A court of inquiry was at once formed, consisting of Commodore Stewart, Jacob Jones, and Dallas. Mackenzie's course was fully approved, but subsequently, on his demand, he was accorded a court martial, of which Commodore John Downes was president, and the trial, covering a period of forty days, resulted in his complete vindication. Fenimore Cooper, with his fertile brain and biting sarcasm, wrote a scathing article and review of the case, handling Mackenzie in an exasperating manner, but popular opinion was on the side of the commander

of the " Somers." Secretary of War Spencer, father of one of the executed mutineers, wrote a letter, which was extensively circulated, denouncing the act of Mackenzie as illegal and unwarranted, as, if there were any grounds for believing a mutiny was contemplated, the prisoners should have been brought in irons to the United States, where they could have undergone a legal trial. Complaint was made during the courtmartial trial, because B. F. Butler and Charles O'Conor, employed by the father of Midshipman Spencer, were not allowed to sit by and put questions approved by the court.

It has been stated that the commander of the "Somers" assumed another name to avoid the unpleasant notoriety he had acquired in the tragic and unfortunate affair. Nothing can be further from the truth, so far as the mutiny and death of the conspirators were concerned. The change alluded to occurred in 1838, while the execution took place in 1842.

The records of the New York Legisla

In the Senate on Saturday, January 6th, 1838, Mr. L. Beardsley, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill authorizing Lieutenant Alexander Slidell, of the U. S. Army, to assume his maternal name, Alexerty. Mr. Verplanck said he had presented the petition. ander Slidell Mackenzie, to enable him to inherit propThe petitioner was well known as a skillful and gallant officer, and his name also stood high in the Navy world. It was one which, with its present associations, he should think, nothing but the strongest induce ments could impel him to wish to change. He must write a great many good books ere the name of Mackenzie would be more celebrated than that of Slidell.

He was commissioned a commander, September 8, 1841; and died, from injur ies received through falling from a horse, September 13, 1848. He was a brother of John Slidell, who, with Mason of Virginia, represented the Confederacy in France during the war of the rebellion.

During the Mexican war, the "Somers," under command of Semmes, who was then a lieutenant, was engaged on blockading duty off Vera Cruz. On the morning of the 8th of December, 1846, she was struck by a squall while between Verde Island and Paxaros reefs. The brig was under topsails, courses, jib and spanker, and Semmes had just ordered the mainsail to be hauled up and spanker brailed up, when the squall was upon them and the vessel was thrown upon her beam ends. She was flying light, with but six tons of ballast on board, and short of provisions. She sank rapidly, carrying with her to the bottom over half of her crew; but her commander, who certainly was never born to be drowned, was picked up by boats belonging to a foreign man-of-war, and reserved for his career on the "Alabama."

The scenes connected with the loss of the "Somers" may doubtlessly have been brought vividly back to Semmes while he was struggling for life amid the dark waters off Cherbourg, with Winslow's guns still echoing in his tingling ears.

Two short stories, "A Phyllis of the Sierras " and " A Drift from Redwood Camp" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.), by Bret Harte, form a very attractive volume of light reading. The former shows the more evidences of care in its preparation, and contains some charming strokes of description and quaint humor that are fully up to the standard of any of the author's previous efforts. The idea of the "Drift from Redwood Camp" is, perhaps, the newer, but the story has rather the stamp of being entirely a work of imagination. In brief, a bummer of a mining camp is washed away in a freshet, and falls in with and is cared for by a tribe of Indians, who regard him as something supernatural. Such material in the hands of an ordinary author would, no doubt, make very dull reading, but it is quite sufficient, in the hands of Bret Harte, to make a charming little sketch.

The Indian question has long been one of great interest, but it also has been very onesided, and we welcome, therefore, the little volume before us, "The Indian's Side of the Indian Question," by Dr. William Barrows (D. Lothrop Co.). The author believes the Dawes Bill presents an opportunity such as never before existed for saving the Indians and making self-sustaining, self-reliant, capable citizens of them. But he shows that the law will amount to nothing without the systematic, persistent and watchful cooperation of friendly Americans who are not the Indian's neighbors. The Indian's neighbors are not his friends. Frontiersmen must be held in check by the law and public opinion behind the law. With a view to bringing about that accord, Mr. Barrows reviews the whole history of Indian management briefly and in a business-like manner, with continual citing of authorities. This is Indian history with a purpose; the book is a means of intelligence on a question, which within a year has taken on so new a phase that it needs to be studied anew, and this volume is the readiest means of information we know of.

