Six Books of Unusual Gift Interest The Century Co.'s Illus trated Catalogue contains information of many helpful, delightful, and worthwhile books for gifts. Its Classified List of Books for Young Folks is invalu able for everyone who ever buys a book for any child. Sent on post card request. Beaumont, the Dramatist By CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY, Professor of the English Language and Literature, University of California A captivating biography which distinguishes Beaumont clearly from Fletcher, defines his position as a dramatist, and portrays vividly his charming personality. Fifteen illustrations from valuable historical portraits and scenes. Price $2.00 net, postage 12 cents Theodore Dreiser's A Traveler at Forty "It differs enormously from the customary travel books. It is not a mere description of places and people, but a revelation of their impingement upon an exceptional and almost eccentric personality. Whoever has got civilized pleasure out of the Dreiser novels will read it with joy." -Smart Set. Striking illustrations by Glackens. Price $1.80 net, postage 14 cents Harry A. Franck's Zone Policeman 88 A close range study of the Panama Canal and its workers, Illustrations from snap-shots. Price $2.00 net, postage 12 cents The Trade of the World An authoritative, comprehensive, and intensely interesting Illustrated. Price $2.00 net, postage 16 cents The House in Good Taste One of the most helpful books on house decoration and furnishing, and home making, ever issued, urging sincerity, common sense, and suitability, and showing just how to obtain satisfying results. Delightfully written. Delightfully illustrated. Price $2.50 net, postage 20 cents. Alexander Irvine's My Lady of the Chimney Corner Of which Eveleigh Nash says: “It is a book with a spell, THE CENTURY CO., Union Square, New York Note This Fiction For Your Early Reading Silent Sam By HARVEY J. O'HIGGINS To this book of short stories, along with an intimate firsthand knowledge of his New York and its hordes of more or less cheerful poor, Mr. O'Higgins brings a mastery of technique that already has placed him in the very front rank of American writers. Like O. Henry, O'Higgins sees drama wherever he looks, and, also like O. Henry, his delicious sense of humor mitigates his probing of human nature and human weakness. Price $1.25 net, postage 11 cents William and Bill By GRACE MACGOWAN COOKE and The story of two real boys-their mischief, their growing The Times says: "It would be hard to find in recent literature a funnier or more human chapter than that which tells how the two boys, lately promoted to the toga virilis of long trousers, set forth to make their first call." Price $1.25 net, postage 11 cents Daddy-Long-Legs By JEAN WEBSTER A whimsical little wisp of a story, just overflowing with quaint charm and rippling humor. Everybody who reads it wants to reread it, and to pass it on. THE CENTURY CO., Union Square, New York The Educational Department will be glad to answer questions on schools and colleges, and on books of educational value. The department is ready at all times to consider the publication of manuscripts prepared by educational writers. Educational Department, THE CENTURY CO., Answers to Questions As the publishers of the Century Dictionary, Cyclopedia and Atlas, THE CENTURY MAGAZINE, ST. NICHOLAS, a long list of text-books for use in schools and colleges, hymn-books for churches and institutions of learning, and a varied array of general books on all subjects, we have unrivaled facilities for answering questions covering a broad field of information. We are glad to place these facilities at the disposal of readers of THE CENTURY, and in many cases to answer by mail direct (when accompanied by a stamped, addressed envelop) such questions as the following: I have at times various problems to solve which require legal advice, and there are several lawyers whom I consult from time to time. In the matter of investments either for myself or for the several small estates that I am taking care of, I know of no corresponding method of securing unbiased advice even by paying for it. May I put such investment questions up to the Questions and Answers Department that you are publishing in THE CENTURY? The Educational Department of THE CENTURY cannot undertake to advise as to any specific investments-stocks, notes, or bonds. General questions will, however, be answered as promptly as possible by mail. For advice as to specific securities, we recommend your consulting a reputable investment banker, however active he may be in the marketing of securities. Such a banker is in business permanently and cannot afford to jeopardize the future of his business and that of his younger partners by recommending investments that are inappropriate for you personally or for the estates that you manage. In order to get the full benefit of his advice, you should be as frank with him as to your conditions and requirements as you are with your physician or your lawyer. 