“Of ‘A modern lover’ it may at least be said that it possessed the saving grace of youth. There was spring in it. The new novel, for all its fluent facile writing, has not the same fire. ... We can forgive the one, the other is not so pleasant a spectacle.”
MOORE, HARRY HASCALL.Youth and the nation; a guide to service; with an introd. by S: McCune Lindsay. il*$1.25 (4c). Macmillan 174 17-19844
“This book is an attempt to arouse a wholesome interest among young men and older boys of college and high school age in modern social evils, to show them how men have combatted these evils and to suggest vocational opportunities in the warfare against them.” (Preface) In the October, 1917, number of the Educational Review the author, a professor in Reed college, presented the results of the investigation which led to the writing of this book. Questions put to 827 junior and senior high school boys brought home to him their ignorance of the modern problems of poverty, the social evil, and industrial unrest. Under the heading Enemies of the nation he discusses Disease, Feeblemindedness, Juvenile delinquency and crime, Commercialized prostitution, Child labor, Unemployment, The inequitable distribution of wealth, etc. As Defenders of the nation he lists the physician, teacher, lawyer, engineer, minister, forester, journalist, and others, and tells something of the lives of men who in these various fields have earned that title. In a final chapter the youth is called to action in the field of service. There is a brief selected list of books at the end.
“Five chapters, called ‘Defenders of the nation,’ contain short biographies of men who have achieved success in vocations. This is an original idea, well carried out.”
MOORE, JOHN HOWARD.Savage survivals. il $1 Kerr 170 16-923
“This book is an excellent presentation of the concepts of organic and social evolution adapted to the intelligence of children. The material was originally part of a series of lectures on ethics given in the Crane technical high school of Chicago. The important part played by the principle of selection among wild and domestic animals is shown, and the many apt illustrations of vestigial structures, vestigial instincts, and vestigial social forms serve to impress the young mind with the evolutionary concept of gradual change and continuity. The relatively modern idea of the vast period of prehistoric human evolution is well developed.”—Am J Soc
“It is doubtful whether the pedagogical value of Morgan’s anthropologically obsolete nine stages of society is sufficient to justify its use even in a popular work which in so many respects is admirably scientific.” F. S. Chapin
MOORE, LESLIE.Antony Gray,—gardener.*$1.50 (2c) Putnam 17-11702
A sudden whim puts into the mind of Nicholas Danver the desire to see his last will and testament in operation. With the assistance of his friend Doctor Hilary, he becomes officially dead, and Antony Gray, his heir, is called home from South Africa to hear the conditions of the will. They are rather unusual, requiring that the young man shall live on the estatefor one year as an undergardener. The fulfillment of this condition is made more difficult for Antony by the presence in the neighborhood of the woman he loves. At the crisis in affairs, Nicholas comes forward from his retirement to set matters straight.
“Charm, lightness, deft love-making, delightful descriptions of ‘the nice, fresh, cool, clean country’ are combined into a delicatepot pourriof a book.”
“A pleasant little story, rather nicely told, with some pretty descriptions of the English countryside and a delightful puppy named Josephus. Trix’s aunt is fairly amusing, and the tale as a whole will be found to provide very mild entertainment for an idle hour.”
“The opening chapters promise a lively interest, but later the story becomes very tame.”
MOORE, WILLIAM HENRY.Railway nationalization and the average citizen.*$1.35 Dutton 385 18-2686
“Canada is seriously concerned over the position of her railways—so seriously that she recently invoked the services of three eminent experts in railway finance and operation, to make a study of the situation and advise as to the future. This commission by a vote of two to one proposed an elaborate plan involving a trusteeship which seems to approach closely to the substance of government ownership without the form. William H. Moore, a vigorous opponent of government ownership, feeling that the ‘average citizen’ has been misled by the ‘platitudinarians’ and the ‘doctrinaires,’ contributes his attempt towards the education of the electorate in a book entitled ‘Railway nationalization and the average citizen.’ He states that he has been in railway service during the period under review. ... His interest lies mainly in the history of the Canadian Northern and its unfortunate financial experience.”—Nation
Reviewed by O. D. Skelton
“He has written a tract rather than a convincing, well-balanced essay. His arguments from foreign experience are fragmentary and unsatisfactory.”
