espie of Union College, illustrating at
a glance the changes which have taken place in the relative population
of the different States, the relative proportion of increase of white
and of slave population, and the effect produced by this upon different
sections. We have not, at the late hour at which we write, time or room
to indicate a tithe of the valuable features of this remarkable book; we
can only say, that whoever expends the small sum necessary for its
purchase, will most assuredly obtain an ample equivalent for his money.

THE ORPHEUS C. KERR PAPERS. Second Series. New York: Carleton, 413
Broadway. 1863.

During the present decade the American public has welcomed almost
annually a new humorist. Thus we have seen in rapid succession John
Phoenix, Doesticks, Fanny Fern, and Artemus Ward enjoying
extraordinary popularity, and then new 'lords of misrule' 'reigning in
their stead.' The last popular favorite is 'Orpheus C. Kerr'--a name
thinly disguising that of Office Seeker, and which is not indeed too
well chosen, since in the volume before us little or nothing relative to
the very suggestive subject of office-seeking, on the part of the author
at least, is to be found. The book itself is, however, marvellously
laugh provoking, abounding in the oddest conceits, strangest stories,
and drollest extravaganzas in the most ultra American vein. If the men
who best ridicule great failures in war and in politics, are the ones
most to be dreaded, it must be admitted that 'Orpheus C. Kerr' is the
sharpest thorn which has been as yet planted in the side of the 'Young
Napoleons' of our army, whose ability seems to consist in building up
the strength of the enemy by delay and in canvassing indirectly for the
Presidency. There is no cause so good as to be without abuses, and the
abuses which have crept into our management of the war are touched off
in these papers as merrily as unmercifully. They have done 'yeoman's
service' in the press, hitting all sides, but bearing most heavily on
'Young Napoleon' and the _status quo_ Democracy. It cannot be denied
that the humor of these sketches is often merely extravagant, sometimes
harshly strained, and occasionally bare and thin enough in all
conscience, while the stories of the Cosmopolite Club seem like mere
'filling up' to 'make pages;' yet with all this there is more real wit,
humor, and life-knowledge in this volume than would give tone and
strength to half a dozen or