The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-02
HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

To those who can still keep up an |
interest in the chaos in Mexico the |
new edition of Hubert Howe Bancroft's |
short History Of Mexico" (The Ban
croft Company, New York; will I've
welcome. 1t is a revision OF book
published twenty-five years ago. with
an additional chapter on what has
happened since Portirio DiaZ was turned
out, that will supply nearly all that the
ordinary man wants to know about our
southern neighbor. In the chapters on
the aboriginal Mexicans the author pre-
serves tho proper attitude o: i'm
Partially and sceptcism among con-
fcting theories. Those on the Spanish
dominion and the later independence
cover the ground satisfactorily. The
short history tells as much as the
foreigner will care TO know about
Mexico and the MeXicans.
\ curousy interesting story is told
by Emma Langdon Roche in Historic
Sketches of the South (The Knicker-
booker Press, New York;. She has
come across a colony OF negroes who
We're probably the last to be smuggled
into the United States from Africa just
before the civil war broke out. They
were left, neglected, near Mobile, but
llldltEt'l " hffp A'SfNll'l piAN ~ '''
the land they cultivate. The author
was able to meet some OF tine original
captives and to get their story from
them, an extremely Instructive bit of
history. She prefaces her account with
outlines of the history of negro slavery
in the American colonies and OF the
fieht for abolition; when she comes 10
the really original story she has dis
covered it Is exciting and impressive.
Much entertaining and important
antiquarian information Will he found in
Abram Wallemau's History and RENT
nisccnCes of Lower Wall Street and
Vicinity" (The Spice Mill Publishing
Company, New York;. The author was
engaged for over forty years in the
coffee trade. Part of his information,
/ that devoted to the topography, Is
derived from other books. but he has
written a very interesting account of
the coffee and tea business in New York
| from the earliest times, which becomes
more important as II reaches the years
! of his personal experiences. lie tells
about all the men engaged in the trade
| in his time, of the vicissitudes in the
business. the disasters by fire and in
commercial transactions, and has made
la little book that real New Workers
can study and enjoy.
/ To many readers the abridgment OF
Queen NiCtoria's diaries which Niscount
Eshcr has made in "The Training OF
! Sovereign" John Murray; Longmans,
: Green and Company will provo more
attractive than the complete journals.
| The extracts are from the diaries from
1882 TO 1910. ending with the account OF
her marriage to Prince Albert. The
principal character that appears in
them next To the diarist, Is Lord Mel
bourne. Of whom the young Queen was
very fond. The volume includes the
most natural portion OF the journals,
written by a young girl who put down
her impressions with no idea of their
being seen by others and much less pub
lished. The editor writes tactful in
PRODUCTION.
1t is a eulogy rather than biography
that Charles Edward Russell writes in
THE Story OF Wendell Phillips"
(Charles IL. Kerr and Company, Chi
cago). The author pays less attention
to his services to the cause OF the abol-
ition OF slavery than to what he takes
10 be Phillps's ideas about the woman
movement and the cause of labor. To
) one who heard his Phi Beta Kappa ora
ton at Harvard Mr. Russells charac-
, terization OF the audience must seem
absurd; II was not composed Of col
/ lege professors and Brahmns, but Of
? Harvard graduates OF scholarly attain
ments from all parts OF the country