1

66

We have delayed reviewing A Story From Pullmantown too long to be able to give it the assent it seeks and that it might have attained until recently. It is a story justifying the Pullman Strike by showing the cruel conditions of life that prevailed in the great center of car-building. Truly there were reasons for discontent, if the statements of the book and many other corroborating sources are trustworthy. There are reasons, and good reasons for discontent with present conditions all over the world. But that they were not intolerably worse at Pullmantown than elsewhere is proven by the outcome of the strike, by the fact that a considerable number of Pullman's workmen emigrated to another place and sought there to make their skilled labor available for their own benefit, that the movement was a wretched failure, and that contributions were sought to take these workpeople back to Pullmantown."

It has been a grave question at the Post Office Department what to do with the great avalanche of cheap novels published in "libraries," socalled, and sent through the mails as second-class matter. That they had no real right to the pound rates, that their whole tendency was demoralizing, was painfully apparent. But since there has been found no way to restrict publishers' rates to legitimate periodicals, the more reputable book publishers have been forced into the field of cheap books issued regularly and haying a yearly subscription price as a "library." One of the list of these series will be Macmillan's Novelists' Library, to judge by the two numbers yet to hand. Marcella and Sant 'Ilario' have both been reviewed in these columns, and it is not necessary to do more than mention the edition. In the paper form nothing could be better. To be sure Marcella two volumes crowded into one makes the type rather trying, but it is clear and will not trouble good eyesight. If we must have "libraries," and it seems we must-it is well that we have good ones like this to make up for the masses of trash.

Mr. Paine calls his latest romance a hypnotic story. It is the tale of a feminine "Doctor Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." A serious young woman, crossed in love, or otherwise made weary of her own society, seeks to be hypnotized into a frivolous society woman, and it is so thoroughly done

A Story From Pullmantown. By Nico Bech-Meyer. Chicago: Chas. H. Kerr & Co : 1994.

2 Sant 'Ilario. By Marion Crawford. Macmillan's Novelists' Library. New York: 1895. For sale in San Francisco by Doxey.

Marcella. By Mrs. Humphrey Ward. Ibid.

3 The Mystery of Evelyn Delorme. By Albert Bigelow Paine. Boston: Arena Publishing Company: 1894:

that she has the dual character, The hero is an artist, and of course is engaged to paint the portrait of both of the heroine. He is a bit puzzled by the similarity in some ways, but though he promptly falls in love with both, no hint of the identity of his sitters comes to him, any more than to the young woman herself. There is but one denouement possible to such a story, the frivolous, passionate heroine grows jealous of the serious, high-minded one, meets her in a dim passageway, and stabs to the heart-herself, by a glancing blow from a mirror. It does not strike the reader that Mr. Paine handles his material better than a very great number of our story writers, and the book leaves rather a bad taste in the mouth.

It would take a very unoccupied mind to get up much interest in Naval Cadet Carlyle's Glove1 for the story has little to commend it. It relates the adventures of the beautiful but impoverished daughter of an old Virginian family, and makes her pass through a kaleidoscopic variety of fortunes, always just missing the good things of life. She contracts a secret marriage with an Annapolis cadet, and almost immediately is made a widow. This marriage never comes up to bother her till at the end of the tale, where she has been adopted by a wealthy aunt and is in love with a distinguished statesman. Then because she hears him condemn secret marriages and hers is about to be revealed, she commits suicide. There is no charm of style or health of moral tone to redeem this grewsome plot.

12mo

Lectures Faciles Pour L'Etude du Français. By Paul Berry, author of "Livre des Enfants " La Lang e etc. Française," "Le Français Pratique," etc. cloth. 256 pages. $1.00. New York: William R. Jenkins. This work has been prepared as a completion of the new and progressive method for teaching French as begun in "Le Français Pratique.' The book contains short, interesting, carefully chosen, and simply told stories, by modern authors. Each story is followed by grammatical notes and rules. Where the most difficult phrases occur, they have been translated into English, and at the end of the book a complete list of the irregular verbs in use and a model of each conjugation is to be found.

