Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], December 12, 1912, Page 6, Image 6

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

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REVIEWS OF NEW BOOKS.
A WIDE RANGE OF THEMES.
PICTURES OF THE HOLY LAND
And a Horseback- Journey, Described
By an Observant student.
A truly wonderful collection of photo
graphs are those reproduced in “A Camera
Crusade Through the Holy Land” (Scrib
ners), by Dwight L. Elmendorf. ■ They
are remarkable considered as mechanical
achievements, as artistic studies or as
illustrations of historic nlaces and people.
The author has combined his experiencejis
a traveler, lecturer and artist in producing
what must prove to be one of the most ac
ceptable of Christmas books. About a
third of the book is descriptive of Jeru
salem and the region round about, espe
cially with reference to their Biblical as
sociations. This relationship is kept well
to the fore and frequent references to the
Bible text are valuable aids to the student.
The point of view is that of a devout
Christian believer and the reader is
brought into thi spirit of a real pilgrimage.
The pictures, of which there are 100— in
cluding one in colors of a woman of Sama
ria before a Passover door —are largely
landscapes, and together tbev give a most I
vivid picture of the rugged and barren
grandeur of the Holy Land. There are I
also manv views of the inhabitants m
characteristic occupations, and of build
ings of historic interest. Opposite each |
picture is a list of appropriate references i
to passages in the Bible.
Mr Elmendorf and his oartv beg-gn the:. '
ioumey at Joppa. Prccetdizs nearly >
to Jerusalem the re te was hanged
for a visit to Hebron, the farthest ;
soothers point reached. Retracing their j
steps. the travelers proceeded to f
Bethlehem. ramr ias - ttsxie the ~ s
Ser the nigbr. aad tbs next day Tish
—r its tesweks? aad tradfcwal s .rs
sacred aore, Fram BetaSeheas they jeer- ;
Beyed so tbs Dra’ -I'C': pcs
rires where dad* wee reg-Mi as of oht
aa*i raw ’he wSdecsess. which rk* devd is
said M save nade a oia« of tee; raiFa. :
Tse Jercaa was ties wcKhed s-rar tie
paint where it esters the Dead »<«. »a i
then a retxrs was g c to JersssJeni by
way of Jericho and the faaaosts Jericho ;
rae-i.
Os the Meeat of (Mives the amhor ;
n*w4 to coctewpiate the recent discord- .
am fact that ysriests of rival Christian -
•'•hEPebes had «■» to fatal blows near ।
here, and that such disturbances had bad
to be culled bv Mohammedan soldiers.
Sail delaying estrais^ to the city,
be proceeded toward Samaria, over
’•4“ great highway—"the worst specimen
of a road I hare ever seen." Proceeding
oorrhward. the party slopped at Jaeob’s
well. The author says: “There is not
the shadow of a doubt about this being
the well. Jews. Christians and Moslems
al! agree that it is the well of Jacob."
There are. of course, those who doubt
whether Jacob was a historical person,
hut such skeptics don't count. Near tins
weli Mr Elmendorf took the photograph,
which is reproduced in colors as a frontis
piece to his book. He says:—
My camera caught a picture that will lire
rith me forever, a woman of Samaria, car
wing her little child in her bosom, stand
ug in a doorway which had been sprinkled
with the blood of a lamb—for It was at the
time of the feast of the Passover—“ There
cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water."
It was early in the morning that she came
out of the door to go and draw water, quite
in keeping with the old law of Moses: “Draw
out and take yon a lamb according to your
families, and kill the passover . . . And
ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and din it
in the blood that is in the basin: and none
of you shall go out at the door of his house
until the morning." (Exodus xil: 21. 22.)
The travelers, on horseback, made their
way through Nazareth to the Jake of Gal
ilee; then across it and on northward to
Khadisa and Dan. and northeasterly
through Caesarea Philippi, to Damascus,
the farthest north of the pilgrimage. The
country, the people, the history and the
Biblical references suggested are all dwelt
upon briefly but with a graphic touch.
Jerusalem is given particular attention,
but not with hackneyed description. The
impressions of a devout pilgrim are well
conveyed to the sympathetic reader.
“THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA."
A Book Which Deals Plentifully in
Superlatives.
H. W. Van Dyke's “Through South
America" (Crowell) raises a curtain and
reveals a continent of absorbing romance,
of unlimited economic possibilities, and
of wonderful natural scenery, which
the completion of the Panama canal
will make a mecca for historians, students
and tourists. To what have been mere
names he gives an individuality and charm
which makes the reader yearn to see these
little-known and little-visited countries and
cities. The first third of the book is de
voted to a brief but sympathetic narrative
of the continent's early history; Colum
bus's dreams of reaching Cathay and the
Rubini Khan, the heroism of Magellan, the
fire and ambition which led Balboa to
transport four ships across the isthmus of
Panama to plow the waters of the new
ocean, and the dazzling bravery of
Pizarro in the conquest of Peru,
are well nigh unchallenged in his
tory for their greatness of conception
and their results. To the modern econ
omist the luca empire which Pizarro
so ruthlessly crushed is an interesting
study, for no such thing as money or
private ownership was known and men
worked under the military despotism only
for the common weal. And then, fol
lowing the establishment of Spanish au
thority amt that dark period when the
whole continent struggled under the greed
of the Cadiz ring who held it fast and
firm for exploitation for their own and
rhe king's purse. With only one port
of entry for the small commerce wnich
was allowed, the new countries existed
only as mines of the precious metals to
enrich those at home, till finally the con
vulsions of the growing giant brought
forth San Martin and Bolivar, who in
struggles unsurpassed for bitterness and
bravery hurled the Spanish power back
ward into the sea.
