_From the Special Article (71 pages) by Mr. HENRY BIRD, Accompanist at the ‘Pops,’ and the St. James’s Ballad Concerts; Organist at St. Mary Abbot’s, Kensington, &c._: =Ballad Concerts.=--... A long and arduous experience of this class of entertainment has convinced me of the immense difficulty of prolonging the life of children beyond the second verse of a sentimental ballad. Once the chords in the accompaniment are grouped in threes nothing can save them from the celestial regions. Here we may note the great superiority of Music over the other arts. Literature gives us the grand conception of the Heavenly Twins, but Music presents us with the still grander achievement of the Angelic Triplets.... [_The New Volumes also contain Articles on MADAME CLARA BUTT, WHOOPING COUGH, and the Works of F. E. WEATHERLY._] =Baskervilles, Hound of.= _See_ DOGS’ HOME. =Bigham, Mr. Justice.= _See_ OMAN’S ‘ART OF WAUGH.’ MEN OF LETTERS MANUFACTURED NOT BORN. _From the Special Article (13 pages) by Mr. GUY BOOTHBY_: =Bookmaking.=--... Towards the close of the Nineteenth Century the literary output was enormously increased by the intervention of labour-saving machinery. Had the phonograph and the type-writer been available in the Elizabethan era I feel convinced that Bacon would have written not only Shakespeare, but the entire literature of the civilised world. A full-sized, full-blooded novel can now be produced in ten days, for although the employment of band-working machines to some extent weakens each section, this weakening can be partially neutralised by careful headbanding. Furthermore, undue and laborious insistence on niceties of expression is largely obviated by the greater rapidity of production now attainable. Style is no longer a fetish, and breaches of grammar or syntax no longer constitute an obstacle in the way of generous public recognition.... [_The New Volumes also contain Articles on HOT CAKES, LITERARY AGENTS, and GEORGE MEREDITH._] =Bridge.= _See_ Mrs. SARAH BATTLE. A MANXMAN INDEED! _From the Special Article (61 pages) by the MINX-WOMAN_: =Caine, Hall.=--... As he stood considerably more than six feet in height, was a fairly trained athlete, and had a countenance of extraordinary impressiveness, if not of commanding beauty--Greek in type with a dash of the Hebrew--we may assume that there had never before appeared on the Manx highroads so majestic-looking a Deemster as he who, on an afternoon in May, left his semi-detached castle with bundle and stick to begin life on the roads that lead to Rome. Shaping his course to the south-west, he soon found himself in the Eternal City. And then his extraordinary adventures began.... [_The New Volumes also contain Articles on POPES ON THE STAGE, PUBLISHERS’ READERS, THE HOUSE OF KEYS, and KING EDWARD VII._] =Crawford, the Brothers.= _See_ THE LOCKED SAFE. WHAT DID C. B. FRY?