parents intemperate; but only five in every hundred considered their pauperism due to this cause, while thirty-nine in every hundred attributed it to their own intemperate habits. Sixty-two in every hundred used tobacco, 82 per cent. had both parents foreign, while only 9 per cent. had both parents native.

The following are some of the most important statistics in regard to crime: Total convictions, 26,672; for drunkenness alone, 17,575; for drunkenness in combination with other offences, 657; in liquor at time of offence, 21,863; addicted to use of liquor, 25,137, or 94 per cent. Convictions for offences other than drunkenness, 8,440; in liquor at time of offence, 3,640; in liquor when offence was planned, 4,852. Of the total convictions, 26,672, intemperance led to the crime in 22,514 cases, i.e., in 84.41 cases per hundred; nearly 58 per cent. had fathers, and 20 per cent. mothers, addicted to use of liquor; less than 1 per cent. of those using liquor used wine only, 80 per cent. using at least two kinds of liquor; 22,738 used tobacco. Of the total number, 21,204 had both parents foreign, and 4,089 had both parents native.

Thirty-five towns changed their policy during the year as regards license. Of these, fourteen show a slightly larger average of arrests under no-license, and nineteen show a very considerably larger average under license. Five cities-Haverhill, Lynn, Medford, Pittsfield, and Salem-changed, and all of these show a much smaller number of arrests under no-license.

In regard to insanity, the following figures are given whole number of cases, 1,836; total abstainers, 677; addicted to liquor, 671; unascertained, 488. 33.55 per cent. had one or both parents intemperate; but in about half the cases information upon this point could not be obtained. Of the cases concerning which information could be obtained, 25 per cent. were traced to intemperance in the persons themselves, 2 per cent. to intemperance of parents, and 52 per cent. to the intemperance of the grandparents.

The report from which these statistics are taken does not undertake to draw any conclusions from them as to personal duty or as to the best method of controlling the liquor traffic. It is evident, however, that the facts given are of great value. They prove conclusively the vital connection between the drinking habits of our people and the country's pauperism and crime. They prove the direful effect of intemperance upon the offspring of intemperate parents, "not merely in fastening the appetite upon the child, but in subjecting him to pauperism, crime, or insanity."

CHRISTOPHER R. ELIOT.

NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF UNITARIAN WOMEN.

THE NEW YORK LEAGUE OF UNITARIAN WOMEN.-The regular December meeting was held at the Second Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, with an attendance of about two hundred, Miss Emma C. Low presiding. After the usual business came the reports from the Philanthropic and the Religious News Committees, the former being an account of the Maxwell House, of Brooklyn, by Miss Lubbe; and the latter, Mrs. Hale's notes, describing the conference at Rochester. Mrs. Dix then made an appeal for money for one of our younger struggling branches,-that of Passaic,-and a collection then taken raised $50.

The morning was given up to most delightful reminiscences of three of New York's prominent Unitarians,-O. B. Frothingham, George William Curtis, and Henry W. Bellows.

Mrs. James H. Morse spoke at length of her personal recollections of Frothingham. She gave a charming picture of his orderly home, full of artistic treasures and books, and yet, with all of its beauty and comfort, not a home of luxury. There was not a lounging-chair or a lazy suggestion anywhere, but things to do in every corner.

She described his Sunday-school, and the well-considered stories he told them weekly, in order to impress his ethical lesson. The young people's club, called "The Fraternity," was recalled to mind, the fortnightly paper of which did much to develop its members. Among the contributors many who have since become well known,

are

Bayard Taylor, Stedman, Stoddard, and C. P. Cranch among others, and illus trations are found bearing the signatures of such as Swain Gifford and Sophie Mapes Tolls. In all of his intercourse with the young, Frothingham stimulated them to do their best, he drew them out in a wonderful way.

In closing, Mrs. Morse told the story of his last public appearance. At a crowded conference in Boston, in the middle of the exercises, Dr. Frothingham, old and very feeble, unexpectedly made his way up the aisle; and, as he reached the platform, the audience recognized him and rose to their feet. It was a very impressive moment. Thomas W. Higginson, the presiding officer, assisted him to a seat on the platform, and then turning to the people, said, "It is very unusual for us to have the benefit of a benediction in the middle of the services."

