Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-07

mont It is with this significant incident that
Mr.. John L. Heaton begins "The Story Of Yer.
mont (Lothrop- Weldin). It is not to the ad-
vantage of "The Story of Vermont to read it
| just after 1.-THE Beginnings of New England" !"
| because Mr. Fiske is one of the masters.
| Nevertheless, Mr.. Heaton has done good work
here. And this handsome book, with its clear
pages and excellent pictures, will no doubt at
tract readers who would not care very much
for the philosophizings of Mr.. Fiske.
Here is the straightforward story of
| a great State. The wars with the Indians, the
brave deeds of the "Green Mountain Boys" the
War of Independence, the building of the
| State, the anti-liquOr and anti-slavery agita-
tion, the part which the soldiers of the State
took in the War of the Rebellion, and the pro-
gress of things since. are all told clearly and
well. At the end of the book is a valuable his
torical epitome, in which the growth of the
State is divided into eras-beginnings, discov-
ery colonization dispute, formation, develop
ment, progress. This is excellent.
From Vermont to Mexico would have been a
dangerous and interminable journey not SO
very long ago. tits hard to realize that only 80
years have passed since Charles Carroll, s1gner
of the Declaration of Independence, spoke the
oration at the opening of the first section of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. To-day Mr.
Thomas w. Knox takes his boy Travellers" the
whole world over. Boys did little travelling 100
years age 1t took men with the nerve OF that
old pirate, Dampier, to venture far from home;
We may sit in our easy chairs and travel
now. Any boy can go to Mexico for So 90. That
is the price of The Boy Travellers in Mexico"
(Harpers-Weldin.) This is the tenth journey
in the Boy Travellers series. Like all the
others, it is full of interest, and profit, and
pictures. Lucky are the boys who get into the
company of Mr.. Knox.
The boy travellers took the overland route to
Mexico, going through Texas. If they had
taken boat at New Orleans and pushed out into
the Gulf they might have seen what is left OF
Lost Island. Lost Island was once a resort of
pleasure-seekers There were five cottages
there and large hotel But one night, 40 years
ago, the sea rushed in upon the island, as it did
the other day upon Atlantic City, only hun
dred times harder, and tore almost the whole OF
it away. Down went the cottages, down went
the hotel, and everybody in them, into the
black water.
hotel. The Captain OF the Star, as the fierce
gale blew the boat in toward the dangerous
coast, heard the band playing Weber's "lnvita-
tion to the Waltz"
'Waltzingr' cried the Captain? God help
themi God help us all now! The wind waltzes
tonight, with the sea for his partneri o,
the stupendous Valse-Tourbillonl o the
mighty dancer! one-twothree! From northeast
to east. from east to southeast, from southeast
to south: then from the south he came, whirl-
ing the sea in his arms"
The next day Felin, a fisherman on the gulf
shore, carried home in his arms q little baby
which he had saved out of the wreckage. And
his wife Carmen named the baby "Chita."
Cbita's mother had been drowned, and her
father saved. She, too, was lost her father
thought. At last, years afterward. by accident
he came sick to Felin's cottage and saw his
child and died.
This is the story by which Mr.. Lafcadio
Hearn has written his book, ''Chita." (Har-
per's-Weldin). The charm Of ''Chita" is in
the telling of the story. 1t is refreshing, amid
the realistic chronicles of the commonplace
which crowd the bookstores nowadays, to find
a writer who is not afraid of enthusiasm and
not ashamed of exclamation marks The de-
scriptiou of that fierce August storm which
body's reading. 1t is like one Of Turner's
pictures