Passing to a broad description of. the
different countries, Mr Van Dyke pictures
Brazil as one of the world's richest re
gions, where in an area larger than ours,
three-fifths of the world's rubber ana
rbree-fourtha of its coffee, in addition to
other huge avM, are already being pro
duced. With the great Amazon navigable
for 2000 miler and having an outpour of
four times the volume of the Mississippi, ac
cording to Mr Van Dyke, a healthy (?) and
prolific region two-thirda the size of our
whole country is drained. Rio de Janeiro,
the Paris of the new world, has a bay
which anroasses Naples in beauty, to
gether with a style, culture and refine
ment which knows no peer in the United
States. The Argentine is no less rich, already
ranking second among the nations of the
world in sheep, cattle and horses, while
every year its exports of foodstuffs be
come more firmly established as unrivalled
by any other nation. Bnenos Aires is
indeed the nation’s center, and its Spanish
descent, its French and Italian atmos-
pbere. and its Anglo-Saxon government,
give it a unique cosmopolitanism. And
for the lover of nature there are the
Iguazu falls, thundering in the heart e,
the solitude. s<> fee: higher and 1250
feet wider than Niagara.
Passing through Vrugvay, which has
been the cockpit of South American pol
ities, and Paraguay, which has been the
barrier between the golden civilization of
Peru and the agricultural civilization of
Argentina, we come to Bolivia, which has
been crowded up into the air by some
titanic convulsions to the hight o: mor-,
than two miles—a nation set almost ii:
the clouds. How wonder: ul. indeed, must
lie the capital. Le Par. 12.300 feet above
the sea. its brilliant red roofs set in a
valley surrounded on al! sides by rugged
mountains, one of which alone has given
the world three billion dollars of silver!
And what an odd country Chili must be.
stretching for 1000 miles along the back
bone of the Andes and having a width of
F . i'
■*
’"WSJ^aMEk, V*- ‘ . _.
iS.Jr
THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER.
From A Camera Crusade Through the Holy Land,” by Dwight L. Elmendorf; published
by Charles Scribner's Sons.)
but miles. Its capital, Santiago,
rules “like a queen in the great castle
nature has given her, with walls of the
imperishable granite of the Cordilleras
reaching to the skies.’’
Going north one comes to Peru, the
realm of antiquity and romance, and the
home of Spanish traditions and old-world
stateliness. Lima in its aristocratic pride
and military arrogance has withal a court
ly grace and savoir fa ire which, entitle
it to pre-eminence in this land of the
Incas, while the Arayan railroad, scaling
the Andes to the dizzy hight of 15,665
feet, maintains the glory of the land.
Ecuador, too, is much the same, and it is
there that the best Panama bats are made
during the hours of moonlight, so as to
secure the greatest fineness and elasticity.
Bocota. the capital of Colombia, boasts
the proud title of the “Boston of South
America” and the kindly, hospitable and
cultured citizens well justify this eddied
fragment of the old-world Spain with the
title. Sailing from Cartagena, once the
proud capital of the Spanish main, we
make our last stop in Venezuela, a nation
which, though revolution-wracked, is, nev
ertheless. climbing upward. Its capital,
Caracas, is another r-ity among the clouds,
and is rich with romance, history and
charm.
SOME GOOD BOOKS FOR BOYS.
Excellent Boy Scout Story by Thorn
ton XV. Bureess.
The organization and popularity of the
boy scouts has led to the production of
an increasing number of boys’ stories deal
ing in one manner or another with the
scout movement. But among these many
books it may be doubted whether there
has been one better than "The Boy Scouts
of Woodcraft Camp,” which is the first
of a series of similar stories by Thornton I
W. Burgess of Springfield, and which is
publisbed by the Penn publishing com
pany of Philadelphia. Mr Burgess is a
true lover of outdoor life and not. as is to
be feared of some others, merely an en
terprising author who has taken advantage
of a new field without special preparation
or sympathy for it. “The Boy Scouts of
Woodcraft Camp" is a well-written,
healthy, wholesome boys' story, full of in
terest to the readers for whom it is espe
cially intended. It is also certain to fulfil
the wish expressed by Mr Burgess in his
preface, of making life in the woods more
attractive and appealing to its readers at
the same time that it gives them a new
incentive to gain the knowledge and dis
cipline without isfliich woodland life may
not yield the best that is in it.
The story describes the life of a school
camp under boy-scout rales. It does not
matter materially where the camp is lo
cated. although it is made very real and
indicates that Mr Burgess has had his
own experiences in the Adirondacks in
mind. The boys in the story are not prod
igies. but at the same time there is the
, spirit of conquering boyhood whether in
I whole-souled competition among them
selves in the athletic sports of camp or
in their pursuit of knowledge of wild life
in the woods. The book is illustrated ex
cellently by C. 8. Corson. This story is
to be followed by another iu the same
aeries, “The Boy Scouts on Deep River,”
which is now in press.
