Evening star., 1925-01-03
The Library Table
BY THE BooKLovER

O01St DlSnOp IN AHeTiCd' WhOS
equestrian statue by Augustus Luke
man was recently unveiled at Six
teenth and Mount Pleasant Streets
had a career almost as picturesque
and adventurous as that OF CO.
loniai settler or sea rover. lie was
often called the Prophet of the Long
Road and the Man without a Home.
In Francis Asbury, the Prophet or
the Long Road" by Ezra Squier TIP
pie, the life Of this itinerant preach
er and organizer Of American Meth
odism is shown to have been as oe-
voted and self-denying as that of
st. Francis of Assist, who saw no
man save Jesus only" and set out
upon that journey of poverty and
self denial and obedience to the let
ter of Christ's command which made
him the most conspicuous hgure or
the thirteenth century" For 40 years
the slender, not very robust man
Travelled necessarily over all the
States then composing the Union, and
the roads in his day were not OF
macadam and concrete, nor was his
means of transportation q motor. His
faithful horses, Jane. Fox, Spark and
others, carried him over the toughest
of roads an average of about 5000
miles a year. His journal shows
that he went into New York State
more than so times. New Jersey.
more than 60; Pennsylvania, rs;
Maryland, so; North Carolina, 60;
South Carolina, 46; Virginia, "a; Ten
nessee and Georgia, each 20; Massa-
chusetts, "a, and into other States
and Territories frequently.
\ X
Some OF the dangers of these jour
neys are narrated by his biographer
"Asbury was constantly in personal
danger. Wolves follow him; his
horse falls; he crosses the Potomac
In an open boat; he Is lost in the
swamps of South Carolina-'O how
terrible to be here in the dark.-in
the biackness of the night he is
bruised by the trees; his saddle
turns and he falls from his horse
he fords the Catawba and finds him
self among the rocks and in the
whirlpools, escaping with difficulty;
through another's carelessness he is
nearly burnt up; he falls down
stairs: his horse, startled, throws him
INTO millrace and his shoulder is
hurt; a whirlwind, accompanied BY
haiistones, of such a size that three
stones filled pint measure nearly
overcomes him; his horse falls on the
ice, and Asbury's leg is caught under
him; night overtakes him in the
mountains, among rocks and woods
ana dangers on all sides; he has to
swim a long creek; ruffians seek his
iife' bullet grazing his head as he
rides through the forest" This life
of hardship and perpetual travel was
continued until two days before his
death at the. age of II, when "the
greatest itinerant of the ages has
come at last to the end of the long
road, and behold there is house
at the end OF the road, and a light
in the window and O. welcome. At
last the Man Without a Home has
found his homa"
X X
e. V. Lucas contribution to the
miniature library of the de luxe dolls
house made by British artists and
artisans for Queen Mary is the small
est book among the original texts.
measuring only one inch by seven
eighths OF an inch
1t is entitled, The Whole Duty of
Dolls" and many little girl would
delight in the possession Of this tiny
volume for her own doll house.
Among the rules whimsically set
forth by Lucas are the following:
1T is the whole duty of dolls to
comfort their owners. 1T is their
privilege, too. This is done mainly
by perfect placidity and silence.
No doll should ever say, I told
you So
Dolls should know that few owners
are as black as they are painted, or
as white. Most owners are gray.
A oolfs soul is none the worse for
being sawdust."
The complete text of this little
book, as We'll as that Of the other
170 books in the dolls house library.
IS given In the two volume descrip-
tion OF this unique toy entitled, The
Queens Dolls House." In addition TO
original limited edition, there has also
been published q shorter popular edi-
tion.
The thoughts perhaps rather the
feelings. OF Emily Dickins son on death
are among the glimpses OF q rarely
gifted and sensitive personality given
in THE Life and Letters of Emily
by Martha Dickinson
Bianchi AT the death of her mother
she wrote: The great mission Of pain
had been ratified-cultivated to ten
derness by persistent sorrow, so that
a larger mother died than had she
died before There was no earthly
parting She slipped from our fin
gers like flake gathered by the
wind, and is now part Of the drift
called the infinite" When her
father died she said in a letter to
cousins: Father does not live with
us now--he lives in a new house.
Ihough 1t was built in an hour it is
better than this. He hasn't any gar
den because he moved after gar
dens were made. so we take him the
best flowers. and If we only knew he
knew, perhaps we could stop crying"
TO Col Higginson she wrote: az am
glad there Is Immortality, but would
have tested 1t myself, before intrust-
ing him." In another letter she ex-
pressed a thought that recurs often
in her correspondence: "I dream about
father every night. always a different
dream. and forget what I am doing
daytlmes, wondering where he is"
Her favorite nephew died when he
was only years old. and two years
a1terward she wrotea October is a
mighty month, for in it little Gilbert
died. Open the door, was his last
cry, the boys are waiting for me-
Quite used to his commandment, his
little aunt obeyed, and still two
years and many days, and he does
not return" Her later letters are
increasingly full of death, partly be-
cause or the loss of many whom she
loved, partly perhaps because she felt
her own hold on life loosening. The
day before her own death she wrote
to her cousins: little cousins-Called
back. Emily"
X \
The large circle of readers who en-
1yoed Hendrix w. Van Looms "The
Story of Mankind" with it's story
pictures by the author, will be inter-
ested to learn that the Survey, the
fortnightly journal devoted to social
service, will hereafter have from him
a regular page of comment on public
questions with accompanying Wig