, a penny pot of butter and an egg which cost a penny. He asked her to sit down, and then, by crossexamining her, he found that he had lived a whole season in that house under a name he never knew, that he appeared to be " a city man" (English for a man of business), that he went out every morning, came back every evening, went very frequently to the theatre, and was the quietest, most irreproachable of all her lodgers. "In a word," he said, " I had lived the life of another man for months, unconscious of my own identity, unrecognized by any one. and fulfilling the well-rounded half of a dual existence." IN Iceland there are no prisons, and the in habitants are so honest in their habits that such defenses to property as locks, bolts and bars are not required; nor are there any police in the island. Yet its history for 1000 years records no more than two thefts. Of these two cases, one was that of a native, who was detected after stealing several sheep, but as he had done so to supply his family, who were suffering for want of food, when he had broken his arm, provisions were furnished to them and work was found for him when able to do it, and meanwhile he was placed under medical care; but the stigma at tached to his crime was considered sufficient punishment. The other theft was by a German, who stole seventeen sheep. But as he was in comfortable circumstances, and the robbery was malicious, the sentence passed upon him was that he should sell all his property, restore the value of what
he had stolen, and then leave the country or be executed, and he left at once. But, though crime is rare in Iceland and its inhabitants are distinguished for honesty, and purity of morals, there is, of course, provision for the administration of justice, which consists, first of all, in the sheriff's courts; next, by ap peals to the court of three judges at Reykjavik, the capital; and, lastly, in all criminal and most civil cases, to the supreme court at Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, of which kingdom the island forms a part. The island of Panaris (one of the Lipari group), is equally fortunate in hav ing neither prisons nor lawvers, and being ab solutely destitute of both paupers and criminals.
LITERARY NOTES. WILLIAM GARROTT BROWN opens the November ATLANTIC with a notable defense of American par ties, in which he shows the absolute necessity of two strong controlling parties in a representative govern ment like our own, and traces the principles and the history and development of " the two Genii who now serve the Republic." Two brilliant and entertain ing serials begin in this number : Miss Jewell's " The Tory Lover." a tale of love and adventure during the American revolution, treated from a hitherto un touched side, the fortunes of the Loyalists : and Mrs. Wiggin's •• Penelope's Irish Experiences, a com pletion of the delicious trilogy of feminine fun and adventure throughout the united kingdom which has delighted so many readers. The other contents are of musical interest. THE great Trans-Siberian Railway, described by Henry Norman in his series on " Russia of To-day," leads the November number of SCRIRNER'S MAGA ZINE. This railway is the commercial and political key to the far east, and Mr. Norman traveled its en tire length so far as completed, to Lake Baikal and beyond. He describes the wonderful industrial pos sibilities of the country through which he passed and gives an entirely new idea of Siberia. Instead of a desert it promises to be the leading wheat-producing country of the world, and the railway opens up im mense mineral possibilities. Mr. Norman says that since the great wall of China the world has seen no one material undertaking of equal magnitude. The cost of this railway will be about $500.000,000. and its total length 5,486 miles. Illustrated Ihroughout with Ihe aulhor's photographs.
