The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-07-20
BOOK NOTICES

1.-The Cali of the Wild" by Jack
London, illustrated CLOTH 12mo. $1.50.
The Macmillan Company, Sc Fifth av-
enue, New York city, publishers. This
story takes hold of the universal
things in human and animal nature;
it is one of those strong, thrilling,
brilliant things which are better worth
reading the second time than the first.
Entertaining stories we have in plen-
ty; but this is something more-it is
a piece of literature. At the same
time 1T is an unforgetable picture Of
the whole Wild thrilling, desperate,
vigorous, primeval life of the Klondike
regions in the years after the gold
fever set in. The tale itself has for
its hero a superb dog named Buck, a
cross between a st. Bernard and a
Scotch shepherd. Buck is stolen from
Judge Miller and his family have pet
ted him, taken to the Klondike, and
put to work drawing sledges. First
he had to be broken in, to learn the
law of club and fang" His splendid
blood comes out through the suffering
and abuse, the starvation and the I'M
renting toll, the hardship and the
fighting and the bitter cold. He wins
his way to the mastership of his team.
He becomes the best sledge dog in
Alaska. And all the while there is
coming out in him 1.-The dominant pri-
nordial beast" But meantime, all
through the story, the interest is al
most as much in the human beings
who own Buck or who drive him, or
who come in contact with him or his
masters in some way or other, as in
the dog himself. He is merely the CEN
trail figure in an extraordinarily
graphic and impressive picture of life.
1.-The Sociable Ghost" by Olive Harp
er, and another. Illustrated by Thomas
McIlvaine and A. w. Schwartz. ]. S.
Ogilvie Publishing Company, 81 Rose
street, New York. Cloth $3.50. In this
grimly gortesque, yet funny. book, we
have what will undoubtedly be one of
235 pages, and is handsomely bound in
silk cloth, the cover of which, with the
illustration, represents a headstone
with a portrait of the "Sociable Ghost"
The story is fantastic and droll, but
it also gives rise to some serious
thought on deeper themes than appear
what love-sick young reporter on one
OF the big dailies saw and did not
see while he was not there" in Trinity
church yard one mild May, night. He
meets the "Sociable Ghost" and gives
him lighted pipe to smoke, and some
spiritual comfort-out of a bottle-and
this ghost then invites and ehaperones
the reporter 20 the ceremonies under
ground. These consist of a banquet, a
ball, and q convention. Beneath the
surface OF the relation of all the wild
fun and grotesquely impossible revelry
there is a lesson in an undercurrent of
frontispiece showing the north porch
of Trinity Church, and the long vista
of the walk to the end, is a very fine
piece of work.
"Plain Hints for Busy Mothers" by
Mariana Wheeler, superintendent of
the Babies Hospital, New York, since
1891. E. B. Treat & Co., publishers. 241-
243 West Twenty-third street, New
York. Cloth IS cents. This little hand
book, as its name implies, is intended
as an aid to mothers whose means are
limited and who must care for their
own babies, at the same time attending
to their homework. 1t is written in
such a plain and simple manner, that
no one could fail to understand it's di-
rections. 1t Is full of common sense ad-
vice as to general health, clothing,
food bathing fresh air etc