THE NEW YORK STATE TEXT-BOOK BILL. THE following is the New York text-book bill, as reported by the Senate Committee. It passed the Senate Monday, April 22d, with but three negative votes. SECTION 1. The comptroller, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction of the State of New York are hereby authorized and directed as a board to advertise for proposals, and to enter into, let, and award a contract to the bidder, who, after giving good and sufficient bond, in the penal sum of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars, for the full and faithful performance of such contract, shall offer and agree to sell to all persons within this State at the lowest price at all times for a term of fifteen years the following text-books, provided that such books shall not be sold at a greater price than stated below: speller, not to exceed fifteen cents; first reader, not to exceed ten cents; second reader, not to exceed twenty cents; third reader, not to exceed thirty cents; fourth reader, not to exceed forty cents; first grammar, not to exceed twenty-five cents; practical grammar, not to exceed fifty cents; first arithmetic, not to exceed twelve cents; second arithmetic, not to exceed twenty-five cents; third arithmetic, not to exceed fifty cents; first geography, not to exceed fifty cents; second geography, not to exceed eighty cents; book of history, not to exceed one dollar and fifty cents. SEC. 2. Said contract shall also provide that the books aforesaid shall be equal in size and quality, as to matter and material, to the following text-books now in general use, to wit: The speller to Parker & Watson's national speller; the first, second, third, and fourth readers, equal to Harvey's first, second, third, and fourth readers; the first and second grammars, equal to Clark's brief grammar, and Clark's practical grammar; the three books of arithmetic, equal to Robinson's primary, intellectual, and practical arithmetic; the two books of geography, equal to Cornell's primary and intermediate geography; the one book of history, equal to Barnes' brief history. The quality in matter and material of said books shall be determined by the superintendent of public instruction. SEC. 3. Said contract shall also provide that books shall be delivered to the express office or freight office in this State where the contractor shall be doing business, packed and directed at the prices named in the contract, and not exceeding those designated in the first section of this act, and that orders for books from trustees of school districts shall be given preference as to time in filling orders, over orders of dealers or other persons. SEC. 4. The text of all the books enumerated in such contract shall be subject, not oftener than once in each period of five years, to such revision and alteration as the superintendent of public instruction shall direct. SEC. 5. When a sufficient number of the textbooks herein provided for are ready for sale, the superintendent shall issue an order declaring such text-books to be the regularly adopted text-books for the public schools of the State, and shall give such time as he shall deem proper for the substitution of the books herein provided for for the books then in use, and he shall trans mit a printed copy of his order to the trustee or trustees of every school district, and the board of education of every union free school district in the state, by sending sufficient copies to school commissioners, who shall transmit them to the town clerks by whom they shall be transmitted to the trustees and boards of educa tion. After the expiration of the time designated in the order of the superintendent, any trustee or member of a board of education who shall permit the habitual use in the school or schools under or partly under his charge, of any reading book, speller, grammar, arithmetic, geogra phy, or history other than those directed to be used by the order of the superintendent, without the special permission of the superintendent, shall thereby become liable to removal from office, and it shall be the duty of the superintendent to so remove such offending trustee or member of a board of education. SEC. 6. In case said contractor, his personal representatives or assigns, shall at any time fail to fulfil any of the terms of said contract on his part to be observed, the entire penal sum thereof shall at once become due and owing to the state, and it shall be the duty of the attor ney-general to cause suit to be instituted in the name of the state, to enforce the liability on the bond aforesaid of the principal and sureties thereon; and the board provided for by section I of this act are hereby empowered, in case of such failure, to annul and set aside said contract and to again, and with full power, force, and effect, advertise and award as provided for by sections 1, 2, and 3 of this act. SEC. 7. The inhabitants of any district, at an annual or special meeting thereof, may authorize the trustee or trustees to purchase direct from the contractor, for the use of the school or schools of such district, sufficient of said books for all the pupils, and may vote a tax to pay for the same and for the transportation thereof. SEC. 8. But this act shall not be construed to prevent pupils who have advanced beyond the studies embraced in said books from using other books, and this act shall not be obligatory upon