The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 9, 1898, Page 22

“rof all ‘Ing things. .THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 1898 at in the of the labor T in their publication. Though working trip through the East in the latter half of 1891, the a ¥ recently ap- peared in Ser he c Th: e delay is regrettable things have changed since e T made his tour, and it is to be hoped tt expertences in the West, whe arly starved on the streets of ( 0 as a4 member of the unemployed, will be brought up to a later date. AN AMEF:I(SAiNA ON SCHOOLS. BCHOOL-BOY LIFE IN ENGLAND—By John Corbin; Harper & Brothers, New York. For sale by A. M. Robertson. This is not, as its title wonld seem to imply, a book fo though it is all about boys. Nothing of the bois flavor of Tom Br e pages. T are juvenile tricks and adventures, no mid- night suppers and hair-breadth scapes from indignant It is a book rather for parents, Americans would do well to ma ul study of the theories of sec cation which it propounds when arranging for the edu- cation of their sons. Mr. Corbin, who states his case with remarkable lucidity takes three great English schools as typi cal of the system which prevails across the Atlantic. These are Winchester, founded in 1357, Eton in 1440, and Rugby in 1567. Of course the great antiquity of thése institutions has given room for de- velopment on the broadest scale; the greatest of all masters, experience, has molded their constitutions on lines which “the teaching of centuries has proved most effective. Mr. Corbin, after a careful study of each of these schools, finds little but praise for their methods. any of the features which to American parents seem most objectionable are shown to be really beneficlal to a boy's character. Take for ir ce the practice of fag- ging, universal at all the great English public sch “In the past, to be sure, the s: fagging was often grossly abused; and even to-day it is, like all good institu- tlons, liable to abuse, yet altogether too much has been said about its tyranny and brutality. Most small boys are glad enough to be with the big boys, and a senfor who plays football or rows well y ._\uu:'.gs?ers to wait on ENGLISH em of common sense in these remarks, and to illustrate his poilnt of view Mr. Corbin revives a good story about Lord Rosebery, which will bear rep- etition. Speaking at a public meeting last year -the late Prime Minister of Eng- Jand turned to the chairman, Mr. Ack- land, the Minister of Education. “It is @’ long time since you and I, Mr. Chair- man, first met. I bave always been a little under your presidence, because I began as your fag at Eton, and I little thought, when I poached your eggs and made your tea, that we were destined to meet under these very dissimilar circum- stances.” % There can be nothing very wrong in a system which leads to such soundly dem- ocratic results. Take the spirit which prevails at Eton, the most aristocratic ish schools. ““We must ad- vrites Mr. Corbin, “if we are hon- that in any given class there is apt no | | | | | sons abreoad to to be more democracy in Englard than | with us. If an Eton boy s a gentleman by birth and instinct he need be nothing more. At Oxford or Cambridge Lard Bo-and-So may find his way where plain | Bo-and-8o cannot go, but English school boys refuse to give way to mere Lords end Earls. A tradesman once told me of the experience of the little Earl of Blank, | sured, who used to present his card when buy- The other boys found it out I S L e RS el — = £ S S i e fellows. fields of Eto and houses resting book W 1 I quotation if sp: jut we must coptent ours iclusion the author bases on t “The public sch - have relied for discipline nain on the native impulses The life boys lead, me: little been bettere have become more civ these facts prove anything th public school system ce deep in the best instincts i Beypnd this no pra as the ized spite of his enthusiasm author warn sending their receive at variance with their native d, could be m 1 even to his best ed or n educated he finds at » best may be but I think that most thought- 3 gree they have little a triumph of a son. ¥s have been bbed nd for being Americans, and proper course, Mr. Corbin consid- ers, would be to modify Ameri schools after the Eng patt i stead of trying to educate American schoolboys at English schools. In last chapter he gives a number of shrewd the practical hints as to the best manner of | | accomplishing this result. | FOR THE REFERENCE SHELF. CURIOSITIES OF POPULAR CUS- TOMS—By,_ Willlam S. Walsh. Phila- | delphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. | For