supremacy of New York. When water transpor- | tation such as is offered by the Erie Canal receives the attention from capitalists which it deserves, and the railroad mania has been cured, then will New York harbor receive back this commerce now diverted to other channels. The geographical position of the Erie Canal is such, and the conveniences of loading and unloading are so great, that with cheap and rapid transit, with new and improved equipment, and the gradual unlocking of the immense resources of the West, the Erie Canal will come in for a large share of this great freight of the future. During the past four years the receipts from canal tolls have been comparatively small, and this can be attributed to the fact that until this year the toll tax has been too high. This made it almost impossible for boat-owners to keep their property in reasonable repair, and as the boats became incapable of service they were allowed to go to ruin. The equipment of the Canal has rapidly wasted away, as the result of excessively high tolls, and not from the low rates on freight. If the low toll-sheet had prevailed earlier the effect would have been entirely different; for not only would the old boats have been duly repaired, but more rapid progress would have been made toward introducing the cheapest and most approved plan of vessels fit for canal purposes. In view of the many obstacles in the way to discourage those whose endeavors have been directed to canal improvement, the result shown in regard to the use of steam is highly satisfactory, and worthy of all commendation. To be sure, the reduction of tolls has something to do with this result; but the| accomplishment of this very satisfactory result has been effected mainly by a trial of steam for four years, during which time a very extensive business of transportation has been conducted, and certain improvements have suggested themselves. Those in charge of the steamers have become better acquainted with their duties, by this four years' experience. The competent captains,, engineers, and deck hands have been retained, while the incompetent, dishonest, intemperate and indifferent have been weeded out. Last, but not least, the patent coupling arrangement has been applied, and in a very short time its adoption has become so eminently important that the introduction of steam in vessels of two hundred tons burthen could hardly reach an entirely satisfactory solution without it. The business of the Canal for the year has come to an end. It has been a prosperous season, so far as the volume of freight transferred is concerned. This season 6,908 boats cleared at Buffalo, an increase of 2,058 over last year. The grand shipment of grain was 48,446,768 bushels, against 27,615,023 last year, an increase of 20,831,745 bushels for the season of 1877. In all kinds of lumber shipments there has been the same increase. If these things continue, next season will see the workshops along the line open, and the tap of the caulker's mallet will be heard, signifying a new, progressive, and vigorous life for the Erie Canal. Her steam-vessels will go alongside of the ocean steamer to have their cargoes transferred, thus avoiding the expense and delay of towing, and the inconvenience and extra expense of transferring from the cars to the elevator, and from the elevator to the sailing-vessel or steamer, as in the case of rail. The cost of Canal equipment sufficient to perform the great work of bringing into the harbor of New York more tonnage in less time than is now occupied by all the railroads touching this point, would hardly exceed $15,000,000. The cost of two of our railroads coming into the city of New York, runs up into the hundreds of millions. The new method of steam-carriage on the Canal will revolutionize the system of conducting the business of transportation. The shortages of cargoes, the unnecessary detention of boats in port the extra expense of loading and trimming cargoes, together with other obstacles which are a fair accompaniment to the primitive method of horsetowage, must give way to the introduction of steam, which will be strong enough to overcome them all, thus effecting a reform that will preserve this great artificial water-way which has cost the State $70,000,000, and enable it to triumph over all its enemies. So much having been accomplished, it remains now for the State to encourage those engaged in canal enterprises. The toll-sheet should be abolished altogether and the channel of the canal should be dug out to its legalized depth of seven feet throughout its entire length. It is not so highly important that the widening process should begin immediately. The time will come, however, when the use of steam will be so popular that the most incredulous will be forced to admit that the Erie Canal is the only source to which New York City can look to preserve her commercial footing. With these facts before us, we may hope that the merchant and shipper will be protected from the influence of those whose natural wish is to see this important route closed to commerce, and its traffic given over to a gigantic railroad monopoly, to which it is already a great barrier. GEORGE Rowland. THE OLD CABINET. order to get satisfactory impressions-unless they do the work themselves. Why cannot one of our young artists, who has trouble to make both ends meet, start a little printing business of this kind? As every artist, and especially as every etcher, knows, making the impression should command almost, if not quite as much art-sense as making the plate. Good printing is never simply mechanical, and, least of all, the printing of an etching. It is, in fact, the final process in the drawing. The great variety of interesting work crowded into this little room-etchings, wood-engravings by those named (and by King, Nichols, Wolf and others-in some cases with their originals, by T. Moran, Eaton, Abbey, Laffan), drawings by C. S. Reinhart, Miss Oakey, Richard Gross, C. H. Miller, etc.