John B. Alden

“ The late government was a despotism, dependent on the will of the King. The area is 190,500 square miles. Population estimated to be about 3,000,000. Capital, Mandalay; population, 70,000. Bhamo, on the Chinese frontier, is an important town. Education is in the hands of the priests, but is very general. Buddhism is the prevailing religion.
The country is not so fertile as British Burma; but wheat, corn, rice, pulse, indigo, cotton, tobacco, and a large variety of fruits are grown. The forests produce valuable timber trees in great variety. Minerals abound, but are not generally worked. ”

“ Free commerce, in its widest sense, has been established in the basin of the Congo, and for a distance of 360 miles along the Atlantic. In this territory, no import duties can be levied for twenty years, and the Powers reserve the right to decide if freedom of entry shall be maintained beyond that period. The principal articles for export are said to be palm oil, ivory, rubber, gum copal, ground nuts, orchilla weed and cam-wood; principal imports are textiles, spirits, tobacco, guns and powder. ”

“ This collection of the best stories by twenty of the foremost American story-tellers is a happy idea, and it seems as if for a few hours of really enjoyable entertainment nothing better could be devised. There is a special charm about a good short tale, and these twenty samples of feminine literature afford a chance for interesting comparison of achievement in the same plane and with nearly similar opportunity. ”

“ We welcome everything that will bring intelligent people to see that it is not dogmatic orthodoxy alone or the limited and perhaps narrow interests of sectarian religion which are assailed by this philosophy, but the whole spiritual theory of man, the basis of his esthetic ideas and of art in all its higher relations. This is the value of Professor Parker’s book. It is attractive in style and indicates an abundant familiarity with the subject, both as a naturalist and a student of esthetics. ”

“ Central America is an irregular mass of land in southern part of North America, and lies about midway between the two great continental masses of the New World. It includes the republics of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, together with British Honduras.
The West Indies, an extensive system of islands lying southeast of North America, contain the large islands of Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica and Porto Rico, and are arranged mostly in three groups ”

“ This kingdom, united with Norway, forms the Scandinavian peninsula. The government is vested in a King, a Council of State and a Parliament. Area, 170,979 square miles. Population, 4,603,595. Capital, Stockholm; population, 194,469. The armed forces number 172,260 officers and men. The Royal navy consists of 66 vessels, with 4,068 men.
The country has numerous lakes and rivers. In the north it is cold and sterile; but the climate, on the whole, is milder than that of other countries in the same latitude, and south of latitude 59° the country is generally fertile. ”

“ Touching the origin of man, it is probable that we shall never be able to determine from the Bible or from ethnology whether all men sprang from one pair or from many; and salvation does not depend upon a decision. Whether, with the Duke of Argyll, we believe humanity to have retrogressed as a result of the Fall: whether with the Jews of the Talmud and Book of Zohar, we suppose that man was created first as a beast, and after ages received the spirit by the breath of God ”

“ The island is very fertile; its principal products are sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, cotton, rice and Indian corn. In proportion to its area, it produces more sugar than any other West India island.
Government is administered under a constitution granted by the Spanish Cortes, 1869. Slavery was abolished in 1873. Capital, San Juan; pop. about 27,000. Climate warm; more healthful than that of the other Antilles. Destructive hurricanes are frequent. The natural productions are very numerous; medicinal plants and many valuable woods, as mahogany, ebony, logwood, and cedar, abound in the forests. ”

“ Others have since followed in his footsteps, but none has ever been able to surpass Bayard Taylor in originality of observation, in perspicacity of style, or variety of experiences. It is Europe brought to our own doors.”—Journal and Messenger, Cincinnati, Ohio.
“A book well worth reprinting in attractive but inexpensive style. More than any other, it laid the foundation of Bayard Taylor’s reputation as a traveller and writer. ”

“ Tobacco and sugar raising principal occupation of the people. Many sugar plantations comprise 10,000 acres each.
Two crops of Indian corn grown per year; rice, cotton, cacao and indigo also produced; most tropical fruits are abundant. Sugar product averages 520,000 tons per year; molasses, 79,365 hogsheads. Total value of agricultural products over $90,000,000. United States receives 80 per cent. of Cuban sugar. No manufactures deserving mention.
Latest reports give exports of cigars 225,000,000 per annum; leaf tobacco, 13,500,000 pounds. There are about 900 miles of railway. ”

“ His style, at once elegant and easy, has universally recommended him to the teachers of language, and Telemachus is commonly succeeded or supplanted by some work of Florian. In the circulating libraries the Tales of Florian are almost as generally read as those of Voltaire and Marmontel. He possesses indeed very great attractions for the lovers of light reading. His narrative is spirited and interesting. Love, Friendship, and Heroism are his themes, and he commonly descants upon them with that genuine warmth which results from the combination of sensibility with genius. ”

“ The mineral wealth of Colombia is very great; one-sixth of the exports consist of precious metals. Agriculture and stock raising are the leading pursuits. Value of imports, 1883, $11,504,028; exports, $14,857,170. Two-thirds of the exports consist of cinchona and coffee. The transit trade through the ports of Panama and Aspinwall is of far greater importance than the direct commerce; its value is estimated as not less than $85,000,000 per annum.
There are many native products, among which are fine woods, cacao, India rubber, ipecac, calisaya bark, cochineal, sarsaparilla and logwood. ”

“ The Literary Revolution has never assumed to furnish books at a price below what would permit a fair profit, nor has it ever solicited investments on the basis of expectation of fabulous returns. The facts are simple, and the opportunities offered are based on common sense. If you invest $10.00 you have reasonable expectation of not less than 10 per cent. annual dividend, but as a Stockholder you also have the opportunity of purchasing with your dividend books at a price below what they would cost one NOT a Stockholder—that makes your dividend equal to about 16 per cent. ”

“ Population dense. The density varies from 441 per square mile to 43; the average for all India being 184. Agriculture backward. Means of transportation poor but improving. Eight famines have visited India, and decimated the population of various Provinces. Soil is productive; rice, corn, millet, barley and wheat are grown; cotton, indigo, opium and sugar cane are largely exported. ”

“ In the writings of Florian we are solely interested with the meaning of the tale, with its moral, which is always refined and delicate, and with his ingenuous and even epigrammatic style. Florian loves Horace, Virgil, La Fontaine, is delighted with Montaigne and the poetic tales of the 16th century; he notices the caprices and little irregularities of human nature, without being a biting critic or a profound moralist. ”

“ Copper especially plentiful in region of great lakes; gold and silver in mountain regions of both sides of continent; lead abundant in central United States; quicksilver, in California and Mexico, coal fields numerous, and supply almost inexhaustible; salt also widely distributed. Annual consumption of coal in United States and Canada, 72,000,000 tons; gold production, 1830-1880, United States and Spanish America, 4,262 tons.
Lakes and rivers well stocked with fish; coast fisheries productive and profitable, especially on banks of Newfoundland, and along coasts of Washington and Oregon. ”

“ The vivacity of its thought, the vigor of insight and charm of expression merit critical appreciation.”—Traveller, Boston.
“The writer has a genuine instinct for the now almost lost art of essay writing. His quiet humor, now and then turned by a clever stroke of wit and well-pointed epigram, and his easy colloquial style, make the reading of his breezy and interesting volume uncommonly entertaining.”—Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. ”

“ The government is modeled after that of the United States. The republic has 600 miles of coast line, and extends inland about 100 miles; area, 14,300 square miles. The population is wholly African, and numbers 18,000 Americo-Liberians and 1,050,000 aborigines. Capital, Monrovia; population, 3,000. The Liberians have established churches and schools, and possess a number of printing presses. The climate, which is still fatal to Europeans, has been much improved by systematic drainage.
The country is well watered, and the natural resources are very great. ”

“ The admirable ease and grace of the narrative as well as the pleasing truth with which the principal characters are designed, make the Vicar of Wakefield one of the most delicious morsels of fictitious composition on which the human mind was ever employed. ”

“ The climate is genial, and the soil capable of producing wheat, maize, tobacco, cotton and sugar cane. The chief towns are: St. Sebastian (pop., 1,510) , Ibo (pop. about 2,000) , Sofala (pop. 2,000) , and St. Thiajo Major. The forests abound in valuable timber trees; pearl fisheries are important, and the mineral deposits are of exceptional value. The gold mines of Mauica are supposed to be the richest in East Africa. Ivory is obtained in large quantities for the Indian market; annual value about $350,000. Other exports are India rubber, gums, oil, beeswax and corn. ”

“ Principal minerals of Western Australia are copper, lead and coal.
Principal agricultural products of the colonies: Wheat product of New South Wales, 1884, 4,345,437 bushels; corn, 4,538,604 bushels; sugar, 35,220,640 lbs.; wine, 589,604 gallons. New Zealand—Wheat, 9,827,136 bushels; oats, 9,231,339 bushels. Leading grain crop of Queensland, corn. Yield of sugar, 1883, 73,534,000 lbs.; cotton, 70,020 lbs. South Australia—Wheat, 14,649,230 bushels; wine, 430,520 gallons. Principal products of Tasmania, grain, hops and fruit; value of green and preserved fruits exported 1883, $881,120. ”

