Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-17
THE CRITICS REVIEW.

| Gymnnstics- Legal and Commercial
Observation-Disclosures for Mothers-A
| Physiological Novel.
| A T the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
which is royal good thing and deserves its
adjective abundantly. they have every year, at
| Christmas time, course of learned lectures
tor boys and girls. Sir Robert Starrell Ball. f.
R. S. and Royal Astronomer of Ireland has
upon two occasions done himself the honor of
delivering these lectures. He has taken the
starry skies for his subject. and now, under the
title Star Land (Cassell & Co.; ]. r. Weldin &
Coz, he has put the two courses of lectures to-
gether into good book. The sun and moon,
the Inner" planets, and the ''giant'' planets
comets and stars are the topics which head the
chapters, with a concluding chapter on ''How
to Name the Stars"
These lectures are not only filled with the
learning which we would expect from royal
astronomer, but they are most pleasant, easy
and edifying reading. They are level to the in
tellIgence of any child in school. The lecturer
understands children as well as comets, and
knows exactly how to put things. Everything
is made plain by graphic and apt Illustration.
To give an idea of the heat of the sun, the lee
turer imagines one of his hearers. able to en-
dure any amount of heat, setting off on jour-
ney 10 the sun, carrying with him wax candle,
Dullet OF lead penny, poker and a flint.
Pretty soon the candle would get soft and melt
away. A little farther and the lead would go
after the same fashion. By and by the penny
gets not only hot enough to burn the pocket
Tor ehlldren's pennies are said to burn their
pockets long way off from the sun-but hot
enough to get very red in the face, and finally
TO follow the candle and the bullet And then
the poker gets as white hot as the flame which
scars out of the converters at Braddock, and
melts. At last the flint is melted.
HE lectures are rich in experiments, many
of them of so simple character, and per-
formed with such common materials that any
boy or girl can repeat them. With two cards
and a pair of scissors, any two small children
with table between them, and chandelier
over their heads. can tell how it is that astron-
omers can measure the distance-without any
stepladder, or even a bean stalk-from the
earth to the moon. The whole matter is made
as plain as day without single technical word.
The connection between a baseball and comet
is brought out in way to be remembered.
Even curve pitching is worked into the illus
tration.
There is nothing better than this book of Sir
Roberts to put into the hands of bright boy
or girl who has found out that there is a sun
and moon, and that the sky is full of stars
and who wants to know more about them.
RARoN NILS PROSE is another titled gentle
man who is trying to teach the rising gen.
GRAFTON something useful. The adjective
royal is on his title page also The Baron is
a graduate of the Royal Gymnastic Central
Institute of Stockholm. Sweden. He is. there
fore, not royal astronomer. but royal
gymnast. His title has not forbidden him even
to give instruction in the Stockholm Gymnastic
and Fencing Club. And if they have boxing
gloves in that gymnastically enterprising city
as no doubt they do-some members of that
club have perhaps had the distinguished pleas
ure of knocking down a baron.
What queer titles there are in the world!
The Baron dedicates his book to two gentle
men, each of them associated with stockholm
gymnastics-one of them X. c. 5. and the
other X. S. K. c. V. This is puzzling to an
ungymnastic American.
Baron Prose teaches gymnastics in Boston
now, and the needs of his pupils have suggested
the making of this handsome and practical
ard: ]. R. WeIdln & Co. S2) is an expounding
of the Swedish system. Tue adjective "educa-
tionaP' is well chosen, the purpose OF this sys-
tenn being to educe the best that there is in
every part of the body. Very little apparatus
is required; indeed, none is essential. The aim
Is to make well-developed, strong and properly
proportioned bodies. The exercises are so
plainly and minutely described that any gym
nastic drill master can use them. or anybody in
private can follow them. The book is excel
1ently printed, set out with several hundred
illustrations, and most sensible and reasonable
throughout.
THE purpose of the compiers of Precedents,
Legal and Commercial tAmerican Pub
fishing Company, is stated in their preface:
First to PIT into the hands of business men,
an inteiligible statement of facts, showing the
rules applied by the courts in the disposition of
the numerous controversies which have arisen
out of business transactions. in this country
and in England, mainly within recent years.
The aim has been to set forth the facts IN such
a m aS tO % aqSily
plicable by business men to the same set of cir
cumstances occurring within their own expert
ence" The second object of the book is
to make a digest of the facts of re-
cent leading decisions, in a form to
be of use to the legal profession
ITSELF more particularly that part of it so situa
ted as to be deprived of access to the wide
range of current reports resorted to for the
of this volume" The late Edwards
K. Olmstead. of the New York Journal of Com
rnerce, contributed much of this matter to the
columns of that paper. Charles Putzel. of the
New York bar, has put those contributions into
shape and order, and brought to the task the |
experience gained from the compiling of his |
book. ,Commerclal Precedents."
The alphabetical table of contents begins with |
Accounts" and ends with wills" Assign |
ments, Banks and Banking. Contracts, Corpora |
tions. Deeds, Drafts, Insurance, Interest, Mort
gage, Partnerships, Trade Marks and Trusts |
are included with other topics in the scheme of !
the book The arrangement is the ideal of |
order. Cross references guide the reader to |
discussions of related matter. Everything |
which the ordinarily peaceful merchant can |
want to know about the law is made as plain |
as day. Legislation in regard to which there |
are local differences is arranged by States. The |
lawyer will find whole library in this |
book.
-
Four neatly printed little tracts take US |
from the realm of law into that of medi- |
cine The managers of Bdbyhood, that ideal |
magazine for mothers, have reprinted from |
their pages an article on Scarlet Feuer by DR.. |
John NJ. Heating, one on Diet for Young |
by DR.. L. Emmett Holt. one on
Dtphtheria by DR.. Henry Dwight Chaplin, and |
one on Sound Teeth for Children by Dr.. Free
land D. Leslie. These papers are concerned
with topics which every mother desires to have
of, and are written by men of wide
experience lecturers in hospitals and medical |
schools who can speak with authority. The |
little tracts number about 20 pages each, and
cost only cents.
uDU UBY DANA" (John B Alden), is novel by |
IN Mary Marsh Baker, and is dedicated to
her husband. The heroine is strong-minded |
woman. She belongs to clubs, is an active |
member of the Women's Physiological Associa-
ton, does great many awful things which take |
the breath away from some oldfashioned peo.
ple and has decided opinions of her own. All |
this, however, does not prevent her from fall
ing in love and behaving very foolishIy. There
is little plot in the book. and the characters do
not impress their individuality upon the reader.
They talk great deal of boOk-talk which bears
upon the position of woman. Theology comes |
in as an alternative topic for discussion. The
hero is parson.
THE following books are clad in paper covers,
L 1foo,. White and BLuck by Dr Franz