The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-14

 John Kendrick Bangs, published py Doubleday, Page x Co, New York' oo cents, at Iudd's.
 Mir Bangs has adapted nursery classic to serve as a vehicle for this amusing satire on municipal owner ship. It is very enjoyable and hu- morous slit. His imitation of the style and wit of "Alice in Wonderland IS more than clever and the satire or the book is keen and searching The March Hare, the Duchess, the Dormouse, the Weasel the Halter, the White Rapplt Alice herself and other characters ap- pear in new roles much to the enter tainment of the reader and seem very realistic. The inhabitants of Blunder- land meet and discuss many questions and decisions are rendered without fear or favor and the undercurrent affords food for reflection and stln1u- lates the mental processes. Occasion ally one feels that the humor is forced and ground out under the pressure to produce copy, but the general impress sion prevails that good work has been done, and that the booklet is one of the best on municipal ownership yet brought forth. The municipal owner ship of gas and poetry, as explained by the Halter, are both forms of hot air; but when it comes to the munich pal ownership of teeth the reform is more striking It appears that in BIunderland some people had teeth and others hadn't, which was hardly a fair condition; a man owning his own teeth could eat all the hickory nuts he wanted, while another, not having teeth would have to swallow them whole or go without So law was passed making it perfectly legal for a toothless wanderer to stop any body who had teeth and make him crack hickory nut for him. But what if the man with the teeth refus- ed? Then his teeth would be taken in custody by the sheriff, and if he pre- ferred not to be separated from them lie would find himself in custody him. self, The general result the Halter says, Is a big success.
 Alice gets desired information also on the subject of Cooperation from the Halter, who drops into a bit of clever verse on the subject as follows; A cooperation Is beast
 With forty-eleven paws
 That doesn't ever pay the least
 Attention to the laws.
 It grabs whatever comes in sight
 From hanson cabs to socks
 And with a grin of mad delight
 It turns em into stocks.
 And then it takes a rubber hose
 Connected with the sea And pumps 'em full of H2Os
 Of various degree,
 And when they're swollen up so stout
 You'd think they'd surely bust
 Thew souse 'em once again and out
 They come at last Trust.
 And when the Trust Is ready for
 One last and final whack
 They let the public In the door
 To buy the water back
 The Halter finally congresses hi: definition of cooperation into thu following verse:
 Little drops of water,
 Plenty of hot air,
 Make a Cooperation
 A pretty fat affair"
 A prose definition is that copper ation Is "a creature devised by seltisl interests to secure free coinage of th' Atlantic Ocean,"
 Alice finds out other new things, a for instance in regard to the imn1ov able trolley and how to prevent acci dents. "You see, Miss Alice, l made ; personal study of collisions. The Mayo here ordered a fresh one every day fo me to investigate, and l noticed tha whenever the cars bunked into eacl other it was always at the ends ant never in the middle. The conclusion was inevitable. The ends being tn, vulnerable spot, abolish them"
 Thereupon the Halter propound the new way. It is to make circula car all around the city, thus doiny away with the ends which made tn, trouble This also served a fine pur pose in the line of health restoratives as it made the people walk if the! wished to get anywhere.
 But to "get on" to the many joll. things in MT. Bangs book the reaje will find it necessary to buy a cop, and will be well rewarded in so doing There are many happy marginal il Illustrations by Albert. lowering.
 ''SONGs or THE AVERAGE MAN by Sam Walter Foss illustrated b Merle gohnson; gilt top boxed; $1.0( postpaid $1.S0; published by Lothrol Lee & Shepard Co.,. Boston.
 Sam Walter Floss Is, more than an other of his time, the true poet c the neonle. and his pefsonallY chose