The record-union., 1895-12-06
RECORD UNION BOOK TABLE.
Notes of New Books-The Romance
of Eugene.
A Revolutionary Drama-Old Story Re-
vived-A Book of Poems-Story of
the Mexican Frontier-Etc.

| tHdI mas mace EllZaDeth Stuart PnelpS
loved among the child readers of the
land long ago. Mrs. Phelps has written
a preface to this new edition, in which
she says that she was scarcely more
! than a girl when she first recorded the
| history of this young person, and now
after thirty years she finds it very diff
ficult to photograph Gypsy as she
ought to look to-day. She addS-for we
| yield to the temptation to reproduce
| what Mrs. Phelps has to say to her
young friends of Gypsy after so many
years-'I see a lively girl in pretty
short dresses and very long stockings
| quite a tomboy, if l remember rightly.
She paddles raft she climbs a tree,
she skates and tramps and coasts, she
is usually very muddy, and a little
torn. There is apt to be pin in her
gathers; but there is sure to be laugh
in her eyes Wherever there is mischief,
there is Gypsy. Yet, wherever there is
fun, and health, and hope, and happi-
ness-and 1 think, wherever there is
truthfulness and generosity-there is
| Gypsy, too.
And now the publishers tell me that
| Gypsy is 80 years old, and that girls
who were not so much as born when l
knew the little lady, are her readers
! and her friends to-day.
Thirty years old? Indeed, it is more
4
since the publication of her memoirs
| And was she, at that time, possibly 16?
Forty-six years? Incrediblei How in
the world did Gypsy grow up? For
that was before toboggans and tele-
phones, before bicycles and electric
cars, before bangs and puffed sleeves,
before girls studied Greek, and golf
capes came in. Did she go to college?
| For the Annex, and Smith and Welles-
| ley were not. Did she have a career?
Or take a husband? Did she edit a
| quarterly review, or sing a baby to
sleep? Did she write poetry or make
pies? Did she practice medicine or mat
rimony? Who knows? Not even the
author of her being.
only one thing / do know: Gypsy
never grew up to be 'timid, or silly, or
mean, or lazy; but a sensible woman,
true and strong; asking little help of
other people, but giving much; an honor
! to her brave and loving sex, and safe
comrade to the girls who kept step with
! her into middle life; and l trust that |
may bespeak from their daughters and
their scholars a kindly welcome to an
old story, told again"
washington or the Revolution" a
drama by Ethan Allen. 1t is not in
! tended for the stage, though it con-
| u y.
| 1t is full of historical recital, and really
covers the whole story of the American
revolt, the revolutionary struggle and
| the triumph of the rebellious colonies.
| The trouble with it is that the language
employed is quite too stilted and of too
poetic a cast to fit the originals as we
understand the fathers of the nation to
have been. We cannot fancy the rug
ged Putnam speaking in these dramatic
| to,
Greene: LAS clearly as / see this shin
ing hilt he saw the necessity of retreat
when the disastrous day had closed.
Those there were, with SwehIng ignor-
ance, who disdained to yield an inch to
the enemy, and would fight 1t out there
and then" etc. That would sound very
well in the heroics of the melo-
dramatic stage, but Putnam never in
dulged in these. He was a man of
Nor can we for moment think of the
blunt Doctor Franklin speaking thus:
Then, when comes the time to close
it? How much humiliation must we
bear before this superstitious rever-
ence for royalty burned away, man
shall be recognized in his greater capa-
bilities without a master? How much
more evil must this King do? Lives
destroy and towns engulf in flames ?"
Possibly Franklin might have so writ
ten in his young essay days, but he
never spoke in that manner, and we
lose the Franklin of history in such
dramatic utterances as that quoted
But the drama is work of much care,
and seems to be historically accurate
OF the patriotism of the author none
will have the slightest doubt who reads
this oddly interesting book. T. Tenny-
son Neeley, publisher, Chicago.
Albert Pulitzer has given us charm
ing idyl in his two volumes translated
from the French by Mrs. B. NJ. Sher-
man, entitled The Romance of Prince
Eugene" 1t is from the press of Dodd,
Mead & Co, New York, and is very
richly illustrated with photogravure
portraits of the members of the Bona
parte family and others. The volumes
are models of typograp phical excellence,
and constitute dlStinct credit to the
publishers. The author tells us that his
admiration for the romantic side of
Prince Eugene's life impelled him to
prepare this story of one of the tender
est and most devoted of lovers, of ''one
of the most beautiful, best and virtuous
OF wives" 1t was the reading of the
correspondence of Eugene published
some forty years ago by Du Casse that
led Mr.. Pulitzer to undertake the work
of separating from the letters the story
of Eugene and his Wife-PrincesS
Royal of Bavaria-and framing from
the material referred to the romance
now berore US. But the story, which
fills two large Volumes does not all re-
late to the loves of Eugene and his
devoted wife. Entangled in it is
great deal of the adventure of the
Prince in battle, in politics, and in the
capacity of a ruler There is much
L
interviewer with the recital. The au-
thor has been very modest in his COM
ments as he has told the story, and
while warm in his admiral tion for the
character of the Prince, he is not
blinded to the truth at any moment of
the run of the story. 1t is a well COM
piled. modestly framed recital, and
without being of a character to distin-
guish the author, it is much to his
credit. and readers who take pleasure
in French history will thank him cor
daily for this contribution to it in this
form.
"Wilmot's Child" is the title of one of
the most original creations in the way
of fiction that it has been our fortune to
meet with 1t is a short story, told
much as a scenic artist and a stage
carpenter would set a stage for play.
There is the page with the dramatis
personae. the page with the argument
of the story, and the page with the fit
tings of the scenes in which the action
Of the tale runs. Then come the char
acters, all the descriptive work being
out of the way; and they begin without
delay to have their trials and satisfac-
tiaDs These all relate to the married
life of Practical couple, the baby that
CO me in due time, and the trial and joy
it was, and the responsibility when it
grew up But we have no intention of
telling the story even by hint. 1t is too
pleasant a little thing to be spoiled by
description, by no means superior