Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-09
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

a. ID. Worthington e Co, Hartford
Conn, have issued a subscription book Of
biography, entitled Our Fam Gus Women.
1t is handsome volume, royal octave. OF
over 700 pages, and is in three STYLES. vary.
ing from 81 10 to s. 80. 1t is an authentic
record of the lives and deeds of distin.
gulshed American women of our times
The papers are by twenty popular authors
OF high excellence; such as Elizabeth
Stuart Phelps, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Rose
Terry Cooke. Harriet Prescott Spofford
Mary A. Livermore Mary Ciemmer
lAmes), Lucy Larcom, Julia Ward
Howe, Susan Coolidge and Eliza
beth Cady Stanton. The volumes are
very handsomely and substantially
bound and are superbly illustrated with
fnll-page engravings. A biographical work.
IN which the subjects are treated by great
number of writers, possesses the higher
value of varied expression and views Of
the life work of eminent persons from
different critical standpoints. The women
who have made their mark in philan-
thropic work, literature, art, politics and
science have been more prominent in
America than in any other land in modern
times. The Hmitless field for endeayor in
this republic, the freedom accorded woman
under our system, and the chivalric senti-
ment characteristic of the men of America.
all contribute to this as a result of our
growth and progression. 1t is significant
OF the INEXPENSIVE character of the
American social and intellectual at
mospheres, that women here have
attained such rank in letters. music. art
science and politics as those whose biog-
raphies are given in this volume The per
sonality OF these pages embraces such char
acters as Louisa NJ. Alcott, Susan B. An
thony, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Char
lotte Cushman, Lydia Maria Child Clara
Louise Kellogg. Mary A. Livermore, Fran
ces +. Willard, Louise Chandler Moulton
Marion Harland, Lucretia Mott, the Drs'
Blackwell, Mary l.. Booth, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Elizabeth Prentiss, Mary Mapes
Dodge, Mrs. A. d. T. Whitney and others.
The biographies, so far as we have been
able at this writing TO read Them are writ
ten with good deal of the enthusiasm of
warm appreciation, but not without that
critical and analytical care and dis
elimination necessary to judicial esti-
mates of human character and the
fathoming of human motives. Very
materially such papers take us in a
broad degree into the history of some of
the great movements and reforms of the
age, notably that of the abolition of slavery.
and the prosecution of the cause for the
enlargement of woman's political rights.
They also give us an insight into the liter
airy lives of some of the leading female
writers of the day their methods of accom-
plishment, and likewise give us glimpses
of the relation of women in America to
higher education. As whole it is a desir
able book, and will do much to enlarge the
estimate in which the literary and reform
working women of America are held.
Charles Howard Shinn, manager of the
Overland Monthly and a well-known
and accomplished California writer, Jour-
nslist and scholar, is the author of an
octave volume that is published by Charles
Scribner's Sons, entitled /" Mining Camps
a Study in American Frontier Govern
ments." The work was begun and COM
pleted while Mr.. Shinn was a student at
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. It
testifies to a high degree OF ability in line
that is not largely pursued, that of
inquiry into the spirit genesis, and re-
suits of the efforts of the American
pioneer to introduce into our new regions
modern forms of government. The vol
ume treats extendedly of ancient,
medieval and modern mining laws.
and the social and political life
of mining camps, while it does not
aim to enter upon legal disquisition, or into
historical research of mining itself in
America. Ii is rather, as he claims for it, a
study of mining camp commonwealth in
the = West of our country and the infiu-
ence they have exerted upon the nation
and all its communities. Such study ma
turally led him to consideration of the
forces in American pioneer So
ciety, and the qualities that entered into
the character composition Of the hardy
men and women who have broken the way
for the advance of American civilization