Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-07
THE CRITIC.
A Door Into the Seventeenth Century-A
Gift of Unconventional Speech-Difer.
ences in Historical Notwithstanding
in New England and Peunsylvania-Boy

in New England and Pennsylvania-Boy
Travellers in Mexico.
Whoever opens micah Clarke, His State
meut" Uongmans, Green & Coz, opens door
| into the seventeenth century. The statement OF
Micah Clarke relates to certain passages in
his early life," and is made to his three grand
children during the long evenings OF the hard
winter of l734 and from his lips, by the eldest
of the three, day by day set down, and now
from the original manuscript, arranged in
order by A. Conan Doyle.
"a Conan Doyle is a queer name. almost
too queer to be really used by anybody every
day. Still there is no rule for giving names
unfortunately. Perhaps A. Conan Doyle is not
pen name after all. Anyway, whether the
name is real or only invented, it belongs to the
writer of an uncommonly good story.
"If "a. Conan Doyle" were to be taken on
the title page, and Robert Louis Stevenson"
were to be written in the place OF 1t, there
would be no reason for any critical surprise.
micah Clarke is more like the work OF MI.
Stevenson than "The Wrong Box" is Micah
Clarke" is in the manner of kidnapped" 1t is
just as good story as ''Kidnaped"-or let us
frankly say, better story. with more OF inter-
est in its characters and in its plot 1t takes
one just as completely out of the air and view
of the days we live in, into other times and
ecenesi ana the style ol IL 10 enai inAh6 " 49,
own sake.
They had the gift of speech in the seven
teenth century. They had way of saying
even commonplace things which made them
sound quite unconventional. The statement
OF micah Clarke" is put in seventeenth
century language. 1t catches that fresh and
charming strain.
Micah Clarke" is set down under the head
of fiction, but it belongs better among the his
tories. In 1856, James II. being King OF
England, and hated by his Puritan subjects Tor
his enmity toward Protestant religion, James,
Duke of Monmouth, who had fed to Holland,
came secretly back, put himself at the head OF
a handful of troops and summoned all the dis
affected folk in England to his standard, call
ing himself king. The uprising was speedily
put down. At the battle of Sedgemoor the
troops of Monmouth, set in position OF dlsad-
vantage against bottomless ditch, and weak
ened by the cowardice of their leader were
hopelessly defeated. The rebel chief was sent
to the block. And as for his followers, Chief
Justice Jeffreys came down and held that
"bloody circuit which has made his name
everlastingly infamous. and meted out savage
punishment to them.
This is the substance of the statement of
''Micah Clarke" Except that while one can
read this much briefly enough in Green's His
it here, but you live in the midst of it. Back
go the clock hands 800 years. 1t is century the
seventeenth, and the scene is turbulent En-
gland, These places and people stand out like
life. The households of the Puritans the uen
of the smugglers, the old man In his lonely hut
working at the ancient problem how to make
gold out of iron-a problem which we In Pitts
burg know how to work out pretty well-the
tight with the fanatics in Wells Cathedral, the
battle beside the fatal "Rhine," and the vacil-
lating Monmouth, and the mad Jeffreys, "The
Devil in Wig and Gown" and Micah Clarke
with his good friends, and Decimus Saxon. the
soldier of fortune. and Hector Marot, the
highwayman-you close the book, and 1t is all
as distinct and real as if it happened yesterday.
There are historical novels and historical
novels. And there is as much difference be-
tween them as there is between an inkbottle
and a bottle of ink. But when one gets first |
rate, carefully written, interesting and fairly
historic novel, 1t is better than 40 |
regular histories. 1t is the difference, as said,
between reading about an event and living in |
the neighborhood, within sight and sound of |
1t. Scott and Shakespeare wrote the best |
histories of England. That is the sort OF book |
"Micah Clarke" is. |
micah Clarke" knew very well what he was |
Covenant and started out to help put James |
II. out of his throne. He knew that he was |
setting himself on libertys SIDE But we know |
what it all meant now, better than he could. /
Because we see the perspective now and under
stand how puritanism fitted into the general |
progress of things.
The study of history has shared in that gen.
eral improvement in ways Of doing almost |
everything which marks the last half century. |
This is especially noticeable in this matter of |
of looking at events as they stand
in line finding out what their place is and what
they mean.
1t seems, at first thought little queer and
remote to begin a history of the planting of
New England with a study of the political
methods of Greece and Rome. 1t makes one
;hink of Knickerbockers "History of New
York." which started with the primeval chaos
This, however, is the way in which Mr.. John
Fiske introduces 'The Beginnings of New En-
gland (Houghton, M1ffiin & Coz. He starts
With the ancient ways of nations, making you
watch the progress of the argument as one
night watch an expert blackboard artist. Here
S line and there is dot and yonder is
,urve. What is it going to be7 How are these
marks to be marshalled into the promised
hape?
Mr. Fiske makes it speedily clear History
|
In the Oriental way, by conquest
Without incorporation; in the Roman way, by
conquest with incorporation, but without rep
finally, by the English way, which
ur barbarian ancestors somehow worked out |
mid their forests and brought with them when
hey came down and conquered Rome, by in
orporation with representation. 1t was for
his English principle that the Puritans stood
7hen they rose up in day when power was
verywhere getting more and more centered in
ings' hands, and the rights of the people were
very day getting to be less regarded, and cut
Zing's head off and put their representative, a
IAN of the people, in his place.
Some people think of the Puritans as grim
aced men, who broke the beautiful stained
yindows in the OLD cathedrals and never kissed
heir wives on Sunday. They were bigoted. |
tern, ungraceful men. There is no doubt of
hat But the Puritans saved to the world the
English idea" This fight was for liberty.
he United States of America is the monu- .
tent of their victory.
The story of the Puritan exodus of the i
,urney of the Mayfower. of the beginning of {
ne colony, of the immediate setting up of !
government. of the division of !,
ie Legislature into two bodies on account of
dispute about stray pig, of the founding
f Harvard College by public taxation in the
Iidst of dangers and dissensions of the inter- | ]
Unable theological discussions which taught
ZEN to think and made freedom of thought
ossible of divisions and prosecutions, of big
try and fanaticism, of the wars with tho |
iouots, and the Narragansetts, and the Min
ucks. of the days of terror when no mans I
alp sat steadily upon his head of the oppres I
ons from over the Sea and of brave resist. q
nee to them. This Mr.. Fiske narrates with {
lat perfect elearness, truth, and fairness ?
hich characterizes all his work.