“CAMPING IN THE WINTER WOODS”
“Camping iu the Winter Woods.” by
E. R. Gregor, is the thrilling experiences
of two boys who were granted the privi
lege of a winter of hunting and trapping
in the Maine woods. Edward Williams and
his chum. George Rand, are sent int^ the
woods under the tuition of a famous old
guide, Ben Adams, and when once tbeir
legs get tuned to the trail the boys have
adventures enough to fill more ihan one
volume. They take part in a deer hum.
bare the experience of fishing through
the ice. an encounter with wild dogs, an
experience and a narrow escape from an
encounter with a hull moose, get lost in
the woods, learn to know the thrill of
being surrounded by a forest fire, and
spend a Christmas in a cabin in the
woods that is so delightfully described
that young readers will all long to have
the experience sometime in their life. The
book is a good description of life in the.
woods, aud the boy interested in out-of
door life will welcome il among his Christ
mas hooks. It is published hv Harper's
and finely ilbistratod.
‘•THE BOOK OF WINTER SPORTS.”
"The Book of Winter Sports"- (Macmil
lan I, edited by J. C. Dier, is a varied
and well-illustrated volume well <lc
eeribed as "an attempt to catch the spirit
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY. DECEMBER 12, 1912.
of the keen iovs of the winter season,
in which attempt it excellently succeeds.
It consists of appreciations and descriptive
and instructive articles, which have been
dK<riminatelv selected from many sources.
Light different sports are considered iu
-operate sections, each made up ol a va
riety of papers, and a ninth section deals
with various other sports of ice and snow.
The first section is devoted to ice motor
ing and ice-yachting, the second to skat
ing ihe third to ice hockey, the fourth to
. : rlhm. the fifth to snowshoeing, the sixth
to skim?. the seventh to tobog^uuing (the
old-fashioned double rippe - has been treat
ed with scant eonriesyi, and the eighth
i,, sleighing. There are several colored
1 bites and many half-tones nmoug the
ilh-strations. Among the selected articles
of a pleasantlv descriptive or seriously in
structive nature, it is refreshing to come
upon Dickens's description of "Mr M inkle
on th,' Tee” in the section devoted to skat
ing and the account of Mr Pickwick's
famous slide which lends distinction and
weight to the section devoted to varied
sports-
ONE OF THE SEASON’S NOVELS.
Alfred Ollivant's Story of Cockney
Life Has Charm as Well as Tragic
Foree.
"The Royal Road” (Doubleday, Page &
Co), b^ Alfred Ollivant, author of that
classic dog story. "Bob. Son of Battle,”
is one of the best of the seasons novels.
Intensely tragic in one sense, it is not so
in another. Although it essays to be real
istic, an atmosphere is breathed into it
which the pessimist might charge with ob
scuring the uncompromising edge of stern
realities. So keen is the sympathy aroused
for the characters as individuals that they
almost cease to be types.
The story concerns the career of Ted
Hankey, a physically impoverished, cock
ney—one ' among the overcrowded, over
worked millions of London. The story
roughly divides itself into two halves, the
first of which describes Hankey’s boyhood,
growth, his occunation at a malodorous
tanning factory, and his love affair and
marriage. This in the main is a charm
ingly told tale with many an odd bit of
humor. The thin-chested, red-headed cock
ney. who has an imagination and an as
tonishing vocabulary, is an appealing fig
ure: with him appear the none too robust
girl of a station a trifle above him, and
a lovable doctor who, with bis sister, is
trying in the best way he knows to help
the crowded humanity about him and to
give, especially to the boys and girls, a
better chance in life.
The second half of the story deals with
the tragedy which from the first has
seemed only half concealed. Overlong
hours of labor in an unhealthy atmosphere
have undermined Hankey’s weak consti
tution. The factory at which he works
suffers from competition with more enter
prising rivals, men are laid off and thrown
out of work, and the socialistic agitator is
furnished with fresh arguments day after
day as, through no fault of their own, men
are forced to the wall, to desperation, and
even to suicide. When coldly analyzed
the final development of the story leaves
the reader with only a wonder what is to
become of the fragile wife and child, and
the thousands like them. Yet it is told
with a sentiment which does not lapse
into sentimentality and which throws
around the dying cockney an atmosphere
as if he himself, touching something of the
riddle of the world as he is about to leave
it. had become a poet.
“THE REEF,” BY MRS WHARTON.
Her Latest Story an Artistic Treat
ment of a Tragedy.
"The Reef” (Appletons), by Edith Whar
ton, is an interesting and artistic novel
which deals forcefully with unpleasant
themes without being either sordid or ar
tificial. While perhaps not the best that
Mrs Wharton has done, it has qualities
which certain of our lesser American nov
elists would do well to ponder over—if only
the pondering might result in a humbled
suppression of their own wares. "The
Reef” is a title with a meaning, for it is
on the reef of his past weakness and
period of folly that the chief figure strikes
just as he spreads the sails of what
should have been his bark of happiness
An American diplomat who in his youth
had been attracted by but. had not won
a brilliant girl in New York meets her
some 12 years later iu London. She is
now a widow living ou an estate in France
The mutual attraction which 12 years be
fore should have resulted in their mar
riage again moves them, though “she con
trived to make him nnderstaud Iha: what
was so inevitably coming was not to como
too soon.'
