San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-05
My ninth would be Strickland's

Nv ninth would be Strickland's
ELVES of the Queens of England"
Strickland is really two persons, two
English sisters whose six-volume, stou,
history burst upon our enraptured
grandmothers about half way through
the reign Of Queen Victoria.
They seem, from their decorous in
Productions and asides, to be the per
feet type of British governess, with
a Rollo-on-a-holiday flavos about them
that is isrisistibly Impressive. 'f':
Fsom Matilda of Flanders, consort
of the conquering William, to the last
of the hapless Stuarts, the Strickland
sisters work their conscientious way,
with an accurate, yet brilliant power
of expression that is an inspiration to
read. n 80
They plough through old Libraries
and old papers, they correct prejudices
and mistakes, and what the fur on the
robe of Anne Boleyn cost the privy
chancellor is as interesting to, them
as the fall, presently, of poor Anne's
head. '--
A Life Of Lincoln.
There may be many such old his
tories only know this one that rep
resents, from n woman's point of view,
the weaknesses, the follies the sins
and extravaganies that go to make
history.
That this same Anne Boleyn, keep
ing her temper for the few short days
until she was to give Henry, a son,
would also have kept her life, is in
flexibly pointed out by these maiden
chroniclers. ~
That Mary Stuart's son must in
evitably have inherited his aunt's big
throne, with no conspiracy-no i'm
prisonment-no shameful death on his
mothers part, they dispassionately
regret.
All humanity is here, short-sighted,
vain, ambitious grasping. blind, weak
and wilful, and in q confidential aside
l suggest that any girl who wants to
write may well spend h whole season
bordering over these curious old
pages.
And then last, Ma,aulay's ENG
land" or one of the magnificent bulky
lives of our own Abraham Lincoln
Or the best of our American histo-
ries? Or some fat tome about the
Civil War, so amazingly sensational
even in our sensational annals?
So there are the ten, and contem-
plating them, my heart fails me.
No fiction among them, traitor that
I am to the tears i have shed over
Resurrection" over "Crime and
Punishment, over adam Bede," and
DAVID Copperfield."
But fiction, 1 plead hastily, never
changes, and history and poetry do
seem to open up all life before one
more and more.
And even now 1 would go back, and
snatch out Milton, tc replace him
with the largest, the bulkiest book that
was ever written about the stars,
whatever it may be- Fancy the
island, on summer nights, and no way
of knowing what the stars were!
But not to have "Anna Karenina, :"
and Diana Of the Crossways," and
Mrs. Calderon de Ia Barca's "Mexi-
co." and the @Apologia," and Car
lyle's Revolution" and Cressy's
Fifteen Battles
Not to have Dickens. not TO be able
10 BldIlCc gdCk ut lHe slOfNns III
The Niger of The Narcissus' and
Tomlinson's "Sea and Jungle"
Discarded Favorites.
Never to be abe TO Tough through
"Alics-for-Short" again. and Adams
biography. and Saint Simon's extra
ordinary history, and Boswell's John
son!"
And others come. swarming about
me as / prove falls to them-Kip-
ling's glorious poetry, and marvellous
old four-volume history of George
~, written by con emporary who
alludes Sitterly to Victoria as "a chit
in Kensington, who must have her
missish reign unless all signs fall"
and Miss Austen, and Crawford. and
even "Trilby" and "Uncle Toms
Cabin" over which at least one
American woman still weeps annually.
And 1.-The Dolls House." which l
bought at the age of seven, optimis-
tic about the titles promise to small