ere
were thimbleriggers, clowns and jugglers, who made glass balls appear
and disappear surprisingly; there were doorways decorated with curious
invitations, gossipy barber shops, where, through the liberality of
politicians, the scum of a great city was shaved, curled and painted
free; and there were public houses, where vagabond slaves and sexless
priests drank the mulled wine of Crete, supped on the flesh of beasts
slaughtered in the arena, or watched the Syrian women twist to the
click of castanets." The account of the arena under Nero should not be
missed, but it is too long to quote here. The book, which we give
three stars, is dedicated to Edwin Albert Schroeder. Fortunately, of
all Saltus's works, it is the most readily procurable.

"Imperial Purple" has had a curious history. Belford, Clarke and Co.,
who hid their identity behind the "Morrill, Higgins" imprint, failed
shortly after they had issued the book. "Presently," Mr. Saltus writes
me, "a Chicago bibliofilou brought it out as the work of some one else
and called it 'The Sins of Nero.'" Meanwhile Greening published it in
London and finally Mitchell Kennerley reprinted it in New York. In
1911 Macmillan in London brought out "The Amazing Emperor
Heliogabolus" by the Reverend John Stuart Hay of Oxford. In the
preface to this book I found the following: "I have also the
permission of Mr. E. E. Saltus of Harvard University (_sic_) to quote
his vivid and beautiful studies on the Roman Empire and her customs. I
am also deeply indebted to Mr. Walter Pater, Mr. J. A. Symonds, and
Mr. Saltus for many a _tournure de phrase_ and picturesque rendering
of Tacitus, Suetonious, Lampridius, and the rest." The Reverend Doctor
certainly helped himself to "Imperial Purple." Words, sentences, nay
whole paragraphs appear without the formality of quotation marks,
without any indication, indeed, save these lines in the preface, that
they are not part of the Doctor's own imagination, unless one compares
them with the style in which the rest of the book is written. "In one
instance," Mr. Saltus writes me, "he gave a paragraph of mine as his
own. Later on he added, 'as we have already said' and repeated the
paragraph. The plural struck me as singular."

"Madam Sapphira"[22] is a vivid study in unchastened womanhood. We see
but little of the lady in the 251 pages of this "Fifth Avenue Story";
her character is exposed to us through the experiences of her poor
fool husband, who collo