854 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



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 au- 

 thor intimates, hardly do justice to them, 

 because they were " so full of oddities, and 

 crudities, and strange developments, conse- 

 quent 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 toler- 

 ably free use of words — I do not say a free 

 use of the imagination," The record is there- 

 fore set ofl' 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 lit- 

 tle value is attached as indicating any con- 

 ception 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 re- 

 turn. The circumstances which the emi- 

 grants 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 jus- 

 tice; the prevalence of 'drinking, gambling, 

 and dueling ; and Chinese and Indian epi- 

 sodes. A full account of the Modoc cam- 

 paign is given under the last -mentioned 

 head. 



Additional volumes in G. P. Putnam's 

 Sons' series of "English History by Con- 

 temporary Writers " are Simon de Montfort 

 and his Cause, selected and arranged by the 

 Rev. W, H. Hutton^ and Strongbow's Con- 



quest of Ireland, by Francis Picrrepont Bar- 

 nard. The former volume gives the story 

 of one of the most important and exciting 

 series of events in the history of Eng- 

 land — including the close of the struggle 

 between crown and barons — from the writ- 

 ings 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 Eng- 

 land 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 naive 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, sci- 

 ence 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 Hen- 

 ry C. Long ; " Thomas Paine " (with por- 

 trait), by Colonel William Henry Burr ; 

 " True and J'alse 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. IngersoU's Decora- 

 tion-day address, and extracts from an ad- 

 dress by T. B. Wakeman, in defense of pro- 

 tection, before the Nineteenth Century Club 

 of New York. 



Stories of other Lands, compiled and ar- 

 ranged by the late James Johonnot (D. Ap- 

 pleton & 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 mis- 

 cellaneous stories. The whole are designed 

 and adapted to excite such an interest as 

 will lead the pupil to more extensive read- 



