Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-09

York: D. Appleton & Co. San Francisco: James
F. White X Co. 1vol.; Svo.
General Townsend, for many years
resident OF San Francisco, and whose at.
tachment to California he himself remarks
upon, is generally known throughout the
country as the late efficient Adjutant.Gen-
eral of the army. He enjoyed specially
happy opportunities during his service for
hearing tales of the war and narratives of
incidents related to the various depart
ments of the service. The anecdotes and
narratives related by General Townsend
thst refer to the war extend from the last
year of President Buchanan's administra-
ton to the close OF the rebellion. This is
not, however, book of mere anecdotes
on the contrary it includes much matter of
historical moment and interest as, for in
stance, the views of General Scott upon
the fright of secession, and his views
relative to reinforcing posts and forts in
the Southern States in lS60-l the colo.
guy between Secretary Stanton and the
colored ministers in 1865 proofs that Sec
rotary Stanton did not commit suicide
paper by General Scctt on martial law,
issued during the war with Mexico; a
chapter on the assault upon General Scott's
loyalty account of the defense of Wash.
ington in 1861 account of the surrender
of the Augusta arsenal chapter on the
neutrality OF Kentucky, etc. These and
many full copies of extracts from official
orders, together with accounts of rebel in
vasions, service in the Adjutant- Generals
office, the funeral OF Lincoln, the origin
and styles of army badges, the varieties OF
Confederate fags, ETC., go to makeup a very
pleasing volume of disconnected and wholly
irrelevant chapters. The narratives appear
to have been put into the book at hsphaz-
ard, or Just IS the General plucked them
from his p.book or his faithful memory.
They do not aim to present amusing phases
of the war, though there are some humor-
Gus passages, but serve to throw consid.
cradle light upon the reasons for many
measures of the war administrations that
have heretofore been obscure and wholly
hidden.
TRoJA results CF TIE LATEST RESEARCHES AND
DISCOVERIES or TIE SITE OF HOMEK's Troy, AND
IN THE HEROIC TUNUu AND OTHER SIZES, MADE N
TIE YEAR ISL. b Dr. Henry Schemann, with
Preface by Professor A. II Sayce. Illustrated.
Imperial Syo., I vol. New York Harper u Bros.
San Francisco A. L. Bancroft x Co,
1t is to the credit OF the distinguished
antiquarian, DR.. Schliemarn, that the
settlement of the question Of the site of Troy
is to be deemed ended. In former review
of the predecessor of this volume we fully
considered this subject and all the prog.
ress made in archaeological science in this
direction. Il has all been within a decade
that a curtain of obscurity which yelled
much of Greek history was lifted by the
patient labor and the genius of the author
of this book, aided by the skill of his Greek
wife, who is entitled to q large share OF
the credit of the discoveries made that
reduced the legendary Hellas to the fast
of history. Criticism had done all it was
capable of in establishing the mythical
character of the tale of Troy, when Schlie-
mann came upon the scene and gave weight
and substance to such evidence as there
was that the Troy of Homer was not
mere Of form of the imagination" As Prof.
Sayce puts it:
The problem from which the scholars of Europe
had turned away in despair has been solved by the
SKILL the energy and the perseverance of DR.. Sche-
mann. At Troy, at Mykenae, and at Ork Nomenos,
he has recovered past which had already become
but shadow Of memory in the age OF PeslstratOs.
We can measure the civilization and knowledge OF
the peoples who inhabited those old cities, can han
die the implements they used and the weapons they
carried, can map out the chambers Of the houses
where they lived can admire the pious care with
which they tended their dead. can even trace the
limits Of their intercourse with other nations and
the successive stages Of culture through which they
passed. The heroes Of Had aud Odyssey have be
come to Us men Of flesh and blood; we can watch
both them ard older heroes still in almost every act
of their daily life, and even determine their nature
and the capacity OF their skulls.
Since no well appointed library can now
be complete in the absence Of the first and
the present volume of DR.. Sohliemann, and
since the nature and results OF his archHo.
logical researches are well known to schol-
ars and historical readers, it is not, we
think, at all necessary 20 enter into any
descriptive review of the details of his
later work as recorded in the book before
US, and from the reading of which we have
arisen with even a deeper satisfaction than
that following the Perusal of the first &C
counts from the doctors pen. Whoever
enters upon the work will not be long in
discovering that this matter OF excavation
is by no means a small matter. Perhaps
merely to dig is nothing; but to locate the
work, direct its operation, to know what
to search for, to estimate the true value OF
that found, to apply historical knowledge
to the newly discovered, to reason out the
probabilities and certainties, to upbuild
from the mark on a door Intel or a carving
above the hearth, the history, character
and habits of the people who dwelt in the
time when the handiwork was DONE are
matters that call for rare combination of
qualities, and which appear to have fused
in the person of DR.. Schliemann. the
present volume goes far to remove any
possible lingering doubt that may have re-
NAMED regarding the Homeric controver.
sizes and the foundation for the /" Had,
even after reading Schliemann's Ilios,"
which embraced the full account of
his researches from 1871 to and in.
Guiding 1879, and which volume the
present one properly supplements and
is companion to. The discoveries of Dr.
Schliemann in 1872, as here recorded, es.
tablish first, the fact that if ever Trey ex.
listed it has been uncovered on the hill of
Hissarlik second, that some of the infer
ences drawn in the doctors Ilios need
modification in the light of the more re-
cent discoveries third, that the so.called
tumulus of Prolesialaos is raised upon the
site of an ancient city precisely alike in its
remains to the lower or first city at His
sarlik fourth, that consequently the build
ers of the first Hissarlik crossed the Helles-
pont from Europe, and that the founders of
Troy were of Thrakian descent, as Greek
tradition claims fifth, that the second city