New-York tribune., 1911-02-19

tory is not a record Of battles and ora
tory, Of past politics." or heroes, but
Mr.. Hanna sets all this down once more
In order to be able to state his conviction
that the study of history can never be
raised TO the dignity of a science, and
that there can be no such thing as a
philosophy of history. He does not quote
Schiler's die Weltgeschichte ist das
Weltgericht," but condemns the senti-
ment it conveys as utterly untrue.
Having thus cleared the path, he prof
fers his own theory of the historians s
business" which is that OF Simply dis
covering and recording facts" or as Mr..
| Hanna expresses it elsewhere, written
history should be a phonograph to lived
history" AS TO the meaning of the facts,
it is "the business of the common mans
| philosophy to seek them, not to fabricate
them, as the writings of our philosophers
would lead him to infer" Finally,
having disposed Of the history Of past
politics and hero worship, of warriors
and statesmen, he sets up a hero Of his
own, the Trader:
Now, while our material civilization has
| been built UP by the pick the axe the
| plough, the spinning Wheel the steam en-
| gne and the historically ignoble Trader,
rather than by and notwithstanding the
| war club, the battle-axe, the Idealist and
| the Talker, II has only recently occurred
| to men that there might be a better way
| to learn their own race history than by re-
| peating unmeaning and ofttimes unmerit-
| ed eulOgies of soldiers, or attempting to
analyze. classify and draw lessons from
/ the shortsighted and shortlived policies Of
opportunist statecraft or prophesying the
rise and fall of the stock market in times
of peace by citing causes for the high price
of wheat during the Punic wars or the
| Norman conquest.
With this quotation, characteristic Of
It's general tone, we take leave Of the
/ introduction, to turn with real apprecia-
ton TO Mr.. Hanna's record Of facts.
He deals with what he calls the
growing age" Of the American colonies,
! from 1892, when twelve New York ira
ders seem first to have reached the Ohio
Valley. TO 1852. when five of George
Croghan's traders were captured by the
French Indians at the siege Of Picka-
willany The boundary war which fol-
lowed between England and France
merely SeINSu 10 tStdplioii tIip III
claims to the Ohio country, which had
in this period been virtually won by the
Pennsylvania Traders"
These two volumes are the result OF
monumental amount OF painstaking and
co-ordinating research. One regrets that
the author has not supplemented his
constant references to his authorities in
text and footnotes with a photography
Of them in their multitudes Wherever
possible the original records are quoted
verbatim. which adds greatly TO the pict-
uresuueness Of the chronicle. The first
volume is devoted 10 a description and
history of the region, "the debatable
land" as the author calls II. whose des-
tiny the Trader decided before IL was
settled by the fortunes OF war. and to
studies OF the Indians and the earlier
traders themselves, OF their paths into
the country and the towns" where they
transacted business. The second vol
ume gives no less than two chapters 10
George Croghan, the greatest trader of
them all, and to John Finley, the men,
Der Of the guild who guided Daniel
Boone into Kentucky by way OF the
Cumberland Gap. Mr.. Hanna here
prints the passages In the late DR.. Ly-
man c. Draper's unfinished life Of
Boone referring TO Finley. and under