Adams on the "Modern Farmer." I

Under the title of The Modern Farmer in his Business Relations, Mr. Edward F. Adams has discussed most of monetary relations between farmers and other classes. The text makes it evident that Mr. Adams has had a business experience which qualifies him to give profitable counsel in a direction in which the modern farmer is most lacking, but in which it is essential to his welfare that he speedily become expert. Never was more practical common sense compressed into the same number of pages than in those in which Mr. Adams discusses the relations between the farmer and the banker, the commission merchant, the speculator, the railroads, the politicians, his creditors, his competitors, the tradesmen, and the taxgatherers. The man who will master these chapters will secure thereby the results of a quarter of a century's business experience. The discussion of some of the leading questions of the day-always from a business standpoint—is impartial, lucid, vigorous, and wise. His discussion of the "Trust Problem" is searching and sane. The crisp English, with occasional flashes of humor, makes the book very agreeable reading.

All this has been fully recognized by the critics of the daily and weekly press who have given The Modern Farmer a very cordial reception. But the chapters which will most interest those who have some leisure to think, and which will perhaps make a lasting reputation for the author, are those in which he discusses the deeper social problems. The discontent of the farmer-and indeed American discontent generally-he attributes in great measure to the lack of any fixed ideal of a standard of life.

What [asks Mr. Adams] is the rational standard of life for all of us? What ought we to have the means to procure? Ought the standard to be uniform for us all? If not, what ought each class to get, and individuals, according to their ability and thrift, within their class? Can we improve on nature's method of letting us all fight it out among ourselves?

I "The Modern Farmer in His Business Relations." By Edward F. Adams. The N. J. Stone Company: San Francisco: 1893. Sold by subscription only.

The discussion on this point is very interesting, and is continued in a subsequent chapter on "The Farmer and Socialism." Mr. Adams thinks that of necessity the farmer and his wife must work twelve hours a day at most seasons of the year, including the time spent in the care of the domestic animals, and that since natural conditions determine the farmer's standard of life, that must be the standard by which to determine the manner of life of all men. The farmer, he says, will object to work twelve hours a day in order that those who build his house or make his shoes may work only six or eight hours.

Doubtless, however, the most valuable part of the volume is the discussion of co-operation, upon which Mr. Adams is an acknowledged authority. With this subject he deals with the experience of a practical co-operator, but in the spirit of a philosopher. The keynote of this discussion is the following paragraph, which we quote from page 203:

Co-operation is the union of those of like interests for the purpose of more effectively competing with those of adverse interests. It is middle ground between individualism, in which each man competes with all other men, and State Socialism, or "Collectivism," which assumes such a union of all interests as to entirely suppress competition. It recognizes permanent differences of interest between classes, and assumes that these differences will be adjusted with least friction, by able representatives of the different classes, meeting together in the light of complete information and under a sense of responsibility. Incidentally the weaker in each class are helped by the stronger of the same class, as a matter of self-interest, regardless of sentiment, yet more or less moved by sentiment. Socialists favor it as a stepping-stone to socialism. Co-operators regard co-operation as the final step, because it recognizes as permanent, cleavages of interest which socialism ignores or supposes can be united. The perfect form of co-operation is exhibited in the Trust. Socialism aims to make the State the industrial unit, involving the competition of one State with another, and ignoring the conflict of interest between classes within the State. Co-operation makes the class the unit within the State, and does not necessarily regard international boundaries. A distinct term is needed for this phase of co-operative effort.

The above is the outline of a new social philosophy. It is very rarely that a book is published so well worth reading as The Modern Farmer, or so easy to read.

Un Peu de Tout.'

Un Peu de Tout,1 is a splendid study book, intended to give a final polishing to a student about to take a French examination. Its two parts contain sentences in English and their equivalents in French. It is a disagreeable book, because it horrifies us to find how many simple sentences there are we are un able to put into correct French.

As a means of brushing up or extending one's knowledge of French, it is the very best book we know of.

A Story of the South Seas.2 MRS. LOUD has written a very interesting story in Taurua. It is the narrative of a white girl cast upon Paumotu, one of the islands of the Society Group. Her uncle, a sea-captain, is murdered, and she is left alone with the savages. They bring her up as one of themselves, and a chiefess adopts her by transfusion of blood into her own kin. Of course, the case comes to light at last, and the girl is carried back to civilization.

The intimate picture of savage life on the islands and the dealings of the French with Tahiti and its native rulers are the staple of the story, and make it interesting.

Mrs. Loud's Paumotaus are not white peopie masquerading, neither are they brutes in human form. They are human, but not like us; they think differently and see differently, and it is life from their point of view that the book shows.

Like all the history of the dealings of savage races with the Caucasian, this story shows the blight that the contact with the whites brings on the inferior bloods. Seclusion is the only safety, and seclusion cannot be in these days of steam.

It makes but little difference in the final result whether the invading whites are rough sailors and introduce drink and disease without a thought for the natives, or whether they are good missionaries who bring clothes and civilization with the best of intentions.

1 Un peu de Tout. By F. Julien. New York: Wm. R. Jenkins.

2 Taurua. By Emily S. Loud. Cincinnati: The Editor Publishing Company. 1899.

Briefer Notice

THE boys' story in the "Oliver Optic" style had to take up the field of the Spanish War. Edward Stratemeyer writes "The Old Glory Series," covering the Manila Bay fight, the Santiago campaign, and in the present volumel the destruction of Cerveras's fleet. The end is not yet; for the Philippine campaign is still to come.

