The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-05
SECTIONS OF AMERICAN HISTORY.


THE arrival of ten more of the fifty volumes
which are called The Chronicles of America
and which the Yale University Press is publishing
is calculated to make you sit up late in front of the
fireplace.
With these ten, thirty of the fifty volumes are
published. Each book is complete in ITSELF but all
fifty nterlock in an elaborate treatment of almost
every aspect of American history. The books
not scholarly texts, though scholarship is their
firm foundation. They are highly readable, and
often intensely interesting, narratives They do, in
the main, combine the excitement Of good stories
well told with the worth of important knowledge
properly presented.
Of the ten volumes just out one is the first of
the sequence Of ifty-The Red Mans Continent,
by ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON. Mr.. HUNTINGTON is
a specialist on climate and its influence In human
history. He starts on the lawn of Hampton Insti-
tute where you may see perfectly representative
specimens of three of the worlds races-the Ameri-
can Indian, the negro and the white He finishes
with the conclusion that I'm our own day the dis
tribution of culture in America meaning the two
continents is more closely related to climatic
pages devoted to a popular exposition of those
physical conditions which we told, have shaped
the whole course of civilization by compelling or
coaxing to migrate from one region to another.
How did men first get to the American continents?
Why are the Western prairies treelessf Can man
make any spot, short of the poles, habitable-as
our achievement at Panama might suggest? These
questions and many others like them are answered
by Mr.. HUNTINGTON.
We were struck, on page 19 of SYDNEY G.
FISHERS account of The Quaker Colonies, with the
enthusiasm of WILLIAM PENN in 1928 for the
neighborhood of Philadelphia. sob, how sweet!''
exclaimed the eminent Quaker, els the quiet of
these parts freed from the anxious and trouble
some solicitations hurries and perpexities of wofu
Europe" About 235 years later PENN would not
have said this The quiet of those parts was serf-
ously impaired by haste to build at the urgent
solicitations of woful Europe, ships to number
exceeding the fifty sail which, PENN reported, had
arrived within year On page As we cleaned in
formation about the people called the Pennsylvania
Dutch. agents. called 'newlanders' and soul
sellers travelled through Germany working up the
Transatlantic traffic by various devices, some of
them. ;" adds Mr. FISHER, mot altogether credit
able New Jersey began as New Cesarea at least
the difficulty Of translating New Jersey into the
Latin required for legal documents was circum-
vented by calling it that. The author tells US, in
speaking Of New Jersey settlers, that some families
it is said, can be traced steadily proceeding south
ward as they stripped off the forest and started
sawmills and eristmillS The Swedes who had an
early start in Delaware might have had some effect
on the later history of that State if GUsTAvUs ADo
Plus hadn't jumped into the Thirty Years War.
But the Swedes not, then and there at least,
colonizers.
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