Curious Clrap:en in American History, by Humphrey I. Desmond. St. Louis: B. Herder Book Company. $1.50.
DL HUMPHREY J. DESMOND discusses in a frank and amiable manner some of the more interesting moot questions in our American history, his topics ranging from the question of naming America to the relation of events of "Our Livelier Presidential Campaigns."
"The Captain Kidd Legend" is treated with a proper emphasis on the action of Lord Bellomont, the English gov- ernor. "The Colonial Irish" are shown to have been more largely of Southern stock than it is customary for our average historian to allow. "The Religious Liberty Amendment" is admirably clarified. "Was Mrs. Surratt Guilty?" "The Original Ku Klux Klan," and "The Rank of American Cities" furnish very tmely reading.
In the chapter regarding the population of our American cities many will be surprised to learn that it was not until the census of z8zo that New York out-distanced Philadelphia as the largest city of our country—Philadelphia having for over thirty years possessed io,ooo inhabitants in excess of her rival. Chicago in x8~o appears on the list as the twelfth city in size in America, and only in iSgo becomes the second city in the list, where she still holds the same position.
Success in a New Era, by James I. Walsh. New York: D. Appleton and Company. $125.
XV kITTEN in the easy charming style for which Dr. James J. Walsh is distinguished, Success in a New Era proves to be a work of popular scientific advice on the preserva- tion of health and the building up of personal character. As a "success book" it will bear comparison with the widespread works of Marsden Swett, with the added advantage that suc- cess is interpreted with less emphasis on its materialistic side and greater importance given to the moral ambitions.
Hence, this book of Dr. Walsh ought to have special value for the educator or for the young person with sufficient con- science regarding his (or her) health and character to listen and profit by the advice of a really great scholar in philosophy as well as medicine.
The Peep-Show Man, by Pad raic Colum. New York: The Macmillan Company. $1.00.
NI R. PADRAIC COLUM has shown his fine story telling qualities often enough for us to be ready with a hearty welcome for The Peep-Show Man. We envy the little ones of six and eight years who are ready with their pennies for a peep into his marvelous box.
The Princess Swallow-Heart is a story to hear over a bowl of milk and porridge in a warm corner of the nursery on a morning at Christrnastide.
The poet in Padraic Colum carries us back on magic wings and we find ourselves wistfully sighing over vanished days of childhoott
Le Correspondant (Parb, France) of October, contains sev- cal papers concerned with matters of interest to English and American readers~ There is a thoroughly documented study of the school controversy in Oregon, La Libert~ Scolaire aux Etats-Unis, by William D. Guthrie of the New York Bar; Des Souvenirs, from the English of the late Joseph Conrad; md Lea Souvenirs d'un Editeur AinEricain, Walter Page.
There is also a highly interesting study of La Secte des Napokoniennes en Russie showing the strange combinations of local religions and occultisrus that occur in the Russian communities. The learning, timeliness and reserve of Le Cones- pondant must arouse general admiration.
The Ca: holic Woman's Outlook (London, England) for October is the second issue of a bi-annual that leaves an a- cellent impression of the ideals of the body of English women who devote themselves, whole-heartedly, to this work. It is re- fined, stimulating and exquisitely feminine, without any frills or foolishness to encourage a misogynist critic.
It contains among other things, excellent articles on Family Endowment and Women in Factory Life, and a very charming interpretation from an English point of view of Louise Imogen Guiney, who, we can assure the author, Miss Em Samson, is a great figure in American letters.
The Menorab Journal (New York) for August-September, 1924, is a magazine highly ctcditable to its editors and contribu- tors. Art and opinions arc advanced along radical lines and are what we ordinarily expect of the self-conscious, self-respecting Hebrew. There is little to offend the Gentile mind in the rather large claims some of these writers make for Jewish influence on history and philosophy. The Notes for a Modern History of the Jews, by E. E. C.. with its mixture of large assertions, ironies and character sketches is extremely ivell done.
TI?HE Commonweal reserves for a future number a review by Dr. Lynn Thorndike of a highly important work of re- search—Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, by the scholarly Mgr. Peter de Roo (liruges, Descl6e de lirouwer, 924.) Dr. Thoradike—distinguished among authorities for his History of Mediaeval Europe (1917 and 1920)—will dis- cuss the findings of Mgr. de Roo, in which the latter takes issue with Gregorovious and Catholic historians like Pastor, who, he thinks, have bowed too weakly to the storm of inuendo and hatred in the chronicles that deal with the figure of Alexander de Ilorgia.
