Various

“ I never knew a man so master of his own ways and yet so universally popular. People love to be influenced or even controlled by him. His office would be the centre of any community in which he should be placed. All men love to fasten to him their faith. He has everywhere learned to gather friends by showing himself friendly. His interest in the people of his own community has been shown not merely by his public benefactions. ”

“ The entire make up is of the most perfect character, and it is evident that no pains or expense has been spared to make this volume every way worthy of the enterprising publisher whose name it bears, and the host of merry, happy children, who are destined to delight in its pages. It is a fitting prelude to the holiday season, and sets a high mark for other publishers to follow. It is one of the books that we delight to heartily commend, for its intrinsic value is equal to its exquisite beauty. It is just the book to head the children's Christmas list. ”

“ He who watches the ocean rising into every bay and creek in obedience to celestial attraction, sees in outward nature the law that governs the associated life of men, and which gives the American people faith in their own government, whether they can give a reason, for their faith or not. ”

“ The writer does not know whether Mr. Wallace considers his political life ended. He certainly has no longing, desires, and ambitions in the direction of public office. It is equally certain that any office which he will consent to hold, and which the people who know him can give, he can have without opposition.
Mr. Wallace As A Citizen
I come now to a part of my story which it is exceedingly pleasant to relate and of which I am able to speak, to no little extent, from personal knowledge. It is, after all, what one is as a man among men, which speaks most for his honor, or his dishonor. ”

“ These discourses are orations which were delivered extemporaneously and taken down by a shorthand writer. Hence they are homely, yet eloquent; natural, yet cultivated, and come right home to the hearts of the readers. No one could tire reading these sermons. They are as racy as a magazine article, as instructive as a lecture, and as impressive and lofty as a message from God. They are thoroughly American for their fearlessness, their living energy, and their originality. Sermons of this high order are sure to be in demand. ”

“ Anything more delightful for the babies in the way of a picture or story book cannot possibly be conceived than this bound volume of their special magazine, which has just made its appearance with the most attractive of covers and most bewitching table of contents. ”

“ Full of life and vigor, and overflowing with intense energy in every part of their nature, these young people require something healthfully to inspire to this force within them. If they do not find it in the natural avenues of the Sunday-school or the town library, they will elsewhere, in questionable literature—an indulgence in which results in a feverish taste for excitement. ”

“ For a quarter of a century the firm-name of Lee and Shepard has been familiar to the public. During this interval of time it has been printed upon millions of volumes, which have gone forth on their two-fold mission of instruction and entertainment. Few publishing houses in America have achieved a more honorable record, or have more indelibly left their impress of good intentions and of deeds nobly done upon the minds of increasing generations. It is of the individual members of this firm, both of whom have grown gray in the business, that I purpose to speak in this article. ”

“ Resolved, That we cannot resist the inclination to felicitate our honored benefactor upon the deep and abiding joy which must be the most adequate reward for this expression of his good will toward our city—the joy arising from the knowledge that every home within our corporate limits will enter into the enjoyment of his gift and that not a few of our youth will be allured from scenes of degrading and immoral pleasure by the presence in a most convenient location of a beautiful edifice within which are at their disposal the graces of art and the riches of literature. ”

“ What child can ever forget that most delightful of juvenile stories, The Five Little Peppers, or the entertaining narrative of What the Seven Did, or the author's latest of books for young readers, Who Told It to Me, and what better book for boys is there than Half Year at Bronckton, a story whose moral effect upon young and imaginative readers cannot be over estimated. ”

“ The oldest periodical of its type, it is yet, in each new volume, a new magazine, nor simply because it presents fresh subjects and new pictures, but also, and chiefly, because it steadily advances in the method itself of magazine-making. In a word, the MAGAZINE becomes more and more the faithful mirror of current life and movement. ”

“ As a rule strikes do not occur where laboring men are treated with the consideration due them as free citizens. The freedom of Fitchburg from strikes is due to the intelligence of the workmen, and the fairness of the employers. Another says, "nothing does more to destroy the spirit of socialism and communism and to disipate envy than to see wealthy men devoting a part of their wealth to public uses."
This introduces us to the most conspicuous act by which the subject of our sketch has proved his public spirit and generosity of purpose as a citizen. ”

“ In the firm, each has always had his own duties to perform, on the wise plan of a fitting division of labor. Yet while each partner seems exclusively to occupy his own field, independent of and unrestricted by the other, it rarely happens that there are any cross-purposes between them. The wheels of progress move on with unswerving and unerring progress; the law of compensation which is dominant in the establishment is always working aright. ”

