venture of doubt what reason and commonsense would suggest,—namely, that when public utilities that are to-day netting a few individuals from three to ten million dollars a year are operated by the city for the benefit of the people, the city and the people receive the benefits now diverted to the pockets of the public-service corporations, the corrupt boss and the corrupted servants of privileged interests whom the boss foists upon the people to misrepresent and betray them. No person, we believe, who is not blinded by self-interest, can read the two chapters in which our author considers "The Way Out" and "Does Municipal-Ownership Pay?" without recognizing that along this pathway alone lie municipal progress and civic integrity. VIII. DIRECT-LEGISLATION. Our author appreciates, as do all the more broad-visioned statesmen who are not the servants of privilege, the importance the imperative importance of Direct-Legislation to meet present conditions and preserve the government to the people. "Along with this demand for home-rule is a growing sentiment for direct-legislation through the initiative and referendum. This is but a further expression of the spirit of democracy. ... Its purpose is to democratize legislation, to enable the people to assume control of affairs, and insure responsible as well as responsive government. It provides a secure defence against corruption. For lobbyists will not buy legislation that cannot be delivered, or which is subject to veto by the people. The referendum will reëstablish democratic forms, which have been lost through the complexity of our life, the great increase in population, the misuse of federal and state patronage, and the illegal combination of the boss with privileged interests. "The initiative, referendum, and recall will enlarge the legislative body until it embraces all the people. It will dissolve the alliance between the boss and the privileged interests and put an end to the corruption which follows a control of the party." This survey will indicate our author's line of reasoning and reviews on the great subject of municipal corruption and misrule, and how the evil may be banished in such a way as enormously to enrich the cities while restoring democratic government. The chapters on "The Cost of the Slum," "The City's Wreckage" and "The Wards of the City" deserve special attention. Mr. Howe dwells at length on the treatment of society toward youthful delinquents and toward erring girls and women and other victims of our social order, in a manner worthy of twentieth-century enlightened statesmanship. The whole discussion breathes the noble humanity that pervades Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, while profoundly thoughtful are the chapters devoted to "The City Republic," "The City Beautiful," "The City for the People," and "The Hope of Democracy." IX. THE CITY'S TREASURE AND THE REVENUES OF THE CITY. In "The City's Treasure" and "The Revenues of the City" we have a luminous discussion of the natural wealth which should be the source of the city's revenue, because it would be the revenue that the municipality has a perfect right to enjoy. And this revenue, if faithfully collected, would be sufficient to make the city a little republic of artistic beauty, rich in all that would enhance and make life fuller, sweeter and happier in so far as externals can of the individual. And these revenues would, contribute to the development and happiness if we were wise and sane enough to be logical and just, be derived from the natural monopolies or public utilities and from the unearned increment in land—that value which the holder of the land does not create, but which is made by the people by society, and which is therefore in justice due to society. The City the Hope of Democracy is a book so rich in vital truth, so instinct with the higher wisdom and statesmanship which is the hope and promise of the twentieth century, so luminous with the spirit of humanity or the new conscience, without which there can be no spiritual growth or permanent uplift, that we would urge every reader of THE ARENA to place it among the few books that he places on the list as works that he should purchase and study. A History of the United States and Its People. By Elroy McKendree Avery. Vol. II. Illustrated. Cloth. Pp. 458. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company. THE HE SECOND volume of Dr. Avery's monumental history of America confirms the expectations raised by Volume One. It is a thorough work, scholarly but not pedantic-a history that reflects and epitomizes the verified historic data of our preceding historians, and that is of special worth in that accuracy has been made the crowning aim of both author and publishers. An illustrative example of this is found in the action of the publishers, who destroyed several hundred dollars' worth of expensively engraved plates, portraits and illustrations made for this volume, when after exhaustive research for verification it was found that the pictures were fanciful rather than true, or when there was serious question as to their authenticity, and, as in some cases, where portraits that have long passed muster as representing certain eminent Colonial leaders proved to be pictures of members of the same family belonging to much later generations. Volume Two is concerned with our Colonial history. It opens with Champlain and New France and passes to a discussion of "The Evolution of a Colonial System," after which "Virginia Under the Charter" engages our 99 66 background absolutely essential to a comprehensive understanding of the Pilgrim Fathers and the principles for which they stood. The chapters devoted to "The Council for New England," "Massachusetts Bay," "Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson,' 'Connecticut Plantations and the Pequot War,” “Annexation and Confederation," "Massachusetts Troubles," "The Puritan and the Heretic," and "A Glimpse at Plymouth" embrace the history of Colonial New England, clearly outlined and treated in an admirable spirit, judicial, temperate and sufficiently comprehensive for the general reader. "Maryland Before the Restoration" and "New Sweden" with its tragic fate are also