Balked of his opportunity in London,
Darrow, the diplomat, founts with assur
ance upon the early visit he is to make
at Mrs loath's French home, but at the
Inst moment he receives a telegram put
ting him off for 15 days and mentioning no
reason save an “unexpected obstacle.” In
a sullen pique, remembering how in their
earlier intimacy she had postponed and
made him wait. Darrow continues his jour
ney to Paris, meets on the way an attric
tive, frank and unattended young Ameri
can woman. Sophy Viner, who has been
thrown on her own resources. In the
thought at first of helping her, Darrow
who is not painted as a thorough villain’
finally involves them both in fall, and it
is this which is the reef when months
later he visits Mrs Leath and discovers
Sophy Viner to have become the governess
for Mrs Leath's niue-yeara-old daughter.
Tt is n story which most of our novelists
would have made melodramatic, and many
of them have made course. Mrs Wharton
does neither. Rut while her art is finely
etched, the lesson of the defiance of the
moral law loses none of its force.
TOLSTOI'S DIARY PRINTED.
Speaks of Best Pnssnses —Says That
in Them the Divine Power Spoke
Through Him.
One of the most striking sentences in
the diary of the late Count. Leo Tolstoi,
which was printed Saturday night in the
Journal des Debats of Paris, as his hith
erto unpublished testament and which was
replaced by a brief formal will dated July
27, 1910, by which he left all his literary
property to his daughter Alexandra, reads:
"If the people of the world wish to read
my writings let them dwell upon those
passages where I know the divine power
has spoken through me and let them profit
from them throughout their lives.”
The diary is printed on the authority of
Count Sergius Tolstoi. It was written by
his father under date of March 27, 1895.
Count Leo Tolstoi asked that ail refrain
from saying good of him after his death.
After referring to himself as the inter
preter of divine power, he said: “I have
had moments when I felt myself to be
the medium for the expression of the di
vine will. I have sometimes been so im
pure and so subject to personal passions
that the light of this truth has been ob
scured by my own obscurity, but despite
nil. I have served at times as the inter
mediary for this truth and those have been
the happiest, moments of my life. May
God will that, passing through me. these
truths have not been sullied and may man
kind find in them its pasture. It is only
in that that my writings have impor
tance.”
Count Leo Tolstoi begins by saying that
if he does not make another this shall be
his testament. He then requests to be bur
ied where he dies—if in a city, in the
least expensive coffin and in the least ex
pensive cemetery, "as the poor are bur
ied.” He continues: “Let there be no
flowers, no wreaths, no discourse and if
possible let the funeral take place without
priests and without ministers, but if that
is disagreeable to those who bury me, then
let me be interred with the liturgy only as
simply and cheaply as possible.”
After asking that no announcement of
his death appear in the newspapers, and
that no obituary be printed. Tolstoi writes
st length concerning'the disposition of his
works. Referring to his unpublished writ
ings he prescribes that only those be print
ed which will “be useful to mankind.” He
asks his heirs to abandon to the public
the right to publish his former w’orks—
that is, to renounce the author's rights.
After giving instructions relative to the
classification of his papers by his wife and
daughters, he orders his diaries to be de
stroyed when what is worth preserving has
been extracted from them. This applies par
ticularly to the journals he kept when a
bachelor, when, be says, he led the usual
miserable life of young men without prin
ciple. Then he adds: “After all let my
diaries remain as they are. It may be seen
from them that despite the platitude and
misery of my youth, God did not abandon
me and that as I grew older I learned how
ever, little it was, to understand and to
love him.”
“THE THREE BRONTES.”
A Critical Literary Study by May Sin
clair.
May Sinclair, the author of “The Divine
Fire,” writes herself down an uncom
promising higher critic of the Bronte lit
erature in her volume. “The Three Bron
tes,” published by the Houghton Mifflin
company. Under , the same title she re
cently wrote a little essay for the Messrs
Constable’s series of “Modern Biogra
phies.” and when once she found herself
infected with the Bronte microbe she could
not get rid of it. She found herself at odds
with previous explorers in the same field:
their interpretations of various episodes in
the lives of the Bronte family, and their
higher criticism of many passages in these
novels and poems of the three sisters were
not satisfactory to this latest critic. Ac
cordingly, she has taken up not the big
stick but the big pen in defense of her
owu theories in opposition to the published
views of other Bronte critics. The vol
ume has. therefore, something of a con
troversial atmosphere, inevitable, no doubt,
and valuable from the critical standpoint,
but not enhancing the charm of the book
for the general reader who may chance
to use this volume as an introduction to
the Brontes as authors. In fact, this
book is only in a secondary sense a pop
ular one. It presupposes a familiarity on
the part of the reader with al) or most that
the Bronte sisters wrote: and it will have
the effect of driving a few to the library
shelves to renew their old and almost for
gotten acquaintance w-ith “Shirley.” “Jane
Eyre,” “Villette,” “Wutherlng Hights,”
etc., and of exciting in a larger number
a vain desire to do the same, and for the
rest of its readers of seeming critical and
tiresome. This latter verdict of the un
thinking. who mav get hold of the book
by mistake, is not to be chargeable to
Miss Sinclair's stylo. It is uot prosy but
vivacious: but some stretches of the book
need more than the author's sauce pi
quante to make them successfully palat
able to the ordinary reader.
