The annual report of British East Africa for the year 1908–09, which was issued a few months ago, states that the period was not marked by any salient events, but the Protectorate had made steady progress in spite of weather conditions somewhat unfavorable to agriculture. There had been little or no friction with native tribes. Labor difficulties still exist, but show a tendency to diminish. European overseers of the native railway laborers have proved far more satisfactory than the Indians formerly employed. The report says of slavery: “The ordinance for the abolition of the legal status of slavery has worked well and without friction during the year. Altogether 3,593 cases have been settled by the District Courts, and compensation to the amount of £7,053 has been awarded.” WHAT TO READ PERIODICALS. Plea for the Conservation of Another Great National Resource. F. P. Chisholm. Education, November. Dip of the Tar Brush. M. A. H. New England Magazine, October. Special Plea of a Southerner. E. Harlan. New England Magazine, October. Prince Henry of Portugal and the African Crusade of the Fifteenth Century. C. R. Beasley. American Historical Review, October. Excavation of Cyrene. F. W. Kelsey. Nation, October 27. Diary of Gideon Welles. Atlanta, December. Cuban Experiences. Frederick Funston. Scribner’s, December. A Hero’s Conscience. G. Bradford, Jr. Atlanta, December. BOOKS. Wilson, Lady S. D. A.—South African Memories. Longmans. Shotwell, W. G.—Life of Charles Sumner. Crowell. 733 pp. Steffens. Alexander H., Recollections of. Doubleday, Page & Co. 572 pp. Newton, J. H.—Lincoln and Herndon. Torch Press. 367 pp. Sylvester, H. M.—Indian Wars of New England. Clark. 3 vols. Haring, C. H.—The Buccaneers of the West Indies in the 17th Century. Dutton. 298 pp. Hagood, Johnson.—Memoirs of the War of Secession. State Co. 498 pp. Deutsch, G.—History of the Jews. Bloch. 122 pp. Shoemaker. M. M.—Islam Lands. Putnams. 251 pp. Withers, P.—Egypt of Yesterday and To-day. Stokes. 293 pp. Addams, Jane.—Twenty Years at Hull House. Macmillan, 462 pp. Documentary History of American Industrial Society. Vol, IX: Labor Movement. Clark. 378 pp. THE LADY OF THE SLAVE STATES. Mrs. George Haven Putnam, in a very charming essay in the Contemporary Review for December, discusses “The Lady of the Slave States.” She deals gently enough with her subject; she says that the slave-owner’s wife like everybody else with slavery was blighted by its curse, but she demolished very effectually the myth of the gracious fascinating woman of culture who ruled family and estate by the charm of her personality.