The _presciences_ of the Seventeenth Century often held morning _conversazioni_, receiving their callers in bed. Like cyclones, fashions have a spiral movement; and now the good old custom of the _presciences_ has returned, and like the cyclone, manifests itself in the West: a Chicago woman giving a weekly “Thursday Morning.” The bed on which the hostess languishes is a Louis the Fourteen Times—a gigantic four poster, with curtains partially drawn. When each caller is announced a thin blue-veined hand is held out from behind the curtains, and visions of a snowy lace-trimmed, Marchale Field night gown swim before his eyes as the thin hand is reverently kissed. The room is dimly lighted, the air is heavy with strange mysterious perfumes and all the conversation is held in undertone. It may not be amiss to state also that the coverlet of the bed is a very modern crazy quilt that has been duly certified to by a commission de lunatico enquirendo. * * * * * Certainly the people of Boston are a generous folk: in their walk and conversation they even add an R to “banana,” and spell “law” with four letters when three suffice—for hoi polloi. * * * * * The pink tea for Authors was a pretty failure. A Fictionist standing behind a teacup with a pink tidy on his chest and pink bows on his legs is a depressive sight, everywhere but in Philadelphia. But while five o’clock tea does not work, eleven o’clock beer is a roaring success. Little Journeys SERIES FOR 1896 Little Journeys to the Homes of American Authors. The papers below specified were, with the exception of that contributed by the editor, Mr. Hubbard, originally issued by the late G. P. Putnam, in 1853, in a book entitled _Homes of American Authors_. It is now nearly half a century since this series (which won for itself at the time a very noteworthy prestige) was brought before the public; and the present publishers feel that no apology is needed in presenting to a new generation of American readers papers of such distinctive biographical interest and literary value. No. 1, Emerson, by Geo. W. Curtis. ” 2, Bryant, by Caroline M. Kirkland. ” 3, Prescott, by Geo. S. Hillard. ” 4, Lowell, by Charles F. Briggs. ” 5, Simms, by Wm. Cullen Bryant. ” 6, Walt Whitman, by Elbert Hubbard. ” 7, Hawthorne, by Geo. Wm. Curtis. ” 8, Audubon, by Parke Godwin. ” 9, Irving, by H. T. Tuckerman. ” 10, Longfellow, by Geo. Wm. Curtis. ” 11, Everett, by Geo. S. Hillard. ” 12, Bancroft, by Geo. W. Greene. The above papers will form the series of _Little Journeys_ for the year 1896. They will be issued monthly, beginning January, 1896, in the same general style as the series of 1895, at 50 cents a year, and single copies will be sold for 5 cents, postage paid. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON