The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 15

I Li. cr SATURDAY REVIEW OF BOOKS AND ART. SUPFUOUNT TO TH TORK TIMES. Copyright. 1W9.

THE NEW TORK TIMES COMPANT. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1899. SIXTEEN PAGES. CONTENTS. Page, lira.

OlinhanL Her Autobiography Just Published Very In-teresting Passages from It 313 Mrs. Browning and Her Father. Her Brother's Recent Letter Emphasizing the Parents' Tyranny and 31- Water Supply Books. The Latest and Best In Current Literature-Sanitary Engineering. Reviewed J.

the Women of Kipling. It Is Not Women, But Men, Who Attract Read-. .1 ers in His Writings 312 War. Art. and Mr.

Howells. The Novelist's Recent Assertion that war Never Inspired Anything Beautirui in ait or Literature. By W. J. HENDERSON 316 -Cooks of the Day.

vltterrfrom Readers About Them A Bright and Interesting Feature. 314 Art in America. tecture Brooks Adams's Speech at the Sculpture Society Dinner .309 George Borrow. Further Features of Prof. Knapp's Biography of Him 310 Yiddish.

Literature In This Mixed Tongue Produced in This Century 308 Peace. A Russian Writes a Book on the Necessity for It in- Europe 310 Bealf. Col. Hinton's Memoir of Him Praised and Defended 311 Old Authors. Interesting Notes in a Philadelphia Catalogue of Them ....318 The Tale My Book Titles Tell 316 Book News in London.

Cable Letter from H. 312 Spenser at the Orolier Club 313 Notes and News. Items Gathered This Week from New York and Boston Publishers 317 Stray Topics .318 The Week in Art 320 Questions and Answers 320 Reviews of Other Books. Von Lenz's The Great Piano Virtuosos 310 Miss Pool's "Sand 'n' 309 Henderson's The Orchestra 308 Stevenson's "College Memories 308 "The Poetry of the 309 As a Magazine Words from Headers 311 Gilbert Parker Protests 307 Mr. Kipling's Side Letter from IRVING PUTNAM 307 Topics of the Week, 305 The One Who Looks On.

By WILLIAM WALLACE WHITELOCK ..312 The New York Times, Saturday Edition, with Review of Books and Art, 1 Per Tear. Topics of the "Week. At last word has gone forth that we are to have an authorized edition of Mr. Kipling's Departmental Ditties "the first ever issued. These verses will appear in one volume, together with "Ballads and Barrack Room Ballads," about June 1 from the press of the Doubleday McClure Company.

As Mr. Kipling has been revising the Ditties for the last few weeks, it is not positively known Just in what formjtho material will appear. Mr. Kipling is a very impressionable critic as regards his own works. And his impressions are rarely the same.

What may appear good to-day may be condemned on the morrow. However, the lovers" of the original Ditties may be sure of one thing: We believe, that Kipling has rarely retouched his work without improving it, paradoxical as it may eeem. email satisfaction, wi think, in realizing that what he reads is what the poet would have him read and by it be remembered. It is understood that the fifth volume of MacMas-ter's History of the People of the United States is now approaching completion', but, on account of the lateness of the season, and notwithstanding the fact that educators al over the country have been making eager, inquiries, it may be held over by the publishers, D. Appleton until the Fall.

E. S. Purcell, author of the "Life of Cardinal Manning," whose death was announced by cable a fortnight ago, passed away in his seventy-sixth year. The announcement of the fact of his advanced age will be a surprise to many persons who recall the spirit, vigor, and strength with which he responded to the attacks made upon hjsjworkItjnay also ijbe brought, to mind aOhCdiscuseton aroused by the boolc greatly interested the late Mr. Gladstone, who was freely mentioned in According to Sir Wemyss Reld, the deceased statesman made It his chief topic of conversation, for weeks, and no public event sufficed to drive it from his 'mind.

The London Academy seems to have weighed the worth of Mr. Moulton-Barrett's communication object-ingthrimbncaU6ndfwra to have found it wanting in several conspicuous particulars, Mr. Moulton-Barrett ventures to say that few fathers would have taken thn bnnd fr man that acted as the poet did. But why did he so act? inquires The Academy. This is the answer: Both he and Miss Barrett loathed concealment.

The simple fact ie that her father had shown himself the violent opponent of another daughter's marriage with a man he did 4 Miss Barrett was present at a scene which suggested to her that her father would not stop short of personal violence were her own engagement known, and, as all know, her father showed his love for her after her marriage by neVer opening the letters she addressed to r-r- Since Mr. William Waldorf Astor's appearance in the literary arena he has written several things, some of which showed a keen, observing, end not altogether unimaginative mind; others showed the result of what must have been no small amount of literary toil and patient research. But in all that he has hitherto done there-has hardly, been-revealed- the Individuality that one might expect. At length he has his opportunity to make such a revelation. How he has improved It will be a matter of great interest, possibly of history.

He is to have in the June number of The Pall -Mall Magazine an article on the founder of the family In America, John Jacob Astor. We understand that the article traces the stirring and tragic Incidents that led to the establishment of Astoria, together with many details concerning early family history. The text will be appropriately illustrated from unpublished drawings, portraits, Here, then, is Mr. Astor's opportunity. Thefleld is-not should make himself distinctly master of it.