In each of these stories the young hero is in the thick of the fighting and distinguishes himself by extraordinary deeds of valor. But, on the whole, the tone is not bad. Mr. Stratemeyer has not Oliver Optic's address in sugar-coating his information, but is frankly didactic at times. He also has a barefaced way of advertising the other books of the series at frequent intervals throughout the story. Neither is his picture of the seafight, the grand climax, vivid or thrilling at all, and far more might have been done with the closing scenes where the sailors turn from fighting to rescue. There were deeds of personal daring done then by sailors that made exciting reading even in the press dispatches.

WITH some ridiculous things in following the extraneities of the decadent school, Mr. Thomas Mosher does some charming things in the way of exquisite editions of classics.

The present example is the Rubaiyat in a vest pocket size, at the price of twenty-five cents, which is dainty enough to satisfy the heart of the book lover, and handy enough to meet the demand for something to slip into the pocket to take on an outing trip.

There is an introduction by Nathan Haskell Dole, a Persian Glossary, and notes that are not more than usually in the way of the enjoyment of the text.

IN CLOISTERS DIM3 is an unpretentious book of poems, touched with a real sense of piety and a feeling for beauty of the religious sort, but wrought out with no great knowledge of poetic art or poetic form. The stages of the mass are recited in blank verse rather pleasing, but interesting on account of their religious sentiment rather than their artistic, which is doubtless what the author intended.

I Fighting in Cuban Waters. By Edward Stratemeyer. Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1899.

2 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Portland, Me.: Thos. B. Mo her. 1899.

3 In Cloisters Dim. By Charles Curtz Hahn. Omaha: Burkly Printing Company. 1898.

A SIMILAR collection of poems, this time making the Holy Mother the constant theme, is Ave Maria.1 With more of delicacy and more of poetry, too, the verses tell of the Catholic's devotion to the "sweet mothermaid." Thus:

BROTHERHOOD.

How can I draw more near to Him Than thro' this one so dear to Him? For if I call sweet Mary "Mother," As He did, am I not His brother?

2

AN exceedingly attractive book, lately published by the Stokes Co., is A Guide to the Wild Flowers, by Alice Lounsberry, which will prove as valuable to the lover of flowers as ubiquitous Baldecker is to the tourist. How many of us have solemnly resolved to make a study of botany, so as to be able to surprise and entertain our friends with our superior knowledge the next time we run across a wild flower. A book like the one in question will make such study a great pleasure, both because of the confidence we feel in its accuracy, and because of its pleasant style of wording, which latter quite escapes the dry, didactic prose we expect in such works.

The most notable feature, however, is the series of exquisite plates, in color, which run through the book. These have been reproduced from Mrs. Ellis Rowan's drawings, and show a perfect genius in combining a wealth of detail suitable for the purpose of indentification, with an atmosphere and composition that make each plate worthy of being framed.

The classification of the plants by the character of the soil in which they grow is particularly good, and will make the book a convenient dictionary in which to look up individual flowers.

WHEN Thoreau said: "If it were required to know the position of the fruit dots or the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation to you, helping to redeem

1 Ave Maria. By Charles Hanson Towne. Cincinnati: The Editor Publishing Company. 1898.

2 A Guide to the Wild Flowers. By Alice Lounsberry. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.

your life, this end is not so easily accomplished," it seems as though he were writing a preface to Frances Thedora Parsons' new book, How to Know the Ferns.1

To those who have already roamed afield in search of Nature at her best, Mrs. Parsons is a constant helper and guide. Her "How to Know the Wild Flowers" is already their constant companion; but to those who do not know Mrs. Parsons her books will come as a revelation. Her new one is in every way the equal of her former works.

The new book is of especial value as being, to the writer's knowledge, the only work on Ferns which is of practical value to the average seeker, and is not so technical as to render it obscure. The book is supplemented by an able set of illustrations which are accurate, and are of inestimable value to him who, knowing little of such things, would follow the example of many and be guided by Mrs. Parsons into a close commune with Nature at home.

Books Received

The Modern Farmer. By Edward F. Adams.
N. J. Stone Co., San Francisco.
Richard Carvel. By Winston Churchill. The
Macmillan Co., New York.
Children of the Mist. By Eden Phillpotts.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.
The Meaning of Education. Nicholas Mur-
ray Butler. The Macmillan Co., New York.
Spiritual Consciousness. By Frank H.
Sprague. F. H. Sprague, Wollaston, Mass.
The Standard Intermediate Dictionary. By
James C. Fernald. Funk & Wagnalls,
New York.

Our Right to Acquire and Hold Foreign Territory. By Chas. A. Gardiner. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

New Forms of Christian Education. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. Thos. Y. Crowell & Company, New York.

The Jamesons. By Mary E. Wilkins
Doubleday & McClure, New York.
Men's Tragedies. By R. V. Risley The Mac-
millan Co., New York.

The Hooligan Nights. By Clarence Rook.
Henry Holt & Co., New York.

Better-World Philosophy, by J. Howard Moore; The Ward Wauch Company, Chicago.

I How to Know the Ferns. By Frances Theodora Parsons. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1899. $1.50.