Since Washington Irving with delicious humor satirized the Dutchmen who founded New York, many writers have handled the history of America’s chief city. Notable among them has been Mrs. Lamb, and it was thought her work left nothing undone. Mr. Todd, how ever, thought the picturesque story would be well re-told in language and form more likely to be attractive to young people, and this book is the result. The style is lucid, and there is little of the pedantic minuteness that makes so many histories hard reading. On the other hand it has not been thought necessary to make the book puerile in order to get young people to read it, and there is nothing in it to remind one of the primer. So it will prove entertaining, also to older folks who like to take their history in pleasant form.