“It is written so that the average citizen can understand, if he is open-minded, or rather so that he cannot misunderstand unless he is resolute to do so.”
MOOREHEAD, WARREN KING.Stone ornaments used by Indians in the United States and Canada. il*$3.75 Andover press, Andover, Mass. 970.6 17-6240
“Since his boyhood days, Mr Moorehead has been an active student of everything pertaining to American archæology.” (Boston Transcript) In this book he describes “certain charm stones, gorgets, tubes, bird stones and problematical forms” (Sub-title), which were apparently used by the Indians as ornaments, amulets or charms. One chapter describes the author’s methods of study and classification. “There are nearly three hundred illustrations, an excellent index and full bibliography.” (Boston Transcript) “Arthur C. Parker, New York state archeologist, has contributed an excellent discussion, while Prof. Edward H. Williams, Jr., and Benjamin L. Miller have made a study of the problem of patina and weathering.” (N Y Times)
“Probably every museum in this country has some specimens of these ornaments and to study them and collate the information about them has required a prodigious amount of work which has been performed in the scholarly fashion characteristic of the author, making this volume invaluable to the student of archæology. Many of the specimens are not readily accessible and to have them thus listed is most helpful.”
“Classification and minute study are Mr Moorehead’s field. As a collector and a statistician he is one of the finest in the archeological field. But when he attempts speculation, his imagination leads him often into strange paths. ... For one thing, however, Mr Moorehead deserves all praise. He has offered a complete and working classification for ornamental and problematical forms, illustrated by excellent pictures of specimens.”
MORAN, THOMAS FRANCIS.[2]American presidents; their individualities and their contributions to American progress.*75c (3c) Crowell 923 17-25276
A chance remark to the effect that Theodore Roosevelt lacked the attributes of the “typical president of the United States” started the author on the inquiry that resulted in this little book. He has found that there is no “typical president,” and he aims to set forth the characteristics of each of our presidents in a way that will emphasize his individuality. The book consists of four chapters: From Washington to Jackson; From Jackson to Lincoln; From Lincoln to Wilson; The ethics of the presidential campaign. The author is professor of history and economics in Purdue university.
“In showing up wherein some of our greatest men have failed to measure up to great heights, Dr Moran has produced a readable little book. His judgments in some cases have gone against popular impressions and traditions, which is a recommendation. But he is conventional enough to find some good to record of all of the presidents.”
“These sketches show well-balanced judgment, but they might with advantage have been somewhat more extended. It is impossible adequately to portray the character of a great political leader and discuss his relation to his age in a paragraph or two of comment.”
MORETTI, ONORIO.Notes on training; field artillery details. il*$2 Yale univ. press 355 17-16557
This material was prepared under the direction of Captain Robert M. Danford, professor of military science and tactics at Yale university, from notes kept by himself, Capt. E. L. Gruber, and Capt. Moretti while on duty as instructors in the course for non-commissioned officers at the School of fire for field artillery, Fort Sill, Oklahoma. It was designed for the immediate use of the field artillery unit of the Reserve officers’ training corps at Yale. The contents include Map reading, Military sketches, Elementary field artillery gunnery, Firing data records, Communication, Scouts, couriers, and route markers, etc. The plates, for the most part, are from drawings made by Sergeant Ivar W. Wahren, Field artillery, on duty as assistant instructor at Yale university. Captain Danford draws particular attention in his preface to the “Principles of fire, part 6 chapter 2” concerning which he states that they are “those which were enunciated by the School of fire as the result of the most careful and comprehensive statistical studies. Their importance to field artillery men of all grades cannot be overestimated.” The three appendixes show Range tables, Common errors in firing, and Problems given at the School of fire. The book was issued in May, 1917 and reached a second printing in July.
