New-York tribune., 1903-04-18

The moonshiner of Tennessee under the tu-
| telage of Opie Read. has appeared this week at
one of the Broadway pIayhouses The moon
| sinner Of various States has not been passed
over in fiction. OF recent years these people
have been exploited by authors who, after
spending a summer winter in the hill coun-
try, feel qualified to give to the reading public
just account Only those people, however,
who have lived for years with the mountain
men and women really know them, for the true
mountaineer. paradoxical though it may be, is
an oyster. and the first hint of what he considers
meddlesome curiosity will shut his mouth with
a snap If he talks at all, he will be likely.
with subtle irony. to fool his troublesome ques-
toner to the top of his bent. One of the late
novels of the moonshine variety is Mrs. Pelton's
"a Tar Heel Baron" which the J. B. Lippincott
Company publishes. The author has lived among
the mountaineers, not as a teacher a mis-
sionary but the kindliest Of friends and
neighbors. OF of her friends among these
out-of-the-way folk she tells this experience:
Last autumn as she was leaving the village for
the winter she decided that the extremely slow
pace of her horse Bird was due entirely to old
age, and after much mental anguish she made
up her mind to part definitely with the animal
After diligent search for proper guardian. she
found old mountaineer who promised to take
the best of care of the beloved horse, and to
give him mex to no work" Now. the black
smith knew that Bird was not very old. and that
he ought to be good for considerable amount
of work, and he had shrewd suspicion that
the horse would live much longer than his
master After Bird had been led to his new
home by the aged and feeble mountaineer, Mrs.
Pelton met the blacksmith. and after telling
him of Birds feebeness and her sorrow at hav
;y,or s-;x-a her the SlSnd
see the man who is to look after Bird, and do
you think he will take good care of him?" The
man looked at her quzzically with his twinkling
blue eyes, and drawed in his slow, gentle voice,
'"waal Mis- Pelton. 1 just a-wonderin if
you had provided home for Bird after the old
man dies"
One of the tragedies OF human history is the
story of the glory and of the fall OF the empire
of Spain Side by side with ITS decline have been
the growth and upbuilding Of the great Amert-
can Republic, and over lch of the vast terri
tory which once owned the sway of Charles and
of Philip now flats the flag of the United
States. The republic may be said to have been
erected upon the ruins OF the empire, for. from
the Mississippi and the Gulf to the Pacific. or
in the American islands Of the Indies. west and
east, there is not foot of soil, except in the
Northwestern country. over which the red and
story of this encroachment of America upon
Spanish dominion is the subject of E. ]. Car
penters study of territorial expansion, called
THE American Advance" John Lane will pub
lish the book about the middle of April
Original drawings by three American illus
traitors Elizabeth Shipper Green. Florence SEQ
vel Shnn and Virginia Keep. are on view at
the Fifth Avenue Book Shop
Six popular lectures delivered before the
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology lately by
Percival Lowell are to be published by Hough-
ton Mif1in & Co. early in May under the title,
THE Solar System"
Peirce's PLANT Physiology" modern and
scientific discussion of the general principles of
plant physiology, intended for the student or
general reader acquainted with the elements of
botany, will be issued during the present month
by Henry Holt & Co.