“ It is an arrow from within the fort, and its destructive power is all the greater because the bowman himself takes ‘some stock in Darwin’s Origin of Species.’ The fact that the bow has been bent not directly for the purpose of rescuing religion, but for the rescue of beauty and art and morality and civilization from the toils of a false science, will give the book a hearing where the argument from religious grounds would have none. ”

“ Norway is an agricultural and pastoral country; but, owing to the light character of the soil, the products are insufficient for home consumption, and one-fourth of the total imports is grain.
Principal imports are metals, minerals, textile manufactures and corn; total value in 1883, $44,810,000. Chief exports are timber and fish; value of all exports, 1883, $32,261,000. Fisheries employ 120,000 people and 25,000 boats, three-fourths employed in the cod fisheries; total product, 1883, $6,757,500. Merchant marine, 7,913 vessels; tonnage, 1,530,004; largest in the world, considering population. ”

“ He gives to his heroes and heroines a life-like reality, so that the reader is carried right on into the turmoil of their existence. Daudet makes his characters perform the most merciless and pitiless actions, and his powers of description are so vivid, that the reader moves on with it all, in spite of himself. ”

“ This country is very rich in minerals. Over 17,500,000 tons of coal are produced annually. Belgium is noted for its flax. The chief products are wheat, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp, tobacco. In 1880 there were 46,210 horses, 411,551 oxen, and 90,100 sheep.
Imports, 1882, $570,320,000; exports, $512,780,000. Manufactures are important. About 190,000 persons employed in flax, hemp, woolen and cotton manufactories. The lace of Brussels and the fire-arms of Liege are among the finest in the world. ”

“ Rose Terry Cooke.
“The volume is a worthy tribute to our American women of letters, and a fair sample of our best fiction work. It is a book that will commend itself to our patriotism, and to all lovers of our national literature.”—Christian Evangelist, St. Louis, Mo.
“It ought to prove one of the most profitable volumes the publisher has made, for such a collection of admirable short stories seldom is found within the covers of a single book. * * * A galaxy indeed of lustrous stars. The book deserves to be printed with the highest art and to be bound in morocco and gilt ”

“ The mass of the population is uneducated. European Russia has about 375 high schools, 61 normal and 22,770 primary schools; pupils number more than 1,220,000. The empire has 8 universities, with 10,700 students.
Of European Russia, 63 per cent. of the area is productive; 21 per cent. is cultivated. Chief products, cereals; the crop of 1883, exclusive of Finland, was 1,671,012 tons; potatoes, 447,875 tons; tobacco, 119,200,000 lbs. Large areas are covered with forests; value of timber exported 1881, $49,200,000. Value of total exports of Russian Empire, $308,898,000 ”

“ The change is one of convenience rather than of increase or of decrease, but on many books there is a substantial reduction in price.
Stockholders or Bondholders of the Alden Publishing Co. are allowed a reduction from Catalogue prices of the amount indicated by the figures in parenthesis; for instance: Alden’s Manifold Cyclopedia, per volume, cloth 60c. (20c.) means 40 cents net to Stockholders. To avoid possible misunderstanding, orders at Stockholders’ prices must invariably be accompanied by remittance, and by Coupon or a Certificate which is supplied to Stockholders for that purpose. ”

“ Both climate and soil are well suited to the production of wheat, barley, corn and other grains; agriculture is neglected for pastoral pursuits. Marocco supposed to be rich in minerals.
Foreigners control the maritime trade; Tangier is the main port; seven others open to foreign commerce. Import of cotton, 1882, valued at $3,401,130; sugar, $1,390,240; rice, flour, etc., $1,462,090. Exports, 1882: wool, $1,116,850; shoes, $527,420; almonds, $394,000; cattle, $393,880. In 1882, 1,050 vessels, of 314,794 tons, entered, and 1,047, of 315,559 tons, cleared, the ports of Marocco. ”

“ The capital stock of the Company is sold at par for cash, in lots of not less than five shares, and is NOT assessible, and there is absolutely no liability to stockholders whose shares are fully paid for, under any circumstances, other than the liability for salaries of employes, which is common to, we believe, all of the States, and is practically no liability, salaries being paid weekly or fortnightly. ”

“ The government is an absolute monarchy. Area and population are but imperfectly known; foreign estimates place the former at 280,564 square miles, and the population at about 5,750,000. Prevailing religion, Buddhism. Siam has no public debt. Capital, Bangkok; population, 600,000. There is a small standing army, and a general armament of the people in form of a militia.
Though much of the land is fertile, it is badly cultivated. Chief products, rice, gums, teak, sandalwood, rosewood, spices and fruits. Foreign commerce centres at Bangkok. Total value of exports from there in 1883, $8,525,655 ”