Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1883-07-07
WHAT TO READ NEXT.

Occidental year knows some ebb of
leisure during the Winter months,
whep, desires of self improvement
moke themselves felt, and plans for
gaining better interest of time are
set afoot. The reading club, the la.
dies society, the graduating pupil,
and the solitary student in thousand
homes, are each discussing the out
line of their literary work, and
would be glad of an advice on the
subject: "What shall we read this
season2" A work now being pub
lished, each volume the herald OF
successive volumes of ever incris sing
Vaccinations, is finding its way into
many homes, Tor it m Gets just the
requirements of entertainment and
information. In this work of Mr..
Hubert Bancroft's are histories of
Central America and Mexico, going
over that ever exciting story of the
New World by Columbus, and its
possessions by his fellow adventures
Cortez, Balboa and less memorable
Spanish governors. IAN old story
you say, being unaware of the fresh
material held on royal shelves to this
day, of letters by Columbus himself,
narratives of personal explorations
and perils by Jesuit and soldier, re-
ports of noble governors and viceroys
held in keeping hundreds of years
by Mexican converts or miraculous
~ preserved through the hazards OF
Central American revolutions-ma-
terisl which fills and colors the faded
outline of great deeds till we thrill
with triumph at heroic success, or
waste unavailing pity on struggles
against appalling tate. No superflc
;al work can gain notice as history at
the present day. Only the most
searching study, the richest accumu-
lations of authorities to the fsrthest
author or relic, can yield interest IN
the dry as dust-stories of other times,
when our own age il 30 absorbing, so
vital. The American student learns
to point with pride to model for
all historical work in the costly prep
arstion which Mr.. Bancroft has Law.
ithed upon his literary devoir, his
cherished life labnr-the Pacific
States Histories. Nothing less would
sat sly his ideal of excellence in his
chosen work which drew him aside
by degrees from lucrative and sue
cessful business, but to assemble Ell.
ther in standard, original, or In faith
full copy every book of voyages or
information, and every document
bearing on the history OF the Pacific
Coast, embracing the States west of
the Rocky Mountains, from Alaska
to the Isthmus of Darien. over thirty
thousand volumes in print and man
uscripts for the library of such mat
ter, gathered by this gentleman at
cost of half million, and to reduce
aud condense which within available
limits has required the aid ola dozen
able secretaries, as we'll as Mr.. Ban
croft's sssidious study for over twenty
years. The labor accomplished in
these years is gigantic. To embody
in score or two of ordinary volumes
the substance of thirty thousand old
writers, who wrought in time when
men wrote because they had much to
deliver, and the art of "padding"
books was unknown. Such books as
Mr.. Hubert Bancroft has chosen to
write, belong to the purple of literary
rank, from their wealth of information
and vivid style, and yet they are
written of the people aud for the peo-
pie. A: our own iresides, in these
volumes, We may read the letters of
Columbus to his sovereign, trace the
heroic daring, the errors and atone
u.ents Of his checkered life; share the
rapture of discovery with Balboa, as
from his peak IN Darien he beholds
the CLEAN Of the Pacific, and lament
the treachery of his death; follow