The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1900-07-03

coast north to the Russian. side of Beering
Sea and his numerous short voyages
since.
There was an under world in the Uni
ted States which Mr.. London longed to
explore, and by the time he was eighteen
he had become possessed of an interest
in sociology and economies. SWayed partly
by this and partly by the fascination of
the enterprise, he stepped down and out
Of the world, and was swallowed UP in
that strange region known as 1.-The road"
He took this step thoroughly, living eX-
actly as other trampS lived, and the
long months he spent on the road bred
in him a lifelong interest in the institu-
tons of men from both an economic and
an ethical standpoint.
After this tramping expedition Mr.. Lon
don returned to Oakland and applied
himself to study. He had previously
graduated from the Grammar School,. and
had read omnivorouslv. He now attend
cd the High School for a year, stayed at
home, and, without coaching, crammed
the next two years into three months,
took the entrance examinations, and en-
tered the University of California at.
Berkeley. He was forced, much against
his Will. to give this UP just prior to the
completion of his Freshman year.
More work followed, and then Mr.. Lon
don went to the Klondike in the fall rush
of 1887. He had a great variety of eX-
pericnces there, but upon the death of
his father he returned home. He mar
ried, recently, a Miss Maddern, who lived
on the Pacific Coast, and he and his
wife now make their home in Oakland,
California.
As to Mr.. London's literary work, his
G--+ - -
January, 1899, in the "Overland Monthly"
and is now the sixth story in "The Son of
the Wolf" Since then he has done work
for a large number of the best magazines
and papers, besides a host of lesser pub
lications, newspapers, and syndicates.
His early reading bred in him the de-
sire to write, his varied experience have
given him the material, and he is still
studying, SO that many critics regard him
as sure to make q prominent name for
himself in the world of literature.
"AN AMERICAN COMMONER, OR THE
LIFE AND TIMES OF RICHARD
PARKS BLAND' is the title of 4 five
hundred page volume which will be is
sued July 1, by E. W.. stephens, Pub
Usher, Columbia, Missouri.
The Introduction is by William Jennings
Bryan. The author is William Vincent
Byars, the wel-known journalist. The
book is to be not merely a biography, but
a history of the political period in which
Mr.. Bland was a conspicuous figure. The
coinage and tariff legislation from 1878,
when Mr.. Bland entered Congress, until
his death in 1899. is discussed at consid-
cradle length, and many public men and
important events figure in it's pages. The
trust question is deliberately treated from
the viewpoint of the author, who is q
writer of vigorous and picturesque Eng
lish, and who claims the work to be "a
study of the times and Of the meaning
of twenty-five years of American history
nc more a partisan book than is Ben
tons Thirty Years." He also adds: 1T
will be a study, not q diatribc; an anal
ySiS, not q campaign document; a search
ing inquiry into the great forces of Amer
lean progress and reaction, not a mere
eulogy. 1t will give BANDS great
speeches and a complete history of coin
age legislation since 1873 in his own
words. 1t will be based on an impartial
study of material contributed by leading
public men of both parties, and on a
searching Investigation of the whole
movement of the last quarter of the cen
fury. Sses n
1T will be the aim of the editor and
publisher to make a work of permanent
value, which will be read and consulted
not~only by this generations, but studied
also in the last quarter Of tho twentieth
century by all who wish to understand
our times.
1T will deal with the effect of the Civil
Wal in America, as is extended from Mr..
BANDS district to the Bank of England
and the palace of the Queen. It will in
Ve3tigatc Missouri history. Southern his
tory, Western history. Eastern history
and American history as part of the his