Royal Girls. By M. E. W. Sherwood. Ill. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price $1.25. One thing readers will learn from this volume by Mrs. Sherwood, and that is that girls who happen to be born princesses are very much like those who are born in ordinary households, and that human nature is pretty much the same in a palace as it is in an American farmhouse. But they will learn, too, that in most royal families the daughters are subjected to a course of discipline and training more severe and exacting than ever fell to the lot of an American girl. They are obliged to study early and late; they must have not only a thorough knowledge of the languages, of music and of court etiquette, but also of the politics of their own and other governments; they must know something of statecraft and of diplomacy, for no princess knows what station she may be some time called on to fill. No American girl need envy them, says Mrs. Sherwood. “They are in chains, all of them. They must be careful what they say, do, think even. With royal girls, what interrupted destinies, what cruel disappointments, what unhappy marriages, what a contrast between the desire and fulfilment do we constantly see.” There are certain things in which Mrs. Sherwood thinks they might serve as models to American girls, with whom she frequently compares them. The volume contains sketches of the royal girls of Italy, of Spain, of Denmark, of Russia, of England and of Germany, and two chapters are devoted to “Carmen Sylva,” the queen of Roumania and the empress of Austria. The author describes very entertainingly the home life of some of these girls, and the rules of etiquette to which they are obliged to conform. The volume is well illustrated with portraits.
What People Live By. By Count Leo Tolstoi. Translated by Mrs. Aline Delano. Boston: D. Lothrop Company. Price $1.00. A remarkable little story by the distinguished Russian writer, Count Tolstoi, has been translated by Mrs. Aline Delano, and cannot fail to impress the reader more strongly than ever with the wonderful power of the author in dealing with religious or psychological subjects. It was written for a distinct purpose; to show, in the words of the title, “What People Live By.” Nothing can be more severely simple than the story, which is thus summed up. “I have learned,” says Tolstoi, “that man lives not by care for himself, but by love.... I know that God has given life to men, and wishes them to live. Now I know another truth: the truth that God does not wish man to live apart; therefore He has not revealed to them what each needs for himself. He wishes them to live together, and therefore reveals to each the others’ wants.” The translation seems to be very close to the original.
THE BEST TOY EVER INVENTED.
FUN! FUN!! FUN!!!
THE WORLD’S EDUCATOR; OR, EDUCATIONAL TOY AND GAME.
WIT. WISDOM. WONDER.
Children and grown people enjoy it together.