On the other hand, granted a literary au
dience, this book will be welcomed as
the utterance of a critic who has unques
tionable sympathy with her subject aud a
masterly grasp of it. She has penetrated
the Bronte atmosphere, breathed it, com
prehended it, and now is sharing it intel
ligently with the public. Naturally Char
lotte claims the largest share of the book,
but there is a. generous section for Emily;
Anne gets mentioned as “among those
present.” The author confesses to have
met theorizing with counter-theorizing in
relation to some of the psychological prob
lems involved in Emily Bronte’s mysticism
or Charlotte's love affairs. That Char
lotte drew from her owu experience in pic
turing certain romantic episodes in “Sliir-
Jey” and “Villette,” Miss Sinclair cm
pliatically disbelieves. She is sure that
her leading lady had quite enough genius
to evolve her stories from her inner con
sciousness when necessary, without our
having to presuppose improbable entan
glements in her career as the basis of the
episodes in question. The book has eight
photogravure portraits and facsimiles
which add to its value. Some readers
would be better satisfied if the contents
were broken into chapters. An unbroken
essay of 279 pages, even though well
indexed. has disadvantages in literary
form. But despite these minor blemishes,
if such they he, it is undeniable that Miss
Sinclair has made here a valuable contri
bution to English literary criticism.
LEADING AMERICAN INVENTORS.
Thirteen Famonn Contributors to Me
chnnlcal Progress—The Story of
Mergenthaler.
A modest but valuable contribution to
American history is made by George Iles
in his "Leading American Inventors”
(Helt), a collection of 13 biographi
cal studies of men no longer living. In
the preparation of the stories of the more
recent inventors the author has done not
a little original research, gathering valua
ble material from documentary records
and recollections of associates. He has
plainly had in mind in the preparation of
his book not only the story element, but,
particularly, scientific accuracy In accounts
of the mechanical marvels described. The
book is an excellent first, aid to the in
quiring general reader ignorant of those
wonders of American ingenuity. Mr Iles's
principal heroes are Col John Stevens,
who made practical the steamship's screw
propeller; his son. Robert, who designed
the "T" rail; Fulton, the inventor of the
steamboat: Ericsson, inventor of the Mon
itor; Whitney, who devised.the cotton gin:
Blanchard, whoso first lathe for turning
out gun-stocks is in the Springfield nrmory
museum; McCormick, who made the me
chanical reaper practicable; Howe, who
made the first useful sewing-machine,
Goodyear, who learned to vulcanize rub
ber; Morse, the telegraph man: Tilgham,
who first hit upon wood-pulp paper;
Shoks, inventor of the Remington type
writer, and Mergenthaler, the inventor
of the linotype machine.
One of the most interesting sketches,
and one that will introduce to a good
many people a comnaratively little-known
inventor, is that of Ottmar Mergenthaler.
It is a remarkable story of devotion to a
linrpose. Mergenthaler was never satis
fied to let well enough alone. The account
of how, one after another, he abandoned
wonderful and costly designs only to re
place them with something better is fas
cinating and stimulating. This inventor
is also remarkable in having evolved his
great work practically unaided, so far ns
ideas were concerned. Mergenthaler came
io this country, an emigrant from Ger
many. in 1872. when be was 18 years old.
He was an expert watchmaker, and one
cannot help speculating on what the
newspaper would be to-day if this partic
ular youth had not learned this particular
trade in a country where craftsmanship
is a fine art. He tells in an autobiograph
ical sketch, which Mr lios quotes, how he
came to America, following a glut in the
German labor market after the Franco-
Prussian war. and obtained work in Bal
timore in a shop where fine machinery was
made. Ho was set at work in the course
of his duties to doctor a writing-machine
with which an inventor was having trou
ble. This gave Mergenthaler his cue and
the fascinating pursuit of perfection in
his own special creation followed. Accord
ing to his biographer, ho found his finan
cial backers “good sportsmen.” ready to
risk big sums in support of his inspiring
confidence. It was when his work was
nearly done that a disagreement, which
is not enlarged upon, resulted in a sever
ing of business relations. Mergenthaler
is also pictured as an ideal “boss." greatlv
esteemed and respected by the men who
worked for him.
“ARTEMUS WARD’S BEST STORIES”
Edited by Cltfton Johnson, With an
Introduction by William Dean
Howells.
A glad discovery among the books of
the season is “Artemus Ward’s Best
Stories” (Harpers), edited by Clifton
Johnson of Hadley, capitally illustrated
by Frank A. Naukivell and adorned with
an introduction by William Dean Howells.
Of the introduction it is enough to say
that Mr Howells wrote it; like all the
papers that flow from that ready and
charming, yet ever discriminating, pen this
is a clear and accurate appreciation. It
is to be added that Mi- Howells praises
highly the taste and restraint which Mr
Johnson has shown in making his selec
tions and the brief and unaffected
biographical sketch with which he has
prefaced the bo<}y of the book.
