The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-11-18
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Oregon Trail. Sketches of Prai-
RE and Rocky Mountain Life. By Fran
els Parkham. This is new and finely
gotten-up edition of work which first
appeared in 1647, and which has been
published at different times since then.
1t is particularly interesting and impor-
tant on account of its being the record of
a past which cannot return. In it are
shown forms and conditions of life which
in great measure have ceased to exist,
for, as the author says, the wild West has
gone, and its savage charms have with
cred; the buffalo has gone, and of all it's
millions nothing is left but bones; the
wild Indian is tanned into an ugly carica-
ture of his conqueror, and the all-endur-
ing and all-daring trapper, who feared
neither bear. Indian or devil, belongs to
the past. From the opening chapter to
the end there is not dull page. Life
and travel on the prairies and among the
hills, Indians of all sorts and conditions,
hunters, trappers, emigrants and all the
wild, wonderful and exciting scenes in
cident thereto, are clearly described. 1t
is illustrated by Frederic Remington,
who was familiar with the prairies and
the hills ''before irresistible common
place had sobered Them" and the spirited
and truthful pictures are worthy of the
work. Boston: Little, Brown 6 Co. !;
Portland: Loring, Short & Harmony
London. By Walter Besant. Author
of All Sorts and Conditions of Men, etc.
There have been written numerous his
tories of London, but this is the first
attempt to present picture of the life
of the city and its people from age to
age. The work presents instantaneous
photographs in pen and ink, showing the
streets, the buildings and the citizens at
work and at play; their daily life in the
streets, in the shops, in the churches
and in their homes; the merchants the
shop-keepers, the monks, the priests
and the friars, at different periods in the
history of the city. In one chapter is
shown the position, the influence and
works of the church, at time generally
believed to be the deadest period in the
whole history of the Church of England.
The author has endeavored as much as
possible, to omit those points which
have already been presented by different
authors. He has found ample material
for very interesting and instructive
work. The book contains more than a
hundred admirable illustrations of ar
chitectural remains, bridges, bulldogs,
works of art, street scenes, etc., which
add much to it's interest and value.
New York: Harper & Brothers; Port
land Loring, Short & Harmony
In the Boyhood of Lincoln. By Heze-
kiah Butterworth. (New York: D. APP
pleton & Co.; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony However true OF false this
attempt to recover Abraham Lincoln's
boyhood may be to the conditions of Hi
nois life in the earlier part of the century
(Mr. Butterworth's book conveys the
effect of fidelity it certainly is entertain
ing. 1t is graphic. The log cabin life,
the stirring and picturesque events of
the Black Hawk war, and the preaching
of the Dunkards, or Thinkers, in the
thinly settled prairie land, lend them
selves readily to animated narrative; and
under the authors skillful touch become
a story of absorbing interest History,
tradition and fiction are freely mingled
in the tale, and form an artistic whole.