19 DECEMBER 1896

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The most important event in home politics since our last

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issue was the large meeting at Cork on Saturday last presided over by the Mayor of Cork and attended by one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Bishop, by Lord Castle. town, by...

The news of the death of Mace°, the most trusted

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leader of the insurgents in Cuba, is confirmed, and both Spaniards and Americans are excited by the event. The Spaniards, moved by causes which we have explained elsewhere,...

TI ORD G. HAMILTON, who ought, as Secretary for India, to

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be cognisant of all that is doing in Eastern politics, made an important statement in a speech at Ealing on Wednesday. He congratulated his audience on the termination of the...

The only hint which has yet transpired as to the

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method to be adopted with the Sultan is this. His Majesty will be requested to issue certain decrees, by every Ambassador in succession, all employing as closely as possible the...

NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS.—Advertisements for next Satur- day's issue, December 26th,

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should reach the Office as early as possible, as the paper will be Published at 230 a.m. on THURSDAY, December 24th.

*** 771e Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in any

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case.

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Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman spoke at Paisley on Tuesday, maintaining against

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Mr. Balfour that the Radicals, though they may disagree on practical applications of their principles, are much more generally agreed on those principles themselves than the...

England was shaken on Thursday morning at 5.30 am, by

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an earthquake of an unusual kind. It seemed as if the western side of the island had been struck from below by some tremendous force which distributed itself north, east, and...

Mr. Morley has addressed to the Times two able letters

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on Wednesday and Thursday in defence of the assertion that the Commission of Inquiry agreed to by the Conservative Govern. merit in 1390 admitted that the principle of taxing in...

Lord Rathmore, better known as Mr. Plunkett. made a speech

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in London on Wednesday to the members of the United Club. Very happy was his allusion to the final quarrel between Lord Rosebery and Sir William Harcourt over which of them was...

The reports of last week from the Indian famine area

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are, on the whole, more hopeful ; but the danger is not over, especially in the Punjab, part of the North-West, Behar, Central India, and Assam. Prices of food are every- where...

Sir Henry Fowler, speaking to his constituents at Wolver- hampton

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on Friday, December 11th, made great capital out of the inability of the Government to pass more than two or three of the thirteen measures promised in the Queen's Speech. We...

The first sitting of the Committee to inquire into the

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London County Council Works Department at which evidence was heard took place on Wednesday. Mr. Binnie, the chief engineer of the Council, was the first witness, and gave some...

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It is quite evident that the Triple Alliance is growing

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weaker, partly through the pressure of new circumstances. The Austrian Government, which, for all its professions, was by no means pleased with the revelations as to the Secret...

Mr. John Dillon spoke at Glasgow on Monday on the

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alliance between the Irish party and the Radicals. If the Radicals stuck to the Irish party, the Irish party would give them their enthusiastic support, often even though they...

France, it would seem, likes worrying, but does not like

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to be worried. For years past the chiefs of her Foreign Office have opposed English wishes at every point through- out the world in order that they might be able to say, " See...

The universality of the French feeling for Russia was curiously

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illustrated on Thursday. The vote was proposed for the fetes to the Czar, and it was expected that the Socialists, now a powerful group in the Chamber, would resist it to...

Mr. Wallace, M.P. for East Edinburgh, delivered a clever lecture

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on " Cant " to the London Fife Association on Monday at Anderton's Hotel. He derived the word from "chant,"—the sing-song in which beggars whine, as, for instance, "Spare a...

India appears to be precisely in the position which all

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Bryanites allege to be true of all the West and South of the United States. There is not money enough in the banks for commercial purposes. The Government holds the great...

Bank Rate, 4 per cent.

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New Consols (2- 1 1) were on Friday, 1101.

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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

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THE NEW IRISH AGITATION. Cork this day week, presided over by the Lord-Lieutenant of the county, and addressed by landlords, Unionists and Nationalists alike, to demand what is...

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THE GOVERNING EMOTIONS OF EUROPE.

