Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-21

velopment of the violin from it's earliest
known forms and showing how after it
reached the point of manufacture attained
by Stradivarius in the seventeenth century.
IL gained point Of perfection which has
baff1ed the art of all his successors to ex-
coed. 1t is, indeed. the one incomparaoy
complete development of mans handiwork.
The marvels of science disclosed since the
day of Stradivarius have not advanced The
art of violin making in the slightest The
violin is a marvel of strength and lightness.
perhaps one of the greatest wonders of
the human workshop. Subject to the most
intense vibrations and weighing no more
than eight and one-half ounces, avoirdu-
pois, it sustains a longitudinal tension of
about Lightweight pounds. and a vertical
pressure of about twenty-siX pounds, or
altogether a weight of over 100 pounds on
its chest. 1t has no parallel in the world
of mechanics The author apostrophises
the violin thus:
Eyes, what a wonderful thing is vioiin!
While in every branch of human knowledge
and activity every year marks new diScoV-
cries. and the apparent miracle of today
becomes the common thing tomorrow, the
violin stands where it stood three hundred
years ago, and every attempt at altering its
form or any smallest part of it has been u
dismal failure. Is it not as if for once hui
man wit had reached it's goal. as if the
ideal hid in the heart of God had for once
been grasped by MANI
THE NAPOLEON MYTH. BY Henry Ridgeley
Evans. Containing Reprint of The Grand
Erratum,' by Jean Baptiste Peres and an in
PRODUCTION by Dir. Paul Carus. Chicago: The
Open Court Publishing Company.
So meteoric was Napoleon's career, so
humble his origin. so exalted his rise and
so complete his downfall. that it is by no
| means extraordinary that about his name
| should assemble an atmosphere of mysti-
| cism. resulting from the eXaggerations of
| his admirers and the malevolence of his
| enemies Despite the great volume Of
memoirs written by those closely associated
| with Napoleon in his daily walks, and the
| flood of testimony from first-hand sources
| which has been available to students OF
| history and biography from the day of the
| great Corsican's death, a certain tendency
| toward apotheosis has prevailed for the
| past seventy-fve years until in the minds
| of many people, notably the French. cling
! traditions of Napoleon which are no less
| than myths. Mr.. Evans in his scholarly
paper here printed reviews some of these
myths and analyses what has come to be
known as the "Napoleonic Legend which
| will not down despite the assaults Of sllep-
| tics. Napoleon's career was strongly tinged
with the results of his SuperSttionS. He
| was true son of Corsica, and to the day
! of his death he chung to occult beliefs
| which argument could not shake. These
are reviewed in Mr.. Evans sketch. The
| book contains also a reprint of once ia
nous satire by Jean-Baptiste Peres, which
purports to show conclusively that Napo-
leon was not real parsonage, but existed
only In the minds of men, as a symbol of
the sun. With ingenious turns of phrase
he builds up a case, which is strong in the
logic of speculation and imagination. and
effectively ridcules those iconoclasts who
have ever since the worlds history began
to be written assailed the great personages
and the great events of all time. DR.. Carus
in his introduction briefly reviews some OF
these instances. The work is Illustrated
with scenes from Napoleon's life, repro
duced from famous paintings and drawings.
1t is a book to interest every student of the
Napoleenic period.
PRACTICAL POKER. By R. F. Foster. New York
and Washington Brentanos.
None but poker player could possibly
write a book dealing with the rules and
methods of the game. and 1t Is sign of
his sincere desire to better the somew hat
uncertain conditions pertaining to poker
that Mr.. Foster, who has an International
reputation as a worthy successor to Hoyle,
confesseS that he learnt the game in a
hard school, Although poker has been
prominently before the public for forty
years. and is probably more widely known
and played than any other game of cards
there is no wel1-eStabliShed set of laws gov
erning it. simply because, Mr.. Foster holds,
there are no clubs of acknowledged stand
ing that will undertake to father such a
code. This he believes to be chiefly on ac-
count of the old prejudice against poker as
a game of chance and the difficulty of Sc
curing it's proper recognition for what 1t is
a game of skill. In his hand book he has
collated all the rulings which have been
rendered disputed questions with any
degree of authority and has noted the time
and circumstances of their deiiverance. A
preliminary historical sketch is exception
ally interesting.