He has the chance of his life to make it very clear why Jie has adopted the profession of litterateur. An important and interesting posthumous work of Alphonse Daudet has just appeared in Paris. It has a preface a brilliant yet sympathetic piece of literary work written by Mme. Daudet. It is to be hoped that some American publisher will seize the opportunity and bring out a translation.

The volume Is a collection of the novelist's memoranda of conversations, marginalia from his library, and the outlines and vague plots of stories that were never written. Included is the framework of a long novel on which Daudet bad set his heart. It Is called La Oaravane," and so sear and dear was it to the master that neither his son nor brother has dared to lay pen to it Was Gladstone desirous of giving William Morris the Poet Laureateshlp? What Mr. Mackail presents in his biography of Morris is most interesting. It looks as if Morris had been sounded about the matter.

Mr. Mackail writes: "In private conversation Morris always held that the proper function of a Poet Laureate was that of a ceremonial writer of official verse, and that in this particular case the Marquis of Lome was the person pointed out for the office." "The ceremonial writer of official verse" has the true Morris sound. Was it a Socialist's comment on the peculiar functions of a Poet Laureate? "Xprediiectioii for romance seems to be the recreation of the man of science. No one better understood Thackeray, nor was a more ardent admirer of him, than was Huxley. Justus Llebig, "The Columbus of Chemistry, delighted 1n DtfkensrProf.

Knappln his life of Borrow, tells us of his indebtedness to Prof. 8. P. Langley of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Prof.

Langley is the possessor of many autograph manuscript of Borrow, whtth the author of "The JJfe of Borrow reproduces. It is pleasant to learn that a man so devoted to abstract science as is the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution holds the author of Lavengro In such high estimation. WATER SUPPLY BOOKS. The Latest and Best in Current Literature' Sanitary Engineering Books. Reviewed for Tua New York Tihks Batudat Review br J.

James 2L Croes, Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers n4 Member of the Inntitule of Civil Engineer, Ac The provision of a proper water supply to communities has been the subject of discussion from the begin ning of history. The modern consideration of the sub -ject from a sanitary and economic standpoint "doe not'" date back more than fifty years. The American literature relating to the securing of the purity of a water supply and the protection of the health of it user from the dangers arising from the final disposition of the water after use had its inception less than a Quarter of a century ago. When In 1874 George H. Frost established la Cealfteflrt weekly enrineerlogjQttrjUiLJftJUltt.

United States which later was removed to New York, and which ha as The Engineering News proved Itself well worthy of the name It bears, he was unable for thro ywnrg (ft irartl.a oi.y 1 marl nan hnnk tfttflMng lit, water supply, water purification, sewerage, or sewage disposal. There were numerous works botfc of water supply- and sewerage In progress of construction throughout the country fragmentary discussions of princi pie and of methods of practice occurred in local reports, notably those of the Massachusetts State Board of and In the "proceedings of technical associations, but there was.no general statement of the fundamental principles governing the design and construction of sanitaryjwork juntil.l877.;when there ap- peared A Treatise on Water Supply and Hydraulio Engineering," by Fanning, (New York, D. Van Noetrand Company, 5.) in which the necessity of public water supplies, their value as an investment, the modes of collecting and distributing water' for towns, the protection of the water from pollution, and the details of the construction of the works required for a full and wholesome supply were fully Tbl valuable book," which Is now In Its fourteenth" has so far no competitor In its own line as a compendium of principles and practice to be observed in the design and construction of works for public water supply. As regards detail of Che latest practice in some point of construction, and especially as regard the sanitary aspect of the question, this book is not quite up to date, but there is no single publication which contains so much and so varied Information regarding the principles and practice of American water supply. For elaboration of Jhe speclai otJthU compfehenVlve subject, one must look to publications of more recent date.

The latest one of all, which has been -issued from the press within the last fortnight, Is en- -titled "The Element of Water upply Engineering," by E. Sherman Gould, C. (New York, Engineering News Publishing Company, $2.) The author, who differs from most of the more recent compilers of tech-hical books in being an experienced engineer, Instead of a college professor, covers the whole ground In a general way and goes into detail In the matter of the principal dimensions and quantities Involved In the designing of hydraulic works, covering points in which his long practical experience has shown htm that the, textbooks are generally deficient. He ha made a useful book, particularly to the young engineer," The great advances which have been made in method of scientific research during the past quarter of a century have caused so many subdivisions of subjects of In- vectlgatlon that It has become impossible for any one Investigator to pursue them all, and a general treatise even summarizing results and at the same time explaining them satisfactorily and intelligently Is Impracticable. The student of water supply, be he a scientist or an amateur seeking a general knowledge only, must Have at bis command quite a library of bookson.theSubJect.l If, for instance, he wants to know or to recall to mind the law which govern the motion of fluid, whether flowing in natural channels or confined In pipes, he must consult such a work as A Treatise on Hydraulics," by Mansfield Merrlman, (New York, John Wiley Sons.

$4.) now in it fifth edition, in which the essential principles of hydraulics and the rule de- duced from the latest experimental researches are presented with a conciseness and clearness not common In purely scientific books. If, on the other hand, he Is seeking Information of a more practical nature aa tomethods of carrying on the construction of water works, he cannot do better than peruse Some Details of Water Work Construction, by William IL Billing, (New York, Engineering Record Press, 2,) a book which, although lssncd ten years ago, is unique la character and ha a steady sale yet' Not only the engineer, but also the Inexperienced Water Commissioner or the taxpayer of an Inquiring turn of mind jnay. flnda this little book a good many valuable hints to.