Life — November 11, 1886 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE: THE FIRST CROP OF HOLIDAY BOOKS.- HE annual holiday crop of fine books which are made to please the eye and not the mind, is now being har- vested. A great many well-meaning people, who know little about literature except that it generally comes in covers, are accustomed about Christmas time to spend money freely for expensive volumes in order to present them to those of their friends whose tastes are indefinite. “I don’t know what she really cares for, and I suppose I'll have to buy her a book,” isthe process of reasoning by which such a choice is gener- ally arrived at. “Gift volumes,” however, have their uses. They appear well on a library table, amuse the children on arainy day, make excellent presses for autumn leaves, and may even be utilized as portfolios for old letters or stray pictures. * * * HOPKINSON SMITH'S luxurious quarto, entitled + “Well-Worn Roads of Spain, Holland and Italy” (Houghton), fills all these requirements for a good holiday volume. It is attractively bound in canvas, stamped in gilt and abundantly illustrated. As an artist, Mr. Smith has se- lected some very picturesque nooks in Europe for his sketches in black and white, sixteen of which have been reproduced as full-page phototypes, and fifty smaller ones have been engraved. The letter-press consists of brief narratives of incidents connected with the scenes of the illustrations. It is, indeed, a very handsome volume, and a great deal of magnificence has been expended on very slim artistic and literary material. * * * HOSE who a year ago were delighted with the pathos of Miss Phelp’s Christmas story, “The Madonna of the Tubs,” will be pleased to have it ina handsomely printed little volume, fully illustrated from pen-and-ink sketches by Ross Turner and G. H. Clements. The sketches, however, lack the force and beauty of the story, though some of them are pretty glimpses of life in an old fishing town (Houghton). Among the elaborately illustrated books of travel are S. G. W. Benjamin’s “Persia and the Persians” (Ticknor), and Henry W. Elliott's “Our Arctic Province, Alaska and the Seal Islands ” (Scribner). Both are valuable contributions to the fund of accurate knowledge, and are well worth their hand- some setting. Mr. Benjamin, as first United States Minister to Persia, and Mr. Elliott, as an agent of the Smithsonian Institution, are peculiarly adapted to write knowingly on their respective subjects. * * * WHOLESOME fear of the “Editorial blue-pencil” restrains me from praising in this column Mr. J. A. Mitchell’s quaint and delicately fanciful sketches of “ The Ro- mance of the Moon” (Holt). The readers of LIFE know that they cannot be other than good. The same modest verdict must be passed on the “Good things of Lire” (Third Series), and “ LIFE’s Verses” (Second Series), which have been reproduced in very artistic volumes by White, Stokes & Allen. . Droch. « NEW BOOKS © ‘THE BUCHHOLZ FAMILY, Sketches of Berlin Life, By Julius Stinde, Translated by L. Dora Schmitz. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Confessions and Criticisms. By Julian Hawthorne. Boston: Tickner & Co. Homes and Haunts of the Poets, A Series of Etchings. By W. B. Closson. Longfellow. Boston: L. Prang & Co. Roland Blake. By S, Weir Mitchell. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The Princess Casamassima. By Henry James. New York: MacMillan &Co. Sir Percival, A Story of the Past and of the Present. By J. H. Short house. New York: MacMillan & Co. A Modern Telemachus, By Charlotte M. Yonge. &Co. Two Comedies. An Ill Wind and An Abject Apology. By F. Donaldson, Jr. Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. The Volcano Under the City, By a Volunteer Special. Boston: Fords, Howard & Hurlburt. The Great Debate. A Verbatim Report of the Discussion at the Meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. New York: MacMillan GIVING HIMSELF AWAY. OUNTRYMAN (éo frofprietor of restaurant): 1 say, mister, this butter looks like axle grease. PROPRIETOR: Mebbey it does. I never saw any axle grease. COUNTRYMAN: An’ it smells like axle grease. PROPRIETOR: Mebbey it does. I never smelled any axle grease, . COUNTRYMAN (fasting zt): An’ b’gosh, it tastes like axle grease. PROPRIETOR: Mebbee grease. it does. I never ate any axle BITTER. Neglected Party in Foreground: 1 THINK IT WOULD BE A GREAT DEAL BETTER IF YOU WERE AT HOME ATTENDING TO YOUR FAM- ILY INSTEAD OF PLAYING ROMEO AND JULIET ON THE BACK FENCE, LIKE A COUPLE OF OLD FOOLS.