A fabulous resource for anyone interested in the history of American magazines (or American history in general) is the MOA project at Cornell. They have put up on the web full-page images of the complete editorial contents of long runs of 19C magazines. "Scribner's" is included; at MOA you can see what else was in the same issue with this piece. Unfortunately, their reproduction of the i llustrations is very bad, either because of their imaging methodology or because they were working from bad microforms. Also, it has always been common for libraries to discard the covers and ads from magazines before binding them, to save money and shelf space. Today we find the ads and cover illustrations generally more interesting than the stories and features. Most of the volumes at MOA lack the ads and covers. Such is life. To find out more about Albert Robida and Octave Uzanne: "Albert Robida's Imperfect Future" in "History Today," July 1998. (I have not yet seen this article myself.) A page describing the "Association of the Friends of Albert Robida", (_Les Amis_) with links to some of his drawings on the web. Some interesting pages at pansophist.com display Albert Robida illlustrations, as used by Disney at the recently closed Horizons pavilion (1983-99) at Epcot: Introduction and Follow-on. A different piece by Uzanne, also from "Scribner's", (1892, p. 558) can also be found at the MOA project: "Conversations and Opinions of Victor Hugo - from Unpublished Papers Found at Guernsey". Yet another is "The Arts Relating to Women, and their Exhibition in Paris" (Vol. 13 (1893), page 503). You should be able to go directly to the "Scribner's" volumes at MOA. _All of the URL's given above are subject to sudden and unexpected change! The web is dynamic, changing, upredictable, and sometimes unreliable. They were tested, updated, and working correctly on 31 July 2000._ Copyright 1999, 2000 by Michael Ward ABSTRACT: THE END OF BOOKS London. Bibliophiles and scholars, inspired by a lecture at the Royal Institution, in which the eminent physicist Sir William Thompson discussed the life and death of the sun, convene after the lecture at a gentlemen's club and discuss what they think the future will hold. James Wittmore considered the rise and fall of continental powers. Julius Pollok predicted the futures of foods and the eradication of hunger; a green Eden that humorist John Pool laughed at as contrary to the rule that one must devour or be devoured. Arthur Blackcross decried the miserable state of current painting and sculpture, but predicted that in the future it would become great, done by a small number of talents, with color photographs and photoengravings satisfying the masses.