Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-07-28
RECENT PUBLICATIONS

IN telling an imaginative, original friend that
plains the delightful off.hand character Of
| the writer-the whole is running uTnal
Originally printed for private circulation
among few dear friends-those who were
not as well SIS those who were Of the coaching
party-to be treasured SIS souvenir of happy
days" Then the publishers told the author
| the book was worthy Of larger audience,
| and so it comes before The public, which could
not well spare it. !. is the log beck, so to
! speak. Of the run of fous-iE. hand coach
| from Brighton, England. TO Inverness. Scot
| land, in 81 SO miles, as the record tells at the
cad of the book Eleven we.a Of the party
! five ladies and six men- and II was g jolly
! one We share the ocs an muFiDgs-sor these
arc Americana, these coaches, who cross the
| Atlantic TO see England in this glorious
! fashion, and right large and comfortable
| seems the i6ea-theu loitsr about London
with these people who have voted that hap
! piness shall endure for three months, then go
| to Brighton with them, and looking well at
| the frontispiece where they al appear safe
| on the top of their coach. feel sill the exhil-
aration of the start Perry, coschmsr, and Joe,
| footman, merry st fresco lunches, charming
walks while the coach drives on and waifs,
| joy Of level rcaes and perfect weather,
| "Carneeie weather as it came to be called,
and the chronicle of action interpreted
everywhere with the bright, healthy thoughts
| of shrewd, ohservsnt, hearty man Of posi-
tive character but broad views. He defines
the difference between q Radical and
Liberal in England to be that the one holds
| the same opinions in public and private,
while the other has two sets of opinions-the
one for public, the other for private use. He
| cals the eleventh commandment not TO be
found out, snd occasionally gives bit of
out of the way inform alton, IS thats game"
of swans is the proper term for these birds,
as flock is for geese. He often quotes
! poetry, and Gnotes it like well read man,
and his rapture over the skylark is fairly con-
tsgious. This tribute TO George Eliot, as the
party tools the coach through Coventry, all
| the Jokes and stories. the punning verses on
the child of Sir William Pope, of Wroxton
Abbey, written on the occasion Of James Is
visit,
"a female Pope, you'll cay, second joan
| No, sure she is Pope Innocent or none -
Ard Sir Jacob Astley's prayer as LIE
rode out to fight Charles rs battles: so
| Lord, thou knowest how busy must be this
day. If l forget thee, do not forget me, all
| show the kindly humor, high standard, and
| the good memory of this countryman of Sir
| Walter Scott for while Mr.. Carnegie is By
| birth an American, and an able, ready up
| holder OF American institutions, he never let's
| it be forgotten that his blood is Scotch, and
| that for pure love and loyalty ~ country can
| be TO MIN like Scotland, aud when the coach
crosees the border his enthusiasm knows no
! bounds. The whole record Of the coaching
| holiday is sunshine and fun Rnd the partings
and separation at the time are as dismal
to the reader as they were to the CAV
characters. For sale by a. L. Bancroft &
Co., San Francisco.
"Memoirs of John a. Dix" Compiled
| by his son, Morgan Dix. Illustrated; in two
volumes. New York Harper & Bros. OF
course the memoir of father by his son is
! not expected TO contain any very severe criti-
cism of the subjects course, but DR.. Morgan
Dix recognizes his danger, speaks Of it in his
| preface, and never inficts meauineless
eulogies upon the reader. Then, John A.
| Dix has the advantage of being @ man of
character and ability, and rs his life extends
from the excitement Of the early years Of our
republic, when che National Government
was crystallziDg, over the terrible period
year 1879, full memoir of IL, like the pres
ent, includes nearly every event Of import
| ance IN the country. Although q New
Hampshire man by birth, General Dix's FIRST
sphere Of activity was the State of New
! York, and g complete history of State poll
tics makes much Of the fest volume read
! ike Well-sifted and condensed newspaper Gull
| ings. The disappearance Of William Nor
gsp, the Mason, and the growth of anti.
Masonry SIS a political issue in 1926 and 1928,
| So that as great q man as Andrew jackson
| was out of fsvor with constituency Of TO-
| 600 votes because ne was q Mason, Is one Of
the odd phases of bygone times that the
memoir revives, reminding Us that the old
| Wing party developed out of the anti
! ,artxy in Ia fr
self Wing implied the opprobrium Of tory
IAN in ones opponents. l. is interesting to
+! read st what an early day slavery became G
| burning question in the United States. In
1929 General Dix formulates his sentiments
| on abolition and the oolored element de
was in favor of gradual emancips-
tion and foreign colonization of TIE
scheme, rather than entire, simultaneous
abolition. A few words in the preface give
an account Of the stock from which John
Dix sprsng. A brief autobiography covers
his boyhood and early army hfe-he served
in the war OF 1872 at 10 years Of ags-and
then DR.. Dix takes up the narrative. News
paper work and the study of the law occu-
pied General Dix in the interim Of his resig
nation from the army to his active entrance
into political life. be seems to have been
always a scholarly man, and though the
| French couplet which he offered TO the trans-
lator of Goldsmith has syllable too many in
the first line, and lacks one in thu second, his
translation of the "Dies Iise is accurate
and melodious. The history Of his appoint
ment 20 the post of Secretary of the Treasury
in Buohanan's Cabinet, after the dec8mpins
Of Howell Cobb, is an interesting page OF
history, significant Ia showing the will Of the
| psoDle and the power of Wall street. DR..
Dix's estimate of Bachansnsn is by no means
s. harsh as thst Of many loyal reviewers
Easily Influenced end timid be admits him to
be, but insists that he was deeply colscien-
tious and possessed Of much right feeling.
| The story Of the great dispatch cont aiming
tAe famous phrase, /" If any man attempts 10
haul down the American flag, shoot him on
ths spot" with which one oluntarily 1850
cates John A. Dix, is admirably and con-
cjzely told In q letter from the Gen-
eral TO q lsdy ssking for the par
ticulars, and fac smile Of the dispatch is
added. There are brief sympathetic sketches,
from time to time, OF the Generals happy
domssticity, and digni6ed account of his
funeral ceremony. Tie last half Of the sec
ond volume is taken up with an az pendix Of
State letters and papers expressing General
Dix's viowB on Abolitionism, Free Soilisn,
Mr.. Gallatin's Mexico treaty project, and 40
address delivered by him before the New
York Association for the Announcements Of
Science and Art, on the subject of Social
and Political Evils. The book is well in
dexei. For sale by A. L. Bancroft & Co.
From Ponkapog to Pesth." By Thomas
Bailey Aldrich. Boston: Houghton, M film
& Co. Any book by Aldrich is cure to be
good reading This little volume. whose
value, his prologue ssys, is that it treats
neither Of Porkapos nor Pesth, is dreamy
little aote. book Of circuitous wsnderings that
began in New England village and ended in
the Hungarian capital. 1t is more healthy
andobjectivs than Lsngfellow's " Hyperion"
yet it has the sauntering, plenty-of-time
spirit of that beloved book Of everybody's
youth. Mr.. Aldrich begins with chapter or
reverie that he calls Days with the Dead"
telling of manners and marbles and moE-
strosities Of mortuary lesDings all over the
continent, and ends his descriptions with
slight laugh, as one feels, saying that he has
been playing q solo de eorbsAstd. This talk
-l....L -. LaI-on The ranrtar ruarIo-s...