BOOK NOTICES. 



AMERICAN SMALL ARMS. 



The sportsmen and military men of this 

 country have long needed a complete and 

 exhaustive history of the development of 

 American firearms and nothing of the kind 

 has ever been published until recently. A ' 

 few years ago Major Edward S. Farrow, of 

 the U. S. Army, began the collection of 

 material bearing on this subject, and the 

 result is now placed before the public in a 

 book of 400 pages entitled "American Smalt 

 Arms." 



The descriptions in this volume are, as 

 the title indicates, limited to arms made or 

 patented in this country, and to a few for- 

 eign weapons which have become Ameri- 

 canized, such as the Ferguson and the Mau- 

 ser rifles. 



Major Farrow has covered in his re- 

 search every type of firearm used in hunt- 

 ing, in military service or in target shooting, 

 from the ancient flintlock musket of the 

 Colonial days down to the modern high 

 power breech loading sporting and military 

 rifles; from the big, clumsy horse pistol 

 down to the modern automatic Colt; from 

 the long single barrel muzzle loading shot 

 gun down to the modern breech loading 

 double gun of to-day. He has described 

 and illustrated many types in so practical 

 and simple a way as to leave little to be 

 desired on the part of the student of the 

 art of gun making. 



Major Farrow has also given a complete 

 history of the developments in ammunition, 

 from the days of the old powder horn and 

 bullet mould down to the modern high 

 power metallic cartridges, and gives an ex- 

 haustive treatise on the subject of reloading 

 modern shells. 



The subject of revolver shooting is also 

 fully and minutely discussed and illustrated. 



In fact, Major Farrow's present work 

 may be termed a complete encyclopedia of 

 small arms and ammunition, and every 

 sportsman, every soldier and every naval 

 officer who desires to know all there is to 

 know about his chosen sport or profession 

 should study this work carefully. 



The price of the book is $5, and it is 

 published by The Bradford Company, 143 

 Liberty street, New York City. 



THE WITCHERY OF SLEEP. 



Ostermoor & Company, 116 Elizabeth 

 street, New York city, makers of the fa- 

 mous Ostermoor mattresses, have gone into 

 a new line. They have recently published a 

 book entitled "The Witchery of Sleep," 

 which is a genuine work of art and is com- 

 posed of a collection of poems and prose 



articles by the world's greatest authors on 

 this always interesting subject. Among the 

 writers whose works are published in this 

 book are Shakespeare, Keats, Wordsworth, 

 Shelley, Ben Johnson, Longfellow, Byron, 

 Browning, Tom Hood, Edgar Fawcett, 

 Scott, Edward Everett Hale, Dr. Cyrus Ed- 

 son and others of equal prominence. 



The book is exquisitely illustrated, printed 

 on heavy paper and, in fact, is a gem of 

 workmanship. 



Ostermoor & Company tell me they are 

 printing 50,000 copies of this book and that 

 a copy will hereafter be given to each per- 

 son who buys an Ostermoor mattress. 

 While this arrangement will not induce any 

 one to buy a mattress, it illustrates the 

 liberal methods of this house and indicates 

 that these people expect to sell 150,000 mat- 

 tresses within the next year or 2; and they 

 will do it. They know how to advertise, 

 and people who make good goods and ad- 

 vertise them right always sell them in great 

 quantities. 



You can get an illustrated circular of 

 the book by writing Ostermoor & Company 

 and mentioning Recreation. 



The regular price <of "The Witchery of 

 Sleep" is $2 a copy, but it will be sold at 

 $1.50 to persons who mention Recreation 

 when ordering a copy. 



61 



THE OLD MADE NEW. 



Jessie Emerson Moffat undoubtedly yield- 

 ed to a popular weakness when she deter- 

 mined to write an historical novel, but her 

 intellectual kinship with the hosts of simi- 

 lar writers went no farther. "A Friend at 

 Court," is that seeming impossibility, an 

 historical romance with a new, fresh plot. 



The "friend at court" is Mme. de Main- 

 tenon, trusted counselor and comrade of 

 Louis XIV, of France. The hero and hero- 

 ine of the clever story, Francois de Mow- 

 bray and Marguerite de la Verge, have been 

 betrothed since childhood, but they only 

 meet, under disguised identity, when one is 

 an ardent advocate of the royalist, the other 

 of the Huguenot cause. The plot is too 

 good to spoil by further recapitulation, but 

 love, romance, abundant action, sword play 

 and even tragedy combine to maintain 

 varied but unbroken interest to the last 

 chapter. Incidentally both Louis XIV. and 

 Mme. de Maintenon grow unwontedly real 

 in the telling, with other clever character 

 sketches of varied excellence. He who 

 loves a lover and he who enjoys exciting 

 reading will alike rejoice in and over "A 

 Friend at Court." 



The style of the book is fair, the situa- 



