The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-10-18


with the plOw." THE materials for THU
work" the author says, "haye been col
lected during the past 40 years while busily
engaged in his ordinary pursuits" The
work has, for the most part, been long since
anticipated and Its leading features and data
frequently and abundantly promulgated far
and wide by the several publications of the
kind within the last dozen years by the
press, the railway companies, land agencies,
annual almanacs, etc, and hence, the pres
cnt offering will yield but little if anything
that is new to either the citizen or persons
abroad.
what he has written, seems to us no more
| Than what we've read II thousand times be-
| fore"
| Its strongest recommendation will lie in the
| fact that 1t emanates from an honored gov
ernor of the state, the present occupant of
the chief executives chair To have had
cloves labor LOST despite the above facts,
would have been too bad, and so the
author starts out his little book upon II
mann w iNl 40 SNliNl al lltllt
literary criticism go, but safely moored to
the farmers heart 1t was to have been
hoped that Gov. Roberts would have fur
niShcd to the country Observation-Disclosures
in kind and subject matter than one whose
details can be obtained from and are daily
paraded by scores of daily papers magi-
Zines railway maps etc. Forty years to
write a book Of these small dimensions is an
average of less than four pages per an
mum. Forty years without slumbcring. ="
not emitting " thanksgiving and PRAYER.
meeting days, like grandhther's clock.
ought to have produced in the hey-dav Of
liie's volume II something more than the
monotonous 'tick, tick" ofTe1as and her
rcsources;ought TO have prcsentcda pcrspec.
tive ofbrilliant panoramic view to the vision
OF an observant man, who has in all that
while filled so many positions, witnessed so
many OF the states stirring events, been ON
intimate terms with so many of its eminent
men, himself once its chief Justice and now
its chief executive. He has simply written,
as 1t were, for the farmers eye, When he
might better have written for the general
citizens instruction. His book, therefore.
is more like scailolding for partially
finished cdllcc; but we presume he is salts
lied with the structure as it is, and feels
like Popc's politician;
Now my task Is shrcwdly done
/ can farm or can run.
Many rulers before have boon
inspired to write on their particular hob
bicS, as witness Caesar De Bello Calico. or
King James work on the Bible, Louis
Napoleon's life of julius Caesar, etc. But
Governor Roberts has preferred the "bucol-
ic' Rather than the "hcllcose," and the
Nirgilic "cclogucs" rather than platonic
dialogues. II was Ellis Book, and like
Josh Billings he had right to select his
own subject, and even to place an imitation
OF the seal Of the state of Texas on the
canvass back. And yet, we cannot help
thinking that we would largely have pre-
ferrcd from him for his own sake, aswcll AS
that of his fcllow-citizens, that he had given
us treatise on law, or the political needs
of the state, etc, By nature and through
experience he was eminently qualified
thercunto. The governor is not much OF
reader has never been. He has not roamcd
amongst the literary flowers of contempo.
rarics or predecessors, has never tasted nor
cared to taste their honcys. But he is an
original thinker; for instance, wo recall a
thought of his, once expressed to us, on
social organization, the which he ascribcd
not as do most writers, to compact
entered into for the
general good, for oilcnse and defense,
but to the inherent principle, innate
desire Of natural affinity. He contended
that men lived together for the same rca-
son that certain beasts herd together;
certain fish 60 together in
schools, and birds of feather, flock 10.
gcthcr." And this view is correct. We have
heard other strong, bold, original views
from him on law, philosophy, sociology
etc, but he has been satisfied TO give us a
printed work more on the style of an I'm.
migration Bureau Agency than on some.
thing else no was just as competent for and
which was needed while the Agency wa,
not. Governor Roberts on Texas
like the play of Hamlet sometimes, Is
like "Texas with Governor Roberts
left OUT. Wherefore II is not characteristic
nor enticing,, This work il neither bio.
graphical nor historical, nor philosophical.
IL evidences no special amplitude of grasp
nor superiority of handling. Beyond SINH.
lr essays, as we have above suggested, il
neither enlightcns nor directs ours judg.
ments ofmen and events he is supposed to
know all about; concerning them he
traces no causes and effects nor draws fer
lis, save In the closing paragraph, one les
SON of moral, social or political wisdom,
unless IL be that Il is splendid thing
to be Cinoinnatus in Texas
With all his personal information about
Texas, II was reasonable to suppose that
from him on occasion like this would have
dropped Installations philosophic thought
from the boiling kettle Of an active. OK.
tcnsivc experience. Plain style we would,
ofcoursc, have expected, but the simplicity
of the setting would have given additional
lustro to the brlhonts which that OK.
pcricncc could have supplied. We could
then have felt that the general verdict would
have been in his case rs