The employment so dear to every boy, sooner or later, stamp-collecting, has become a science. Like all new things in America it has received a big name. He who used to be a stamp-collector is now a “philatelist.” A national society has been formed, and like all good societies too, it has its organ in a neat little monthly magazine, called The National Philatelist.
There is always something new in local circle work. We learn this month that the energetic circle of Danville, Ill., is looking forward to a C.L.S.C. hall. We earnestly hope they will succeed; but of all the unique places for holding the meetings perhaps the missionary packet is the foremost. The “Floating Circle” that writes us from Honolulu must certainly be a blessing to all who come within its reach. We heartily wish it God speed.
An excellent commemoration of the fourth centenary of Luther’s birthday is under way in England. Translations have been issued of three of his chief works, “Christian Liberty,” “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church,” and the “Address to the Nobility of the German Nation.” The latter was published in 1520, and in a short time reached a circulation, wonderful for that time, of 4,000 copies.
Robert Browning has recently published in England his twenty-second volume of verse. “Jocoseria” he calls it, and, as the title indicates, it contains poems both grave and gay. Mr. Browning is now seventy-one years old, and it is twenty-two years since his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, died. Age and sorrow have neither killed nor embittered the poet. Something of his popularity may be inferred from the fact that within three days after “Jocoseria” was published, eleven hundred copies were sold.
Santa Fé will strengthen its claim to be called the oldest city in the United States by celebrating its 333d birthday. The Tertio-Millenium celebration begins on the 2d of July and continues thirty-three days. It is the intention to represent not alone the mining and industrial prosperity of that section, but the three civilizations that have successively occupied New Mexico and the regions adjacent.