sale by J. A. Hofman. { This handsome. and substantial volume | should prove a valuable addition to every thinking man’s library. Mr. Walsh has already done good work in his Hand book of Literary Curiosities, and - the present book, though covering a_wider phere, is issued in uniform style. Within the space of more than a thousand pages | we have alphabetically arranged infor. mation on the customs, rites and cere. monies of mankizd from the earliest times down to this century-end age. All the odds and ends, the flotsam and jet- sam of human life which have been over- | looked by the encyclopedists, have been | gathered together and lucidly arranged | | b¥ Mr. Walsh; the works of all knfl“‘n‘ antiquarian writers have been ransacked, | | and even the humorous elements of leg- endary lore have not been- overlooked. The volume is well.printed in-type of a clearly legible size, and there are many quaint illustrations copied from medieval | woodeuts. THE GENTLE COWPUNCHER. | | cLEAN—By Owen Wister. k: Harper & Brothers. A. M. Robertson. Apparently the true type:of Western cowboy, or cowpuncher, as Mr. Wister calls him, has not been clearly fixed by the romancists who have made him their theme. Otherwise there could hardly be room, in the realms of realistic fiction, for characters differing so widely as New | For sale | wha | four years for trying to obtain money under falsc pretenses. He is sent out to Australia, attempts to escape and has an extra two years added to his sentence. he goes to South Africa and lo- a diamond field, and with a few ns pockets returns to the i aiting for him for e married and turms out tha , but it fin the girl's own mother the novel and permitted her son- aw to go to jail without raying a word in his defer re young couple finally turn t ctionable mother-in-law out of their , but as she is nove tious of the lot. IN DAYS BEFORE’ THE WAR. b IN OLD VIRGINIA—By Thomas Page. _Nev York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Price $1 50. Little has ever been written concerning the South before the war. We have had to depend chiefly upon plays for instruc- tion on this interesting topic, and the playwright's idea of the South can be summed up in two words—bloodhounds and blackguards. The Southern gentle- man is nearly whip in one hand and a cigar in the other, and his falr sister is an under- bred little provincial, who falls in love with a handsome Federal officer. That this libel on the South has been permitted to pass unnoticed and unre- buked for so long is beyond one's com- prehens ., however, has at last taken the matter up and b ceeded in giving his readers a ve idea of how people lived in Virginia in the days when the negro was still a slave. Life in the South to-day is not t it was before the disturbing six- The war was responsible for the es and the work of reconstruction even more so. But after perusing Mr. Page’s book one gainsa: sight into what t is well worth acquiring. Suffice it to say that he treats of everything conneeted with Southern life, and that the picture | drawn is a charming one. The volume is profusely illustrated. AN UP-TO-DATE ROMANCE. LADY OF THE_VIOLETS—By nk West Roilins. Boston: Lee & d. Price $1. s an Interesting story of the career of two young ladies of | the self-rellant, fin-de-siecle American girl type, who, passing successfully from ieir modest bachelor _ quarters in | Ninety-ninth street, New York, through the financial maelstrom of WV 1 street, {‘become the patron saints of their native town. After restoring the former pres- WYCKOFF IN MASQUERADE. tige of their birthplace they sail on one of their own international line of steam- ships, and through stress of circum- stances aid the insurgent cause in Cuba. The author evinces very clever powers of descriptive writing, and the landing of the fillbusters on the Cuban coast is brought before the readers graphically. TWO WORKS ON CHILD STUDY. A MANUAL OF MENTAL SCIENCE— By Jessie A. Fowler. New York: Fowler | & Wells Company. =c_presented by Dan Quinn and the author under notice. Everybody knows carves his ruddy, bullet-strewn path through the pages of “Wolfville”; but Mr. Wister's cowpuncher is a_ being of a totally different nature. author has given us rather a pretty pic- ture of a gentle, sensitive creature whom cruel fate has unkindly forced to mas- querade in the guise of a cowboy. For Lin McLean, if he is not highly ¢ducated, at any rate talks fairly good English; he does not swear—at least, not in the pages of the book, nor does he make a habit of painting the town a bright vermi'ion hue whenever he enters it. In his capacity for