Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-18

detailed description of the expedition by
one of the leaders in the movement. He
! writes entertaningiy of the details oe the
preparations. the voyage the proceedings of
the convention and the impressions re-
ceived by the eight hundred voyagers. The
book Is reverently written and yet abounds
in facts and pleaSantries that hold the In
terest of readers who are not especially
interested In the circumstances of the en-
terprise. To all Sunday school workers in
/ the United States it is an absorbing recital
of matters intimately connected with their
! endeavors 1t Is handsomely illustrated by
photographs taken by Mr.. Tfumbuil, the
subjects having been selected not from the
standpoint of one who wished to picture
the usual subjects of interest, but rather as
a means of illustrating the most significant
and somewhat unusual exhibits of oriental
customs and places
THE COLOR LINE; a Brief in Behalf
of the Unborn. BY William Benjamin
Smith. New York: Mcclure, Phillips
| & Co. Washington: Woodward &
Lothrop.
| Taking as his text the so-callad Booker
| Washington dinner" at the White House,
| Prof. Smith has prepared long and in
! Some respects interesting if not persuading
| argument to prove that social equality be-
| tween the races in this country would be
! destructive of the best elements of our
civilization, leading to the Overwhelming
| of the Caucasian. There is no mstaking
| his earnestness which at times rises to the
pitch of vehemence. He writes as a south
erner of a problem which the south faces
today from variety of viewpoints. He has
| chosen that of the biologist, rather than
that OF the statesman or the politician or
| the sociologist the business man. He
sees in the negro, living side by side with
the white man. without higher and stronger
| barriers to prevent an approximation to
| social equality than exist today a racial
peril.
Prof. Smith proceeds from the basic prop
| osition that the negro is an inferior crea-
| ture, mentally, morally and phys. cally He
| argues that nothing civilization or law can
| supply can possibly affect this inferiorty.
| The negro, as he sees him, must forever re-
main of a lower type. Education cannot
cure his fundamental defects Race I'M
provement," he says is organic; educa-
ton is Extravaganza Therefore, schools,
| colleges and universities have no real part
| IN the process of solving the race problem.
Not even the industrial education afforded
by such institutions aS4that at Tuskegea
| which he praises with reservations, can
cope with the conditions which so alarm
| him. For industrial educa ton means that
| the negro so benefited will have right and
| a chance to compete with the white man.
| rms must not be.@ The negro must be put
| where he once was, distinctly in lower
| stratum of society, ard kept there to
| work out his destiny as a separate race
| employing for maintenance only the
limited means allotted to him by "a sternly
! represslVe system, 4without hope Of culture
| or rescue. ~ u.
The book is interesting as a contribution
| 10 the discussion of a YeXatious question
But 1t Is too dogmatic, too strenuous in it's
| arguments, too sweeping. in its conclusions
| and too uneompromising In its primal proD
osition to add valuably to the process of
! solution.
AN ACT IN BACKSEATER By T. r
Benson, authors of s"Dodo" SC. New
| York: D. AppIetsn & Co.
| Rather light In texture and slender in
| construction, this story by Mr. Benson.
who usually turns out strong novels deal
| 'ng with sturdy themes, will nevertheless
t prove dfvarting to the seekers after enter
| tafnment. By ''backwater' is meant a
country town in England, where slowly
| circle few interesting lives without imme-
/ date outlet to the great waters of the
| world There is SO little plot that the
| interest centers upon the personages the
| author presents, the figure of Colonel Ray
| mond looming head and shoulders above
| the others. He is alone worth the effort
! of reading the book. An arrant humbug
| he succeeds in fooling himself into the be-
| lief that he fools others with his preten-
| sons of connection with nobility, his ardu-
| Gus military duties in India and his
| familiar acquaintance with all the facts of
! life There are so many Colonel Raymonds
| u.
| the currents of life, that this portrait of
| the type is TO be welcomed.
| THE KAISER AS HE IS; or, The Real
| William IL de VeritabIe Guillaume
ID. BY Henri de Noussane. Trans
| lated into English by Walter Little
neld. author of The Truth About
| Dreyfus," &c New York: c. P. Put
nam Sons. Washington Woodward
x Lothrop.
| year or so ago there was published in
| English book purporting to be trans
| latlon, with editorial changes, of the diary
| OF woman attached for a time to the suite
! OF the present Empress of Germany. 1t
| threw bright light upon the lives and ac-
| tons and characters of the royal couple,
| disclosing much that positively Of
| fensive and little that praiseworthy.
1t might be expected that when d French
man undertook to write about "the kaiser
| as he is" he would be at least as en-
phatlc i'll his denunciation of William
| this ex-lady- in-waiting But close examina-
| ton of NJ de Noussane's book, well
| translated, discloses none of the il-tem-
pered though occasionally clever spirit
| which marked the other publication. 1t is
clearly an attempt to be fair with sub
| jcct which naturally arouses the keenest
criticism of Frenchman. In the eyes OF
j, NJ. de Noussane William ii is versatile,
vain, ambitious, spectacular man, by no
means an extraordinary combination. lie
| does, indeed, declare positively that William
| is the victim of mental malady. He does
| not believe him to be perfectly balanced.
| But he does not withhold from him the
! praise due to one who has continuously held
! the center of the worlds stage from the mo-
| ment of his accession and accomplished re-
/ markable results for the German people
| through his off hand diplomacy and his in
| defatigable industry The author pays
| tribute to Williams magnetism and the
| fascination of his personality, while de-
| scribing the eccentrcitIes which cause
| those about him to be constantly uneasy.
| He discusses him in all his phases, con-
| demning here and approving there, and
| withal in a vein of witty comment that
| charms even while it challenges the readers
| opposition. 1t is Interesting to note that
NJ. de Noussane asserts that William visits
! Paris occasionally incogpto, being strongly
| tempted by the destinations of the French
| capital which especially appeal to man
of his temperament.
DANIEL WEBSTER; the Expounder of
the Constitution. BY Everett Pep
| perell Wheeler, With portrait New
York: G. 2. Putnam's Sons. Wash
ington: Woodward & Lothrop.
/ rTbic treati ,,pnp he work Daniel