YALE ALUMENeS
THE BOOK SHELF.
* Studies in the Life of Jesus.”
Mr. William H. Sallmon, who has
recently left the care of the manage-
ment of the Young Men’s Christian
Association to organize a similar work
in Australia, put into print the results
of his study and experiment in the car-
tying on of religious work at Yale.
Mr. Sallmon understood his work well
and showed a great deal of ability and
clear-headedness in the way in which he
conducted it. His success in it is a guar-
anty of the value of the two little books
which have recently come from the press
of the International Committee of the
Young Men’s Christian - Association.
One is entitled “Studies in the Life of
Jesus.” Its author announces that it
was published in response to the gen-
eral demand expressed at the various
Summer schools for Bible study for a
course in the life of Jesus, which had
been tried in some college community
and found to be workable. This little
book of one hundred and fifty pages,
which you can slip into an _ inside
pocket, is, of course, purely an outline.
Mr. Sallmon says that practically this
outline has been used for six years in
the Y. M. C. A. of Yale and that it was
presented to the Northfield Confer-
ence.. The book is meant for practical
Bible class work. At the same time, it
isn’t useful for those who do not make
a serious study of the life of Jesus.
No book of this kind, of course, should
attempt to lead a Bible class through a
year’s work without a good deal of
study on their part, although a Sunday
school, in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred, is run on the plan that it does
not need particular intelligence or any
serious amount of mental effort to con-
duct it or gain its benefits. Of course,
those Bible classes which Mr. Sallmon
or other leaders of the Young Men’s
Christian Association will conduct, and
such as Mr. Sallmon taught at Bridge-
port, Connecticut, does not come under
this latter head of classification.
‘The book is sufficiently technical to
be accurate and show its scholarly
study, and the practical quotations and
suggestions which are put in from time
to time show a mind mentally alive to
the problem of inculcating the spirit
of the life which is taught.
The “Studies in the Parables of
Jesus,’ a supplementary booklet on the
same general plan, also grew out of the
writers experience on the work of
Bible study as adopted by the Young
Men’s Christian Association of Yale.
The parables of Jesus form a distinct
part of the regular course. Mr. Sall-
mon says that the outlines presented in
this little book are merely the notes .
from the author’s note book as they
were taught to the class at Yale and to
the class of business men at Bridge-
port under the auspices of the Associa-
tion. The object of this book is
merely suggestive and only to serve as
a basis for further study. __
“The Personal Equation.”
If fortune has been kind, here is at
least one friend with whom we may dis-
agree; which means that Professor
Harry Thurston Peck has as decided
a mind about most things as we have,
and that, as everyone knows, is the
spice of life. For in “The Personal
Equation” we are continually piqued
by points of disagreement and yet find
a fascination in the view with which we
feel quite at liberty.to differ.
Here are brought together a varied
assortment ranging from impressions of
W. D. Howells and his work as affected
by different environments, to a study
of Grover Cleveland and his claim to
statesmanship; this, with a discussion
on _ political oratory, in which the text
is Mr. Bryan’s Chicago speech, and an
entertaining and curious account of
“The Migration of Popular Songs.”
Indeed, the table of contents in some
way suggests Shakespeare and the
musical glasses through it is all pleas-
ant reading, and what is more, stimulat-
ing and suggestive. The essays on
Marcel Prévost and George Moore are
especially valuable to us as studies from
an intelligent standpoint by a clean
American mind.
One does not care to be too critical
but we cannot help wishing that Pro-
fessor Peck had given his work further
revision before putting it into book
form, and so had removed as far as
possible the traces of transient publica-
tion which are over most of it. Such
paragraphs as, “Every one in the Li-
terary Shop has whooped it up so long
as people could be induced to listen
to the row,” are hardly consistent with
the dignity of his subject. We will not
quarrel with the almost unavoidable use
of French words and phrases in the
article on Marcel Prévost because of
the subject—but why use the German
“Epochmachend” and “Tendezroman”
when the English equivalent is so ob-
vious?
It is surprising that Messrs. Harpers
should put such good work into such
tawdry covers. Some friend in the
Grolier Club ought in kindness to give
them a lesson in taste.
“An African Millionaire.”
As long as the doings of Mons. Lecoq
or Sherlock Holmes, Esq., command
an audience so long will such stories
as these of Mr. Grant Allen’s find a
ready sale. The continued success of
Dr. Doyle’s detective stories has proved
beyond question that hundreds of
readers find pleasure in such ingenious
marriage of mystery and logic, and on
this ground both author and publisher
of the book under hand have every rea-
son to expect a generous share of that
return which is most highly prized in
this mercenary age—and it may be said
as truly that the public gets a good run
for its money. Mr. Allen has very wisely
departed somewhat from the rather too
well worn (though successful) path of
liis predecessors in this particular kind
of fiction, and has transferred our inter-
est from any Bow Street “consulting
detective,” whose boundless knowledge
‘and Protean ingenuity is employed in
hunting down crime, to a certain
Colonel Clay, who possesses a score of
aliases, marvelous cleverness in the mat-
ter of disguise and expedient, and sim-
ply colossal “nerve,’ who brings such
varied talents to bear in the cheating
of justice in general and the African
millionaire in particular. It adds as
much to the interest as to the humor of
the situation the way he fastens upon
this one productive source of illicit
revenue, time and again getting around
his suspicions and into his purse, until
at last he is run to earth. He never
oncé repeats himself, he never once dis-
appoints his audience, and only once
does he disappoint himself, and that
was to save to the book at least a sem-
-blance of a moral lesson. I believe the
best of these stories have now been
dramatized, and if the “African Million-
aire” is as entertaining on the stage as
in the book, much may be hoped for
the play.