26 Will you tell me something of the history of A Panama, a Central American Republic, comprising (nearly) the Isthmus of Panama (See maps No. 69 and No. 692, Century Dictionary Atlas) proclaimed its independence on November 3, 1903. Its government was recognized by the United States on November 13, 1903, and later by other powers. By a treaty signed November 18, 1903 (ratified February 23, 1904), Panama ceded to the United States for $10,000,000 the perpetual control of a strip ten miles wide (the Canal Zone). The cities of Panama and Colon (lying within the zone) were placed under the control of the United States as regards sanitation and quarantine only; but the coastline of the zone and the outlying islands were ceded to the United States for purposes of defense. Area, 32,380 square miles. Population, 361,000. Work on the Panama Canal was organized in 1904 for the construction of a canal of the lock type, and this type, which had been accepted by Congress in 1901, was adopted by it in 1906. The plan includes a channel from deep water on the Caribbean to Gatún, where an ascent to the 85-foot level is to be made by means of three (twin) locks, each lock being 110 feet wide and 1000 feet long; a dam at Gatún about 7700 feet long, one half mile wide at the base, 100 feet wide at the top, and 135 feet above mean tide; a lock at Pedro Miguel; and two locks at Miraflores. The lake formed by the Gatún dam is about 171 square miles in extent. The deepest part of the cut is at Culebra (41⁄2 miles long and 300 feet wide at bottom). Total length of canal, 49.72 miles. Panama Canal Zone (Isthmian Canal Zone). A strip of territory ten miles wide, extending five miles in each direction from the central line of the canal route across the Isthmus of Panama. It begins in the Caribbean Sea "three marine miles from mean low THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF Many of the names of writers familiar to the reading public are former winners of prizes in the St. Nicholas League competitions which are conducted month after month in the pages of ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE. The late Howard Pyle, whose School of Art had so strong an influence upon American illustrating and painting, once offered to educate at his own expense a winner of a ST. NICHOLAS prize for drawing. The educational value of the St. Nicholas League is indicated by the following letter from a member of the Board of Education of a middle Western State: "Editor St. Nicholas League: I find the pages of your department the most discouraging reading, and I read them with despairing fascination every month. I cannot help drawing a parallel of my own work with that of your young people, who are successively getting on the rolls of honor, getting their writings printed, and winning the silver and gold badge and the cash prize. "I sympathize with them, for I remember when my first story was accepted by a first-class magazine, and when the editor asked for and accepted more of them-my own silver and gold badge winnings; the publishing of my novel was my cash prize in real-life literary competition. When my name was included in 'Who's Who in America,' and a London publisher brought out my novel, was I not an honor member of the literary craft? "But I was nearly forty years old when my own silver badge was won; and I was forty-five years of age before I became an honor member in the literary world. After all the long drudgery and hard work implied in this, I see boys and girls-and chiefly girls,, mind you!-aged fourteen or sixteen doing literary work in your League pages which I can never hope to equal! If you continue much longer to educate and train writers of such tender years and such great ability, what is to become of my generation of literary workers? When these young people who excel us older folk have had a few years' more training, they will outrank us completely, and our occupation will be gone. So I am discouraged to the depths of despair; but I am glad in my heart, because I cannot help rejoicing at the wonderful achievement of youth in the St. Nicholas League. After all, I am glad, although I may be reduced by this new competition to writing only, 'Entirely original and age correct,' on the manuscript of my child." The Century Co. is actively engaged on a plan greatly to widen the influence of ST. NICHOLAS, which to-day has more readers than at any other time since its foundation in 1873. "THE CAPACITIES OF A CHILD'S MIND" Of "The Bible for Young People"-now published in an illustrated edition, at $1.50, and used in a number of private schools-the late Bishop Henry C. Potter said: "This volume has a distinct value and vocation. Not all of the Bible is of equal worth or pertinency; not all of it is of equal interest and utility. The old tradition that to read it through, mechanically and undiscriminately, two or three times a year, had of itself some occult and mysterious potency, has come to be recognized as belonging to the kindred tradition that soldiers' lives have been saved by a New Testament carried in the left breast pocket, because it was a Testament; whereas any other volume carried in the same place would have stopped a bullet quite as effectually. But all the while the living, spiritual, quickening force of the literature has endured, and will endure, because it is, in every higher note of it, the voice of the Divine. "To gather, therefore, within the covers of one volume that which rings through and through with this higher note; and especially, by arrangement, by selection, by reverent and discriminating methods of sequence, to put together what will make a Child's Bible-this, it ought to be plain to a just mind, is a worthy and timely thing to do. It is not my office to pronounce judgment here as to the skill and fitness with which, in this volume, the task has been performed; but I venture to think that those who examine it, from whatever standpoint, will recognize that the qualities that, for such a task, are most of all demanded-a reverent handling, a fine insight, a tender perception of the wants and capacities of a child's mind-have not been wanting, and that it will be widely welcomed as a good work done in a good way." A NEW AMERICAN HISTORY While Dr. S. E. Forman's "Advanced American History," just issued by The Century Co., is intended mainly for the use of students in high schools, normal schools, and academies, it is a book of much interest and value for the general reader. Special attention is given to economic and social subjects and to the industrial and political history of recent times, and the presentation of the Westward Movement is unusually full and vivid. |