A unique volume entitled The Private Stable, by "Jorrocks," (Little, Brown & Co.) deserves mention as a book of encyclopedic range in the facts and suggestions presented for the benefit of horse owners. Everything that needs to be known for the successful establishment and management of a private stable seems to be contained between the covers ot this excellent manual. The publishers have enhanced the value of the book by excellent illustrations, which they have lavishly supplied.

NEW EDITIONS OF STANDARD WORKS.

In the series of "The World's Great Books" (Appleton) the most recent issues are Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad, with a critical introduction by William C. Wilkinson; De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and Literary Reminiscences, with a critical and biographical introduction by Ripley Hitchcock; Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, with introduction by Charles Warren Stoddard; and James Anthony Froude's Julius Ca'sar, with an introduction by Burke A. Hinsdale. These titles serve to show the range and scope attempted by the publishers in the production of this valuable series. The introduction to each volume is an important feature. The reader is by this means put in touch with the author, and led to appreciate more fully the significance of the work to which his attention is directed. Each volume thus far made up in this series is a classic in itself, quite worthy of a place in the most select library. The paper, typography, and binding are in keeping with the dignity of the series.

Mr. Thomas B. Mosher publishes some exquisite reprints of choice works which are most appropriate for gift purposes. In " The Brocade Series" the new issues this season are The Tale of the Emperor Constans, by William Morris ; The History of Over Sea, by William Morris; Emerald Uthwart, by Walter Pater; Hours of Spring and Wild Flowers, by Richard Jeffcrie.i; Will o' the Mill, by Robert Louis Stevenson; and Marjorle Fleming, by John Brown. These volumes ere printed on Japan vellum, but are sold at the low price of 75 cents. To' The Old World Series" have been added 'The Story of Ida, by Francesca Alexander, with a preface by John Ruskin ;^1 Child's Qardenof Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson; Monna Innomlnata, by Christina G. Rossetti; and The Tale of Chloc, by George Meredith. The volumes in this series are printed on Van Gelder paper, and are bound in flexible japan vellum, with white parchment wrappers. Mr. Mosher also issues an English prose translation of The Gcorglcs of Virgil by J. W. Mackail in two small volumes. All of these titles represent the highest art in dainty bookmaking.

Messrs. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. have added this season to their well-known '• Faience Edition" of reprints An Attic Philosopher in Paris, by iSmilc Souvestre; Barrack Room Ballads, and Other Poems, by Rudyard Kipling; The Blithdale Romance, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand; Englisji Traits, by Ralph Waldo Emerson; My Uncle and My Curt; by Jean de la Brete; Pruc and I, by George William Curtis; The Snow Image, and Other Twice-Told Talcs, by Nathaniel Hawthorne; and Walden, by Henry D. Thoreau. These volumes are published at 75 cents each, and are provided with illustrations, and also with an introduction by writers well-known in literature. The same

publishers present "The Copley Series" of reprints, in which the volumes differ from those in the preceding series by having a colored frontispiece, larger sized page, and finer paper and binding. These books are published at $1.00, and comprise Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford, Halevy's Abh6 Constantin, Hawthorne's House of the Seven Oablcs, Longfellow's Evangeline, Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads. Longfellow's Hiawatha, Meredith's Luetic, and Pruc and I, by George William Curtis. From the same house come a twovolume edition of George Eliot's Mlddlemarch, with numerous drawings by Alice Barber Stephens, and, In the series called "Children's Favorite Classics," Robinson Crusoe, and The Swiss Family Robinson.

Messrs. Harper & Brothers have begun the publication of a new series of reprints which they call "Little Books by Famous Authors," and which is to include the best short stories, sketches, and verse by famous authors. The books are daintily made up in narrow 16mo size. The first title In the series is The First Christmas, which is taken from Ben-Hur, by ^Jen. Lew Wallace. This is followed by The Story of the Otherwise Man, by Henry van Dyke, and Two Gentlemen of Kentucky, taken from James Lane Allen's Flute and Violin.

ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.

