New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-14
NE " BOOKS.

Miss Alexander's "Story of Ida" Couples, Up
ham g. Col shows traces of careful editing at the
hands of Mr. Ruskin. who has expressed charac-
teristc enthusiasm in regard to the little sketch.
alt is a real passage of human life" he says " seen
in the light that Heaven sent for it-a light which
he has possibly heightened little here and there
Sentences which lie particularly admires ne
has italicised and marked by foot-notes-
in every case weakening the matter
and irritating the reader The story 10
patbetic. and is told with refined simplicity which
aeenens ts pathos. Ida was a young Italian girl
whose short life was full of unselfshness and sad
ness. and whose purity and sweetness of nature are
revealed in the touching portrait which Miss Alex
ander has prefxed to her book.
In a volume entitled Twelve Americans" liar
ner & Brothers. Mr. Howard Carroll has reprinted
in revised and augmented forma series of sketches
which first appeared in The Ne,o- York Times. His
subects are public men living or dead. of more or
less renown-chieAy men who. born to poverty and
struggle made their owa successes. The sketches
are pleasantly and simply written.
Thomas Whitaker has brought out an edition of
life of Grace Darling. in which imagination blends
with fact 1t is exhaustive, giving even tho history
of the heroine's birthplace
There Is something rather grotesque about the
title Tho Primer of Politeness." but the book
itself, written by A. N. Cow. and published by
Iippiucott. is sensible and useful 1t is intended
for schools, and each injunction as to habit and
feeling is illustrated by suggestive anecdotes, and
Is followed by questions to be put by the teacher.
Mr.. C. Edwards Lester has published through j..
B. Alden friendly sketch of the late Peter Cooper.
"The New Guide Of the Conversation in Portu-
auese and English" by Pedro Caroline. is unmis-
fakably funny. The blunders in English 30 gravely
made are amusing enOugh--but 1t Is q question
whether the average reader can struggle through
the book to the ono hundred and eighty second
page without fatigue.
Little Brown-Top ID. Loihrop g. co.,, by E.
4. Rand is an excellent little story for young peo-
plc 1t describes the many pleasant ways in which
two clever and conscientious girls exerted bene6
cent influence in O country school district
"On Mexican Mustang Through Texas " is the
title of a bulky volume In which Mr.. A. Z. Sweet
and Mr.. j. A. Knox. Editors of Teras SUtings have
given half fanciful and half serious account o.
their State The book is anecdotical and is ar
ranged and illustrated after the manner of the vol
umes which Mark Twain has bestowed upon al
anxious world Some of the matt or has appeared
in the journal edited by the authors
Three volumes Of Topics Of the Timen bav
thus far been issued by g. p. Putnam's Sons
These are Social Problems" Studies in Biog
raphy and Studies in Literature" They con
tain the most attractive essays in these field
which have lately appeared in foreign periodicals.
They sre selected. arranged and printed with muc
TASTE aud are of the best of the cheap publication
for summer reading on the train, the boat and tn
verandas