and to assist him in becoming selfhelpful. (b) To interest the pupil in reading, and to increase his fund of knowledge.

The distinctive features of the Third Book are: (a) Its systematic gradation. (b) The Variety of its subject-matter, and the Continuity of thought for which it provides. (c) Its anticipation of the pupil's needs both in and out of the schoolroom.

The first three books have been received, and we presume the fourth and fifth will be ready soon. The authors are George I. Aldrich and Alexander Forbes.

Werner School Book Co., Chicago, Ill.:

"Four American Pioneers"Daniel Boone, David Crocket, George Rogers Clark, and Kit Carson. A Book for Young Americans, by Frances M. Perry and Katherine Beebe. This volume is another valuable addition to the "Four Great American Series," edited by James Baldwin, Ph. D. Price 50 cents.

Houghton, Mifflin and Co, Bos

ton:

"Jean Francois Millet," a Collection of Fifteen Pictures and a Portrait of the Painter, with Introduction and Interpretation by Estelle M. Hurll. Millet devoted his talent to the portrayal of a single theme, that of French peasant life. The selections included in this book are mainly those familiar to a great majority and therefore favorites.

"Three Outdoor Papers." By Thomas Wentworth Higginson, with a biographical sketch and an Index of Plants and Animals

Mentioned. The Procession of the Flowers, April Days and Water Lilies are the titles of these charming papers.

"Henry Esmond." By William Makepeace Thackeray, with an introduction and notes, and with seventy-six illustrations by George Du Maurier and others. Such an old friend needs no comment.

"The Unique Library Record" is the title of a book of 100 pages arranged by C. E. Palmerlee, County Superintendent of Schools, Lapeer, Mich. It contains Index, Catalogue, and Record and will prove valuable for use in schools and private libraries. Write Superintendent Palmerlee for terms.

Ex-President Cleveland, if any man, is at home with such a subject as "The Independence of the Executive," which is the title of his forthcoming paper in the June Atlantic. He begins with a masterly review of the growth of presidential power since the establishment of our government, and then, with characteristic decision, sums up those duties which are fundamentally and unavoidably the President's own.

The cover page of St. Nicholas is most attractive with the dainty Miss plucking June roses. The attractiveness of the cover, however, is only a prelude to what is to be found within-a regular feast for the little folks. The story of brave "Molly Pitcher" is told in verse by Laura E. Richards; "Pretty Polly Perkins," by Gabrielle É. Jackson, is continued and other interesting contributions. fill this number.

CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY

VOL. XLIX.

No. 7.

The old law of supply and demand holds as good in the reading world as elsewhere.

Where there is a demand there will be an endeavor to supply that demand; and often there is an attempt-successful in many many instances to create an abnormal demand in order that the supply may be enhanced, and when this abnormal condition exists in any field the result must be, will be bad; a diseased state results and bitter must be the medicine that will effect a radical cure.

The American people are, notably, a restless people, restless in politics, in social life, in business, in pleasure, and even in morals.

This restless condition is the result of many commingling factors, not necessary to be analyzed here, but which affords an opportunity to the schemer in all fields, to

arouse a following and to lead his dupes, for the time being, wherever he will; but the disease also carries with it its cure, and in a very short time the very restlessness of the people will cause them to break with their leader, and seek new fields, new excitement. Examples of this are seen most clearly, perhaps, in the political life, as there the common concern affects a larger number than in any other line.

This restless condition of mind takes away the desire, the power, of careful and deliberate thought, of that concentration that is necessary to fully enjoy the higher and more spiritual truths in the world. about us, and in the literature of the masters, and creates in its stead an appetite for the unreasonable. the startling, for the mental pyrotechnics that are flashed upon us

from all sides in a truly Fourth of July style. This appetite grows more rapidly than the food that it feeds upon, hence we see the forced efforts to supply the demand, while every such effort but increases the demand, and like Squeers's famous pupil there is a continual cry for "more."

To whom shall we charge this peculiar state of affairs?

To the producer or to the consumer? To the writer or the reader?

It would be a difficult task, indeed, to analyze all the conditions and place the blame where it justly belongs, but we believe that both parties are almost equally at fault and the question that is of most importance for us to solve is, "how shall we correct the evil?"

Who can answer the question, can solve the problem? He will be a true benefactor to his race, who shall be able to do so, and banish the low literary paper from the homes of the American people.

Legislation and law cannot accomplish it, else would the labors of Anthony Comstock have proved sufficient to drive out the class of writing against which he has been laboring. But he has only caused it to be issued with more care. It is not suppressed.

In a recent issue of the "Dial" the statement is made that "It is popular taste in literature that makes possible the existence of the

class of newspapers that so disgrace American civilization."

And in another article in the issue is the statement: "Literature is degraded to about the position of the lapdog of an idle woman."

These are rather startling statements and no doubt many of the "elect" will resent them, but they have lived all their lives in an atmosphere never chilled by the frosts of a low literary taste, and are unconscious that such an atmosphere exists, or if conscious, have had very slight whiffs from this, to them, far-away land.

How little the literary man knows of the literary (?) food of the other half! Half? Yea, rather, the other ninety-nine hundredths.

He sits in his library, surrounded by the works of the masters; his tables are piled high with the good literary periodicals of his own and other countries; he is continually searching for pearls in mines that are rich in all sorts of gems, where, if he should miss the pearl, he is likely to find a stone of no less worth; he breathes a rarefied air that will not sustain a less refined mortal, while, from this holy of holies, at rare intervals there is given to the admiring world, not the great living, throbbing, restless world, but the world bounded by the ponderous tomes and the yellow manuscript, a deep disquisition upon some recondite