The New York herald., 1921-12-25

UNKNOWN; THE BACKWOODS-
MEN JIM: THE STORY OF A
BACKwOODS POLICE DOG; THE
SECRET TRAILS; KINGS IN Ex-
LIE, and HOOP AND CLAW. BY
Charles G. d. Roberts. Eight uniform
volumes. The Macmillan Company.
EAJOR CHARLES G. d. ROB-
\H ERTS has a peculiar gift
= = for making one understand
how the animals feel, how they live
their troubles, trials and privations.
He knows and thoroughly sympathizes
with the creatures of the wild, and
has written of them in such a NOV
ing, tragic thrilling and immensely
interesting fashion that he has had
the well deserved title bestowed on
him of "The o. Henry of the Animal
World" Here we have Major Rob-
erts's animal and outdoor stories gath
cred into a new, eight volume, illus
trated and uniform edition.
About the author. Well, Charles
George Douglas Roberts was the son
of a minister and was professor up
to the time he entered the war with
the rank of Major. How a professor
came to be one of the most under
standing of backwoodsmen will be
partly explained if you will find Fred
ericton, New Brunswick, on the man
Douglas, the little town where Rob
erts was born, is near Fredericton
Imagine the country that stretches
north of the st. Lawrence, and south
to the Bay of Fundy. Picture the
course of that wonderful tidal river,
the st. John, and the depths of forest
that stretch toward the Gulf of St
Lawrence AS boy Roberts explored
this region and found the backwoods-
men much more interesting than town
folk, and the animals of the wild more
exciting than most books.
But the traditions of the Roberts
family were classical. His father was
canon of the Christ Church Cathedral.
his realtives were professors or minis
ters And his first teacher in Fred
ericten was the famous DIR. Parkin. a
striking personality, an imperial fed
eralist orator From his fine training
Roberts went on to the University of
New Brunswick, where he held q clas-
sical scholarship, and was graduated
in 1879 with honors in metaphysics,
ethics and political economy.
He was headmaster of a grammar
school for a while, then editor of the
Week, Goldwin Smiths newspaper in
Toronto. Then in 1885 he went to
Kings College, in Windsor, Nova
Scotia, as professor of English and
French literature. The land of Evan
geline kindled him to poetry. Bliss
Carman was there, too, and was Rob-
erts's closest friend. With Richard
Hovey, the American poet, they talked
until the small hours by the fire in
Roberts's house in the wood. They
formed the '..Arctic Club" a snow
shoeing fraternity, designed to get
their colleagues out into the beauty of
the wintry land
One of his students has described
Roberts as he appeared at this time:
His blond beard and brown goggled
eyes gave him the appearance of a
northern Frenchman, a Breton, with
the rapt myopic vision of one who
sees visions accentuated, yet evidently
muscular, an athlete who could WELD
paddle or turn lightly on the hori-
zontal bar. The easy swagger with
which he carried himself was of one
accustomed to the difficult ways of the
woods and wilds."
Later Mr.. Roberts was assistant edi-
tor on a New York daily for a while.
But all his summers and many of his
winters were spent in the wilds, from
east to far west in Canada. living
with the lumbermen, taking the trail