These Ballads, first published in periodicals, rapidly achieved a whimsical popularity, which soon demanded their publication in a collected form. Much of this is due to the series of inexplicably funny drawings by the author, who is happy in being artist enough to interpret his own humor in these admirable sketches: we pity the man who cannot appreciate and enjoy them. The Ballads will rank with the best of Thackeray, Bon Gaultier, or Ingoldsby. Let every one who in these dull times has the blues, procure a copy as the cheapest remedy. While it is a nearly perfect fac simile of the English copy, it is only half the price.
"Everybody likes, occasionally, a little sensible nonsense. 'Mother Goose' is enjoyed in childhood, and something similar, but more advanced, is needed to provoke a smile on a wearied face in later years. This volume of comic poems answers such a purpose: some of them have a sly moral, while others are simply amusing from their supreme absurdity. The mirth is aided by the author's original cuts, which are quite in keeping with the poetry."—Advance, Chicago, the Great Religious Weekly.
"Among the great wants of students of this noble game of chess has been a handbook which should occupy a middle ground between the large and expensive work of Staunton and the ten cent guides with which the country is flooded. This want is happily supplied by the present volume. It is an abridgment of Staunton's work, and contains full accounts and descriptions of the common openings and defences, besides a large number of illustrative games and several endings and problems. It is a book which will be decidedly useful to all beginners in the game, and interesting to those who are already proficient in it."—Peoria Transcript.
"Will prove an invaluable guide for the admirers of the great and strategic game of chess. It should be in the hands of every chess-player."—Galesburg Republican.
"It is the best manual for the beginner with which we are acquainted,—exceedingly clear and intelligible."—New Orleans Picayune.
