The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-30


your friendship, since it is impossible
: l can cease to be, with the truest VEN
GRAFTON and esteem, madam, your most
humble and most obedient servant, Pat.
Delany."
"Our Conversational Circle, by Agnes
II. Morton. With an introduction by
Hamilton w. Mabie. The Century
1 Company.
That conservation, though fallen into
decadence. is yet not a lost art but
that, with patience and training, it is
possible to reconstruct and rehabilitate
it in something of its ancient charm
and potency is the thought underlying
this clever, wise, readable little book
! Speech may be silver and silence gold
en-, but there are certain situations in
/ life where it is not only essential to
/ talk, but, what is often more difficult
| to oblige others to talk also. Some
people profess to deSpise good takers,
and speak slurringly of the gift O
CAB as il its possession branded one
as hypocrite and liar, and "a super
| fetal. vain person; yet, in nine cases
out of ten the master of the conserva-
ton is the master of the situation. 1t
is the people who can talk that get
their candidates elected, their resolu-
| tons adopted: no concerted action,
whether for work or pleasure, but is of
necessity arranged by talk, whether it
is carried on by the same method or
not
| Miss, Morton shows clearly and
cogently the pitfalls to be avoided and
the ideals to be attained in conserva-
| ton, and by a series of ingenious geo
metrical diagrams, illustrates the diff
ferent ways by which conversation is
carried on. The ideal conversation is
{ rot in Il oI1 a nj of
and in which, while none is conspicu-
Gus, all participate sympathetically
sustaining the dual character of talker
and listener. The final sentence of the
book is suggestive: 1t is significant
fact that the most enlightened nations.
\ in the settlement of differences, are
learning to avoid war by timely arbi-
tration; and what is arbitration but a
colossal conversation"
1.-The Gospel For An Age of Doubt"
! by Henry Van Dyke. Sixth edition re-
1 vised with a new preface. The Mac
milan company.
| Few men today are better prepared
than DR.. Van Dyke to address the
great audience of men and women who
are interested in the vital problems of
faith. While he stands by the faith of
!
or bigoted sense, and while he keeps
abreast of the most advanced thought
of the day, he is never led away into
I the sensational or the superficial OF
! the meretricious. His profession has
not sealed his eyes to the world of men
and women and books about him, nor
| has his allegiance to his orthodox
creed cut him off from participating in
| the new hopes and fears, the expert
! m IF o.
ments and ideals.
! The eight lectures which comprise
the book under discussion were first
addressed to the divinity students at
Yale university in 1896. but they have
since undergone changes to fit them
for the WIDER more heterogeneous cir
Gle they were intended to reach-''the
men and women whose minds are con-
fused and troubled by modern specu-
| lations, who are oppressed by the in
| tellectual difficulties of belief, who feel
the benumbing influence of the secular
spirit, and who stand sadly in doubt
in regard to the reality of the whole
spiritual life"
To Dr. Van Dyke it seems that the
only way out of this confusion and
paralysis of doubt lies in a personal
view of the gospel of Jesus What the
age needs is "a clear answer to its
doubt. a powerful remedy for its sad
ness" Both this answer and this rem
edy are found for him in the person Of
Jesus Christ. He accepts without re-
serve or qualification the perfect HUI
manity of Christ, yet he believes as
! absolutely in the divinity of Christ He
has himself defined the purpose of this
book as an endeavor to prove that
Christ is in person and that he is God
manifest in the flesh.
But it is more than this. 1t is an
attempt to lead men to purer, stronger,
happier, more beautiful lives. 1t de-
serves to rank among the most able
contributions of its kind to the thought
full literature of the end of the CEN
fury.
"stories of the Cherokee Hills" by
Maurice Thompson illustrated. Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co.
God Almighty air 'sponsible fer the
black on er niger an fer the white on
er white man. Hit amt no disgrace
fer er niger ter be err niger ner fer
er white man ter be white man, Hit
air Wen er niger tries ter be white,
an er white man wrassles ter be er
Niger, at the disgrace comes in
These words are the opinion of Dunk
Roe, but they might be taken as the
keynote of these six stories which re-
! printed from the pages of the Century
and Harper's, and brought together
under the same cover. with a preface
like essay of personal "reminiscences,
form an Interesting addition to the lit
erature of the south as reflected in the
| writings of Joel Chandler Harris, Sid
ney Baner. Thomas Nelson Page
Richard Malcolm johnson and Miss
Murfree.
The purpose of these stories is to
| show the curious effects wrought by
ell ,xff
fliterate stubborn, independent nouns
taineers of Georgia, especially as seen
in the days of. emancipation and recon-
| struction. AS slavery in the mountains
| was very little like slavery IN the
plains, so the echoes of war and Of
peace that reached those isolated folk
were unlike the stern and perplexing
realities as they touched the great
mass of northerners and southernerS.
1t was months before the news Of Lin
coins proclamation penetrated the
| Georgia mountains; some people never
heard of it at all; others continued to
hold their slaves in spite of it. The per-
pleXities and confusion that followed
the war were in Mr.. Thompson's opin-
ion, like all the race problems which
have since followed due to the benev-
client but mistaken endeayor to reverse
the order of nature, which has made
the colored and the white races what
they are. He resents the attempt 'to
cram the negro forcibly into the cars,
the theatres. the schools and the
churches built, owned and operated by
white southerners for the use of white
southernersn and in the most power
full story in the collection he sets forth
the sad fate of a white man who felt
called upon to do missionary work with
the purpose of rearrangng things on
the color line. He thinks that white
and black are settling the difficult de-
tails of their new relations better than