Another volume by Dr. William Barrows has been brought to our notice: "The United States of Yesterday and To-morrow" (Roberts Brothers). For actual information in regard to the great West, few books have been published that will compare with the one in question. It is a volume that will give the young man a respect and a knowledge for the resources of his country such as he would never get if his information must come from the ordinary text-books. Moreover, it is written in such an interesting manner that the young student will be attracted to its pages. Early pioneer life, with its hardships and crude laws, is faithfully depicted, and the great prospects of the West are set forth in an impressive manner.

An entertaining little book comes to us in the form of "The Story of the City of New York," by Charles Burr Todd (G. P. Putnam's Sons). The aim of the volume is evidently to create a love for local history among the younger generation, and in this respect it will without doubt, fill its mission. Furthermore, it appeals to what may be termed popular readers—a class that abhors anything having the semblance of dryness. The work is essentially a history until it reaches the more modern stages, when it becomes a record of contemporaneous events.

The story as a whole, is well told. It starts at the beginning, the discovery of New York Bay in 1524, by Jean Verrazano, a native of Florence, who took possession of the surrounding land in the name of his patron, Francis I., King of France. Then follow interesting detailed descriptions of the Dutch dynasty, of the English rule, the commercial development of the nation, and finally, records of the more important recent incidents, such as the history of the Tweed Ring and a description of Brooklyn Bridge. The work is nicely printed and fairly illustrated.

"Essays, chiefly on Poetry." By Aubrey De Vere, LL.D. (Macmillan & Co.) This

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is a collection, in two nicely printed volumes, of essays that have at different times been contributed by the author to high-class English periodicals. The first volume is devoted to criticisms on Spenser, Wordsworth and Sir Henry Taylor. It opens with a treatise on the characteristics of Spencer's poetry and is followed by a discussion on Spenser as a Philosophic Poet." Two essays are about Wordsworth, one dealing with his "genius and passion," and the other with his "wisdom and truth," both in a forcible manner. The remainder is taken up by an able criticism on Sir Henry Taylor's "Philip Van Artevelde."

In the second volume, the collection includes in addition to several literary essays, a number of discussions on ethical topics, the most interesting of which perhaps is "The Subjective Difficulties in Religion: Does Unbelief Come from Something in Religion or in the Unbeliever?" Essays are certainly not the most popular of current literature, but for profitable and entertaining reading, the volumes in question are among the best of the kind that have been brought to our notice for some time.

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt has in "Gouverneur Morris," made a valuable addition to the American Statesmen series (Houghton, Mifflin & Co). The word "biography" has in it little that will attract the general reader. This is due very largely to the way the market for half a century or more has been flooded with dull, aimless and uninteresting literature of this description. Mr. Roosevelt has a ready pen and his style is forcible. He has in the volume in question cast adrift the old tedious style of narrative, and has given the sketch of "Gouverneur Morris" a spirit that carries the attention of the reader through the entire volume. The idea is a good one, and other biographers will, we think, do well to follow the example.

The "Pocket Guide for Europe," by Thos. W. Knox (G. P. Putnam's Sons), is a timely little volume which contains a great deal of concise information on questions that everybody who contemplates a tour of Europe asks. The author's aim has been to give a general outline of a Continental tour, but the "Guide" will be found especially interesting by those who have only a few weeks and a few hundred dollars at their disposal. A valuable feature is a chapter on "Travel Talk in Four Languages."

"Agatha Page," by Isaac Henderson (Ticknor & Co.), is a novel well worth reading, even in these days when the production of fiction seems to have no end. While a number of the characters are rather hackneyed, the author has displayed a force in their de

"Cloudrifts at Twilight" (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is the title of a collection of the poems of William Batchelder Green, author of "Reflections and Modern Maxims." The volume is nicely printed, and many of the compositions are strikingly good.

"Heartsease and Rue," by James Russell Lowell (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). The lover of good poetry will hail this volume with delight. In this age, when so much socalled poetry is current, it is truly a relief to turn to the work of a living master, and still more to find that this master has not yet reached the zenith of his magnificent career. The volume is gracefully introduced by

Along the wayside, where we pass, bloom few Gay plants of heartsease, more of saddening rue: So life is mingled; so should poems be, That speak a conscious word to you and me. And so the poems are mingled, and the grouping shows the scope that is covered. The first class bears the heading of "Friendship"; then follows "Sentiment", next "Fancy", then "Humor and Satire"; and the volume closes with a collection of epigrams. The style is as varied as the scope, ranging all the way from the Elizabethan to the present, and affording an almost inexhaustible store of enchantment for the cultured mind.

