WAVERLY NOVELS. By Sir Walter Scott. D. Appleton & Co., 90 Grand street, New York. Chicago: Cobb, Pritchard & Co., 81 and 83 Lake st. 1869.

Who has not heard of the Waverly Novels? And who, having heard, has, or will not, read? Of the contents of this volume it is unnecessary for us to speak. Everybody knows the immortal

author of

"Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
As never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?"

And knowing this, who would not like to read "Waverly?" The volume before us contains "Rob Roy," "Old Mortality," "Monastery," "Pirate," and "Black Dwarf"-making a book of eight hundred pages. It is printed on clear, fine type, and handsomely illustrated with engravings on wood and steel; back and side of cover ornamented with beautiful designs of gilt on green back-ground. Upon the whole, it is a splendid volume, and should be found upon every center-table in the West.

THE PLANET; A Song of a Distant World. By Larry Best. Printed at the Riverside Press, Cambridge. Chicago: Cobb, Pritchard & Co., 81 and 83 Lake street. 1869.

This is a poem of six cantos, making a volume of 160 pages. The poet, dissatisfied with the vanities of Earth, longs to dwell upon a favorite star, which he conceives to be an abode of unsullied purity and bliss. The muse comes to his relief, and he is translated thither. There he finds that Evil has preceded him, and that a majority of the inhabitants have yielded to its influence, leaving but a remnant steadfast in their integrity. For the destruction

of that remnant a plot is contrived by their enemies, the progress and result of which are recited. We see nothing particularly remarkable about the book. It is written in a plain, unassuming style, and becomes more interesting as the reader proceeds. Upon the whole it is quite a readable volume.

THE PACHA OF MANY TALES. By Capt. Marryat. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Chicago: Cobb, Pritchard & Co., 81 and 83 Lake street.

To the admirers of Capt. Marryat, this new edition of his works, of convenient size, clear type and low price, will no doubt be welcome. It is difficult, however, to see the attraction of the volume under consideration to read

ers of the present age. In general plan, it is a poor imitation of the Arabian nights, of whose charming characteristics it is entirely destitute, lacking equally the faithful reproduction of Oriental life and manners, and the air of romance which render the stories of the Princess Scheherazade so fascinating to vivid imaginations. Nor can narratives, in which murder and crimes against domestic purity are every-day incidents, introduced without a shadow of reprehension, be acceptable to any mind accustomed to a wholesome atmosphere.

HOW A BRIDE WAS WON. By Frederick Gustaker. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Chicago: Cobb, Pritchard & Co., 81 and 83 Lake street.

A white girl carried off by Indians, and recovered by her friends after many adventures and perils encountered in the land of her captors-that does not furnish a very original plot for a novel; nevertheless, the one before us is by no

means hackneyed in its details, the author having chosen for its scenes comparatively unbroken ground. The Indians are not our northern neighbors, but the wild tribes of the Otra Banda, hanging on the outskirts of Chili, and inhabiting the mountain fastnesses with the plains beyond. The pictures of life among them have considerable freshness and local coloring, and are evidently the result of studies from nature. Judging from them, the South American Indian of these regions has retained more barbaric virtues than his northern brethern. Jenkitruss, chief of the Penchuenches, is a striking and rather prepossessing figure of a primitive type. Some of the illustrations, though crude, are quite suggestive, and leave agreeable impressions of the broad sweep of the Pampas, and the picturesqueness of the mountain gorges. The book, in bringing a certain air of wild freedom and adventure, may offer a momentary pleasure to those "who in close cities dwell."

Softly weaving song and beauty into all the glowing hours;

It dallies with the daisy, as it feeds upon the light, And pets the peerless pansy through the silence of the night;

It creeps upon the water-cress that nods beneath the hill,

And trails its yellow tresses in the ripples of the rill;

It sleeps upon the pensive plain, where broods the turtle-dove,

Where the rose and lily listen to the wild-bees' hum of love;

It wanders over all the land, and dimples all the sea,

And tips the lip of the loving one, and brings the

kiss to me.

O wooing wind, O winsome wind, blow softly o'er the sea,

And hasten the ship of the loving one that's coming home to me!

This same beautiful mingling of the harmony of sound with that of sense extends, with a few exceptions, to all the poems of the book, and is the marked characteristic which distinguishes Mr. Reed's writings from those of the myriads of scribblers of the present day. "Pictures in the Sky" is, perhaps, the most perfectly constructed of any; but there are few who can read "The Old SchoolHouse" without a sigh, or perhaps a

tear.

"The vision is over- the present is here,
I leave the old seat with a parting tear;
For never again will the flush and prime
Of youth come back to that golden time.
The little bird's song is a plaintive moan,
And the trill of the brook has a solemn tone;
Yet memories prompt me to linger still
By the little red school-house under the hill."

Of all the drum-songs ever written, none, perhaps, excel the one we find in the volume before us. One stanza will give an idea of the song:

"Come, soldiers, come to the rolling of the drum To the clatter and the batter of the spirit-stirring drum.

