The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-30
NEW hooks.
Continued from Seventh Page
some months ago; the first lecture was de-
lvered a year ago last January.

|
Prof. Edward s. Holden has prepared
a reader for children on "The Sciences
(Ginn and Company Those he touches
are astronomy, physics. chemistry and
autobiography" 1t seems futile to say
anything of value on subjects so vast In
two hundred small pages, and we cannot
say that Prof. Holden has done more than
| suggest few topics of interest about which
the children must seek for information In
more accurate and full textbooks. Az a
reader the book is absurd
The planet Mars and Mr. Percival Lowell
are mixed up inextricably together. We
imagine that the picturesque imaginative
literature on the possible inhabitants OF
Mars and the communication they might
hold with our planet would never have taken
hold of the popular fancy II 1t had not
been for Mr.. Lowell's observations OF Mars
and it's canals. Six lectures that he de-
livered before the Massachusetts Institute
OF Technology OF which he Is a nonresident
professor, are published under the title
"The Solar System" by Houghton, Miilin
and Company They will send cold chill
through the reader till he recollects that
the scientific catastrophies prophesied are
several thousands OF years ahead.
Mr.. Harrison Weir many years ago wrote
and illustrated an excellent work called
"The Poultry Book This has been prac-
tically rewritten for American chicken
fanciers under the editorship Of Mr.. Willis
Grant Johnson and Is published In eighteen
parts, of which the first Is before us, by
Doubleday, Page and Company. Each chap
ter is rewritten by an expert, the pictures
! OF hens, in color and In black and white,
are very numerous, and the work must in
evitably rouse again the delusion Of vast
fortunes to be made by chicken raising,
With song and picture ingenious youth
is led into the tolls of household work by
"The Child Housekeeper." by Elizabeth
Colson and Anna G. Chittenden. There
are chapters on Fire Building and Setting
the Table and Washing Dishes and Bed
Making and Sweeping and busting and
Laundry Work and Mending and Care OF
the Baby. Some Of these occupations,
we can see, are suitable for female juvenillty;
others we should prefer to keep away from
it. Mr.. Jacob A. Riis provides short and
poetic introduction, but why he should
exclaim: And when that comes to pass we
shall not have to fight King Alcohol and his
vassals The war will be over it is diff
cult to understand. No young woman OF
the tenements is likely to be instructed or
affected by this book, and there is no sug-
gestion in it that the proper care OF house
has anything to do with intemperance.
The trip Of the Woman Federation across
the continent last year Is the occasion for
"A Twentieth Century's Pilgrims Prog
ress," by Ellen NJ. Staples (Brentanos).
1t consists of snapshot impressions OF the
places where the train stopped for few
minutes, from Poughkeepsie and Syracuse
to Los Angeles, written in an exuberant
tone of exaltation, which may be OF interest
to the persons who took part in the excur-
sion. There is a list of eIcursonists, in
which, amid hundreds OF women, We find
ten men, taken along as exhibits by their
wives We wonder how they enjoyed the
trip,
THE International Year Book for 1902, ="
edited by Prof Frank Moore Colby. MA.
(Dodd, Mead 4 Coz, has come to us. 1t
contains in compact and convenient form a
great deal OF valuable information about
the events of the past year We call at
tention, for instance, to the articles on the
anthracite coal strike and on Venezuela,
The illustrations are more e1cusabe In a
year book than they would be in formal
encyclopaedia We protest again, though
without hope, against the maps. which are
below contempt. The Year Book is not
the only sinner, however; no American book
of reference 80 far has arisen to the need of
respe ctable and adequate maps such as
every German encyclopaedia offers.
Prof. Josiah Royce is always clear and
entertaining. In Outlines of Psychology;
an Elementary Treatise with Some Prac-
teal Applicat ions" (Macmllana), he treats
worn-out subject In a novel and interest
ing way, comprehensive to the lay reader
who knows nothing of philosophic jargon.
He may find out from this volume what
workers in one branch Of mental science
are trying to find out.
IL principal Cairns" man Of sufficient
importance to be included in the Famous
Scots Series? He has been dead only a
few years, and strong though his influence
may have been among his contemporaries,
it seems little early to assign to him place
in history At any rate he was greater man
than Henry Drummond, who is also in
cluded in the list and his life has been
written by his son. John Cairns. and is i'm
ported by Charles Scribner's Sons. 1t
gives an interesting account Of certain
important phases in Scottish educational
and religious life in the last half of the
nineteenth century.
The sketches Of Canadian life published
some years ago by DR.. Charles G. D. Roberts
appear in new edition as -Earth's
Engimas" a.. c. Page d Coz Three new
stories are added and there are impression
istic illustrations by Mr.. Charles Livingston
Bull. To those who prefer DR.. Roberts's
prose to his verse and We cShfess we are
among these, the volume will be welcome.
Mr.. Francis c. Moore, who Ia we'll known
to the insurance business, has combined
in one large handsome volume, Fire Insur-
ance and How to Build" (The Baker Il Tay-
lor Company, the results Of his long ex-
perience. 1t is, in way, an application
of his Fire Insurance and Causes of Fire, 4"
published twenty-five years ago, but con-
tans besides in bulk several of his suisse
quent writings, The book has been en-
tirely rewritten, the examples are brought
down to date and the building and inspec-
ton laws are given in very great detail.
The book should he useful aid for builders
and insurers alike.