Styer—Its history and romance, By Benjamin White. London, Water.
low & Sons, Pp. 360.
Mr. White has produced a book (now in its second edition) of sustained interest. It can scarcely fail to be widely appreciated China, where silver is a daily common place and " perpetual mystery The author has no formula to off affording a key to the vagaries silk he can only that li relation to mankind has never been constant and never will be: but he records its history with infinite care and detail, and in so doing renders his story extremely enter: taining and instructive. He claims no more than that.
Tt is a non-technical work, for the most part descriptive, dealing very fully with the history of silver, the principal sources of the world's supply, and its various phases from the mine to the mint and the market place. More recondite phases of the matter are only touched upon lightly, but the volume contains much information which will be appreciated by the expert. Incidentally, it may be noted that the idea for the book suggested to the author by K. Mogami. one of the man of the Yokohama Specie Ontctx or tHe Dottar.
There is an interesting allusion to the origin of the dollar. Early in the 16th century a flourishing mining centre was created Joachimsthal. The out) ut of silver was so substantial that a mint was erected on the spot and coins were struck which went by the name Joachimsthaler. The word was contracted in common parlance to Thaler, and ultimately—obtained world-wide notoriety in the cor: rupted form of "Dollar."
As to the design of the Mexican dollar, it is recalled that in 1315. when the Aztecs established themselves as conquerors in the Anahuac Valley, they recognized as an auspicious royal omen an eagle perched on a prickly pear bush with a serpent in its talons, sunning its widespread wings in' pride and splendour. This picture adorns the Mexican dollar to-day, familiar to millions of people in China, and the sole link between the two countries.
Dramas or YESTERDAY.
Several chapters are devoted to the romance of pioneer silver mining in Mexico, Central and South America, the United States and Australia, and these chapters lack nothing im dramatic human in terest; in particular the story of the great Comstock silver mine in 1,859, a decade after th- first California gold rush. A man named Henry Comstock. a restless. lazy
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.