Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-03
THE CRITICS REVIEW.


course. to "Alice in Wonderland" That would
| be quite too much to ask. The middle
aged individual who reads books on
Diseases of the Heart" in railway trains, and
divides his attention between lovers and
fairies, IS not half SO delightful q guide into
elfland as Alice was, still. the fun and the wis
| dom, the rhymes and the sermons the real folk
and the fairies, are Just as charmingly blended;
there is the same succession of dissolVing views.
and it is just as evident as ever that Lewis Car
roll has found that magic vial which Alice
drank Of and which brought her head down to
aIevel with the little people by her feet. Mr..
Carroll seems to think, for some reason, that he
has started out in quite new path. We could
wish for nothing better than that he should
take us for still another walk along that pleas
antest road on which we started with Alice in
our company. And that. in fact is what he has
really done. There is no new path about 1t.
The game of cards and the game
of chess have changed into a pretty
love-story, and there may be a little more
preaching in this book than in the other-a
little more of that sobriety which the author
says is "a very good thing if practIced in mod
eration"-but otherwise this is simply part
three" of the same delightful story:
'tHe thought he saw a rattlesnake
That questioned him in Greek;
He looked again and found it was
The Middle of Next Week.
THE only thing regret, he said,
is that 1t cannot speak.'n
Who could read that without thinking of
Alice, and the jabberwock, and all the rest of
that charming company We get straight into
the midst Of that land of strange and learned
animals. where our guide assures us that he is
very wise in natural history, being always able
to tell kittens from chickens at one glance.
HMr. Carroll says of his book in the preface:
but in the hope of supplying for the children,
whom l love, some thoughts that may suit
those hours of innocent merriment, which are
the very life of childhood, and also in the hope
Of suggesting to them and to others some
thoughts that would prove, would fain hope
not wholly out of harmony with the graver
cadences of Life" (MacMillan & Co.; ]. r.
Weldin Co. 81 5o.)
So
FERDINAND is best remembered among the
ladies of the "Queen Isabella Association
as having had the good fortune to be the hus-
band of Isabella. There is some historical
foundation for such an estimate; anyway, it
was the good Queen who pawned her jewels to
give a chance to the adventurous Captain who
wanted to go West, in whom she had
faith for which all ages will give her
credit. Ferdinand was indifferent. science was
hostile; ecclesiastical politics, Franciscan and
Dominican, added complications and him
ORANGES, The Council Of Salamanca decided
that there was no likelihood of any continent
over here, at all; even Isabella herself wavered
a good deal in her confidence. Christopher Co
lumDus had hard time of it. Ifit had not been
for the faith and constancy of good Fra Perez.
of the little convent of La Robida, near Palos.
even Captain Christopher Columbus would per-
haps have given up his hope. Fra Perez was the
To Tho 0F
bus expedition. However, all honor to the
Queen, whose jewels, if they ever really went to
pawn, let US hope were safely got out again.
She is wearing some of them in the picture
of her which illustrates Isabella of CASTLE
&c. V. Waite & Co., 50 SOY. This little book
is one of the first signs of the !
approach of the 4OOth anniversary. 1t is
published by an association Originating, of |
course, in Chicago), whose purpose is to erect
a statue of Isabella to be unveiled at the Fair,
and also TO put up an Isabella Pavilion, in
which it is purposed to exhibit articles COM
OF the days of the discovery.
Harriet Hosmer is to be the sculptor. Eliza |
Allen Starr has written the book.
XITE have received from the Scovill & Adams |
Company, by the courtesy of w. s. Bell & |
Co., of this city copy of The american an
rudE of Photography. Even the innocent man
who has never stained his hands with the OBJ
ectionable acids which for some reason seem
10 be used in making pictures, and who prefers
The white light of the sun to the red dusk of
The dark room, can still find something to in
.erest him in this handsome volume. He can
ook at the pictures. If he does, he will see some
exceedingly good pictures. Thomas A. Edison's
1oyish looking face serves for frOntispiece.
AN Improvised Studio and "a Merry Group
ire capital genre studies. "Babyhood" in
is a charming little picture.
Neither of the cherubs in Mr. Carnegie's
Sistine Madonna are as pretty as this little
,urly-beaded, bare-shouldered baby. People
whose knowledge and taste run in the direction
# Hypo-E -Eliminators and Bromides and Hy-
developers, ana Eikonogen will find
,lenty of instruction in these pages. paper
overs 80 cents.)
FTER an extended paper cutting. top bot
tom and sides, we get good look at Ed
yard Maitland's book, The Pilgrim and the
IhTfne John w. Lowell Co., so cents), there
GEMS to be some kind of morbid influence in
he air of South Africa, which leads one who
ends himself to it into all sorts of emotional
thical and theological vagaries. "The Story
( an African Farm" is an illustration. and
quite enough of that sort of thing to last a |
ood while. 1.-THE Pilgrim and the Shrine"
III.
ven in manner of expression brings continual
eminders of that singular book. Herbert
.inslie the hero, remarks on the first page
nat the SUNDAY services and weekday deyo-
ons," which seem to satisfy the rest of the |
amily are quite ''painfulv to him. till he feels
onstrained to declare that he will never 90 to
hurch again." This is in England; he escapes"
nd seeks the South. He takes up his abode
the South African gold diggings; he fist
cross the sea, stopping at Samoa to fall in '
we with fair, but dusky native. and visits !
at last, after an immense deal OF
and diary-keeping, and theologi- '
II disQuisition-which he may read who will :
he settles down, marries an Australian S
eiress and decides that 'fn love alone. in (
IRE and unreserving love. does all question
q find answer" The book is No. LoyeIPs c
Occult" series.
GIss BRECKENRIDGE, who is described as "a =
daughter of Dixie" poses at the open $
indow clad in Hellenic draperies of cIinging =
hite." Behind her is the 'glinting ball
ON" Before her is a scene, uncharted in
~ astronomy, and best visible, perhaps, to
Iughters of Dixie. Anyway, it is not visible Il
Pittsburg. "a luminous crescent pendent a
the dark, azure dome, while myriad stars n
re sparks from shattered sunbeams-gemmed ~
9 velvet softness of the summer sky like a
ittering Kohinoors, royal diadem for the O
adow queen, night The illumined dark lay =,
ION the bosom of earth and sea like the D
athery plumes OF some silvery plnioned n
ing. and the perfect night was aquiver at the T.
passioned kiss of the earessing wind that h
re on its saline wings weird loVe-whispers
pm the surging sea-"
That is pretty high key in which to pitch a
ok, but the author of miss Breckenridge
anages to keep it up from start to finish. b
or one long. long moment their souls stood =
art, absorbed in the divine glories of vision; "
en-. then-there was a soft rush-a stified sob | ul