chapters of special interest, the whole forming a vivid and informing panorama of the Colonial period. Dr. Avery deserves great credit for the fine spirit of impartiality manifested in these pages, especially in noting the battle of free thought and religious tolerance with the iron will of the old-time religionists who not only thought they knew God's will a little better than any one else, but who were determined to compel all men to bow to their conception of what was the truth. The broad spirit of religious toleration which marked the charter obtained by Lord Baltimore for Maryland contrasts strangely with the narrow savagery of the Puritans of Massachusetts, especially in their treatment of the Baptists and Quakers. Very interesting and suggestive is the history of the Dutch in the settlement of New Amsterdam. These men came from one of the freest lands of Christendom; but autocratic power had unhappily been delegated to the Dutch West India Company, and the rule of New Amsterdam was marked by a spirit of reaction and despotism that would have satisfied the ideals of the most anti-democratic ruler of the age, while not two hundred miles east of New Amsterdam was the Pilgrim colony of Plymouth where the broad democratic spirit imbibed by the colonists during their ten-years' sojourn in the liberty-fostering atmosphere of the Netherlands was reflected in a democratic government and a degree of religious liberty and toleration rarely found in that age. One of the great features of excellence in this work is the complete manner in which important but hitherto generally ignored historical facts are treated essential to a perfect understanding of our Colonial history. Comparatively few people, even among those who regard themselves as intelligent, have anything like a clear conception of the great and fundamental difference that marks the Pil grims and the Puritans. No superficial treatment of this subject would be sufficient to clear away the general ignorance and misapprehension that exist. Our author, however, wisely devotes a whole chapter to Separatism in England and the struggle for religious independence and non-conformity, which was followed at length by the flight of such as were able to evade the lynx-eyed officials. The Presbyterians as well as the Church of England exhibited the intolerant and persecuting spirit which at this period was also in full flower in all the great Roman Catholic lands. The Separatists were the true Independents, and under the leadership of men who reflected the broader, truer and more liberal religious spirit that has continually expanded in the more democratic nations, became in a large way the pioneers of freedom and democracy. Many of these splendid men and women of high moral convictions escaped to Holland where they found a refuge, while their companions in England remained true to their ideals. After ten years of sojourn in the free Netherlands, where the little band imbibed great draughts of freedom and where their conceptions of government were wonderfully broadened, a large proportion of the little company pushed out over the seas to the New World. Their compact, corresponding to a constitution, was democratic in character, and the breadth of spirit and Christian toleration of the Pilgrims was in bold contrast to the narrow, bigoted and cruel spirit exhibited by the Presbyterians or Puritans who settled Salem, Boston and adjacent regions and who established a theocracy, with the result which ever follows the attempts to join church and state, despotism and persecution by those who blasphemously assume that they have a monopoly of Divine truth. Another interesting feature of this work is the extended history of the settlement of the free and liberal colonies or plantations in Rhode Island which became a veritable city of refuge and an asylum for the persecuted ones of New England. Here the principles of free government and democracy were more greatly furthered than anywhere else in the New World. Dr. Avery calls attention to the fact that here we find the first introduction in this country of what is now known as the initiative and referendum. On this point he observes: "On the nineteenth of May, 1647, the inhabitants of the mainland towns of Providence and Warwick and the island towns of Portsmouth and Newport met in convention or mass-meeting at Portsmouth to put the new government into operation. . . . Similar conventions were held in May of 1648, 1649, and 1650. Step by step, a frame of government with legislative, judicial and executive departments was worked out and a code of laws was enacted and a bill of rights adopted. An interesting feature of the legislative system was what is now well known as 'the initiative and the referendum.”” Judging from the first two volumes, this history will prove indispensable to all thoughtful Americans who wish to be thoroughly familiar with the story of our great land. The typographical excellence of the work is in keeping with the author's literary efforts. Illustrations, type, paper and binding alike re flect the high-water mark in the book-making art. The Saxons. A Drama of Christianity in the North. By Edwin Davies Schoonmaker. Boards, Cloth Back. Pp. 214. Chicago: The Hammersmark Publishing Company. The Saxons is one of the best reading dramas that has appeared in years. The thought is elevated and it is presented with the dignity that such a theme requires; while considered as an imaginative work it deserves special praise at a time when the paucity of strong and original work is one of the most painful facts in relation to American literature. Moreover, there is much fine philosophy interwoven throughout the drama which deals with the attempted subjugation of the Saxons by the militant and fanatical Christian church of the Dark Ages. Intellectually and philosophically the play is divided into three grand divisions or group ing drama that we are concerned, and as such the play will prove a work of deep interest, affording much pleasure and mental stimulation. ings in which men and women are seen acting It is, however, with the composition as a readunder the compulsion of widely varying ideals. Thus the Saxon group reflects the fine, rugged