pathos and generous, | unexpected deeds of self-sacrifice he re- minds us of Bret Harte's Jack Hamlin and Yuba Bill rolled into one and set down upon the Wyoming cattle ranges instead of in California. The book is well worth reading if only for its de- | scriptive power and its many realistic touches of rude Western life. THE MOTHER-IN-LAW AGAIN. AT THE CROSS-ROADS—By F. F. Mont- resor. New York: D. Appleton & Co. For sale by Doxey. Price fi 50. The plot of this story is a decidedly good one, although the author’s style is somewhat wearisome. The book should have been cut in half or more aetion in- troduced to add to its interest. A young author loses the manuscript of one of his novels, which happens to be heavily in- This seems to be a new feature in insurance, but it is presumably cus- the ‘cowboy who | In a series of | half a dozen lgosely connected stories the | Phrenolo; is nowadays no longer as- sociated with quackery and charlatanry, but has evolved into something like' a science and Is well worthy of stu | Fowler has written a book apply | science to children, claiming, with a cer- tain amount of reason, that for proper instruction teachers must understand the pupils and their inherited terdencies. The work is especially adapted to meet the needs of the many teachers who are in- terested in mental science and who are seeking assistance in the pursuance of this study. Numerous {llustrations and charts are given, likewise explana- tions for cultivating and restraining the needful faculties by a simple knowledge of the elements In each mind. The book will also prove of incalculable value to those who have taken up phrenology as a pastime or as a means of earning their bread and butter. CHILDREN'S WAYS—By James Sully. New York: D. Appieton & Co. The awakened interest in the young and their training presages well for the future welfare of the race. There have hitherto been too few writers like Mr. Sully, who has made child-life a study and whose advice concerning the education of chil- dren is well worth listening to. We know very little about the iittle ones, and the tendency to classify them together is as hurtful as it is general. Before an attempt can be made to properly edu- cate them and broaden their minds. a curate knowledge as to the cause of thely dreamings and whims is absolutely neces- sary. That the number of fallures in the world is so large is mainly due to the tomary in England,where the affair takes and followed him from shop to shop, and | lect on his policy, but is sent to jail for fact that so little attention is given to children as such. Their actions are either misconstrued or permitted to pass ’ d helped to de- | always. pictured with a | ose conditions were, and the knowledge | unnoticed. The result of this is that the child, while imbibing a certain amount of information mostly unsuited to his needs, develops on lines of his own. The sooner this fact is recognized, and the sooner teachers and parents consider their chil- dren intelligently, the better it-will be for the world in general. ART DISGUISED. DECORATION OF HOUSES—By th Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr. New York, ’I'HPi S arles Scribner's Sons, That there is truth in the old saying about a book not being judged by its binding s abundantly proved by tha | publication of this most artistic work. | | How Messrs. Scribner ever allowed such | a book to go out into the world with | such a binding s bevond comprehension. | { Within, the volume {s full of delicate art suggestions, beautiful Old World furni- | | ture and all the refinements of cultured | life. Without, it is cased in the shab- biest and commonest of paper bindings and marbled papers, of all horrors, at that. But leaving the exterior of tha volume, after this brief comment, alone, one finds in it much to satisfy one's craving for the beautiful. Furnishings of every epoch during the last 500 years are {llustrated by finely executed plates, ranging over an immense variety of sub- jects, from an Italian Gothic chest to a French bergere of the Louis XVI period. The authors, who take as their motto | Henrl Mayeux’s axiom, “Une forme doft etre belle en elle-meme et on ne doit PEEIL. MAY CARICATURIST. HE enterprising editor of the Eng- glish magazine The Young Man presents in his December number T PHIL MAY, SKETCHED BY HIMSELF. jamals compter sur le decor applique | DOur en sauver les tmperfections,” have +a great deal that is instructive to say about the true inwardness of household decoration. | Their main contention is that archi- | | tectural features should not be subordi- | nate to artificfal