Miss Elizabeth B. Curtis followed, telling the story of her father's life. She even went back a few generations to the ancestor who emigrated to America in 1636, in order to account for certain traits in her father's

character. Among other stories she told of her forefathers, was one of a very short man who insisted on having the floor of his pew raised, because he contended, when he stood before the Lord, he had a right to be as big as any man.

George William Curtis began his school days at the age of six, at a boarding school at Jamaica Plain; and when eighteen we find him again in this vicinity, a member of the Brook Farm community; and in those days he was often seen on the streets in a farmer's garb, long hair, smock, and top boots. Although the Brook Farm experiment proved a failure, Miss Curtis thought no one could estimate the influence of their high ideals of life on the young men of that day. With her father it remained all his

life.

After the abandonment of this scheme, Curtis worked on a farm at Concord for a few years, and while here he wrote his first stories, which, however, have never been published. In company with C. P. Cranch he then travelled in Europe; and on his return, after several years, a fastidiouslydressed young man, he offered Harper his Nile Notes, which, being accepted, began his public career.

During his life his capacity for work was taxed to the utmost: his lecturing tours, his literary productions, his editorial duties, his self-conducted services in the Staten Island Church, and his long civil service labors, filled his life to overflowing.

Henry W. Bellows was the third whose memory was so lovingly dwelt upon this morning. His daughter, Miss Annie L. Bellows, prepared the paper, which, in her absence, was read by Mrs. J. W. Chadwick. She told the story of his boyhood, of the innumerable scrapes out of which he helped his twin brother, to whom he was devotedly attached, how he stood up for him and fought his battles. At the age of seven the twins were sent to Jamaica Plain, and later we find them at Walpole, N.H., and at Northampton, where he completed his university preparation and entered Harvard at the early age of fourteen. While at college, Prof. Nuttall, seeing his need for physical development, frequently took this pale, shy lad with him gunning; the tramping in the woods was very beneficial to him, and he shot up to his full stature.

Although he was painfully serious, as a student, his daughter remembers only his vast fund of humor; his ready wit and repartee were as natural as breathing to him, in his maturer years.

He had some experience in Louisiana which opened his eyes to evils of slavery. He was not to be cajoled out of his opinion by the glamour of the easy joyous lives led by the Southern planters who entertained

him. When, at the age of twenty-four, he was ordained minister of the church in Chambers Street, which society later built the All Souls' Church on 4th Avenue, he was already a strong anti-slavery advocate. During the war, as President of the Sanitary Commission, $15,000,000 were disbursed by him.

In all the years that Henry Bellows was pastor of All Souls' Church, many were the noted people of his parish such as Peter Cooper and William Cullen Bryant, and many more from abroad claimed his friendship, and visited him, Dorothea Dix, Howard, Mary Carpenter, Thackeray. Miss Bellows said that during Thackeray's visit at their house her father called his attention to his discovery that the character of Col. Newcome was a combination of Roger de Coverley and Don Quixote. The truth of this striking Thackeray, he exclaimed, “Who in the devil told you that?"

Walpole was always dear to Dr. Bellows, and their country home still remains in the family, attesting to their constancy.

After a hymn and the Lord's Prayer the society adjourned to return to the present time and pass a social hour at luncheon. ALICE P. JACKSON, Recording Secretary.

BOOKS.

Mr.