MORGAN, JAMES MORRIS.Recollections of a Rebel reefer. il*$3 Houghton 17-11810
“The author was a boy midshipman when the Civil war began. The most interesting period of his service under the confederacy was on the cruiser Georgia, mate to the famous Alabama. His adventures afterwards in the reconstruction period and as an officer in the Egyptian service are told with animation and gusto.”—Outlook
“His narrative is frank and relieved with humor, and the breadth of outlook it displays gives it value as a historical document.”
“Few men could possibly set down such a record of their activities as this book affords. Not every man would care to tell so freely all his escapades as Mr Morgan has told his. Taken as a whole, his story may not inspire the reader to nobler ambitions or a loftier purpose, but it is a positive change from the customary ‘Recollections’ and ‘Reminiscences’ that so many have written, and it reads almost like a romance.”
“Mr Morgan here discloses a personality as interesting as the life adventures which he tells so well. The exaggerated sentiment which mars so many of the books relating to the South of this period is happily absent.”
“One of the best of recent books of reminiscence, because its narrative has spirit and a sense of humor.”
“Throughout Mr Morgan enlivens his book by witty anecdotes mostly concerning persons famous during the Civil war.”
MORGAN, JAMES OSCAR.Field crops for the cotton-belt. (Rural textbook ser.) il*$1.75 Macmillan 633 17-2193
In this volume, planned as a college text, the author has endeavoured “to present clearly and accurately the science and art of field-crop production in the south. As the art of crop production is based primarily on the sciences of botany and chemistry, the aim has been to give to these subjects their proper application.” (Preface) Cotton and corn, the two leading crops of the south, have been given first and most extended attention. Other crops given consideration are oats, wheat, rye, barley, rice, the sorghums, sugar cane and the peanut. The book is illustrated and provided with an index. The author is professor of agronomy in the Agricultural and mechanical college of Texas.
“Prof. Oscar Morgan’s contribution worthily upholds the reputation of the series, and is likely to be accepted as having a value considerably beyond the sphere of usefulness very possibly contemplated for it by its author. ... The book will be appreciated by cotton-growers throughout the world. In that light it is perhaps unfortunate that so much elementary science was thought necessary. The first principles of the physiology and chemistry of plant life might have been left to the lower school text-book. A glossary of terms would have got over any difficulty presumed to exist.”
MORGAN, THOMAS HUNT.Critique of the theory of evolution; lectures delivered at Princeton university, February 24, March 1, 8, 15, 1916. (Louis Clark Vanuxem foundation) il*$1.50 (6c) Princeton univ. press 575 16-22585
This work by a professor of experimental zoology in Columbia university, is an examination of the older evidence on which the theory of evolution was based in the light of later evidence. In his preface he furnishes a synopsis of the contents of his book: “In the first lecture an attempt is made to put a new valuation on the traditional evidence for evolution. In the second lecture the most recent work on heredity is dealt with, for only characters that are inherited can become a part of the evolutionary process. In the third lecture the physical basis of heredity and the composition of the germ plasm stream are examined in the light of new observations; while in the fourth lecture the thesis is developed that chance variation combined with a property of living things to manifold themselves is the key note of modern evolutionary thought.”
“Scholarly yet popular.”
“Very searching and illuminating exposition.”
“When we look to the present summary for some statement of what important progress in our conception and understanding of inheritance is to be reported, we are reluctantly driven to the conclusion that what Prof. Morgan calls ‘a satisfactory solution of the traditional problem of heredity’ is only a restatement of the problem in terms of invisible ‘factors’ associated with chromosomes. The existence of such ‘factors’ is not a new inference, but has been a feature of theories of inheritance both before and since Darwin’s treatment of the subject.” E. R. Lankester
Reviewed by A. E. Watson
“The illustrations are copious and very instructive, and are drawn very largely from flies.”
