The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-21
WOODROW WILSON'S HISTORY
OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Amusing Story of Thomas Dixon. DR.. Kingsbury on
Thackeray, MaCaulay, Tennyson, and Brown
ing. More North Carolina Books.

of putting things, Macaulay has i'm
posed his view upon the English reading
world, which does not find itself attract
ed by the refutation. Doubtless Macau-
lay was a partisan, doubtless he was a
publicist, even politician, rather than
an artist But one does not like to hear
men with not hundredth part either of
his endowment or his equipment sneer-
ing at him.
For some months have felt like writ
ing several columns on Macaulay filling
two or three numbers. He is now, and
has been since 1849, one of my chief
favorites | can read him when l can
scarcely read any other author. l wish
to write of him and the greatest genius
of the American continent-Edgar A.
Poe, and at length.
The late Lord Acton owned an enorm-
Gus library-the' greatest private library
in all the world. But he was not the
greatest man and not the greatest
scholar. He left it all to Hon. John
Morley, one of the foremost living liter
ary men of Great Britain. 1t is said to
contain 10000 volumes, and would fill
seven shelves 1000 feet Iong-or four
rooms measuring fifty feet long by TWEEN
ty wide. The question is asked in Eng
land, what will Mr.. Morley do with it?
He may give it to one of the great Uni
versities. Mr.. Morley is of middle age,
or even older, and he can not possibly
have much use for it.
"a History of the American People, -
by Woodrow Wilson. a Virginian. but
now president of Princeton University,
is forging ahead in popularity. 1t grows
steadily in favor in the North and in
England. 1t is in five volumes l have
seen no review of it as yet. 1t is stated
that it is the first attempt to give a
single complete narrative history of the
United States in existence today. 1t be-
gins at the beginning and ends with
Teddy Roosevelt, the Artful Dodger. 1t
is eXcellently printed by Harper &
Brothers. A notice of it, probably fur
nshed by the publishers, says that ire
mote historical archives and long-for
gotten government records were search
ed for material, yet the final presentation
is in an easy, flowing style which clothes
hard facts with a romantic atmosphere.
Like all other publications of interest
and value of the last five or six years,
it is of high price and practically cuts
off -tenths of the genuine bookmen
of the country. 1t is $3.50 net for the
set. Books not reprints of the old books
are extremity high.
/ find a funny paragraph relative to
my friend. Thomas Dixon, Jr.. the bril-
liant North Carolina novelist, and the
most gifted of all American living lee
turers. He has son that promises to
follow on the clever lines of the father.
He has inherited evidently some of the
brightness and point of his rarely gifted
father. The story runs:
'"The other day the boy asked Mr..
Dixon for a goat, to which the father re-
piled: That is one combination that
positively refuse to have on this farm
you and a goat Mr. Dixon went away
to lecture, and on his return his son said
to him. Papa, why have you given up
preaching and given all your time to
lecturing? L am after the almighty
dollar, said Mr.. Dixon. And the boy an
swcred, Yes, more after the dollar than
the Almighty.
People who attentively watch the trend
of politics, the growth of the enormous
money power, the steady departures from
the original Constitution and the silent,
mysterious working of usurpation by
Congress, will be seen to be interested
in a recent work of rare force, entitled
Our Benevolent Feudalism. 1t is by
w. ]. Client, and even some Northern
Republican papers have written more in
Endorsement than IN condemnation of it's
courage and Vigor. / see that the great
est writer perhaps now living of English
birth, Prof Goodwin Smith, has written
ir praise and appreciation of this timely
work He holds that the author can
not be contradicted when he asserts that
the multi millionaire in a wealthwor
shipping age has everything pretty much
in his observation-disclosures judiciaries,
churches, universities and perhaps,
worst of all, the press. = What is
behind the press is about the most seri-
Gus question of the day."
People who are of cultivated taste, and
have a genuine appreciation of and in
sight into poetic composition, and have
carefully studied the poetry of the Vic
torian Era, have formed their judgment
as to the two great opponents in this de-
partment of production. Since the time
of Wordsworth, COleridge, Byron, Shell
ley and Keats, the two masters have
been Tennyson and Robert Browning.
Probably the very best critic in poetry
of the last quarter of a century is
Stopford Brooke, an EngliShman of let
tiers, CT great insight, of many qualities
as an author, master of highly culti-
waited style. He has written important
books on Milton, Tennystn and Brown
ing. he last is but recently published.
It is a mo-, finished production, and OF
commanding interest. Its insight is
most acute. He does not place Brown
ing first like his selected few admirers
did The truth is he has great and dis
tinsuished qualities as a poet, but he is
drcadfully obscure, and much of his
writings is harsh and independent of
poetic rules and linguistic clarity. Some
of his poetry is most noble and uplifting.
He was no sceptic, as some have thought,
but he believed in the Christ. Not long
since Sir Edward Clarke delivered an
address on Victorian literature before
London "Workingmen's Club. The
speaker is man of gifts, and his view
of the two poets have indicated APP
pears TO me to be correct and vital with
genuine / OilOte Il pas