w the
Wild Flowers". Describes briefly more than 400 varieties common east
of Chicago, grouping them by color.

Seton-Thompson's "Wild Animals I have Known"; of which 100,000 copies
have been sold.

F. A. Lucas' "Animals of the Past"

Bradford Towey's "Birds in the Bush," and "Everyday Birds."

President D. S. Jordan's "True Tales of Birds and Beasts."

D. L. Sharp's "A Watcher in the Woods."

W. H. Gibson's "Sharp Eyes."

M. W. Morley's "The Bee-people."

Never before was a practical substitute for a college education at home
made so cheap, so easy, and so attractive. Knowledge of all kinds is
placed before us in a most attractive and interesting manner. The best
of the literature of the world is found to-day in thousands of American
homes where fifty years ago it could only have been obtained by the
rich.

What a shame it is that under such conditions as these an American
should grow up ignorant, should be uneducated in the midst of such
marvelous opportunities for self-improvement! Indeed, most of the best
literature in every line to-day appears in the current periodicals, in
the form of short articles. Many of our greatest writers spend a vast
amount of time in the drudgery of travel and investigation in gathering
material for these articles, and the magazine publishers pay thousands
of dollars for what a reader can get for ten or fifteen cents. Thus
the reader secures for a trifle in periodicals or books the results of
months and often years of hard work and investigation of our greatest
writers.

A New York millionaire,--a prince among merchants,--took me over his
palatial residence on Fifth Avenue, every room of which was a triumph
of the architect's, of the decorator's, and of the upholsterer's art.
I was told that the decorations of a single sleeping-room had cost ten
thousand dollars. On the walls were paintings secured at fabulous
prices, and about the rooms were pieces of massive and costly
furniture, and draperies representing a small fortune, and carpets on
which it seemed almost sacrilege to tread covered the floors. But
there was scarcely a book in the house. He had expended a fortune for
physical pleasures, comforts, luxury, and display. It was pitiful to
think of the physical surfeit and mental starvation of the children of
such a home as that. When I went out, he told me that he came to the
city a poor boy, with all his worldly possessions done up in a little
red bandana. "