Scr1bner's for October contains the first part of Mrs. John Drew's '•Autobiographical Sketch" — the charming summary of her career, which she prepared a few months before her death for her children and grandchildren. A new development in photography is described by Dwight Elmendorf, under the title .'Telephotography." Under the title of ••The Vaudeville Theatre " Edwin Milton Royle gives a most amusing account of the inside workings of these shows, which have convinced managers that " de cency pays.•' There are two of Joel Chandler Harris's amusing •• Minervy Ann " stories; there is another O'Connor tale by W. H. Browne; and a new writer, Judson Knox, tells a story of the humanizing of a bank-teller.
WHAT SHALL WE
READ?
Romanees of Roguery is the title of a volume by Frank Wadleigh Chandler, which fills a place in Eng lish literature hitherto inadequately occupied. It is a historical and descriptive account of the picaresque novel of Spain and its translations and adaptations in other languages, dealing with its whole range of subject and incident, the social state of Spain out of which it came, and including summaries and criti cisms of several hitherto undescribed examples of much rarity, with a very full bibliography of the literature of the rogue of Spain. The MacMillan Company publish it in their •. Columbia University Studies in Literature." A new novel by the author of " The Courtship of Morrice Buckler," has just been published by the MacMillan Company. Many readers will remember the stirring and clever work which first gave Mr. A. E. W. Mason his reputation, and will look forward to his new book Miranda of the Baleony with some interest. The scene of this story is laid chiefly in Spain and Morocco, and the story, which is an ex citing one. hinges on the action of a woman, under a contemptible pressure placed upon her by a black mailing acquaintance of her husband, who is separated from her. The hero of the story is a young engineer, and the plot is very adroitly carried out. An especially timely work on Tropieal Colonization, by Allevne Ireland, has just come from the press of the MacMillan Company. The author has spent ten years in the tropics in special study of his subject, and his book deals with the three great questions which arise in regard to colonies in the tropics; — How to govern a tropical colony? How to develop a tropical colony? The commercial value of a tropical colony? In regard to the first point, Mr. Ireland examines in detail the English Crown Colony system, the constitution of those British tropical colonies
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which possess representative institutions, the French colonial system, and the Dutch government of Java. In regard to the second point, Mr. Ireland gives a minute account of the labor problem in the tropics, and describes the system of indentured labor in force in some tropical colonies, and the Dutch ' ' Cul ture System," the only systems which have succeeded since the abolition of slavery in securing an efficient labor supply for the development of the tropics. The author enforces his descriptions by important statis tics. In regard to the commercial value of colonies, Mr. Ireland, by the use of ten original diagrams, pre sents an exhaustive analysis of the question of " Trade and the Flag," and exhibits in a striking manner the relative importance to England of the British tropical colonies, the British non-tropical colonies, and the United States as sources of supply and as markets for British goods. An appendix contains a classified list of about five hundred works on British, French. Dutch, American, German, Portuguese, and Italian colonies, and the author has provided the work with a copious index. A little book which will be heartily welcomed is entitled Patriotie Arujtfet.s,' containing, as its titlepage sets forth, " bits of ore from rich mines "— namely, extracts from the writings of Franklin. Washington, Jefferson, Webster, Lincoln and Beecher, six" prophets whose wisdom the logic of facts has amply confirmed. The authors cited have been taken in their chronological order, as have also the quotations from each one, the principle of selection evidently being their views concerning America — its earlier wrongs and rights, its revolutionary struggles, its constitution-making, its unprecedented advantages for popular thrift and development in material, moral and spiritual forces, its threatened dangers of dis cord and of dishonest financial heresies, the great maelstrom of secession and rebellion and its escape therefrom, and its later perils in political and finan cial reconstruction. And, considering the necessary limitations of so brief a*compilation. it is remarkable how complete an outline view may be had of Ameri can history in these gathered utterances of the great men named. Events come in by reference and illus tration; the main purpose is the setting forth of sound principles. Many of them are familiar, but their collocation in this way gives them a peculiar strength, while their pertinency to the right growth of American ideas is striking. No writer of modern times has produced a more profound impression upon the reading public, than 1 Patr1ot1c Nu(;cets: Selections from Franklin, Washing ton, Jefferson. Webster, Lincoln and Beecher. Gathered by John K. Howard. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Handy volume. Flexible cloth, gilt top. 40 cents.