Feudal and Modern Japan. By Arthur May Knapp. Boston: Joseph Knight Company.-Ever since Mr. Percival Lowell's "Soul of the Far East" published eight years ago, there have been more than a dozen important books upon Japan. Basil Chamberlain's, Mr. D. Murray's, Dr. W. E. Griffis's, Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's, Mr. Norman's, and Mr. Curzon's will at once suggest themselves. Yet the public interest in this marvellous land of Liliputian charms is but partially aroused and shows no signs of being satiated; indeed there is a vast and tempting field yet to be explored. The present book, in two fat little volumes, 4 x 5, gold and white, conveniently fitted in card box, and very attractive for gift purposes, will do a great deal to develop a better understanding of the wonderful Japanese people. It claims not so much to be a history of events as a search for causes. Why have the Japanese suddenly displayed such virility? To answer this, of course, necessitates a turning over of much history. This Mr. Knapp does with such evident enjoyment, and such a pleasant appreciation of the humorous, that a fairy tale (it seems a fairy tale) could not be more entertaining.

It is apparent that Mr. Knapp strongly sympathizes with the island people, among

whom he lived long enough to fairly judge their character, which he thus graphically describes: "The qualities typified by the bamboo, which is of iron hardness as well as of graceful beauty, which lacks not strength because of the rapidity of its growth, which is inflexible as steel though it may sway idly in the wind, are the quali ties which are prized by the true heart of Japan."

Mr. Knapp does not succeed in disabusing us of our old belief that the Japanese are a strange, contradictory people; indeed, this he admits, hence half the mysterious interest we feel in pursuing the subject. The illustrating etchings are and finely executed.

numerous

Mornings in College Chapel. By Fran

cis Greenwood Peabody. Boston: Hough

ton, Mifflin & Co.-There are a few rare

books which grow up from some practical occasion, and yet attain the highest literary quality. Books which carry their local atmosphere so luminously as to be read universally with appreciation. This volume of briefest possible sermons delivered at the chapel of Harvard University during the conduct of morning prayers is such a book. The outcome of a certain necessity, for

the time limit of the entire service is but fifteen minutes, so that the sermon itself can occupy only two or three minutes, that limitation seems only to have pressed into brilliance the fine literary expression of which Prof. Peabody is at all times master.

These cameos of religious thought, although, according to the extremely modest preface, chiefly intended to be of interest to those college students who heard them or "possibly other young people in like conditions of life," seem to us to be most invigorating and illuminating reading for people of all ages and all conditions.

The briefness of treatment compels such singleness of thought that no one can fail to gather almost at a glance the evident purpose and lesson of each day's address. We think this book will be widely used for private devotions and meditation. Any of the subjects chosen show how well fitted the volume is for setting one's thought to a high note for each day: "Loving with the Mind," "The Soil and the Seed," "The Morning Star," The Parable of the Vacuum," "The Answer to Prayer," "The Open Door."

The value of the book is nobly sustained by the publishers in splendid type, paper, and complete attractiveness.

than literary style of treatment, and the thought conveyed is most naturally the answer to "How can I make the best success of life? How can I be happy, prosperous, and glad?" That is what all the world's a-seeking. Mr. Trine answers it out of the fulness of his own joyous, optimistic, generous heart. He brushes lightly aside the hard conditions of life, and points us at once with the insight of faith to the spiritual realities which ought to win us from the vanities of the material world. The secret he reveals is the open secret of all truly religious hearts; it is best told in the words of Jesus, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant."

The American Journal of Sociology which began in July, 1895, has virtually estabtific sociology in this country. It would lished itself as the leading organ of sciencertainly seem that this periodical furnishes exactly the educational medium which in so modern a science as that of Sociology every intelligent student of life needs to have at hand. No text-book can satisfy in a subject developing with the rapidity of this living theme, but in the journal one receives

the newest contributions of the ablest au

thorities, besides admirable translations and reviews from the watchful editor, Dr. Albion W. Small. The journal is published bi-monthly by the University of Chicago.

The New Worid (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) for December closes the fifth year of publication of this religious review which has become the organ of liberal scholarship in America. The contents of the twentieth issue are: "The Infection of Pessimism," by George Batchelor; "Religious Movements in England," by Francis Brown; "The Principle of Moral Individuality in Catholic Christianity," by Gaston Frommel; "The Heretics," by W. F. Adeney; "Tendencies of Thought in Liberal Christian Churches," by S. M. Crothers; "The absence of Religion in Shakespeare," by G. Santayana; "Mr. Gladstone and Bishop Butler," by R. A. Armstrong; "The Religious Consciousness of Children," by Mary W. Calkins; "The Shinto Pantheon," by E. Buckley. The usual fifty pages of careful book reviews fill out the number.

