The enemies of the Grail are destroyed or subdued, the wound they have inflicted is healed, the prey they claimed is rescued; the pure and blameless Parsifal becomes the consecrated head of the holy brotherhood, and the beatic vision of God's eternal love and Real Presence is restored to the knights of the Sangrail. * * * * * When I came out of the theater, at the end of the third and last act, it was ten o'clock. The wind was stirring in the fir-trees, the stars gleamed out fitfully through a sky, across which the clouds were hurrying wildly, but the moon rose low and large beyond the shadowy hills, and bathed the misty valleys with a mild and golden radiance as of some celestial dawn. When the Curtain Fell When the curtain fell on the last performance of _Parsifal_, at Bayreuth, which, on the 30th of July, 1883, brought the celebration month to a close, the enthusiasm of the audience found full vent in applause. The curtain was once lifted, but no calls would induce the performers to appear a second time or receive any individual homage. This is entirely in accordance with the tone of these exceptional representations. On each occasion the only applause permitted was at the end of the drama, and throughout not a single actor answered to a call or received any personal tribute. Behind the scenes occurred a touching incident. The banker Gross led Wagner's children up to the assembled actors, and in the name of their dead father thanked the assembly for the care and labor of love expended by each and all in producing the last work of the great dead master. Siegfried, Wagner's son, thirteen years old, then, in a few simple words, stifled with sobs, thanked the actors personally, and all the children shook hands with them. The King of Bavaria charged himself upon Wagner's death with the education of his son. * * * * * The Hour-Glass Stories _A Series of Entertaining Novelettes Illustrated and Issued in Dainty Dress. FIRST SEVEN NOW READY Price,[Transcriber's Note: Missing text] net, each By Mail [Transcriber's Note: Missing text]_ I. SWEET ANNE PAGE BY ELLEN V. TALBOT A brisk little love story full of fun and frolic and telling of the courtship of Sweet Anne Page by her three lovers. II. THE HERR DOCTOR BY ROBERT MACDONALD A crisp, dainty story of the schemes and pretty wiles by which a traveling American heiress wins and is won by a German nobleman.--_Minneapolis Times_. III. THE TRANSFIGURATION OF MISS PHILURA BY FLORENCE MORSE KINGSLEY _Author of_ "_Titus_," "_Prisoners of the Sea," etc_. This clever story is based on the theory that every physical need and every desire of the human heart can be claimed and received from the "Encircling Good" by the true believer. Miss Philura is enchanted with this creed, adopts it literally, and obtains thereby various blessings of particular value to a timid spinster, including a husband.