How the furious music rolls! How it thrills our very souls! For there's battle in the rattle of the drum, drum, drum.

"Voices of the Wind" is a charming little volume, and every lover of sweet poesy should read it.

Ferdinand Hiller, the eminent pianist and composer, in his "Chat with Rossini," gives the following as the substance of his conversation with the great maestro concerning the merits of Spohr and Paganini:

"Does Spohr still play the violin much?' asked Rossini, one day.

"He still plays splendidly, but only in small circles,' I replied.

"I lament that I never had the pleasure of hearing him,' said the maestro. Festa, in Naples, who was quite distinguished, in quartet espec'ally, always spoke to me with the greatest enthusiasm, and said that he owed the best that he could do to Spohr. He had not been his pupil exactly, but had had much intercourse with him in Naples. He was never weary of celebrating his large tone-his grandoire delivery.'

"No one has probably gone beyond him in that regard,' said I. 'But you have heard Paganini a great deal, maestro?'

"For many years he was almost continually near me. He declared that he followed my star, as he called it, and I was scarcely in a place that he did not come after me. He sat whole days and nights with me, while I composed.'

"Was he interesting also in conversation?' "He was full of original suggestions; a rare fellow. But what a talent!'

"A genius!"

"One should hear him play at sight! He took in half a page at a glance?'

"Is it true,' I asked, 'that he formerly bad a fuller tone, and played on thicker strings?'

"The greater the difficulties he undertook in the way of carrying on several parts at once,' replied Rossini, 'the thinner had to be his storins; besides he was no longer in the full vigor of youth when he went abroad, and so there may be some truth in the assertion. What always most astonished me in him was the alternation of excitement and repose of which he was capable, when he passed from the most impassioned cantabile to the boldest difficulties. Then he would suddenly become rigid as an automaton; I almost believe that be grew physically cold.'

"Of the many strange adventures related of his early life, is even the smallest part true?' I asked.

"No; he was for a long time established at the court of Prince Bacciochi, and afterwards went about Italy, giving concerts. He could not have grown rich by it; Italy is not the land for that.' "And he was extravagantly fond of money, as they say?'

"His avarice was as great as his talent, and

that is saying not a little. When he was earning his thousands in Paris he would go with his son in a restaurant at two francs, order one dinner for two, and carry home a pear and a piece of bread for his boy's breakfast. He had a singular desire to become a baron, and he found in Germany a man who helped him to attain his end, but charged him a round sum for it. From mortification and disgust he fell sick, and continued in that state a month.'

"And yet he made Berlioz a right royal gift, suggested I.'

"All Paris knows it,' said Rossini, shrugging his shoulders; 'I must believe it, and yet at bottom I hold it to be impossible.'”

At the "Monday Popular Concerts," in London, Herr Joachim and M. Sainton, violinists, took part. The modest demeanor and substantial playing of the former are commended by the press. Of pianists the following eminent names are mentioned in connection with the concerts: Rubinstein, M'me Schumann, Arabella Goddard and Charles Halle.

M'lle Theresa Liebe, a fair violinist from Paris, has been playing with decided success at the Royal Theater in Munich.

Richard Wagner reigns supreme at the opera in Munich, and even the approaching production of Gluck's "Sphigenia in Aulis," as arranged by the said "Maestro of the Future," is simply a fact tending "ad majoram del gloriam."

M'lle Gungl, a daughter of the well-known composer of dance music, has made her first appearance on the stage at Munich, as Senta, in Wagner's "Flying Dutchman," and met with gratifying

success.

The New York correspondent of Dwight's Journal says of Ole Bull's playing at the Philharmonic concert last month:

"Ole Bull played his two selections in his own disjointed, incoherent and peculiarly exasperating style. It is useless to criticise his compositions, for they are scarcely entitled to the name. In the Concerto, for instance, which is supposably in A, the finale opens squarely in E major, continues in that key for a very long time, and then suddenly, without warning or reason, winds up suddenly with about sixteen bars in A. To paraphrase a famous bon mot of a certain celebrated wit, we might say that his "compositions will be played and admired when those of Mendelsohn and Beethoven shall be forgotten," and not until then. Herr Bull was encored, in a somewhat labored way, at the close of the concerts, and responded to the compliment by devoting about ten minutes of valuable time to a sort of musical nightmare, in which he exhibited his mechanical

dexterity and the beauties of the chromatic scale in a most ingenious manner."

Concertmeister de Ahua, at Berlin, (Prussia,) has brought before the public one of his pupils, a Fraulein Friese, as a violinist. The young lady is but fourteen years of age, and musicians predict for her a bright future.

Liszt is at Weimar, Saxony, where he intends to spend some time for the present.

Meyerbeer's "Huguenots" have been revived at the Grand Opera in Paris, and met with much

success.

"Rienzi," one of Richard Wagner's operas, is being steadily rehearsed at the Theatre Lyrique, Paris.

