The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-10
BOOKS OF THE TIME.
William sloane I1ennedy's Charming
Descriptive Work.

Descriptive Work.
Observers OF American literature must
have noticed in recent years an increasing
number of books expressive Of interest in
and study of nature. This appears IA books
about animals. birds. plants, vines and
their habits and peculiarities. about their
growth and their characteristics-in short,
about nat,7re in all her forms ard phases.
This increasing tendency may be partly q
result Of advancing civilization and in
creasing leisure. Love oe nature seems to
be civilized cult. The savage does not
love nature, neither Goes the civilized man
while he is wrestling with il for supremacy.
1t is one thing to subdue nature and quite
another to love ii. The after comes after
the former. After we have subjugated ma
ture we begin. in time, to cultivate, adj
mre and adore her. We do not make love
to her until we have conquered her Per-
haps this has something to do with the re-
cent growth of American literature about
nature Anyhow. there has been a notice.
able increase in the number of books in
dicative of close study and keen appre-
citation of nature in all her outdoor forms
and moods. A volume entitled I'm Portals
Gardens is one of them. If Mr.. William
Sloane Kennedy has ever published any
thing except "In Portals Gardens" it is
not recalled but this work alone stamps
him as an ardent lover and close student of
nature and a charming descriptive writer.
Portals Gardens is the term applied TO a
bit of country near the Massachusetts coast
few miles from Boston, which. from the
authors description. must be very beautiful
ard prolific of interesting animal life. 1T
must also have been very attractive to
some interesting people. for the author
says: 'Longfellow once said that If he were
Kaiser he would build a hurting box here.
Without being a Kaiser and kaiserin, or
desiring to be, we have built hunting box,
and the game we hunt is not foxes or hares,
but ideas, character and joy. On an old
fashioned terrace estate adjoining SOUTH
ward once lived a famous painter, and in its
roomy, high-ceiled house painted his mel
low-toned pictures; on our eastern border
a Scottish artist has established his lares
and penates and set up his easel; on the
crag above in another direction was writ
ten part of the digest of the decisions or
the Supreme Court of the United States.
and 'endelong' the ridge TO the north. the
other side of two meadows, lived and wrote
delineator of New England life, who tried
in vain to remain dilettante, but ended
by drifting into the moral heroic, the arena
of manly ethics. The grounds and bosks
around are filed with birds. with an occa-
sional visit from the -poor-wills, quails.
moonlight the eldrich whinnying laugh
ter of the pretty little gray screen OWL is
heard. The yellow-hammer often wakes
us with a reveille on the shingles. The red
squirrels. woodchucks, chipmunks, mice.
seem to think the place belongs to them"
In such a spot and amid such environ
ments lover of still life and student or
nature ought to find abundant material for
meditation, study and description. These
are the characteristics of In Portals Car
dens," and they appear in almost every
page. To wide study of books concern
ing nature by other writers the author
seems to have added close and enthusiastic
| research on his own part ard to nave
drawn a great store of knowledge from
original sources. 1t would be impossible in
limited space to give a proper conception
of the scope and variety of the informa-
ton and reflections thus conveyed. The
chapters are somewhat discurslve, put al
ways interesting. AS another sample of the
authors style the following about trees IS
quoted "a tree is a rooted animal, thrust
ing it's legs deep into the soil and drawing
its nourishment from the air and soil both.
ard shutting in the air and Thousand
mouths in it's feet You cannot amputate
or bruise any part of the delicate organism
without injury to the whole What is need
ed in transplanting a tree is patience, and
again patience. Properly. orly middle
aged man can plant t'0e He alone, as a
general thing, can have acquired the re-
straining touch and the loving care requl-
| site to success" One who can talk about
| trees in this friendly and sympathetic man
ner must be a lover of nature In all us
forms Such evidently. is the author or
I'm Portals Gardens" as appears through
out the work. 1t does not appear that
he has made any new discoveries or added
much to the science of any of the ''oiogles.
but he has told many old Things over
again in a very delightful way ana put
MANY of them in new settings. Lovers or
animals, birds, trees. plants, OF tnlllgs
growing flying creeping burrowing. climb
ing or crawling will lay the book down
with regret. Some excellent illustrations
contribute to the interest of the text. the
hook is published in attractive style by
Bradlee Whidden, Bosom.