and in many respects normal spirit of our primitive ancestors of the North. They are still the children of the forest, the lovers of freedom and of justice, but to a certain extent under the influence of the mythology of the North. A second group represents the narrow, militant and fanatical theocratic influence of the Dark Ages. These persons are for compel ling all men and women at the peril of their life to believe as they believe. They have dwelt on the Blood Atonement idea until their thought is tinged with blood, and from the ideal of the Sacrificial Lamb on Calvary they have harked back to the savage scenes of Old Testament history till they have become as blood-thirsty and fanatical as were the Jews in the early days. They are also intensely superstitious in this respect even more so than the Saxons. Intolerance, fanaticism, lust for power, the spirit of persecution and the baleful influence of superstition which marked the church during and after the Crusades are here vividly brought out, and the author displays remarkable knowledge of psychology in depicting the growth of the religious mania which ends in practical insanity in the case of the more pronounced fanatics. The third influence with which the play is concerned is found in the Abbot of St. Giles and his fellow-workers. Here one sees pure and undefiled religion-religion in which reason sways the conscience and man is under the compulsion of the fundamental moral verities. The Abbot is a man of broad vision. While others are worshiping the church and are engrossed in narrow concepts of religious truth, he is worshiping the Infinite All-Father. He is a student of Plato and the philosophers no less than of the great Nazarene and the theology of the Jews. Many of the thoughts which our author puts into his mouth are reflections of the noblest religious concepts of our age. There are supernatural agents brought into the play which add weird interest to the drama. Though there are many very strong dramatic passages and though the scenery would make many magnificent stage pictures, we imagine that the play would have to be materially changed and much of the written word eliminated if it were to be successfully staged. Songs in a Sun Garden. By Coletta Ryan. Cloth. Pp. 102. Price $1.00. Boston: Herbert B. Turner & Company. THIS Volume of poems by a gifted young woman deserves more than passing notice, as there is much imagination displayed in some of the lines-something all too rare in present-day verse. Many of the poems are also rich in rhythmic and musical qualities that tend to sing the lines into the mind of the reader. We note with regret the absence of the strong note of humanitarianism voiced in protest against unjust social conditions that marked the poems contributed by Miss Ryan to The Coming Age a few years since and which led us to hope that she would take up the poetic mantle laid down by John Boyle O'Reilly. In these earlier poems there was present the same recognition of the cruel wrongs suffered by the poor through unjust conditions that flamed forth in the poems of Charles Mackay and Gerald Massey during the Anti-Corn-Law and Chartist agitations in England, and in the burning verse of Lowell and Whittier during the anti-slavery agitation with us. These poems, so rich in promise, led us to hope that in Miss Ryan the poor of the Republic would find a powerful voice in the battle for economic emancipation, and the absence of these lines and others of a similar character is a distinct disappointment to us. One of the best poems in the volume is the following entitled "God Is Near": "God is trying to speak with me and I am trying to hear; 66 (God is near.) And strive, O strive to be brave and true; And the deeds undone that we both might do! (God is near.) God is trying to speak to me and I am trying to hear. O pray that we may not grow too weak And love his image that fills the eyes (God is near.)” With his sad little gait as he comes from the fight, When he feels that he has n't done all that he might! Oh, so fearless of man, yet afraid of a frog, My near little, queer little, dear little dog! He shivers and shivers and shakes with the cold; He huddles and cuddles, though three summers old, And, forsaking the sunshine, endeavors to rove At table his majesty, dying for meat,— My near little, queer little, dear little dog We believe that Miss Ryan has a bright future if she continues in her literary work and gives her mind and heart full play, for she Here is another fine little verse entitled is a young woman of strong emotion, a child Aspiration": "In life what wouldst thou wish to be?' said they In lighter vein are Miss Ryan's verses to her little dog. They are lines that will be appreciated by those who have pets who have crept into their affection by their revelations of affection and intelligence: "My brindle bull-terrier, loving and wise, With his little screw-tail and his wonderful eyes, With his little white breast, and his white little paws, Which, alas! he mistakes very often for claws; of the imagination, and if no conventional or reactionary power curbs or holds in check her higher and finer impulses, she will do much fine and vital work. The Sage-Brush Parson. By A. B. Ward. Cloth. Pp. 390. Price, $1.50. Boston: Little, Brown & Company. THIS is one of the strongest and most human stories we have read in months, and though in treatment the tale is romantic and at times melodramatic, the atmosphere is markedly realistic, making the story, in spite of its romanticism, redolent of the soil and instinct with the life of the rugged and rough miningworld in the arid, parched and barren sagebrush country of Nevada, where nature hoards her treasure under a stern and austere mantle and where mighty mountains and canyons compass the desert plains. Into this western mining-camp, rich in its types of mankind and strong in the boldest contrasts, into a community where men are at once reckless of human life, liberal in their patronizing of the saloons and lavish in their use of profanity, enters the brilliant but erratic Methodist clergyman,-a born poet, a genius, with all the eccentricities and contradictions of such a character; a man with a prophet's |