Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12

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| SKY and the waters, to listen to the sounds
OF rivers and the notes of birds and beasts
Inc book is all atmosphere, all color and
| scent and sound. 1t is though Mr.. PHIL
potts desired other novelists than himself to
| discourse fuently of the charms of Devon,
| ana has sought to enumerate them after
| the fashion of the cataloguer. But he sets
| them forth In language of rare grace and
| charm His essays are prose poems. while
| the Withdrawn illustrations add to the
| force or the temptation to abandon all pres
emit haunts and to make Devon the future
home
ans ~ c ThLES b sgaleeR Stein ILLUS
Parrish and E. Rosenmeyer and Edward Ed
wards. indianapolis: The Bobbs Merrill Com
These stories, three of medieval France
and one of Finland, are of unusual excel
! lence. and the children themselves will en-
] JOY them to the utmost. All are about
children, children who are loving, brave
and faithful. The stories are romantic;
trey are charmingly told; they fun of
out-o1-the-Way information and they hold
| up high ideals The Illustrations in colors,
are of exceptional merit.
TWO ARGoNAUTS IN SPAIN By Jerome Hart
San Francisco: Payot. Upham & Co.
Interest in Spain, aroused by Mr.. William
q. Curtis letters of travel in The Star, Will
| be deepened by a perusal of the sketches
| taken by Mr.. Hart on the wing. He con-
tends that they may not be very valuable.
but they are not wholly valueless; they are
not unlike the snapshot photos which ac-
company them" says Mr.. Hart, "and the
pen sketches are not literature, but both
| may interest,"
The contents of the book appeared origi-
nally in the form of letters which We're of
the light, COSBY sort that dealt with mat
tiers that interest the ordinary traveller. For
instance, he writes of the cigarette factory
at Seville. made famous by the fact that
Carmen worked there He says: 81 wish to
remark that of all the shocks to romance,
all the dislllusions that have suffered, the
Seville tobacco factory is the worst.
When l thought of all the legends about
the pretty cigarette girls Of Seville, with
their Jealous lovers, their gay guitars, their
castanets and their daggeTs In their gar
ters: when thought of all these things and
gaZed on these thousands of tired, sallow
females, most of whom are middle aged,
many of them old-all of them ugly-when
1 saw these things and received these
shocks l fed from the work rooms to the
| court below
Thus he touches lightly on many scene
famous in literature, history or song.
| THE BRITISH ARTISTS SERIES THOMAS
GAINSBOROUGH. By Lord Ronald Suther-
land Cover, F. S. A. New York: The Mac
milan Company. Washington: Brentanos.
While the chief interest of this instructive
work lies in Its presentation Of reproduc-
| ings, the text supplied by the eminent au-
thor himself sculptor of note, Is of itself
we'll worthy of publication. Comparatively
little is known in this country of Gains
borough himself, outside of a few artists
and students. Those who cannot see his
paintings, as exh. bited abroad, are there
fore little likely to become acquainted with
either the man or his work, and to this end
the present volume Is of unusual import
| ance One hundred illustrations, chiefly In
half-tones, present accurately a record or
| the composition of Gainsboroughs por-
traits and landscapes, although Of course
| the remarkable color.ng for which his pro-
auctions were chiefly famous is lacking.
Appended to the text, which describes the
artists life and his methods Of work, 10 a
series of detailed explanations of the vari-
Gus paintings, with some mention OF the
perSonages portrayed.
HISTORY OF THE COINAGE AND CURRENCY
IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE PER
BY A. Barton Hepburn. LII D. ex-controller Of
the currency. vice president Chase National
Washington: Brentano's.
Despite the complete threshing out of the
! currency question before the people in the
| two campaigns in which the parties warred
on that issue, in 1895 and 1900, there Is to-
day probably no subject more susceptible of
calculation for the enlightenment of the
average citizen. Mr.. Hepburn. whose posi-
ton in the Treasury Department and sub
sequent connection with an important ma
tionaI banking institution entities him to
a serious consideration when discussing the
subject has sought to combine in this
work the various features of the several
| historical treatises on the same subject
which have preceded it. There is no other
work of such a size and character that
will be generally read outs de of technical
circles. The authors hope is that by offer
aielf -tyt hSJn of rha ar
condensed and readable form the public
| may be guided through experience to cor
rect solution of the currency questions yet
remaining for settlement. He has blended
the documentary and the narrative methods
of presentation most happily, and while
his work IS replete with statistics they are
accompanied by most readable text. IN
an appendix are given in full the various
important enactments and state papers on
the subject.
NAPOLEON THE FIRST; Biography. By August
Fournier. Translated by Margaret Bacon Cor
win and Arthur Dart Bissell. Edited by Ed
ward Gaylord Bourne, professor of history in
Yale University. New York Henry Holt & Co.
Washington: William Ballantyne Sons
Fournier's history was written in 1855,
and was shortly afterward accepted by dis
passionate English reviewers as one OF the
fairest and most equitable records Of Ma
poIeon which had been written. 1t lacked
the bias of the English biographer and the
tendency to overpraise which marked most,
IL not all, of the French stories of the
Napoeonic career. Fournier believed that
while the Napoleonic legend had covered a
multitude Of faults in the man, had served
to glorify him beyond his merits and had
obscured the vision of posterity, yet the
republican tradition, born in 1892 and re-
vived in 1870, was responsible for much
distortion of an opposite character. Con-
sequently he doubted whether the time had
quite come for the drawing of a true and
faithful portrait; yet, so great did he feel
to be the need he ventured 10 prepare what
he modestly styled mere outline sketch
of the man and his times, in order that the
bographer of the future might witness a
serious attempt to judge fairly between
the two extremes. His work has not here
tofore appeared in English form. Prof.
Bourne started upon his endeavor to secure
its translation some years after its original
publicatf ton in German, but the work was
checked and Is only now completed to the
point of publicatio The biography is
given In single convenient volume OF
nearly $50 pages. A very complete bibliog
raphy and thorough index add to the