be amazed at the great number and variety
of themes upon which the "Easy Chair" has had its say. And it would seem
that its occupant has had some similar thoughts to these, for, in a
recent number there is a retrospective glance--a wondering as to what
future generations may have to say, and wish to know regarding matters
and things of this generation about which it has discoursed:

"The Easy Chair, mindful of posterity, and of that future loiterer in
the retired alcoves of coming libraries who will turn to the pages of an
old magazine to catch some glimpse of the daily aspect and the homely
fact of our day, which will be then a kind of quaint remembrance, like
the 'Augustan age' of Anne to Victorian epoch, puts here upon record for
his unborn reader--whom he salutes with hope and Godspeed--that the
winter of 1883-4 in the city of New York was a gray and gloomy season
almost beyond precedent, during which the persistent fogs and mists
appeared half to have obliterated the sun."

Here are a few excerpts which may be called "Gems for the Easy Chair;"
but those given are no better than thousands of others that are
scattered through these many volumes.

A Madonna. Once in Dresden the Easy Chair climbed into a little room
where an engraver was finishing a picture which is now famous. He had
worked long and faithfully upon it. It was truly a work of love, and it
had cost him his most precious and essential possession for his art--his
eyesight. The engraver was Steinla, and the picture was the Madonna di
Sisto.... It can be seen only by those who go to Dresden. Among pictures
there is none more justly famous, and the devoted engraver toiled long
and patiently, and at such enormous sacrifice to re-produce it, so far
as lines could do it, from the same love and instinct that produced the
picture.

* * * * *

PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

MIDDLESEX COUNTY MANUAL. By CHARLES COWLEY. LL.D. Penhallow Printing
Company, Lowell, Mass.

In this handy volume, the "Historical Sketch of the County of
Middlesex," Judge Cowley has made a valuable contribution to the
recorded history of our Commonwealth. He has traced in a clear and
concise manner the important events of Middlesex County from 1643, the
year of its incorporation, down to Shay's Rebellion.

REMINISCENCES OF JAMES COOK AVER AND THE TOWN OF AVER. By CHARLES
COWLEY, LL.D.

This work is one of many for which the publ