The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-02-19
Book Notices.
PoETIcAL WoRKs OF CHARLES G. HALpyNE.
(Milcs O'Rlloy). with IL Biographical sketch,
BY Robert q. Roosevelt. New York: Harper
~ Brothers. Charleston +: Holmes' Book

PoETICAL WoRKs OF CHARLES G. HALpyNE.
lMlIcs O'Riloyl, with a Biographical sketch,
by Robert q. Roosevelt. New York: Harper
y Brothers. Charleston Holmes' Book
House.
better selection from General Halpine's
works will, doubtless, be made at some fu-
ture time, when the jeur d'espru which polit-
ical interest and personal affection now
retain shall have lost their value. II alpine
was an improvisatore, ardent, impulsive
and genial in temper, quick in apprehcn-
sion and fluent in speech. With him to
think and speak and write incessanty to
dash off puns and Seems, editorials and
volumes; to adventure upon any kind Of
work, and to use any instrument that came
to hand, scalpel or brief, pen or sword, or
make word for the occasion, with him to
forthput was q necessity of nature. OF
course, much that he has written is fugitive.
But much will survive. Some Of his senti-
mental songs are not unequal to those of
Morris some Of his humorous ones rival
those of Holmes. His thrilling Fenian
songs would be little moro consistent if
they had no denunciations of "rebels" in
them; but logic was never one of Halpine's
in6rmities. We look in vain for the
''Epics" which Mr. Roosevelt promises on
the title page, unless this be new name
| for the ballads in the volume.
THE APOSTLE OF THE North" The Life and
| Labo1s OF the Rev. DR.. Mcdonald BY the
Rev. j: Kennedy, Dingwall. London: T.
| Nelson Sous.
DR.. Mcdonald was the evangelist of the
Highlands. A mighty man in frame, in
passion, in conviction, it seemed to those
who heard him preach that "he would bring
''the very roof down upon their heads"
A preacher most intense, he addressed a
people not less enthusiastic than their Gel
tic kindred among the Welch mountains.
He exercised an immediate, Irresistible
unbounded influence over the wild clans of
the borders. The present work is a his
tory of his missionary enterprises and sue
ceeses. 1t abounds in anecdotes illustra.
tive of his methods, his character and the
state of the people among whom he labored
The Ossianic poems were discovered, in
their substance, by DR.. Mcdonald in the
comparatively little known northwest of
Scotland. The volume is beautiful in its
execution.
HE CHALET OF PEARLS; OR THE WHITE AND
BLAcK KIBAUMoNT. By tho Author Of ''Ihe
Her ofRodclyffe." New York d. Applet IN
60. Charleston John RUSSELL
The au,her Of the ''Heir of Redcy ffe" is
one of those ladies the fertility of whose
genius fills us with admiration. 1t REQUIRES
no great effort of imagination to fancy her
writing books for our grandchildren, as flu
emily as she has for the last twenty or thirtv
years been writing them for ourselves
Their elements are simple enough, if their
number Is confusing. A tile love, tingcd
with ga dim religious" coloring-a little
High Churchism, inclining now to Ritual
ism, now 20 Cathoicity, according to the
period of the story,-a mild catastrophe
here and there acting as a sort Of break
water to tie otherwise unrufla I'd flow of
serene sentlment,-these are the mate:
rails by a judcious manipulation of which
the identity of structure is disguised. The
present story is historical novel of the
time of the massacre Of st. Bartholomew,
is neither better nor worse than others from
the same pen. We may say Of it-by way
of parody on the famous remark of the
''late lamented'' Mr.. Lincoln to the show
man who requested an endorsement of his
panorama, ,-''for the people who like her
"books we should say that the .Chaplet of
"'Pearls' is the sort of thing that such peo
"ple like!" For ourselves, we have found it
rather dull reading.
How A BRIDE WAS Wow; OR CHASE AcRoss
THE PAMPAs. BY Frederick Gersta ecker
New York: d. Appleton & Co. Charleston {:
John Russell.
Given nothing particular to say, and
three hundred double-columned pages to
say it in-given the smallest conceivable
amount of incident to spread over the larg-
est possible space, and you have as the
result the present "novel'' The book
seems utterly objec.less, and the story me-
anders through The pages with the most
delightful indifference to the claims Of time,
place and circumstance.