The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-05
BOOK NOTES

Il. e. Sherwood, the well known cut
rate book seller IS Maiden Lane. New
York City. is selling a wonderful arti-
Gle of great convenience to readers and
known as the flexible book rest and
Icopy holder. 1t is constructed entire
~ OF steel: has a flexible bottom or
J seat which conforms itself without ad-
Justments of any kind to any chair or
couch. 1t is made in a simple. yet
mecnan1cal way. and SO adjusted that
one. can read a book or paper at any
desired angle or height with perfect
ease and comfort. AS copy holder
it requires no adjustment of any kind
II folds up fiat and can be placed any
Wnere. Its weight is three and a half
pounds. It is called the book lovers
fcomfort. the students delight, the
cnildren's companion. the typewriters'
friend. It Is sold for $500 Write to
Mr.. Sherwood for a description and
circular covering the different uses of
this handy. little article.
Lindon Bates, Jr.. in his book on
THE Russian Road to China
SHoughton Mif1in COP says in speak
ing of the signing of the great Ukase
OF Liberation by Alexander II on Feb
there is much to answer for before
| the judgment bar, in omission and In
commission, Yet, giving but justice
to ruler and people. it must be allow
serfs ranks with Magma Charta and
the American constitution among the
m1ghtiest agencies of advancement
that mankind has ever known. A de-
pendent population of nearly forty-six
million souls was given liberty. The
great act was accomplished peacefully,
and the measures were executed with
out any trouble worthy of the name, in
spirit equitable to the owners as well
as to the serfs. Not alone were the
val hnr 10 <Haxy
were provided, one and all, with land
and livelihood. They were given, in
everything that concerned their local
administration, entire freedom from
interference by their old masters or
by the members of the administration.
The righteous deed that the American
republic achieved nearly three years
later liberated but one-ninth Of the
number of the Russian bondsmen. It
did SO at cost of the deadliest fratri-
cidal war of modern times. and the i'm
poyerishment of one-Quarter of its
people. All the work of the Freed
mans bureau through the reconstruc-
ton period could not secure to a 1.-THE
of the negroes the opportunity for
livelihood-this that Russia provided
inaiienably for each of her liberated.
To this day the American negro In
many places is under special civic dis
abilities more CALLING than those i'm
posed anywhere in the Russian en-
pre-
John Bigelow. the author of the re-
Gently published Life of Samuel J.
Tflden," is indignant over the amend
ment to the bill now before congress
for a Tilden memorial. The original
measure appropriated $4,000 for a
statue of Tilden to be erected in Wash
ington. while the amendment provides
$500 for bust. Mr.. Bigelow de-
clined to be connected with the pro-
ject, and in a letter made public this
week he says: ct lose no time in in
forming you that I can not accept
service on the commission created by
that bill as amended, and l should re-
gard it as an indignity to the eminent
statesman it purports to commemor-
ate to have it pass the house." Mr..
Bigelow is the author of two other
works on Tflden previously published,
Writings and Speeches of Samuel ].
Tilden" and "Tilden's Letters and Me-
MORALS"
The civil war afforded Daniel Drew
and his associates, Gould, Fisk, and
money. They would obtain advance
news from the front by bribery and
speculate upon this information. The
shrewd f1nancier couldn't reach Lin
coin. however. In 1.-THE Book of Daniel
Drew" built up by Bouck White from
an anulifed diary left by Drew. and
published by Doubleday, Page & Co,
he says: I'VE didn't dare make offers
of this kind to Abe himself. Lincoln
was an impractical man, SO far as max
Ding money went. All he thought about
was to save the Union. He used to
get very peevish at some OF us money
kings
John Reed Scott was in Philadelphia
recently, consulting his publishers, the
]. B. Lippincott company, in reference
to a novel upon which he has been at
work for some time, to be issued in
the fall. AS might be inferred from
the fact that Mr.. Scott has made his
home in Annapolis during the last two
winters. the ancient Maryland capital
is to be the scene of his new tale, and
the time late in the Eighteenth CEN
tury.i
Burton e. Stevenson who made for