The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-23
FURTHER AMERICAN CHRONICLES.


1918, the first ten published volumes of the series
of popular histories called The Chronicles of Amer
ica 1t was our endeavor to bring them to the at
tcntion of many persons as possible for the
simple reason that they made history not merely
palatable but appetzing. Ten more volumes of the
fifty projected have just been put forth We shall
speak of the first five of these to-day and the rest
in another article; but before we begin about them
let it be recorded that the publisher is the Yale Uni
versity Press and the price is $3.50 volume, it be-
ing necessary to subscribe for the series.
THE Spanish Conquerors."
1.-THE Spaniard of the fifteenth century rs reeog-
nizable by well-defned traits he was primitive he
was proud, be was devout, and he was romantic,
commences IrvNG BERpINE RIcHMAN in his &C.
count of The Spanish COnqaerors. He completes
his X-ray of the fifteenth century Spsniard with
lust one more sentence: H His primitiveness we
detect in his relish for blood and suffering; his
pride in his austerity and exclusveness his devout
mess in his mystical exatation Of the Church, and
his romanticsm in his passion for adventure"
The rest of the 215 pages of the text (none of
these histories is long, are given to lively account
of that passion for adventure which laid the
foundations for wonderful if short-lived world
India where there be trees which bear men and
women like fruit upon them when the
wind blows they be fresh, but when it does not
blow they ale all dried up ADAMS footprint
could be seen in Ceylon and NoAH's ark rested
Oh the summit of Ararat. If these wonders did
actually have no existence men who heard Of them
heard also and with truth of things just as amaZ-
ing; men lived to see a South American barbarian
fill room nine feet high with heaped gold which
melted down at $15,500 600 of our money. Others
saw approach ambassadors sent to demand human
sacrifices. "Their shining hair was gathered up
as though tied on their heads, and each one was
smelling the loses that he carried. But at the
sight of horses these aesthetic savages MORALLY
afraid The fiction of mankind contains nothing so
startling and incredible as CoRTEs' S conquest OF
Mexico and PIsARRo's subjugation of Peru. Mr..
RIcHMAN retells these matters we'll and very prop
erly entices the reader back to- PREsCoTT and GER
tain chapters of JOHN FIsKE's The Discovery of
America.
"The Fathers of New England"
1t is not necessary to join in the cant of those
who continually cry out against "Purltanism
(which they regard as pernieiously active to-day
to recognize that early New England life has been
ai,surdly idealized by many writers-perhaps most
BY the writers of school histories and books for
boys and girls. 1t TO us that in The Fathers
of New England by CHARLES NJ. ANDREWS, an
honest balance is struck Mr.. ANDREWS remarks
that New England was probably overstocked
with men of strong minds and assertive DISPOSE
tions.' He adds: "There was always something
of the nquisitor at Boston and of the monk at
Plymouth, and in all the Puritan colonies there
prevailed self satisfied sense of Importance as the
chosen of GoD'; Yet hardly fifth Of the people
of Massachusetts were professed Christians. Toler
ance could be found only in Rhode Island Igno-
rance was profound. 1t remains true, nevertheless,
that these people "were in the main men and
women of good sense, sobriety, and thrift, who
worked hard, squandered nothing, feared COP and
honored the King" Mr.. ANDREWS traverses New
England history from 1920 to 100 and makes 1T
as interesting as the subject will allow.
Dutch and English on the Hudson
A more picturesque theme is handled by MAUD
WnbER GooDwIN, the novelist ibid you never read
-Four Roads to Paradise y, in Dutch aud English
or ire Hudson. Her book opens, naturally, with