“ Long writes as follows:
"I am glad to know that you are writing a sketch of Mr. Wallace for publication. If a good subject will make a good sketch your work will be a success. He is one of the men, however, who write their own lives, not in the pages of any autobiography, but in their conduct and character. I have served with him in public life, and sat with him as one of my Councilors in the Executive Chamber, and have found him always a fund of practical good sense, of excellent judgment, trained by great experience in affairs, and of thorough integrity. ”

“ Resolved, That we recognize the fact that a gift of this nature will result in incalculable benefits to the community so fortunate as to receive it, enlarging and intensifying, as it does, all the privileges of acquiring information and securing culture which a public library affords; providing in a most accessible and useful form the means by which our young people and those whose daily toil leaves them little leisure for study, may draw to themselves the results of all past experience ”

“ No writer has achieved a more enviable reputation than "Pansy." Her style is unique, and the strong, healthy, natural spirit, breathed through all her writings, ennobles the mind—making the manly more strong, and the womanly more true. ”

“ It is manifest that such a manual as Every Man His Own Lawyer would be a snare to the unwary, because it does not content itself with teaching the reader what to avoid, but professes to guide him in the labyrinthian paths of substantive law and technical procedure. It is equally clear, however, that a rudimentary acquaintance with the main principles of jurisprudence is indispensable to those who purpose to mingle in active life at all, and discharge the most familiar duties of the citizen. ”

“ Things that one can own are discriminated from things that are common property; Boston, New York, and Washington are differentiated in their civil and political bearings; the laws of the streets and the railroads, of money and the banks, of wills, evidence, fraud, and so forth and so on, are expounded by means of 'famous trials' and otherwise in an ingenious, always entertaining, and thoroughly instructive manner. ”

“ There is nothing in this life which will so readily develop the best qualities of manhood as a sense of responsibility, first to the individual himself and next to those whom he serves. Take away this sense of responsibility, every man becomes a machine; everything that he does is mechanical.
In the firm of Phillips, Sampson and Company Mr. Lee continued as a partner for seven years. To his energy and industry the prosperity of the house was henceforth largely indebted. ”

“ I refer to his gift to the city of Fitchburg of a beautiful public library, which, by vote of the city government, is to be called by his name. This act of beneficence reaches farther than appears to a casual observer. It secures to the city, for all coming time, a "Peoples' College," where the child of the poorest, as well as of the richest, the toiler as well as the man of leisure, may get a very important education. ”

“ Edward B. Coe, D.D., pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City, writes:
"It is a volume which it will do any man good to read, as a broad, fresh, eminently spiritual presentation of Christian truth. Coming from under the shadow of a great university, these sermons are not scholastic, but in the best sense popular and practical. They show unusual felicity of statement and illustration, and are thoroughly alive, with a keen sensibility to the thoughts and the wants of living men. ”

“ OUT OF DARKNESS. Few among American women of to-day bid fair to attain such enviable distinction as that promised to Miss Mary A. Lathbury. She has not only won high reputation as a writer of hymns and songs, full of poetical fervor and exalted spiritual sentiment, but has also gained high success as an artist in connection with book illustrations. This elegant volume gives evidence of the author's unusual gifts. Its eight poems, interpretations of the inner life, are illustrated by the author with eight masterly full-page drawings, and twenty exquisite vignettes, printed on heavy plate paper. ”

“ This volume embraces a dozen papers upon English authors, whose writings are to be recommended to the young, and which are of themselves delightful reading for the young and the old alike. Their hearty appreciation of the subjects written upon give them the charm of sincere feeling. The writer is in perfect sympathy with the authors she discusses. She gives enough of personal anecdote and gossip to put young people on the footing of familiar acquaintance with those whose works she would have them read. ”

“ Poor man! He lived to see the utter failure of all his predictions; to behold France become the largest coiner of gold in the world; an exporter of the precious metals to the amount of $43,000,000 annually during a decade; the rise of the standard of gold from 15 1-2 to 18, as compared with silver, and involving a decline from 62 3-4d. to 52d. per ounce; great fear of a gold famine come upon the Directors of the Bank of France, and also of the Bank of England; the annual product of gold to attain its acme, four years before his predictions ”

