88 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



March 1, 191S. 



read about his early days is like walk- 

 ing with a delightful companion amidst 

 the sweet-smelling flowers of a stiff, 

 old-fashioned garden. To read the de- 

 tails of his after life is to walk with 

 one of the most God-like men our earth 

 has known. 



ON THE WAUGH-PATH ! 

 Lord Alverstone contributes the pre- 

 face of the book, and scattered through- 

 out are various letters of thanks or ap- 

 proval. Mr. Agnew, for instance, says : 

 " At the time I knew Mr. Waugh best 

 he was working far too hard. He was 

 sometimes eighteen hours of the day at 

 his office, and often he spent several 

 nights of a week in the train — the won- 

 der to me always was, not that he broke 

 down at last, but that he lasted so long. 

 Mr. Waugh's disposition did not make 

 his work easier. He was distinctly com- 

 bative. If he thought that injustice 

 was being done to a child, or to chil- 

 dren, he was even warlike ; so much so 

 that when he appeared in some official 

 quarters, they would say, " He is on the 

 Waugh-path." 



CHILDREN SENTENCED TO DEATH ! 



During the passing of the Children's 

 Bill through the two Houses, a journal- 

 ist remarked: "There is no Bill in the 

 world which Mr. Waugh could not get 

 through if he .set his mind on it." It is 

 hardly possible for us at the present 

 day to realise the need of such a cham- 

 pion for the children now that his work 

 has culminated in the Children's Courts, 

 but in a note appended to the letter 

 from Queen \'ictoria in which she signi- 

 fied her intention to become the patron 

 of the National Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Children, it is stated : 

 " ' Three years before the birth of Queen 

 Victoria, T/ze Courier, of April 8th, 

 i8i6, stated that at the termination of 

 the Surre}- Lent Assizes the learned 

 judge had proceeded to pass sentence 

 of death upon twenty-two capital con- 

 victs, among whom,' observed the 

 editor, ' we were sorr\- to see five more 

 children' — Orthodox Journal, vol. Iv. 

 (i8i6)." 



That the friendship between Mr. 

 Waugh and Mr. W. T. Stead was un- 

 failing goes without saying. Mr. Stead 



thought the Government ought to estab- 

 lish a special Children's Department, 

 and make Benjamin Waugh Minister. 

 \\'hen Mr. Stead was imprisoned in the 

 cause of the White Slave Traffic, it was 

 largel)- owing to ]Mr. Waugh that he 

 was treated as a flrst-class misde- 

 meanant. 



THE FOUNDER OF PUTNAMS. 



George Palmer Putnam. By George Haven Put- 

 nam. (G. p. Putnams. lOs. 6d. net.) 



This valuable record of the Putnam 

 Publishing House and its founder is 

 most attractive, whether as showing 

 something of life in the first half of the 

 nineteenth century or how a lad with 

 no capital beyond industry and per- 

 severance built up a great business, or 

 as a contribution t^o the history of in- 

 ternational literary relations. 



EARLY STRUGGLES. 



Mr. Putnam was a man of whom it is 

 recorded that his life was pure, patient, 

 gentle and self-sacrificing; his photo- 

 graph is singularly like that of Lincoln. 

 Fie came of Puritan stock, Bucking- 

 hamshire on the one side and Essex on 

 the other. His father, a lawyer and a 

 delicate man, could not keep his family, 

 so his mother put her shoulder to the 

 wheel and started a girls' school, which 

 from time to time outgrew the building 

 in which it was held. The boy was sent 

 to Boston in 1825, when only eleven 

 years old, as an apprentice to an uncle 

 who had a carpet business. Certainl\- 

 the apprentices of those day had neither 

 ease nor comfort. Even on Sunda\-, 

 though thirsting for the chance of read- 

 ing, which was denied him during the 

 week. George Putnam was only allowed 

 Scriptural books, though he once, by 

 stealth, read one of Miss Edgeworth's 

 stories. One other delinquency is re- 

 corded during that period, he went to 

 the theatre, but in both cases was so full 

 of remorse that he did not taste the for- 

 bidden fruit again. 



FROM £c, A YEAR TO PARTNER. 



After four years he resolved to strike 

 out for himself and went to New York, 

 securing a situation in a stationery store 

 at £^ a year and board. Four years 