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W E are all proud of Europe, its energy, its older, and its mental superiority, and we suppose, looking at the world as a whole, the pride is not entirely unreason- able. Europe...

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SIR HENRY FOWLER.

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W E have a sincere respect for Sir Henry Fowler. The India Office has seldom had a better and wiser head, and twice by his tact and firmness he obliged the House of Commons to...

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PARTY SQUABBLING.

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S IR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, speaking at Paisley on Tuesday, made a great point of answering Mr. Balfour's remark that, so far as he could see, the Opposition had no policy as...

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LORD ACTON'S GREAT PROJECT.

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L ORD ACTON'S great project of preparing, with the assistance of the best writers he can obtain, and with the support of the Syndics of the University Press, a " comprehensive...

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ORDERS AS A PROFESSION.

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T HE correspondence about curates to which we referred last week may well suggest the inquiry. Is it any longer wise for a young man to take orders ? We are not thinking, of...

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THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

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E sudden contraction of the world due to telegraph cables and the increased speed of steamers, which within our own time has reduced the planet to one-third its size, tends to a...

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CANT.

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M R. WALLACE, M.P., was certainly quite right on Monday in deriving the word "cant" from a corrupted form of "chant." It is rather a curious truth that John- son's advice to...

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MA.CE0 AND HIS RACE.

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T HE career of Math), the Cuban insurgent, the reports of whose death, whether by an accidental bullet or by a treacherous assassination, seem at last to be established, has an...

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THE PRACTICAL STUDY OF FISH.

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T HE Lancashire Sea Fisheries Joint Committee are about to establish a Marine Laboratory on Rod Island, near Barrow-in-Farness, for the scientific and practical study of the...

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SQUIRRELS.

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[To THE EDITOR Or THR "IIIPECTATOR.n SIR,—I am glad to see in the Spectator (November 28th) a word for the squirrels, not only, as your contributor says, "interesting and...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

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THE AMERICAN ELECTIONS. [TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR:1 SIE,—In the Spectator of December 5th you refer to some figures of Mr. Hardy in the Fortnightly Review, which figures...

THE GRIEVANCES OF CURATES.

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[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—As there are people who believe that incumbents are justified in choosing as curates men who are under thirty-five years of age, to the...

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[To VIM EDITOR OF TRY "SPECTATOR."]

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Sin,—I have been very much interested in a most charming article in the Spectator of November 28th on squirrels, and as I have had a tame one for four years, I think it may...

DOG STORIES.

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[To TIM EDITOR OF THIS " SPICTATOR:] Sia,—The perusal of Mr. Thomas Brooksbank's dog-story in the Spectator of September 12th has induced me to send you two anecdotes of a dog...

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BOOKS.

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GLIMPSES OF BOHEMIA.* THE Bohemia which Mr. Moscheles, in a style which is perhaps a little more suggestive of familiarity with the pencil than the pen, tells us in his preface...

TO ---.

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You say you cannot face your life's distress, And I, alas, no cure for grief possess ; But dormant courage may this thought awake— Fate in the choice of tools makes no mistake....

POETRY.

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FAITH AND THE UNIVERSE. A TREMBLING Star that steals along, Vast Night's belated wanderer, A pale ghost by the splendour strong Of Venus and of Jupiter ; A world forlorn with...

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MISS MAUD'S TALES FROM WAGNER.*

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THE time has passed by since we reviewed in these columns Miss Maud's poetical and successful attempt at embodying the fantasies of Wagner in the form of tales. Her chief pass-...

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MR. NORMAN GALE'S "SONGS FOR LITTLE PEOPLE."*

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MR. NORMAN GALE calls this little book Songs for Little People, and that is a true description of many of them, but a few of the beet are really written for the elder people who...

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P. G. HAMERTON.*

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HAMEETON'S autobiography really deserves the name. It is a careful study of character, detailed even to minuteness, and, as far as we are able to judge, absolutely candid. There...

