fornia in her Cups"—a picture of what have been called the "flush times" of that State; or of its age of gold-hunting. The period and the scenes covered by the story were probably unique in the history of the world. Ordinary historical narrative can, as the author intimates, hardly do justice to them, because they were "so full of oddities, and crudities, and strange developments, consequent upon unprecedented conditions," that "to condense them into the more solid forms of history without to some extent stifling the life that is in them, and marring their originality and beauty, is not possible. There are topics and episodes and incidents which can not be vividly portrayed without a tolerably free use of words—I do not say a free use of the imagination," The record is therefore set off in a volume by itself, and given as an accompaniment to the history proper rather than as a part of it. The account begins with a description of the "Valley of California," its peculiar features and scenery. Then the review of "Three Centuries of Wild Talk about Gold in California," to which little value is attached as indicating any conception of the wealth which the country held, is followed by the story of the discovery of gold by Marshall, given in highly dramatic style and with the variant versions. The emigration from the East naturally follows, by its several routes, overland and by sea—giving opportunity to present vivid pictures of conditions that are past never to return. The circumstances which the emigrants found, or made, when they reached the El Dorado, are next in logical order, and are portrayed to a large extent in lively anecdote. These conditions include society in San Francisco and at the mines; the anomalous condition in which the emigrants found themselves in the entire absence of the influences of home and woman; mining life and customs; the administration of justice; the prevalence of drinking, gambling, and dueling; and Chinese and Indian episodes. A full account of the Modoc campaign is given under the last-mentioned head.
Additional volumes in G. P. Putnam's Sons' series of "English History by Contemporary Writers" are Simon de Montfort and his Cause, selected and arranged by the Rev. W, H. Hutton, and Strongbow's Conquest of Ireland, by Francis Pierrepont Barnard. The former volume gives the story of one of the most important and exciting series of events in the history of England—including the close of the struggle between crown and barons—from the writings of Robert of Gloucester, Matthew Paris, William Rishanger, Thomas of Wykes, and other chroniclers. The second volume deals with the first contact between the newly organized feudalism of Anglo-Roman England and the far older and more primitive civilization of the last independent Keltic states. It is made up of translations from a great many writers, all of the "olden time." Besides the interest and importance attached to the stories themselves, there is a peculiarly rare flavor about the books of this series, derived from the antiquity of the authors and the naïve style in which they wrote, so different in many of its features from modern composition.
The Historical American, "an illustrated monthly magazine of history, literature, science and art" (M. H. Meagher, Cleveland, $3 a year), issued its first number in July. Some of the chief articles of that issue are "Abraham Lincoln" (with portrait), by Henry C. Long; "Thomas Paine" (with portrait), by Colonel William Henry Burr; "True and False Civil-Service Reform," by Lester F. Ward; and "The Projects of Aaron Burr," by Charles H. Creighton. Under the heading "Notes and Comments" are printed Colonel R. G. Ingersoll's Decoration-day address, and extracts from an address by T. B. Wakeman, in defense of protection, before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York.
Stories of other Lands, compiled and arranged by the late James Johonnot (D. Appleton & Co.), is a reading-book of the historical series, designed for older pupils than those for whom the other volumes of the series were intended. It presents, in extracts from the works of standard authors, in prose and poetry, striking incidents in the histories of Spain, France, central Europe, and Great Britain, in the lives of artists, in the record of science and industry, and miscellaneous stories. The whole are designed and adapted to excite such an interest as will lead the pupil to more extensive read-
