TALKS IN A LIBRARY WITH LAURENCE HU11.0N.
Talks in a Library with Laurence Hutton. Recorded by Isabel Moore. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 10s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Laurence Hutton had collected at his house at Princeton a vast number of personal mementoes of men, and things, and times,—" portraits, autograph letters, inscribed books, play-bills, menus of old-time dinners," as Mr. G. H. Putnam describes them in his Introductory Note. At Mr. Putnam's suggestion, Mr. Hutton talked to the lady who has put together this volume about these things and the memories which they called up. She was "a sympathetic and discriminating phonograph," and the result is an eminently readable book. Mr. Hutton's own literary work was largely of this kind. His "Literary Landmarks "—that on Edinburgh was, we think, his last—were books of association. Here he appears, in our judgment, to at least as much advantage. It is, as may be imagined, a book that quite defies analysis. Mr. Hutton wanders on from subject to subject, and from recollection to recollection ; he is always interesting, always natural, always kindly. Here is a story which reminds us, in a topsy-turvy way, of a famous scene in "The Golden Butterfly." In the early days of the Authors' Club a meeting adjourned from its rooms, when the stove would not burn, to a neighbouring hotel. Two strangers showed the new-comers some little politeness, and had "a parting nip" with them. "Mr. Stedman ventured to tell them who we were. 'This is Mr. Conant,' he said, of Efarper's Weekly ; this, Mr. George Parsons Lathrop; this, Mr. Richard Grant White, the Shake- spearean author; this, Mr. George Cary Eceleston, of the World; this, Professor Boyesen, of Cornell ; this, Mr. Banner, of Puck ; this, Mr. Laurence Hutton, the historian of the stage ; and I am Mr. E. C. Stedman.' The strangers looked at us for a moment in solemn silence, when the elder said : I am Bismarck, and my friend is the Pope of Rome ! ' And without a good night' or a glance behind them they hurried out into the storm."
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