Mr. Sidney Lanier's Bob, The Story of our Mockingbird (Charles Scribner's Sons) is a conscientious recital of the rather dramatic events in the bird's life, and its tragical ending. The poet studied this particular songster with great faithfulness from day to day, and the resulting account is of value as an accurate contribution to amateur observation in natural history, as well as a charmtug picture of a poet and a mocking-bird. The publishers have reinforced the little sketch from both of these points of view by the unusual and elaborate methods of illustration and printing. The illustrations in particular are worthy of remark. The artist, Mr. Dugmore, at the expense of much time and pains made scores of photographs of mocking-birds of all ages, from those just hatched to the final adult. Selecting the best of these photographs, Mr. Dugmore colored them and they have been reproduced in color in the book, showing "Bob" in all stages of his development, and in the more dramatic episodes of his life.

The inimitable sketches of slum child-life which made Mr. Michael Angelo Woolf known to all Americans have been brought together here by Mr. Joseph Henius in a volume entitled Sketches of Lowly Life in a Great City (Putnams), which includes not only the best of the contributions to Life and Judge, but a number of hitherto unpublished drawings. The quaint child-philosophy and humorous contrasts of the illustrator have a flavor all their own. Mr. Henius calls attention to the tenderness and simplicity which mark all Mr. Woolfs conceptions, and assures us that they were principles of the man's character. Mr. Woolf, by the way, was born in England, so a biographical note tells us, his father being a musician of eminence and possessing talent in pictorial art and literature as well. The illustrator died last March.

Mr. Oliver Herford is responsible for the nonsense verses, as well as the nonsense pictures in his Alphabet of Celebrities (Small, Maynard & Co.) He makes such good hits in several of his verses that one is quite in clined to forgive his audacity. This is a sample: '" K is the Kaiser, who kindly repeats Original verses to Kipling and Keats."

Mr. W. D. Howells first introduced us to those stand-by characters of his, Mr. and Mrs. March, in Their Wedding Journey. We have now the felicity of knowing their experiences abroad twenty-five years afterwards. Their Silver Wedding Journey is a most delightful story of foreign travel in the very best and most charming manner of the veteran author who, in spite of all the newcomers, holds firmly his place as our foremost writer of fiction and man of letters. The two-volume illustrated edition of Their Silver Wedding Journey has many excellent illustrations by W. T. Smedley, and dozens of well-printed bits of half-tone reproductions from photographs of European street scenes, buildings, and so on. (Harpers.)

The editor of the Bookman, Professor Peck, in a review of the novels of 1899, concludes with a list of tho.-ie that he regards as the six best ones from a literary point of view ; and five of the half-dozen are by Americans. It does not, of course, follow that Mr. Peck's verdict is final, but it is interesting to know that he places at the top of the list a volume of eight tales by an American woman, Edith Wharton, collected under the title The Greater Inclination. Mrs. Wharton's are stories of great delicacy of literary art, resembling in that regard the better work of Mr. Henry James. (Scribners.)

The Maternity of Harriott Wicken, another of Mr. Peck's selections, is by Mrs. Henry Dudeney, and is an English story, esseutially a study in morbid psychology, very unpleasant and powerful. It is curious to note how disagreeable these strong English women writers usually are, and how wholesome and attractive by contrast are the books of most of our American women writers, who also, as a rule, greatly excel their English contemporaries in point of literary art. (Macmillan.)

Two posthumous novels by American writers, namely, Mr. Edward Xoyes Westcott's David Harum, and Mr. Harold Frederic's The Market Place, are included in Mr. Peck's favorite half-dozen. The remaining two are Mr. Winston Churchill's Richard Carvel, and Mr. Edwin Caskoden's When Knighthood Was in Flower. Professor Peck assigns a prominent place to Mr. Richard Whiteing's No. 5 John Street, a London story of extreme social contrasts, the author of which, by the way, now gives us a new story, The Inland, or "The Adventures of a Person of Quality." The Island is a rewritten tale with several fresh chapters, the first edition of which had appeared in England previous to No. 5 John Street. The motive of it is somewhat the same as that of Mr. Howells' Altruria, and the story is really a satire on our modern civilization. (Century.)

A no less able student than Mr. Whiteing of English social conditions, and an even more powerful writer, is Mr. Arthur Morrison, whose earlier books called Tales of Mean Streets, and A Child of the Jago, are now added to by the appearance of a third called To London Town. Mr. Morrison knows the life of the poor in the London slums better, perhaps, than any other writer. (Stone.)

