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in Fairyland" provides a budget of simple imaginings about flowers and trees and fruits; and Julia Augusta Schwartz's "Wonderful Little Lives" describes simply and in an engagingly interesting manner the ways of flies and spiders, mosquitoes and grasshoppers and other tiny creatures. All are illustrated. Little, Brown & Co.

"The Faery Queen and Her Knights" is a volume of stories retold from Edmund Spenser by the Rev. Alfred J. Church, who has already simplified the stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey and the mediæval legends and ro. mances so attractively for young people. Few young readers and not many older ones make their way through the whole of the Faery Queen, and it is a real service which Mr. Church renders in enabling young people to obtain some idea of its beauty. There are eight illustrations in color. The Macmillan Co.

The little loves of little folk make tranquil, pleasant stories such as "The Wares of Edgefield," Miss Eliza Orne White's latest novel, and if they do not remain long in the memory, at least they are harmless while there, and their gentle charm serves well to create distaste for the coarseness of fiction calling itself strong because its ugliness deprives it of any other claim to consideration. Miss White is as careful and as logical with her company of quiet folk as if they were sages and warriors and sovereigns, and her story is ideal for the reading of young girls. Houghton Mifflin Company.

To outline two characters in a series of letters and to narrate years of their history is not so easy as it seems to some authors who have constructed novels on that plan; to go further and to allow the outlined characters to outline a third, and to write in its person to a fourth supposed to be outlined by

the second, is to tempt whatsoever Fate has charge of authors who expect their readers to use their brains, and this is what is done by the author of "Letters from G. G." They are pretty and sometimes witty, but they lack substance. They are too puzzling for the enjoyment of a plain man. A real "G. G." might find pleasure in them, but the species is limited. Henry Holt & Co.

Mr. Joel Chandler Harris's "The Shadow between his Shoulder Blades" has for its hero Forrest who fought regardless of self and regardless of all spectators, and would not leave the field even when physically useless to his command. The narrator of the story is a confederate discharged after receiving a serious wound, and his intention is to relate the story of a comrade and a Northern spy, rivals in love, and it must be owned that he so tells it that a comrade of John Brown or an Andersonville graduate would regard that spy with the eyes of a confederate. The riddle of the title is not solved until the latest possible moment and it is so managed as to heighten the effect of all which precedes it. Small, Maynard & Co.

In Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart's "Aunt Amity's Silver Wedding," a tiny green and gold volume, are four short stories of genuine black folk, folk whom the manners and the modes of thought learned in slavery have not yet deserted, irresponsible, tricksy, lovable and loving, with mother-wit now and then coming to the surface in unexpected places, and over all the charm of a vanishing species, for the sons and grandsons of negroes born free have little in common with those of whom Southern authors write. In the fourth of these stories, Mrs. Stuart tells of one poor soul who received the gift of freedom with rejoicing as fervent

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"The Flute of the Gods," Miss Marah Ellis Ryan's story of Hopi Indians of the sixteenth century accepts the Indians and their beliefs and superstitions at Hopi valuation, and the reader must forget his prejudices and sympathize if he would enjoy the book. The author has mastered the art of making descriptions of manners and customs as interesting as a tale of adventure, and she has so saturated her mind with the reports of individual explorers and various bodies working for the American government that her Indians bear very slight resemblance to the ordinary Indian of fiction. reader who attempts to reconcile them with the highly generalized imaginary Indian of ordinary fiction will be sorely puzzled; they must be taken as described. Frederick A. Stokes Company.

The

Murderous innocence was the first trait of carnivorous animals to impress itself upon Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts, but in the years since he wrote "Earth's Enigmas" he has studied them again and again, uncovering now one and now another characteristic or aspect, and in his latest book, "The Backwoodsmen," he shows the comic side of the relations between hunters and pioneers, and the creatures whom they have tamed, or have shorn of half their savagery by their very presence. Two stalwart old women, one awakened to bravery by the peril of her grandchild, the other scorning guns and traps and doing great execution with boiling water and red pepper figure in some of the stories, and from none is lacking the careful touch of the master of style. Macmillan Company.

There will be some natural curiosity to know the identity of the "Diplomatist" who is the author of the little monograph on "American Foreign Policy" which the Houghton Mifflin Co. publishes. Whoever he may be, he is well informed, and has an intelligent realization of the enlarged opportunities and responsibilities which make it impossible for the United States longer to maintain an attitude of aloofness with reference to international questions. He discusses the ancient and out-grown policy, shows its inapplicability to our present relations with Europe, with the Latin republics, and with the Near and the Far East, and concludes with a cogent presentation of the reasons which exist for a recasting of our diplomatic system and a reconstruction and enlargement of our diplomatic service.