A new volume of poems by Thomas Brown Peacock comes to us from G. P. Putnam's Sons. It contains "Poems of the Plains," "Songs of the Solitudes,” and “The Rhyme of the Border War." Mr. Peacock has the not very general quality of having something to say in his poetry, and of saying it. The world is every day becoming more prac tical, and Mr. Peacock well deserves the title

of practical poet. The volume contains a biographical sketch of the author and critical remarks on his poems by Prof. Thomas Danleigh Suplee.

Mrs. Wister possesses to a remarkable degree the talent, somewhat rare among translators, of preserving the force and beauty of the original that local coloring which is as essential to the beauty of a novel as a good background is to a painting. Her translation-or, rather, adaptation-of Schobert's romance, "Picked Up in the Streets" (J. B. Lippincott Co.), is a decided illustration of

this happy faculty. In reading this interesting story, one seems actually to be with the heroine, Terra, in all the stages of her eventful career. The portrayal of the petty German court is so vivid, one seems to breathe its very atmosphere. The rigid and narrow-minded Princess Sybilla, the mischiefmaking lady-in-waiting and her even more disagreeable brother, the high-minded Rommingen, and the beautiful Terra, as well as the other people of the story, appear living realities, so faithfully are they drawn. is an enjoyable story, and is exceedingly well written.

It

Jottings for May.

It is the most dangerous time of our year. We are assailed by strong temptations in the form of warm breezes and occasional foretastes of summer heat to change our thick clothing for that of lighter weight; to linger for a few minutes upon a chilly corner, to discuss matters with a friend; or to let furnace fires go out-it is really so warm. When the frost is coming out of the ground, it has a power of imparting a chilliness to feet that even winter's ice did not possess; or perhaps the thick boots and overshoes have been laid aside-spring is really here, you know.

All such things make these May days dangerous, and the AMERICAN warns its readers to exercise double care during this month. No underclothing should be changed in weight, no matter what temporary aberrations thermometers may show in upward leaps, and an overcoat is quite as necessary as in January. It need not be worn continually, but it should be as constant a companion as the hat.

Women in spring are usually wiser than men in these matters; they do not discard their winter wraps until it is time to pack them away altogether; and the statistics of lung and throat diseases give them a partial exemption therefor.

It is particularly necessary that houses should be heated during these damp days. Air in cellars circulates through upper stories with perfect freedom, and if the furnace goes out below, chill rapidly penetrates above. It is better to have a warm room, with open windows, than sleep where the air is both damp and cold. In many parts of the country there is a fixed date to extinguish winter fires, and commence that annual sacrifice to filth that is called house-cleaning. But if in remote periods that date was a guarantee for summer's advent, times have changed, and we may now look for a cold north-east storm that has been regular enough

to have earned the name of "the May storm." In New England and the northern central States, this cold, wet snap seems to come later and stay longer each year, and everyone living north of Virginia should beware of its arrival, and not be caught unprepared. It is emphatically a dangerous corner.

I have been asked once more to say something anent the abuse of tobacco. It is almost fruitless to inveigh against its use, for there are too many millions of sensible people who find comfort in its smoke, solace in its company, and contentment in its effect. Yet the fact remains that with its increased consumption physicians find an increasing list of patients with heart derangement. Life insurance examiners now reject applicants for policies who have what is known as "tobacco heart disease," which disorder is manifested by palpitation, nervous fluttering, or irregularity of pulse, and inability to climb stairs or hills without shortness of breath. All these are symptoms of poison-and this universal toxic agent is tobacco.

When any one or all of these signs become manifest, a wise man will either quit poisoning himself or at least reduce the dose; but the trouble is, there are so few wise men!

The most harmless form of tobacco using is probably smoking through a narghile, or water-pipe; next, mild cigars of low grade, for the finer qualities of tobacco contain the most nicotine; and last, ordinary pipes. The most harmful forms are chewing, and especially cigarette smoking.

If our young people who are addicted to indulgence in the cigarette could see how and of what it is made, they might be induced to quit the practice, though I doubt it. It is fashionable, and that is enough for them.