Reviewed by Ellsworth Huntington
MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON.Parnassus on wheels.*$1.25 (3½c) Doubleday 17-24508
“R. Mifflin is the ‘Professor’s’ name, and he has built a book-van in which he travels over the country, selling books to farmers and their families, to people in small towns, wherever he can get an audience and interest people in the joys of literature. ... But the little man ... has decided that he wants to sell his ‘Parnassus on wheels,’ and Helen McGill, housekeeper on a New England farm for her brother, who, from being a farmer has blossomed out into a David-graysonish kind of author, decides that she wants an adventure herself. So she buys the van and she and the ‘Professor’ ... set off together. He is going to ride with her for a day and show her how, and then he is going to Brooklyn to live for a while and write a book. The story is concerned almost wholly with their adventures, which are many and varied and entertaining.”—N Y Times
“It is graceful in style, light in substance, merry in its attitude towards life, and entertaining in every aspect of its plot and insight into character. It is both a story and an essay. ... It is real, yet it is fantastic; it is fantastic, yet it is real. And, best of all, it has an original idea in it that is carried just far enough.” E. F. E.
“A story of quaint and spicy flavors.”
“Mr Morley combines genuine understanding of the ‘bookish’ temperament with humor that is irresistible.”
“A delightfully absurd little book, whose quaint whimsies make excellent reading aloud for winter evenings.”
“A bit of true romantic comedy.”
“It is a droll, engaging story, but it is so much more than just a droll story that one needs to read it to find out how many other kinds of things a droll story can be at the same time.”
Reviewed by M. A. Hopkins
MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON.Songs for a little house.*$1.25 Doran 811 17-29993
Bayberry candles, A charm for our new fireplace, Six weeks old, Reading aloud, The milkman, The cedar chest, Washing the dishes, and The furnace are some of the “Songs for a little house” that constitute the first group of poems in this book and give it its title. “A handful of sonnets,” and a series of poems on the war, followed by a group of humorous verses, “Hay fever, and other literary pollen” complete the volume.
“‘Songs for a little house’ are very delightful and cheery and intimate; very simple, but fresh and bright and musical, in expression. In the other groups Mr Morley shows how versatile are his poetic gifts. He shows it in his themes and interests rather than in his style, though this has a distinction in spite of its common patterns that is full of charm. At trifling, in the light familiar vein, he is a rare performer. In the group of ‘Hay fever, and other literary pollen,’ he is in humorous and witty vein, quite the best of our younger poets who affect light verse.” W. S. B.
“A home-book in every sense of the word. These poems of Mr Morley are written with a very delicate touch—simple and with an air of spontaneity that takes them direct to the heart.”
MORLEY, JOHN MORLEY, viscount.Recollections.2v*$7.50 (5c) Macmillan 17-29196
This is not a work of biography, for the author does not present intimate details of personal life, and a chronological order is not followed in the arrangement of material. The chapters that compose the two volumes are grouped into six books: The republic of letters; Public life; Three years in Ireland; Policies and persons; A short page in imperial history; A critical landmark. A short passage from the introduction will serve to indicate something of the temper of the work: “Much of my ground obviously involves others; deeply should I regret if a single page were found unfair, or likely to wound just sensibilities. More deeply still should I deplore it, if a single page or phase or passing mood of mine were either to dim the lamp of loyalty to reason, or to dishearten earnest and persistent zeal for wise politics, in younger readers with their lives before them.”
“His book was bound to be in some degree an apologia, and I notice that more than one critic has condemned its complacency. My own disappointment is on other grounds. I had expected a full length autobiography, and what we have been given is at most a torso. ... Perhaps politicians will welcome what I regret. Yet I cannot help feeling that the book would have gained if it had been a little more intimate, and—though it is on the borders of blasphemy to ask this from Lord Morley—a little more indiscreet.”
