Review of Reviews, 119/06. 



The Reviews Reviewed. 



THE AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Tlie optimism, which is one of the most valuable 

 endowments of the American temperament, shines 

 out in Dr. Shaw's survey of events in June. The 

 sensational disclosures respecting life assurance, rail- 

 roatl management and the tinned meat trade only 

 show, he says, that the republic has passed through a 

 period of enormous increase of wealth which, though 

 attended with incalculable advantage to the nation, 

 has been attended by serious abuses; the time has 

 come tor the correction of these faults; and President 

 Roosevelt has taken on the task. This cheery view of 

 affairs is apparently shared by the President, who 

 " thinks the United States is a country that is mak- 

 ing tine progress, and has as little to worry about as 

 any healthy or vigorous man in thus or in any other 

 country." As to the meat scandals, the President is 

 in fact fighting the battle of the stock-farmers and 

 cattle men. Now is the time for model packing- 

 houses! Put white glazed tiles for damp and rotting 

 wood ; send every employe to his work through a com- 

 pulsory shower-bath establisiiment. .So it is quite fea- 

 sible to " turn harmful notoriety into profitable ad- 

 vertisement." 



There is quite a sheaf of special articles of general 

 and exceptional interest. Mr. J. E. Sullivan gives 

 a very vivid sketch, enhanced by the help of the 

 camera, of American successes at the Olympian 

 Games. He reports a growing conviction that the 



fames must be held, not in other countries, as was 

 rst attempted, but in Greece. Only there can suffis 

 cient popular inteicst be excited. 



Rural depopulation is a subject of which we hardly 

 expect to hear in the United States, but Mr. W. S. 

 Rossiter shows its prevalence not merely in the Old 

 East but in the middle West. Excluding newly or- 

 ganised States and States mostly urban, of the re- 

 maining .JU counties 38.4 decreased between 1900 and 

 I'JOo. In the same period seventy-seven out of ninety- 

 nine counties in Iowa decreased. Rural districts in 

 New S'ork State have gone down because the Near 

 and Far West undersell their products in New York 

 City. The proportion of young children in them has 

 decreased one-tliird in forty years. 



Mr. C. F. Speare writes on France as an investor, 

 who, he says, is now playing tlie ujle of the world's 

 banker: "England lost her claim to the title when 

 she went to war in South .Africa." Industrially in- 

 ferior to Germany, and with a commerce much below 

 that of Great IJritaiii, France owes her high position 

 to her domestic thrift. French investors trust their 

 bankers, but fearing Socialistic encroachments pre- 

 fer foreign to home investments (other than their own 

 national del)t). They are developing a taste for 

 .\merican securities. Thev have onlv recentiv put 

 i;2,000,00() in New York City Bonds, £10,000,000 in 

 the Pennsylvanian Railroad, and so on. 



The growth of Political Socialism is traced by Mr. 

 W. D. I'. liliss. Its immediate significance lies, he 

 says, in what it compels other parties to do. Everj-- 

 where in Europe a political minority. Socialism every- 

 where sets the pace. " In Great Britain it dominates 

 municipal policy, and makes of London in .some re- 

 spects the greatest Socialist city of the world." 



THE PALL MALL MAGAZINBt 



Mr. George B. Abraham, writing in the Pall Mali 

 Magazine for July on the Highest Climbs, asks, Can 

 Mount Everest be climbed? 



THE HIGHEST GUMB ON RECORD. 



It is the vastness of the Himalayas and the inac- 

 cessibility of even the bases of the highest peaks (he 

 writes) which makes their conquest almost impossible. 

 Mount Everest is 110 miles from Katmandu, the capi- 

 tal of Nepaul, and this is the nearest civilised place 

 to its base. Nepaul at present is a prohibited pro- 

 vince, and therefore it is still impossible to take 

 barometrical and boiling-point nieasiueiuents of the 

 supposed loftiest peak on the globe. The most ac- 

 cessible part and the best starting-place for moun- 

 taineering is Darjiling; and Kangchenjunga, the 

 tlii^rd highest mountain, is about forty-five miles dis- 

 tant. Kabru is the only peak which has yet been 

 climbed, and even the last fifty feet proved too much. 

 This is the highest climb yet made, the climber, Mr. 

 W. W. Graham, making the ascent with two Swiss 

 guides. The party felt no discomfort from the rarity 

 of the air. 



PLANTS. ASLEEP AND AWAKE. 



In the same number there is an interesting article 

 by Mr. S. Leonard Bastin on the Feeling of Plants. 

 The writes notes the various plants which open and 

 close their flowers, and he gives us pictures of several 

 asleep and awake. The leaves of certain plants are 

 also affected by changes in the light. The leaves of 

 clover, for instai:oe, droop together round the stem 

 in tlie evening. The clirysanthemum, too, dri>ops its 

 leaves at night. The tobacco plant, on the other 

 hand, sleeps by day and opens its flowers after sunset. 

 Wo know how the sensitive plant shrinks at a touch, 

 and how the tendrils of Virginian creepers prefer the 

 dark cracks and crevices to the light. Most curious 

 of all is the behaviour of the instctivorous plants. 



PICTURES ON PALETTES. 

 Mr. Frederic Lees has a little article on Pictures on 

 Palettes. Some years ago Georges Beugniet had the 

 happy idea to start a collection of palettes with pic- 

 tures painted on them by the artists who had used 

 them, and in order to obtain them he handed to each 

 artist from whom he bought a picture a new palette 

 in excliange for the old one, and asked the artist to 

 make a little sketch on it as a souvenir of their trans- 

 action. Ths next owner of the collection, Georges 

 Bernlieim, has added to it considerably, and there 

 are now about 121 of these interesting palettes. 



The Young Mans Maiiazinv (New Zealand) for July 

 is full of splendid matter, which no young man or 

 older man can reacl without having his moral fibre 

 stiffened. \ charming dcsiripticui of Lowell with 

 some of his choicest lines aie given by Sir Robert 

 Stout. To commence it means to read every word. 

 .Sir Robert's comments are in his usual thorough 

 clear manly style. To-day. when social reforni is so 

 much in ev'idence. his words are most apt and inspir- 

 ing. 



