New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-07-19
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE NEW WEST


Mississippi The latest AMI most con,.rchensiye
work on the states aa! Territories west Of the Mis,is-
sippi; Ey l.. T. BEOCKErr. PIP 1872. Philadelphia:
Eiadlcy, GarictScr Co.
Try Tie aid Of official reports of State and Terri
torial Governments the letters of newspaper CORE
spondcnts and recent hooks Of Wcstcrn travel, DR..
Brockett has Produced a comprehensive and valu-
able book on Tie resources and peculiaritics of tie
ireat region west OF the Mississippi. We know OF
no the sane subject containing such a
mass of well tgested information of practical use
10 Western settlers. and of interest to all who want
10 know about the recent progress and present con-
dition OF the portions of the country The book
is arraD yed under general part heads. Part l.
Is devoted to general description of the West and
to chapters population, scenery. animals, eli
mate, soils agriculture cattle raising mining, sheep
farming. towns and cities etc. Part III. is OF prac-
teal to emgrants, describing routes of travel,
and telling how to select and buy land and to en-
gage in the various Western industries. The home
stead. pTeemptiOn and timber laws of the United
States are clearly explained and also the local aud
general laws governing mining claims, railroad
school, swamp and asylum lands. Part II. takes up
the Western States and Territories one by one and
gives II chapter to each. Part w. entitled The
Lands outside of Western Empire" describes
the northwestern provinces of the Dominion of
Canada and the opportunities for immigrants on the
Atlantic slope of the United States. number of
excellent maps add to the value of the work.
Inspired by the vastness of his theme and the
store of facts lie has accumulated concerning the
rapid growth of the region he Describes, it is not
strange that the author throws q good deal of en-
thusiasm into his book. He calls the West the
wonderland of the globe and predicts marvellous
things for it in the future in the way of increased
population and wealth. He does not, we think
give due weight to the fact that very large pro-
portion of the area of the Western Territories will
always be arid and uninhabtcd in spite of all that
may be done with arteSian wells to make it fertile
There is further fact which is comforting to people
who do not live in the " wonderland" In spite of
the very rapid recent settlement of the agricultural
plains of Dakota, Nebraska and Texas, and the de-
velopment of mining in the mountainous States and
Territories of Colorado Utah. Ncw-Mcxico, Arizona
and Nevada, the centre of population of the United
States has moved westward only about fifty miles in
the last decade. This shows that all parts of the
country growing in population at nearly the
same rate
The quick development of the farming and mining
region beyond the Mississippi is almost counter
balanced by the heavy increase in the population of
the cities and manufacturing towns of the East
Indeed 1T seems as though every person who goes
West and raises corn OF cattle digs gold silver
makes business in the East for an additional man
engaged III trade, transportation or manufactures
THE GEORGIANs Q.ound Robin Series) svo DID
322 James r. Osgood & Co.
This is not one of those cooress and featurelcss
books which only deserve ito be mentioned as they
pass into the swollen stream of Current Fiction In
many ways it is a strong story, and one which COM
pels attentive interest i'll spite of crudIies in
construction and several episodes which have been
uuskilfully introduced with the evident intention of
depicting certain phases OF Southern life with which
the author seems familiar In spite of its name
however, there is nothing dstinctively Southern in
the leading characters or their SURROUNDINGS, and
the attempts to secure local colorine which is
essential obstruct the narrative instead of iustrat
ing it.
Mark Laurens stern, just man. with strong but
suppressed passions, is made executor of an estate
which the young Countess Oranoh comes from
over the to inherit and occupy. She IS divinely
fair, of course, and although of Georgian parcntage
her manners are those of the Old World and the re
hangs about her the mystery of an unhappy mar
riage with n Russian nobeman. This brutal lus-
band still lives i'll madhouse, but such is her
stately reserve that the fact remains unknown and
Laurens can do nothing else but fall in love with
her. for she pure and gentle as she is fair Mean
while her own emotions become more tender than
those of mere admiration for the strong earnest
self.controlled man who might have made her
happy 1t is this love with its faint of sin and vet
so natural and almost inevitable, that gives the
novel its central purpose, and the situation is
treated with singular dramatic force and the rarcst
delicacy of touch.
In the tone of its teachings, for it has a moral
60 enforce, the book is one of perfect purity
The reader is slow to sympathize with the
searching scrutiny to which tho woman sub
ieots her motives; he feels an inclination to
mitigate the condemnation which she pronounces
upon herself for having been betrayed after a
biightcd youth into loving worthy man purely for
his worth and he almost resents the cruel Justice of
the depressing conclusion of the whole matter when
the lovers, after The opportune death of the de-
bauched lunatic, are united in marriage which is
ale Id
ing to untimely passion. Most admirable are the
subtitle touches by which one is made to feel how
the nobility OF Madame Orlanofi's nature detcrio-
rates and how the ardor of her lover shuddcrs into
GOODNESS
The blcmishes of the book have already been re-
ferred to. 1t is written in clear and easy STYLE
but the tedious. commonplace incidents and con-
Nersations which interrupt the flow of the story
especially in its earlier chapters all the more
annOyug because the is SO we'll worth tclIin0