A new quartet club has been formed in Boston. The ball which closed the opera season of New York signalized the close of Mr. Maretzek's career as a manager. He will carry with him into retirement good wishes and pleasant recollections.

In the forthcoming production of "Le Prophete" at the Academy of Music in New York, Mr. Maretzek will introduce a large chorus of boy singers.

Patti, when eight years old, sang the finale to "Somnambula" at a concert in the "Washington Hall," in Jersey City.

Most of the leading musicians in London are giving in their adhesion to the new normal diapason-that is, to the lower pitch for music.

Lortzing's opera, "Undine," has been revived at Dresden.

Principal among the musical events of Chicago during last month was the fourth grand Symphony Concert of H. Balatka, given at the magnificent Farwell Hall on the 16th. Mr. B. was assisted by Miss Ingraham, soprano, and Mr. Foltz, baritone. Among the finest performances of the evening was an adagio from a symphony in E flat major, from Haydn; "Non e Ver," arietta for soprano, in which Miss Ingraham did herself credit; Romanza from Schumann's symphony in D minor; Overture to Robespierre, by Litollf; Theme and Variations, by Onslow, transcribed for orchestra by Mr. Balatka, and an overture to the opera, "A Night in Granada," by Kreutzer. The affair was a complete success. A benefit was unanimously tendered Mr. B.

On the 20th ult., a series of Saturday Afternoon Concerts at Farwell Hall was inaugurated under the conductorship of Mr. Balatka, which are to continue during the spring weeks. They promise to be fine affairs for lovers of classical music.

The following popular music has just been issued by Messrs. ROOT & CADY, 67 Washington street, Chicago:

"Belles de Chicago." An elegant waltz for the piano. By R. Goldbeck. 60c.

"Birdie Polka." For the piano. By Schomacker. 30c.

"La Harpe Eolienne." Brilliante for piano, By Sidney Smith. 75c. The eleventh of the composer's celebrated compositions for the piano. "L'Etoile Galop." By Elias Bogue. For the piano. 50c.

"Go Ask My Wife." Song and chorus. Words and music by Frank Howard. Very popular. 30c.

"A Hundred Years Hence." Song and chorus. Words by Fannie Gage; music by John W. Hutchinson. 30c.

"This Beautiful World we Live In." Song and chorus. By the popular Frank Howard. 35c. "Never at Home." Song and chorus. Words and music by G. T. Lockwood. 30c.

"I cannot Forget." Song-piano accompaniment. By Carl Knortz. 35c.

"Not for Thy Beauty." Ballad. Words by A. G. Chase; music by C. F. Shattuck. 35c. "Philander Brown, the Ill-used Young Man." Comic song. By Frank Howard. 40c.

By Messrs. W. H. BONER & Co., 1102 Chestnut street, Philadelphia:

"Lucrezia Borgia." Operatic fantasie for the piano. By Sidney Smith. Consisting of twelve pages of sheet music from Op. 69. 90c.

"Beautiful Eyes." Song. Composed and arranged by B. F. Crawford. 30c.

"The Brooklet." Song. Words from the German of Goethe; music by W. C. 30c.

"A Thousand Leagues Away." Song. Words by W. C. Bennett; music by Joseph Barnby. Beautiful lithograph title page. 50c.

"When Night is Darkest, Dawn is Nearest." Song. Words by J. Wilce; music by Edward Laud. 40c.

"Rena Bell." A beautiful song, with chorus. By James C. Baker. 30c.

"Buy My Brooms." Song. From Offenbach's operetta "Lischen and Fritzchen." 40c.

"Time Puzzles." Twenty-four in number. By M. R. 25c.

By DE MOTTE BRO'S, 91 Washington street, Chicago: "Hours of Joy." Beautiful waltz. By Herman Schirner. Piano. 50c.

"The Sorosis Polka." By Geo. Stevens. 30c. "Plant Beautiful Flowers." Ballad, with chorus. By Frank Howard, 35c.

"Rosy Belle." Schottische. By James E. Haynes. 30c.

"The Raggedest Man in Town." A witty comic song and chorus. By Frank Howard. 35c.

"Enchanted Spirit Waltz." By Jas. Harrison, author of "As we went Berrying, Jennie and I,” etc. Lithograph title page. 60c.

"Golden Pebbles " Schottische. By D. C. Addison. Embellished by a beautiful title page. 30c. By LYON & HEALY, Clark and Washington sts., Chicago:

"Blue Bell." Mazourka de Salon, for piano. By Charles Fontaine. 40c.

"La Reve d'Esprit." Valse caracteristique. Piano. By S. G. Pratt. Op. 7. 50c.

"Evening Bells. By Gustav Lange. Op. 41. 50c. "Crystal Waves." For the piano. By Aloys Hennes. Op 73. 50c.

"L'Escarpolette." Swing song. Illustration. For the piano. By Charles Fontaine. 40c.