398 
ANOTHER NATURE BOOK. 
It is indeed gratifying to notice that the 
educators of this country are turning at- 
tention so largely to the study of nature— 
and especially outdoor nature. For a hun- 
dred years the youth of this country have 
been stuffed with ancient book lore about 
people and other things long since dead 
and gone. Their time has been absorbed 
in the study of dead languages and of ab- 
struse problems in mathematics, while they 
have been allowed to grow up in dense ig- 
norance of the things they see every day, 
and more especially of the things they come 
in contact with when they turn out into 
the world. 
Of late, however, there isamarked change 
in the curriculum of the common school. 
Teachers and pupils are now turning their 
attention to the practical, everyday things 
of life. For 20 years past teachers have 
been saying to their pupils that the proper 
study of mankind is man. This theory is 
being enlarged and extended, and now 
these same teachers, or their successors, 
are saying the proper study of mankind is 
man and other animals. Naturalists are 
constantly astonished at the questions put 
to them by young people regarding most 
common wild animals and birds. I have 
frequently had well educated men and 
women look at an elk head, for instance, 
and ask if that were a mountain sheep. I 
have had the same kind of people look at a 
mountain sheep and ask if that were a goat 
or an elk. A young lady recently pointed 
to a pair of beavers and asked if they were 
chipmunks. A young man pointed to a 
‘well-known species of hawk and asked what 
kind of an owl that was. Judging from the 
present trend of thought and work in the 
public schools the next generation will 
know what these things are. 
A number of books have lately been 
issued for use in common schools and, to 
the credit of our school boards, be it said, 
these books are being widely and generally 
adopted in the various city and country 
schools. 
' One of the latest of this class of books 
is by Prof. Wilbur S. Jackson, A. B., and 
is entitled, “Nature Study for Grammar 
Grades; a Manual for Teachers and Pupils 
Below the High School.” In the intro- 
duction the author says: “That pupils need 
some rational and definite direction in na- 
ture study, all are generally agreed.” Veri- 
ly they do, and I am glad they are in the 
way of getting it. 
Space will not permit as extensive a re- 
view of this book as I should like to give, 
but its nature and scope may be readily as- 
certained by reading the following chapter 
headings: 
Mutual Relations of Plants and Insects; 
RECREATION. 
Astronomy, a Study of Sunshine Distribu- 
tion; Mineralogy, Study of Soils; The 
Forms of Treetops, Relation to Growth; 
Autumn and Winter Habits of Animals 
and Plants; Heat and Energy in the Animal 
Body; Study of Wood; Spring Studies, An- 
imal Life. 
A CALIFORNIA STORY. 
Everyone is reading “McTeague,” 
which must be a_ blow to those critics 
who have been crying, “Away with real- 
ism!” and advising a diet of “lived happi- 
ly ever after,’ for “McTeague” its unre- 
lieved realism. Frank Norris has deliber- 
ately chosen his materials from the utter- 
ly commonplace, but he has used them 
with power. From the opening scene in 
the car-conductors’ coffee-joint on a mis- 
erable street of San Francisco, to the ter- 
rible working out of the problem in the 
desolation of Death Valley, every line is 
vivid. McTeague is gross, stupid, dense, 
animal, but he lives. The story of cheap, 
coarse, vulgar life, warped by circum- 
stances into the sordid, squalid, and hid- 
eous, fascinates by its hopeless truthful- 
ness. McTeague is a logical result of the 
chaotic conditions of Western semi-civili- 
zation, a result of environment acting on 
raw material. Norris’ method is to pic- 
ture this life from the outside, and he skil- 
fully places the reader in the attitude of 
spectator throughout. Pity for the vic- 
tims of their own faults and vices is not 
sympathy, but a distress at the hopeless- 
ness of the solution of their problems. 
Norris conveys the impression that the 
material could not have been handled in 
any other way, but that he is entirely cap- 
able of painting with another brush should 
he choose. 
“McTeague” is published by Doubleday 
& McClure Co., New York, price $1.50. It 
will be sent postpaid to any address on 
approval, to be paid for if satisfactory or 
to be returned in case it is not wanted 
after examination. 

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get a dozen high grade assorted bass flies, 
listed at $2? 
= al 

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on the cold, hard ground? Why not take 
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You can get one for ae subscriptions to 
RECREATION. 

