next expedition. This I agreed to do, though it struck me as a somewhat indiscreet performance in a city where Cubans were closely watched by Spanish spies, and where there were innumerable enterprising reporters looking for "scoops." But I kept my feelings to myself, and a few evenings later was conducted by one of the attachés of the Junta to a small hall over a saloon, well up on Third Avenue. All but a few of the lights were turned off and the window-shades were well drawn. Here we found about fifteen Cubans, callow youths in the main, the most of them, I judged, being students. These aspiring patriots chattered like magpies and smoked the most astounding number of cigarettes. In addition to this promising material, there were in the room several large and imposing-looking crates labeled "machinery." These were opened and turned out to be the various parts of a Hotchkiss twelve-pounder. My recently acquired knowledge, what there was of it, now became of use, and the gun was set up and taken apart a dozen times, and the breech mechanism, sights, and ammunition explained. As this gun is transported in sections on mule-back as well as dragged by a shaft, the various heavy pieces were lifted up to the height of an imaginary or theoretical" mule and then let down again, a form of calisthenics that soon palled on the embryo artillerymen, the night being hot and the room close. Several times the pieces were allowed to fall to the floor with a noise that should have aroused the block, and I spent a good bit of time figuring out how I would explain to the police, if they came to investigate, what I was doing with such warlike paraphernalia in peaceful New York. But we were not molested, and for a month, once a week, went through this performance. It was wasted effort. Whether any of these young men ever reached the island to participate in the war I do not know, but certain it is that there was not one of them in the artillery command of the " Departamento del Oriente," the only one that did any serious work with artillery during the struggle. But it was different with the gun that we trundled and knocked about on those hot summer nights above that Third Avenue saloon, for it had its baptism in that hell of Mauser fire at Cascorra, where it was served within two hundred yards of a trench full of Spaniards, until human endurance could stand the strain no longer, and the gun was dragged backward into a ravine by the survivors of the detachment. And later, at Guaimaro, Winchester Dana Osgood, Cornell's famous football player, fell across its trail, shot through the brain. It helped to batter down the stone fort at Jiguani, and took part in the duel with the Krupp battery at Victoria de las Tunas, and I understand now rests in the Havana Arsenal and is pointed out to visitors as one of the relics of the War of Independence. Verily, the old gun had a career not to be ashamed of.

The attraction of this volume over some others on the Spanish War lies in the personal touch. If General Funston describes Aguinaldo, he tells you just what the author saw with his own eyes; you learn of what he did with his own hands. The result is a vivacious, vigorous, intimate account, entertaining, instructive, and impressive, a true soldier's story.

Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey, and Delaware, 1630-1707. Edited by Albert Cook Myers. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3. American Colonial Government, 1696-1765. By Oliver Morton Dickerson, Ph.D. The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland. $4.

Two books have just appeared that are of interest to students of our colonial history. The first has to do with the latter half of the seventeenth century; the second, with the first half of the eighteenth. In the first of these two books Mr. Myers presents a compilation of original narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey, and Delaware. The volume vividly illustrates the period when the Swedish people of the Del

aware River region gave way to the Dutch, and also of that later and even more interesting period when William Penn did his own narrating. The excerpts from Penn's narratives comprised in this volume are well worth while. Dr. Dickerson's volume should also be a timesaver to many a scholar. Its particular merit consists in the information taken from the records of the English Board of Trade during the early eighteenth century, an important period of our colonial life, for it was then that the colonies developed their traditions of political liberty and gradually acquired well-nigh complete self-government. The year 1700 found all our colonies, save those of New England, weak dependencies; but sixty-five years later the appointed councils had been despoiled of their chief legislative powers, and the Governors had been reduced to practical figureheads. During this period the English Board of Trade was officially charged with colonial affairs, and was in constant touch with the various American colonies, considering their needs and grievances, advising their officers, examining and criticising their laws. The colonial policies decided on by the Board were then laid before the Privy Council for ratification. Dr. Dickerson's treatment of colonial education is interesting, if for no other reason than to note how clearly he brings out the subjection of local laws to the central governmental review. In this connection the book also throws light on such questions as: Who directed the royal veto? What laws were vetoed and why? Were such interferences the result of an irresponsible monarch's arbitrary action or that of a conservative judicial body? What was the effect of such vetoes on colonial legislation?

Has our own judicial practice inherited anything from colonial precedents? From the publisher's point of view-in paper, print, illustration, and binding-the book is admirable, as befits the text.

Dynamic Christianity. By Levi Gilbert. Eaton & Mains, New York. $1.50.