Books approved since October, 1896, by the Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books.

"Slav Tales." Fairy Tales of the Slav peasants and herdsmen. Translated from the French of Alexander Chodsko, by Emily J. Harding. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1896.) $1. For children between nine and fourteen.

"Fairy Tales." By Mabel Fuller Blodgett. Illustrated. (Boston and New York: Lamson, Wolffe & Co. 1896.) $2. Cheerful fairy tales for little children.

Illus

"Through Swamp and Glade." trated. A tale of the Seminole War. By Kirk Munroe. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1896.) $1.25. A carefully written account of the troubles with the Indians in Florida. For older boys.

"Stories of American Life and Adventure." Third Reader Grade. Illustrated. By Edward Eggleston. (New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: American Book Company.) 50 cents. Tales from the early history of America that are not generally found in children's books. For children under twelve.

"A Little Girl of Long Ago." By Eliza Orne White. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896.) $1. Episodes in the life of a little girl seventy years ago; interesting to little girls of eight or nine nowadays.

"The Oregon Trail." Sketches of Rocky Mountain Life. By Francis Parkman. (Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1895.) $1.50. For boys of twelve years and over. A reprint.

"Two Arrows." Illustrated. A story of red and white. By W. O. Stoddard. (New York: Harper & Brothers.) $1. Gives an account of the early settlers and the Indians in the far West. An interesting story for boys from nine to fourteen.

"Boys of the Central." A high school story. By I. T. Thurston. (Boston: A. I. Bradley & Co. 1896.) $1. An excellent account of school life, with lessons of honesty and manliness. For boys from twelve to fourteen years.

"The Land of Pluck." Stories and sketches for young folks. Illustrated. By Mary Mapes Dodge. (New York: The Century Company. 1894.) $1.50. The first part is an account of Holland and its people, told in a most interesting way. The second part is a collection of stories of less value. Suitable for children from twelve to fifteen

years.

"An Escape from the Tower." A story of the Jacobite Rising of 1715. By Emma Marshall. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1896.) $1.25. The account of the rescue of Lord Nithsdale from imprisonment. Historically correct and a good picture of the times. For older readers.

"Rick Dale." Illustrated. A story of the North-west coast. By Kirk Munroe. (New York: Harper & Brothers. 1896.) $1.25. The adventures of two boys in and near Alaska. Full of hairbreadth escapes. Manly and wholesome in tone. For boys between nine and fourteen years.

"Domesticated Animals." Their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization. Illustrated. By N. S. Shaler. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1895.) $2.50. For children over fourteen.

By

"Four-handed Folk." Illustrated. Olive Thorne Miller. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896.) $1.25. Accounts of pet animals, principally monkeys. For children over nine.

"Three Little Daughters of the Revolution." Illustrated. By Nora Perry. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896.) 75 cents. Three short stories of loyal little Americans. For readers between nine and fourteen.

"We Ten, or, the Story of the Roses." By Barbara Yechton. Illustrated. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1896.) $1.50. The Roses are a family of ten motherless children between the ages of seventeen and five. A wholesome story of family life, suitable for girls over thirteen.

Illus

"The Man who married the Moon," and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories. trated. By Charles F. Lummis. York: The Century Company. $1.50. Interesting to all ages.

(New 1894.)

Mary

"The Wonderful Wheel." By Tracy Earle. (New York: The Century Company. 1896.) $1.25. For children between nine and fourteen. An unusual story, with lessons of helpfulness and love.

"The Whispering Winds, and the Tales that they told." By Mary H. Debenham. Illustrated. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1896.) $1. For children between nine and fourteen. Four stories, poetically told, with helpful lessons.

"At Agincourt": A tale of the Whitehoods of Paris. By G. A. Henty. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1896.) $1.50. An historical story of the fifteenth century for older readers.

