The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-25

Montaigne. Volume one of the se- ries The French Men of Letters" Is on Montaigne. It is by Edward Dow den. The series deals with the fore most French writers. The volumes of this series will be written and edi- ted by men of the first rank. Each book will be furnished with a frontis- piece of the subject and a complete bibliography and index. Volumes will be forthcoming upon the following eminent Frenchmen of letters: villon, De vigpy, Rosseau. Gautier, Rabi- lais, Daudet, Merimee, Larmartine, Musset, Flaubert. Balzac. Hugo, Mo- Here, voltaire, Dumas. Maupassant.
 Life of Franklin. The fifth edition of Bigelow's Life of Franklin has been issued. This is the first correct yer sion of Franklin's famous memoir or the first six decades of his life. it may be said to be all practically the work of Franklin himself. It is a re- markable fact. that pretty much .ali that the world knows about Franklin. whether good or bad, of enduring in- terest. and pretty much all that his numerous biographies have depended upon the for the interest of their la
  Franklin's personal correspondence.
 The Accolade. This is a novel of Chaucer's time. MT. E. D. Pnelps the author. has strong mental affilia- tions with the worlds earlier days. He shows himself to be close stu dent of Chaucer. Shakespeare. Dante. He seems to feel. and makes his read CTS feel mentally alive and at home in periods which seem like a dead past to many a modern lover of today on- ly. MT. Phelps comes of old New England stock. He is closely connec- ted with many of the reading clergy men of New England. He Is both au- thor and farmer. Like Thorcau his chief delight is to "go and come with a strange liberty in nature" His life is pretty evenly divided between books and outdoor life. He Is a good sailor and an excellent horseman. It is per- haps his taste for outdoor life that mas helped him to enter so closely into the spirit of the times with which he has put his novel, for true all the world of Old England loved and lived in the gay greenwood.
 The Real Jefferson Davis. Of the first inaugural of Jefferson Davis MT. Langdon writes: Monday. February IS. 1861, there assembled around the State capitol at Montgomery such an audience ss no State had ever wit nessed--as perhaps none will ever wit ness. Statesman, actual and prospec- tive; jurists and senators; soldiers and sailors; officers and olhce-seekers, clerks, farmers, artisans; fashion ably attired women in fine eQuipages decorated with streamers and the tri-colored cockades; foreign correspondents, in fact, representatives nh Of life, eager to witness a ceremonial which could never occur again"
 As it happens just yesterday the scene of that inaugural was described to me by an eyewitness. President Davis," he said to me, was the only sane man in all that assembly. The people were mad. were crazed. Ru- sth Regiment of New York had been captured. Victory was the cry. Vic- .ory already ours"
 The star on the floor of the Capitol marks where the President stood that day. The Presidents widow has since many years been a resident in that New York whose crack regiment was falsely reported captured, and a, divided nation is one again.
 The New South. busy with bread winning, busy with building of cities and founding of fortunes, has hardly time to read or the heroes or US ASose Cause. This book is written in fine prospective. Therefore 1t has good claim on the readers of today. It ia utterly free of partisan spirit.
 The story is told of our hero's birth and education, of his service in the army, of his resignation from the army and marriage with Miss Sarah Taylor, her early death. Of his life with his brother Joseph Davis at Briarheld Plantation, his first appearance in pol itics, his declining President Folks of fer of BriEadier Generalship to join his own Mississippi Regiment at the dec- laration of war with Mexico. Of his splendid charge st Buena Vista which made him at once the hero of the south. Of his entrance into the Senate, his ac- ceptance of the portfolio of war in President Pierces Cabinet.
 Of MT. Davis's services to his country in this office MT. Knight writes:
 Only a brief summary is possible, but if we may judge by the reforms inaugurated, the work accomplished during the four following years, Jeffer- son Davis must be considered one of our greatest secretaries of war. The antiquated army regulations were re- vised and placed upon modern basis, the medical corps was reorganized and made more efficient. tactics were mod ernized, the rifled musket and the mimic