boards of education acting under special charters. A SEC. 9. This act shall take effect immediately. LIVELY VIEW OF STATE TEXT- From the Educational Weekly (Chicago). IT may be said that it will be difficult for a commission to compile these text-books, that the talent may be wanting in Illinois, and that the law would, through incapacity or disagreement, be inoperative. Well, now, if there are three experienced teachers in Illinois who could not. during the next summer vacation, draft a better series of school-books than any, and better series than all of those now in use in Chicago, for instance, they would deserve to be kicked across the big bridge and compelled to spend the rest of their days in the deplorable state of Missouri. If enterprising publishers can do no better than this, is it not time for the state to take hold and lift us out of this slough of extraordinarily defective and exorbitantly expensive text-books? It may be said that it is not good public policy to have the state compete with private enterprise, and that the publishers already in the field have vested rights. The same line of argument would prevent penitentiary convicts from working at any useful trade, and preclude the suppression of robbers on the highway. School-book publishers have plucked the people long enough. The day of their almost total extinction is not so remote as they proudly imagine. How can they afford to buy legislatures and city school-boards? How do they manage to support so many expensive agents? How do they afford to pay such enormous sums for advertising? How does each firm manage to retire a set of partners every few years? The sums represented by these measures should remain in the pockets of the people of the state, and may so remain if Mr. Bower's bill becomes a law and its provisions are judiciously carried out. Then, teachers of Illinois, in the name of independence of publishers, of immunity from their bores of agents, and cheap and uniform text-books, let us 'haste to the Bower." THE ROUTLEDGE SILVER CELEBRA TION. For he is a Routledgeman, For he might have been a Harper, Or perhaps an Apple-tan, TOAST: "Our Guests"....MR. G. A. KUNDAHL. MR. JOHN A. MCQUILLAN. "Fetter not commerce! Let her be free as air, and, like the birds, she will ange the whole creation, and return on the winged wings of heaven to bless the earth with peace and plenty."—Patrick Henry. We're the travellers of the store, It was just twenty five years ago, April 20th, TOAST: " The Travellers." 1854, that Mr. George Routledge, with Mr. Jos. L. Blamire, long known as the manager of the American branch house of Geo. Routledge & Sons, arrived in New York with the purpose of establishing this branch, which has since attained such considerable proportions. Those connected with this establishment joined in doing honor to the occasion by a "silver celebration," which took the shape of a pleasant dinner at Sutherland's. Mr. Jos. L. Blamire, as chairman., and Mr. Henry M. Reed, the widely popular representative of the house with the trade, as vice-chairman, were supported by Messrs. George L. Beeston, Patrick Keenan, John A. McQuillan, John Moss, Charles H. Pierson, James J. Potter, Henry Richardson, Otto Stucke, Marcus Woodle, as the committee. The rest of the story is told in the clever bill of fare, which we reproduce entire as a capital "humor of the trade." It is Mr. Marcus Woodle, we understand, who is responsible for this trade “Pinafore." He is certainly entitled to the nomination for poet laureate of the trade. ***God bless us, every one,' said Tiny Tim."-Dickens. "Then fill the bowl-away with gloom! For hope shall brighten days to come, "A dinner lubricates business."-Stowell. PROGRAMME. TOAST: "The House of George Routledge, The imprint of George Routledge & Sons is a guarantee of literary excellence and moral purity."-N. Y. Journal of Commerce. "As half in shade, and half in sun, The world along its path advances, May that side the sun's upon Be all that e'er shall meet thy glances."-Moore. "A good digestion to you all; and once more, I shower a welcome on you; welcome all."-Shakespeare. We wear clothes without a flaw, And we bother all the buyers, and the salesmen, and the TOAST: And especially the buyers, And the clerks. The Home Department." MR. JAMES J. POTTER. "When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods on the counter, thinks I, that man has an axe to grind."Miner. CHORUS. Orders are not what they seem, So he be. TOAST: "The Counting-House." MR. CHARLES H. PIERSON. "Up! up! my friend, and quit your books, Or surely you'll grow double. Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks; CHORUS. They made me a Book-keeper-poor little Book-keeper, But still I'm a Book-keeper-dear little Book-keeper, I use ink and paper, and sometimes the scraper Mistakes I make never-What?-Well, hardly ever, So few they are readily forgot. So drink to your Book-keeper-dear little Book-keeper, Look at your Book-keeper-good little Book-keeper. TOAST: "The Shipping Department." CHORUS. We ship the boxes through; And our gallant truck's a beauty We're packers good and true, And attentive to our duty. When the orders arrive, we look alive, And pack the books all day. POSTAL MATTERS. THE SENATE AND THE POSTMASTER- THE Senate has this week received from Postmaster-General Key a response to the resolution When there's no morning mail, and the orders fail, by which, on motion of Mr. Voorhees, the week We've plenty of time to play. (N. B.