From" Towards Pretoria."

It is no part of our business to arrange the war correspondents in order of merit; but if it were we should seriously consider the question of placing Mr. Julian Ralph, who writes "Towards Pretoria," at the top of the list. His want of experience-we believe he has had very little experience-is rather in his favor than against him. It saves him from assuming that his readers know things which they do not know, and from flinging about technical terms in the light and airy fashion of the military expert. Moreover, he writes better than do the war correspondents of an older generation,

and succeeds in giving the impression of a real man describing a real thing that he has seen, instead of that of an ungrammatical rhetorician piling up the agony. Of the operations of Lord Methuen's column, which he accompanied, there has appeared no more vivid and acceptable account than his. What he has written derives a further interest from the fact that he is an American.

In the days when there is talk of an AngloAmerican understanding, one looks with a particular curiosity to see what an American thinks of the English officers. He draws a vivid contrast between them and the Johan

Flame, Electricity and the Camera. AN alluring story of invention and discovery is told us by George Iles in this book. From among the achievements of the century the author has selected such as may be grouped around flame, electricity and the photographic ray. He begins by reciting how fire was first mastered, and gives us a concise and rapid sketch of the uses of fire in cooking, lighting, metal-working and the production of motive power. There is a clear and well-pictured explanation of the steam-turbine that new and formidable rival of the steam-engine. Then follows a chapter on the production of utmost cold, the transformation of hydrogen and oxygen into liquids. The next part of the book takes up electricity, briefly recounting its chief applications, and abundantly proving that every task of fire can be better executed by the electric pulse than by flame, while, as in the conspicuous example of the telegraph, the electric wave can far outdo the utmost tasks of fire. Two chapters of crisp narrative recount the history of the Atlantic cable, and of the telephone; here a note is introduced from Prof. Alexander Melville Bell, recalling how he incited his famous son to experiments which is sued at last in the perfected telephone.

The third and closing portion of the voiume is devoted to photography, with many a suggestion for amateurs eager to enter new fields with their cameras. Here are explained the marvellous revelations of the sensitive plate when directed to the heavens-the new stars and nebulæ which depict themselves from distances far beyond the range of the observer at the most powerful telescope. Here, too, are lucid expositions of the apparatus at once electrical and photographic, which like

GEORGE ILES.

that of the X-ray, devised by Professor Röntgen, serve to bring to view new worlds to the physicist and chemist.

But Mr. Iles is not a describer merely: he discerns what invention and discovery mean as agents of political and economic revolution. He sees that the telegraph and the telephone are making the world a single parish, with new scope for the kings of business, with new opportunities for the plain people. The author is evidently, too, an evolutionist of the school of Spencer and Fiske. His book from lid to lid is threaded on a new and original argument for the derivation view of these philosophers. He holds that the

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mastery of electricity and the camera have entered the field of human faculty and insight not as additions simply, but as multipliers of all the pre-existing resources of man. It is this fact which enables us to understand, he says, why the pace of scientific progress has during the nineteenth century been quickened to a leap-it is because man has subdued to his will a servant even more versatile and powerful than fire, and, in the art of depiction, come to an agency which effects nothing short of the supercedure-in large measure-of both the pencil and the brush. The

electrician has widened the scientific outlook vastly more than any explorer who went before. The latest leap in knowledge and faculty has been won by the electrician. this Mr. Iles explains in terse, nervous English, that has electric quality of its own.

All

Robert Tournay.

READERS Who have torn their way with breathless eagerness through Dickens's most dramatic "Tale of Two Cities" will find in

Robert Tournay," by William Sage, a very similar interest. It relates to the same vol

canic period, the French Revolution; more than one of the characters are drawn di

rectly from the actors in the great tragedy; and the spirit and atmosphere of that tremendous time pervade "Robert Tournay" as they pervaded Dickens's Tale. Robespierre, the actor Gaillard, General Hoche, and the Marquis de St. Hilaire figure in the story and make it seem a part of the tragic experience of Paris during the Terror. Tournay is a thoroughly interesting character-a patriot of the noblest strain and a lover of great loyalty. He is nearly omnipresent, vigilant, fertile in resource, a genuine chevalier to rescue those in distress, especially the aristocratic lady he loves, and though sometimes failing in his plans, yet generally achieving his purposes in a way very gratifving to the reader. In a word, "Robert Tournay" is an exceedingly interesting story of a period which stands out with terrible distinctness in the world's history. (Houghton, Mifflin & Co. $1.50.)

Twelve Notable Good Women. THE "Twelve Notable Good Women of the XIXth Century" selected for portrayal by Rosa Nouchette Carey are Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Fry, Baroness Burdett-Coutts, the Princess of Wales, the Duchess of Teck, Agnes Weston, Grace Darling, the Princess Alice, Lady Henry Somerset and Frances Ridley Havergal. To the American eye Miss Carey's "hand" shows a somewhat liberal allowance of court cards; but her heroines, from Queen to light-house keeper's daughter, are all "good women" certainly, and notable enough to deserve portrayal. The stories are simply and sympathetically told, and with a pervading strain of pious sentiment that is evidently genuine and unforced. Some interesting biographic details are given, and the author's occasional lapses of style are largely atoned for by her earnestness and abounding sincerity. The book is prettily made, and the portraits are acceptable. A better book could not be found to impress true womanly qualities, especially upon a younger generation. (Dutton. $1.50.)-The Dial.

The Stage as a Career.

SUCH a fascination has theatrical life for

dramatic critic has brought him into close relations with the stage, and it is by no means

youthful aspirants, that "The Stage as a

will find a large and eager audience. Much specious doctrine on this subject has been promulgated, first and last, by those connected in various capacities with the stage, but this is the first time that we have had gathered together opinions from such valuable authorities as Sir Henry Irving, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, Dion Boucicault, Helen Modjeska, Mary Anderson, and Maggie Mitchell. The author considers, in a chapter apiece, the social status of the stage, the stage as an artistic career, the necessary qualifications, the best training, dramatic schools and teachers, and the lights and shadows of the life. His experience as a

question of dramatic art-that is to say, of movement in a play and of competent execution and acting of it-is, of course, distinct from the question of morals; but, since morality, either positive or negative, is inherently present in everything, moral quality never permits itself to be ignored. As a corollary Mr. Hubert maintains that the actor or actress cannot hold his or her own in society-that the stage leaves its mark. There is a light vein of animosity in this broad statement. The question of character should enter more fully into the discussion-"it is the root of the flower, and the flower is as the root makes it." (Putnam. $1.)-The Dial.