Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1892-07-28

OF beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest Of summer in full-throated ease.
Perhaps the selfsamc song that found path
Through the sad heart of Ruth when sick for
home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn"
Little Brothers of the Air. is the grac
ious title that Olive Thorne Miller has
given her new volume upon bird-life.
The book is not written for the bird-wise |;
but is the record by bird-lover OF the
odd and charming domestic manners Of
bird families, from closest observation.
1t is impossible to read the book without
feeling new interest in the whole feath-
cred creation. Toa wholesomely created
being, with natural appetite for the
sweet joys of out Of door life, there must
always be sense Of chagrin in recognize
ing that through ignorance and inatten-
ton has been lost one whole chapter of
pleasure from the book of life. To live
in world of birds without knowing the
song Of one from another, to have missed
the drollery and charm of their domestic
manners, looms up as a great loss after
catching something Of the infection of
enthusiasm from this bird devotee. The
best quality Of this little volume is that it
does not leave the Indifferent reader
where it found him, but creates in him
desire to hear and see for himself the
comedy and tragedy of bird life. On this
account it is just the sort of book to
foster in children sympathetic love and
interest in their "little brothers of the
air." To awake in child interest in
study of living things is to add a resource
of calm enjoyment to the whole of life.
Emerson says: "We fill the hands and
nurseries Of our children with all manner
Of dolls, drums and horses, withdrawing
their eyes from the plain face and suffic-
ing objects of nature" 1t is through
such books as this one upon birds that
the return to the "sufficing objects Of
nature" may be made; it is SO easy and
pleasant path that when our feet are
once fairly set upon the way we feel that
in the past we have been kept from our
own.
A fault in the book, which might easily
be corrected in future editions, is that
certain phrases and figures of speech are
frequently repeated in the different chap
ters. tits easy to see that these repetitious
occurred unconsciously when the chapters
were contributed as separate papers to
various periodicals but they should haye
been edited out when the whole was re-
cast into book form, since they detract
from its effectiveness and give an i'm
preston of meagreness of vocabulary and
imagery which is an injustice to the book.
This, and an occasional self-consciousness
on the part of the writer, as Of a young per-
son knowing herself to be only second in
charm to birds, are not enough to amount
to actual blemishes, and yet enough to
somewhat weaken the charm, although
not the interest, of the book. A man in
writing of nature knows he is not an en-
gaging figure, scrambling through wet
brushes and overcoming the obstacles Of
brier and thicket, and may write of what
he sees in serene Inconsistencies of self;
but woman, in whom the centuries have
fostered Coquetry, is still somewhat new
as an explorer and naturalist, and that
fact rests upon her consciousness; she
cannot quite forget how she looks and
seems. But it is hypercriticism to pick
flaws in book which is true gift to
those who desire friendlier and closer
fellowship with nature, in whose mother
hood We, too, claim share. If books
were judged, as perhaps they should be,
by their power to waken us to new inter-
ests, this little volume, with its freshness
of observation and bubbling enthusiasm,
would take high rank. (Houghton
Miflin & Co., Boston, Mass. Price
$1.25)
"San Salvador" by Mary Agnes
Thicker, is story Of an imaginary COM
munity in the remote fastneses of Spain.
A slight love story is woven into the med
ley of fantastic description. There is
nothing in the story, which is of the
Arabian Nights order, to hold the in
terest of any class of readers. The socio-
logical arrangements in the community
are too vague to suggest anything to the
student Of social reform; the religious
life is so wrapped about with elaborate
ceremonial as to be more suggestive of
tableaux and upholstery than the spirit
of Christ of which it is meant to be the
emanation. No novel of fashionable life
in New York is more concerned with
"what they wore" than this story, which
is supposed to be above the level of vain
and earthly things.
In the attempt to get back to the ele-
mental principle in the teachings Of Christ
and form community upon them what
curiously divergent results are reached
by various minds. Tolstoi would not
recognize one familiar feature in this i'm
aginary community, which is ostensibly
animated by the same motive by which
he guides his life and teachings. Grim
and harsh as are the conditions with
which Tolstoi surrounds himself, there is
an element of the heroic and a literal