The San Francisco call., 1909-02-14

sound is responsible for this startling
tribute to one of the popular fall books:
We know of a party Of young men
who are arranging a trip to Alaska
next summer in their own boat they
say they need no other information
than may be found in the pages OF
Mrs. Higginson's excellent book.
Alaska: The Great Country and that
it. with copy of the bible. will con-
stitute the library of the cruiser"
Fresh interest is given TO that de-
lightful book, Confessions to
Heather Idol" through the announce
ment of it's authorship by Mrs. Anna
Botsford Comstock of Cornell univer-
sity, who is widely known as an edu-
Gator and leader of the nature study
movement. Mrs. Comstock is one OF
the first and foremost of the Cornell
alumnae, and has for many years held
a prominent position in the intellectual
and social life of the university. rms
work is in an entirely different VEIN
from her other books and brings out
with considerable charm and skill her
views upon the education Of women and
the higher aims of home in the course
of the nightly confessions of the hero
inc to the little Japanese god. who Is
her only confdant. wise and sane
philosophy that promises cheerful
and efficient life is the chief charac-
teristic of the book, while its clever
dialogue and interesting people hold
the attention without tagging.
The Alabama department OF state
archives and history has applied to Miss
Eliza Frances Andrews for the manu-
script of her book. The Wartime Jour
nal of a Georgia Girl and promises TO
have it beautifully bound I'm morocco
~. tr.I In, ..
Although Miss Andrews is a native or
Georgia. her present home is at Mont
gomery, Ala.
A friend who knows him intimately
thus describes the English novelist,
John Trevenna:
Mr.. Trevenna is bachelor. still on
the right side of 40. and passes a very
secluded country existence. not leaving
Dartmoor for more than two or three
weeks throughout the year. He is not
physically strong and is thus COM
pleteiy barred from the life of the town.
which is. however, no great hardship
as he views it. His recreations are sim
ple-walking gardening and observing
nature and his fellow creatures. He is
a devoted lover of animals. especially
dogs. Mr.. Trevenna confesses to one
peculiarity--he never reads a modern
book. I can not see.' he says. how any
novelist can hope to be original III he
reads the works of his contemporaries.
English critics are fond of comparing
me TO Thomas Hardy or to Zola. but as
l have not read anything that these
authors have written the resemblance
must be either accidental or perhaps it
exists only in their imaginations.' On
the other hand Mr.. Trevenna has a
good classical library. reads Latin.
Greek and Italian. and studies the news
papers carefully"
According to writer in Appleton s
magazine. Mr.. Crewes Career marks
the decline of undertaking and a turn
in the tide of denunciation of great cor
porations. This writer quotes "a great
trust magnate" as saying: This book
is the first sign of a possible popular
appreciation that the corporation men
are not deliberately bad. 1t is not a
defense. but 1t is an explanation" Mr..
Churchill he goes on. is the first popu-
lar writer who undertakes even to sug-
gest to the public that there are two
sides to the big business in politics
problem. From this point of view he
holds Mr. Crewe's Career" to be "a
doubly important contribution to Amer
lean literature
Upon two occasions recently very
special reasons lHuuCSQ AlIS. hdlC
Douglas Wiggin to suspend her rule
against reading in public. At the old
school in Andover which she attended
as a ginl she read from her Christmas
romance. THE Old Peabody Pew" and
at the Peabody house fair in Boston
she read from The Birds Christmas
Carol" Mrs. Wiggin is so deeply In
terested in kindergarten work that she
has offered to present a copy of New
Chronicles of Rebecca,' inscribed with
her autograph. to all new members Of
the kindergarten association connected
with the Elizabeth Peabody house.
Mrs. H. A Mitchell Keays' novel.
The Road to Damascus" which was
not written as an educational tract but
as a good, reliable story having COM
pletely upset the authorities of the
University of Michigan by its revela-
tions of occurrences under coeducatiOn
has lately been made the basis of a
lecture on coeducation which a British
member of parliament delivered at Ply
mouth, Eng. No one was more sur
prised at the consequences of her book
than the author, who, living quietly
in Cambridge. is now making a little
study of the conditions of student life
at Harvard, where one of her sons is
an undergraduate.
William ID. H0WeilS should be a happy
man the day The Glasgow Herald
ventures the opinion that he will "un-
doubtedly" be admitted to heaven. This
comforting dictum. however, has to be
qualified by Scottish caution-'ff there
is such a place as heaven"
"Sideltghts on the Bible" by the
Rev Frank T. Lee. is an attempt to
show the intelligent bible student how
= -. ~.F& ; ~
shortest time. Chapters are written on
Bible Geography" Harmony OF the
Land and the Book" Manners and
Customs" ''Christs Illustrations. -
Light From the Monuments" New
Testament Background" and Visiting
the Lands of the Bible" The author
thinks that a thorough knowledGe of
these departments will facilitate a
study of the bible and add much to
the students interest. ~(John G. Win