-Look out for the Boss.) TOAST: "Post-Office Department." MR. GEORGE L. BEESTON. Letters speed intercourse from soul to soul, And waft large orders from Indus to the Pole." -Old Poet, adapted. "There were few things more impressive to him than a ship lying up against some lonely Sometimes a distant sail, gliding quay. along the edge of the ocean, would be another theme of idle speculation."-Ruskin. CHORUS. Kind fellers, I've important information, Sing hey the fearful teasers that you are; A merry, merry steamer, A merry, merry steamer from afar ; TOAST: "The Store-key-per." MR. MARCUS WOODLE. CHORUS. When I was a lad I served a term I stood on the ladder and I read all day, I read the books so frequentlee, previous, he was "directed to furnish his reason for barring the Citizen Soldier, a newspaper published in Washington City, from transmission through the mails at the same rates of postage accorded to other newspapers; and further, to state why he admits to the mails at pound rates of postage one journal, and excludes another of the same class from like privilege. furnishing with this statement the names of such newspapers as have heretofore enjoyed these rates of postage but are now denied them through recent rulings of his department." The Postmaster-General, after quoting these terms of the resolution, proceeds to say: "In response thereto, I have the honor to submit that, while it is competent for that honorable body (the Senate) to call upon this department for any information that may be of service to the legislative branch of the government in matters of legislation, it is respectfully insisted that it is not within the just province of the legislative branch to direct an executive officer of the government to furnish his reasons for the performance of a duty devolved upon him by law. I have taken the liberty, however, of supposing that it was not the intention of the Senate to direct me to furnish a reason for an administrative act of this department, but rather to furnish such information relating to the subject-matter of the resolution as will be of ser That now I am the keeper of the big store key. vice to that body in the enactment of such laws TOAST: "The Ladies." "Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen, Here's to the widow of fifty; Here's to the flaunting, extravagant quean, Let the toast pass, Drink to the lass, as may be deemed expedient and necessary. Entertaining this view of the object of the resolution, I have the honor to inform the Senate that the records of this department show that a paper published in the city of Washington, styled the Citizen Soldier, was referred to this I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass." department by the postmaster at said city, with -Sheridan. THE STANLEY COPYRIGHT SUITS. IN most of the copyright suits brought by Harper & Bros. in the matter of Stanley's Through the Dark Continent," the cases have been withdrawn on satisfactory assurances that the Canadian piracy would not thereafter be sold. Injunctions have been obtained against other parties in the U. S. Circuit Courts for Massachusetts and Illinois, and in the Detroit case Judge Brown has rendered a decree in the U. S. Circuit Court against D. P. Work. permitting Harper & Bros. to recover all profits that have arisen from the sale of the work, and enjoining the defendant from purchasing or selling any more copies of the Canadian edition. PERSONAL MENTION. MR. DALDY, of Daldy, Isbister & Co., is in this country. MR. A. L. BANCROFT, of A. L. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco, is coming East, and will remain in New York until June 1st. His headquarters will be at D. Appleton & Co.'s, where he will be pleased to see his friends. an inquiry as to the rate of postage properly chargeable thereon. Upon a reference of said inquiry to the Assistant Attorney-General for this department, it was held that said paper was a regular publication, designed primarily for advertising purposes,' within the meaning of Section 15 of the Act of July 12th, 1876, and. therefore, chargeable with postage at the rate of one cent for each two ounces or fraction thereof. The opinion of the Assistant AttorneyGeneral was approved by me, and the postmaster advised accordingly. Subsequently, viz., on the 25th of March, 1879, at the urgent request of the proprietors of the paper in ques tion, the ruling in this case, together with the whole subject-matter of the proper construction of said act, was referred to the Attorney-General, where it is now pending, awaiting his consideration. "Replying to the second branch of the Senator's inquiry, I have the honor to say that no such discrimination as is intimated therein is made by this department. The only knowledge which this department has of what publications are transmitted in the mails at the rates fixed by Section 5 of the Act of June 23d, 1874and those prescribed by Section 15 of the Act of July 12th, 1876, is that furnished by an occasional reference by the postmaster at the office of mailing in a doubtful case, and the ruling BUSINESS NOTES. BOSTON, MASS.-A. W. Lovering, the giftbookseller of Boston, has moved from his "archway store," under the old Marlboro' Hotel (which is being torn down), to No. 336 Washington Street, where pianos, gold watches, and other luxuries too numerous to mention are daily given to his customers. CLEVELAND, O.