-gives an idea of what could be done in an exhibition devoted entirely to black-and-white. It may be that the Water-color Society should take such an exhibition under its auspices; it may be that the enterprise could be better managed separately,certainly if it were separate there would be a chance for a less confused and confusing catalogue than the pages devoted in the society's catalogue to the contents of the north-west room. That the public would be greatly interested in, and greatly instructed SHALL we have a "Black-and-White Exhibition" in New York? The "black-and-white" room of the Water-color Society's Exhibition was one of the most interesting features of this year's show in the Academy Buildings. It was interesting in itself, and it was interesting also as suggestive of what could be done in an exhibition devoted entirely to black-andwhite. Only a few days before the opening of the recent exhibition word was sent around that possibly the large south room of the Academy would be opened, and the entire corridor, or one of the other large rooms, given up to “black-and-whites.' A good many wood-engravings, some with their originals, were sent in in response to the informal invitation. On this short and insufficient notification, there were, as it transpired, not enough examples offered to warrant the opening of the entire suite of rooms of the Academy Building; but there were too many for the little north-west room, the result being a small, but rich, collection, and the return of some of the best proofs and drawings offered. Here are some of Mr. Marsh's well-known butterfly engravings, unsurpassable in delicacy and correctness of imitation; also his reproductions of Mr. La Farge's drawings on wood,-engravings which, for subtlety, for richness of color, and for sympathetic translation of the originals, have already gained a rep-by, such an exhibition there can be no doubt, and it utation unique in the history of the art. Mr. Marsh's frames included some interesting examples of the wood-designs of Mrs. Mary Hallock Foote, this being the first time, so far as we remember, that the work of this artist has appeared in a public exhibition in New York. The wood-engravings of most interest after those of Mr. Marsh were the portraits from originals by Wyatt Eaton and others, reproduced by Mr. Cole, a young engraver whose manual execution is both accurate and refined, and who possesses a knowledge of drawing and a sense of art not as common in his profession as they should be. There are not many who are aware of the existence, even, in this city of an Etching Club. Yet the members of this young organization showed in the black-and-white room some creditable and promising work: Mr. Dielman, Mr. Gifford, Mr. Farrer, Mr. Miller and others. From Philadelphia also were a number of examples by Mr. Peter Moran. A small head, by Mr. Dielman, was perhaps the most remarkable of the American etchings. We would say, of course, that Mr. Whistler's were altogether the most skillful etchings here by any American artist, were we not almost tired of calling Mr. Whistler an American artist. The most important of the foreign etchings was a vigorous reproduction, by Seymour Hayden, of Turner's "Calais Pier." We understand that one great drawback to the progress of etching in New York is the difficulty of getting the plates well printed. Even the London etchers (if we are not mistaken) have to send to Paris in is equally clear that it would be of benefit to our art and to our artists. One of the marked features of the development of art in this country is the increasing excellence of our popular illustrated literature. The public demand, and artists and publishers supply, better pictures than formerly, both in periodicals and books. Such an exhibition would include among its advantages the opportunity for close comparison, as well as for emulation and healthy rivalry among our draughtsmen, and their interpreters the engravers on wood. The Water-color Exhibition proper had many points of interest. In its way, there was perhaps nothing else so masterly as Mr. Swain Gifford's "On the Lagoon," another picture marking the steady advance of this artist,-though Messrs. Colman,Tiffany, H. Farrer, W.T. Richards and Wyant, showed some of their strongest work. The genre pieces of Messrs. Eakins, Abbey, Reinhart and Pranishnikoff were, perhaps, the best in this line, Mr. Eakins's pieces attracting especial attention for originality, and strength of characterization. Justice requires us to say, in view of what was said by the critic last year, that Mr. Satterlee's work, though not all that could be wished, has improved surpris ingly. Mr. La Farge's "Sketch" of a figure with iridescent butterfly wings, was not only curious as an experiment in material, but supplied an imaginative element of a kind not too frequent on these walls. Among the pictures from abroad, “A Ballet," by Degas, gave us an opportunity of seeing the work of one of the strongest members of the French "Impressionist" school, so called; though light, and in parts vague, in touch, this is the assured work of a man who can, if he wishes, draw with the sharpness and firmness of Holbein. After these, the landscapes of Stacquet and Priquereau, of Belgium, took our fancy; and Mrs. Stillman's "Bloom Time." The