The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-01
other Books.

A model Of what biography should not
! be is offered in the Schubert, by Mr..
! Ednonstoune Duncan, in the Master
Musicians" series ID. NJ Dent d Co.; E. P.
! Dutton 4 Coz. The book is condensed
from larger and more authoritative hiog-
raphies, but in the condensation the author
, has lost sight Of the essentials In his
/ care for trivial details The criticism Of
the Musical compositions is expressed in
/ the SGT yhra ses that re mea ningess to the
general reader who will hardly be TO blame
/ il he considers the Fri KONG" to be the
! most important Of Schubert's compositions,
/ The stress the author puts on that one piece
seems due to its having been published
separately. while many of Schubert's moro
beautiful songs are not mentioned because
| they are grouped together in the publishers
( catalogues with which the author seems
! to he chiefly familiar, 1t seems rather
proposterous too, to attach so much inn
portance to what the author calls the in
PRODUCTION of Schubert to England If
photography had to he given it should
have been complete to be Of any Use. Book
learning cannot compensate for lack Of
! intelligence of the musician and his real
music in tho case of man like Franz
Schubert
There is a surfet Of books about China
written from the Western tandpoint. What
! is needed now is description of facts as
they ere. what the Germans would coll
an collective" view. The Chinese question
is one that most civilized nations must
deal with right away. and several
honest attempts which have been made Of
late to explain the actual state OF things
,.,1l hal ba Thu 1-ollIp1a
on Chinese Life in Town and Country" C.
P. Putnam's sons which Mr. H. N. Twitchell
has translated from the French OF Emile
Bard, is not among these. 1t belongs to
class OF narratives that has been put out of
date by recent events in the East. The au-
thor looks on the people he undertA kes to de-
scribe with jaundiced eye, as the following
wholesale indictment of nation will show.
From the national Disregard for sincerity
and exactness emanate the exasperating
practiscs OF fraud, discrimination, trickery
and squeezing, which are the cause OF SO
much Of the antipathy existing between
the Chinese and foreigners If there is
one thing on which recent authors on China
ara agreed it is the honesty and regard
for contracts Of the Chinese. usually put in
rather invidious contrast to the slipperiness
Of the JaIanese. NJ Bard describes many
things in China as others have done before
him. and rarely has a good word for any
thing he finds.
Much information about the Russian
Jews in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago
has been collected by various hands and
is published under the editorship of DR..
Charles s. Bernhemer. with the title The
Russian Jew in the United States The
John C. Winston Company. OF the thirty
odd contributors all but two, to judge
by the ma mes, are Jews They regard the
subject from many sociological points
of view. with the optimism that belongs
to that science and which extends to hope
for the success of Jewish agricultural settle
nents.
Early American music is the subject OF
Mr.. O. G. Sonneck's learned monographs
Francis Hopkinson, the First American
Poet-Composer and James Lyon, Patriot.
Preacher, Psalmodist' (printed for the
author by H. l.. Mcqueen, Washngton).
Every step in the authors investigation is
put before the reader, who will be able to
weigh all the evidence, though he may
doubt whether the object justfies the
labor expended. The new Waanerian stand
ard of the composers writ ng his own
words is adopted by the author, and &C
cording 10 this Hopkinson is the first of
the Americans though Lyon r, ms him close.
The Hopkinson ia the Judge and the signer
Of the Declaration Of Independence, and
the story of ha invcntivenees is very in
tererting, At the end Of the volume speci