* * * * There is something misleading about New
York by Miss Ethel Fleming (Black, 21s.) which we can exemplify by the following extract : a lady is surprised to see the crowds that throng the streets at one o'clock in the down-town district, so she says to a policeman : " Officer, what parade is this ? " " Madame," was the smiling answer, " this is no parade. It's just everybody going out to lunch." Now we have no doubt that the cop " gave his smiling answer, but not, we feel sure, in those particular words. To cavil at such a trifle would be petty, did the book as a whole give a good idea of the noise, virility, luxury, haste, strength, beauty, and lusty youthfulness of this " mettlesome, mad, extravagant city." Unfortunately it does not, either in text or illustrations. Yet New York (not only the greatest city in America, but the greatest Jewish city, the greatest Irish city, the greatest Italian city, and the second greatest French city in the world) is of such extra- ordinary interest, sociologically, architecturally, commercially, historically, that no book about it can fail to have good things in it. There are some to be found in this volume.
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