The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-01-28
The Isle of Man.

THE LITTLE MANP NATION by Hall
Caine. New York: United States Book
Company.
Mr.. Caine has here reprinted n series
of lectures delivered at the Royal Insti-
tution London. The lecture form with
all the colloquialisms that are natural to
spoken words does not help the volume
TO any especial distinction as literature,
but it does lend it an ease and familiarity
which is more than substitute for dig
nity in the eyes of one who knows the
little isle that lies like a bird on the
waters, all green and gold or purple
against the setting sun.
There are more beautiful spots in the
world than Mainland, but the round
foreheads of its mountains, the red OF
the fuchsias in its glens, the yellow OF
its Towering gorse and the screams OF
its seabirds are charmed memories to all
who have tramped the Null hills, and
again with Hall Caine. The legends of
King Orry and the Tynwald, of the
heemsters and of Peel Castle, are told
with lust about the amount of serious
ness they merit, but the most interest
ing chapters deal with Manx proverbs,
ballads, stories and superstitions, for the
land is rich in them, wise, witty and
racy of the soil.
Mrs. Piozzis "Journey."
GLIMPSES OF ITALIAN SOCIETY IN
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
From the "Journey" OF Mrs. Piozzi,
with an introduction by the Countess
Evelyn Martinique Cesaresco. New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
It's many long year since poor Mrs.
Piozzi, who had been popular Mrs.
Thrale, went smarting out of England
under the lash of the bitter criticism
that followed upon her second marriage.
But Piozzi, though Mrs. Thrale's circle
scorned him as an Italian music teacher,
was able to pay his wife's debts and
provide her with ga magnificent car
riage, full of books and tea," so that
her sprightly spirits reasserted them
selves presently, and the reader who
spends an idle hour turning over the
leaves of these extracts, reprinted from
the long forgotten volumes of her lob
servations in Journey Through Italy,
will be apt to catch something of her
good humor.
Miss PiozZi found Paris mad for love
of new comedy, lie Marriage de FL
caro-" and in Lyons many tales were
told her of animal magnetism or hypno-
tism as we should say now; "a buffoonery
so mean and practice so diabolical,"
she hopes will not get into England. At
Rome she talks of the Carnival and of
the tulips that carpet the Campagna,
and at Venice she stayed so long admir-
ing the sweetness of manners and Of dia-
lect, and never doubling that the gon-
doliers sang stanZas from Ariosto and
Tasso. In Florence two things put her
out, the scorpions and the mosquitoes,
but her cheerfulness in general was inn
perturbable, and, glad to set out, she
was gladder TO return, across Germany
and Belgium to Calais and Dover, as
well satisfied with the companion of her
prolonged wedding tour as when she
started. IL might be cynical to add,
(which happens rarely" but honesty
compels the addition, (which does not
always happen" Whence Mrs. Piozzi's
clipper paragraphs are wholesome and
entertaining reading.
The eagle" Almanac.
An almanac has always been house
hold necessity from the days of =" Poor
Richard" down TO the present time. In
these later years the newspapers have
always issued the best almanacs, and
these with each succeeding edition seem
TO vie with each other in the largest
amount of useful information they can
condense in the smallest space. The
almanac Of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for
the year 1892 is fine one. II is "a book
of information" according to the title
page. general of the world and special
of Brooklyn and Long Island" The
tables Of statistics, social, political and
financial. are both interesting and valu-
able, while the general character Of the
matter contained makes it especially
CUmmendab1e.
other New Books.