"Droll Doings," with illustrations by Harry B. Neilson and verses by "The Cockiolly Bird" (imported by Scribners), consists of nonsense rhymes about animals and big colored pictures. "Mr. Bunny, His Book," by Adah L. Sutton (Saalfield Publishing Co.), is much the same sort of work, but it draws its subjects partly from human beings and inanimate objects, instead of entirely from beasts. There are two Chinese (more or less) books. "The Moon Babies" (Russell) has verses by G. Orr Clark and pictures by Helen Hyde. The pictures are pretty in color, but some of them are rather confused, for a children's book, as to subject matter. The other book is "Chinese Mether Goose Rhymes," translated and illustrated by Isaac Taylor Headland, of Peking University (Fleming H. Revel Co.). The rhymes sound remarkably like English nursery rhymes. Many of the pictures seem to be from photographs. "Urchins of the Sea" contains some bright verses by Marie Overton Corbin and Charles Buxton Going, telling of the queer ways of certain impossible creatures, particularly of Fopsy, Pudgy, and Wobbledy Jim. Pictures of them are abundantly furnished by F. I. Bennett. There are more verses and more grotesque and diverting pictures in "The Golliwog's Polar Adventures," by Bertha Upton, illustrated by Florence K. Upton. Both of these are published by Longmans, Green & Co. A book full of good fun, which it is likely that older persons will appreciate more than children, is "A New Wonderland," by Frank Baum, illustrated by Frank Verbeck (Russell). "The Little Boy's Book," by Helen Hay, illustrated by Frank Verbeck (Russell), has droll verses and amusing pictures. The little boy does not seem to have been above reproach. To the education of the young, Emery Leverett Williams contributes "An Alphabet of Indians" (Russell). He has found a tribe for every letter except X. "The Ballad of the Prince," by Alice Archer Sewall (Russell), is mostly pictures, drawn with touches of humor for the older people, but there are also verses telling a little love story. "Children of the Revolution," by Maud Humphrey and Mabel Humphrey, is made up of pictures of children in old-time dress, some in black and white and some brightly colored, with little stories and verses. "The Pelican Chorus and Other Nonsense Verses," by Edward Lear, is a selection from the well-known works of that lamented author. The illustrations, by L. Leslie Brooke, are clever, and the book is a handsome one. It is published by Frederick Warne & Co. There is one beautiful and wonderful thing about all these books. How many of the books which were written for our pleasure do we read for pleasure? The most of them we read, even when we are not editors or reviewers, because somebody else has told us to read them, because others have read them, because others talk about them, because we want to talk about them, because we must keep up with the general run of the books that are printed, and for such unworthy reasons. But all these reasons are yet unknown to the ones for whom these books are written. These books, when they are read, will be read for pleasure, pure and simple, and those of them that are good will serve the purpose for which they were meant. They will help the joy of those who can enjoy. AMONG the important books which come to the Christmas book-table too late for proper classification, the initial part of Miss Esther Singleton's big book on "The Furniture of Our Forefathers" (Doubleday, Page & Co.) attracts special attention. Expensive treatises upon English and Italian furniture have appeared occasionally, and a few years ago a book, now out of print, on colonial furniture was published in Boston. But Miss Singleton has planned her work on broad lines, and discusses not only the simple, almost home-made tables and chairs of the Puritans, but the richer furniture imported from England to the Massachusetts colony, as well as the quaint Dutch belongings of New Amsterdam, and the magnificent furnishings of the great colonial mansions of the South, from Virginia to New Orleans. The author has traveled from Maine to Louisiana to gather authentic material, and hundreds of beautiful photographs are a fascinating detail of her completed work. Mr. Russell Sturgis has written critical descriptions of the plates, and the work will be issued in eight parts, on large paper. There are two editions besides the regular issue, one of 100 copies on hand-made paper with initials and head-pieces colored by hand, and the other of 50 copies on Japan, with all the places colored, and with illuminated decorations. Two very pretty volumes come from Messrs. Dana Estes & Co.