In strict Reasonableness, we ought to have mentioned last month the fact, that Mr Thomas Nelson Page has written a charming Christmas story. Hut although Christmas will have been past when these running notes appear, Mr. Page's Santa Claus's Partner will not have become obsolete. It is a charming little story, most

beautifully printed and illustrated, and, like Dickens' tales, good for many Christmases to come. (Scribners.)

Mr. A. T. Quiller-Couch has written a good story of Cornwall, entitled The Ship of Stars, (Scribners) that now appears in book form after having been a success as a serial in Scrlbncr's Magazine. Mr. Frank R. Stockton, whose books are to have the deserved honor of being reprinted in a uniform series, to be known as the "Shenandoah Edition " (presumably in reference to the pleasant fact that Mr. Stockton has become possessed of a charming old Virginia home ill the Shenandoah Valley) contributes to the stack of recent stories a book called The Vizier of the Two-Horned Alexander. This tells the adventures of an oriental person who a long time ago drank heavily at the Fountain of Youth, with the consequence that he is living comfortably in New York to-day as a Wall Street broker after having known numerous great people, from Abraham and other Old Testament worthies down to Napoleon and celebrities still more recent, (Century.)

Mr. Maurice Hewlett is an English writer of promise, and already of distinction, whose Little Novels of Italy has been regarded by the critics as one of the most original aud important of the books of the year. An article in the Book Number of the Oiitioofc, which we may reasonably attribute to Mr. Hamilton Mabie, says that " In point of beauty of style and literary quality a first place must be given to Mr. Hewlett's Little NoveU of Italy, a collection of short stories of Renaissance life, manners, and morals." Conceding its rare insight into the life of those times, and its value regarded as literary art, the lx>ok is not to be read for anything that its characters can teach modern people as to the proper ordering of life; for Renaissance morals were outrageously bad. (Macmillan.)

Margaret Sherwood's Henry Worthlngton is an American college novel, with its scenes laid possibly in Boston. Henry is a young professor of sociology, and his department is endowed by a commercial gentleman who does not like Henry's progressive teachings, with the consequence that we find ourselves in the very thick of the modern problem of academic freedom. (Macmillan.)

Among current English novels is Mary Cholmondeley's Red Pottage (Harpers), an English society story, built upon conventional lines but rather better than the average; and Mr. Morley Koberts' The Colossus, a political novel having to do with Mr. Cecil Rhodes as an empire-builder and railway financier. (Harpers.)

Several of our younger American novelists have brought out excellent volumes of short stories, among which are to be mentioned with much commendation Mr. Bliss Perry's eight tales collected under the title The Powers at Play (Scribners). Mr. Richard Harding Davis' five good stories embraced in a volume called Tiie Lion and the Unicorn (Scribners) reflect somewhat the wide range of Mr. Davis' recent interests and activities. Mr. Stephen Crane's The Monster, and Other Stories (Harpers) shows no falling off in the freshness, directness, and power of the work which had already given Mr. Crane a distinct place among our writers of fiction.

Mr. Zangwill's new book, They That Walk in Darkness, is a collection of stories which includes a former volume. Ghetto Tragedies, to which a number of new tales of modern Jewish life are added. (Macmillan.)

American readers have reason to lx; thankful for every opportunity given them to read the books of the great Hungarian novelist, Maurus Jokai. The one now brought out under the name The Poor Plutocrat*, translated by R. Xisbet Bain, has never had an English rendering before, although translations of it are extant in many other languages. Its Hungarian name is Szcgeny Gazdagok. Under the circumstances, the translator may be pardoned for inventing a pronounceable title. (Douhleduy & McClure.)

HISTORICAL FICTION—AMERICAN. We may leave it to the critics to account, if they can, for the changing fashions in popular literature. The immediate fact remains that just now there is a strong taste in our own country for the blending of romance and history upon a plan that proposes to give us at once a readable story, true to the fundamental facts of life and human nature, and at the same time a trustworthy and illuminating study of some period or phase of our history, or some interesting locality or section of the country. Several recent American books of this kind have been remarkably successful. To what extent they may, or may not, hold their own as permanent contributions to our standard literature, is purely a question of opinion. They will at least have served an extremely good purpose in providing several millions of American readers with entertainment and instruction of a high order.

