96 RECREATION 

PS Ae Sit ie 
NEW BOOKS 
_ The Life of Animals,’ by Ernest Ingersoll, 
and published by The Macmillan Company, 
New York, is an important addition to the 
literature of popular natural history. It is a 
very comprehensive work, covering the entire 
world, and is illustrated profusely from colored 
plates, photographs from life and original 
drawings. The text being unburdened by tech- 
nicalities or by such details as belong to a text- 
book, and having to do with the /ife of animals, 
not their anatomy, nor their imagined spiritual 
development, it is a worthy addition to the 
home library. And since it is up-to-date and 
written from the American point of view, it will 
be the more understood and appreciated by 
the American reading public. 

‘“The Vagabond Book,” by Frank Farring- 
ton, and published by the Oquaga Press, 
Deposit, N. Y., is meant, as the author explains, 
to be a call to get out of doors. The book is 
well printed, but the subject matter is patched 
together in a somewhat haphazard fashion. It 
is a collection of poems and short prose articles. 
Most of the titles are as old as the hills, but 
some of them have been given a pleasingly 
novel turn—for instance: ‘“‘A Particular Walk,” 
‘Cross Lots,” ‘‘Gypsying” and “There is a 
Place.”? One exceptionally good poem is in the 
lot, ‘‘The Hill Road.” The others are trite. 
Though the book as a whole is rather super- 
ficial and commonplace, still it is worth reading 
—a good companion for an afternoon stroll in 
the country. 

The series of annotated reprints of the books 
of travel between the years 1748 and 18,46, edit- 
ed by Reuben Gold Thwaite, LL.D., is a 
library in itself of real American history and 
achievement. The best thing that the publish- 
ers have done for years is the addition of an 
elaborate index to these volumes. All who 
have attempted to collect books of early 
American travel know how difficult it is to 
gather even a few volumes and how impossible 
it is for one with limited means to attempt to 
secure some of the rarest among these rare 
books. Hence it is with a feeling of gratitude 
that we welcome the advent of Thwaite’s re- 
prints, and the only regret is that the edition is 
limited. The Arthur H. Clark Company, 
publishers, Cleveland, Ohio. 
“Camp Kits and Camp Life,” by Charles 
Stedman Hanks, and published by Charles 
Scribner’s Sons, New York, is by “Niblick,” 
the author of ‘‘Hints to Golfers.” Its photo- 
graphic illustrations, and the bits of narrative 
that enliven its tracts of information, have 
enough of the flavor of wild life to arouse any 
wistful nature lover. Unfortunately, the tender- 
foot will never dare to learn woodcraft by the 
book, nor could such a guide be properly taken 
as part of the camp kit. In the light of maga- 
zine articles and books upon similar themes, 
now .published in such large numbers, its hints 
about camp building and kindred topics cannot 
claim to be original. Many of the chapters, 
also, are packed with a long list of facts to be 
remembered, which are seldom arranged in 
such a way as to aid the memory. Still, the 
author’s range of information is wide and the 
_ headings of the chapters are clear, and there 
is a good index, so that the book may be used 
quickly. The chief value of ““Camp Kits and 
Camp Life,’ however, will be to drive men into 
the wilds rather than to save them from 
annoyance and danger, after they have really 
dared the mysteries of the unknown. After all 
the only guides in woodcraft are experience 
and the scorn of the true woodsmen. 

This is the age of the automobile story. It 
is impossible for the modern hero to go upon a 
quest or win the maiden of his desire, unless 
he be mounted on this fire-breathing dragon of 
recent invention. It may be questioned if this 
novel steed is not the trainer of heroes. For 
even the most pampered son of our effete 
civilization must become a man of sound 
common sense by the time he has mastered all 
the intricate machinery of this monster. Such 
is the effect, at least, upon the hero of Harrison 
Robertson’s last novelette “The Pink Typhoon,” 
published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New 
York. Judge Robert Macollister is a cautious 
bachelor who has reached the age when women 
marry a man for his money. Until he buys a 
red touring car his friends have thought him a 
hopelessly conventional member of society. 
But this new machine, which soon wins the 
name of the Pink Typhoon, transforms the 
Judge into a perfectly normal man. He de- 
velops a healthy love for two children, and. 
then begins to take an amazing interest in the 
pretty young lady who seems content to serve 
as nurse-maid for the little friends of Mr. Bobs. 
The complications thus arising, and the anxiety 
which this apparently fatal romance causes to 
the old friends of the Judge, lead the story 
rapidly to a pleasing and happy termination. 
“The Pink Typhoor " is an attractive story in 
lighter vein. 
