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clever, having the real spirit of the occasion. " Walt Whitman, the National Poet,'' is the title of a series of interesting articles announced. The articles will give the personal side of the good gray poet and con tain romantic phases of the poet's life, concerning which nothing has ever been published.

WHAT SHALL WE READ? This column is devoted to brief notices of recent pub lications. It"e hope to make it a ready-reference column for those of our readers who desire to in form themselves as to the latest and best new books. (Legal publications are noticed elsewhere.) One of the most pathetic stories we have read for a long time is The King of the Town.' The scene is laid in a mining town, and the hero, who devotes, and finally sacrifices, his life to the cause of trying to improve the condition and elevate the moral character of the rude natures which make up the population, is a man who has an unfortunate, in fact criminal, past, for which he endeavors to atone by his noble services to his fellow-men. The story is exceedingly inter esting, and is told in a most delightful manner. It is a book which appeals to the best in one's nature. The author of An Elusive Lover* is evidently in debted to Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" for the strange idea of a dual personality upon which her story is based. The hero is by turns an artist possessing every lovable virtue, and a dissipated, worthless fellow, utterly devoid of virtue of any kind. The story is absorbingly interesting, and the plot is so skilfully worked up that the denouement comes almost as a surprise to the reader. Anyone wishing a book which will keep his curiosity excited to the utmost, and which he will find it impossible to lav down until the mystery is unravelled, should certainly procure a copy of this story. Lovers of chess will find in Mr. F. K. Young's new book, J he Grand Tactics of Chess? much to in terest and instruct. Mr. Young's method of treating the game differs from that of any other writer, and his work is a revelation of the possibilities of chess. Regarding the chess-board as a battlefield, the meth ods of military art are ingeniously adapted to the game. The student is guided surely and unerringly through the difficulties which beset him, and the pro1 The King ok the Town. By Ellen Mackubin. Hough ton, Mifflin & Co., Boston and New York, 1898. Cloth, Si.oo. - An Elisive Lover. By Virna Woods. Houghton, Miff lin & Co., Boston and New York, 1898. Cloth, £1.00. 8 The Grand Tactics of Chess. An exposition 01 the laws and principles of chess strategetics. By Franklin K, Young. Roberts Bros., Boston. 1898. Cloth, S3. 50.

cesses by which the vantage ground is to be obtained are clearly and fully described. The author's theo ries are supported by a number of games given in an appendix. Mr. Young has been for years one of the leading chess players in New England, and his success has been due largely to a strict adherence to the princi ples herein laid down. The book is one of the most important contributions to chess literature which has appeared for many a year, and will do much to stim ulate an interest in the noblest of all games. A year or more ago Mr. Melville Davison Post published an exceedingly ingenious and interesting book, entitled "The Strange Schemes of Randolph Mason," in which he demonstrated the ease with which a skillful rogue could commit many of the higher crimes in such a manner as to render the law, as it stands, powerless to punish him. A new vol ume, entitled The Man of Last Resort,* gives Mr. Post the opportunity to point out more of the inad equacies of the law, and a few of the methods of evasion which may be utilized. In the present work Randolph Mason remains the central figure, and is ever ready to strive with the difficulties of his clients, and always able to direct them to a successful evasion of the law. After perusing these tales, one cannot but wonder if there is not something radically wrong in our legal system. The book is well worth the reading.

NEW LAW-BOOKS. A Manual for Notaries Public, General Con veyancers, Commissioners, Justices, Mayors, Consuls, etc.; as to Acknowledgments, Affi davits, Depositions, Oaths, Proofs, Protests, etc., for each State and Territory. With forms and instructions. Second revised edition. By Florien Giauque of the Cincinnati Bar. Robrt Clarke Company, Cincinnati, O., 1897. loth, $2.00. Notaries and other officials who have occasion to take acknowledgments, depositions, etc., and to ad minister oaths, will find this work of the greatest assistance. A summary of the laws of each State and Territory, and of the United States, concerning these topics and officers is given, and the forms and instructions will save the notary much research and anxiety when he is called upon to execute and take the acknowledgment, deeds, and other instruments for use in other States. We heartily commend the work to the legal profession. Mason. By Melville Davison Post. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1897. Cloth.
 * The Man of Last Resort: or the clients of Randolph