The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-03-11

When we read on the opening page OF
In Summer Shade (by Mary Z. NANNY
that Mary Burne came down the tree
Swallowed road leading from Gaythrope
Village to Gaythrope Hail." we know
exactly what is coming-an ordinary
English novel with all the richness OF
skim milk. We do not read twenty pages
before making the acquaintance of the
Rector, the Squire aud his Naughty
Sister, the Village Beauty and the Bump
kin. The perplexities of these people
furnish the novelist 'copy'' for two hun
dred and fifty pages of rather tiresome
talk and description. The plot is similar
to that of Charles Reade's White Lies
that is, it turns upon the falsehoood of
one sister to save another from shame.
(New York: Harper & Brothers; Port
land Loring, Short & Harmon. 50
cents.)
Who? When? and What? is the sig
nificant title of useful reference chart
and index for the benefit of students OF
history, literature and art, prepared by
Mrs. Mary Parmele. Understandings
used, its admirable simplicity
makes it easy of COMPREHENSIVE will
be found of value to the student and an
interesting companion for the general
reader. The chart gives at glance the
most prominent men and important
events of the centuries, by decades, from
1850 to 1850; and reference to the index
,ells us who those men were, and what
they did to entitle them to world-renown.
So much information is rarely so clearly
conveyed in so concise shape. The chart
is history at a glance. 1t can be pro-
cured of William Beverly Harrison, SO
Fifth Avenue, New York.
Holmes says s'the ludicrous has it's
place in the universe; it is not a human
invention, but one of the, Divine ideas,
illustrated in the practical jokes of kit
tens and monkeys long before Aristo-.
planes or Shakespeare. How curious it
is that we always consider solemnity,
and the absense of all gay surprises and
encounter of wits as essential to the idea
of the future life Of those whom we thus
deprive of half their faculties and then
call blessed There are not few who
even in this life, seem to be preparing
themselves for that smileless eternity to
which they look forward, by banishing
all gayety from their hearts land all JOY
BUSINESS from their countenances." Per-
haps the Rev. Marion Shutter-whose
portrait, by the way, resembles that of
another clerical Jester, Sidney Smith
had this passage in mind when he penned
Wit and Humor of the Bible, a handsome
book of about two hundred pages re-
ceived from the Arena Publishing Com
pany, Boston. The work is done in a
reverent and scholarly spirit, and at it
the most austere need take no offence.
Indeed the grave will find it useful as a
sort of concordance, if they can find no
other merit in it. Yet,,to be frank, DR..
Shutters book does not please us.
George Eliot has said that difference
of taste in jokes is a great strain upon
the affections. Perhaps that is why we
find ourselves out of sympathy with Wit
and Humor of the Bible.
From the American Book Company,
New York, come a handful of school
books, Robinson's large and small arith-
metics 1.-THE Rudiments, 80 cents, the
Practical Is cents and the Primary IS
cents) which have, we believe, for many
years had wide use in the best Ameri-
can schools; and in the English Classics
series SCOTS Marmion, which is sure to
delay the reviewer, no matter if it be the
hundredth perusal, until he has devoured
the last page. This edition has brief but
numerous notes and good glossary. 20
cents.