Book Reviews [pp. 466-468]

1300K REVIEWS
into competent and responsible hands, and most
important of all, the securing of sane and welltrained leaders, seem to Doctor Hall the most
pressing needs of our schools today.
One of the most interesting points this article
brings out is the difference of opinion in regard
to normal schools which prevails in different
parts of the country. A principal of a city high
school in Washington writes: "The greatest
curse of the public schools of any State is the
laws pertaining to the normal schools. Most of
these are conducted by little politicians, and they
in one or two short years train boys and girls
fresh from farm and high school into teachers
licensed to teach forever."
The testimony of the Eastern States is largely
in favor of professional training. In New England as a whole, forty-two per cent of the let
ters report normal school or college training
required.
In the Mid-Western States there is more criticism of normal schools. Doctor Hall recognizes
the fact that the normal schools have often but
crude material to work with, and have in many
places lapsed into formal and theoretical ways,which are now one of the worst features of education in this country. Yet he says decidedly,
"No system of certification can equal professional
training." The replies from localities where professional training is not required indicate the
same raw material in the teaching force minus
the training.
One report says, "We need a State system of
examining and licensing teachers. A large proportion in all district schools are young girls, sixteen to twenty years of age, utterly untrained.
A New Edition of Dickens'
MACMILLAN & CO. have issued a new edition
of the works of Dickens with all the original
illustrations. They are in all cases accurate
reprints of the texts of the first editions, and are,
as before noted, accompanied by the original
illustrations. There is also prefixed in each volume a short introduction written by the novelist's
eldest son, Mr. Charles Dickens, giving a history
of the writing and publication of each book, together with other details, biographical and bibliographical, likely to be of interest to the reader.
The books are handsomely and serviceably
bound in green cloth and sell at $i a volume.
They are just the editions for school libraries,
and the OVERLAND takes pleasure in calling
the attention of its great school circulation to it.
A Whirl Asunder.2
eA Whirl Asunder, by Gertrude Atherton, is an
erotic tale of a neurotic California native
1The Works of Charles Dickens. London and New
York: Macmillan & Co. $r.oo a vol.
2A Whirl Asunder. By Gertrude Atherton. New York
and London: Frederick A. Stokes Co.: i896.
daughter and a stray Englishman. The girl
keeps a bachelor hall up at Guerneville and in
company with the magnetic Englishman attends
the Bohemian High Jinks. The girl is worth a
billion and had been engaged fifteen times without losing her dear heart. The Englishman,
however, hypnotizes her and she has hysterics.
He tires of her everlasting kisses in the last
chapter and takes the train for San Francisco,
which is happily wrecked and he is whirled
asunder, greatly to the relief of the reader. The
style of the story is a bad imitation of Amelie
Rives.
Dumas's Twenty Years After.3
AS THACKERAY in his "Roundabout Papers"
enthusiastically thanked Dumas for the pleasure
he had derived from the great Frenchman's marvelous novels, so this generation should thank
the publishers of the present edition of Dumas
for its charming setting in English. The reader
only lays "The Three Musketeers" down long
3Twenty Years After. By Alexandre Dumas. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co.: Two vols.
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