-" Among the Great Masters of Literature," being scenes in the lines of celebrated authors, with thirty-two reproductions of famous THE SHAKESPEARE MONUMENT IN TRINITY CHURCH, STRATFORD paintings, with text by Walter Rowland, and "Among the Great Masters of Music," by the same compiler, with similar illustrations. The pictures are small, but extremely well reproduced, and the text is agreeable gossip. In two more volumes, of somewhat similar scheme, we have the "Stories of Famous Songs" (J. B. Lippincott Co.), by S. J. AdairFitzgerald. He begins with "Home, Sweet Home," and ends with "God Save the King," and he ranges through English, American, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and various continental songs, their history, tradition and romance. The field is wide, and the result of his work is interesting. Mrs. Ernest Seton-Thompson's book of adventures in the west, called "A Woman Tenderfoot" (Doubleday, Page & Co.) is a record of her experiences while her husband's companion on the hunting trips during which the materials for his "Wild Animals I Have Known" were gathered. Mrs. Seton-Thompson writes with much vivacity, and in addition to the fresh, out-of-doors flavor of her book, the woman reader will find specific advice and directions upon the subject of camping dress and equipment for women. The book is attractively made, and con Shakespeare must be studied in the near future with a deeper recognition of the significance of his work and its value as a source of spiritual culture." Mr. Mabie says he finds that his own study of the subject leads him to follow, in many points, the conclusions of Dr. Edward Dowden in regard to the significance of the order in which the plays were written, and thanks Dr. Dowden for "suggestion and stimulus," and also for the word "romance," as happily descriptive of the later plays. Mr. Mabie's work has been enjoyed by many readers during its serial publication, and the present volume, with its hundred illustrations, is one of the most attractive of the season's publications. A special word of praise is due the dozen or so pictures reproduced in photogravure. The Chandos portrait forms the frontispiece, and several other portraits of Shakespeare are included, besides scores of interesting reproductions of old prints and rare casts and drawings. A handsome volume, filled with the wise appreciation which makes the best biography of a worthy subject, is Miss Elisabeth Luther Cary's monograph on "The Rossettis: Dante, Gabriel and Christina," which the Putnams have issued in uniform style with the same author's "Tennyson" and "Browning." Miss Cary modestly claims place for her book, among all the Rossetti literature, as containing certain hitherto unpublished drawings (the "Ruth, Herbert " and the " Magdalen ") and three others, reproduced for this book from the originals owned by Mr. Samuel Bancroft, Jr., of Wilmington. The insight, discrimination and poetic sensitiveness which mark Miss Cary's work are sufficient reason for the bulky volume, and since she brings new material besides, her reward of praise shall be the greater. The author devotes two of her twelve chapters to Christina Rossetti, and writes of her "drab-colored" existence and manner with a certain regret that never fails to render all the appreciation due. Christina's absolute devotion to others, and entire incapacity to share her brother Gabriel's belief in "the necessary selfishness of those possessed of an originating gift," caused her often to let her own gift lapse, in order to serve somebody else, at the moment. But as poet, Miss Cary places Christina very high: "The love poems of this little group [The Monna Innominata sonnets], considered both technically and emotionally, combine more faultlessly the great qualities of passion and spiritual reticence than any other love poetry of the present century." century." Miss Cary gives us tabulated. lists of Gabriel's more important writings, of his paintings and drawings, and of Christina's poems. There is also a fairly full index. A volume full of personal interest is Major James B. Pond's collected reminiscences, called "Eccentricities of Genius." Probably Major Pond knows more notable persons than anybody else except the recording angel. For the past thirty or forty years he has provided "attractions" for the lyceum platform, and he is still easily the first in his class. In the course of his long business career Major Pond has accumulated, literally, stacks of correpondence and photographs, besides a free-flowing well of stories; and as all this material touches the personal side of the personages whom he has known, his book is bound to be interesting to everybodyone of the purest pleasures in life springs from an intimate knowledge of other people's affairs, and Major Pond is a fountain of information on the affairs of many great and even good men. Somebody has already said, we believe, that not since Mr. Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy" has such a gorgeous volume of reminiscences appeared as Miss Gilder's "Autobiography of a Tomboy" (Doubleday, Page & Co.) It is a shame that Tom |