The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-02-09
Recent Additions to the Library.

Recent Additions to the Library.
Librarian Carr has placed on the
shelves of the Albright library quite
lately a highly interesting and valu-
able assortment of the most recent
contributions to English literature in
biography, travel, economics, science,
sociology and general literature. To
name a majority of these would oc-
cupy more space in detail than we can
afford to give. But in singing out a
few of them, we may mention the
Life of Prince Bismarck" or rather
such authentic gimpses of the career
of that extraordinary man as it was
polite to give to the world at the pres
ent moment. Bismarck was not al
ways friendly to the institutions of the
United States. He was constitutional
ly q monarChist. He had a supreme
contempt for democracy, which he
confounded with demagogy. He could
not understand it: in fact, he never
tried to do so. His prepossessions
were all the other way. None the less
the man who welded the German en-
pire into homogencity, who found the
Fatherland little more than a geo.
graphical expression on the map of Eu-
rope, dislntegrated among the conflict
ing pretensions of a congeries of semi
Independent kings and prinCclings and
sOlidifted it into one of the mightiest
cOnfederated nations that ever took
rise in the history of the world, has
peculiar charms for the student of
comparative national politics.
Perhaps no less interesting as n
statesman, certainly infinitely more
lOveable as man, was Mr.. Gladstone.
Lord Rosebery said that it would take
a joint stock company to write MIR.
Gladstone's life. John Morley, how
ever, has undertaken the task single
handed. Before Mr.. Morley has placed
before the world a full length portrait
of the great parliamentarian, the more
intimate friends of Mr.. Gladstone have
not been idle. To mention but two of
the monographs in the Albright library
we have a character sketch by James
Bryce, who was Mr.. Gladstone's inti-
mate friend and colleague, and one by
Sir William Hamilton, his private Sec
retary, each in its way critical. dis
passionate and affectionate. Two 9th.
er great Englshmen whose careers
were so divergent, yet so characteris-
tic in their spheres have their lines de-
picted in four stout volumes which
rierl1t
The biography of Cardinal Manning,
which his successor. Cardinal Vaughan,
the present archbishop of Westminster,
pronounced a Crime" is there Wheth-
er the revelations of a biOgraDher are
criminal or iustifiable depends in a
and partialty of the contemporaries
of the subject. At any rate, the life
of Cardinal Manning is one of the most
valuably objective contributions to the
polemical and theological literature of
the ago. Lord Tennyson's life by
his son is, as it should be- pre-eminent-
ly discreet. We can understand Ten
nyson better by its perusal. We may
see in a measure the operations Of his
genius unfolding in those exquisite Iy-
RIGS which have made his name immor-
tai. You may find on the same shelves
another valuable addition to the bio.
graphical literature of the day in tha
Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell." by
Barry O'Brien. The volume sbcaks for
itself. Mr.. Parnell was a mysterious
man The devolutlon of his life pre-
sents all the bewildcrirg interlacings
of harbinger Of national hope and the
desolating climax Of a disowned
prophet.
In the literature of travel, we must
give the first place to the two beautiful
volumes by Henry Savage Landor, I'm
the Forbidden Land" 1t seems almost
the ether day that we read in the tele-
graphic columns the first meagre tid-
ings Of the torture of this intrepid trav-
eller in Thibet, the mysterious land of
the mysterious Lamas. The first vol
ume of Mr.. Landor's travels will per-
haps be found disappointing. maybe
not through any fault of the narrative,
for it is sufficiently original. but be-
cause we are anxious to come 10 the
details of those eXcruciating tortures
which the author underwent. Another
work OF travel, less exciting, but no
less interesting from the ethnographi-
cal standpoint, is Captain Burrows en-
tertaining volume In the Land of the
Pigmies," these mysterious Lilliputians
who We're first brought under the no
tice of civilization by our own coun-
tryman, Paul du Chaillu.
In literature of applied arts Librarian
Carr will point out to the student a
series Of volumes of which young men
should avail themselves. We do not
believe that q Competent tradasman
can be turned out on kindergarten
methods. The workshop maEos the
mechanic. But while the musician
may be an excellent eXecutant without
practical or theoretical knowledge
of harmony or counterpoint, he viii
never become a cOmpOser In the sarna