A P P L E T O N S ' SPRING BULLETIN 



sent in convenient and accurate form the latest results of geographical work. The 

 additions to our knowledge have not been limited to Africa, Asia, and the arctic 

 regions, but even on our own continent the gold of the KJondike has led to a 

 better knowledge of the region. The want which is indicated is met by The Inter- 

 national Geography, a convenient volume for the intelligent general reader, and the 

 library which presents expert summaries of the results of geographical science 

 throughout the world at the present time. The book contains nearly five hundred 

 illustrations and maps which have been specially prepared. It affords in the com- 

 pact limits of a single volume an authoritative conspectus of the science of geog- 

 raphy and the conditions of the countries at the end of the nineteenth century. 



BIRD S. COLER. 



Municipal Government , as illustrated by the Char- 

 ter, Finances, and Public Charities of New York, 

 is a most important and timely work by the Hon. Bird 

 S. Coler, Comptroller of New York. The broad 

 scope of the government of modem cities, the magni- 

 tude of the questions presented in New York since 

 the extension of its limits, and the distinguished part 

 taken by the Comptroller of New York in municipal 

 affairs, commends Mr. Coler' s book to the consider- 

 ation of all who are interested in questions of municipal 

 government. Mr. Coler surveys the existing con- 

 ditions, analyzes the charter, and makes a striking 

 exposure of abuses of public charities. He deals with 

 the questions of water supply and franchises, and also discusses the relations of 

 the individual citizen to the municipality. The importance of such a book for 

 one who has proved his right to speak with authority will be readily appreciated. 

 In his preface the author says: "No graver problems of government exist in 

 civilized countries than those developed during the last quarter of the nineteenth 

 century in the management of the affairs of American cities. Great principles 

 of finance, education, charitv, public health, and politics are involved in the 

 government of large municipalities ; and these questions, where they are pre- 

 sented on a scale so large, command the attention of all students of public affairs. 

 During the past ten years the policy of public ownership and control of public 

 property has developed into an established feature of municipal government, and 

 valuable franchises are no longer distributed as political rewards or personal 

 favors without protest. Methods of developing revenue-producing public prop- 

 erty, and of utilizing the enormous waste of refuse incident to cleanliness and 

 sanitation, are now studied thoroughly and intelligentlv with encouraging results. 

 Everywhere there is a promising tendency toward thorough business methods 

 in the conduct of the affairs of cities. The experiment of extending the Hmits 

 of the city of New York to include almost one hundred suburban towns and 

 villages, and the immediate application to the whole of the ordinances and 

 regulations of a great city, has been watched with unusual interest by students 



16 