Many readers who have delighted in
whimsical touches from Artemus Ward
when used at random to enforce a point
or illumine an argument will perhaps at
first share Mr Howells's earlier misgiv
ing when, after the lapse of many years,
such a volume is made from the sketches
which once convulsed a nation and which
owed something at least of their effect
to the spirit of the times. Yet while it is
scarcely a book to be read through pt a
sitting it should prove a treasure to be
kept at the elbow for an occasional draft
upon its fund of humor, in addition to
which it has a certain historical value.
One of the most interesting of Mr
Howells’s comments is his comparison of
Artemus Ward and Mark Twain. He.
Xi
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“ Wont you let my darter in?" sed anuther of the
exsentric wimmin
I—— ———— J
MR WARD OUTSIDE HIS TENT.
[The mythical showman just after “adeppytashun of ladies came up & sed
they wos members of the Bunkumville emale Moral Heformln A- Wimmin’s Kites
Associashun, and they axed me if they cood go in without payin. ■’ “Not. exaetky."
?ez I, “hut you can pay without goin in. From the sketch on “Woman’s Rights” in
‘Artemus Ward's Best Stories.” edited by Clifton Johnson and published by Harper
& Bros.)
of course, points out that “the Uf 1 *!
master” was "immensely the master, but
also that, in some of his beginnings Mark
Twain formed bimself from, if not on.
Artemus Ward. And yet, while Howrfls
accounts Mark Twain incomparably lue
greater talent, he adds that this is not
always so. and that in such a sketch ns
"Affairs Around the Village Green, which
is one of the last papers in the present
volume, there is a “sweetness, a gentle
ness, a fineness in his humor and the.
quaint unexpectedness of its terms which
is not surpassed bv anything that Clemens
did." And, though the humor of Mark
Twain’s famous letter to Queen Victoria
surpasses Artemus Ward's ouce celebrated
account of bis interview with the Prince
of Wales in which he asked him "how ne
liked bein’ prince as fur as he'd got, the
humor of the latter is still a thing to be
enjoyed.
In his biographical notes of this ec
centric genius who was born in Portland,
Me., in 1834. and christened Charles
Farrar Browne, and who became famous
as Artemus Ward after he had invented
that character while local editor upon the
Cleveland Plain Dealer. Mr Johnson re
calls that when Ward delivered bis cele
brated lecture called “Sixty Minutes in
Africa." here in Springfield be remarked
by way of preliminary to the audience:
“I have come here to lecture in order that
I might get. money enough to go to Africa.
I should feel that I had lived in vain
if I did not go to Africa; and”—he drew
out his handkerchief nnd apparently broke
intd sobs, after n moment in n choking
voice he added—“l don’t want to live in
vain. I had rather live in Springfield.
Not Olympian wit, but characteristic.
OUR BOSTON LITERARY LETTER.
THE WAR AND ITS FRUITS.
The Balkaus ami the Secession War—
Letters of Gen Grant—“The Secre
tary of Year Aunt Rachel’’— Judge
Kelley’s “Old South and the Xcw"
The Alcotts and Emersons.
From Our Special Correspondent.
Boston. Tuesday. December 3.
Man proposes and God disposes. True
as this is in all human affairs, it is espe
cially so in war; for the event of war
can rarely be foreseen, even by those who
have the antebellum situation clearly in
mind, as very few do in the decisive wars
of the human race. Who. for instance,
would have ventured to predict that at
December 1. 1912, the sultan would be
stripped of nearly all his European terri
tories and be dependent on a war be
tween Austria and Russia for a chance to
get any of them back? Who, except a
few forward-looking antisiavery men. like
Theodore Barker, would have predicted
that negro slavery would be abolished in
1575. aud would have said that a seces
sion war begun in 1861 would have ended
slavery before 1865? Yet such was the
issue.
A small volume published by the Put
nams. “Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His
Father and Youngest Sister,” gives us a
glimpse and only a glimpse, into the ways
of Providence in this matter. Their ac
complishment by so unlikely a chief agent
as the oddly named son of unquiet Jesse
Grant. Ilie Ohio tanner, in 1863-4, was the
wonder of the intervening years from 1858
to 1865. Gen Grant, at the beginning of
this correspondence, was unsuccessful in
business, virtually a slaveholder, and try
ing to get away from St Louis, either to
Kentucky or Illinois; lie had no prejudices
against slavery, so far as can be seen,
although v ith his common sense be saw
the economic folly of it. He had voted
for Buchanan in 1856 because he thought
the election of Fremont would bring about
instant secessiqp: and it seemed best to
postpone that evil day. After the war
began. Grant would .restore the Union
with all the compromises, slavery and all.
But he soon learned better. How fully he
shared the southern notion of “servile in
surrection” will he seen by this extract
from a letter of his May 6. 1861;—
A few decisive victories will send the se
cession army howling, and the leaders In the
rebellion will flee the country. Negroes will
depreciate so rapidly that nohody will want
to own them. The negro will never disturb
this country again. The worst that is to be
apprehended from him now is. he may revolt
and cause more destruction than any north
ern man, except it bo an ultra-abolitionist,
wants to see. A northern army may be re
quired in the next 90 days, to go South aud
suppress a negro Insurrection.