The Revolutionary period has thus far lent itself more successfully than any other to the ends of our historical novelists; and of recent stories dealing with that period three have been successful beyond the rest. Two of these,—Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's Hugh Wynne (Century), and Mr. Winston Churchill's Richard Carvel (Macmillan),—have been already noticed in these pages. The latest is Mr. Paul Leicester Ford's Janice Meredith (Dodd, Mead & Co.), which made its preliminary appearance by instalments in the Bookman. It appeared in book form in October, and it will have sold by the lirst of .January probably not less than 150,000 copies. Richard Carrel, which had made its appearance in June, had gone steadily on, and late in Decerning had reached '.MSO.OOO. Dr. Weir Mitchell's Hugh Wynne was the earliest of this trio, having appeared in the Cent urn Magazine as a serial, after which it came out in book form in September, 18!»T. Its large sales have received a new impetus from the appearance of an illustrated two-volume edition, in which the carefully selected pictures of historical buildings, places, scenes and personages, together with the fine drawings of Mr. Howard Pyle illustrating the story itself, greatly add to the value of the novel considered as a contribution to local history,—the Philadelphia of Franklin's time being the central point of Dr. Mitchell's narration. There has been of late a protracted discussion in the literary press of the similarities and dissimilarities of these three historical novels. George Washington appears in them all, though only incidentally in Richard Carvel. Mr. Churchill's work was well advanced before Hugh Wynne appeared, and he did not allow himself the pleasure of reading Dr. Mitchell's great book until his own was finished ; so that there could have been no conscious or intentional imitation at any point. Mr. Ford, on the other hand, certainly knew nothing about Richard Carvel when he was writing Janice

Meredith. In short, each of the three is a perfectly independent piece of work, and each has l»een written by a man unusually well qualified to write either fiction or history. They all deserve the success they have attained. Of the latest,—namely, Janice Meredith,—the opinion may be ventured that it will survive as a remarkably thorough and valuable study of Revolutionary history, rather than as a work of fiction per sc. The story is agreeable, indeed, and never drags, so that the book will not lack for readers who care only for the entertainment they get from wholesome and lively romance. But it is to lie rememl>ered that Mr. Ford is one of our most learned and accurate authorities upon Revolutionary history; and the light that this book throws upon political and social conditions, particularly in the colony of New Jersey, where its scenes are principally laid, and also upon Washington's military campaigns, entitles it to very high praise from the historical standpoint. Esjjecial mention should lie made of the illustrated two-volume edition, to which Mr. Pyle has lent his best efforts.

Hugh Wynne and Janice Meredith both give us, among other things, some very entertaining chapters dealing with gay social life in Philadelphia during the period of the British occupation, when Washington's soldiers were suffering at Valley Forge, and when Major Andrei and the other British officers were turning the heads of the maidens of the Quaker City. A spirited tale of that winter in Philadelphia is VArcy of the Guards, by Louis Evan Shipman. D'Arcy is a British captain who eventually marries a Philadelphia girl, and whose adventures are entirely true to the historical and military conditions of 1777. (Stone.)

From Kingdom to Colony is a Revolutionary novel by Mary Devereux, who takes us to New England, the scenes being laid chiefly at Marblehead, Mass., and the time being the opening period of the war. The heroine is described as "a delight fully inconsistent and fascinating character," and she,—like the heroines of almost every one of our group of revolutionary novels,—enjoys the friendship and protecting favor of His Excellency George Washington. (Little. Brown & Co.)

Among the recent stories based upon American history are some of the pre-Revolutionary times. The Sword of Justice, by Sheppard Stevens, deals with the historical period of Francis Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World. The time is the latter part of the sixteenth century, and the scene is Florida, with Spaniards, Frenchmen and Indians as the characters. The manner in which this book depicts Indian life and characteristics, is worthy of special commendation. (Little, Brown & Co.)

In Castle and Colony, by Emma Rayner, is a story of the early settlement on the Delaware River of the Swedes and Finns. This colony had its period of hard struggle with the Dutch, by whom it was absorbed before they, in turn, yielded to the English. A readable story manages to include an authentic historical study of this Swedish settlement. (Stone.)