ornament, that mere | superficialities such as lace curtains and | flimsy upholstering work should not be | allowed to hide from sight and render | valueless the true features of a dweiling. In other words,degenerate modern taste | ‘hns led to a severance between the ex-| terior and the interlor of a house. We no longer, in designing a room, consider proper proportion and the relation of voids to masses, but rather place re- | lance on cheap portable hangings to remedy all defects. Unfortunately for this contention, expense has become a | serfous fdctor in modern lifé, and the | average householder cannot. if he would, | | afford to live up to these ideals. And as | to the buflder—well, he is utterly hope-| | less, it will take a good many volumes | | of such admirable teaching to compel him | to realize his duty toward the interior of | the houses he constructs. Still, this vol- | ume, with its fine letter press and beau- tifully engraved plates, is a step in the right direction, and if it only influences the minds of a few wealthy people Who can afford to accomplish its high ideas, it will do something toward relieving the barbaric crudeness of the average Amer- ican home. A POEM OF THE YEAR. THE WOOING OF MALKATOON—By Lew Wallace. New York: Harper & Bros. For sale by A. M. Robertson. Price $2 50. One of the most handsome of holiday books published this year is entitled “The Woolng of Malkatoon,” by the au- thor of “Ben Hur.” Mr. Lew Wallace's marvelous ability to portray with graphic pen Eastern historical scenes fs noticeable in his latest work. “The Woolng of Malkatoon” is a poem full of rich Oriental imagery. In it the author | relates how the great Othman loved a | beautiful girl, Malkatoon, and how his love for her spurred him into founding | the Ottoman empire. The lines contain | many beautiful thoughts and are markedly free from sc ov the love affair of the two characters being of the most ideal nature. The second poem in the book is enti- tled “Commodus.”” Herein are related | the doings of one Maternus, an outlaw | who sought to rid Rome of a tyrant Caesar, but perished in the attempt. A | different feeling pervades this poem, with its clash of arms, its meetings in dark German forests and plottings in the im- perial palaces of Roma. The end of the poem is somewhat bloody, but is thor- oughly ‘in keeping with the times, and the death of the outlaw is told in a pe- culiarly powerful manner. Numerous fllustrations appear through- out the book. which-is an elegant plece of workmanship in every respect. SOME SOUTHERN TYPES. | THE KENTUCKIANS—By John Fox Jr. New_York: ~Harper & Brothers. For sale by A. M. Robertson. Price $12. A dramatic contrast is made in this | well-told tale between the two distinetive | types of Kentuckians—the “blue grass™” man and the mountaineer. Boone Stal- | lard, the mountaineer, is really the hero | of the book, and a sturdy character he is | —gentle and noble, for all his erudeness, a born leader. Rannie Marshall, the “blue grass” man, stands for a well-known type of Kentucky gentleman, of good birth and family tradition, and finely equipped by education and Influence for the public | career on which he isfairly launched when the story opens. The first chapters bring the reader into the thick of the interest, the flerce discussion between Stallard and Marshall in the Legislature, in the pres- ence of Anne Bruce, who looks on from the gallery, developing not only the po- litical rivalry between the two men but suggesting the sentimental complications that speedily follow. FOR THE AGRICULTURIST. THE CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES— By Edward J. Wickson. San Francisco: Pacific Rural Press. Price $2. Professor Wickson’s work will be of in- estimable assistance to those who are interested In vegetable growing in Cali- fornia. Strange as it may appear, this s the first work of its kind ever pub- lished, and as the author has been pre- paring it for over twenty years it is not likely that any points of value to the farmer have been omitted. The fact is well known that Eastern gardeners have found their own methods fail absolutely when applied to vegetable ralsing in this State. Climatic conditions are different here, and the soll has to be differently treated before it will yield the best re- sults. These matters are dealt with thoroughly in the present work. Besides devoting a chapter to every kind of vege- table known and the best method of rais- ingthem, ProfessorWickson alsodeals with the important questions of irrigation, drainage, fertilization, garden location and arrangement, cultivation, weeds, the