The times., 1898-12-18

lar interest for the inhabitants of any
town described in 1t. The reader outside
New England will conclude. and rightly.
that every inch of Massachusetts soil
has It's history, and that the other States
of the far northeast arefn not far behind.
Not the least interesting feature OF the
volume are the illusEatitns. The work is
the subjects selected for the numerous
pictures are well chesen:e (New York: G..
P. Putnam's Sons. as04
some Sd fsrm..
1t is very mystertbnA the apparent
tendency which many poets of the pres
ent day have to copy kipling. Since the
appearance of THE Seven Seas half a
dozen books by writer's OF considerable
talent have appeared. containing sea-po-
ems and war-poems with something of
the peculiar lit and swing of the Bar
rack-room Ballads and the Song of the
English Yet some of these poems must
have been written before Kipling appear
ed on the horizon, and one can only con-
clude that in some cases at least the
lesser poets were moved by the same in
spiration which moved the Anglo-Indian
tribal singer. and that this inspiration
produced somewhat the same results.
| The latest example of this sort of thing
| is Songs Of Good Fighting, by Eugene
| r. White Some of the ballads in thu;
book are really very good, and especially
notable for the musical and rhythmical
perfection of their lines. There is n devil
may-care recklessness about some OF
/, them, too, which is refreshing to those
| suffering from decadence. But-and this
is large but-why does not the author
avoid writing in O. meter which is. for the
present. as good as copyrighted? Here.
| for instance. is tribute TO those fighting
| men, hard drinkers, hard swearers and no
| friends to the church, who have never
| theless done the world good service. 1t is
a fine tribute, but the phrases are remiriis-
cent:
| II justice need or Christian creed has pulled
heavens latchkey in,
| There's Woden's Hall viii hold you all who died
l. in the Good Fights, din.
You are far and away too great to stay with the
gentle, pioHs folk,
| Who boarded Life with nggard soul and
| cringed before the Stroke.
| Now, that is good stanza, and ex-
presses a feeling which has been appar-
| ent everywhere since the war with Spain
began. We have had curious phenome-
| non in our national life-the outcroppins
of the old Saxon and Celt, the pagan
| fighter and adventurer. from under his
| robe of borrowed Greek and Jewish re-
| ligion and borrowed Greek, Roman and
| French civilization. Despite anything
| that can be said about the beauty of non
| resistance, the nature OF the Saxon is to
| fight, and fight he will so long as he ex-
! lists as a Saxon on the earth; and he viii
| as stanchly believe that if there is nc
! heaven for fighters there Is at least some
| sort of limbo where they can fight on and
| feast on, untroubled by the churchs idea
| of heaven or he'll. II may be said tina,
| this is a heather idea. but after all, If We
| as a nation are TO have any form of re-
/ ligion 1t must be one which we ourselves
evolve from our own experience. Ii can
not be put on from tiie7optslde of US. Mr.
| Whites sea is a traIe one but he has
used a meter which reminds one of Tom.
| linson." ~
| Some of these songs are put into the
mouths of buccaneers, ~and some ars
simply sailor-ballads, bpt they are al
sea-chanteys. and most Of them wei
| written. The book is an earnest of good
work in the future. for il Mr.. White car
write poems as strong as these he il
our literature. AT present. however, tn,
| meters he has used are of no use to him
one might as well try TO impress tn
| public with love ballads written il
| Swinburne's pet stanZa, or folklore il
the dialect of Uncle Remus." or a sec
ond ''Thanatopsis," as with sea song
| written in the style of 1.-THE Last Chant
ey." Boston: Lamson, Wolfe & Co. 81.