Bizarres” we find a modern continuation of the Poe tradition, always more potent in France than elsewhere.  I have given this list of French writers of Short-stories merely as evidence that the art flourishes in France as well as in the United States, and not at all with the view of recommending the fair readers of this essaylet to send at once for the works of these French writers, which are not always—­indeed, one may say not often—­in exact accordance with the conventionalities of Anglo-Saxon propriety.  The Short-story should not be void or without form, but its form may be whatever the author please.  He has an absolute liberty of choice.  It may be a personal narrative, like Poe’s “Descent into the Maelstrom” or Hale’s “My Double, and How he Undid me;” it may be impersonal, like Mr. F.B.  Perkins’s “Devil-Puzzlers” or Colonel De Forest’s “Brigade Commander;” it may be a conundrum, like Mr. Stockton’s insoluble query, “The Lady or the Tiger?” it may be “A Bundle of Letters,” like Mr. James’s story, or “A Letter and a Paragraph,” like Mr. Bunner’s; it may be a medley of letters and telegrams and narrative, like Mr. Aldrich’s “Margery Daw;” it may be cast in any one of these forms, or in a combination of all of them, or in a wholly new form, if haply such may yet be found by diligent search.  Whatever its form, it should have symmetry of design.  If it have also wit or humor, pathos or poetry, and especially a distinct and unmistakable flavor of originality, so much the better.  But the chief requisites are compression, originality, ingenuity, and now and again a touch of fantasy.  Sometimes we may detect in a writer of Short-stories a tendency toward the over-elaboration of ingenuity, toward the exhibition of ingenuity for its own sake, as in a Chinese puzzle.  But mere cleverness is incompatible with greatness, and to commend a writer as “very clever” is not to give him high praise.  From this fault of super-subtilty women are free for the most part.  They are more likely than men to rely on broad human emotion, and their tendency in error is toward the morbid analysis of a high-strung moral situation.

BRANDER MATTHEWS.

* * * * *

GENERAL GRANT AT FRANKFORT.

The extraordinary honors paid to General Grant in England created a profound impression all over Europe.  No other American, and, indeed, few Europeans, had ever received such honors abroad; and what made the case still more impressive and exceptional was the fact that this great distinction was paid to no potentate or prince of the blood, but to a simple private citizen, holding no rank or official position.

As soon as it was known that General Grant intended to travel on the Continent, he was invited to visit Frankfort-on-the-Main.  The invitation was extended by the American residents of that city, and was accepted.  A joint meeting of Americans and Frankfort burghers was then held, and a committee was appointed, half Germans and half Americans, to make arrangements for the proposed reception and entertainment of General Grant and his party.  Mr. Henry Seligman, an American banker of Frankfort, and the writer of this, were appointed by this committee to intercept the distinguished tourist on his journey up the Rhine and conduct him to the city.