The herald., 1893-01-22
ABOUT BOOKS AND BOOK-MAKERS
Review of a Number of Recent
Notable Publications.
James Whiteomb Riley's Green Fields
e and Running Brooks.
winterborough, by Eliza Orne White
Sir Roger de Coveriy Agatha
u New Book ON Health.
Some Book Chat.
~ " llAaN -
[BY L. BEHYMER.l

have been reading a new book OF
poems and verses and as review them
in my mind find myself on memory's
couch. composed of the soft, velvety
swafd, beside the banks of slow NOV
ing tiver, surrounded by green fields"
anddistening to the murmur of run
ming, BROOKS" the buzzing OF the bees
sndthe chirping of the crickets. The
bright sunshine is glinting through the
leaves of the big tree overhead in golden
beams, while pair of cooling doves in
the branches resemble a couple of jolly
picknickers that are floating past me
down the stream in an old
fashioned fat-bottomed skif, whose
sides are covered with the green mossy
color that has made the 'moss covered
bucket" go famous. And as the murmur
of these roundelays, which | have been
reading, cease to echo in my ears, |
awake from day dreaming and come
down to the more prosaic occupation of
telling the HERALD readers what beau
tiful and touching little songs of Green
Fields and Running Brooks our genial
entertainer and friend, James Whitcomb
Riley, has prepared for us in his new
book of poems Of the same title. We
open the book and find Country
Pathway winding in the weeds that
fringe the roadside, and with dreams OF
our own we wander as we read it to q
place grand enough for any student of
nature ION the banks of Deer creek"
where we used to go ''swimmin'" way
up "Johnson's hole" A tribute enti-
tied A Ditty of No Tone is piped to the
spirit of John Keats, while life's journey
is depicted in The Lands of Where
Away. How John Quit the Farm is a
fit companion to Over the Hill to the
Poor House. Jap Miller soon convinces
you that he is the ''blamedest Teller yit
in Martinsville, while Tom Van Arden.
my Old friend, is d lesson for bachelors
who consider themselves ''lucky dogs"
in having s'loved but lost" In The
Hoosier Folk Child we recognize many
chubby-faced urchin peering out from
among the ragweeds along the dusty
road, where we passed and repassed in
our younger days. The bad boys ver
sion of Jack, the Giant Killer, will set
brother Peck Of Peck's Bad Boy fame to
thinking up new stories to amuse the
youngsters.
Farmer Whipple-Bachelor, is ro-
luAuC0l Ill pOebIY Vi LILO EOOQ, Olu-Abeh-
ioned sort, and we seem nearer heaven
when we read such offerings as Blind,
North and South, While the Musicians
Played and TIE Wife-Blessed. As holi-
days are not long past we can thor
oughly appreciate What Christmas
Fetched the Wigginses
Old Winters on the, Farm has clear
crisp tone, while August is hazy and
dreamy, and Autumn seems one contin-
uous festival, with the sweet songs OF
south flying birds, the rustic of bright
hued leaves, and the musk of pawpaw,
hazel brush and haw waited on the
evening breezes. A new version of John
Alden and Percilly, altohough not quite
as historical as Longfellow's, will prove
twice as laughable and fully as interest
ing. A fitting end to such collection
of good things is found in When Age
Comes On and Just as OF Old.
Loi Where is the beginning, where the end
of living, loving longing? listen, friend.
God answers with a silence of pure gold
~ Just as of old.
x*x
Winterborough, bv Eliza Orne Whine,
has just been published by Houghton,
Miff1 & Co.
Miss Bersis Hastings, a pupil at the
High school OF Winterborough, which
is small New England town, and Mr..
Harold Strong, the sub master, are the
principal actors in this book, which,
like most New England tales, is study
of character rather than story with an
elaborate plot. Persis is drawn with
clevernees and has been endowed by the
author with bright, sunny humor that
makes most pleasant the New England
atmosphere OF the book. Strong's char
actsr is full OF rugged strength and con-
scisntious purpose, end the other people
are all interesting.
.#x
A good story is always worth telling
over again, and although we have spent
many days in company with the genial
English gentleman of the latter part OF
the eighteenth century, which were
golden days, still the delightful flavor OF
the Spectator papers never pals on the
taste. Macmillan & Co. have just is
sued the third edition (the first appear
ing some six years ago) of Days with
Sir Roger de Coverley, reprint
from the London Spectator, in which
is pleasantly pictured life in and
about an English country house. Ex
asperating though it may be to some of
the enterprising young men who are
trying to reform the literary tastes oi
the world, there are still thousands of
men and women of good education and
progressive ideas who re-read Sir Roger
de Coverley on the slightest provocation.
Even 80 able q master of modern Eng
lish as the late George William Curtis
never tired of the story of the simple,
honest, sturdy old knight, and he
refreshed his acquaintance again
and again when more brilliant
things in print were at his elbow.
The chief charm of the volume is the
abundance and richness OF the series
of delicate illustrations which Hugh
Thomsonh has made for the book, 30 full
of many suggestions OF the England of
the last century. Everyone who is IA
miliar with hia Crawford and his Vicar
of Wakefield will appreciate the singu-
lar charm of these pictures of old-time
English country life, which have both
character, grace and humor to an un-
common degree. The cover of the book
is as delightful as its penetralia, small
enough to hide in coat pocket and
cheap enough not to injure a modest
pocket book.
Lee & Shepard have new book en-
titled, InQ Health; The Relations of the
Sexes, by DR.. A. ). Ingersoll. The pur-
pose OF this book is religio medical. A
kind of mixed-up faith cure lies at the
foundation OF the advice given, which is
intended as guide for all suffering