Mistress Content Cradock, by Annie Eliot Trumbull, is a study of the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the time of the troubles which resulted in the banishment of Roger Williams. It is based upon an exceptionally thorough acquaintance with the social and religious life and customs of primitive New England. (Barnes.)

The Rev. Dr. Cyrus Townsend Brady achieved a worthy place among the writers of historical romance a year or two ago with his story of the Revolutionary period entitled For Love of Country. This is now followed by a second book. For the Freedom of the Sea, which is a romance of the War of 181SJ, and which rests its historical climax upon the great sea fight between the Constitution and the GuerrUre. Archdeacon Brady brings to the aid of ample historical scholarship the gift of spirited narration. (Scribners.)

Another story of the navy of the period of the second war with England is entitled Smith Brunt, U. S. A*., by Waldron K. Post. Our great naval hero Lawrence is a prominent character, and the scenes shift from the vicinity of New York to the thrilling deeds of our navy off the coast of Tripoli in the Mediterranean. (Putnams.)

The Mormon Prophet, by Lily Dougall, is admitted by Congressman-elect Roberts to lie "astrong, clearcut, purpose-story, lofty in tone ; its incidents easily within the limits of probability, and singularly free from the vulgarity of nearly all the writers of fiction who have made their work at any point touch Mormonism. It is an honest effort to account for Joseph Smith and his work." This quotation is from an elaborate review of the book contributed by Mr. Roberts to the New York Time* some weeks ago. Mr. Roberts by no means admits the accuracy of the general attitude towards Mormonism of the writer of this novel. Nevertheless, it is conceded that the book is based upon intimate knowledge of the early history of Mormonism in the Nauvoo period, and that it is a positive contribution to American historical fiction. (Appleton.)

The great Confederate cavalry raider, General John Morgan, whose daring exploits in Tennessee and Kentucky, and whose disastrous but amazing incursion into the southeast corner of Indiana and across southern Ohio form one of the most romantic chapters in the history of the Civil War, stands out as a romantic and attractive figure in a remarkable new western story, The Legionaries, written by Mr. Henry Scott Clark. Doubtless the book would have been called The Raiders but for the fact that Mr. Crockett had taken that title for one of his recent stories of the Scottish border. "The Legionaries" was a name locally applied to the levies of home-guards which were called upon in southern Indiana to resist the progress of Morgan's raiders. War-time conditions in that Ohio River region are well set forth in this book. The love story is a fine and readable one, too; but the study of the locality in its geographical and social conditions, and above all the account of the military exploit of Morgan, and of the wavering loyalty of a large part of the "butternut" population of the Indiana and Ohio border counties are all as true to the life as Mr. Paul Leicester Ford's study of the New Jersey campaigning of the Revolution, when the shifting politics of the Jersey farmers knew no principles except to be on the winning side. (Howen-Merrill Company.)

Tlic Last Reoct, by Joseph A. Altsheler, is a picturesque and sketchy tale of a remote post in the southern Alleghenies, where the end of the war did not arrive-on time, so to spealc.

For serious fiction based upon events and scenes in the late war with Spain we must await the lapse of time to give some perspective. One or two writers have been willing, however, to amuse current readers without much reference to the permanence of their work; and Mr. T. Jenkins Hains has in The. Wreck of the Conemaugh (Lippincott) a very natural and readable

sea story of last year's war; while in The Little Heroes of Matanzas Mary B. Carret lias thrown vivid and pathetic light upon the sufferings of the Cubans just before the United States came to their rescue. (Boston t James H. West Company.)

OTHER NEW HISTORICAL NOVELS.

Mr. F. Marion Crawford, in Via Crucls, makes an essay in the field of romance by venturing boldly into the mediaeval conditions of government and religion that resulted in the crusades. Mr. Crawford is a man of profound religious convictions; and the hero of his story, who comes in contact with the splendid and complicated conditions that surrounded mediaeval courts, preserves the simplicity of Christian character to the end. Queen Eleanor, and Bernard of Clairvaux are two of a number of real historical characters who figure in this story. (Macmillan.)

