A SERIES of satirical articles on the " Popular Summer Resorts of America, by Joseph Smith, will make our pictorial contemporary LIFE unusually in teresting during the coming summer months. The articles will be illustrated in a unique manner, and the peculiar characteristics of each watering-place will be brought out in bold relief. A TIMELY verse compilation in the June CURRENT LITERATURE is the two pages devoted to • • War Songs of the Greeks." A notable series of articles, entitled '•Great Magazine Editors," is begun in this number. Henry M. Alden of '• Harper's" is the first editor to be considered. Two very diversely entertaining readings are selections from Henry James's latest novel, " The Spoils of Poynton," and from the much-talked-of "Quo Vadis " of the Polish writer, Henryk Sienkiewicz. OF the more notable articles which have appeared in recent issues of the LIVIN-C; AGE, may be men tioned -The Mission of Tennyson," by W. S. Lilly; "Henry Drummond," by W. Robertson Nicoll; "Fathers of Literary Impressionists." "Gibbon's Autobiography," by Leslie Stephen; '-France and Russia in China." by Holt S. Hallett; -Herbert Spencer and Lord Salisbury on Evolution, by the Duke of Argyle; " A Day of Celebration," by Walter liesant. THE complete novel in the June issue of LIPPINCOTT'S, " As Any Gentleman Might," is a tale of adventure by William T. Nichols. The hero is an American, but the action is mainly in England, and the time is the early part of the present century. The other stories, "To Him that Hath," by Annie Nathan Meyer, and " From the Grand Stand," by Jean Wright, are very brief. " A Feathery Début," by Lalage D. Morgan, is a charming account of a family of thrushes, whose domicile was in the writer's garden. "College Athletics" are vindicated by Albert Tyler, one of the American victors in the Olympian games at Athens in 1896, and Edward S. Van Zile resurrects "New York's First Poet," namely, Jacob Steindam, whose works appeared in 1659 and 1 661 . THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for June contains, among other features, three articles of peculiar timeliness and interest. Professor li. I. Wheeler, recently resident in Athens, writes an article upon Greece and Turkey, the old struggle between the East and the West. Albert Shaw, author of " Municipal Government in the United States, "contributes "The Municipal Prob lem and Greater New York." The " Lock-Step in the Public Schools," by William J. Shearer, Super
intendent of Schools at Elizabeth. N. J., gives the author's experience in attempting to grade classes so as to permit of continuous promotion. Irving Bab bitt of Harvard University writes of Brunetière and his work as a critic. He explains the methods of this celebrated French critic and shows his influence upon the literature of his time. Bradford Torrey, who can always be relied upon to write charmingly of nature, contributes an unusual paper entitled "In Quest of Ravens." Mrs. Catherwood contributes a delightful travel-sketch in Jeanne d'Arc's country, entitled "Around Domremy." H. C. Merwin con tributes an essay with the suggestive title -On Being Civilized Too Much."
McCLURE's MAGAZINE for June opens with an article by Prof. S. P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, describing the "flyingmachine " that he himself has lately completed, after ten years of laborious experiment, and which is the first •' flying-machine " ever made by man that has actually flown. Apropos of the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of Queen Victoria, this number contains a series of life portraits of the Queen, the earliest showing her a child on her mother's lap, at the age of two years; the next at four, the next at five, and so on, almost year by year, down to the present day. It also contains a new short story of Kansas life — a Decoration Day story, by William Allen White, the young Kansas editor, orator, and story-writer. There is also an article on the " Revue des Deux Mondes," written by " Th. Bentzen " (Madame Blanc), who has long been a member of the staff of the •' Revue " and has known intimately most of the famous contributors and the several editors, from Buloz, the founder, down to the present editor, M. Brunetière, who has just concluded very successfully a course of lectures on French literature before several American colleges.
NEW LAW-BOOKS.
THE AMERICAN STATE REPORTS, Vol. 53. Con taining the cases of general value and authority decided in the courts of last resort of the several States. Selected, reported and anno tated by A. C. FREEMAN. Bancroft- Whitney Co., San Francisco, 1897. Law sheep. §4.00. The reader of THE GREEN BAG knows by this time the high estimation with which we regard thus series ot reports. Each volume is kept fully up to the high standard of its predecessors, and Mr. Free man furnishes a vast amount of valuable information in his annotations.
