Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-10
BOOK REVIEWS.
ON THE TRAIL OF GRANT AND LEE

OVVh uIUIIvuVs
ON THE TRAIL OF GRANT AND LEE
BY Frederick Trevor Hill. author OF
Lincoln the Lawyer" etc. IlluStra-
tons in color by Arthur E. Becher.
New York: d. Appleton & Co. Wash
ington: Brentano'S.
- OYS and girls should be led to
read this kind of thing in place
of much that is called text book
history. This is the true and
vital story of the two great men
of the civil war-Grant and Lee. The
author sets out by tracing the curious
parallel life lines followed by these two
Both had English forebears who emf
grated simultaneously to America. They
we're in West Point at the same time, in
the Mexican war together. Soon. how
ever, the story sets into the big common
channel of the twO-that of the civil war.
Here it was that both grew to the full
measure of glorious manhood. In trail
ing these two together Mr.. Hill makes
the best possible picture of the great
war. Grant in the west, Lee in the east.
Both together in the east, in a slow I'll
tanic struggle up to Appomattox. A great
story. What one marks about 1t here is
it's honesty. And it is the true story of
this conflict and the men who dominated
1t that can count One comes out of it's
reading with neither north nor south in
his mind. Instead, there is the renewed
pride and glory in the courage and
strength and honest groundwork Of the
United States man.
MODERN ENGLISH BOOKS OF POW
P1r
illustrated. San Francisco: Paul
Elder & Co.
book calculated on its outside to hit
the eye and hand. a small book, mellow
in creams and browns, exclusive and
charming-aS books go-in the quality
and handling of its many pictures. Good
taste" covers all that one accepts so
pleasurably here in the matter of book
externals. Its essence also is quite in
keeping with it's outside. Each essay Is
model of pithy, interesting condenSa-
ton. The first one concerns itself with
the vital quality OF all literature. upon
what this quality depends. how it ex-
presses itself 1t does depend, OF course,
upon the man behind the letter and the
pen This is what the author brings
out vigorously in this initial essay. Then
follows a series of critical studies-these.
first truly human, then fully scholastic
Ion certain writers and their writings.
Macaulay, Scott, Carlyle. De Quincy.
Charles Lamb, Dickens, Thackeray.
Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot. Ruskin.
Tennyson, Browning, Meredith, Steven
son, Hardy, Kipling-each stressed ac-
cording to his particular hold on the life
which he seeks to portray and on his
particular influence upon readers. val
liable study-scholarly, fresh. pointed.
THE WOMEN OF TOMORROW. By
William Hard. New York: The
Baker and Taylor Company.
The five essays of this volume come
together in amity through their common
concern in the women of today and to-
morrow. 1t is an economic study count
ing marriage. along with earning and
spending and wasting, as an essentially
economic subject, which it undoubtedly
is Facts of point and authority buttress
every side of this investigation. It's sur
passing quality. however. lies in the man.
ner of its presentation. Original. bril-
liant, sane, serious, humorous, concrete
a. blend that makes every page one con-
tinuous bedazzlement. After while of
reading one thinks he is being hypnotized
50 he gets -resentful.s Then, in critical
mood, he goes back over this glittering
heap. He picks up one sparkle after an
other. But every single one has a heart
OF truth. This study should reorganize
the Industrial courses of study in public
education, because 1t is in step with in
dustrial evolution. 1t could reorganize the
household on the same count This is Mr..
Hard's first book, he says. One holds
it.while waiting for another one of equal
pith and point.
LOST FARM CAMP. By Harry Her
bert knibbs. Illustrated by Harold
James. Cue. Boston: HOughton
Mifhin Company.
This comes close to being delightful
story. Just one little fly in the amber.
about up north. a fresh and appealing
love matter growing between a Boston
youth and Maine woods maiden controls
it. The discovery OF an asbestos mine on
Lost Farm spreads out a very con-
siderable plot involving an interesting in
dustrial situation of modern pattern. This
situation Is set up by way of contrast
against the primitive life of the region in
which il develops The characters of this
story are uncommonly real and believe
able. Among them is a dog, Smoke. "
which the author goes to great pains TO
make in the very image of most lovabie
doghood. He succeeds so we'll here that
the reader Is more than once convinced
that Smoke is as much the hero of the
tale as the hero himself. Then. in an in
slant of melodramatic lapse. the author
permits Smoke to sacrifice himself as
needlessly as any noodle of either dog or
man. And by this token the author
stands. according to our accounting, as
an unreliable artist. likely to perpetrate
any atrocity, secure I'm the belief that he
is living UP to the full measure of the
law of life and art.
THE BLIND ROAD. BY Hugh Gordon.
New York: Moffat, Yard & Co.
The Blind Road is a sermon, and as
such is likely to meet with the indifferent
regard that is measured out to most SER
mons. For so long as youth endures
and propinquity fourisheS just such mar
flages as this one will be made in haste
and repented through a long and dreary
leisure This Is the microscopic record
OF inDumerable cases. A haze of court
ship, dream of marriage, an ecstatic
vision, of honeymoon a nightmare of dis
thuSopment, A common story, of skill
ful build and knowing content 1t sounds
much like David Graham Philips-not
quite so ripe, but quite as real In intent
quite as circumstantial in development
II Is pity TO have good work like this