-Stephen E. Brooks and Arthur S. Brooks, late of Brooks, Schinkel & Co., succeed S. E. Brooks in the stationery business at the old stand, 117 Superior Street. NEW YORK CITY.-F. W. Christern has removed from his old quarters in University Place to a very handsome store at 180 Fifth Avenue. NEW YORK CITY.-Ward & Drummond will Nassau Street. move in a few days to their new store, 116 WILLIAMSPORT, PA.-Mr. A. D. Lundy suc THE Attorney-General has affirmed the decision of the Assistant Attorney-General for the Post-Office Department that "regular publications designed primarily for advertising purposes" cannot be sent through the mails at the rates charged legitimate newspapers. He holds that a paper may be originated and pub-ceeds to the well-known firm of Ayers & Lundy. lished for the dissemination of information of "Capt." J. J. Ayers, having grown old, retires a public character, have a legitimate list of from business altogether. subscribers, and yet be designed primarily for "advertising purposes" within the meaning of the law; that the term relates to a paper the principal object of which is to advertise the business of the owner. That a publication may have all the characteristics of a legitimate newspaper entitled to the pound rates of postage, yet if it appears from the columns of the paper itself or from other satisfactory evidence that the primary or principal object of the paper is to advertise the business of the editor or proprietor, it falls within the class denominated "regular publications designed primarily for advertising purposes." AUTHORS AT WORK. GEORGE H. GORDON is preparing a history of Pope's campaign. MR. J. BRANDER MATTHEWS, the writer of the article on "Molière, the Life and the Legend," in Lippincott's for April, is at work on a full biography of the great French dramatist. MRS. WISTER is translating from the German Marlitt's latest novel, entitled "In the Schillingscourt." The trade should bear this well in mind, for Mrs. Wister's translations are among the best selling novels published. MR. GEORGE MEREDITH, an English writer, will bring out before long a new novel styled "The Egoist, a Comedy in Narrative." The work is in some degree an experiment, as it is a deviation from our later realism, and its point of view is the comic, in the higher sense of the word, instead of the sentimental. THE announcement is made of a new novel by Henry Gréville (Madame Durand), entitled "Cité Ménard," and now being translated into English, in Paris, under the title of "Menard Alley," by Miss Helen Stanley, from the author's advance sheets. The purpose of this book is said to be to represent the virtues of the common people of France, as that of M. Zola seems to be to represent their vices, and from this point of view it bids fair to be an agreeable change. LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES. J. M. STODDART & Co. have nearly ready volume nine of their reprint of the "Encyclopædia Britannica." WARD & DRUMMOND (successors to U. D. Ward) have just put to press the second edition of the Star Book for Ministers," by Rev. E. T. Hiscox, D.D. MR. F. W. CHRISTERN has received the third series of Alexander Dumas, Jr.'s, 'Entr'Actes." This includes the famous "Homme-femme" papers. THE interesting novel of Hassaurek, "Secret of the Andes," meeting with great success, is being translated into German, and will soon be published by Robert Clarke & Co. MR. WM. BLAIKIE'S new book, "How to Get Strong, and How to Stay So," is nearly ready at the Harpers', and a volume of "Recreations in Astronomy," by the Rev. H. W. Warren, D.D., with illustrations, is in press. A NEW Cedarcroft edition of Bayard Taylor's novels, 5 vols. in box at $1.25 each, in a neat cover of tinted board, with design in red and black, is in preparation at G. P. Putnam's Sons'-a happy idea for summer trade. LOCKWOOD BROOKS & Co. have in press a metrical translation of Virgil's "Eneid," by Lieut. Gov. John D. Long, of Massachusetts, which has been read in manuscript by some very competent critics, whose verdict is exceedingly favorable. LEE & SHEPARD will bring out in a few days "Zophiel," the poem referred to frequently in this column; No. 6 of Geo. M. Baker's "Reading Club," an excellent collection of short stories, sketches, and poems; and a small book on "Head Dress," in which at least half or mankind is interested. A NEW volume of sermons by Rev. M. J. Savage, of Boston, is now in course of preparation for early publication by Lockwood, Brooks & Co. Mr. Savage is a thoughtful, radical preacher, who has the habit (said not to be absolutely universal) of saying in the pulpit just what he thinks in his study. 