A young society lady said to me recently," after listening to some such statement as the above: " Why, doctor, we ladies do not object in the least to cigarettes; in fact, we rather like the odor." And until our girls put their

veto upon the practice, I presume it will continue, with the certain result of a weak-nerved, soft-muscled, and short-winded race of men to come.

Moderate smoking by adults is not attended with much danger. On the contrary, many seem to derive actual power from it, but it is only seeming. The use of any poison can at best only be tolerated for a time; it can never be permanently attended with good effect.

Throughout this month, throat troubles are common, and among those that come under my observation I notice a preponderance of tonsilitis the old fashioned quinsy sorethroat. Here is a simple remedy that is most effectual for that very uncomfortable disorder. Since using it, I have found it necessary to puncture a tonsil only once.

Carry in a pocket a small package of bicarbonate of soda (ordinary baking soda) and apply it gently to the affected tonsils with the tip of a finger. If the application is made hourly for two days, all inflammation will disappear. It is, however, best to avoid cold damp as much as possible. Sleeping rooms should have a plentiful supply of pure air, which is best obtained by opening windows. "But night air is not wholesome this damp weather," said a gentleman, lately. "My dear sir, what other kind of air is there in the night but night air?" was the reply. After a winter's depression of vital tone, and exposures to Arctic blizzards, a plentiful supply of oxygen is doubly necessary, and there should be no hindrance to free circulation of air while voluntary life is still.

If everyone would take half a dozen deep inhalations twice or three times daily, beginning with the arms hanging down and an empty chest, and gradually raising the arms until when the lungs are full they are stretched directly upwards, there would soon develop a sturdy power of resistance to cold that would add much to our comfort; and even in the chilliest of weather it is surprising how much warmer this makes a person feel, besides expanding the chest and enlivening the general system.

Surface rheumatisms, such as lumbagos, cricks in necks or pains about the ribs, are nearly always due to exposure to cold damp. An excellent remedy for slight attacks of this nature is the application of heated flannel upon which a few drops of spirits of turpentine have been sprinkled, to the part. Do not use red flannel. Since mineral have displaced vegetable dyes, there is no safety in any bright color, and several instances of severe skin poisoning have recently been traced directly to wearing red flannel underclothing. If heat and counter irritation do not relieve, there is no home remedy equal to massage and electricity, which the family doctor will probably order promptly.

I saw a lady in a horse car lately take a coin

from her purse to pay fare, and put it in her mouth a moment while she replaced her glove. It seemed to me then that a long sermon might be preached from that text.

If the lady in question had considered the many foul places that coin had visited, the many filthy hands and possibly infected clothing it had passed through, and the serious danger she incurred of catching some contagious disease, I do not believe she would have put it between her lips, where absorbents are so numerous and active. It occurred to me, as I recalled a certain scarlet-fever stricken shanty down town, where there was a small store of just such coins in a cracked earthen jar, that if the lady had seen those surroundings, she would have wanted a pair of tongs to handle the coin, instead of putting it in her mouth.

It is one of those causes of the spread of infection that cannot be estimated. It is, however, so easy to avoid that a few warnings such as this will probably do good.

While upon this subject, hotel soaps will bear examination. Though it is to the interest of first-class hotels to furnish everything of the best quality, yet the soap found in their sleeping apartments is rarely so. Besides being of a cheap and nasty sort, it is left in rooms from one tenant's occupancy to another and another, until used up. Perhaps the person who washed with it last might have had itch or something worse that could be communicated to another with the utmost case, especially if the skin were broken. Perhaps not; but who knows who was the last to wash with that half-worn-out cake of soap, that would have been when whole dear at a penny?

Europeans permit everyone to furnish their own soap; and when I have heard my countrymen complain of "want of conveniences, "I have felt inclined to ask them if they thought a hospital for skin diseases ought to be attached to their hotels. Soap, good soap, is cheap, and twenty-five cents is not much to pay for the certainty of avoiding infection. Let hotel soap alone.

It is about time for the annual hegira to Europe to commence, and for numbers of people to hesitate about undertaking the journey for fear of seasickness. Many years' experience of sea life has taught me that for certain persons there is no such thing as a remedy at once effective and harmless. They must be seasick if on the water, in spite of everything, but it generally does them good. The majority, however, need not suffer at all. Here let me record my conviction that there is no excuse for using any powerful drug, much less for the exceedingly dangerous practice of stupefying a person with bromides or poisoning him with antipyrine, the latest proposed remedy. In itself, seasickness is rarely a serious matter, much less a dangerous one. Discomfort of an acute type is the