New-York tribune., 1893-12-02
NEWBOOKS AND NEWEDITIONS

Tho Essays Speeches. and Memoirs OF fie'a-
h.r.hsl Count Helmuth Won Moltke' Qfarper &
Broa) furnish material for the study oi
wreat mind It is wonderful to think OF Mo'ke
patient method in the treatment OF every u"e u
that came to his attention he star'eu q" w
beginning with 1t. II possible Wheh ne ana ana, 80
the character of the Kurds. he went oacA ~
xerophon though he pretended not to do So Inc
condition of Poland in the late thirties leu MN "
write a brief but complete history OF the COUNTY,
for only thus, he thought, couio 'e' ~
given for the disasters which had occurreu " '''e
Polish Kingdom. The Belgian Revolution leu nm
into a history of the Low Countries covering
,.r,od ~ 2oo vears: and when he came to the
Franco-German boundary question ne pesan the
discussion Of 1t with a statement OF the conui'",
of things among the Gauls. everywhere ne ''o"e.
his unwayering conviction that the whoie past mus
be comprehended IL the present Is 10 DE uhoer
stood Just because of this painstaking method' III
tended more for his benefit as schoar anu
soldier than for that of others. he seems not u
have cherished in later years very his" oii'
of the papers written in his youth. vi MS Si'i'
history of Poland he spoke almost win contempt "
q Polish professor who unfortunately ien"'' NeU
that he had discovered the book under tine IN
exhaustible literary chaff heaped up upon the Po-
,ish question Motke "charily acknowledged the
authorship and added that he counted the arucie
also among the inexhaustibc chah II was mostly
nm EXCERPT from better works, and he snouid Ike
20 II committed 10 ObilNlon. III 'iS WV
volumes under the title already given. the essays
are translated by Charles Flint Mccumpha Pm
d.: the speeches by Major c. Barter, d. A. A. G.
and the memoirs by Mary Herms
IT was not often that Moltke yielded to pes
nImsm But in the essay on THE Western BOUND
ary" alluding to the fate of Domencus Dietrich.
he remarked "It is hard lot to be patriot IN
Germany, for ne is forgotten" lie was Il master
OF sententious definition. also especially when MS
temper was stirred Napoleon said he. has 10
thank his genius for the admiration OF the French
but for their love he has to thank only his pro-
found immortality" The memoirs in these volumes
are the work of a number of Moitke's friends and
abound In anecdotes. Major Won Burt, the Fleli'
Marshals nephew. remarks that Moltke disiiKed
all tales about forebodings and dreams. 'SeVerai
times he has told me that he dreamt one nSht III
the beginning of the sixties that he was ascending
q ladder, but that he fell down every time he tired
to reach the sixty-sixth step He never spoke
about this dream till after the year 1856, and then
he remarked, in telling 1t, that If he had died IN
the year named, and the dream had been known,
every body would have taken it as a prophecy
biography of General Thomas. by Professor
Henry Coppee. of Iehgh University. has been
added to THE Great Commanders Series by D.
Appleton & Co. Few men OF the war period
have risen so steadily In the estimation OF the
people the victor of Nashville the man who
saved the day at Chickamauga Professor Coppee
j
would have shown himself a master of tactics and
of strategy; that he. better than any other Gem
eral Of the Civil War, knew how to get his men
upon an extended field of battle, how to manoeuvre
them when he brought them there. and above
all how to plan campaign. He takes the cam
paign of Mill Springs and the movement upon
Nashville as proof of Thomass rank as a strate-
gst while his manner of handling troops at Stone
River and at Chick amauga prove him TO have
been a master at Of grand and battle tactics"
1t is that Professor Coppee 1apses, as in this
case. into technical military language. His work.
though necessarily brief Is not inadequate 1t
gives admirable view Of General Thomas as
soldier and a The most important battles
In which Thomas figured are carefully discussed
with an evident aim to avoid partially There is
one trait of human nature. however. which. the
author confesses. wholly lacking in his hero
''The humorous side of Thomas's character" he
says, was undeveloped. at least appearance
of 1t is made to his biographer, however careful
his search has been" The volume is illustrated
with a portrait and with plans of the battles Of
Mill Springs. Stones River. Chickamauga and
Nashville.
A book belonging at least in part to the domain
OF folklore is "In Amazon Land Adaptations from
Brazilian Writers, with Original Selections" by
Martha F. Sesselberg &c. p. Putnam's Sons). The
author has sometimes unavaing struggle with
English idom Her little book contains short stories
illustrating the manners Of the people, an essay on
Amazonan beliefs supersttions and traditions, and
q number of folk-tales evidently chosen from
collection One Of these is the story of the Tucan-
oyua. the bird with the evil eye. Whatever living
thing Is looked upon by this bird instantly falls
dead What is most curious is that the eye re-
tains its malehcent power after the bird Is dead
and its head has been separated from its body. The
parallel which is here indicated with the Greek tale
of the Medusa will to every one interested in
folklore. The book has number of illustrations.
MY Arctic Journal" by Mrs. Josephine Die
bitsch-Peary CThe Contemporary Publishing Com
pany) is a fitting supplement to Lieutenant Pearys
narrative of his Journey across Greenland. While
he crossing the ice-cap, his wife was living In
comparative comfort the shore Of the Arctic
Sea- "within sixty miles OF where Kane and his
little party endured such untold sufferngs; within
eighty miles of where Greey's men. by one.
starved to death: and within less than nifty miles
of where Hayes and his party, and one portion OF
the Polars party underwent their Arctic trials and
tribula,ions" Mrs. Peary's book is thoroughly
cheerful one Beyond a. fit of homesickness and
some periods of anxiety about her husband, she got
an so well that she actually regretted her de-
parture from her Arctic hut and, as we al, know.
soon and gladly returned to the Far North. She
raIned the affection of the natives. though she was
certainly more critical to their manners than
Dr. Nansen. She found tha. they had no use for
water except beverage, that they tolerated
incredible insect comparionshp in their dwellings,
and that they had use for clothes save for
warmth But they faithful and kind-hearted.
especialy the women. Mrs. Pearys last chapter
describes the return Greenland in the steamship
Falcon She and her husband have built their house
this time on the shores of Ingrefed Gulf instead OF
on the open coast and she remarks that 1t promises
10 be 'very cosey." The journal is supplemented
with a short narrative Of Pearys hrst journey
across the ice-cap. There are numerous pictures
In the book
Morris and e. Belfort Bax Charles Scribner's
Sons) is a brief attempt at history OF social
evolution from prehistoric times down to the pres
ent day. To quote time-honored phrase, one