EASY FRENCH PLAYS. (Lake French Series.) Edited by Charles W. Benton Published by Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago. 44 x 634 in. 236 pages.

In this little volume are included the three plays: "La Grammaire," by Eugène Labiche; “La Joie Fait Peur," by Madame Emile de Girardin (Delphine Gay); and "Les Doigts de Fée," by Eugène Scribe. All of these appeared originally during the middle half of the nineteenth century. There is "point" to each, which is more than can be said of some plays of a later day. The plays are in the original French, but there is an introduction in English, an extensive vocabulary, and notes. To the student of French the book is valuable.

TECHNIQUE OF THE DRAMA. By Gustav Freytag. Authorized translation by EJ MacEwan. Published by Scott, Foresman & Co., Chicago. 54 x 734 in. 395 pages. $1.50. (Notice, later.)

Harper & Brothers' series of American novels are very popular. The March number, "Martin Brook," by Morgan Bates, is a very interesting book and is having a good sale. The April number, "A Victim of Circumstances," by Geraldine Anthony, is a very clever story of New York society. The May issue is " Days Like These," by Edward W. Townsend. New fiction by W. D. Howells, A Pair of Patient Lovers," is a book of short stories in this popular writer's best vein.

R. H. Russell. "The Bab Ballads," by W. S. Gilbert, are an exceedingly clever satire on well-known people, told in this author's inimitable style of verse. The Rose of Dawn," by Helen Hay, is issued in two styles: $1.25 and édition de luxe $3.50. Racing Rhymes," and other verses, by Adam Lindsay Gordon, will appeal to the sporting reader. The pictorial souvenirs issued by this house are in the highest style of the printer's art, and are greatly prized.

In his forthcoming book of adventures in China during the Boxer uprising and the siege of Pekin, Henry Savage Landor will have some interesting things to say about the looting by the Allies. He makes little distinction on the score of nationality so far as the prevalence of looting is concerned, but he differentiates the national styles of it most delightfully. However, Mr. Landor does not think looting a high crime, and advances some interesting reasons.

Mr. R. B. Cunninghame Grahame, in "A Vanished Arcadia," to be published shortly by Mr. Heinemann, gives a history of the work done by the Society of Jesus in South America, and more particularly in Paraguay. He deals with the aims and policy of the Company of Jesus in regard to savage nations, and shows the building up and final development of their efforts up to the time of their expulsion at the close of the eighteenth century.

Thos. Y. Crowell & Co.'s publication, “American Characters," by Amos G. Warner, Ph. D., is one of the best authorities on this subject. The statistical matter has been very carefully prepared, and the work is now recognized as the standard of its class. “Juletty," a story of Kentucky life, will shortly appear.

The New Amsterdam Book Co. have just issued "Four Hundred Laughs, or Fun Without Vulgarity," a much-needed book. Also, 'Here Lies," a collection of ancient and modern queer inscriptions on tombstones, by Wm. H. Howe.

The American Book Co. have many new works of interest to both the student and general reader. The "History of the United States," by Prof. John Bach McMaster, and other late works will be reviewed in our June number.

The first edition of Mr. Clive Bigham's "Year in China" being practically exhausted in advance of publication, Messrs. Macmillan & Co. are at once printing a further supply.

Eaton & Mains have published the "Religion of Democracy," by Charles Ferguson, which has attracted a great deal of attention. The Alliance Pub. Co., publishers of the Arena, have issued "Where Dwells the Soul Serene," by Stanton Kirkhame Davis.

The Grafton Press has issued "Ondemon," a story of travel, and the doings of an unknown people, by Henry S. Drayton, M. D.

Pott & Co. issue an attractive little work entitled the "Love Letters of a Violinist."

AS

A

THE

ANGLO-AMERICAN

MAGAZINE

June, 1901

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY IN LONDON

By R. NEWTON CRANE

LTHOUGH it has been in existence for comparatively a few years, the American Society in London has achieved a very great success, and has established itself not only as one of the leading social organizations in London, but as one of the most important agencies for promoting good-will and friendly feeling between the people of England and America.

