The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-24


$50 Pages. Publishers: Presby-
terrain Committee on Publication,
Richmond. Va.
To the Editor:-Said a certain
Junior Professor of Hebrew to me
one day in old Hampden-S Sidney as
we returned together from dinner,
Don't you want to read a remark
ably fine story just out?" Receiving
an emphatic affirmative, he handed
me Stephenson's Strange Case of DR..
Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde" Starting into
1t at ten that night I speedily lost
consciousness of all else till mid
night.
To that same professor, now ia
nous as teacher, preacher, writer, and
president of Union Theological Semi
nary. l am indebted for another ex-
perience of identically the same kind
His "A Year in Europe" reached me
few days ago. AT ten that night, tired
and sleepy, / picked it up to glance
at it's table of contents for a moment
before retiring. But once in, read
on absorbed, forgetful of all else, till
after midnight.
1t is the best book of it's kind ]
ever read. 1t is an interesting as
novel, as instructive as a history, as
funny in spots as ''Innocents Abroad,
and as stirring and earnest at times
1t is published by the Presbyterian
Committee of Publication. Richmond,
Va. A beautiful volume it is, a mas
terpiece of the printers and binders
art. 1t contains over $50 pages. Six
pages as given to the ocean voyage,
1S2 to travelling and sight seeing in
England and Scotland, 13 to Paris,
25 to Holland. to the Rhine and
the Alps, and ia to the Storied land
of Italy, of which rs are devoted to
Rome, the most interesting city in the
world. Apt anecdotes. historical rem
iniscences. wise and keen and often
witty personal reflections illuminate
everyone of the 35 short chapters
while 81 full-page illustrations en-
nance the value and charm of tbs
whole.
The amount of information tho
book contains is astonishing. To read
it is a liberal education. 1t is like
Mark Twain, who said of himself
that information stewed out of him
like the otto of roses out of the otter
Literature, history, archa eology, the
ology, hymnology. architecture, paint
ing, preaching, sculpture, invention,
popes, martyrs, bones. bonnets, relics.
Kings, queens, palaces, jokes, lakes
tears, toes, teeth, tombs, monks
(washed and unwashed), govern
ments, laws, International relations,
doctrines. social customs, vermin, vol
canoes. famous men, famous cities.
famous books. famous buildings
the fact is there is hardly any SUBJ
ject apparently on which this book
has not something true and bright to
say. The only important omission
have noted thus far is blind tigers. 1t
being a hot time in the old town OF
Greensboro Just now. and prohibition
speeches being the order of the day
and part of the night ran my eye
ever the excellent index at the close
of the book for something about these
animals, but they were not there. ]
found 1.-The Lion of Lucerne." and
Henry the Eighth" snd "Galvani's
Frog / found also Carnegie on In
temperance" and "Intemperance in
Scotland but. if the author visited
any blind tigers. he has reasons 10
doubt for not mentioning the fact.
Certainly he visited everything else.
And what he saw he has the gift tc
describe as few men can. Parts of the
book remind me wildly of my own ex-
periences abroad, and | can person
ally testify to the accuracy of many
of his shreWd observations on mer
and things. The twenty-five pages
on Holland, for example. are por
traiture, brief, but wonderfully dis
tinct and vivid. of that unique people
their churches, their commerce, their
religion, their great men and uniVer-
sites, their flowers and pictures and
customs, and their relations also tc
our own country. Since reading
Douglas Campbell's great work on
1.-THE Puritan in Holland. England and
America / have felt satisfied of what
Dr. Moore brings clearly out that, rs
regards the distinctive institutions
and features of our American life. not
England but Holland is our mother
country.
The book is no less fascinating than
informing. The author has shown the
finest judgment and self-restrairt in
his selection of material. From mat
ter enough for a dozen volumes he
selected what was most interesting
and important for the readers he had
in view, and only so much of that rs
he had space to handle with artistic
effect. Despite the books extraor
binary variety and wealth of infor-
nation, there is no confusion or con-
gestion. Every fact. scene, object
event. stands out clear and salient.
and the authors style retains through
out that captivating pliancy and grace
with which his readers and hearers
have long been familiar.
To the literary is added the person
al charm. The author has put him.
self into his book. 1t throbs with his
own personality. And this to me is
distinguishing excellence, separating
ii not only from the best of profes,
sional guide-books by theNinterval be-
tween the quick and the dead, but
also. by a difference less marked but
no less real, from all other books OF
European travel. Our impressions OF
Europe we have been getting mainly
through English, Scotch or New Eng
land writer's. We have been looking
at the old world from view points not
native to US. We have been studying
it through alien eyes. We have been
compelled to peer at it through spec
tacles made for somebody else. But i'll
this book we are permitted to see
these older nations whose social and
religious conditions and institutions
are related by resemblance or con-
trast so Interestingly to our own,
through the eyes of cultivated, hu-
morous keen witted. native-born
Southerner Truly the South is COM
ing into her own. In fiction she leads
already, and now in another depart
ment of letters, the literature OF
travel, she has reached by this book
at one bound the foremost rank.
EGBERT WATSON SMITH.