Book Notices THE SIAMESE CAT. Charles Milner Rideout. McClure. 1907. Here is no need of a book review, but rather of a wailing, lyric lamentation. "Beached Keels" heralded an American Conrad. And now, by way of fulfilling that promise, Mr. Rideout gives us an utterly conventional novelette. It is appalling to see how the ever-alert, commercial octopus extends its coils even to one of the most unconventional, sturdy, and, in every way, promising of our younger authors, and extorts from him a summer romance of the George Barr McCutcheon type, spaced wide upon heavy paper to attain the dimensions of a book, and adorned with illustrations of the fashion-plate variety. The story contains all the time-worn essentials, the charming American girl traveling in the Orient with the inevitable maiden aunt, the manly American youth, love at first sight, the villain in the person of an amiable guide, and finally, to supply the necessary element of mystery and extravaganza, a Siamese cat, whose silver collar is adorned with cockle-bells, in one of which is hidden a ruby of fabulous worth. There are enough abductions, knifings, thefts, mysterious assaults, and parleys at the pistol's point to satisfy even the most exacting critic of detective stories. Mr. Rideout displays all the resource required by such fiction. When it becomes necessary for the villain to forge the hero's name, he proves himself an adept forger; when it becomes necessary for the maiden aunt to run at top speed, she develops a latent talent for sprinting. More than this, Mr. Rideout has mastered all the choicest stylisms of summer-novelette phraseology, and we find such bits as, "Scarlett replied in cold and feeble words for a heart aglow;" "It was she! and Aunt Julia;” “He had seen violent death before, but this—." The book is a very good specimen of its kind, no doubt; brisk, exciting, entertaining. But to those who remember "Beached Keels," with its wind-swept idyl of first-love, and its unforgettable tragedy of passion and revenge, "The Siamese Cat" will seem a very melancholy affair indeed. L. S. THE FUTURE IN AMERICA. H. G. Wells. Harper & Bros. 1906. There can be very little doubt that America and Americans are grossly misjudged by the majority of foreigners. There can be as little doubt that two foreigners have understood us better than we have understood ourselves,-James Bryce and now, as his latest book proves, H. G. Wells. "The Future in America" is the very best possible complement to "The American Commonwealth." Mr. Bryce has. demonstrated why we have become what we are. Mr. Wells sets out, not to prophesy (as the title might suggest), but to point out what we may become if we want to. In one way no one could be better fitted than Mr. Wells to interpret American progress. He is the poet who has dreamed about the future, in "The Time Machine" and the "War of the Worlds." More than that, he is a metaphysician, interested in the "Becoming" of Heraclitus, the processes and potentialities of things, and seems in love with the very idea of progress itself. Naturally our prosperity exhilarates him, "the morning-time hopefulness of it, the spacious, magnificent opportunity, the optimism of swift, progressive effort in material things." He makes no attempt to belittle it; if anything, he exults in our prosperity. He makes no ominous predictions as to its decline.. Rather, it seems to him as undeniable and as inevitable as gravitation. Instead, he interrogates it, and puts the momentous question, "How far does America mean to escape or improve upon its purely material destinies ?" So, Mr. Wells' search is not for American traits, but for American ideals. He means to discover, if he can, "what vague consciousness of a common purpose" there may be among us. Everywhere "not only among men and women, but in the mute expressive presences of house and appliance, of flag and public building, and the large collective visages of crowds," he finds some hint or clue to the ultimate answer. Vistas of shanties from a railroad train, contribute no less than economic facts; the Fenway, the Bowery, and the Fields Houses no less than the Capitol. A messenger boy in a subway car at midnight, an Italian killed on a trestle, became symbols of national habits and national tendencies. The book is nothing more than a sketch; the impressions are hasty; but they are never superficial. In every bit of American life he has caught a glimpse of, Mr. Wells has seen its inmost significance, because to everything he puts the same question. His answer to the question is a great deal less important than the startling timeliness of his book. For Mr. Wells has come to interrogate our progress at the very moment we have begun to interrogate it ourselves. We, too, have begun to see that our much-belauded prosperity is merely the blind energy, the vitality of a young body. The question stares us in the face, What are we going to do with it? Mr. Wells puts the question with more definiteness, more subtlety, more picturesqueness, and quiet humor than any of our numerous "muckrakers" and sociologists. "The Future in America" is an invitation to think upon the subject of our national destiny. And no one can afford to pass it by. L. S. THE HARVARD MONTHLY FOUNDED IN 1885 HERMANN HAGEDORN, Jr. '07, Editor-in-Chief JOHN HALL WHEELOCK '08, Secretary Editors RALPH MONTGOMERY ARKUSH '07 CHARLES HENRY DICKERMAN '07 EDWARD ROYCE '07 RUDOLPH ALTROCCHI '08 GUY EMERSON '08 ROBERT EMMONS ROGERS '09 JOHN WILLIAM BAKER '08, Business Manager, The Harvard Union, Cambridge Assistant Business Managers WILLIAM FRANCIS LOW, JR. '07 OLIVER COLT WAGSTAFF '07 HAROLD M. PITMAN '09 THE HE HARVARD MONTHLY is published on the first day of each month from October to July inclusive, by undergraduates of Harvard University. The aim of the MONTHLY is, primarily, to preserve as far as possible the best literary work that is produced in college by undergraduates; and, secondly, to furnish a field for the discussion of all questions relating to the policy and the condition of the University. In the accomplishment of these aims the MONTHLY invites the co-operation of the students and the alumni. All manuscripts, business communications and books for review should be sent to the Sanctum, Harvard Union, Cambridge, Massachusetts. An Editor will be in the Sanctum every day except Saturday, from 1.30 to 2.30 P.M., to confer with the candidates about their work. Entered at Boston Post-office as second-class mail matter. PRESS OF CAUSTIC-CLAFLIN CO., CAMBRIDGE, MASS. EVERYTHING A STUDENT NEEDS Stationery and Fountain Pens CAN BE FOUND AT H. H. CARTER & CO.'S, Co-operative Discount to Harvard Men. 5 Somerset Street, near Beacon. ALFRED R. BROWN & CO. TAILORS & OUTFITTERS For spring we present the NEWEST 5 Brattle Street Harvard Square Cambridge TELEPHONE AND MAINE RAILROAD. LOWEST RATES FAST TRAIN SERVICE BETWEEN BOSTON AND CHICAGO ST. LOUIS, ST. PAUL AND ALL POINTS WEST, NORTHWEST, SOUTHWEST HARVARD REPRESENTATIVES ALEXANDER & METCALF, WITH LEAVITT & PEIRCE Where tickets and information regarding rates and service can be obtained D. J. 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