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

\ fnOOcl OF "TlUt a typography siloulo NV
be is offered in the Schubert by Mr..
EdHlorstoune Duncan. in the Master
Musicians" series 81. NJ. Dent Co.; f. P.
Dutton T. Coz. Tho book is condensed
from larger and more authoritative biog-
raphes, but in the condensation the author
has lost sight Of the essentials In his
car, for trivial details. The criticism Of
the musical compositions is expressed in
the ret phrases that are NEE Iingless to the
general reader. who will hardly be to blame
if 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 more
beautiful songs are not mentioned because
they are grouped together in the publishers
catalogues with which the author seems
to 10 chiefly familiar. 1t seems rather
proposterous, too, to attach so much i'm
portance to what the author calls the in
PRODUCTION Of SCHUBERT to England. II a
photography had to be 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 the case of a man like Franz
Schubert.
There is surfeit Of books about China
written from the Western sta ndpoint. What
is needed now is description Of facts as
they are, what the Germans would call
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
will help in the settlement. The volume
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. It 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class OF narratives that has been put out of
date by recent events in the East.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 undertakes to de-
scribe with jaundiced eye as the following
Wholesale inoict ment Of nation will show:
From the national disregard for sincerity
and eXactness emanate the exasperAting
practises of fraud, assimilation, trickery
and squeezing, which are the cause OF so
much of the antipathy existing between
the Chinese and foreigners. II there is
one thing on which recent authors on China
are agreed it is the honesty and regard
for contracts of the Chinese. usually put in
rather invidious contrast to the slippeIiness
of tho Jarnnese NJ. Bard describes many
things in China as others have done before
him. and rarely has 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. Bernheimer. 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 names, 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
ments.
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, WashingtonD.
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 justifes the
labor expended The new Wagnerian stand
ard Of the composers writ ng his own
words ia adopted by the author, and &C.
ccYdng to this Hopknson is the first of
the Americans, though Lyon rlqs him close,
The Hoplinson is the Judge and the sigaer
of tho Declaration of Independence, and
tho story of his invontiveness is very in
teresting. AT the end Of the volume speci-