The San Francisco call., 1904-06-12

many years later became a member or
his first Cabinet" And this is the last
sentence touch. he puts upon his pic
ture Of the writer Of the Declaration
Of Independence: This vast being,
the Public, has discovered his strength,
and il was Thomas Jefferson above all
men who awakened him to self-con-
sciousness." This is Lincoln, the love
OF whom reveals itself in every line the
writer put on paper: Apparently con-
fiding with his friends, his ,inmost soul
was fathomless and was yelled from
every eye. Awkward and ungainly in
appearance, there was something so
deeply impressive in his face that none
who ever saw him could forget il"
One OF the advantages of getting hold
Of a history done by a man with some
literary art is that il encourages busy
people 70 reread what they have learned
long ago but half forgotten. and now to
see them again IN the light of other
eyes than those which saw and repro
duced them for US in the yon Of
younger days often gives back the
forgotten with fresh revealed features
10 the whole face Of affairs. This is
wholly for the new-come foreigner
finding out the past nature Of the big
beast which is going to try to assimi-
late him, nor altogether for the adde's
cent American who is learning for
the first time Of the misdeeds and
heroic successes Of his ancestors. Elson
calls our attention to some things
which we should not forget, but which
he says the masses Of the people have
almost forgotten; for instance, al
though the word Saratoga stin rings
resoundingly in the popular ear, yet
not so the name of Philip Schuyler,
who is the hero with which that battle
sound should mingle as we cheer it
down the ages. Technically speaking.
some one else won the victory, but
historic research shows that Schuyler
made the thing happen; and the name
Of the other man is less worthy of
the laurel of our recollections.
Good indeed, and intensely interest
ing, are the things he has selected TO
tell US so graphically about the main
movements and the foremost men of
the Civil War. SO fair has he tried TO
be in his descriptions that II would
seem that the veterans alike Of the
North and the South might read Of
how the struggle looks to a recent
historian without one angry pulse
beat in their heroic hearts against an
uurestrained and ungenerous pre-
judice which must perforce be born in
the blood Of every American for gen.
erations to come. Such generous re-
straint does Elson show, although he
admits that he must probably have
some OF the natural prejudice Of
man Northern born. So generous in
deed, that when he tells US OF the hour
when Southern resistance had surged
70 the highest point It had the power
reach, the charge of Pickett's brigade
up the heights to Cemetery Ridge, he
swells the heart responsive to relation
Of heroic deeds almost as II there were
something Southern in him which
spoke spontaneously and made him ap-
propriate TO his own soul the glory of
that flower of the Confederate army as
II he felt 1t were not merely sectional
and Southern. but American and man.
AS for Elson's slips into perhaps un-
conscious prejudice, consider this SEN
tence carefully, and with the mouth
prepared to smile. for Il sounds more
ike a Joke than prejudice: II have
refrained from using the term rebel
to designate those who rose in
rebellion against the Government, be-
cause Of my profound respect for their
sincerity" No doubt Elson is sincere,
and yet the sentence sounds as who
should say: "I am too courteous a fell
low-citizen, and too impartial q his
torian to call them rebels but, con-
denim them, they were rebels, who rose
IN rebellion, all the same, although,
out OF courtesy. I don't say it In good
set terms" Perhaps Mr.. Elson meant
the sentence for a bon mot; but at all
events so unprejudiced is he in other
ways that even a Southern man might
smilingly 'Iet that pass" saying, he
rs fairly good fellow anyway, take
him for all in all.
(The Macmillan Company, New
York; 81 rs metz