News comes that D'Annunzio has plans for a theatre to be built on the banks of the Lake of Albano. It is D'Annunzio's said that all worthy drama Theatre-to-be will have a chance and seats will not be reserved. It seems that when D'Annunzio's new drama "La Figlia di Jorio" was produced in March, Duse did not appear, although it is a well-known fact that the play was written expressly for her. It seems that some sort of dispute between the author and the actress was responsible for the failure of the latter to carry out the projected program. It is said that she, with "the voice and the beautiful hands" was affected even to the point of severe ill

ness.

"The Marriage of William Ashe," Mrs. Humphrey Ward's new novel is, by the way, progressing famously in its serial career. The character of Kitty promises to be as unique and fascinating as that of Julie le Breton, though the story generally has all the ordinary marks. of Mrs. Ward upon it.

The Author of "In Merry Measure"

* * *

Tom Masson, who wrote the verses, "In Merry Measure," was born in Essex, Connecticut, in 1866. When he was nine months old he went to sea, for his father was a sea captain. For ten years past Mr. Masson has been Managing and Literary Editor of "Life" and his writings are widely known. At present he lives at Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and according to his own statement, his family consists of three children, three dogs, three servants and only one wife.

An amusing circumstance concerned with Mr. Masson's popular verses on the "Summer Girl" is that they were written in Winter during a blinding snowstorm, when the only thing that Mr. Masson could think of was the "Summer Girl."

"a robust and sinewy laborer, a man whose life had dealt with all the forces of nature and had conquered all. His immense blue eyes darted flames at us; his huge white forehead glistened; his massive, though short, stature spoke of untiring energy and miraculous power."

The author received the child and her mother graciously and said.

"Your ancestors, my child, have made your name familiar to me. I know how to pronounce its harsh, weird syllables, whose cadence I love: never write under any other name but your own. It sounds like a clash of armor."

He insisted that the little girl, who was already something of a poet, should read her verses to him; which she did in trembling voice. bling voice. When she had done she found herself "wrapped in his arms" and heard him say, "Bravo, child, this is well indeed."

A few days later he died of a sudden illness.

First among the publications of the month of August, especially to those fortunate persons who are permitted to linger by the sea or on the mountains during the delightful days of September, are the issues of new fiction. Several stories and novels deserve particular mention. From the pen of Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman comes "The Givers," a collection of short stories in the author's best style. The high rank of the writer assures wide reading for this volume. "The Challoners,' by E. F. Benson, author of "Dodo," a book which had a tremendous run, is a plea for individualism in spiritual life, woven in a tale of the tragic side of a godly life and a good home.

Because the author is the author of "The Garden of a Commuter's Wife," "The Woman Errant" will be read. It discourses of the "new woman" considered as a freak of nature. Not only is "The Rose of Old St. Louis," by Mary Dillon, a timely novel, being based on events occurring at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, but it is an enjoyable story. Violet Jacob's "The Interloper" is a good novel of Scotland in the early part of the last century. The absence of Scotch dialect is a unique feature of the book. "The Confessions of a Club Woman," by Agnes Surbridge, an unknown author, relates the career of a woman who all but broke up her home, through her ambition to be a leader in the Women's Club set.

John Strange Winter, the English woman who has written successful fiction for 30 years, tells in an amusing style of "The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker." Hugh McHugh, author of the "John Henry" books, which have an extensive sale, relates another story in "I'm from Missouri," in the terse, idiomatic slang which characterizes the series.

"The Watchers of the Trails," by Charles G. D. Roberts, a writer of good wild animal stories, is a collection of such tales, well told. The book is distinctively illustrated.

Olin D. Wheeler, author of "The Trail of Lewis and Clark," traveled over the ground which the explorers of a century ago followed, in order to secure accurate material for his work. In two volumes he has drawn a very interesting comparison of the great northwest as it was a hundred years ago and as it is to-day.

A neglected field of American historical research has been studied by Herbert L. Osgood in "The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century." The work unfolds the story of the colonization and the establishment of government in North America.

"The personal and dramatic side of certain events in our political history," is the basis from which caucuses, conventions, campaigns and candidates are treated in "Our Political Drama," by Joseph Bucklin Bishop.

The series of articles by Lincoln Steffens on the corruption in the municipal governments of five great American cities, published in "McClure's Magazine," is now issued in a volume with the title, "The Shame of the Cities."

Emile Boutmy, author of "The English People," a study of their Political Psychology, has written philosophical studies of "The English Constitution" and of "France, England and the United States." His present work is a descriptive, philosophical summary of English institutions. M. Boutmy is nearly blind. and this may partly account for a pretty general depreciation of things English.

"Studies in Shapespeare," a volume of essays by J. Churton Collins, compares

Shakespearean art with the drama of ancient Greece, and discusses the relation of Shakespeare's writings to certain certain phases of English literature.

"The Story of Anglo-Saxon Institutions," by Sidney C. Taft, demonstrates, from the author's point of view, that the Anglo-Saxon race alone has "a true conception of Republican Institutions" and has alone "solved correctly the problem of self-government."

In "Wall Street and the Country," Charles A. Conant has gathered six essays on the magnitude of the problems presented in the modern tendency to capitalization. Mr. Conant is the author of

"A History of Modern Banks of Issue" and is regarded as a financial authority. "Money," by David Kinley, the latest issue of the Citizens' Library Series, is a history of the evolution of money.

Prof. Cheesman A. Herrick, director of the School of Commerce in the Central High School of Philadelphia, in "The Meaning and Practice of Commercial Education," discusses authoritatively the need of such education, the systems abroad and the work done in this country. "Copyright Cases" is a compilation by Arthur S. Hamlin of the leading American decisions, between 1891 and 1903, on the law of copyright and on literary property.