“A book which contains a wealth of portraiture, wisdom, quiet wit, and what the public loves best of all—‘secret history.’ Here, assuredly, is both a book to praise and a man to praise.”
“For an abstract and brief chronicle of the later nineteenth century times in all their British aspect, the reader of the future will unquestionably turn to these recollections of Lord Morley.” E. F. E.
“Never has the intellectual beauty of the Victorian age been more truly and eloquently defined, ever has it been more brilliantly and sympathetically exemplified than by Viscount Morley’s ‘Recollections.’” R. M. Lovett
“One of those works that appear hardly oftener than once in a decade, books indispensable for all students of modern history and social life, and the public affairs of our own age.”
“Writing with entire freedom of the political events in England of thirty years past, in which he played so worthy a part, Morley betrays no secrets, sets down no bitter verdicts. His serenity and restraint are out of the common. ... Only an occasional and incidental reference is made to the great struggle, and that without irritation or bitterness. Yet we cannot help thinking that Morley intended this work of his to have its significance as bearing on his attitude towards the war. Without directly condemning it, he sets forth the ideals of statesmanship which would have prevented it. It is a record of enlightened and consistent liberalism which he puts before his readers, leaving them to draw the moral.”
“The book is essentially a simple one. There is absent from it the personal, eager fling of definiteness that made de Tocqueville’s ‘Memoirs’ the pleasantest of arm-chair comforts. It has nothing of the almost dazzling splendor that made of Meredith, to whom he gives some shining pages, a comet across the sky. It is the revelation of life in its two deepest interests that Lord Morley offers—what he has known of literature and of politics. It is the portrait of the world as it dawned upon the vision of one who gave his days to thought; and curiosity is stilled at the deliberate reservation.” H. J. L.
“It is not too much to say that Lord Morley does not mention one prominent figure of his time—scarcely one person—without giving the reader a living picture of the man. What he has to say of Gladstone, especially of the failure of his last cabinet, is as vivid as it is valuable. ... As a piece of writing, ‘Recollections’ is charming—charming in the fine, large, literal sense of holding, pleasing, delighting, the reader’s mind.”
“The outstanding work of its kind of the year.” Robert Lynd
“Lord Morley’s style as writer and speaker has the merits of clearness, point and logic. It is so plain as to be, if not bald, certainly cold, and it is unrelieved by wit or humour.”
“His attitude has dignity, and frees the book from anything resembling party passion. ... Lord Morley’s book abounds in interest.”
“The quotations with which the work is embellished are only such as could come from one who had ‘taken all knowledge for his province.’ On every page there is substance to delight the thoughtful reader as well as to instruct him, for a very high quality of charm is attained in this chronicle of serious persons and serious events.”
“It is a book of immense interest, stimulus, even inspiration; not one of companionship, still less one of equality. There is more of ordinary humanity in two pages of Boswell or Lockhart than in these two large volumes. Lord Morley is no confessor. We get no weaknesses here except that of a somewhat complacent quality akin to vanity, which contemplates all his doings with a self-assured serenity of approval, but without which the book would have lost some of its best pages.”
“In many libraries the work will have a very limited reading, but if possible it should be at the disposal of those few who will find in it food for thought and discussion and a better understanding of the British people and their problems.”
MORRIS, LLOYD R.Celtic dawn; a survey of the renascence in Ireland, 1889-1916.*$1.50 (3c) Macmillan 820.9 17-4807
“‘The Celtic dawn’ is a study of the several movements which, although having their foundation in a single consciously expressed philosophy, have labored in widely varied fields to produce a new social synthesis in contemporary Ireland.” (Foreword) As the five movements of major importance the author names those which have been concerned with literature, with the drama, with the revival of Gaelic, with economic and social reform, and with political thought. These are treated in six chapters as follows: The forces at work; Critical theories of the renascence; Poetry of the renascence; The drama; The novel, folk-lore, and other prose; Movements for social and economic reform. The last chapter includes a treatment of the Sinn Fein and the rebellion of 1916.
