The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-01-17
LITERATURE.


Chicago: Jansen, McClurg ~ Co. Ottawa:
Osmun II Hapeman. Price, sl,w.
II "the art Of nation is the result OF centuries
of growth" rs our author postulat'a IN his oreh'
| ing sentence, America should yet be without art,
or at least with too little to justify an elaborate
HISTORY Yet in the beautiful volume before us
are sketches Of three or four hundred Of our
country people who have made such attainments
with brush or chscl as to deserve to he named
as artists. Even the common assumption that
art can only flourish amid national reposc, mate
rial prosperity wealth, luxury is proved untrue
of America for her earliest aud some OF her best
attachments were made amid the nations scvcrcst
trials sorcst poverty, and under the grimmes(
auspices. In prc-rcvolutiOnary times the domi-
nant sentiment Of the country was puritan and
quaker 70 the former pictures were an aborni-
nation and to the latter sinful yanitics. Yet
American art had its birth among the puritans
and quakcrs, and amid surroundings as humble
and pathetic rs those Of the babe in the mangcr.
We are told that Benjamin West, TO whom Of all
others American art most owed its rise, at nine
wears Of age "drew hairs from cats tail to make
brush Colors he obtained by grinding char
coal and chalk and crushing the red blood out OF
the blackberry. His mothers laundry furnished
him with indigo, and the friendly Indians who
came to his fathers house gave him Of the red
and yellow earths with which they daubcd their
faces" Yet from such beginnings West, after
pursuing his studies in Italy, became the leading
artist Of his day and the prot'gc OF kings and no
blcs for forty years The same mauspcious pc
rod of our history gave BIRTH amid the most
ascetic puritan surroundings, to our mex great
est artist, Col. John Trumbul; and to the same
period-from l77s to 1slS-belong, besides a long
list Of artists chiefly noted portrait painters,
such honoret names as those Of Copley, Stuart,
yanderlyn, Alston, Pcalc, Sully, Morse, &c, &c.
The second pcrioi-from lS2S to lS1S-succecd
ing close on the recovery Of the country from the
severe commercial revulsions Of 1919 to 1926
found the larger proportion Of the artists com
PEELED to ward oil the traditonary hardships Of
the profession by either deyoting their best time
TO trade or making trade of their art, by paint
ing portraits for pay. The divinity within them,
however, fought its way out, and to long line
of face painters succeeded some very credlable
efforts at q are work, but more markedly a race
of landscape painters, the work of many of whom
will compare honorably with that OF any other
aye or country, but among whom our author re-
CARDS as faciie princcps Frederick +. Church,
whose paintings are to our art what the geo
graphic cantos Of Childe Harold have been TO
England, or the burning descriptions OF St Pierre
and Chateaubriand to the literature OF France"
OF historic painters this second period has appa-
rently produced but one namc-that Of Woods
nv IN he ms mod with that
Of Trumbull; while Of genre painters William
Sidney Mount, Eastman Johnson and Wnslow
Homer occupy the highest places.
The work closes with a short history Of sculp-
ture in America, naming among those who have
attained chief emiuence among Us in that branch
OF art, Hiram Powers Thomas Crawford Ran
dolph Rogers, J. G. A. Ward Harriet llosmer,
Lauut Thompson, Richard Grcenaugh, l.. ).
Hartley, Clark Mills, &c.
The volume is copously illustrated with cuts
in the highest style OF the engrayer's art, is
printed on heavy-tinted paper, in large, clear
type-the very perfection of letter press; sp]en-
didly bound in heavy ambost with half gilt
edges.
THE TELEPHONE, THE MICRoPHoSE AND THE
PHoNOGRAPH BY Count du Moncel membre
dc rinstitut. Authorized translation, with adj
ditons and corrections by the author. With
20 illustrations on wood. New York: Harper
Il Brothers. Chicago Jansen, McClurg IL Co.
Ottawa; Osman IL Hapeman Price $40.
While it is less than half dozen Of years since
the name OF the telephone, microphone and pho
nograph have become familiar, and to the COM
mon mind convey definite ideas, the best scien-
tifc minds Of Europe and America had been
wrestling with the problems which they involve
for ut least half century. The history Of that
many hopes, fears, discouragemenis |
and final riumphs-must to the scientist under
any circumstances be one OF deep interest, but
AS told by one so thoroughly familiar with the
subject as Count Monccl and welding so facilc a
pen, must equal the fascination Of romance. |
We should think, with this volume before him, |
aided 10y its admirable Illustrations, almost any
skillful worker in brass aud fine metals could |
these instruments quite equal to
any eastern arttccr-at least he can post him. |
self thoroughly as to how far attainment has
gone in the direction Of the artificial transmits
sion and recording of sound and form some idea
Of how extensive field of discovery is yet uncx-
plored in that direction.
Woop's HOUSEHOLD PRACTICE or MEDICINE,
HYGIENE AND SURGERY. For the Use of Fam-
lies, Scamcn Miners and others. Edited by
Frederick A. Castle, NJ. ID. In 2 vols. Illus
tratcd. New York: William Wood " Co.
The work is to re issued in 20 parts Of 80 pages
Zach, the whole, when completed, forming two
volumes Of some 500 pages each. While the
lime has certainly not yet come, and probably |
never will, when the physician can be dispensed
with and every man be his own or his own fam- |
y's doctor, such II handbook as the above pro-
poses 10 be cannot fail to be Of infinite value in |
Every household, especially where, as is often
The case In sudden emergencies, the physician is |
not within ready call BY the specimen pages |
before us, see that the work is ably prepared !
and splendidly printed and illustrated. 1t is is
sued only 80 subscribers, at 80 cents part |