The Society was organized seven years ago by a few prominent Americans in London who assembled for that purpose at the Consulate-General. Beyond a general desire to establish some means by which Americans permanently residing in London might be brought into closer touch with one another, the promoters had no thought in common as to what the Society might accomplish or what shape it should take. Suggestions were made that a social club should be formed with permanent quarters in clubland, and it was urged that if this were done its headquarters would afford a meeting-place not only for Americans living in England, but for Englishmen who had business relations with

America, or were sympathetically attached to Americans and American institutions, and also for the thousands of American travelers, many of whom, it was assumed, desired the convenience of a social club in London.

Fortunately, among the gentlemen assembled were several who had extremely unpleasant recollections of the circumstances under which an American club in London, organized upon the lines suggested, had come to an untimely end, and of the debts which it had left behind and which its directors had had to make good. Their experiences put an end to the social club idea.

It was finally agreed that the Society should have no other social functions than public dinners on the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day, and, at the option of the general committee, some kind of an entertainment on Washington's Birthday. The first chairman of the Society was Mr. Benjamin F. Stevens, the doyen of the American colony in England, who has been succeeded by Mr. Henry S. Wellcome, Mr. Newton Crane, Col. James L. Taylor, J. Walter Earle, Frederick C. Van Duzer, and John Morgan Richards. The banquets of the Society, which were at first restricted to the members and their invited guests, ladies being entertained at the Thanksgiving dinner, have steadily grown in importance, and, now that distinguished Englishmen and Americans temporarily in England are invited to be present, these gatherings have become conspicuous incidents in the year's festivities in England. It is doubtful if upon any private occasion for years past so many distinguished representatives of government, literature, science, and art have been gathered together in England or America as were assembled at the Fourth of July banquet of the American Society in 1900. The chairman, Mr. Van Duzer, was supported, as guests of the Society, by the American Ambassador and Mr. Henry White of the American Embassy; Lord Wolseley, the Commander-in-Chief of the English Army; Lord George Hamilton, the Earl of Onslow, the Earl of Jersey, Sir Henry

Campbell Bannerman, and Sir John Gorst, as representatives of both of the great political parties in England; Hon. J. G. A. Leisman, the American Minister to Switzerland; Senators Chauncey M. Depew, Frank J. Cannon, Hon. Roger Wolcott, and Josiah Quincy, representing statecraft in the United States; Lord Kelvin, Sir William McCormack, Sir Squire Bancroft, and Sir Walter Besant, representing science, literature, and the drama; Mr. Justice Grantham and Lord Coleridge, representing the Bar, and the Rev. Canon Wilberforce and the Rev. Dr. Lorimer, representing the Church. At the Thanksgiving Day banquet in November last the Lord Mayor of London, the Sheriff, the City Recorder, and many members of the Corporation were the guests of the Society.

But it is not alone by its social functions that the Society is doing a good work. For years past resident Americans have had their generosity severely taxed and their feelings worked upon by applications from Americans who claimed to be in distressed circumstances, and who naturally turned to their fellow countrymen for relief. Many of these cases of mendicity were apparently fraudulent, while others were undoubtedly genuine. A busy merchant or professional man has neither time nor facilities for acting judicially in such matters, and relief was often given carelessly in the selfish desire to be rid of unfortunates as well as in the hope that it might perhaps accomplish some good. In order to relieve genuine suffering, as well as to afford protection against impostures, a benevolent fund was organized within the Society, and its members were invited to subscribe to it. Offerings. were also made by some of the banking and other large corporations. The subscribers were urged to refrain from attempting to give individual relief but to send all applicants for aid or charity to the Society's offices. In every case in which this course has been adopted the Society has first relieved immediate necessities and then carefully and kindly investigated the circumstances. Altogether, 129 men,