“ While other young men of his age, many of them his playmates, were planning to fit themselves, by a long course of study, for the duties of life, he was at once confronted with the duties and burdens of life, without such advantages as an education affords, and he met them with a manliness and a self-reliance which now seem truly marvelous. ”

“ He is an intelligent reporter of debates, who knows how to condense the strong and vital points of a long history. He is neither shy nor timid in expressing his opinion on controverted questions, but carries such a happy art in his boldness that it will never lose him a reader. His account of the constitutional debate and of the political situation at the close of the Revolutionary War, and the brief touches in the subsequent development of political history, are done well. ”

“ His familiarity with standard literature serves him many a good turn; he makes it a duty to read thoroughly or to "dip into" every new book that is talked about. He fortifies himself, whether for daily life or for social intercourse, with all the intellectual weapons, so to speak, that can ever be called into play. Still, he moves along the pathway of life thoroughly without affectation ”

“ A new edition of Arthur Oilman's The Kingdom of Home is announced by the publishers, and will form a strong attraction for holiday book-buyers. No poetical anthology has been received by the general public with such favor as this, and the reason is not far to seek. It contains the choicest poems on home subjects ever brought together, and the merits of its selections and pictures will keep it perennially in demand as one of the best gift books in the long catalogue of household treasures. The illustrations are abundant and exquisite. ”

“ Just across the Nashua River is the Fitchburg Railroad. He has a freight station of his own, where he receives all his freight and ships all his paper.
Mr. Wallace has conducted his business with rare sagacity, with unblemished integrity, and with an eye to the welfare of his employees, as well as to his own personal interests. If it were not like praising a man to his face, since he still lives, many instances might be cited to prove that it has not been his policy to get the most out of his employees for the least possible return. ”

“ The stomach and head are in direct sympathy, and if one be impaired the other can never be in order. Acute dyspepsia causes more insane suicides than any other known agency, and the man, woman or child whose stomach is deranged is not and cannot be safe from the coming on at any moment of mania in some one of its many terrible forms.
The value of moderation and the imperative necessity of care in keeping the stomach right must therefore be clear to all. The least appearance of indigestion, or mal-assimilation of food should be watched as carefully as the first approach of an invading army. ”

“ Another author, who has held a prominent place in the firm's catalogue, is Mr. George M. Baker. Although he has done much for the entertainment of the young people in the line of story-telling, his greatest success has been found in his series of amateur dramatic books, which have long ago become standard. I would not undertake to mention how many "plays" he has written; but to simply read the "mail orders" for such literature or watch customers as they come and go from "headquarters," would incline everybody to believe that he had produced about all that are ever needed. ”

“ His metaphors, his anecdotes, the invariable felicity of his diction, his historical, literary and biographical illustrations, his invincible habit of taking men at their best and looking out for the good in everything, the large catholicity which rose above the mean, squabbling of religious parties, the calm of spirit which seemed habitually to breathe in the atmosphere of whatsoever things are true, and pure, and lovely, and of good report, made him a preacher to whom one would rather listen than to any other living man. ”

“ The inhabitants of Western Africa have worked their gold fields for centuries to very little purpose. Their want of pumps, of quartz-crushing machinery, and of scientific appliances, has limited their labors to scratching the top soil and nibbling at the reef-walls. A large proportion of the country is virtually virgin ground; and a rich harvest has been left for Occidental science, energy, and enterprise. It is fast becoming evident that Africa will one day equal half a dozen Californias. The annual product of gold in Africa has declined from $17,000,000 in 1471 to $3,000,000 in 1816. ”

“ It shows in the most conclusive manner the futility of all attempts to cause two substances to become, and to remain of the same value or estimation, by acts of legislation. It gives a true picture of the vast injury to the welfare and to the moral integrity of the people of this country, which ensued from the enactment of the acts of legal tender during the late war, whereby the promise of a dollar was made equal in the discharge of a contract to the dollar itself. ”

“ Newspapers all parts of the country have repeatedly given the first place in American periodical literature for the young to WIDE AWAKE. Among its contributors are the very best and brightest writers in America and England, and many of its articles are the same that give reputation to Harper's and the Century. Indeed, nothing better has ever appeared in either of these periodicals than some of the full page illustrations which have found place in WIDE AWAKE within the past two or three years. The list of writers who are regularly employed include the best names in our literature. ”

“ It is as impossible for Mr. Shepard not to quote poetry as it is for him to fly through the air and his facility in so doing would alone make him a marked man. His whole soul is full of poesy, ever restless and exuberant. ”