latter, though not free from the mannerism of the English pre-Raphaelites, has a thoughtfulness and loveliness altogether individual. THE STUDENTS' ART LEAGUE of New York, among its various methods of instruction and culture, has adopted the plan of special exhibitions at the regular monthly meetings. These exhibitions each month differ in character. Sometimes the work of the students is shown, with one wall devoted to the latest sketches of older artists friendly to the League. At one meeting were exhibited the life-studies of a number of our younger artists, as well as those of some of the young foreign paint ers, their fellow-students, made in the European schools. This was, without doubt, the fullest and most interesting exhibition of the kind ever made in this country. Here could be seen the studies (and sketches) of Julian Weir, Low, Ward, Eaton, Wencker, Dastuck, Simi, Gortelmeyer, Shirlaw, Dielman, Chase, Duveneck, Gross, Dannat and Humphrey Moore. The value of such an opportunity for observation and comparison of the studies made under the living masters of France, Germany and Italy, every painter and every one interested in painting will understand. It is to be regretted that the collection could be kept together only a single day. At another meeting of the League the walls were covered with photographs, engravings, and copies of the old masters, loaned for the occasion. Later there was to be (and will have been before this is printed) a "black-and-white" exhibition. Large and well-selected collections of photographs and engravings from the works of the old masters are needed more than anything else just now in our American art schools. To study art without having access either to these or to their originals is, of course, like trying to study literature without having the opportunity of reading the standard writers, either in their original languages, or in translations. Those who have to do with the management or endowment of art schools sometimes forget that a good photograph of a cartoon by Michael Angelo or Raphael is, to a young artist, what a poem of Shakspere or Milton is to a young writer. AS WE have said before, there have never been so many well-trained artists in New York as at present, and never so many art-students,-young people hard at work and under better instruction than has been hitherto obtainable here. Yet our artists, old and young, have had a pretty hard time of it this winter. The business of selling pictures has been perhaps duller even than other businesses of late; though the bric-à-brac mania is supposed to be particularly to blame for the lack of activity in the picture market." 66 There is one great disadvantage suffered by our resident artists. They are almost entirely ignored by the powerful picture-dealers. These are generally foreigners, and naturally take comparatively little interest in American artists or American art. It is a simple matter of business; they can make more money out of imported paintings. We think of one exception to the above rule: that of a foreignborn dealer who does take a lively and intelligent interest in American painting and sculpture. One of these days there will be a change. It will be a matter of interest to deal in American paintings. It is true that art has no nationality; that good art is in no deep sense foreign. But as the public taste improves, the demand for the clever, shallow European work now so popular here will be followed by a demand for the good and sincere work of both foreign and native artists. Of course shallowness and pretension, native and imported, chances for the substantial recognition of merit are will never lack a following. On the other hand, the improving, and will continue to improve. Meantime some of the most wide-awake of the smaller dealers are making a specialty of the work of American artists, and the feasibility of opening a sales-room for pictures under the charge of the Society of Decorative Art is being discussed. THE "Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne "* show that the girl to whom Keats was engaged was not the "Charmian" described in his already published correspondence, but a very different sort of a person; cold, handsome, selfish, "self-sufficing." Her only two recorded utterances regarding the poet are, first, that "the kindest act would be to let him rest for ever in the obscurity to which circumstances have condemned him," and second, that his letters should be carefully guarded, "as they would some day be considered of value,”'—a prediction at last fully verified by her dutiful and thrifty offspring. There is not one of these most intimate letters of the dying poet that fails to increase our respect and admiration for him. It is true his mistake was fatal with regard to this woman (and his approaching death a merciful release); yet, while himself sternly and immovably constant to the last, it is evident that his sensitive, pure, and upright spirit detected in her the unlovely qualities which are now so plain to all the world. Even if he may have exaggerated the actual extent of her dereliction in the way of "flirtations" with Brown and others, he was still, though unconsciously, aware of the shallowness and unfaithfulness of her nature. The industrious editor fails lamentably in his perfunctory defense of the heroine of his book. We see little that is morbid in Keats's state of mind at this time, notwithstanding all that Mr. Forman has to say under this head. The letters are repressed; he is fighting hard for life; carrying on his literary *Letters of John Keats to Fanny Brawne, written in the Years MDCCCXIX and MDCCCXX, and now given from