A rival—perhaps an equal—of Sienkiewicz in the power of reproducing the central figures of imperial Rome's decline has, appeared in the person of a Russian novelist, Dirnitri Mereshkovski, whose Julian the Apostate has just been translated into English by Mr. Charles Johnston (Altemus). In this story, as in Qito Vadis, the central personage is a Roman Emperor. Julian's fame through all the centuries has rested on the dying utterance imputed to him, "Thou hast conquered, Galilean!" He was a far more attractive character than Nero and the period in which he lived and played his part was one of unusual interest.

Among new English novels is T/i<: Orange Olrl (Dodd, Mead & Co.) by Sir Walter Besant, a romantic story of London life in the eighteenth century,—particularly valuable, apart from a rather exciting plot, for its careful delineation of places and contemporary conditions. The White King of Manoa, by Mr. Joseph Hatton, takes us into the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and if the history gets the better of the story it is enough to say that it is the history of a very great period, and is seriously and usefully interpreted. (Fenno.)

Parson Kelly is a novel in which Mr. Andrew Lang and Mr. A. E. W. Mason have collaborated, and it deals with events in the reign of King George the First. Not to allude to the usual pretty love story, it suftices to explain that the fortunes and misfortunes of an Irish parson, acting as a secret agent of the Stuart Pretender in the earlier part of the reign of George the First gives opportunity for pictures of English life and London society that are skilfully drawn. (Longmans, Green & Co.)

Rupert, a famous prince of the Palatinate, who lived and died in the seventeenth century, was a famous cavalier about whose exploits—all the way from Bohemia to the farther shores of the British Isles—all sorts of romantic tales have been told for two hundred years. He took an active part as a cavalry leader on the defeated side in the Cromwellian wars, and had a range of naval and military experience that it would take much space to relate. He is the hero of a very brilliant and readable story called Rupert by the Grace of God—which comes from the pen of an English writer, Dora Greenwell McChesney. (Macmillan.)

John Buchan is a Scotch writer whose romance entitled A Lost Lady of Old Years is a very good story of the Highlands in those romantic times, so innumerably depicted in fiction, when the Highlands existed solely for the promotion of the cause of Prince Charlie. The best figure in this story is Lovat, chief of the
Erasers. (John Lane.)

The latest novel of the Reverend S. Baring Gould is
cailed Pabo, the Priest, and its theme is the cruelty of
King Henry towards the Welsh. It is bused upon an ac-
curate study of Welsh history, and ought to be popular
among the many intelligent Americans of Welsh origin.
(Stokes.)

We are bringing out in this country a series of young
western and Southern writers who are threatening to
take away the laurels of Anthony Hope and Stanley
Weyman in the fabrication of romantic tales based
upon French life of a century ago. But Mr. Harris
Dickson's new book, The Black Wolfs Breed, is, for
American readers, much more than a charming ro-
mance; for the scenes are mainly laid in Louisiana,
and the book is, therefore, in one sense a contribution
to the literature of the composite beginnings of our
great American commonwealth. (The Bowen-Merrill
Co.)

The Favor of Princes, by Mark Lee Luther, is also a
tale of old and. new France, its period l>eing one reign
later than that of Mr. Dickson's novel just above men-
tioned. Among the historical personages introduced
in Mr. Luther's story are Madame de Pompadour, Jean
Jacques Rousseau, and the Due de Choiseul. (Mac-
millan.)

Mr. Luther's story, in its account of conditions pre-
vailing under Louis XV, foreshadowed the oncoming
of the great revolution. That period of upheaval is de-
scribed in a new story by Bernard Capes, entitled Our
Lady of Darkness, a strong tale of swift movement,
as befits the tragic times it deals with. (Dodd, Mead &
Co.)

Perez Galdos is a great Spanish novelist, sometimes
called the Walter Scott of his country ; and none of his
books is more highly esteemed in Spain than Saragassa:
A Story of Spanish Valor. The city of Saragossa sus-
tained a siege by the generals of Xapoleou with a valor
that honors not merely the Spanish race but human
nature itself; and this siege of Saragossa is the theme
of Gald6s' noble tale, which comes to us in a good trans-
lation by Minna Caroline Smith. (Little, Brown & Co.)