A constantly increasing proportion of concert goers wish to have a more than superficial knowledge of the works they hear performed. The "Standard Concert Repertory" is a most useful volume for such people. Mr. George P. Upton, the author, has herein given an outline of the form, structure, orchestration, history, etc., of those overtures, suites, symphonic poems, etc., which are most prominent on the programs of the best orchestral concerts. The range is from Bach and the other early classic composers, to the modern writers, such as Richard Strauss, D'Indy, Elgar, etc. Mr. Upton has had long experience as a musical critic and author, and he writes clearly and interestingly. The book is one to consult with profit and pleasure before attending a performance of works treated therein. C. McClurg & Co.

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treasure, the property of the rightful heirs, lost for a hundred years, and discovered at length in a lonely mountain cave, Bank of England notes, precious deeds and wills, spade guineas and other old coins and medals, and everything else needed to restore the fallen fortunes of the family. More attractive than the treasure is the introduction of a hero who uses his school-acquired knowledge of drill to reform the manners and behavior of a family of shiftless children so completely that they are ready to do good service as amateur firemen; but the entire story is well adapted to give a boy a wholesome ambition to learn and to serve the state well. Henry Holt & Co.

Mr. Louis D. Ellwanger's "A Snuffbox Full of Trees," begins with a story in which the lover of the green leaf on the bough might find an antidote for that most exasperating story, the oft told tale of the coming of the gypsy moth. A few eggs left upon a window seat to be blown abroad by the idle wind, and thence to the abomination of desolation in garden, field, and park. A disappointed gold-seeker lying in a Californian grove and gathering the seeds dropped from above by nibbling squirrels, and giant trees shooting up in unnumbered countries, each tree a wonder to those never before knowing the sequoia! By good fortune the tree had the start of the moth and will probably be living when the moth has been legislated from the earth. The other essays in the volume are on quaintly chosen but not trivial subjects and suggest thought, or make ingenious answers to conjecture. Dodd, Mead & Co.

In "The Old Town," Mr. Jacob A. Riis describes his birthplace, Ribe in Denmark, its good folk and the oldfashioned pastimes of the boys, including a score of details which no for

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eigner could ever know, and no native would be likely to remember had not his memory been strengthened by the homesickness that brands lost joys into the very substance of the soul. writing he imitates nobody; this is not a second "Story of a Bad Boy," or a second "School Days at Rugby," but a rival for both. It is not written for children however, but for their elders, and it has chapters describing the author's recent visit to the place accompanied by his family, and his encounters with royalty which he found beautifully democratic and gracious. He has here written his best book, and, dear although its Danish version will be to Danes, Americans will cherish the book as the gift of an adopted son who has given this country good and faithful service. The Macmillan Company.

The cloak and sword novel came to be so great an absurdity a few years ago, that the title of Mr. W. J. Lindsey's "The Severed Mantle" promises no such conscientious piece of work as that to which it is given. It is the story of a Provençal troubadour and knight, and of the ways by which he came at last to his incomparable lady and to that Perfect Love which he had vowed to seek. The figure, once familiar in fiction, has but once appeared in recent novels written in English, and Mr. Lindsey has given great care to his description of the methods by which the troubadour was reared, and brought to that perfection of sentiment held to be necessary for him. He has devised an excellent plot, which one hardly suspects until it is divulged, so well has he imitated the manner of the old chroniclers, whose heroes wandered so aimlessly, yet so gallantly from adventure to adventure, and he has made a story which stands somewhat apart from the ordinary and is not easily forgotten. Houghton Mifflin Company.

SEVENTH SERIES)
VOLUME XLV.

FROM BEGINNING
VOL. CCLXIII.

No. 3411 November 20, 1909

CONTENTS

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Carrying on the King's Government.
M. Jusserand on the Age of Shakespeare.
As It Happened. Book III. The Chances of Town.
The Home-Coming of Susan. By Ashton Hilliers.
tinued.)

EDINBURGH REVIEW 451

TIMES 466

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Chapter I.

(To be con

471

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VI.

The Disbanding of the Guava Rifles. By Charles E. Callwell
CORNHILL MAGAZINE

486

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FOR SIX DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, The Living Age will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the United States. To Canada the postage is 50 cents per annum.

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Single Copies of T LIVING AGE, 15 cents.

AT MALPLAQUET.

["The battle of Malplaquet" (September 11th, 1709) "one of the bloodiest ever fought by mortal men. Little is known of the details of the fighting, these being swallowed up in the shades of the forest.-All that is certain is that neither side gave quarter, and that the combat was not only fierce but savage."-"A History of the British Army," by the Hon. J. W. Fortescue, Vol. I., p. 525.]

It is very still and cold in the wood,
In the wood by Blaregnies,

But the smell of the earth is rich and good,

And the grass grows strong and free.

Beyond and away on the slanting field,

Where the lily banners blew, Where the gay Guards broke and the "Household” reeled,

And the scarlet horse drove through,

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