“His survey is the best proportioned, though not in detail the most complete, which we have yet received. ... There are, however, a few particulars in which the book might be improved. ... Mr Morris has failed to indicate the exact problems and the position of the Catholic church in relation to this movement. ... But of all these faults, which are, after all, only minor ones, the worst is the exasperating absence of a usable bibliography. Mr Morris is a good critic, of that we have no doubt, but scarcely a thorough and exact scholar.” Elbridge Colby
“Boyd’s ‘Ireland’s literary renascence’ is perhaps a better all around treatment, especially as the present volume is not provided with an index.”
“Mr Morris is particularly happy in his characterizations of A. E. Synge, and James Stephens, but we miss that recent remarkable apparition James Joyce.”
“The last chapter is a sound and valuable piece of work and a most serviceable outline of the various movements in the social and political life of the last generation in Ireland.”
“After dealing adequately with the fiction, the novel and folklore of the Gael, Mr Morris enters with the greatest intelligence into a discussion of the social and economic reforms undertaken in Ireland by Sir Horace Plunkett and ‘A. E.’ The guild organization inaugurated by Plunkett after his return from North America, and inspired by the agricultural banking reforms of Germany, has produced such prosperity and advancement in the country and village life that it may be said to have revolutionized Irish conditions and given new phases to the national political questions. ... ‘The Celtic dawn’ is a work for the shelves of every library that desires a statement of the latest and most significant movement in English literature.”
MORRIS, LLOYD R., comp. Young idea.*$1.25 (4c) Duffield 810.4 17-13546
“An anthology of opinion concerning the spirit and aims of contemporary American literature.” When the plan of this book was formulated by the author, he sent out letters to representative writers among the younger generation of authors asking for opinions on the new movement in literature. A compilation of the replies received, with introductory and concluding essays by Mr Morris, make up this volume. Some of these replies are brief and of interest chiefly as expressions of personal opinion; others, of more extended length, constitute genuine contributions to criticism. Mr Morris has arranged the contents in five parts: The empiricists; The romanticists; The idealists; The pessimists; The traditionalists. The discussion has chiefly to do with the revival in poetry.
“Good for club papers.”
“The volume constitutes a criticism and interpretation of modern American poetry as it appears to its creators and furnishes the best basis for a comparative study of these poets of any book yet published.”
“If you examine the various credos contributed by such poets as Miss Lowell, Vachel Lindsay, Conrad Aiken, Louis Untermeyer, Max Eastman, and Miss Monroe, you will hear them all repeating in one form or another the conviction that what chiefly marks off our period is the passion for emancipation. ... But the thing that strikes one as, after all, strangest about these various passionate confessions of faith is that there should be felt to be so pressing a need to defend the claims of truth on our attention. ... How much more persuasive is the innocence of the Russian, who never thinks of apologizing for telling the truth and has always regarded his everyday adventure as the stuff out of which to fashion the most profound and strangely beautiful creations of the modern mind.” G: B. Donlin
“‘The young idea’ represents a variety of revolutionary spirits. One is willing to grant that most of them would prefer to revolt by writing verse than by telling how they do it.”
MORRIS, SIR MALCOLM ALEXANDER.Nation’s health; the stamping out of venereal diseases.*$1.25 Funk 616.95 SG17-260
“As a member of the Royal commission, Sir Malcolm Morris has written this admirable little book to drive home the lessons of the report. He describes, the history and nature of venereal disease, showing incidentally that it is more prevalent in towns than in the country. He lays stress on the difficulties in the way of compulsory notification, and still more of compulsory treatment. He regards the old policy of regulation, still followed on the Continent, as a complete failure. ... In a final chapter he says some plain words on the increase of the plague caused by the war and the urgent need of dealing with it more thoroughly.”—Spec
“A very admirable little book, written by one who is thoroughly conversant with the subject and entitled to speak to the British public as a great authority. It would be well if copies could be seen in every library in the kingdom.” L. C. P.