‘*King Arthur and the Table
Round.”
No more attractive edition of this
ever beautiful story has been given a
book-loving public than has come in
these two volumes from the Houghton’s
Riverside Press. “Book-loving”’ pub-
lic is written advisedlv. For this best
of all texts in true courtesy and valor
appeals, after all, only to those of re-
fined and gentle tastes, and that class
unfortunately is yet in the minority.
But to such as these this latest edition
of those knightly tales will come as a
true pleasure. Bound in boards of a
quaker gray with white backs and cor-
ners, the very outward and visible sign
of the book is scholarly and inviting,
and as one looks further for an inward
and spiritual grace there lies before him
letter press so perfect, initial letters so
quaint and graceful, a paper so soft and
clear, that heart and hand are pleased
as truly as is.the mind which dips into
the quaint old chronicle of Trestien of
Troyes. The volumes are such that
one can speak of them only in tones
of the highest praise. The introduc-
tory account of Arthurian romance,
furnished by Mr. W. W. Newell, is at
once fitting and entertaining. |
“Whe Federal Judge.’’
The influence of English writers
writing English stories is still so strong
upon us, and our reading from child-
hood has so saturated us with their
form of fiction, that it is a matter for
congratulation when an author shows.
himself free from that dominating sway.
In “The Federal Judge’ (Houghton,
Mifflin & Company,.$1.25), Mr. Charles
K. Lush has given us a thoroughly
American story. The leading charac-
VW oe we Ly
il
ter sits upon the bench, to be sure, but’
there is no trace of either wig or gown..
It is a study of native types and man-
ners in that part of our country which
is coming to be known as the Middle
West,
events quite near enough to the present
moment to include a number of Popu-
lists, an attempted railroad strike and a
little essay in government by injunc-
tion.
Though so large a factor in our
national life, it takes courage to intro-
duce politics into a novel. Mr. Lush
has accomplished it successfully and
shown us that it is good material when
properly used. Judge Tracy Dunn is a
well-studied and consistent creation.
We all know the man, dignified in
court, popular outside of it, well-read
in his profession, an enthusiastic fish-
erman and still finding time for a sci-
entific hobby. | ;
We have not space to go into the
story in detail, and may only hint here
that upright, just and firm in his con-
ception of duty as is the Judge, he yet
drifts from the firm anchorage he had
made and comes perilously near. ship-
wreck, all through the wiles of an un-
scrupulous schemer who is aided by
the very virtues of his victim.
The other characters are all well con-
ceived. Gardwell, the necessary villain,
a manipulator of railroads and political,
as well as. financial, affairs; Emmers-
ley, the young populist lawyer; the
Judge’s daughter, around whom cen-
ters the love interest; her mother, and
old Rufus,.a G.A.R. veteran and the
Judge’s firm and faithful adherent, with
all the minor personages, are native
types, no one of whom does not rightly
belong to these United States and the
last half of the nineteenth century.
It is quite evident, nevertheless, and
in spite of a plot that is well-construct-
ed, natural, and consistent, that this
is Mr. Lush’s first attempt at novel-
writing. He shows certain faults that
are the faults of a novice. His style
is commonplace, and wholly lacks -the
polish which will come -with larger
experience.
WARWICK JAMES PRICE.
You
Need one
in your
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The return to New Haven for |
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“No, boys; I have not been burning the
midnight oil to get all that material for
my address. I have not spent hundreds for
books of reference. I could not have got
these up-to-date facts and figures in that
way. |
‘‘] simply send to Romeike for
Press Clippings.
“Day by day he sent me editorials and
original articles collected from thousands of
newspapers and periodicals which are read
in his offices, and I only had to arrange the
material.”’
ROMEIKE’S
Press CUTTING BUREAU
will send you all newspaper clippings which
may appear about you, your friends, or any
Slee on which you want to be “up to
ate.”’
A large force in my New York office reads
650 daily papers and over 2,000 weeklies
and magazines; in fact, every paper of im-
portance published in the United States, for
5,000 subscribers, and through the European
Bureaus, all the leading papers in the civil-
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Clippings found for subscribers are pasted
on slips giving name and date of paper, and
are mailed day by day.
Write for circulars and terms.
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439 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.
Branches: LONDON. PARIS. BERLIN. SIDNEY.