Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-24
THE CRITICS. REVIEW,

goodlooking man on the front of it.. is
entitled Ordtions and AJteT- Dinner Speeches.
Mr.. Chauneey NJ. Depew is the anthor-or,
perhaps, it would be better to say the orator.
Mr.. Glider, of the New York Critic. is the COM
| pier and editor and the book bears tho i'm
print of the new Cassell Publishing Company
This publishing house, long the agents Of Cas-
| sell q Co., has become an independent Ameri-
| can concern. 1t could not start out more
auspiciously than by the publication of the
| speeches of such an independent American as
Mr.. Depew.
The speeches cover wide range of time and
topic. Some of them have the ring OF
the war in them. The latest and best
concerns the Columbus Quadri-Centennial
celebration. The Union LIE, que Club the New
England Society, and the Young Mems Chris
tian Association have given opportunities
which Mr.. Depew has made fruitful At the
| meetings held TO commemorate such men as
| Garfield and Arthur, at banquets served in
honor of Stanley and Irving, before audiences
of doctors, of scholars, of politicians, of Sena-
tors, Mr.. Depew has said what is here set down.
The following description of Mr.. Depew
shows off his versatility in a strong light: HE
| is the President of the most powerful railroad
corporation in the United States, President of
the most influential club, and President of the
Alumni Association of one of the two oldest
and largest colleges; he is the most popular
orator and after-dinner speaker in America,
and personally one of the most popular of men,"
He is not, however. President of the United
States, though he would like to be. Let it also
be recorded that, being on visit to Pittsburg
for the purpose of addressing the 7. NJ. G. A.
of this city, he was invited to preach on the fol-
lowing Sunday at one of our large churches
and declined. He drew the line at preaching.
For even Mr.. Depew's versatility has limits.
Or else his modesty hindered.
One looks with sUme curiosity to see IL the
speeches, which fitted admirably into their set
tings, and sounded very well in front of an au-
dience and at the head Of table, are really
worth anything divorced from the occasion.
Speeches which are served up cold are often
like secondhand suppers. What do these ad-
dresses read like now at such a long distance
latter dinner?" They stand the test ad-
mlrably. They were good speeches, fruits
Of industrious thinking. almost all Of them
even better than the occasion, and of the sort
which keeps 1t is good thing to have them
in book. (S2 80; j. R. Weldin & Coy
ONE of the eminent men whom Mr.. Depew
welcomed to these shores was MIR. Justin
Mccarthy. And Mr.. McCarthys secono
volume Of The -Four Georges (Harper & Bros,
]. r. Weldin & co., lies on The Critics table
neighbor to the book of speeches. Mr.. Nc
Carthy can do what Mr.. Depew has never tried
yet, he can write novels-and capital novels,
too. But better than his good novels are his
delightfully."- readable histories.
Anybody who wants to take up a short but
thorough course Of reading in English history
is commended to Green's "History of
the English People," and McCarthy's
History of Our Own Times" And if the
"History Of Our Own Times" be preceded by
''The -Four Georges" and followed by Justin
Huntley McCarthy's England Under Glad
stone," then you have the whole of it. And
you have the satisfaction of rejecting as you
go on that you are reading books which are not
only valuable as history, but as literature also
Everybody who had the pleasure OF hearing
Mr.. Mccarthy lecture when he was here in
Pittsburg knows how interesting he can make
his descriptions and his narratives That same
effective touch which brought out the pictures
of Lord Randolph Churchill and the Hon.
MIR. Smith, deals in this volume with the sec |
ond George. Walpole and Pitt are the great
Ministers Of the reign. John Morley also, a |
Minister Of somewhat different sort added |
q fame to those days which will outlast its |
troubled politics. Pope and Swift were |
the great men in literature. Hogarth was |
making pictures. Over on this side the water, |
as the days of the Second George drew near |
their end, young Mr.. Washington was prac-
ticing at rife-shooting with Indians for targets,
and Fort Duquesne, defending the Ohio, was |
the critical point in the contest. Brave Cen |
eral Braddock, mortally wounded, but crying |
out: II shall do better another timer was |
dying amidst different kind of smoke from |
that which rolls to-day out of the chimneys of |
Mr.. Carnegie's mills.
Mr.. Mccarthy has an important and interest |
ing story to tell, and he tells it after such |
fashion as attracts and interests and delights |
the reader.
MR.. MCCARTHY says in his History of Our
Own Tines that the English orator
whom both Gladstone and Disraeli declared to
be the most effective speaker they had ever
listened to had voice which sounded as if one |
were kicking tin kettle. 1t takes good deal
more than a voice to make speaker. Never
theless, good voice IS worth while.
Prof. E. B. Warman, in his little book on The
Voice ($2; Lee q Shepard; J. r. Weldin & COL
undertakes to tell 'how to train it-how to care
for it." Prof Warman has had a long expert
ence in this work, of which this book is the
fruit. To strengthen weak lungs, to teach peo-
pie to breathe, to strengthen the vocal organs
SO that they can be used for any length of time
and even out of doors, is what the author
promises. There are various pictures in the
book, and in the pictures the orators are all
ladies. but the directions are equally meant for
parsons, lawyers and politicians The physi-
ology of the vocal organs is given at consider
able length, with accompanying diagrams.
There are pages Of exercises. This is scien-
tifc, sensible and useful book.
So
NEITHER scientific nor useful, nor sensible
are two novels whose titles are the best
part of them. And Satan Laughed and
Speaking Of Ellen are unnteresting, unproit-
fbor |
The publisher whose
reputation is affected by these foolish books is
g. w. Dillingham;. The Fallen Pillar Saint,
issued by the same publishing house, is a book
of poems written by an ill-advised young lady,
who will presently be much ashamed of this
venture into print. Some of the verses are SO
good and musical and sweet, that they make
the charitable reader wish with added hearth
ness that little more SCISSORS, blue pencil,
discretion and good Judgment had been put
into the manuscript.
euoME and School" t5Oc; Lee & Shepard; H.
Watts & Coz is the first of four in a
series of Picturesque Geographical Readers"
by Charles f. King Herbert Spencer's remark
that Light takes the lead as a channel of per-
ception," and Isaac Watts saying that Moth
ny tends to enlarge the mind so much as
,rayeling'' are the texts from which these read
ers start 'Home and School" Is printed in
good large type. with plenty Of pictures, many
of them photographs; and, with its chapters in
Easy narrative, makes an admirable beginning
IN the study Of geography. From the home
pond to the great ocean, from the map of the
village to the map of the world the little
scholars pass in pleasant stages. We are i'm
pressed by the good sense which marks the
book. 1t is as much better than the old map
lnd-question way of teaching geography, as the