66 THE Ghost of Redbrook," a new novel, by the author of The Clifton Picture," The Lacy Diamonds," "Odd Trump, etc., is announced by J. B. Lippincott & Co. His former works have been spoken of as fresh, free, healthy, unconventional, and well written, and with a purity of style that is refreshing. IT is as well to be accurate even in small things, and we apologize to our readers for two errors carelessly allowed to slip into a recent issue. The letters of Arsène Houssaye were originally published by Mr. Gill, not by Mr. Lovell, and the English publishers of Stanley's Through the Dark Continent" are of course not Longmans & Co., but the Low house. D. APPLETON & Co. are doing a good thing in putting into neat cloth binding, at a very low price, the more permanent issues of their popular New Handy Volumes. The "Ruskin," to be presently published, will be issued in this style as well as in paper, and with it the already published Carlyle," and the volumes on the Composers have been similarly treated. A TRANSLATION of Prof. Haeckel's latest con tribution to the scientific war now raging in Germany, "Free Science and Free Teaching," will be published by D. Appleton & Co. They have also in preparation his work on "The Evolution of Man: a Popular Exposition of the Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Philogeny," with colored plates and numerous engravings on wood. MR. J. N. OGILVIE, for ten years with the National Temperance Society, is about to start, at No. 29 Rose Street, New York, the American Temperance Publishing House, and has already in press "The American Temperance Speaker, No. 1," and three lectures by John B. Gough. He will also keep in stock the temperance issues of other publishers and run a few miscellaneous lines. D. LOTHROP & Co. have just issued "My Daughter Susan," one of “ Pansy's" pleasant stories; and will shortly publish "Yensie Walton," a religious story, by Mrs. S. R. Graham Clark; Poor Papa," by Mary W. Porter; and 'Six Months at Mrs. Prior's," by Emily Adams. These stories are all illustrated, and appeal to those who find entertainment and instruction in the books published by this house. MACMILLAN & Co. have just received the first part of one of the most important enterprises of scholarship of the day-in Skeat's "Etymological Dictionary," which appears in the Clarendon Press Series. This is the product of the most thorough learning and the most advanced scholarship, and will take rank as the standard book of reference. There will be four parts, at the moderate price of $2.50 each. J. B. LIPPINCOTT & Co. will shortly reprint Rawlinson's great work on "The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World ;" and also the "Lusiad" by Camoens, translated by R. F. Duff, of which the Athenæum spoke so highly. They have in press in addition "A Guide to the Popular Terms in Science and Art," by C. Bankes Brookes, and "Tales of Old-Thule,' collected and copiousiy illustrated by J. Moyr Smith. MESSRS. SPON have in press a work on "The Electric Light in its Practical Applications," by Dr. Paget Higgs; "A Collection of Decimal Tables of Weights. Measures, etc.," to serve as an appendix to Molesworth's "Pocket-book of Engineering Formulæ ;" a book "On Steel, its History, Manufacture, and Uses," by J. S. Jeans, Secretary of the British Iron and Steel Institute; and another on "Corliss Engines and Allied Steam Motors," by W. H. Uhland, translated by A. Tolhausen, C.E. AMONG those who suffered in the destructive fire which occurred in Philadelphia on Sunday, April 6th, at Fourth and Rose streets, were Ignatius Kohler, German bookseller and im porter, whose loss is estimated at $50,000, with about $25,000 insurance; Messrs. A. W. Stuart & Sons, booksellers and printers, loss $11,000, covered by insurance; and Messrs. Boericke & Tafel, the homoeopathic book publishers, who lost quite heavily on stock that was stored in that vicinity: The fire was the most severe that has visited Philadelphia for a long time. The locality seems to be unfortunate, it being the third time within a few years that it has been burnt, and all were large fires. MR. HENRY KIDDLE, the well-known Superintendent of the New York City schools, has Publishing Co.'s, which will be received as very prepared a book, nearly ready at the Authors' extraordinary, coming from the source it does. This is a volume entitled "Spiritual Communications," and claiming to present "a revelation of the future life, illustrating and confirming the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith," "affording a proof of the truth of Christ's mission and doctrines more conclusive than has ever been given since the age of the Apostles." The author believes these to be authentic communications from the eternal world, a belief arising from his investigations into psychological phenomena. " AN exceptionally interesting announcement is made by J. B. Lippincott & Co. in "The Reader's Handbook," by E. Cobham Brewer, Fable." Much criticism has been written upon LL.D., author of the “ Dictionary of Phrase and the present tendency to abridge and condense; but what will the critics say when they take up "The Reader's Handbook" and find the stories of Homer's Illiad" and "Odyssey," Virgil's "Eneid," Dante's "Divine Comedy," Milton's "Paradise Lost and Regained, "The Nibelungen Lied," the "Lusiad" of Camoens, with the story poems of Chaucer, Spenser, Tennyson, Longfellow, Scott, Byron, etc., etc., told in 3 few lines? The object of the work is to sup ply readers and speakers with a lucid but very brief account of such names as are used in al lusion and references, whether by poets or prose writers, to furnish those who consult it with the plot of popular dramas, the story of epic poems, and the outline of the well-known tales. Who has not asked what such and such a book is about? and who would not be glad to have his question answered correctly in a few words? This gives the purpose of the work, and it will be a valuable assistant to the trade as well as to the public. It will be a 12mo of about 1000 pages. |