New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-29

JOURNEYS ~ TALL Ry ThiS9phM it Sa tEe
octave. pp. S65 Brentanos.
VIENNA AND THE vIENNEsE. By Maria H or
nor Lansdale. Illustrated Octave PIP. W. 4SV.
Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co.
JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE. By Anna c. d aarts-
horne !iigstra TED IN i%0 v044 enT Coates
e CO Z. S''' w. 81 ''''7osi'iA f-S'' = >''
JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. By. Alice Ma
Inusf~ations bv Keishu Takenouchi. Octave, pp.
xiv, 337. Houghton. Miftiin Co.
The Christmas book is never more well
come than when it appears in the shape Of some
good work of travel. convenient in form and
adequately illustrated. Just two years ago the
Italian Cities" of Mr.. and Mrs. Blashfeld ap-
peared in two small volumes We enjoyed the
work then. but we find it even more attractive
now, with its handsome paper. its generous mar
gins and its interesting illustrations, the last
named all specially selected for this edition and
reproduced in good full page half tones. The
authors know their Italy well, and write OF II
with affection. Interested they are in the
artistic riches of the country they neverthe-
less have the keenest sympathy for what we
may call its purely human side, and their pages
have therefore. q vitality much greater than
that which the mere amateur OF painting and
sculpture is apt TO communicate to his work
Thus in writing of Ravenna or Siena, Parma
or Perugia, Spoleto or Mantua, they manage.
while keeping the artistic motive always in the
foreground, TO envelop their famous men in
thoroughly Italian atmosphere. Witness the
following passage from the chapter on Spoleto'
which the travellers visited for Fra Lippo's
sake" but which serves them also as an excuse
for celebrating once more the enchantment of
that scenery on which some of the most inter
esting of Italian hill cities look down:
Perhaps of all the beauty of the most lovely Of
hN-fo fc moi he Il
est the most moving. Not the rotous color OF
Naples with its bay; not even the opalescence
Of the Venetian lagoons can surpass the nlgh
serenity Of the mountain forms that lift into
a clearer atmosphere a landscape thicky set
with Umbrian and Tuscan hill towns; the Etrus-
city OF Perugia, holy Asslssl upon It's noun
tain. Trevi piled VOlcanolike in suniit pyramid
with bright volume of cloud for a smoke wreath
behind its pinnacle and Orvieto rising sheer and
circling its precipices like cOronet with Mai
tanTs church for central jewel 1t is more
beautiful than anything that one can say or
even carry away in the mind. A glory Is upon
the whole land. upon its laden vines and rocks
and olive orchards: its gentle. long horned Whlte
oxen; its handsome, kindly people, telling with
proprietary pride of their towns. motto an
tiche"; OF their masters; our Peruglno mere,
s'our Pinturicchio'' there. our Luca, our Gen
tie: VIM nostranl-' these With rlch tang OF
the soil Night after night we saw from our
windows, in rank behind rank pure lines OF
mountain forms not terrible or serrated like the
Alps but calm and billowing; saw the vast
tract Of country where Tuscany ana Umor1a
run together and where the two streamlets, ris-
as the world, hurry north and south toward
Florence and Rome. History lay strata deep
before US. Flamnus climbed here; Hannibal
hid there in the mist: condottieri marched over
mountains tufted by Peruginos trees; Carl
baldians trooped 70 the reconquest of Etruria
hills filed with the arms and bones or
Lucumos that rusted and moUldered before ever
Rome republican. In rich and changing
country impressions crowded upon the mind and
brain until they could hold more; now we
looked upon the undecipherable records of an
almost forgotten people: again upon Perugia's
lowed in the footsteps Of ST. Francis or de-
scended into Etruscan tombs. or traced the Won
derings Of the painters
The illustrations in these volumes have been
chosen with peculiar discretion. Most Of them
are from subjects not generally familiar. It is a
pleasure to escape the usual hackneyed pict-
ures and buildings
The volume Of Italian travel notes by Gautier.
Of which Mr. Vermiye gives US a somewhat in
elastic but toerable translation, might better
have been entitled simply Venice" Il is true
that the earlier pages give US glirnpses Of Milan
and Verona. that at the end Of the book there
are chapters on Padua. Ferrara and Florence,
but the bulk Of these impressions reflect the
famous Frenchman's delight in the incompar-
able city the Adriatic. To leave it. he COM
plains cuts like knife" and the pages he
wrote in Its praise are among the most enthusi-
astic that ever came from that eager pen. Curl
ously, they not. the other hand. among
the most eloquent. Sometimes his prose takes
q rather lyrical turn and especially in dealing
with the paintings Of certain Of the Venetians
does ne suggest the true Gautier. the passion
ate lover of beauty. He is delightful over his
discovery Of the Bellini and Carpaccio. He
could hardly help stopping people in the street
90 tell them OF his JOY. But. for the most part,
he gives his reader the conventional notes Of the
tourist setting off description Of things seen
with historical anecdote in the very style Of
Mt Augustus J. c. Hare. The beautiful sketch
Of the mosaics of ST. Marks. observed under ro-
mantle effects of lighting, which occurs at page
121. is embedded IN a vast amount OF mere
guidebook talk. Nevertheless. this is a highly
interesting volume; it gives clear idea Of how
the changeIess panorama of Italy appealed to a
man Of notable gifts and it is not without some
intensely characteristic examples Of his way of
thinking and feeling. What he found especially
charming in the Venetian woman was "the
nape Of the neck the end of the neck and the
beginning Of the shoulders" and it is 'Theo'
himself. unquestionably, who speaks in these
words;
Once even we made, through the labyrinth Of
the lanes of Venice a most curious promenade
in the wake of pretty neck which did not I'M
derstand il at all. and took US for a conceited
and inbecile firt She was tall girl, eXtraor-
dinarily brown, resent bling very much Nile.
Rachel in the long and delicate elegance of her
inquire ana the antique build OF her neck. She
had such perfect dignity of movement that
her large red shawl OF barege appeared upon
her like a purple cloak of a queen. Never had
the great tragedienne made her peplum or tunic
assume more beautiful more noble folds.
She walked quickly. making the folds of her
blue gown skim around her like the pillows at
the feet Of Thetis. with case and a spirited
gait or which a great coquette might well be
Jealous. We afterward lost sight of her in the
crowd Of promenaders. but the red twinkle of
her shawl guided US like the light Of beacon,