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LOUISA SHORE'S POEMS.*

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IN the beginning of the short memoir with which Miss Shore introduces this arrangement of her sister Louisa's poetical remains to the public, it is said that the notice "is an...

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FRIDTIOF NANSEN.*

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Mn. WILLIAM ARCHER, in whose debt we were already for the way in which he has widened our view to the North, has now increased our sense of obligation by translating into...

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Three Girls in a Flat. By Ethel T. Heddle. (Gardner,

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Murton, and Co.)—The weak point in Miss Reddle's story is the character of Mabel. She is too openly selfish; people may be quite as much devoted as she was to her own pleasures...

CURRENT LITERATURE.

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GIFT-BOOKS. Wymps, and other Fairy Tales. By Evelyn Sharp. (John Lane.) —Perhaps it may be objected to these tales that the humour of them, which it does not savour in the...

The Spanish Cousin,. By F. B. Forester. (R.T.S.)—Luis de Almanza

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runs away from school in Spain and takes ship to Eng- land, and is picked up in London by a medical student, who turns out to be his cousin. The gratitude of Luis is described...

Dominique's Vengeance. By E. E. Green. (Nelson and Sons.)—The story

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opens in France about the end of the sixteenth century, when party feeling ran so high between the Guises and the Huguenot families. Dominique de Gourges frustrates the...

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Old Comrades. By Agnes Giberne. (J. F. Shaw and Co.)—If

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we had not met an Indian officer resembling Colonel Tracy in every respect, we should not have believed that such a boor existed. As it is, we cannot help thinking he is a...

Young Denys. By Eleanor C. Price. (W. and R. Chambers.)—

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Denys Hyde is an interesting hero, though he does nothing very extraordinary, and his adventures are not of his own seeking. A bookseller's son at Winchester, his love-story is...

The Slave - Raiders of Zanzibar. By E. H. Burrage. (Partridge and

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Co.)—A good wholesome story is The Slave - Raiders of Zan- zibar, and crammed full of incident and many a stirring light between the seamen and the Arab slave-smugglers. It does...

Travels by the Fireside. By Gordon Stables, RN. (F. V.

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White and Co.)—The two old Scotchmen, Lochlin McDuff and Struan McRobb, have some stirring tales to tell of their adventures by flood and field. The zones of the Cheyenne...

Toby's Promise. By A. M. Hopkinson. (E. Arnold.)—As fak as

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we can remember, the plot of Toby's Promise is a fresh ono. Toby, who is one of a family of four, is adopted by a soldier and his wife, who have lost their only son. Toby's...

To Tell the King the Sky is Falling. By Sheila

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E. Braine. Illmi- trated by Alice B. Woodward. (Blackie and Son.) —The absurd adventures of Max and Molly, in the company of Madam Ducky- Daddies and Mrs. Henny-Penny, will make...

Sappers and Miners. By G. Manville Fenn. (F. V. White

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and Co.)—Mr. Manville Fenn is at his beat in his Cornish stories, and with a couple of British boys and an old tin-mine he contrives to keep the reader's attention fairly well...

The Sign of the Red Cross. By E. E. Green.

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(Nelson and Sons.)—This story of old London Bridge brings the visitation of the Plague and the life of citizen London in the Restoration days very vividly before us. Two...

The Palace on the Moor. By E. Davenport Adams. (E.

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Arnold.) —The hero of this story is a somewhat weakly and "coddled" Anglo-Indian boy who is sent home to his grandparents in • England. The other small boys and girls find their...

Raid's Ugly Duckling. By H. L. Bedford and E. E.

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Green.—There is always a wide field for writers who describe tbe development.of child character. Given a child with strong mental powers, great prejudices, and utterly...

The Boy Tramps. By J. Macdonald Oxley. (W. and R.

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Chambers.)—The two heroes of this tale conceive the somewhat original idea of tramping across Canada, but, needless to say, it is confined strictly to the settled parts. There...

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Painters and their Works. Vol. I. By R. N. James.

