The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-25

Christmas week Is dlulo9I 1lo
week in the year for the book reviewer |
| All the holiday publications are out
they began appearing before summer
was dead-most of them have been re-
viewed after a fashion, and for a few
weeks, until the book trade revives
from the state Of collapse into which
the holidays have thrown it, the re-
viewer who is generally supposed to
have soft snap, with nothing to do
but read books, will perhaps, be able
to read a little.
Why is it that the people who write
book notices are regarded with envy
by the people who read them?
No one envies the postman his daily
iaunts, or the motorman his opportu-
nifty to ride all day without paying,
But there is a strain of fetish wor-
ship in the popular attitude toward
| books. 1t encompasses those who
make them. A little of it surrounds
! the man who sells them and even en-
/ haloes the grind Of reviewing them,
| Yet, Wher Christmas comes, with its
annual slump in the publishing of new
! books, the reviewer is nothing loath TO
take his halo off and be Ike other un-
! bookly people.
The eagerness for information con-
| corning the recent war with Spain. in
stead of decreasing as the stress of af-
| fairs moderated is steadily growing.
| 1t is as if there had been no neWspa-
/ pers and the public was now hearing
| for the first time about Manila lei
/ Caney, san Juan Hill and Porto Rico,
| IN the countless magazine articles and
/ books.
Our Navy in the War With Spain, "
i by John r. Spears, just published by
! Charles Scribner's Sons, is the kind
IF book the public wants to read. 1t
! begins at A and ends at Z and puts
| in everything between.
Beginning with the story of the
Spanish occupation of Cuba and the
/ attest rebellion of the Cubans Mr..
| spears traces in a quick, graphic way
the course of events through the
! Weyler regime in Cuba, with the de
struction of the Maine, the diplomatic
| preliminaries of war, the battle of
Manila bay, the maneuvres of Ce1ve-
"a Ieet and the land operations in
he province of Santiago which were
Drought to triumphant conclusion
| Dy the destruction of Cerveras fleet.
one who has only read the story in the
detached press reports can form no
conception Of the absorbing, dramatic
value of the incidents when arranged
IN their proper sequence and relation.
The author tells his story for the
most part in a straightforward, simple
way; once in while there is a shout.
/ but there are episodes and men over
ing. '7''''
The author has drawn freely upon
newspaper and magazine artists. the
Lacts OF which he has taken pains to
NerlIy. he pays a hearty tribute to
the truthfulness and good Intentions
Oh the newspaper correspondent. as
seen IN cuba and Cuban waters. An
lhdeX OF authorities would have en-
hanced the value of the work, which is.
Notwithstanding, a capital handbook
ana most entertaining story of the
navy IN the HispanO- American war.
(Charles Scribner's Sons)
SIX months ago it would have been
SAFE TO say that the name of II. Phelps
w hltmarsh was better known in Eng
and than on this side of the Atlantic.
put things have changed with the APP
}edfdnce OF The Worlds Rough
Hand, which is quite the best s5ory
u adventure pure and simple that the
year has seen.
II Is plain, unvarnished narrative
OF the experiences of the author who
although the son of an English clergy
man. had in him the spirit of adven-
cure so strong, that instead of following
ne tame pursuits of the land. he shipp-
ed peiore the mast After five years of
sallorlng, he tired Of the life. and deter
mined to seek a fortune in Australia.
II IS at this point that the story begins.
Reaching Port Adelaide, he becomes in
RAPID succession a tramp-'s undoWn-
en- IS The picturesque name for it there
"a silver miner, sheep herder a la
oorer beach comber, "a barber a clerk
ana pearl diver. Incident follows in
eldent with breathless rapidity. Ev-
aryWhere are dramatic movements. Wv
d writing, strange situations, vet all is
-old with sincerity and simplicity. 9TH
arWise the reader would be inclined to
say that there was TOO much of a good
thlng. There never was a gayer, more
buoyant adVenturer than Mr.. Whit
marsh, in whom the habit of cheerful
ness seems to have been more deeply
ngrained than the Thirty-Nine Arti-
les even, 1t was only when. after los
ing two small fortunes and enduring
nearly every hardship and reverse that
ife yielded in Australia, he received an
affectionate letter from home, saying
now much he was loved and missed,
that he broke down, and burying his
head in his arms, cried like a home
sick boy Then he returned to Eng
and, without the fortune he had gone
to seek, but with life and youth, and a
little money in the bank.
Mr. Whitmarshs book has been com
pared with Two Years Before the
Mast" Making allowance for the diff
ference in time, and the fact that much
Of The Worlds Rough Hand" takes
place on land, The comparison is fair
The Englishman's boook is not infer
Tor to the Americans in healthy eX-
element, in picturesqueness or IN
fresh, outdoor, robust, manly romance.
THE Century Company
CHM & Co, have recently made a
number of strong additions to their
valuable AthenaeUm Press series
Among them is Memoirs of the Life
and Writings of Edward Gibbon," ed
tied, with a lengthy introduction and
cOpious notes, by Oliver f. Emerson.
professor OF rhetoric and English phil
ology in Western Reserve University.
Dryden's paraphrase of Chaucer's
Knights Tale" which he made for
the Duchess Of Ormond and called
'Palamon and Arctic has been edited
by George E. Eliot, English master in
the Morgan school, Boston. Walter C.
Bronson, professor of English litera-
ture in Brown university, has done the
same service by the poems of William
Collins. The notes, introduction and
appendix occupy a good portion of the
book. The Last of the Mohicans" is
made the subject of a portly volume
by John b. Dunbar of the boys high
school Brooklyn. AT first sight it does
not appear that Cooper's classic stands
in need of annexation, and one can but
heave sigh at the thought Of this in
nocent instrument of pleasure trans
formed into an engine of education. In
this connection special praise should
be given Mary HartWen Catherwood's
Heroes of then Middle West: the
French" which is an ideal textbook
on the picturesque history of tbe
French discovery and occupation of the
middle west. from Marnmetta AMI LII