“While it deals with conditions in England, it is almost equally applicable to our own situation in America, and will not only be useful to those who are directly interested in the publichealth problems of venereal disease, but will also be valuable to any reader who seeks a clear and simple statement of the facts.” J. H. Foster
“It is written with judgment and discretion, as well as with technical mastery of the subject. ... Sir Malcolm Morris has a chapter on ‘Spreading the light,’ which we view with considerable misgiving.”
MORRISON, EDWARD, and BRUES, CHARLES THOMAS.How to make the garden pay.*75c (2½c) Houghton 635 17-18831
A manual for the intensive cultivation of home vegetable gardens written to tell both novices and experienced gardeners how so to cultivate a small area as to increase as much as possible the home food-supply. The authors have had experience as home gardeners and Mr Brues is assistant professor of economic entomology at Harvard university. Contents: Right planning; Profitable methods; Alphabetical list of vegetables with directions; Insect enemies and diseases (Those of the cabbage take three pages of text). The appendix gives tables showing the Food value of fresh vegetables and other foods and dates for garden-planting, also a Home gardener’s calendar for the northern states. The book is indexed.
“An excellent, business-like, little handbook.”
“By far the most valuable little book on vegetable gardening for the novice as well as the more experienced that has come under our purview this season.” S.
“The garden novice can profit greatly by frequent consultation of this manual.”
MORSE, EDWARD LELAND CLARK.Spanish-American life; a reader for students of modern Spanish. (Lake Spanish ser.) il*$1.25 Scott 468 17-12482
“A reader consisting mainly of extracts from Central and South American newspapers. Our southern neighbors are thus made to describe themselves. These selections are easy, well chosen, and interesting. The editor has travelled much in New Spain and observed closely. His attitude is as sympathetic as could be desired. The annotations are original and refreshingly unpedantic. The copious illustrations are taken mostly from Mr Morse’s own photographs.”—Nation
“No better presentation of South American civilization has yet appeared in textbook form.”
MORSE, EDWARD SYLVESTER.Japan day by day, 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83. il*$8 Houghton 915.2 17-28348
“Professor Edward S. Morse, the genial, ambidextrous director of the Peabody museum at Salem and expert curator of Japanese pottery at the Boston art museum, set out for Japan forty years ago for the sole purpose of studying brachiopods. ... The newly founded Imperial university of Tokio discovered this enthusiastic young fisherman hard at work and captured him. He was carried off triumphantly and made professor of zoölogy.” (Boston Transcript) He held this position “during a very interesting period in the early years of the transformation of Japan and witnessed some of the throes of the struggle of occidental and oriental ideals from the vantage-point of a government official, with an outlook from the capital city. It was, however, the daily life of the people, their quaint and curious and clever ways and devices, so different from our own, and their social customs and industrial methods which most interested him. ... This book is a narrative abstracted from his daily journal.” (Dial)
“It is a book of great enthusiasms and conveys a whole world of curious information not to be found in any guide-book.” N. H. D.
Reviewed by Poultney Bigelow
“The present work is encyclopedic in that it furnishes concrete information of the most intimate and detailed character on native life in Japan a generation ago, yet with all the interest of personal and connected narrative.”
“With the multitude of thumb-nail sketches which form an integral part of the record, the general effect is that of a casual illustrated lecture—undeniably vivid in spots, but often disconcertingly abrupt in its transitions from subject to subject, and not infrequently naive in its generalizations.”
“Mr Morse writes with adequate responsibility and in a scholarly spirit. His book is authoritative, detailed, comprehensive; it is also zestful, almost ‘larky.’”