planting season and propagation. The completeness of the work is, therefore, self-evident, and it will prove of value not only to the vegetable-raiser on a large scale but also to the large number of people who cultivate these products for their own consumption. a very interesting interview with Phil May, who succeeded Du Maurier on Punch. Mr. May, we learn, was born | at Wortley, near Leeds, England, thir- ty-three years ago. His career has been a very varied and serious one, and began when, as a boy of 12, he was thrown upen his own resources. His first regular work was done on now defunct St. Stephen's Review fourteen years ago, after which he went out to Australia in 1885. He worked there for the Sydney Bulletin, and came back to London in 1888. The publication of “The Parson and the Painter” in 1891 was the beginning of his success, when a writer in the London Daily Chronicle spoke in the highest terms of his work and gave three columns to a criticism of it. Dur- the | iing the last five or six years the bril liant young artist, after surmounting more difficulties than most men are | obliged to encounter, has been recog- | nized as the most gifted black-and- white artist of our time. He is now exclusively retained by Punch and the | Graphic, so that his days as a free | lance are over. He is anxious that it | should be widely known that any sketches which appear in other papers | are sketches which were done by him | years ago, and are being republished | with his signature left in and the date | CHARACTER SKETCH BY PHIL MAY, taken off without his permission. He would also like to put right the preva- nt -impression _that he “dashes off” ;fls skefches. Sketching, he z;uysil is uch more serious work than that. ?ox'c every. sketch of his which is pub- lished he makes a dozen studies which X light. b vis) xshe:y“:\e»as Fasked why it is that one occasionally finds some of his original drawings on sale, and he r(:- plied characteristically: “That Idon’t know; they must be sketches which I have given to friends and have pee‘n sold by them. Terrible thought, lfinl it? But that is the only explanation. It reminds me of the Liberal politician I once heard of—" 4 “What was that?” asked the inter- viewer, on the alert for a good story. “Oh, it was the same sort of thing— only mere so. It seems this man was an ardent Liberal—no, there is no po- litical bias in this story! He got into correspondence with Mr. Gladstone, who gave him some of his works with his autograph on the fly-leaf. Nothing remarkable about that! No, but what was the sequel? That man went and sold those autograph books, and on the procecds of the sale he went down into | the country to vote against the Glad- stontan candidate! Cynical sort of pro- ceeding, wasn't it?” Mr. May works best when he is out of London. Besides his regular work for Punch and the Graphic, he has an engagement to illustrate an edition de luxe of Dickens' works which George Allen is to publish some time during the year. “I am never tired of read- ing Dickens,” he says; “I can never find a dull page in his books. I think my favorite is ‘Oliver Twist,’ and after that ‘David Copperfield.’ I have been busy locking around for my types, and bave met a good many of his characters. Wonderful genius for characterization! He had the observ- ant faculty as few men ever have it. The illustrations will be quite a labor of love, and, therefore, all the more arduous.” A FLYING HONEYMOON. GLORIA VICTIS—By J. A. Mitchell New York: Charles Scribner’'s Sons. Price $1 50 The author of “Gloria Victis" is the editor of Life, a publication whose oc- casional merit is refreshingly accentuated by its preponderating demerit. The same may truthfully be said of the book in question; it begins weu,but wanders from the path of interest and steadily increases in idiocy after the fourth chapter. The hero, or rather the heroette, is a lad be- gotten of bad parents and who inherits all their objectionable qualities. His mother elopes with a fourth-rate music-| hall’ singer, his father flees the country to escape justice. The boy hustles for himself, and in the fifth chapter, at tha mature age of 11, becomes a highway- man and holds up a parson with a 48 Colt's revolver. He also commits & mur- der and does other strange things, but. for some reason or other, the police never hear of his doings. Finally he pays court to a fair trapeze artist by beating her black and blue and manages to gain her affections. In the last chapter they are seen swinging together on a fiying trapeze in the full enjoyment of their honeymoon. In addition to its general inanity, the