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(L. Upeott Gill.)—This useful dictionary is to be completed in three volumes. It does not include living painters. The information is derived from recent sources, and altogether...

The Book of Job. Illustrated by H. Granville Fell. (Dent

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and Co.)—These drawings, with all their boldness and vigour, are wanting in mystery. There is no trace of that spiritual element which Blake knew so well how to suggest. Most...

Manchester, Old and New. By W. A. Shaw. (Cassell and

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Co.) —These three bulky volumes dealing with the history and life of Manchester are brightly and pleasantly written. The illustra- tions by Mr. Tidmarsh, which are in the style...

Spenser's Paerie Queens. With Illustrations by Walter Crane. Parts V.-VI.

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(George Allen.)—This is a charming edition, well printed on thick paper. Mr. Crane shows, as usual, his great ability in inventing beautiful patterns, and if we find the...

Albert Moore : his Life and Works. By A. Lys.

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Baldry. (G. Bell and Sons.)—The work of Albert Moore is abundant testimony—if testimony were wanted—of the futility of the doctrine of "art for art's sake." That such ability,...

Orford Characters. Twenty-four Lithographs. By W. Rothen- stein. (John Lane.)—Mr.

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Rothenstein here shows that he possesses a wonderful power of seizing the character of the faces he draws. Although most of the drawings lean to the side of caricature, one...

A Handbook of Anatomy for Art Students. By A. Thomson.

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(Clarendon Press.)—This work is a model of its kind. The author being the lecturer on anatomy at the South Kensington School of Art, has ample knowledge of the wants of artists...

Some years ago the Bodleian Library at Oxford became possessed

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of a treasure in St. Margaret of Scotland's Gospel - Book, and we welcome heartily the reproduction in facsimile of this interesting MS., edited by Father Forbes-Leith, 8.J.,...

Studies in the Art Anatomy of Animals. By Ernest E.

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Thomp- son. (Macmillan and Co.)—This book deals with the visible structure of animals and birds, and the author tells us that in carrying out his work he was careful to bear in...

Spenser's Paery Queens. Illustrated by Louis Fairfax Muckley. (Dent and

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Co.)—The illustrations to this edition are bold and original, and in some instances beautiful, but there is not the same instinct for design shown, as is displayed in Mr....

The Book of Ruth. Illustrated by W. B. Macdougall. (Dent

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and Co.) —This book is filled with exquisite decorations. Patterns of great beauty flow round the pages, and testify to the power of invention possessed by the illustrator. Of...

Arthur Boyd Houghton. By Laurence Housman. (Kogan Paul, Trench, and

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Co.)—This volume partly consists of re- productions of drawings, and partly of impressions from the wood blocks of a nearly forgotten illustrator. Houghton worked in the golden...

The Works of Charles Burton Barber. (Cassell and Co.) — For

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those—and they are many—who like animals painted with a human sentiment thrown in, this book will be a pleasure. For those who desire artistic qualities it will not be of interest.

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Architecture in Italy from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century.

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By Raffaele Cattaneo. (Fisher Unwin.)—The usual theory is that art in Italy declined gradually after the sixth century, and became practically extinct in the tenth, afterwards a...

Botticelli's Illustrations to Dante. 'With an Introduction by F. Lippmann.

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(Lawrence and Bullen.)—The unknown writer of the sixteenth century, in his notes on Florentine painters, says that Botticelli "painted and illustrated a Dante on parchment for...

ANNUALS AND CHRISTMAS NUMBERS —Phil May's, Beeton's, cna England's, Winter's.

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The World, In Town, the Monthly Packet, the Sunday Magazine, Good Words, the Girl's Own Paper, the Bey's Own Paper, Black and White, the Queen, the Illustrated Sporting and...

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Messrs. Hildersheimer and Co. send us some specimens of Christmas

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Cards exhibiting what they call the " Rembrandt Process." This is a species of photogravure, and certainly suc- ceeds in presenting the artistic qualities of the works which it...