Dr. Gilbert has written a needful, thoughtful, and helpful book. It recognizes the fundamental facts that feeling is the dynamic element in human nature, and that religion is the deepest and most potent of the feelings that have molded history and civilization. It notices present conditions which tend to lower the flame of feeling on the altar of religion, and which impose the need of its revival. It finds little of the dynamic element in mere culture. The church of the intellectuals is both small and feeble. Nor is there anything dynamic in the most elaborate organization of religious machinery, however valuable it be. No great religious effect was ever accomplished without a spiritual passionateness, deep and strong in its conscious responsiveness to the Spirit of God, and this must rise and well forth from individual lives alive to him. These leading thoughts are developed and illustrated in

many points of their practical pertinency both to clergymen and to laymen in the Church and in social and family life.

From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam. By A. V. Williams Jackson. The Macmillan Company, New York. $3.50. Would that other erudite scholars, when they travel, were as alive as is Professor Jackson to the romantic. In his books there is always a touch of romance. As he instructs us he always has an eye to the picturesque. Hence we are entertained as well as instructed. In his latest volume the author journeys from Constantinople to Sevastopol, crosses the Black Sea to Batum and thence to Baku on the Caspian, travels across northern Persia, and finally into Russian Asia. With him we see cities and scenery, but as we go, there is ever the evidence of the author's comprehension of the history of civilization, of the development of literature, and of the sphere of man's influence-especially as regards Alexander the Great, who first threw open the "Gates of the Morning" to Greece. We pass through the places which Alexander passed through, and at length we come to Nishapur, the home of Omar Khayyám. All this has the charm of poetry as well as of prose, but perhaps to readers of current politics the comparatively prosy part of the book, wherein Teheran, the capital, is described, will be of most interest. Professor Jackson notes there certain interesting signs of progress in contrast with what he has seen in former visits. First, there is the increase in the number of wheeled vehicles for use in the transportation of goods instead of the former employment of pack animals and camels; second, some thoroughfares are now cleaned and sprinkled; the names of streets are indicated and houses numbered. Then, houses of two stories are being built; even moving-picture shows have come to town. What Persia most needs, says Professor Jackson, is education and the necessity of believing in the dignity of labor. "Then may the hand of a new Cyrus and a new Darius be outstretched to grasp the hand of fellowship and support extended by lands that know the rule of a liberal government and the blessings of a constitution." Such a land is England, but has her recent course with regard to Persia been entirely one of “fellowship and support "? New History (The). By James Harvey Robin

son. The Macmillan Company, New York. $1.50. Under this title are collected eight essays presenting strong reasons for dissatisfaction with popular historiography, and illustrating their author's idea of how history needs to be newly written. The historian, says Professor Robinson, "will aspire hereafter to find out, not only exactly how things have been, but how they have come about." History has to recognize that it is based on sister sciences, especially on "the newer sciences of man," which "are now

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in a position to rectify many of the commonly accepted conclusions of the historian." Numerous illustrations are given of these "new allies of history," with following reflections on intellectual history, and on history for the common man. As a specimen of the defectiveness of much that passes for true history, Professor Robinson's critique of two representative textbooks shows how far from reality are the commonly accepted notions of "the fall of Rome in the fifth century A.D. Altogether, this is a stimulating and a fruitful volume.

Fourteen Years a Jesuit. By Count Paul von Hoensbroech, Translated by Alice Zimmern. In 2 vols. Cassell & Co., New York. $7.50.

For the general reader's use, Count von Hoensbroech's two volumes of intimate information might have been profitably condensed into one, particularly as it appears that the work was not prepared with a didactic purpose. Nor is it, so the author tells us, meant as a calculated attack on the Jesuit order. It is difficult to believe either of these statements. Certainly Count von Hoensbroech does draw the sword in dealing with Jesuit literature, and he frankly says In general, the volumes throw a strong searchlight on the inner workings of the order. Manual of Ship Subsidies. By Edwin M.

So.

Bacon, M.A. A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago. 50c. We do not always realize how many forms ship subsidies can take-premiums on the building of vessels, navigation bounties, trade bounties, fishing bounties, postal subsidies for carrying ocean mails, naval subventions, canal refunds, and government loans. It is well that the history of the development of ship subsidies under all these forms should be succinctly told, and this is what Mr. Bacon's little volume does. In it the author presents a manual of facts, not of opinions, and he adds a summary of the different ship subsidy grants by the various nations. Thus the volume is valuable for ready reference. Comedy and Tragedy of the Second Empire (The). By Edward Legge. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $2.

French society under the Second Empire was exceedingly gay. It is fairly well described in Mr. Edward Legge's volume, and receives special point because of the quotations from letters by Napoleon III, M. Pietri, and the Comte de la Chapelle. Mr. Legge calls Napoleon III" the Pale Emperor," doubtless because of Vambéry's description of the monarch's flabby features and pale, faded eyes."

New Europe (The). By R. W. Jeffery. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. $2.50.

It seems a pity that a work entitled "The New Europe" should comprise nothing after 1889, though the history of the hundred years from 1799 is well and succinctly told. The book has been amply provided with admirable maps, diagrams, general tables, bibliography, and index.