story is sloppily written and one wonders how such a firm as the Scribners ever published it. A WHOLESOME STORY. DRAYCOTT'S DOROTHY ROWS—By Virginia F. Townsend. Boston: Lee & Shepard. Price $1 50. Although a sequel to “Dorothy Dray- cott’s To-Days,” Miss Townsend's latest book is a work complete in itself. The fortunes of several of the old favorite characters are followed to the end, and, as was to be expected, Dorothy marries Philip Fallowes, the hero of her girl- hood’s dreams. Townsend's books is that she always in- troduces lovable characters into .them; she does not waste her time and energy in psychological analyses, but contents herself with the charm of depicting youth and beauty. Her plots are ingeni- ous and full of inter incidents and situations follow one another swiftly, and there is never aught in her talea that might bring a blush to the cheeksa of her youthful readers. The present volume is daintily bound in green cloth. VERSES BY A MINOR POET. SONGS OF LIBERTY AND OTHER POEMS—-By Robert U. Johnson. New York: The Century Company. Apart from a certain amount of polish and metrical accuracy these poems have little to win an audience outside of the circle of the author's friends. Mr. Johnson sings chiefly of the Greeks and Servians and the late troubles in their respective countries, but he does not suc- ceed in saying anything very original. A few poems in a minor key are inter- spersed between these others and some of them are worthy of a second perusal The volume is daintily printed and neatly bound. PROTESTANTISM CRITICIZED. THE PROTESTANT FAITH—By Dwight Hinckley Olmstead. New York: G. P. Putnam'’s Sons. In this essay the author sets out his objection to the doctrine of justification by faith as preached by Martin Luther. It s a sharp readable criticism of ortho- doxy and episcopacy by a liberal-minded writer, written in an attractive, clear and forcible style. The arguments are powerfully and logically stated and the author subjects the various religious creeds and systems to a rigid analysis, treating them with remarkable impar- tiality and with a degree of justice rarely met with in the doctrinal and theological discussions of the day. Such little jour- neys into the fields of religious contro- versy are of more than ordinary interest and contain lessons which every one can study to advantage. FOR OLD AND YOUNG. There is a vast amount of interesting reading in the fifty-fourth volume of the Century Magazine, which is now issued in bound form. The book, which is most handsomely got up, contains the numbers of the magazine from May to October of | last year. Among the serials which are to be found complete within the covers is Marion Manville Pope's humorous ro- mance, “Up the Matterhorn in a Boat.” The young people Wwill be delighted with the two volumes of St. Nicholas, gay In dress of red and gilt. which have also reached us from the Century Co. St. Nicholas is acknowledged to be among the best of magazines issued for the use of little folks, and in these volumes the high standard which the publishers have always set is fully maintained. The books include the issues of the magazine from November, 1896, to October, 1897. WELL-TOLD TALES. A FOREST ORCHID—By Ella Higgin- son. New York: The Macmillan Com- pany. For sale by Doxey. Price $1 50. Mrs. Higginson is thoroughly at home when she treats of the Puget Sound country. She has studied both the scen- ery and people to advantage and can weave them and their doings into roman- ces well worth reading. Her last book, “The Flower That Grew in the Sand,” was well received by press and publie, and these new stories should meet with a like warm reception. The initial tale in the book, which gives it its title, is a delicate little love story enacted mighty forests. At one place the reader is led to expect a sad ending, but with a skill peculiarly her own Mrs. makes all things come right at last. There are ten stories altogether, some of TO-MOR- | ‘The great charm of Miss | | which are pathetic, some charmingly humorous. STUDIES IN CHARACTER. OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES—By Rosa N. Carey. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. For sale by Joseph A. Hof- man. Price $1 25. Miss Carey’s forte lies in her power to write healthy stories for girls just enter- ing upon womanhood. Her new book, “Other People's Lives,” will appeal, how- ever, not only to the young but to all those who lke a clean story told in a charming manner. The characters to | whom one is introduced in its pages areA‘ the inhabitants of the village of Sandi- lands in England. Their joys and sor- rows and daily doings constitute the plot | A CHARMING LITTLE ROMANCE. of the book in question, and although the story, taken altogether, is a sad one, yet | verything is made to turn out well | Tragedies are not confined to great cities, | and_unhappy people are to be found in | the best regulated of the world’s hamlets. These facts are accentuated by Miss | Carey, who also teaches the lesson that | Providence watches over men and women everywhere, and that sooner or later | those who are meant for one another will | be brought together, even from the ends | of the world. COURTSHIP—By ander Black. New York: Scribner's Sons. Price $L. Mr. Black's latest story might well be termed a study in realism. The book teems with interesting characters, all of whom speak and act as they might in real life. A healthiness of tone pervades the little volume, and although the plot | of the story was originally written for | oral delivery and has been recast for publication {n book form, it has lost none | of its strength by the treatment. The tale is a capital one from start to finish, and the little love comedy running | through it is most cleverly told. The | illustrations, being the same as those | used in Mr. Black's “picture play,” are | probably the best of their kind that ever embellished a story. In its get up the book is faultless, the letterpress showing clearly on fine paper and the binding be- ing unique. A STUDY IN CHILD TRAINING. PEG BUNSON—By John W. Spear. New York: G. W. Dillingham Company. Price $1 25. The author of this story apparently be- | lieves that the veriest slattern can be | converted into a lady if her teachers are | only patient and kind. The heroine is a young girl of 11, who is ostracized by her friends. She is taken in hand, however, by a good Samaritan of an engineer, and finally becomes ‘‘every inch a lady.” Many side scenes are wrought into the narrative, which include much conniving at serious criminal deeds and some ex- perienced detective work. MORBID ENGLISH LIFE. THE CEDAR STAR—By Mary E. Mann. New York: R. F. Fenno & Co. For sale by Payot, Upham & Co. In her latest story Miss Mann has drawn a graphic but unhealthy picture of English life, which will undoubtedly appeal to a large number of morbid readers. The book deals with a mis- mated couple, an unscrupulous husband who permits his wife to drown so that he can marry another, an unfortunate lover, and a woman whose affections ultimately prove stronger than her principles. The chapters, however, are of uniform interest, and the writer shows her capability of spinning a story with ease and evenness. VILLACE LIFE IN ENGLAND. THROUGH LATTICE WINDOWS—By Dr. W, J. Dawson. New York: Double- day & McClure Co. For sale by Payot, Upham & Co. After perusing this little volume the American reader will be able to form a very good idea of life in a peaceful Eng- lish village. The book is in reality a ser- fes of character studies, which for their intimacy, realism, sympathy and fine feeling are quite as effective as any prad- | uct of the ‘“‘Scotch School.” Throughout the book several of the characters re- | appear in the differenttales,thereby com- pleting the illusion that one is living among the homely villagers. INSTRUCTIVE, INTERESTING. OVER THE ANDES—By Hezekiah But- terworth. Boston: W. A. Wilde & Co. rice $1 50. The South America of to-day presents a most interesting subject for study as its history is that of a constant struggle for liberty against oppression. The sub- ject is an interesting one and Mr. But- Alex- Charles A CAPITAL terworth has done justice to the high ideals that have inspired many of the great South American men. Out of quaint stories and fanciful legends he has woven together a romance that is well worth reading. SARAH GRAND HITS BACK. The author of “The Heavenly Twins" and “The Beth Book™ has turned upon her critics. The Saturday Review, the Athenaeum, the Spectator, the Academy and the London Times have been busily | roasting “The Beth Book™ with appella- tions such as: “the worst drivel yet,” “a putrid garbage heap” and ‘“woman's ‘worst offense.”” The review in the Daily Telegraph is the one, however, that elicits rejoinder. From Cambo (Basses Pyren- ees), under date November 22, she writes to the editor as follows: | many the receipt of papers a somewhat fitful event, and this must be my excuse for the delay in answering your delicate apostrophe to me. That you should in- sult Scott and Thackeray and Dickens with your approval pains me but little, since they wiH never hear of it; that vou are so much cleverer than I am I must modestly accept your word