The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-05
HISTORY AND ROMANO E.
New Books BY Mr.. Davis, De St. Armand,
and Miss Murfree.

paigns, by Richard Harding Davis. II
Illustrated. Charles Scribner's Sons. Flo
sale by Putnam, Davis & Co.
1.-The Court of the Second Empire" b
Imbert de Saint Armand Charlie
scribner's Sons. For sale by Putnam
Davis & Co.
"The Story of Old Fort London, b,
Charles Egbert Craddock. Illustrate
by Ernest C. Peixotto. Macmillan
company.
: Mr.. Davis books are always hard cl
the reviewers. They are so charming
SO easy and gallant and buoyant, an,
they thrill and fascinate so that the re
viewer forgets he is a reviewer, an,
Keeps looking at the pictures, and brow
slrg here and there, and reading ON ant
on, entirely forgetful that he is a re
viewer, and that on that account he ha
no business to be carried off his fee
by mere human delight in the book h
is reading. THE Cuban and Porto Ric
an Campaigns" is one of the worst o
MI Davis books in this respect.
The articles on the war with Spaii
winch Mr.. Davis contributed to Serb
ner magazine form the basis of thi
book, which gives a complete histor!
OF the conflict in Cuba and Porto Rico
Nelued into continuous narrative tn,
story gains in impressiveness.
Al the same time justice must be done
70 MI. Davis power, not only to render
the color of the war as he saw it. but
70 present a satisfactory history Of it
ME- Davis began his war experience al
Tampa during THE rocking chair pc.
/ flod before war was declared. He
was with the blockading squadron off
the cuban coast, and on board the flag
SNIP at the bombardment of Matanzas
ne went with the army to Santiago
was az El Caney, San Juan and the
rest, then crossed to Puerto Rico.
what Mr. Davis has given us is in
the nrst place a wonderfully sharp.
VIVID, living description of people and
events ana scenes; and in the second
pace, skilful and acute Interpretation
ana summing UP of things. Whoever
longs 70 feel the war; to have it flashed
upon his inward eye; whoever enjoys
the color and stir of battle. the com
panionship of the brave, the dash and
breeze of adventures nobly undertaken
and calamity performed, will get what
he wants from Mr.. Davis.
Whlle sundry persons have arisen to
cast stones at Mr.. Davis severe cen
sure OF Gen. Shafter and of the blund-
ers and botohworl5 that attended our
movements ut San Juan and Eel Caney.
they have never succeeded in fraetur-
ing them, and they stand in the bound
edition as originally printed For the
men he has only praise. What was
lost through the ignorance or weakness
of few of the officers was atoned for
by the splendid bravery and self-re-
lance of the troops. The Cuban SOL
diers come in naturally for satire. Mr..
Davis Ialt1xr
much as the other Americans who Went
to Cuba fired with compassion for the
patriots and instead encountered a
crew of scalliwags. Col. Roosevelt and
the Rough Riders receive their share
of attention, and it is doubtful if the
governor of New York will make bet
ter story of the fight on San Juan hill
when he gets to it than Mr.. Davis has
done.
In speaking of the Porto Rican cam
paign, Mr.. Davis says that the reason
why more is not known in the United
States concerning it is because the
majority of newspaper correspondents
were detained by illness in Cuba, and
that while there were more than 100 Of
them in Cuba, In Porto Rico there We're
never at any time more than Is. More
over, the Porto Rican campaign was
regarded at home as a military picnic,
and as a fact, Mr.. Davis grants it was
a picnic, because the commanding gem
erals would not permit the enemy to
make it otherwise"
The force of the book is strengthened
by the presence of III Illustrations,
many of them from photographs taken
by Mr.. Davis and Others which did not
appear in the magazine series.
"The Cuban and Porto Rican Cam
paigns" has already proved one of the
most popular works that have appeared
on the war with Spain.
M. De Saint ,Imand's writings unfail-
ingly make pleasant reading. He has
the art of the literary raconteur and
is never more at his ease than when
gosslping in the pleasant, leisurely
elegant manner of the present volume,
the third in his series upon the last
Napoleon In it he deals with those
brilliant years of 1S56-5S, when Napo-
leon was at the zenith of his fame, the
father of a prince imperial the hus-
band of a beautiful and ambitious
lady the master of a proud nation and
the arbiter, as he flattered himself, of
The historian throws light up
on the many author people by whom Ma
poleon and Eugene surrounded them
selves and upon the splendors and the
weaknesses of the doomed court This
may not be history, but Uncertainty
seems as an important and delightful
adjunct to it.
In the series which has already in
cluded Miss Kings Land of De Soto"
and Miss Repplier's Philadelphia,
Miss Murfrees THE Story of Old Fort
has just been published, prom
sing in some respects the most satisfy
ing of the three. 1t is literally a
story told as a continuous narrative
from the point of the personal expert
ences of those who were intimately con-
cerned in the prosperity of the fort, |
while it stood, a bulWark of British
civilization upon the south bank of the |
Tennessee river. and when it capitu
ated to the Cherokees, either suffered !
massacre at the hands of the treach-
arous savages, or else escaped to the |
5uccor of Fort Prince George. None of
Miss Murfree's fiction SURPRISES in pic |
or captivating art or in |
.ensity of interest this romance of Eng
sh, Indian and French.
Opening in 1858, when the war for SUI |
)remacy on the North American conti- I
lent was still in progress between I
France and Great Britain. it carries us
back to the day when, like strings to 1
I bow the cordons of their forts |
stretched around the colonies and |
nothing short of a miracle seemed able |
10 prevent the ultimate triumph of the |
French. In the miracle that was
worked, by which what is now the
rnited States received the English |
stamp in language. religion, laws, sure
y the faithful souls that carried Eng
fish principles into the wilderness and
here maintained for while, at least
aw and order, deserve no niggardly |
praise. That they capitulated at all |
vas due to the absurd withdrawal with
lis troops of Col. Montgomery, who |
having operated aggressively against
he Cherokees and then made over
ures for peace, left that part of the
.OuntIY for good. newer having oven 1