The House of the Wizard is a story by Mary Imlay
Taylor, who has written successful historical stories
before. This latest one deals with Knglish life in the
time of King Henry VIII, and it keeps usquite close to
the court life of that very much married sovereign.
(A. C. McClurg & Co.)

NOVELS OF LOCALITY AMERICAN.

One of the best of the many new novels that owe the
I larger part of their claim upon our attention to the fact
that they are conscientious studies of American life
and society in distinctive localities is The Gentleman
from Indiana by a new writer, Mr. Booth Tarkiugton.
It is the story of a young Eastern college man who
buys a newspaper in a country town in the Indiana gas
belt some distance north of Indianapolis, has exciting
adventures with the "White Caps," wins a charming
bride, and goes to Congress. Its Hoosier quality is
charming and unimpeachable. (Doubleday & McClure.)

The most discriminating critics are awarding very
high praise to a novel by Mr. Hervey White called
Differences (Small, Maynard & Co.), dealing with
social demarcations between the rich and the poor,
with the plot turning mainly on life in a social settle-
ment in Chicago. The scene of Mrs. Mary H. Cather-

wood's new story, Spanish Peggy (Stone), is laid in
Illinois in the '40s in the youth of Abraham Lincoln,
who is one of the principal characters in the little
volume. Windy Creek, by Helen Stuart Thompson, is
a volume of connected sketches portraying life and
manners in a Colorado community with that same
fidelity that has l>een shown by several other Western
disciples of Miss Mary E. Wilkins. (Scribners.)

It is enough to say of Dlix that its author is Mr.
Frank Norris, who wrote McTeagne, and our readers
will at once understand that it is a story of California
life. But they would go far astray if, judging by Mr.
Norris' other work, they were expecting grim and pain-
ful realism. This is a light and charming romance of
the California that has its sunny and ideal side. (Dou-
bleday & McClure.) Dr. C. W. Doyle, who wrote
The Taming of the Jungle, and now- brings out a new
story of San Francisco called The Shadow of Quong
Lung, must not be confounded with Dr. Couan Doyle,
the Englishman. This story of the Chinese quarter is
rather gruesome, but it has power and merit. (Lippin-
cott.)

There lie on our table three or four Western railroad
stories, all of which naturally enough have plenty of
"go." The Short Line War purports to be written by
a certain hyphenated "Merwin-Webster" without a
Christian handle to his name. In turns out on inquiry
that it is the collalxn-ation of Mr. Samuel Merwin and
Mr. Henry-K. Webster. It tells a tale too painfully
familiar in the history of American railroad cousolida
tions, of the commingling of corporate rascality and
political power in the wrecking and seizure of railroad
properties. But the plot is as exciting as one could
wish. (Macmillan.) Snow on the Headlight is by Mr.
Cy Wurman, who knows as much about railroading as
any other man, and perhaps surpasses all others in
writing about railroad life. Under the guise of a story
this book purports to give a fair history of the great
Burlington strike of 18KS. It will assuredly take its
place with works on the history of the labor movement
in America. (Appleton.) Mr. Warman is not the only
practical railroad engineer who writes railroad stories,
for Mr. John A. Hill, who has brought out a volume of
Stories of the Railroad, some of which have appeared
separately in McClure's Magazine, makes capital read-
ing out of Western railroad experiences. (Doubleday &
McClure.)

Capt. Jasper Ewing Brady, who has served in the
Signal Corps of the United States Army, and before
that had ljeen a telegraph operator, has written a vol-
ume of Talcs of the Telegraph, based upon an Amer
ican telegrapher's experience, which he dedicates to the
operators of the country, and which will interest many
readers not of that class. (Doubleday & McClure.)

Mr. George Ade, a young Chicago journalist, is mak-
ing a place in American literature which in its way
resembles the places made by two other active news-
paper men, namely, the author of Chimmy Fadden,
and the author of Mr. Doolcy. For a good while he
has been writing in the Chicago Record in a depart-
ment of his own a series of papers called "Stories of
the Streets and of the Town." His method is original,
but not fantastic. It is the result of a close observation
of the phases of life in our Western cities that have
never before been put into books. These remarks are
inspired by a swift turning of the leaves of Mr. Ade's
two newest books, Doc' Home, and Fables in Slang.
These, like two preceding volumes, have been worked