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Cather was the editor of the Home Monthly and therefore likely wrote much of the copy for the editorial page. However, only her authorship of "The Return of the Romantic Drama" has been confirmed, and the writing of the other editorials could be from another hand.
Text created for online distribution on the Willa Cather Archive (http://cather.unl.edu).
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Entered at the Pittsburgh postoffice as second-class matter.
Special inducements to canvassers and club-raisers. Send for terms.
The last year has brought forth more magazines than any decade ever did in the past. The land is full of literary faddists, and every one of them has his own magazine devoted to his particular fad and publishing not the sort of literature that the people read so much as the style he himself fancies. Every publisher knows that all these periodicals cannot live, and that half of them are already a drug on the market. In America the fad magazine cannot live. It is all very well on the Continent, where there is a large class of people who have no more urgent occupation than the cultivation of fads. But in America people are too busy. The fanciers of the bizarre are confined to a few literary men. Every month or so there arises a new and shining light among the fad magazines, a fad
The human mind turns ever back to beauty. The ugly plays of realism come and irritate us for a time, but they are not permanent. Only a year ago it seemed that Alexandre Dumas
The romantic drama always comes back, as an old song comes back to one after the cares of the day, as a picture of long ago rises suddenly amid the hurrying bustle of business.
The approach of winter will be hailed with delight by the dwellers in the larger cities of the country, for it will bring at least a temporary respite from the barefoot perambulations of the Kneipp patients. The parks of all Eastern towns have been literally invaded this summer by these people with their feet in the conventional Trilby state wading through the dewy grass. Even private lawns have been invaded. While this form of medical treatment is certainly more harmless than many still in vogue, it is extremely probable that if these erratic "patients" did the same amount of walking with their shoes and stockings on they would find it quite as beneficial. Suppose now that the Kneipp treatment should become generally popular, as popular as bicycling for instance. Imagine the horrible results; ladies shopping and paying informal calls, gentlemen going to business a la Trilby. Doubtless if some learned gentleman with plenty of assurance—and the assurance is more important in such cases than the learning—should develop some latent atavistic tendency, and suggest that we walk on all fours like our simiadæn ancestors, hundreds of people would jump at the opportunity. Humanity has many changing tastes and fancies, but it has had at least one constant passion ever since the snake perpetrated his old immortal trick, and that is its passion for being gulled.
The game of basket ball which is so much in favor at women's colleges just now is really a much modified form of foot ball. The game is played in two halves of twenty minutes each with an intermission of ten minutes. The Rugby rules are generally used. The game was inaugurated at Smith college in 1892, and has since been taken up by all the principal women's schools in the United States. As an athletic exercise its advantages are many and obvious, but it will probably never become popular outside of colleges. It is not a graceful game or a pretty one, and the costume is trying. Certainly it is not a sport in which many girls would care to indulge before a large audience. Almost any exercise in which a woman can excel gracefully and without apparent exertion, such as wheeling, swimming, or shooting, seems within the legitimate feminine sphere. But when a girl gets out in a field before a crowd of on-lookers, and chases a ball, basket or no basket, she cheapens herself. This is not due to prejudice, it is simply not in accordance with the eternal fitness of things.
Considerable excitement has been created by the announcement of the discovery of gold in Newfoundland. This will mean another strong ally for England. The discovery of gold has always had an instantaneous and magical effect upon a country. The gold of South America made Spain what it was in the days of Philip and the Armada. The discovery of gold made civilization possible in South Africa. It transformed California from a half barbarous territory to a great commonwealth. Newfoundland has always been one of the most utterly desolate places on the globe, a mere miserable fishing colony, drawing almost its sole income from the manufacture of cod liver oil. It would be an unique circumstance if that barren island should suddenly be invested with wealth and power, and become the Eldorado of adventurers and center of sensational interest. For wherever that magic metal is found cities spring up in a night and fortunes are made in a day.
Professor Beyer, of Tulane University, has been making some most interesting discoveries at Troy, Louisiana. It seems that this town also is a "high-hilled Troy," being built upon a number of mounds that once served as ancient temples before Columbus made that memorable excursion which, Chicago people say, resulted in the Chicago Exposition. The big central mound was a temple where fire was kept always burning as in the great temple of the Aztecs. The surrounding mounds were probably the palaces of the princes or chiefs. The mud for these mounds had to be brought from a great distance, and when completed they had to be strong enough to resist the overflows to which the country was then subject. This latter fact may account for their excellent state of preservation. Professor Beyer has found a great deal of fine pottery. All the skeletons discovered indicate the extreme age of the mounds and place the date at which this city flourished at something over a thousand years ago.