Partir á Tiempo Comedia en un acto. Por Don Mariano José de Larra. Edited and annotated by Alexander W. Herdler, Instructor in Princeton University. 12mo paper. No 2 Teatro Espanol, 35 cts. New York: William R. Jenkins.

Don José de Larra's works are marked by an elevated style, acuteness of observation, vivid imagination, and rare skill in characterization.

4 Naval Cadet Carlyle's Glove. By Iona Ashley Gordon. New York: J. Selwin Tait & Sons: 1892 For sale in San Francisco by The Popular Book Store. $ 50.

The publishing firm of Brentano's will inaugurate during the first week in July a series entitled "Modern Life Library," the editor of which is Mr. Henri Pène du Bois, one of the staff of the New York Times, who has been connected with that newspaper for a long time in the capacity of editor of the literary and foreign news. The initial volume of this series will be "Le Mariage de Chiffon," by "Gyp," and which as translated by Mr. Du Bois will be known as "A Gallic Girl."

The "Modern Life Library" will embrace the popular novels adapted to Mr. Du Bois' idea, without regard to the original tongue in which they are written. Italian, Spanish, German, French, Hungarian, Dutch and Flemish authors will be drawn upon as contributors.

Mr. Du Bois will edit all of the volumes, choosing at the same time translators best used to turning into English original works entrusted to them.

It is reported that the Memoirs of General James Longstreet, the war-horse of the Confederacy, who was the earliest of the Southerners to become reconciled to the Union, are now ready for the press and will be published by the J. B. Lippincott Company immediately. They are said to reveal many new phases of the Confederate cause.

The San Francisco Nation comes to us filling its particular field to a nicety.

The showing made in behalf of the Catholic schools and colleges in this State in the last number, (all original matter) was certainly to the credit of this exponent of the Catholic faith. Mr. Henry Geralde is in charge of the editorial department and his masterly use of the English language makes the Nation remarkable for its purity of diction and style. To the experience of a journalistic career on two continents Mr. Geralde joins the inborn graciousness of the gentil homme of the old school.

Rounsevelle Wildman, the editor-and we sus pect his hand in the management of the OVERLAND MONTHLY, is making of that great Pacific Coast Monthly one of the most delightful magazines of the age-while retaining its unique Western flavor, yet in the beauty of illustration and ability of its articles it need not fear comparison with any periodical the East has proproduced. To-Day, March, 1895.

Miss Ellen Beach Yaw the prima donna has just closed a contract for an European tour on a guarantee of one thousand dollars a night. The fair Californian has set the New York critics wild and they are loud in their praise of her bird like notes and her range in register. An account of Miss Yaw appeared in the April number of the OVERLAND detailing the new divas powers.

Other Books Received.

James and Patomas. By Gerard Foukes. Washington, D. C: Government Printing Office: 1894.

Siowan Tribes of the East. By James Mooney. Ibid.

Chinook Texts. By Frank Boas. Ibid.

Canons of the Colorado. By J. W. Powell. Meadville, Pa.: Flood & Vincent: 1895 $10. Pudd'n Head Wilson. By Mark Twain. Hartford: American Pub. Co.: 1895.

Dr. Gray's Quest. By F. H. Underwood. Boston: Lee & Shepherd. 1895.

Jimmy Boy. By Sophie May. Ibid. 1895. Common Land Buds of New England. By W. A. Wilcox. Ibid. 1895.

Across India. By Oliver Optic. Ibid. 1895. The Naulahka. By Kipling & Balestier. New York and London: Macmillan & Co.: 1895. Price 50 cts.

Annals of the Parish. By Thos. Galt. Ibid. 1895. $1.25. The Prisoner of Zenba. W. G. Henry Holt & Co.: Doxey, 75 cts.

By Anthony Hope. 1895: For sale by

Dishonesty and Caste. By Ethel Davis. Boston: Home Science Pub. Co.: 1895. 60 cts. Money. By Eli Perkins. Chicago: Chas. Kass & Co.: 1895.