Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-06

waters" and great many other delightful
scenes, which are all described and made
real and living in Margaret Macdonald
Pullman's graceful and sympathetic plct-
ures. The sea and the sky, the trees and the
meadows, the glow Of autumn and the
warmth of summer are here brought into our
winter sitting rooms, and set beside our
December fresides.
! Austin Dobson and George Wharton Ed
wards have Joined in fruitful partnership,
which gives us this handsome book of verse
and pictures, ''The Sun DIAL" (Dodd,
Mead & Co. J. R. Weldin & Co. 81 80. }
The pictures begin with the rain and end
with it, but there is sunshine in between,
and though the verses are but few, there is
space in them for two love stories. The book
is carefully, tasteluly and beautifully made.
III.
The boys and girls in these days, so the
fault finders grumble, know more than their
fathers and mothers. Perhaps they do.
They ought to. The wisest and most inter-
esting people in the world are busy teaching
them, and drawing pictures for them, and
telling them stories. Take these two beau
tiful pictured volumes of st. Nicholas.
Here is almost everything that you can
think Of Stories, long and short; poems,
grave and gay; glimpses at ocean storms,
visits to Indians, journeys with Asiatic
dogs, careful explanations of the modus
operandi of the drop kick" free tickets to
great games of baseball. ST. Nicholas de-
serves halo. The good old saint of
MYra, so the legends say, went about one hard
winter and did good deeds to poor families,
throwing his geDerosities os loaves and gold
into the open window and hurrying away
before any gratitude might find him out,
but the new saint of New York comes
every month to the homes of hundreds of
thousands of boys and girls, and makes
everyone of them happier for the sight of
his sanity face. If it is the mission of
literature, especially of fiction to minister
to the happiness of the world, here, then, is
an ideal sort OF missionary. Long life and
good health to him. (The Century Co. j.
Il. Weldin & Co., S4). "Cutlass and
Cudgel," G. ManvilIe Fem (Brentano's)
Battle Fields and Campfres," Willis J.
Abbott (Dodd, Mead s. Co., So. "Wanneta,
the Sioux" Warren X. Moorhead, (Dodd,
Mead & Co., So Little Jarvis, Molly
Eliot Seawell, %. Appleton & Co., SD
''On the Blockade" Oliver Optic, (Lee s.
Shepard, 81 50) "Rodney, the Partisan"
Harry Castlemon, Porter & Coates, 81 25.)
Six books about fighting, such as will de-
light the boys. "Cutlass and Cudger' is
sea story about smuggling, with lots of ad-
ventures, set out with many pictures, and
by writer whose work is always worth
reading. Battle Fields and Campfres"
is the fifth of Mr.. Abbott's war
books, and the second of his books about
the war of 6l. This one begins where last
years story left off, 1t tells of the second
period OF the war; the day of Confederate
success, extending from the defeats of Nc
Clellan to the accession of Grant. The
history OF the war is told here graphically
and accurately. The pictures are an i'm
provement over those in last years volume.
Little Jarvis" begins a series under the
title Young Heroes of Our Navy" This
is story which won $500 prize offered by
the Youths Companion. 1t deserves that
commendation. The pictures are particularly
good. Nobody will 60 astray who gets this
book for boys Christmas. "Wanneta the
Sioux" is of especial interest just now from
the attention which is being attracted to
the tribes whose life is pictured in its pages.
Mr.. Moorhead has lived in that wild coun-
try, and knows what he is writing about.
There are portraits of some of the chiefs
whose quaint names are we'll known to us, as
"Sitting Bull" and "Rain-in-the-F Face"
Fact and fiction meet in these entertaining
chapters. This book will be interesting not
only to the boys but to the boys fathers.
Oliver Optic and Harry Castlemon need no
to the boys and girls
Here are half-a-dozen more books for
young readers which deal with gentIer
phases of life than shipboard and battle
field: "Pards," Effie w. Merriman Iee
& Shepard, S1); Elsie Yachting With the
Raymonds," Martha Finley (Dodd, Mead
& Co., 81 25); "The Drifting island, - Wal
ter Wentworth (Roberts Bros, 81 25); "The
Kelp Gatherers, j. T. Trowbridge (Lee g.
Shepard, SD; Crowded Out O. Crowfeld,"
W. o. Stoddard %. Appleton & Co., 81 SOY;
Little Giant Boab," Ingersoll Lockwood
(Lee & Shepard, S2); "Horse Stories"
Thomas W. Knox (Cassell Publishing
Company, 50 500. These also are at j. r.
Weldin & Co.'S bookstore.
The ''Two Pards' are two little homeless
boys, who talk very bad grammar (as is
natural 10 homeless boys), but have very
good hearts and make their way. One OF
them dies at the end. Elsie, in her Yacht
ing Trip" gets into her sixteenth volume, a
sufficient proof OF her popularity among the
children. The Drifting Island" is sequel
to that capital story, "Kibboo Carey"
which The Critic commended a year ago.
The scene is II Africa, and there is a big
gorilla on the cover. A well-told
story, "The Kelp Gatherers," like every-
thing by j. 7. Trowbridge, is thoroughly
good, manly, helpful and interesting. The
scene is laid along the coast of Maine. On
the cover is small boy on rock in the blue
sea waving a signal to distant sail, out
of which perilous predicament he is rescued
with due accompaniment of adventure
All readers of st. Nicholas know what
fine story is Mr. Stoddard's Crowded Out
O. Crowfield," one of the most imposing and
uplifting tales of plucky boyhood which
has ever been written, and entertaining from
cover to cover worth half dozen tons of
ordinary boys books. "Little Giant Boab,"
is an extravaganza like its mate of a wear
ago, the Little Baron Trump" The pict-
ures of Clifton johnson fit the text admi-
rably. Boab is another Gargantua, and his
adventures are truly remarkable Thomas
w. Knox, in "Horse Stories" tells the ex-
perience of two boys in managing horses,
and adds accounts of other animals. There
are pictures on almost every page.
Finally, the Brownies "Another Brownie
Book" by Palmer Cox. (The Century
Company. j. r. Weldin & Co. 81 5O.)
What could be more delightful than these
big pages, where crowds of tricky elves hold
rollicking and roistering carnival? Here
are brownies of all ages, and all nations
except babyhood-and all degrees of ad-
venturesomeness and misunderstanding,
Rolling snowballs, stealing apples, sailing,
fishing, shooting, on the tugboat, on the
race track, on the tally-ho, in all manner of
predicaments, always awake and alert, grin
ming at the reader from the margins and the
covers. The boys and the girls are not yet