New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-12
FAIRY TALES.
Nezc WOnders and Pictures.

O+ al tbs Frair,, Books of this season, the most
beguiling without doubt. is 1.-THE Crimson falry
Book" 1,onrmans, Green & Coz, edited by Mr.
Andrew Lang. Some of the delightful STORIES
therein. he tells us, come from hungary solhe
from Russia. Servia, Rumania; others hail from
the Baltic shores. from Sicily, from tlnland
and Iceland and Japan and Tunis and Portugal
Each one let us add, is nicer than the others!-
this, at least, we believe will be the verdict or
every small person who reads or listens to these
charming tales. Mr.. Lang has grievance In
that his childish and feminine readers won't
believe that the legends in his various colored
Fairy Books not invented by him. but come
from the storehouse of past ages They stil
ask the Editor how he can invent so many
STORIES" he complains in his gay little introduc-
ton. whence he justly infers that the children
and their mothers do not read his prefaces and
are not members of the Folk Lore Society.
Never mind; there ic not one Of them unready,
in the language OF Mr.. Lucas, to ask the fairies
when they meet
To always keep unframed and well
From ogre'S nav and witchS spell
From genie's clutch and dragons fang
The kind magician, Andrew Lang.
Mr.. H. ]. Fords illustrations eight of them
are colored plates-are worthy of the tales they
adorn.
collection OF old favorites will be found in
Miss Esther Singleton's highly ornamented vol
ume 1.-THE Golden Rod Fairy Book" Dodd,
Mead G. Coz Some of these have been newly
translated by the author others come untouched
from long loved classics. Mr.. c. B. Fallss illus
trations include for each page border of golden
rod fairies witches, birds, toadstools and the
like Another collection of friends of years is to
be found in Nurse Norahs Up-to-Date Fairy
Tales Games Pott & Coz, by Elliott Flower.
Translated into a broad brogue and told with
many a whimsical Hibernian twist, the stories
gain much in humor, if not in accuracy. They
are accompanied by divers funny illustrations
by Fanny Y. Cory and r. A Graef. In the fresh
and pretty little book ETHEL in Fa1ryland'
Oothrop Publishing Company, by Edith r.
Bolster there are apt lessons for little girls.
In Ethers journeys through Fairyland she met
many unpleasant people-Sel1shness for ex-
ample, and Unkindness. and Greed and Thought
lessness, cads male and female-and she is
made to realize to the full how disagreeable they
are Consequence: What has happened to
Ethel? said father to mother at the end Of the
week" The neat illustrations are by H. Heyer.
1.-THE Giants Ruby and Other Marry Tales
Q4ittIe Brown & Coz holds group of capital
stories by Mrs. Mabel Fuller Blodgett. They
are not the less amusing and instructive that
the same old machinery of Dragon, Ogre and
Gnome moves the wheels. Miss Katharine
L
book very quaint and beautiful and comical
is Mrs NJ. H. Spielmann's "Littledom Castle
and Other Tales" C1. P. Dutton & Coz Not
only are the stories playful and sweetly wise,
and couched in a style of demure grace; the il
lustrations too are of uncommon merit. Two
of them came from the pencil of the late Kate
Greenaway; Nine Ronner's cats are winning
bundles of fluff; Mr.. Hugh Thomson's droll
pictures-especially that of the king running with
the two children-are much to our taste. Poor
Phil Mays drawing of the bawling baby brother
and the cynical schOolboy brother is equally
successful in it's way. But best of ALL Mr..
Arthur Rackhams drawings of the inmates of
Littledom Castle and of the courageous Knight
who travels thither to do away with those
dreaded inmates. To imagine a benevolent Ogre,
a most lovable Bogie and endearing Dragon
was left to lucky Mrs. Spielmann to do. She
has performed the task in the spirit of pure fun,
and she has had joyous assistant in Mr. Rack
ham, who deserves much praise for the figures
of the smperng, tender hearted ogre and the
small, fat knight in full armor, with his haring
tin petticoat and his tidy comforter knotted
under his helm In six Fairy Plays for Chill
dren' John Lane) Miss Meta Syrett furnishes
some piquant material for private theatricals
Before each play the author has placed useful
suggestions to the amateur stage manager.
"Cunnie Rabbit, Mr.. Spider and the Other
Beef" (II P. Dutton & Coz is the title of an in
taresting volume of West African folk tales
collected by Miss Florence NJ Cronse while
working G. teacher in a mission school in
Sierra Leone. The setting and arrangement
Of the stories are credited to Mr. Henry W.
Ward. Cunnie Rabbit and Mr.. Spider have
much In common with Brer Rabbit. showing the
cunning, craft and cleverness' that help the
weak to triumph over the strong. The apology
of the authors for using the queer dialect, half
savage and half English. is ingenious; but, while
that language may appeal to the student OF
folklore it is less desirable in a book for chill
dren