Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-03

home of the authors childhood with its
quaint characters and Its simple content
ment.
To his oversee readers Mr.. Kebbels vol
ume will be of peculiar worth In that it
makes more clear the origin and character
iSticS of the great party which has played
so important part in the history of Eng
land. According to his representation, it
Is more than the check on the wheels OF
progress that contemporary thought has
grown accustomed to consider il. 1t Is a
real force in the present as in the past.
BACHELOR BETTY. By Winifred James.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
Betty is a young Australian who goes to
London to make her fortune as writer.
She has the right kind of connections, how
ever, and she is a young woman of engage
ing personality; therefore Betty's fight with
the world is not of the strenuous variety
which some modern chronicles Of the work.
ing woman would lead one to expect. Coun-
try house visits. the theater festivities in
town, pretty gowns and SWANS in attend
ance mitigate the rigors of intellectual &C.
tivity. The reader is told that Betty mys-
teriously has intervals of hard and solitary
labor. but he is inclined to wonder just why
the young woman's literary success is so
swift and easy an affair. However, Betty's
adventures are SO much more entertaining
than any chronicle could be of toll that no
one would find 1t possible to cavil, because
1t is the plums instead Of the bareback of
existence that she serves to her guests at
her five o'clocks. And. best of all, the
heroine is such little lady that the public
which does not too often meet her like in
dction-is delighted to have made her ac-
Quaintance and glad Of her good fortune.
THE FRIENDS OF VOLTAIRE. BY g. G.
Tallentyre, author Of THE Life Of
Voltaire." With Portraits. New York:
G. P. Putnams Sons. Washing ton:
Woodward & Lothrop.
For purposes of definiteness Mr.. Tallen-
tyre has classified the circle of which he
writes as D'Alembert the thinker, Diderot
the talker. Galiana the wit. Vauvenargues
the aphorist, D'Holbach the host Grimm
the journalist, Turgot the statesman, Beau
marchais the playwright, Condorcet the
aristocrat. and Helvetlus the contradiction.
But analysis is not quite as simple a mat
ter as this would imply. For all of these
men, who We're associated in the great
movement OF philosophy that ushered In
the French revolution, partook. more or
less, of each others characteristics. Each
man was thinker, a talker, a wit,
statesman. And, more than all, each man
together with all France-was in himself
contradiction.
So much having been admitted, it remains
to be said that the author has admirably
presented his subject. He shows how each
man, however broad might have been his
learning. was yet dominated by a master
quality which gave him pre-eminence. The
characteriZations are vivid Each study
presents a human being as a consistent,
comprehensive being. And, taken to-
gether the group resolves itself into a
miniature facsimile of a tumultuous and
complex age.
MOODY'S MANUAL OF RAILROADS
AND CORPORATION SECURITIES.
Eighth Annual Number, 1907. New
York: The Moody Corporation, pub
fishers.
The financial investment field in the
United States has now reached a point
of such vast Importance that the welfare
Of every line Of business, whether di-
rectly connected with the Wall street
markets or not, is more or less affected
by investment conditions. Enterprises of
every nature are going more and more
into the corporate form, and the money
of investors of all kinds and degrees is
being used to greater extent each year
for the promotion, financing and develop
ment Of such undertakings. It is there
fore, more necessary than ever that
constantly widening scope be given to a
standard investment reference publica-