The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-04

MY LARGER EDUCATION. REVIEWED FOR THE BOOK SHELF BY PROF. CHARLES A. BROWN Or
 THE BIRMINGHAM HIGH SCHOOL. Bv Booker T. Washington. Illustrated.
 Doubleday. Page & Company, New
 York
 My Larger Education" of Booker T. Washington's is a continuation of his ap- tobographical narrative, "Up From Slav- cry" which was published some years ago. and, as he says. is written "to com plete the story of my education which l began in that book: to answer the ques- tons as to how | worked out for myself the educational methods which we are using at Tuskegee; and. finally, to illus trate for the benefit of the members of my own race, some of the ways in which people who are struggling upward may turn disadvantages into opportunities. how they may gain within themselves something that will compensate them for what they have been deprived of from without"
 The record shows that his education hes been very realistic and has progressed with his work as it has brought him in contact with linen and things" The les sons have been learned from Human .n- stitutions, politics, newspapers, and from educational and social problems of va rious kinds" A large part of the book devoted "exceptional white men," and he grate- fully records his indebtedness to William IT. Baldwin, Jr., of Washington, pr. J. L. M Curry of Alabama, MT. John M. Parker of New Orleans, Col. Henry Watterson Of Kentucky, ex-President Roosevelt and others to a number of exceptional ne groes: to high and low" he met in his travels in Europe; to educational authoff- ties of Denmark, and to educational cam paigns in the south.
 The book is an interesting narrative or the experiences of a man who realized that his first and fundamental problem was "how to deal with public opinion on the race question:" Some of the members of his own race wanted to know why he proposed to teach their children to work?' These wanted him to provide kind of education that would enable their children to live without working Some Of the white people of the south were opposed 10 any kind of education for the negro, while some of the white people of the north feared that the kind of education he proposed would produce merely "hew CTS of wood and drawers of water" and would not 'prepare the negro to take his place in the community as man and cit izen' To reconcile and unite these antagonistic opinions, and to gain the good wi lof the people in all sections in his effort to up- lift the negro race Dr. Washington has displayed great ability, unusual tact, marked patience. and unbounded faith in his mission. The great industrial school at Tuskegee stands as monumen to his success in overcoming obstacles that con fronted him in his work ny Larger Education" as result of the accoE- plishment In the development of an earn est and sincere educator, is a valuable contribution to the literature of the race as n la- gogical achievement.
 THE LOG OF THE EASY WAY" By John l.. Mathews. Illustrated from photographs by the author. Small, May nard x Company, Doston.
 MT Mathews and his bride built q small "santy boat" or house boat, and going on board the day of their marriage, drift ed down the Chicago Drainage Canal, down the Illinois river, and then on down the Mississippi to New Orleans, livins life of idyllic charm for four or five months. Here and there they had adven- lures, and they found plenty to interest them in every mile of the journey. They were young, impressionable. eager
 MT. Mathews has put all these things into his narrative. His pages turn as cas- fly as his drifting boat passed along it's course, and when you have turned the last page you feel as if you had made the trip
 
 You come to know, as if at first hand, the life of the river world. It is always picturesque. It has it's humors, its modes of work, it's freedom, It's individuality, and you are surprised when you realize how little you have known of it outside of the books of Mark Twain. The people you meet are interesting; store boat keep CTS, travelling, traders and photographers, medicine men, fishermen. junk collectors and iunk thieves "shanty boat" dwellerS Of all sorts, an occasional traveller for peasure-all are here. As you read you become deeply versed in currents, eddiss, sandbars, caving banks, wind storms-all the idiosynerasies of the river route. And pervading the narrative throughout, to the reader no less than to the writer as he tells of the adventures they had, is the lure of the great river.
 Tn this delightful recital of events We have Life on the Mississippi" as it is today. and to those, who have any of the spirit of vagabondase in their make up, they will be delighted with what MT. Mathews has to say of such a life.
 We might go farther and say any one fin whom the spirit of adventure exists in any degree, will enjoy and appreciate this pleasant record of a trip in a "shantS boat"
 MT. Mathews has told his experiences rather differently from the general run of authors who write books of remnis- cences and scintillating with amusing narratives and unusual experiences, tho trin shows the "Father of Waters" up in an entirely different light from what we would expect.
 One feels the eternal fascination or the water and the blue sky and the thrlll or intimate association with both-
 When at last the seven months of drift