Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-03
THE WEEKLY UNION
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NEW PUBLICATIONS.

We have received volume on "Work and
Wages" by Sir ThomaR Brsssey, K. G. B.,
N. P. It ia from the press of g. P. Put
MANS Sons, New York, and is for sale by A.
L. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco. Price, 81.
Sir Thomas book is ushered in by preface
by Sir Arthur Helps. which explains that the
substance of the work was to have appeared,
according to previous plan, as an essay on
labor, sutjoined to the life of hir Brsssey,
Sir Thomas father, which life Sir Arthur
Helps was engaged upon writing. The essay
was upon subject so vast and far-reaching
that Sir Thomas determined to make vol.
ume of it, and the present is the result. 1t
is written in spirit friendly to labor, and
with G view toward medistiDg between en-
ployers and employed. to counteract what
ever untruths may be fostered in the minds
of working people about their employers by
dsmsgogues. The first chapter is a brief
historical review of the rights of labor and the
deeper meanings and the justics or Injustice
of strikes and trades-unions. Later, Sir
Thomas remarks on the high wages in Cali.
fornia, which he says the Pacific railway has
not yet affected, though it must in the long
run tend to equalizs the value of labor in the
Western and Eastern States. While he be-
lieves IN emigration, he advocates that it
should be TO rising country towns and not to
New York City, whencs he quotes informs-
tion he has received that there are more per-
sons unemployed in proportion to the popula-
ton in New York than in London. Sir
Thomas appreciates the relief emigration af-
fords the crowded civilizations of thu Old
World, but he remarks that the man who ap-
plies to the Government for the small sum
now needed TO cross the Atlantic, is not
likely to be the man provided with the little
store of capital which is an essential condi-
ton to successful emigration. Sir Thomas
disproves the alleged physical deterioration
OF the laborer, nor does he believe that
American competition will be dangerous to
Englsnd's commercial prosperity, The book
belongs to the s. Library of Popular Iaforma-
ton Series" 1t is well indexed.
On our table is volume entitled L" Ger
many Seen Without Spectacles." by Henry
Ruggles. 1t is published by Lee & Shepard,
Boston, and is for sale by w. A. Il G. S.
Houghton, Sacramento. at 81 30. The title
of this collection of random sketches of
various subjects penned from different stand
points in the Empire, as the ti5le-pags cor.
rectly describes it, would prepare one for
rather dyspectic, carping review of things
Teutonic; but MIR. Ruggles, late United
States Consul at the Island Of Malta, and
Bareelone, Spain, as he writes himself, is o
thoroughly healthy, hearty thinker, who
looks upon things with unprecedented eyes
and describes them with fearless pen. One
is prepared for the reverse of fulsome fat.
terry by the meek but willy tone of his intro
ductioD, which says with becoming humility
that the Americans have been nationally i'm.
proved by the unspsring criticism Of foreign
ers, so one knows that the national improve
ment of Germany is going to be undertaken
by the same process. The hopeless degrade
ton and servitude of the lower class OF Ger
man wemen Mr.. Ruggles represents as even
worse than it has been described, hestudents'
dUeling and !beer-drinkiDg he finds brutal in
tde extreme. The 6remen going to put on
their uniform, to shave and get their boots
blacked, demonstrates the infrequency of
fires in Germany, but strikes an American
drolly. The "royal crank" King Louis of
Bavaria, makes the interesting subject of
one chapter. The anecdote Of the soldier
who initiated the nightingales song is q new
one. The book concludes with dissertation
on the sugar-beet-the next great agricult-
ural industry to hop-raising in Germany.
Mr.. Ruggles prints "most for "almost,"
snd would for should" but his book
Is bright and interesting, and treats pleas
Antly things wholly out of the common vein.
"a Sea Queen" by w. Clark Russell.
New York Harper & Brothers. Is for sale
by A. L. Bancroft & Co, San Francisco.
That Mr.. Russell is the author of the
90 Wreck of the Grosvenor" is enough to
Of sea stories. This last volume is the ad-
ventures, sutobiogrsphicsllyt told, of young
English woman, the daughter and wife of
sailor, who takes voyage with her husband
on sailing vessel to Sierra Leone. Several
gales and mutiny are among the trials they
encounter. They are cut a3rift by the mu.
tineers In an open boat, come upon q fever
stricken brig, on board Of which all hands are
dead but one boy. Tbs scene in which the
Al
the infected brig, clear and fumigate it and
put to sea, is as quiet and realistic in It's de-
scription of horrors as Poe's Arthur Gorooa
Pyne." Jessie, the heroine, is as brave, in
tslligant and helpful as she is sffectionate,
and deserves her title Of Sea Queen. The
little descriptions of home-life and love are
naturally, often touchingly, sketched in, and
the sturdy simplicity of the emotions is S
welcome contrast to the morbid analysis that
modern self-consciousnsss has entailei upon
TIE majority of the novels of the present day.
Thicker than Water is the title of new
novel by James Psyr. It is from the press
of Harper & Bros, and is for sale by A. L.
Bancroft & Co., San Francisco. It is prob.
ably one of toe better works of this accom-
plished novelist. It is not creation OF &C.
MUS, nor q brilliant fiction, but it has sterling
good qualities, such as clesrness of detail,
lucidity of plot, naturslness in character
sketchiDg, and sustained interest of narrative.
The reader is not at sill likely to lay it down
unfinished, nor will he find it so impressed
upon his mind that he cannot dismiss it at
will. II il, indeed, a novel that we find
small fault with as we read it, aud which,
once read, we leave behind without any re-
greet that it is finished. In short, it is a good
story well told, but not enc to fix and repro
duce itself in the mind SO does the novel that
ia born Of genius. But in saying this we do
not mean to be understood as expressing the
idea that such children of genius are many,
or that they are so plentiful in these days that
we cannot help stumbling over them, ard so
we come, after all, to conclude that Mr.
Psyn's pleasant novel will rank with the av.
ersge good works Of magazine fiction.
Harper Bros, New York, have issued, snd
A. q. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco, have
for sale. small work containing the essays
Of Professor W. G.. Sumner, which recently
appeared in Harper'S Weekly under the gen.
eral title, "Whst the Social CLASSES owe 10
Zach Other" As we have referred editorially
to the most Of the essays already, there is no
necessity 20 remark upon them now, further
than TO say that they treat OF topics of the
day which are engaging much of public
thought, snch ss the new philosophy that
poverty is the best policy; that it is not
wicked to be rich, or that to be rich is
not criminal; oa minding ones own business;
on the case Of the forgotten man :" why we
should love one another, ETC. These essays
are incisive, fearless, unmistaksble, end touch
the subjects treated at the heart with vigor
that admits Of no doubt as to what their an.
thor holds to be the duty of men to society,
aud of society TO men. The paper entitled
''Old Foes under New Faces should be read
generally, for its wisdom is undeniable, and
It's truths are stated in a manner that send
them home with especial force. It handles
Without gloves the class who want to get