“A record in which the freshness of daily impression is preserved.”
“The unique history of this inimitable record of a traveler’s impressions is suggestive of nothing so much as some rare old vintage which has mellowed for decades in the wood before being finally decanted to delight the palate of a younger generation. Yet, in a work dealing confessedly with the social conditions of a nation in a transition state, one wishes that either the author himself or perhaps some one better informed as to present day conditions in Japan, could have indicated on the one hand the customs which have passed away, and on the other those which still endure.” Calvin Winter
MORSE, FRANCES CLARY.[2]Furniture of the olden time.new ed il*$6 Macmillan 749 17-27766
A new edition of a standard work that was first published in 1902. There are over a hundred and twenty new illustrations and a new chapter on “Doorways, mantels, and stairs.” There has also been added a glossary of terms employed by cabinet makers.
“A new edition of a standard work that has made itself almost indispensable to people of taste in matters of household equipment. This is a book to make the reader feel proud of the workers and workmanship of the old days.”
“It is indispensable to the collector and has a special interest as well for the cabinet maker, the art student, and the student of domestic history.”
MORTIMER, MAUD.Green tent in Flanders. il*$1.25 (3c) Doubleday 940.91 17-24525
These sketches from the war zone appear to be extracts from the daily record of a volunteer nurse. The author is an American woman who served for a time as an assistant in one of the field hospitals. With a somewhat milder and gentler pen, she draws pictures that are not so different from those of Ellen LaMotte in “The backwash of war.” Parts of the book have appeared in Everybody’s and other magazines.
“It is made vivid by the human touches in the glimpses of the poilus as they come and go and in the heroism or littleness of the nurses and doctors.”
“Of all the books on the war we have yet seen, this is by far the most appealing because of its fine quality of style, its restrained handling, and the intimate, sympathetic view it gives of human nature under the stress of terrible events.”
“The entries are fragmentary and the harrowing details of field hospital work continually intrude, but suffering, heroism and humor appeal to the author’s human side and she has the artist’s vision.”
“The wounded soldiers who pass under Miss Mortimer’s care are portrayed with graphic, sympathetic touch, and the numerous anecdotes could only have been told by an acute observer with a sense for the picturesque.”
“All unconsciously, it would seem, she has struck an immortal chord vibrating thru the silence of mortality, and by it lifts her book out from its haunting shadows into that white light by which many may find faith restored and grief comforted.”
“The artistic vision, the philosophic tendency of mind, and the quiet humor make it all as different from an ordinary chronicle of hospital service as a statue is different from a block of marble.”
“The author has illustrated her own book with little pen and ink sketches usually but not always serving as chapter headings, and quite as effective as more finished pictures.”
MOSBY, JOHN SINGLETON.Memoirs; ed. by Charles Wells Russell. il*$3 (3½c) Little 17-25282
In every war, says the introduction, there are figures which, “through intrepidity, originality, and brilliancy of action” raise themselves above their fellows and achieve a picturesqueness that is commonly associated with characters in fiction. Such a figure was Colonel Mosby, one of the most daring of the Confederate raiders. “In the South his dashing exploits made him one of the great heroes of the ‘lost cause.’ In the North he was painted as the blackest of redoubtable scoundrels.” Colonel Mosby, who lived to the age of eighty-five, had all but completed his memoirs before his death in 1916. These have now been edited for publication. After the war he became one of Grant’s personal friends, and the book closes with two chapters devoted to: My recollections of General Lee, and My recollections of General Grant.
“The story as Mosby has written it is full of deep interest and one, in the reading, soon loses sight of the fact that this is the narrative of one who was doing his utmost to destroy our common country, and becomes absorbed in the delight of the narrative and the vigor of the telling.” E. J. C.
“The narrative of the war is lucidly and interestingly written and his defense of General Stuart’s strategy is a valuable contribution to the military history of the times.”