Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-27

where, it appears a person can with i'm
punity commit the crime of lese majestic.
For it is absolutely certain. that Kaiser
Wilhelm would find the greatest pleasure
in torturing by the most refined cruelties
of the German law the purveyor OF this
mass of delectable information concerning
him and his consort The dame du
palais," 1t appears from the title page.
served their majesties from june 1888, to
the spring of 1898. Just why she ceased
in this service does not appear. Perhaps
she died, perhaps she offended the august
personages she served, perhaps she tired
of the life at the court, which, II 1t is
half as bad as she describes 1t, must be
intolerable to person of refinement. dig
nifty and self-respect Whatever happened
to her, and granting that these memoirs,
as edited and expanded by Mr.. Fischer,
specialist in the news of foreign courts,
are genuine. the two volumes thus pro-
duced are vastly entertaining in those por-
tons which are not disgusting. There is
an OVERLAPPING of offensive details to prove
that the kaiser is indiscreet, rash, egotis-
tic erratic and so on, ad infinitum. In
deed the portrait is so drawn in lines and
tones of all that is evil and jisagreeable
that it is calculated to create sympathy
for the subject and distrust of the portray
er. Many of the stories told of the
sovereign are undoubtedly genuine. Some
of them can easily be accredited to mere
gossip. All are written well. with GER
tain sprightliness which entertains even
while the subject matter offends. 1t Is
culate widely in Germany, at least with
the consent of the police authorities.
pERSONALIA; Intimate Recolections Of Fa-
nous Men, Political, Literary, Artistic, Social,
Various By Stigma" New York: Doubleday,
Page & Co. Washington: William Ballantyne
& Sons.
1t Is unfortunate that the American edi-
ton of this Notwithstanding that 1t appears
also in England-should open with the chap
ter on Harrow in the Early Sixties" For
1t deals with matters so strictly English
that the American reader is inclined at the
outset to despair of finding in the book the
materials to arouse his immediate interest.
Harrow is too distinctively insular an In
stitution to have spread the atmosphere of
Its personal history far across the seas.
However. the work develops along much
more inclusive lines in the succeeding chap
tiers. Anecdotes are related of men whose
names are household words in this coun-
try, and tales are told OF others never heard
of but with such a flavor of acute human
interest that 1t matters not that the SUBJ
jects are strangers. The work is couched
in vein of good-natured recollection. 1t
Is evident that the author Is man OF high
social position, a man of~years sufhcient to
have been at Harrow in the sixties-there-
fore presumably between fifty and sixty
years Of age-and a man Of keen discern
ment and a marked sense of the ridiculous.
He views statesmen, artists, prelates, law
yers, authors and emfnenceS Of all sorts
with the critical eye of one who condoneS
much for the sake Of the humorous There
are not startling disclosures, but all is told
with suavity and brillfancy. Many instruc-
tive sidelights are thrown upon English his
tory in the course of these disclosures as
to the personal traits of the men who in the
past forty years have shaped the destinies
of the nation.
THE STORY OF BYFIELD; New England
Parish. By John l.. Ewen, DID,, Professor in
Howard University, Washington. Boston: Geo.
E. Littlefeld.
This is book belonging to the best
class of modern local histories. in which
incident. anecdote and personal history are
conveyed in style clear. animated and
Byfield, Mass, is an Essex county par
ish which has produced notable men-Judge
Samuel Sewall, whose quaint and curious
diaries have been published, revealing much
of the New England life of two centuries
ago; Gov. Dummer whose name was given
to the notable academy In Byfield; The
ophilus Parsons. a distinguished jurist;
William H Moody. Secretary of the Navy,
and many more. DIR. Ewell has done full
justice to his native village. With industry
interchangeable he has ransacked libraries,
church and parish records, newspapers and
private correspondence. He has pushed in
vestigation among many English counties,
whence so many millions of Americans de-
rive their origin; he has taken many photo
graphs of buildings and localities with his
own hand, his volume embracing over sew
enty maps and illustrations. The pictures
of primitive life In the American colonies
are full of interest, and Rowley and New
bury (Whittier's town. appear in many IA
ant pastoral aroma breathes among the
pages describing the flora, the forests and
the fauna of early New England.
Here and there we catch glimpses of an
cient economic facts that reveal the home
life of the seventeenth century, as where
we read an inventory of Capt. Richard
Dummer's estate "a. d. 1880, where after
sheepes' wole' and "a musquet" valued at
1.10. we read: Item, a Neagro, &c.,
The history is produced in elegant typog-
raphy and the pictures are clear and bril-
liant impressions.
THE EQUITY SERIES-THE STORY OF
NEW ZEALAND; History from the Earli-
est Times to the present By Frank Parsons
Ph.D. Philadelphia G. F. Taylor. Washing
ton: Rev. Alexander Kent.
Occasionally something is heard more or
less authoritatively, of the remarkable So
Geological propaganda in New Zealand Spe-
cialists have been for several years closely
following the experiments which have there
been tried In Industrial evolution, but the
general public is today In the main aware
only of the vague fact that in the antipodes
great work is being carried on to the end
OF better government The details are un-
familiar to the average man here In Amer
lea. This rather large and in some respects
too statistical book Is designed to enlighten
the American public In respect to this state
of affairs half way around the world. II It
could be read through by all It would I'M
doubleday cause a great awakening Of in
terest in the possibilities of good govern
ment through the enlightenment of the citi-
zen. Unfortunately. 1t is not likely to reach
far In its present form. shorter sum-
mary Of its contents. costing less and more
easily digested. would be more serviceable.
For the purposes of laying foundations.
however. this edition now in hand issued
In consequence of the generosity of Mr..
G. F. Taylor, the philanthropist- publisher Of
Philadelphia, Is an excellent enterprise New
Zealand is well worth close study. 1t af-
fords remarkable series of contrasts and
1t teaches many valuable lessons. 1t has
been developed by means of system of
scientific colonization with selected immi-
grafton; 1t has brought to a high state of
perfection various industrio-political sys-
TENS, and 1t has demonstrated the possjbjIi-