LITERARY NOTES. Mr. Riis has written the sequel to How the Other HalfLives in the volume 1 before us. The Battle of the Slums deals with the same problems as did the earlier volume, but "reports progress" in the good work in which Mr. Riis has been so actively and successfully engaged. Great change of conditions for the better has been brought about, — thanks to the good fight put up by the author and his fellow-workers, — yet much remains to be done. Mr. Riis is hopeful for the future. One is impressed here, as in his earlier volume, both with the thoroughness of the writer's knowledge of the life which he describes, and with the earnestness, courage and good sense with which he has gone about his work of bettering the conditions of the slums. The many illustrations add to the interest of the book. A decidedly readable book is that which Colonel Alexander K. McClure has given us in his Recollections of Haifa Century.1 An active participation for fifty years in public affairs and political movements, and a personal acquaint ance with most of the political leaders and other prominent Americans of the time, has given the author a large fund of knowledge from which to draw; and his newspaper training has enabled him to put these reminiscences in at tractive form. Much of the charm of the book lies, naturally, in the personal note which con'es from the author having been, more or less, " on the inside" of what he describes; yet, as al ways in such a case, one feels a bit of regret that the writer must exercise a certain discre tion, and must omit certain things that would make " mighty interesting " reading. For ex ample, in place of the conventional and unenlightening explanation of Mr. McKinley's yield ing to pressure for war with Spain and his absolute change of front on the acquisition of the Philippines, it would be interesting to be told what Colonel McClure really knows of the forces at work. Frankness on such points as this is, however, too much to ask.
- The Battle with the Slums. By Jacob A. Riis.
Illustrated. New York : The Macmillan Company. 1902. Cloth: $2 net. (xi+465 pp.) 2 Recollections of Half a Century. By Colonel Alexander K. McClure. With portraits. Salem, Mass. : The Salem Printing Company. 1902. (viii-l-502 pp.)
An attractive holiday book is CUfton John son's New England and its Neighbors;3 the illus trations, which are numerous and good, are by the author. Like most of Mr. Johnson's stories, those in the present volume picture rural life, with occasionally a literary or historic back ground; the element of variety is not lacking, for the reader is taken from Maine to the Juni ata, and from Cape Cod to the White Moun tains and the Adirondacks. The author has a keen eye for what is interesting, odd and pic turesque in life on the farm and in the woods. The latest volume * of the " American Sports man's Library" covers the interesting subjects of salmon and of trout fishing. Dean Sage deals fully with the Atlantic salmon, and William C. Harris even more exhaustively with the trouts of America; while a shorter account of the Pacific salmons is given by Messrs. Townsend and Smith. The book contains much valuable in formation concerning the habits and habitats of the fish, and even the expert angler may find new suggestions as to tackle and the fine points of the sport. There has been issued by the Macmillan Company an illustrated edition of Winston Churchill's The Crisis* which is appropriately called the James K. Hackett edition, since the illustrations are from photographs of the scenes of the play as presented by Mr. Hackett. Of the novel itself nothing need be added to what was said in a review of the book on its first ap pearance; but of the present edition we may say that the illustrations are excellent. To mark the completion of the series of Eng lish H1ding Cases, The Boston Book Company has issued a small volume containing admirable portraits of fifteen of the great English judges, from Sir Edward Coke to Lord Chief Justice Russell. 3 New England and its Neighbors. Written and illustrated by Clifton Johnson. New York: The Mac millan Company. 1902. Cloth : $2 net. (xv-f-335 pp.) ' Salmon and Trout. By Dean Sage. C. //. Townsend, H. M. Smith, and William C. Harris. Illustrated. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1902. Cloth: S2.00, net. (x -f- 417 pp.) 5 The Crisis. By Winston Churchill. With illus trations from the scenes of the play. New York : The Macmillan Company. 1902. $1.50 net. (xvi +521 pp. )
