New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-12

| kindness A vindication of the memory of Eliz
abeth Whitman. the original OF Mrs. Fosters
! forgotten 1.-THE Coquette," and by some thought
to have been the inspiration Of the central figure
| in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. is offered; the
several courtships of old Judge Sewall, of witch
| hunting fame, are narrated; the wooings of the
Rev Jonathan Edwards's daughter. Esther, by
| Joseph Emerson and Aaron Burr, find place
in this work, do, among others, the life of
Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams;
John de Cheverus, Bostons beloved bishop; DR..
| Mathew ByIes, the Tory wit and scholar, who
was the first pastor of the old Hollis Street
Church, in Boston: the Rev. Eleazar Williams,
the claimant to the throne of France; the Rev.
Arthur Browne. the "Friar Laurence" of sew
eral romantic marriages; John Eliot and his
/ Indians, and Phillips Brooks. 1t would be In
! vidious to make comparisons, but it may be said
that the majority OF readers will probably de-
rive the iveliest enjoyment from the miniature
biography of Abigail Adams. The volume is
illustrated with views of many of the better
known churches of New England.
With Elizabeth w. Champney we return to
! France, this time to wander, not through the
stately cathedrals but in and out of the gar
! dens and halls Of the chateaus associated with
! the names of The Bourbon family. The "ro-
mances" to which we now listen are of a very
! different order from those clinging about the
! simple meeting houses of the sturdy New-Eng-
! landers. AS told by Mrs. Champney, they almost
/ make one forget that the mainsprings OF action
! in the good old days Of the French court were
| unbridled passion and greed of power. She has
| thrown about them a glamour that makes of her
| heroines altogether lovable personages, albeit
! her heroes do not fare so we'll. If history Is
/ sacrificed to romance now and again, what mat
! teri The annals are at least not those of back
nd ba
! Yet woven in and out of the tales. dis
! Germ the causes that led to the downfall of the
! once powerful dynasty, the earlier acts of the
! drama that found its elimination in the revolu-
| ton The Grande Mademoselle. Louis the Mag
| rifcent the Prince de Condo. Mazarin and his
| nieces Charles II Of England FOuquet, Busy
| Rabutin, the Marquse de Monglat Nine. de
| Sevigne, fit through the pages. comedy and
tragedy ebowing each other at every turn.
! Back of all are the chateaus themselves, of
which we given. by illustrations well
| by text many pleasing glimpses. Finally. there
! is q study of the motives that prompted the
outraged peasantry IN mad fury to wreak VEN
geance upon these mute witnesses of a decadent
! glory The author concludes:
When one understands the wrongs that the
/ peasants had to revenge-the hatreds that had
! waited long for their opportunity; that the
chateau was TO them the symbol of tyranny,
! an embodied ogre that had sucked their blood
/ for centuries-one does not wonder that with
axe and torch they splintered marvels of stained
/ glass, sent costly paintings and cabinets crash
/ ing upon the stones of the courtyards. burned
halls that had witnessed the orgies of Louis
/ XIV, and even mutilated the sculptures on the
royal tombS of st. Denis scattering the dust
of the tyrants to the winds.
Buildings. again, form the theme of Esther
/ Singleton's volume, collection of extracts from
the works of great writer's" describing his
toric edifices in all parts of the world One is
tempted to quarrel with her inclusion of the
names of several writers who assuredIy can be
called great but by a stretch Of courtesy
yet one must be generous, in view of the read
ableness of the mass of descriptive material
which the work contains. The editor has drawn
| literally upon the pages of Ruskin. Dickens,
| Lott. Freeman, Gibbon, GaUter Symonds, De
Amcis Knight, Gonse. Tame and Others the
buildings described including the Palace of the
Popes, at Avignon; the Church Of the Holy
Sepulchre, La Grande Chartreuse. the Coliseum,
the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. at Lahore; the
/ Giralda. the Luxembourg Palace, Venetian pal
aces, Haddon Hall, Carisbrooke Castle the Pan
theon, Salisbury Cathedral Kenilworth Castle,
the Castle of Anglers, the Certosa of Pavia, the
Alcazar, and over score more. Throughout
reproductions of Photographic views of the
buildings. The work is presented in a striking
binding of green and gold.
Even more persuasive" is the highly COL
ored decorative binding that holds Mr. F. Berke-
/ ley's Smiths account of a painting and sketch
ing tour through the land of the Magyars, an
account literally besprinkled with the artistic
results of the trip, which clearly afforded the
artist author very enjoyable outing. Mr..
/ Smith Yields a facie brush and almost equal
/ ly facile pen, a perusal of his brisk dis
! cursive volume will disclose He explored Buda
/ and Pest from end to end, rummaged through
! all manner of queer places, had several interest
| ing adventures, met every imaginable type from
royalty to gypsies, and departed with the convic-
tion that the Magyars are about the best fell
| lows in the world. AS for the Magyar women!
/ The eternal feminine triumphs in this little
! volume of travel. Her praises sung to the
! skies; she is sketched and photographed in every
! possible costume; she is depicted in every role
/ from that of a nobewoman to that of a ballet
! dancer. The Enthusiast from the Quarter
Latin has an eye to beauty, and knows how to
! describe it when he sees it. AS may be mag
ined, however he does not go far beneath the
surface in his estimate of the place and the peo-
pie. For one thing he does not appear to have
had the time; for another, he handicapped
/ by ignorance of the language His panegyric of
the Magyars is, it is true, tempered and
again by hint that all is couleur de rose, as
he himself expresses it, but he resolutelyy ig-
nores the squalid. donning his coored eyeglasses
when he into direct contact with it. In
everything he sees the beautiful His descrp-
ton of the Parliament building is characteristic
Of the attitude he invariably assumes:
Imagine a brand-new jewel box Of Gothic
iligree, surmounted by central dome and or