20 DECEMBER 1884, Page 20

On the Wings of the Wind. By Henry Frith. (Routledge

and Sons.)—Mr. Frith tells here some railway stories, and tells them capi- tally, working well a theme which, in spite of some prosaio belonging, is not unproductive of romance. No lad ever found among pirates or Red Indians more exciting adventures than did Jacob Brammer among his steam-engines, stationary and locomotive. "Seventy Miles an Hour," a shorter story, in which we read how a swindler was overtaken at Liverpool just as he was about to start with his ill- gotten gains for the States, is very good. Indeed, all the tales are excellent, and the young reader may also, if he has anything of a mechanical turn, learn, as he goes on, something about the construc- tion and working of an engine.