Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-09-29
NEW PUBLICATIONS
SOMETHING ABOUT CHEAP EDITIONS OF
STANDARD WORKS.
Some of the Latest New Books-Eovels-
Buchanan's Lifs-Mark Twain
Mary Lamb-shakespears.


Co., San Francisco MIR. Curtis states in his
preface that there are many persons who re-
gard President Buchanan as a man who
could have saved the country from civil war
if he had had the wish and the energy to nip
secession in the bud. There has grown up S
popular belief that he favored the secession
of the Southern States. This more than any
thing else Mr.. Curtis endeavors to show in
his elaborate biography is an injustice. The
work is compiled from collection of private
papers put into the writer's hands by the
executors and nearest surviving relatives Of
Mr.. Buchanan, with view to the prepara-
tion of historical work. The present vol
umss are of course more or less historical of
the agitating period which preceded the war.
Mr.. Curtis frankly expresses his conviction
thRt Buchanan was as siacera in his course Of
conduct as those politically opposed to him
The book is full of quotations from the Presi.
dents voluminGus correspondence, which is
somewhat cue and dried in charac er.
His unfortunate eArly love aft lir, tae
cause Of his entrance in.o the tur-
moil of public life, is also briefly
General Scott and il favor Of Franklin
Pierce. made at Gresnsburgh, in Pennsgl-
yanis, in 1852, Is given sntire, and gives q
good synopsis OF the topics of the time. At
the end OF the second volume is q complste
index of the contents of both volumes, and q
frontispiece accompanies esch-a steel en-.
craving OF Mr. Buchanan at different periods
Of his life
Msry Lamb, by Anne Gilchriss Bus
ton, from the press of Roberts Brothers. is
for sale by w. A. & G. S. Houghton, Sscra-
ments. Price, 81 This, the latest, is also a
most welcome addition Co the list of biogrs-
phies 10 the Famous Women series. Every
one who reads at all has among his mental
portraits dim one of sw5et Mary Lamb, tine
Bridget of the incompatible Essays of
Ella" and knows that she was subject to ter
ribie fits OF insanity, and that the love exist
ing between her brother, Charles Lamb. and
herself is among the beautiful facts 10 the
too-ofsen troubled story of the lives of littera-
tours but Mrs. Gilchrist has faithfully gath
cred and presented those letters, traditions
and contemporary mention that make up to
the reader warm, breathing, speaking per-
sonslity. We lay down the book with the
feeling that if we had known Mary Lamb
we should have loved her. and that ia not
knowing her we have missed the influence of
strong, Independent, womanly nature. The
dull Misunderstanding, rather than Inisun-
Outstanding, of her thoughtful, reserved child
hood, by hsr mother and grandmother though
these relatives fulfilled every duty toward
her and even loved her in their own way: the
character and fortitude of Charles, born when
Mary was already 10 years old, and tended
by her Mary's eleven years of drudgery at
needlework, by which her system was so
over-wrought az 80 that she became insane
and murdered her mother, whom in hesltbfuI
moments she had nursed devotedly; the &C.
cessory figures of the Lsmbs' friends, the
Coleridges, the Wsdsworths, the Hazlitss-
all this and more Mrs. Gilc1rist has skill
fully blended in most symmetrical picture.
in which this gifted and suffering woman is
still made the principal by an art and sym
pathy most admirable when we consider how
easy it would have been to make the sister
subordinate to the better-kGown and more
active brother. An essay by Mary Lamb on
needlework, from an Industrial standpoint, il
a valuable contribution to the literature of
feminine employment, since it goes deeper
than the mere relief, by marriage, of the
necessity of self.support by women, and
maintains that the married woman can make
her husbands home more attractive and vet
find plenty of peedful duties if she considers
needlework-the making Of clothes-she
come is Strengthened, Miss Lamb advocates
that the women of the family endeavor to
make money 10 its legitimate shape, and do
not wear out their tempers and exhaust their
energies by stitching, which also robs the
professional seamstress of part of her slen-
der earnings.
Startling Facts in Modern Spiritualisu1 "
is the title of volume by DR.. n. B. Wolfe.
of Cincinnati. 1t is diary which gives an
account of phenomena attributed to spirit in
fuences, which were personally observed by
the writer during series of years, az d which
have convinced him of the truth of the doc
trine of communication between earthly and
disembodied intelligences. The volume, which
Is quaint one, is in many respects amusing,
since the author has q dry sense of humor
and perfect fearlessness of GHOSTS" The
doctor tells his story in a simple way, and
tecites evidences which, it must be conceded,
are demonstrstive of the truth of what he
saw and experienced. But the most devoted
spiritualist will hardly claim that the facts
given establish the doctrine claimed. They
do prove that the doctor wss mystifsd that
he saw strange and unsccountable things;
that to him and TO others there were made
revelations that seem supernatural; but it ia
not successfully established by anything in
this volume that the intelligences were those
which we have not now knowledge which,
once disclosed to US, will explain all the
strange things related by the doctor, whose
sincerity we have no reason to doubt
Nor can we say that anything he
advances is ill-thst anything he holds
will mako men worse. Rather his theory
ia comforting and altogether pleasant one
but it is not satisfying it is indefinite and
vague. We could wish, too, for more serious
evidences than the doctor cites. All the
testimony he brings forward is Of light,
almost trivial character, and much of it is
simply silly. The manner in which some of
the intelligences talk and act, speaks i'll for
their condition in the other world. and can
not command the respect of those in this
sphere of action. They seem TO have no
clear idea of where they are, or what their
mission il, or their relation to those they left
behind aud, what is worst of all. the spirits
are aoominsble grammarisns, and miserable
logicisns, while their modes of reasoning are
chiidieB. Still, they may be low grade of
spirits, or even imposters, who pose AS jose
phiue, Marshal Ney, Napoleon, Hortense,
and such characters, who on earth we're far
more intelligent than their communications
from the spirit realm testify they now are.
But for all that much of the book is tiresome,
much silly, and deal of it absurd 1t does
recount some marvellous things, and does
direct toe mind TO an investigation which is
commanding daily more and more of the
serious attention of the world. The book ia
a revised and enlarged edition, and from the
press of the STARTLING Facts Publishing
Company" Cincinnati.
We have very frequently within the last
three years had occasion TO speak in COM
mendatory terms of the scheme of the leading
American publishers in placing standard
works in form which, while giving the full
text and in good style of Typography has
graded the prices so low that the poorest in
the land with literary tastes can avail of the
opportunity to possess the volumes. In fact,
the various library series =" of different pub
fishing houses have given. for few cents per
volume, the standard poets, the leading works
IN history and fiction, the writings of the
best esssyiats, the standard drama, the prom
inent scientific treatises, etc. In the front
rank in this style of publishing has stood
Harper & Brothers Of New York, whose
" Franklin Square Library" issues have cir
culssed in every part of the country. and in
troduced choice literature where otherwise it
nayer vpouId hava bean read Tho 6rno bas