In arrears of the truth, as this mode of
expression now appears, it is moderate
and sensible compared with the sort of
talk which prevailed at the South, even
among northern men earning their living
there,—especially if educated at Princeton.
One such youth, born somewhere in Penn
sylvania. got somehow into the situation
of secretary to Grant's Aunt Rachel, —
Mrs Tompkins of Chestnut Hill, who had
a large plantation, and owned many slaves.
She was a secessionist, as most of the de
fenders of slavery were by June, 1861,
and being ill and cross, she requested this
young divine (as he seems to have been),
to answer a letter on the Union side, writ
ten by Clara. Grant to her slaveholding
aunt. —who in a former letter had written,
—“lf you are with the accursed Lincoln
ites, the ties of consanguinity shall be for
ever severed.” This Princeton-bred secre
tary wrote in his rambling epistle:—
I know that Dr Hodge.—a man whom I
love next to my father,—said in his article on
“the state of the country” that he did not
Know of 12 abolitionists “within the circle of
* a £Bt u «i n tance.” He was either wofullv
mistaken, or he didn't consider hl» pupils as
belonging to that circle; for to niv "nrtain
Knowledse there were twice that number
within the walls of Princeton at the time
;.hi, f' 1 H Kr< : at was decided by the
« hl ' ” t 2 e ., h,s ^ est tribunal in the
noilil, in favor of the South, namelv that
slaves were property. . . boss there live
”, sn lost to reason and <ommon sense
as to Imagine that the union of the seceded
states with the northern states can ever be
effected again: This war will not be permit
ted thus to terminate; the South can never
he conquered. Rather than be gnbingated
they Win die a triple death. They are in-
Vinvible by any fore* the North can raise
against them. The forces of Lincoln are not
composed generally of men of the first rank
of society (except, a few officers desirous of
fame), hut the "offsrourlng" nnd rabble of
the land, men who have nothing at stake
And as certainly as I believe there exists a
God of justice and mercy, so certainly do I
believe he will defend the South from the
vandals of the North.
1’ S.-If you should write again. pl ea s P nSP
White paper; it almost give me the "blues"
to read your letter.
We naturally wonder what became of
this “secretary of your Aunt Rachel.” Did
he. after the war, like a proslavery cousin
of my own. come back to the North to be
supported by such of his kindred- as had
survived the murders and starvations of
the South .' Grant’s letters are nearly all
brief and unconventional, with a veri
slight mention of political questions. When
he has weathered the third-term mck, and
Ims been round the world as far as to
Rome, he writes from there to his brother
in-law, Corbin, March 29, 1878:
I sincerely hope that the North will «o
thoroughly rally by next election as to bwr
tha last remnant of secession proclivities anti
put In the executive chair a firm and steady
hand, free from Ltoplnn ideas, purifying the
party electing him out of existence.
Here the metaphors are mixed, -for we
do not usually set chairs for the hand,
nor ply it with ideas.—but the meaning: is
clour enough; and had T. I{. remained
I rue to his old Parly, lie might have said
nineh the same thing of Taft that Grant
then said of Hayes.
Now the consequences of this war of
secession, of which Aunt Rachel and her
secretary had so inadequate n conception,
have largely changed the industrial and
social condition of the whole South; but
in very unequal ways, geographically
speaking. The industrial cities have pros
pered; the commercial cities have gained
or lost, front yawing circumstances; but
the rural regions, cx;o;>( whore market
gardening has developed largely, have not
much improved. They are now beginning
so to do, and the shiftless ways and mis
erable education of the days of slavery
are slowly giving place to better schools
and better methods and kinds of farming.
A curious little volume published by Judge
Kelley of Philadelphia 25 years ago, "The
Old South aud the New,” includes strik
ing instances of the progress then made,
especially iu Alabama, Tennessee and
Florida. But it also gives, in the ease of
Florida, illustrations of that incredible
stupidity of southern theorists as to the
power of their all-xvorshipped cotton crop
to change the laws of Nature and of polit
ical economy. The railroad question in
the two states of lowa and Florida fur
nishes one of these illustrations. At pres
ent lowa is. supposed to be rather stag
nant in populationso many of her farm
ers have been enriching themselves by the
sale of farms, and moving to Texas or to
British America, where land is much
cheaper. Florida, however, still gains in
population,--but almost wholly since the
war. Judge Kelley said in 1888:—
Florida was made a territory in 1522, lowa
in 1838, and both xvere admitted as states
March 3, 1845. In 1840. Florida, with 59,000
square miles, had 04.477 inhabitants, lowa
but 43,112. But in 1870, while lowa had
1.194,000, Florida only showed 187,740. (That
is. tn 30 years lowa, with n smaller area, had
gained 1.150,000, while Florida had gained
but 133,000. Forty years later. In 1010.
Florida had 752.619.—having almost quad
rupled: while Ohio, with 2,224.000. had not
quite doubled tn population, though gaiulng
more than double what Florida had gained
numerically).
But now look at the railroad partiality
of a proslavery congress toward Florida,
iu Judge Kelley’s interesting statement,
and the reason given for building thnt
remarkable “Transit” railroad;—
The first grant of land tn aid of a railroad
ever made by the national government was to
a road in Florida, at a time when few of
our people had ever seen a railroad or a loco
motive,-March 3. 1885. It gave io the Talla
hassee aud St Marks road a roadbed and 30
teet on each side, together with the right to
take lumber for construction within 300 feet
on either side, and 10 acres at the terminus.
