Plucky Small: His Story, is a serial by Mary Bradford Crowninshield. “I was a wharf rat,” begins Plucky. Plucky’s friend, “The Tinker,” was another; “why ‘The Tinker,’” says Plucky, “he don’t know, nor I don’t know.” Plucky does a great brave deed, and on account of it he gets a chance to enlist “in the apprentice-service of a United States training-ship,” and so does “the Tinker,” and away they go on a long cruise, down around the south of Europe, into the Mediterranean, with stops at Marseilles, Gibraltar, and Havre—a whole ship-full of prankish boys; and how realistic the story is may be guessed from the fact that the author is the wife of Commander Crowninshield, now of the U. S. School-Ship St. Mary’s, and has cruised with the boys on other U. S. training-ships. Pictures by Frank T. Merrill.
About Rosa Bonheur. (Second Art Paper.) This charming account of the wonderful French woman who has painted the finest animal pictures since Landseer has been written for Wide Awake by Rosa Bonheur’s friend of many years, the American artist, Henry Bacon. The picture of her in studio dress painting the famous “Head of a Lion” was drawn by Mr. Bacon; the portrait of her at eighteen is from a painting by her brother, Auguste Bonheur. Full of anecdote and with many pictures.
Children of the White House, by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, is a series of articles of national importance and national interest. It is a wonder that this work has not been undertaken before for the pleasure and information of young Americans. Starting with the little Custises, the adopted children of Washington, this fascinating series, giving a chapter to each Presidential family, comes down to the present administration, gathering up delightful details of family life, and tracing the after histories of the Presidential children. Mrs. Upton for many years has had rare privileges of ransacking old annals in Washington, and interesting family reminiscences have been kindly recalled for her, and precious relics, portraits, and paintings furnished for photographing.
The Story of Boston Common, by Edward Everett Hale, is now complete in MS., and the long-expected series, touching much of early American history, will be given, in three or more chapters, with historic and modern pictures, during the coming summer.
Certain old authors, certain old books, certain old nursery stories, have become household words and household treasures the world over. Under the title of Dear Old Story-Tellers, Mr. Adams will relate all of interest that is known about these dear old authors, books and stories. The series of twelve papers embrace Æsop, Arabian Nights, Mother Goose, Perrault, La Fontaine, Defoe, Madame de Genlis, Brothers Grimm, Hans Andersen, Laboulaye, La Motte-Fouqué—with authentic portraits, when such exist, and other illustrations.
The Medal Children of the Renaissance. (Third Art Paper.) An art article for young readers by Frances H. Throop about some high-born children of the fifteenth century, whose portraits were sculptured or cast in medallions; these lovely medals are preserved in European museums and collections, being regarded as precious art-treasures; and Miss Throop has made casts and drawings from the originals to illustrate her paper.
Around-the-World Stories relate a dozen unique personal experiences—some diverting, some perilous—of the adopted daughter of Secretary of State, William H. Seward, on his journey around the world after he had recovered from the attack on his life at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln. Miss Seward is a born story-teller, and whether she is describing A Dinner at Kensington Palace, or A Visit to the Great Wall of China, or Experiences as a Lion-Tamer, or Adventures in the Streets of Pekin, the interest is always breathless, the story always novel. Illustrations by Wm. T. Smedley and others.