the Original Manuscripts, with Introduction and Notes by Harry Buxton Forman. New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. work manfully; refusing every indulgence that would interfere with his recovery. The irritation occasioned by contact with a nature which had both great attraction and great repulsion for him, was entirely natural. There is another point in which we utterly disagree with the editor, namely, in his opinion that "the world at large" had any good claim “to participate | in the gift of these letters." What, by the way, does Mr. Forman mean by "gift?" Keats never gave them to "the world at large;" and, if the world owns them now, it is, we suppose, by barter, and not by gift. IF a New Zealander had sauntered into the Ly. ceum Theater in this city during a recent Shaksperean engagement, he would have found material for an interesting note on the manners of American audiences. "In America the theater audiences whistle and sing popular song and hymn tunes in chorus, not merely in time with the band, during intermission, but during the progress of the play itself. This custom is so general that no exception is made with the most solemn tragedies of the greatest of dramatists." We believe that on the first nights of the engagement the gentleman who took the leading parts protested now and then against the boisterous interruptions of the performance. But the night that we dropped in, later in the season, he (as well as all the other actors) had come to understand pretty well what the audience required, namely, that the play should go straight ahead, with a running commentary by different individuals in the crowd, and the occasional accompaniment of the full chorus, as mentioned above. Never did a "star" earn his money with greater ease. As it was impossible for the audience to catch more than three consecutive words during an entire play, it was really not necessary for him to elevate his voice above the conversational tone; in fact, so long as his jaw wagged visibly he need not use his voice at all. He did not even have to be droll. All he had to do was to walk through the play in the stilted, commonplace fashion which was natural to him, and which is natural to all actors of his caliber. The Count Joannes has method in his madness. He knows how to attract attention, and to make money. He is merely a marked specimen of a very common type: a man of mediocre talents, conceited, bombastic. The only point in which he differs from a host of other mediocrities is that, for the sake of notoriety and the money that can be made out of notoriety, he is willing to be made a fool of. One reason, however, for the popular success of the Joannes entertainments may be found in the fact that here was a performance in which every one could take part. A Methodist friend of ours said that it reminded him of a good old-fashioned revival meeting,-one continual roar of voices, from beginning to end, with here and there a sentence ringing out above the rest from pew or pulpit. MY DEAR MR. M.: Can you tell me what warrant there is in precedent or taste for the introduction into light comedies of the element of pain or horror? Does it not show inadequate constructive ability when the writer of a comedy thinks he must use every device, no matter how violent, to force the attention of his audience? It would seem to be bad enough to be compelled to witness the progress of diseases such as paralysis, consumption and idiocy upon the melodramatic stage; but to mix incongruous elements like these with the lightest of comedy makes an effect as unpleasant as it is grotesque. Are the public supposed to like this sort of thing? I apply to you as an "expert." O. C. DEAR OLD CABINET: I can scarcely suppose that you would dare to call me as an "expert" without warrant, so I surmise you are in possession of a diploma of some sort setting forth that I have duly passed my examination in "old comedy," and the "legitimate" and "sensation" and other branches of the humanities as seen through an opera-glass, and that the Prex de hac auctoritate mihi commissa has duly sent me forth to criticise and expound. And I do not see how I can begin my mission better than by trying to find answers for your questions. By a "light comedy" you mean that class of play not infrequent which is neither farce nor comedy, or rather which is both farce and comedy; the authorlike the minister who was asked if he would have pudding or pie-apparently preferring to have a little of both, if you please. Now, a comedy, I take it, is a play, the main object of which is satire of society. A farce is a play which merely aims at amusement, to be obtained most readily by comic complication of situation and equivoque, not always without some sacrifice of probability. There is a large class of plays which do not rise to the dignity of comedy, and yet scarcely sink to the level of farce. They depend for their interest on the graceful and easy turn of their plot, rather than on that clash of character from which we must expect to strike the spark of true comedy. The incidents form the characters instead of the characters making the incidents, as they should in comedy, from which "light -to use your expression-differs therefore comedy' in kind rather than in degree. As they do not depend on extravagance for comic effect, or outrage probability in search of fun, but seek merely a sort of surface amusement by such quiet means as the lively twist of imbroglio or neat turn of dialogue, they differ from farce; but the difference is in degree rather than in kind. Push the situations of a comic drama, as the English playwrights call it, a