The Leisure Hour. (R.T.S. 7s. 6d.) — Mr. Silas K. Hocking
pro- vides a long serial story, " The Awakening of Anthony Weir," for this number. Anthony Weir is a young minister, excep- tionally able, but worldly, and the story unfolds his gradual awakening. Among the travel articles are an account of Ronda and " Cycling in the Black Forest," by A. R. Quinton. Cycling is not, we should have thought, the best way of seeing that particular country, except one's time be limited. However, let those who want to make a cycling expedition try it. We have hoard people say one such expedition does for all. " A Visit to Travancore," by Sir G. B. Wolseley, is rather stiffly written, but interesting. Algiers is described, more or less, in Mr. Maunders's "The Shadow on the White City," a reminiscence of an eclipse expedition. "The River of Dreams," which, we suppose, is in New Guinea, or somewhere in the Indian Ocean, is by Mr. Louis Backe. "A Visit to Halle and its Charities" is interest- ing. " Queen Alexandra's Country" is delightfully chatty and entertaining. "High Life in Switzerland" deals, of course, with the open-air cure. It is the penalty we pay for mortality, this inseparable connection between the high places of the earth and the last stages of human weakness. Miscellaneous and literary articles cover, as usual, a wide range. "Short Weight: the Dodges of Dishonest Dealers" has a painful interest to the twentieth.century optimist. " A Gossip on Cotton," " Old Pottery and China," " Personalities in Parliament," especially the last, are sure to find readers. Boston, the Brontes' , Zachary Macaulay, Cowper's Uncollected Works, Negro Letters, the Duke of Norfolk and the Temporal Power of the Pope, and Life with the Boers in Ceylon, will provide a variedl food for literary minds. We have given the subjects and not the titles, as these are rather unwieldy. Natural philosophy is not neglected. Mr. Bullen writes on "Weather Forecasting" apologetically; Mr. Bacon on " Ice Crystals " ; and Mr. A. D. Austin on " The Stars in the Southern Skies." Other articles of especial interest are " The Trade Guilds of Turkey "—beautifully illustrated —by Lucy Garnett; " The First Australian Ministry," and other papers on Australia ; and " Lumberers of Minnesota." " Lumberere " is a clumsy word ; why not " lumbermen " or " loggers " P The " Over-Sea Notes," " Science and Discovery Notes," and " Varieties" of the monthly numbers are always interesting. Of np.to-date articles we may seriously recommend " Secular Education in New Zealand," " The Servant Problem and Domestic Architecture," and the short sketches of " How I Spend my Daily Life," which, by the way, might have been indexed under a more convenient form. The domestic servant, curiously enough, does not give her account of a day's work. The lady who writes " Wives, Mothers, and Maids" is by no means optimistic about the future. The Leisure Hour is as good reading as ever, sober and informing, more than ever deserving the vulgar but expressive epithet of a " stand-by."
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