The San Francisco call., 1909-04-11
"The Apprenticeship of Wash
ingtOn"
By George Hodges:

bg george Hodges. Published by Moffat
Yard & Co., New York. Price SIPS
The Apprenticeship of Washington'
and ether sketches of significant colo
MAI personages deals for the most part
with the bypaths of colonial history:
the shady lanes which the hurried
reader passes by and which are only
discovered by the quiet student DR..
Hodges is a descendant both of the
Pilgrims and the Puritans and by oc-
cupation is a minister in the church
against which the Pilgrims and Puri-
tans protested. This fact may be the.
cause Of the broad understanding and
sympathy which he has brought TO bear
upon the subjects. He has made all of
them vitality interesting, and treats
them from a novel viewpoint.
Five essays make UP this book, THE
Apprenticeship of Washington The
Hanging OF Mary Dyer" The Adven-
lures of MyIes Standish.'' THE Educa-
ton OF John Harvard and The Fore
fathers of jamestown" It is in a par
agraph from this last one that Dr.
Hodges gives the keynote of his book
of historical sketches:
Between 1907 and 1925 5000 persons
landed at jamestown. In 1926 only
1000 of these remained alive Such
were the tragic conditions under which
English civilization was founded on
this continent. There was civilization
here before that: the French were in
Canada and the Spanish were in Flor
ida. but this was Latin civilization. 1t
differed from English in its theory as
to the right residence OF power. Ac-
cording to the Latin idea, power should
be centralized; it resides properly In
the hand of one man. According to the
English idea. power should be distrib-
uted: it resides properly in the hands
OF many men. These theories lead in
very different directions; the Latin
theory toward a monarchy in politics
and Il papacy in religion, the English
theory toward democracy and Protest
antism. Upon the success or failure of
the particular experiment depended the
whole constitution Of American life.
The men who died beside the James
river in the maintenance of that colony
died that English civilization, with all
that thereunto pertains, might live.
They were the pioneers, the heroes, the
martyrs. of all our liberties"
IL is delightfully."- human picture
which DR.. Hodges gives OF George
Washington. and young readers who
have been brought up on the never
told a lte' story will be relieved to find
that the father of his country had
nothing Of the prig about him. While
there, is no particular reason TO ap-
plaud because Washington could smoke
ana uiiuk dnO swear ana tell d lie IL
necessary. the historian sees no reason,
either. why the world should continue
TO be fed on the kind of intellectual
pap which il has had forced upon it
for so long. What harm can it do to
know and read the truth about the
great men OF history?
Mrs. Mary Dyer. Quakeress. was
hanged in 1860 in Boston by the Puri-
tans because she persisted in the right
OF free speech. 1t makes one ashamed
to read of these sanity Pilgrim
fathers who committed every cruelty
in the name OF God. They came (to
America) to escape a uniformity which
they disliked. in order TO set up an
other uniformity OF their own con-
struction."
The last paper, The Forefathers of
Jamestown is the most finished and
perhaps the most interesting of all DR..
Hodges accounts for the subordination
of that colony to Plymouth in the his
tories by the fact that until recently
almost all of the American historians
were Puritans. They wrote under the
influence of inevitable Puritan preju-
dices. In these essays this influence is
taken into account throughout.