The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-28

How Mr.. Lummds does hate the tour
list! He hates him almost as much as
ne loves the tramp-that is to say, the
Tramp Royal. the man who tries each
one Of
THE app, roads that take you Ger the
world
with zest and intelligence and pa
thence and sympathy and kindred quail
tiles; the man who, with heart and
brain, persists in moving on, "observ-
in matters till he dies"
Ih1s Is all very well, of course, but
we can not all Of us belong to the
family Of the Tramp Royal, and many
OF us who are akin to him in blood and
know the fellowfeeling for
his mate-the wind that tramps the
world
are obliged none the less to do our
sightseeing with haste, gulping down
greedily the delicate lingering favors
OF new lands and civilizations fresh to
US OF course, viewing any country
from a car window is about as ex-
haustive as it would be to do the Lou
Vre on roller skates, but even this may
be more stimulating thing than not
to go through the Louvre at all.
To return to Mr. Lum1nis, he opens
his new book on Mexico by saying:
If rather particular friend of
mine shall ever come to be car, his
first concern will be to issue these
edicts:
81. A course of travel shall be COM
pulsory for all able4bodied adult citi-
zens.
So No traveller shall print anything
about any country whose language he
cannot speak"
This ukase would cut the twin tap
roots Of Ignorance" as he suggests,
but, if it were enforced, there would
no longer be employment for any able
bodied adult citizen in writing books
about little-known corners of the world,
and so we should miss the fresh, preju-
diced, peppery, enthusiastic and accu-
rate tales of Mr.. Lummis. and sorry
we should be to lose them.
His new book about Mexico is de-
lightful reading, for, unlike many
writer's of descriptive travels. he does
not strain his work through sieve
which let's the wheat run waste and
| Of mixing ideas with his descriptions,
and, indeed is not satisfied to say that
these things be so without finding out
Why they are SO.
Modern Mexico, the growth Of the
last generation, is a new country and a
progressive one. 1t Is the deliberate
creation Of one man-its president,
DldI. IL WOulQ seem InaI
DiaZ is able to make water run up
hill He can modernize and civilize
nation almost against its own will.
His government is logical paternahsm
"a scheme fightfully dangerous I'M
der a bad father, incidentally bene-
| fetal under good one"
1t remains, of course, to be seen
! whether, VIXEN the strong guiding hand
is removed, the country can go forward
of itself. President Diaz thinks it can.
He believes hts people have learned to
love peace, progress, enterprise. Mr..
Lummis is sure they have-but Mr..
Lummis is temperamentally a parti-
san, and Is inclined to believe that the
thing he is for the moment interested
| in is the finest thing in the world
| Time alone can show whether Mexico
| is to present to the nations the specta-
| Gle of the first stable and upright Latin
republic. The question is one Of great
est interest to the United States just
now, for what has been done in Mex
leo may possibly be done in Cuba
But, whatever becomes Of Mexico,
''The Awakening Of a Nation" is a
book worth reading. 1t tells an eX-
traordinary and littleknown story Of
wonderful achievement, and furnishes
a vivid and absorbing study of the
man who has done the work. The book
is real. and it is romantic The reader
who once takes it up is not likely to
put it down unfinished. for. after all,
there is no romance like that Of real
ity. Providence can tell even better
stories than Anthony Hope and the
only R. H. Davis.
.'The Awakening of Nation" by Charles
F. Lummis. Harper G. Bros; $3.50. For
sale by the st. Paul Book and Stationery