. . . By another act of 1855 Congress ceded
to Florida about 20 million acres; and by an
act of 1856 it granted land to Florida for the
construction of certain lines of railroad,
valued at the following sums:—
Florida railroad $289,984
Florida and Alabama-railroad 165.688
Florida, Atlanta and Gulf Central... 157.583
Pensacola and Georgia 1,275.212
Now to promote tile population of Florida,
anl her development required routes of travel
from north to south, not from cast to west.
But these roads, the construction of which,
short as they were, reduced the state to In
solvency. ran from east to west. They were
to form “The Transit.” and that was to con
vey the freight (largely cotton) from the Mls
slsippl valley to Fernandina on the Atlantic,
from Cedar Keys ou the gulf of Mexico; thus
giving almost all water transportation from
Mobile. New Orleans and Galveston to Euro
pean ports; and this, the southern dreamer
thought would chock the building of east and
west railroads at the North. These 350 miles
of railroad were badly located, and extrav::
gance and corruption In tlbUiling them, had
bankrupted their companiesaand the state,
that had guaranteed their securities. This
mortgage was lifted in 1830 by a single citi
zen of Philadelphia, Hamilton Disston.
I notice that one of the usual inac
curacies is let Jpose of late about the
shrines of Concord, and particularly con
cerning the Alcott family and their abode,
the Orchard house, now a museum in
memory of the philosopher and his "Litt!'
Women.” The Herald last week had a
notice of him. with a promise to .writ"
more about him hereafter. Before that
day. I advise her (or him; to read the au
thentic life of Alcott, and get the legends
a little straighter. Mention is made of
his tour in the West in 1881. from which
he brought back SIOOO. That is true, bin
not that "he counted it into his wife's
hand,” for Mrs Alcott had then been dead
four years. It is a pity that the letters of
Mrs Alcott to her husband and friends,
which were carefully copied out by Mr
Alcott after her death, were not wrought
up into her biography by Louisa, who
found she had not spirit enough for a work
involving so many sad memories. Some
of them afterward came out in the life of
Alcott, isl which also were first published
some 30 pages of Emerson, most of which
have since been included in the Journals,
or will be. They are among his most char
acteristic writing. The Orchard house has
been visited by more than 6000 pilgrims
to this Mecca of Concord since it xvas
Opened to the public six months ago, and
they have contributed nearly SIOOO to the
fund for maintaining the good old house.
“POEMS AND BALLADS.”
New Collection by Herman Hagedorn,
the Young Harvard Graduate, Who
Wrote “The Troop of the Guard.”
Several years ago Herman Hagedorn
became better known as a young poet of
large promise than possibly any other
American at so early a stage in his career
as bis collepe graduation day. Mr Hage
dorn’s stirring Harvard class day poem.
“A Troop of the Guard,” was declared
by many literary critics the best thing of
its kind that had been done in this country
and, with sttch recommendation, it was
widely reprinted. Since than he has pub
lished a hook of poems, taking its name
from that widely heralded effort, also
“The Woman of Corinth.” and Houghton
Mifflin now publish a third small volume,
“Poems and Ballads.” This is a collection
which will both add to Mr Hagedorn’s
position among our younger American
poets and to the promise of larger things
to come from him in the future. He is ver
satile and has a capacity for invention and
much power of dramatic presentation. His
easy command of different verse forms is
strikingly melodious, although his facility
is suggested at times as being an element,
of weakness as well ng strength. One of
the most dramatic of these poems is
“Laneer.” descriptive of the overturning
of a small boat iu a storm and of the nar
rator's vain effort to rescue the girl by his
side. It is an old. old theme, but Mr Hage
dorn has made it intensely vivid and poig
nant. Yet upon the whole the most dis
tinctive poem in the little volume is “The
Peddler, which is, in part, as follows:—
I peddles pencils on Broadway.
I know It ain't a great career.
It's dull and tootless—so folks say —
And yet I’ve done it twenty year.
Held down my same old corner here
An' never missed a day.
I peddles, an' I ws tch the crowd.
I knows 'em—all they say an' do
As If they shouted it out loud.
I look 'em through an' through an' through!
By crabs! tliev'd kill me If they knew—
They arc so fine an' proud.
I knows ’em! Oli. It's tn their eyes.
It's in their walk. It's In tbeir lips!
They tries to bluff it—but I'm wise!
Air they're just children when you strips
The smirk off: an' the clerks, the chips,
Stands clean of all the lies.
I've watched so long. I scarcely see
The elo'es—it's just the faces non
Somehow I knows their misery.
An’ woudeta - when? An' where? An' how?
Elbow an’ shoulder—on their plough—
An' yet somehow they speaks to me.
I peddles pencils. Christ! An' they?
They does the things thnt seems worth while
I watch then 'em grawtn’ old an’ gray,
An' queer about the eyes, an' smile
To see 'em when they've made their pile.
A-tottcrin’ up Broadway..
To lighten the labors of a tin roofer, a
Michigan man has invented detachable
handles to increase the leverage of an
ordinary pair of metal cutting shear*.