The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-28
NEW BOOK NEWS
CONDUCTED BY MARTHA YOUNG

 I $2. .Ooo.0oo, of how Napoleon made the offer of the whole of the Louisiana Ter ritory has been told at this special sea- son many times in history, article and romance. On April 30. 1903. the treaty of cession was arranged, the amount paid for the purchase being $16,000,000. But Louisiana had not been formally delivered by Spain to France. This cer- cmony took place in the old Cabildo of New Orleans on November 30, 1903. Then followed the cession of Louisiana to the United States. It is of this float ing over St. Louis in one day of the flags of three nations that Winston Churchill has written so graphically in his romance of the purchase. The Corn"
 The second part of MT. Hitchcock's book treats of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This Is by far the more exciting half of the volume With such ardor does the reader follow the little band of explorers that the eye, not willingly, leaves page It was In January. 1903, that Jefferson seized n long sought opportunity to start such an expedition. Captain Meriwetber Lewis was appointed leader of the little force; Captain William Clark was associated with him. Captain Clark was a brother to Gen. George Rogers l Clark of Vincennes fame. Lewis and Clark passed the winter of 1803-1S0i near St. Louis, preparing the forces and the equipments for their long and ! periIous journey.
 1 On May 14th, 1894. the expedition made its start On May Fist, at St. Charles, they were overtaken by Cap St. Louis. Then followed that journey that lasted from May, 1894. to Septem Der, 1906.
 The stories of the herds of buffalo. of l the deer, the wild geese, the prairie dogs. the goats (antelopes), of the bear. bruin, grizzly and white. would rouse the hunting spirit of an anchov- ite.
 1 Much converse was held with h. dians of various tribes.
 From the Mahar Indians. the explor- CTS learned an odd way of fishing with a drag of willows and bark, herewith catching hundreds of pike bass, trout. perch, catfish and others of the finny tribe.
 The Sioux promised peace and made trouble for the travellers.
 It was in North Dakota tnow) that the expedition camped. Here they se- cured the Indian interpreter Chabon eau, and his wife. Sacajawea (Bird wo- man). These faithful guides accom- panied the explorers the rest of their journey.
 To this sacajawea "of a mild and gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites." the women of Oregon are erecting a monument. which Is to be unveiled at the next exposition. Rap idly and vivdly all the history of this texpedition is told. The history of this vast region Is concisely reviewed, even to the panic of 1903 in the stock mar kets, when the West remained unhurt and well-nigh indifferent to crumbling values. safe in its own productiveness and its almost untouched natural lwealth of mine and farm and diverse re :. sources.
 A book thus which takes precedence in It's correctness, cleverness and con- sessions of all the books upon these events now absorbing so much of the Ipublic's interest. A book whose truths Is more interesting than romance, whose history is interestingly told with a style distinguished and lucid.
 Southern Thoughts for Northern Thinkers and African Music in Ameri- ca. By Jannette Robinson Murphy.
 More than any of the many Southern women appearing as readers and de- picters of negro dialect ard negro folk live on the platforms of the North. Mrs Jeanette Robinson Murphy has been honored. As a folk-lorist she has shared the honors with Paul du Chiffon they two being only students of folk lore have been united to give an entire evenings lecture before the Archaeological Society of the United lStates. Mrs. Murphy has appeared be- fore almost every club of women in the New England and Eastern States. She has collected a most valuable repe- toire of negro melodies, especially the "spirituelles" and religious hymns and "moans" of the negro. These she gives with a skill that is marvellous.
 The most valuable articles in this book are The Survival of African Mu- sic in America and The True Negro Music and Its Decline" These articles appeared respectively in American Scientific Monthly and in the Inde- pendent
 Of how these songs should be sung Mrs. Murphy nicely states: We find many of the genuine negro melodies in the Jubilee and Hampton song books but for the uninitiate6 student of the future time Is little or no instruction given, and the white singer in attempting to learn them will make poor work at their mastery; for how is he to know that 1t is bad form not to break every law of menial phras- ing and notation? What is there to show him that he must make his voice exceedingly nasal and undulating; that around every prominent note he must place variety of small notes, called
 tunings." and must sing tones not found in one scale; that he must in no account leave one note until he has the next one well under control? By some mysterious power to be learned only from the negro. he should carry over his breath from line to line and from verse to verse, even at the risk of breaking a blood vessel He must often drop from a high note to a very low one; he must be very careful to divide many of his monosyllabic words into two syllabHes. placing a forcible acccent on the last one. so that dead will be 'da- -ade black becomes 'bla -ack' etc He must also intersperse his singing with peculiar hummina sounds-m- m nm" All this sort of direction how 10 sing these songs when once the wavering weird music ia transmitted is very valuable. know of no one but Mrs. Murphy who has attempted this.
 Mrs. Murphy holds that this music