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.

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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 public are indebted to Judge Cowley.  It presents many facts of great historical value, and in the usual pungent and agreeable style of their author.

SHOPPELL’S BUILDING PLANS FOR MODERN LOW COST HOUSES.  The Co-operative
Building Plan Association, New York.  Price, 50 cents.

This book contains a mass of information to builders and would-be home owners.  Its many and varied plans are for the construction of neat, comfortable and very attractive buildings at very reasonable cost.

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CORRECTION.

In the sketch of Saugus in the December number of the BAY STATE MONTHLY, line 14, on page 149, should read “as early as 1828” instead of 1848.—­E.P.R.