The morning times., 1896-05-17

A DISCOVERER is entitled To as much
N credit as the inventor. While some
story writers have winged their
imaglnatiOns to flights among fields
Of 1anCy's creation, the geography
of American literature presented promising
territory, rich in romantic color ANA at
traCtivcly indefinite in receding forget
fulnesS. There have strangely been few
explorers in colonial Virginia. Fewer
even who have revealed clearly the primi-
tive arsIOcracy Of the iirSt years OF tie
fine OldmanoTS. The ever wIdenin z Potomac
as il flows away among Virginia estates
iS the highway to TCmantiCiStS' El Dorado.
The PuritanS were the apostles of the
negative virtues. They fhsted. they We're
temperate, they despiSed wealth, they re
jected pOmp. The Virginans were the
apostles Of the positive virtues. They were
brave; they loved: they defended their women
with their strong arm. The PuTitans
civilized through economic principles: the
VirglEians through the aesthetic. Every
mauOr-hOuSe is the repository of vertu
as well as virtue. TIE civilization on the
James and the Potomac is the most inter
esting, the most picturesque OF any section
OF the country, Now, at last, an explorer
has come. Naturally, at the end of this
century. she is woman. She comes
equipped with taste, sympathy ,assimilative
faculties and real literary charm. She
saw the picturesque possibilities
who but Yankee should recognize
in her the explorer who has opened the land
productive? She is Maud Wilder Goodwin
and her publishers are Little. Brown &
Co. They are both serving their readers
well in serving themselves. Mrs. Goodwin
first wrote The Colonial Cavalier" 1t
was a delightful ske trh Of the early Nir-
ginian a home, Courting, al his church,
among his man SeTvantS and maid servants.
III.
Of his intimate life Then she wrote two
romanceS OF Virginia. The latest seems
TO possess the greater merit II is quantity
called White Aprons and suggests in
its tile the sweetness and truth of her
narrative II is divided between the new
Dominion and the court OF Charles II and
is founded upon an historical in eide mt of
Bacon'> rebellion buckingham Dryden and
SamuciPepys are introduced in the English
scene, bur the reader EObnobs with GOV
Berkeley and ancestors OF talf the people
you know today down the river Mrs
Good win reaches the heart Her uar-
rative is of the peculiarly simple ST Ylc OF
the period OF spinning wheels and spinetS
and half au hour in association with her
people give as intimate Il knowledge of
their days As weeks over dry history This
woman combines the creative capacity With
her fortune in discovery
HE EX-LihriS Society OF Washington is
preparing tn publish quarterly to be
called EX-Libris. This is an ambi-
tious undertaking, as cummendable as
it is perilous. The measure Of merit
in any educational or aesthetic undertaking
is usually in the inverse ratio of its popular
circumference. In the nature of things it
will appeal to a limited public. but, for all
that, the artistic and literary value OF
the new publication will not be impaired.
The first number will be issued about July
!. II viii be an octave of a bout fifty pa ges
For this the subscription will be 81 so
the year. The first number Will contain,
among other interesting matter Illustrated
articles on twa heretofore unpublished
American eX-libris, those OF Samuel Chase
and Gen. Washington Johnston. Is often
as practicable an impression from an origx-
nal plate will be given as a frontispiece.
For such pretentous publication the
projectors viii look for support from the
scholarly inclined throughout the world.
but it is to be hoped that pride in so adj
mirable, artistic and unique an enterprise
Will not remain unappreciate1 at home.