little farther, overcharge the situations a little, and the result is farce. Now, if my definition that a light comedy is a play, depending for its effect on the easy treatment of humorous situations, is accepted,—and I do not see where it leaks,—your question is answered. A painful situation of any kind-physical, mental or moral—would be obviously out of place; and still more misplaced would be any exhibition of physical deformity. The introduction of anything of the sort would inevitably spoil that unity which every work of art should have; and the lowliest farce, like the most exalted tragedy, should be-each after its kind-a work of art. To use every device, no matter how violent, to force the attention," shows that the dramatist is either incapable of developing his theme or that he has none, and relies upon haphazard expedients, pitched together hastily and helter-skelter to fill out his play. There is thus no warrant in taste for the abuse you complain of; and the only warrant in precedent which may be pleaded is that painful situations are to be found in French comedies. That this is but a slender reed to lean on is evident when we consider the different meanings the Latin word comedy has in different languages. In Italian it means one thing when we speak of Dante's "Divine Comedy." In Spanish it meant another thing to Lope de Vega and Calderon,-to them it was merely synonymous with play. In England it meant something else to Shakspere and to Sheridan, writing at an interval of two centuries. It France it means yet another thing to-day. The French idea of comedy has altered since Diderot, and his disciples developed the comédie larmoyante and the tragédie bourgeoise. The result is that the French definition of comedy includes "Frou-frou" and "La Dame aux Camélias," and the English does not. These plays owe their success to the sadness and pathos of their situations, not to the strength of their characters; and if by a comedy we mean a play which satirizes society, obviously we cannot include under that definition either "Frou-frou" or "La Dame aux Camélias.” Your reference to melodrama suggests another remark. The Greeks objected to a murder in sight of the audience. When Medea killed her children, she did it behind the scenes, and their outcries reached the spectators, but not the sight of their struggles; and it may be noted that Salvini was so far under Greek influence that he took Desdemona out to kill her. Evidence in favor of the Greek practices is to be derived from "A Celebrated Case," a play which has doubtless been seen by many of your readers. In the first act, a ruffian murders a defenseless woman, plunging a dagger to her heart, and leaving her to die before us, while he escapes. The scene is simply shocking; it is both brutal and brutalizing, and it is no wonder that a mute protest runs through the theater; and this is because the victim is murdered, and because she is a woman. No such feeling is evident when man meets man, and after a fair fight kills him or wounds him to the death. When Hamlet dies, when Macbeth is killed, when Richard falls at the feet of Richmond, we feel no such shock; nor do we when the Corsican brother calmly kills his foe, or when the cripple in the "Two Orphans becomes the avenger of injured innocence. But assassination, especially of a defenseless woman, is more than shocking, it is revolting. And this tends to show that the Greeks of old knew more about the true principles of the drama than the French of to-day, in spite of all their cleverness. Yours truly, J. B. M. SO MANY questions have been asked about the methods of producing the portrait of Lincoln, printed as a frontispiece to the Midwinter number, and so many theories have been set afloat as to "material" and "processes," that it may as well be told that Mr. Wyatt Eaton made the original drawing (from the photograph), less than half life-size, on white paper, in India ink, with a Chinese brush. This drawing was photographed on the block, and engraved by Mr. T. Cole, who engraved in the same number, "A Moose-Fight," "A Girl of the Mexican | Camp,” “A Wedding under the Directory," and St. Gaudens' panel of "Angels." For its proper effect, the engraving should be held at a greater distance from the eye than is necessary with most magazine illustrations. HOME AND SOCIETY. On the French spoken by those who do not speak French. I HAVE always thought it a great pity that Thackeray did not leave us a "Roundabout" paper "On the French spoken by those who do not speak French." No one is as competent and as capable of doing justice to the topic as Thackeray. It is a subject which seems most suitable for the author of the "Book of Snobs; " for, above all things, is there snobbishness in the pretense of knowing French when you do not know it; in the affectation of being on speaking terms with the language, when in very truth it barely returns your bow. The title of the proposed paper is perhaps a little long-but there is wealth enough of material to warrant an article as ample as the name may promise. Indeed, the title is almost too comprehensive, for it includes the blunders of those who know they cannot speak French, but nevertheless try to make themselves understood, and the errors of those who think they can speak French in spite of oral testimony which convinces every one else. And it would also include certain extraordinary phrases which pass for French in ordinary English speech. The first of these two classes is the French of Stratford at Bow, the French of the hoosier or the cockney, the French of those who affectionately refer to the capital of France as "Parry,”—as |