The new Campanile at Venice is to be dedicated on April 25. The old Campanile, it will be.remembered, fell in 1902, after standing for a thousand years. The announcement issued by the authorities in connection with the dedication ceremonies is illustrated with a picture by the American artist Mr. Joseph Pennell.

People who dislike to part with their old furniture may derive encouragement as to the increasing value of such possessions from a recent auction sale in France, at which an old sofa and four chairs brought $50,000. The set, however, was covered with Gobelin tapestry of the period of the Regency, and probably cost a goodly sum even when new. At the same sale a string of pearls brought $99,000.

Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York, will celebrate its centennial anniversary June 17. The College, which is named in honor of Alexander Hamilton, who gave liberally to the academy out of which Hamilton College grew, has had many famous alumni. One of these, the Hon. Elihu Root, will deliver a historical address at the centennial exercises.

A Chicago physician has made a translation of an Egyptian papyrus which, it is claimed, dislodges Hippocrates from his place as father of medicine " by anticipating his discoveries some 5,000 years. Even appendicitis, it is asserted, is described in this old papyrus. It now remains for some one to show that Ecclesiastes' dictum, "There is nothing new under the sun," was really written by Pharaoh or Thothmes.

That anything still remains to be unearthed concerning Napoleon seems incredible; yet new finds are made every year. The "Century" this month prints many hitherto unpublished pictures of the Emperor, made at St. Helena. Probably after everything associated with Napoleon is published, coming generations will begin to discover new material in old books, and print it all over again to satisfy the readers of the future as to the deeds and character of this marvel of history.

A State Park is to be established at Saratoga, New York, for the conservation of the famous mineral water springs at that place. The Grand Union Hotel, which was built by A. T. Stewart at a cost of $1,000,000, is to be reopened, and Saratoga hopes again to become a summer capital."

The eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke, according to a recently published letter describing his last moments, even on his deathbed was critical in matters of orthoepy. A Quaker acquaintance, in trying to comfort the dying man by reading a passage of Scripture, said "Omni-potent." Raising himself from the pillow," says the letter," Randolph exclaimed, Om-nip-otent, sir! Read that Om-nipotent!" The reader explained that Friends pronounced the word as he had read it in order to give

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it greater effect. Randolph gasped out, "That is wrong, sir; read it always Omnip-o-tent, sir!"

Randolph, a past-master of cutting invective, once, it is recalled, suppressed an opponent in Congress by a similar comment on a slip in pronunciation. "I pass by the gentleman's errors in chronology," he said, "his misquotations, his faulty logic, his erroneous reading of history, but "-turning on his adversary-" for God's sake, sir, don't say har-assed!"

A Massachusetts woman has invented an "individual car-strap" for the convenience of women strap-hangers who dislike to hold on to the soiled leather straps that are provided for their support by the public service corporations. The new device is made of webbing, and hooks on to the leather strap. An invention of this sort makes one feel that the age of chivalry has definitely gone and that the business woman is regretfully accepting the situation.

According to the "Catholic Directory" for 1912, there are 15,015,569 Roman Catholics in the United States. As the inhabitants of the entire country number this year about 95,000,000, the Catholic population seems to be, from these statistics, somewhat less than one-sixth of the whole.

Miss Dorothy Campbell, the British and Canadian champion golf player, was defeated by Miss Kate Van Ostrand, of Watertown, New York, at Pinehurst, North Carolina, March 28. The vicissitudes of golf are illustrated by the fact that on the following day Miss Van Ostrand herself was defeated.

The capitalists of France have plenty of confidence in the State railways of that prosperous country. A loan of $12,000,000 recently asked for these railways was over-subscribed thirty-two times in four hours.

When a book collector gets a genuine attack of the Omar craze, he stops at nothing. A copy of the Rubáiyát," recently sold in London, was bound in levant morocco studded with over a thousand jewels set in gold! This certainly was not the kind of book that Omar loved to read when he picnicked "underneath the bough" with a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and pleasant company.

The New York State Department of Agriculture furnished about five thousand laborers to farmers during 1911. The employer must advance railway transportation from New York City for the help wanted, but this may be deducted from the employee's wages. In general it is said that these farm hands prove satisfactory, though occasionally

an

"experienced farm hand" will turn up who doesn't know from which side a cow should be milked. Persons interested may obtain further particulars from the Commissioner of Agriculture, Mr. R. A. Pearson, at Albany.

A new steamship built for the West India trade has anchors both fore and aft, so that the danger of drifting on to the rocks in certain exposed anchoring places may be lessened. Many wrecks have occurred through vessels being unable to hold their anchorage during a storm-notably the destruction of the United States war-ships Trenton and Vandalia in the hurricane at Apia some years ago.