"The Story of Aaron," so named, the Son of Ben Ali. Told by his friends and acquaintances. Illustrated. By Joel Chandler Harris. (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1896.) $2. A sequel to "Little Mr. Thimblefinger." For children between nine and fourteen. The story of a slave of Arab descent, told to three children in the South.

"Comfort Pease, and her Gold Ring." By Mary E. Wilkins. (New York, Chicago, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company. 1895.) 30 cents. An old-fashioned New England story for little girls.

"The Laird's Legacy." By Mary H. Debenham. (New York: Thomas Whittaker. 1896.) Illustrated. $1.00. For older readers. An attractive story of courage and fortitude. The scene is chiefly

laid in France.

BRAVE PUSS.

At a fire in Mr. Tasker's boarding house, Intervale, N.H., last October, a cat was seen coming out with a kitten in her mouth. Depositing it in a place of safety, she flew back into the burning building and brought out another. Back and forth the poor mother ran until every one of the litter was saved. Who could have done more?-Our Dumb Animals.

AN INCIDENT IN A RAILROAD CAR.

An incident of a peculiarly touching character occurred recently in one of the elevated railroad trains, that brought tears to the eyes of the passengers. The train had just left 125th Street when the passengers saw entering the car a little boy about six years old, half carried by an older boy, evidently his brother. Both were well dressed, but at the first glance it was seen that the little fellow was blind. He had a pale, wan face, but was smiling. A quick look of sympathy passed over the faces of the passengers, and an old gray-haired gentleman got up and gave his seat to the two. "big brother," who was about eleven years old, tenderly lifted up the little blind boy, and placed him on his knee.

"How's that?" he asked.

The

was nearing their station. Then, as if he knew he had won a whole carload of

friends, the blind boy quickly changed the "Suwanee River" into "Auld Lang Syne"; and with one accord the passengers burst into a round of applause, while the "big brother" carried the little one out of the car.-New York Times.

AN ORIOLE'S VENGEANCE.

A lady who was one day watching a pair of redstarts as they worked in a tree, was startled by a violent commotion that arose in the shrubbery hard by. Catbirds screamed, wrens scolded, and the robins shouted "Quick! Quick!" with all their might. A squirrel was dragging a baby catbird by the leg from its nest, and all the birds round had come to make a row about it, including a Baltimore oriole. The screaming and the swish of wings as the birds darted about, made the little squirrel abandon its prey, and then the commotion subsided as quickly as it had risen. All the birds but the oriole went about their business elsewhere. The oriole had not said a word so far, and beyond countenancing the hubbub by his presence, had had no part in it. The squirrel, having dropped the baby

This puzzled some of the passengers, and several turned to see what the child meant. But the "big brother" knew, and immediately drew out a small mouth harmonica, and placed it in the little fellow's hands. The little fellow took the instrument into his hands, ran it across his lips, and began to play softly "Nearer, my God, to thee." Tears came into the eyes of the old gentleman who had given up his seat; and as the little fellow played on, running into the "Rock of Ages" and "Abide with me," there were many moist eyes in the car.

The train rushed along. The passengers listened; and the little fellow played on tirelessly, never missing a note of "Annie Laurie" or "Home, Sweet Home." Finally, the "big brother" leaned down, and told the little one to get ready to leave, as the train

to chatter in a defiant way, while the oriole sat not far away, looking at it, but doing nothing else. But in a few moments the squirrel left its seat, and ran out on the limb it had been sitting on until it had to use care to keep its hold, and then the oriole's opportunity for a terrible assault had come. Flashing across the space, he struck the squirrel in one eye with his sharp, pointed beak, and then, turning instantly, struck the other eye in like manner. Quivering with pain, the squirrel let go the limb and dropped to the ground, where it rolled and struggled about, apparently in the throes of death. The oriole flew away to his favorite elm, where he sang in his most brilliant fashion. The lady put the squirrel out of its misery, and then saw that the oriole had destroyed both eyes.-Boston Journal.