for; that you strain yourself to be facetious and but prove yourself a dunce I must at- tribute to your academic degree and a course of the blighting wit of the com- mon-room; that you should attack me with base misrepresentation I set down to some rag of chivalry that still clings to you; that you are of ancient lineage I am willing to admit, since your putting into my mouth words and sentiments which are not mine shows you infected with the blood of Ananias; that you should take yourself as a serious judge of art is a crime for which it is painful to think you must one day settle between you and your God; but that you should write yourself down an admirer of mine is the ugliest blow that my art has dealt me, and I take this opportunity to pub- licly apologize for it. Believe me, yours in sorrow for your insincerity, “SARAH GRAND.” A DUMAS IMPROMPTU, Alexander Dumas fils dined one day with Dr. Gistal, one of the most emi- nent and popular physicians of Mar- seilles. After dinner the company ad- journed to the drawing room, where coffee was served. Here Gistal said to his honored guest: “My dear Dumas, I know you are a capital hand at fmpro- vising; pray oblige me with four lines in this album.” *With pleasure,” the author replied. He took his pencil and ‘wrote: “For the health and well-being of our dear old town, Dr. Gistal has always been anxious— very. Result: The down—" “You flatterer!” the doctor interrupted, as he looked over the writer's shoulder. But Dumas continued: “And in its place we've a cemetery.” TWO EDUCATIONAL WORKS. ELEMENTARY EXERCISES IN BOTANY— By Volney Rattan. San Francisco: The Whitaker & Ray Co. Price 75 cents. This is a handy little manual for bot- anists of the Pacific Coast, compiled by a teacher of botany in the California State Normal School of San Jose. It is a complete work of its kind, is full of interesting facts here first pub- lished, and contains several hundred il- lustrations of flowers and their parts. OUR NOTE BOOK. The fifth printing of Dr. Mitchell's novel, “Hugh Wynne,” is now under way, bringing the book up to the thirtleth thousand. A portion of one of A. Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories. which are published by D. Appleton & Co., is to be issued in raised print for the use of the blind. E. P. Dutton & Co. have just published by arrangement with Isbister & Co. of London “The Life of Barney I Bar- nato, the Famous African Speculator and Diamond Mine Owner.” The book, as has already been announced, is by Henry Raymond, and contains a portrait of Barnato. “Modern English Literature,” by Ed- mund Gosse, is to be the next volume in the Literatures of the World Series, published by D. Appleton & Co. Mr. Gosse begins with the time of Chaucer and comes down to this generation, without, however, inciuding living writers. The London Saturday Review has recently remarked that ‘“there is probably no living man more competent than Mr. Gosse to write a popular and scholarly history of English literature.” In *“Audubon and His Journals,” to be published the last of the month by the Scribners, Miss Maria R. Audobon, the granddaughter of the ornithologist, has brought to light much new material about the famous naturalist. The MS. had to be deciphered in great part by the aid of a microscope, not because he wrote badly, but in such extremely fine _characters. Dr. Eiliott Coues has copi- ously annotated the jourrals and the two volumes will be large, handsome and ex- pensive. Percy Fitzgerald, well known as a Dickens authority, is about to issue, through the Roxburghe Press, a volume, “Pickwickian Manners and Customs.” It will contain an early portrait of *“Boz" and an original map of the route taken on the Pickwick tour, with an account of the sources, points of interest, char- acters and their originals, and other matters appertaining to the immortal “Plckwick.” The December number of Chambers’ Journal will, by the way, con- tain Maltus Q. Holyoake's “Memories of Charles Dickens.” The book stalls along the quays of Paris are going to be swept away. This is melancholy news. There are no more attractive spots in all Paris—in all Eu- rope, one might say. Many an hour have we spent in browsing along that water front, going from stall to stall, picking up @ book here and there, chatting with the vendors—old men or old women, as the case might be. If petitioning would do any good, we could get up a document a mile long. With those book stalls gone, we should almost feel that we never wished to visit Paris again— hospital is now pulled “Sir: My distance from home makes certainly not the left bank of the Seine.