Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10

TIDEwATER VIRGINIA. BY Paul
Wilstach, author of Mount Vernon, y"
etc. Illustrated. Indianapolis; The
Bobbe-Merrill Co.
AUL WILSTACH'S Underwater
- Virginia" comes as matter OF
course after his Potomac
4 Landings" Mount Vernon
Jefferson and Monticello" The
pursuit of these points in Colonial his
tory must have secured the authors
close acquaintance with the region
that in some hour of special intimacy
the. old Potomac confessed to the man
that it was not q river at all-not IN
complete and exclusive sense. 1t had
set out in honest intent to be one,
gathering into q single channel many
a stream from the western uplands.
That 1t was well on its way when, In
the fiattening lands toward the east 1t
was met by q direct challenge OF sea
tides, pushing and pulling in . persist
ence and power that played ducks and
brakes with a mere river current. and
set down the plain necessity Of compro-
mise and accommodation. And so the
Potomac admitted q sinister strain IN
It's river lineage adding, quite humanity,
that IL was not the only one, since all
the streams of the neighborhood were
of this mongrel implication. Gathered
ND. these bodies of water, river and-sea
with their land environment conSti-
tllte Underwater Virginia. physical
circumstance that accounts, in effect,
for the ultimate economic and institu-
tional character Of the South itself.
The tidewater made an open door in
land with settlement and communica-
ton its immediate work. The ships
Inl To- mr1Nz eoVy nf I4a
seventeenth century with the diScon-
tented, the unfortunate, the losers At
home, with adventures with the am
bilious seeking fortune, all crowded In
together, high and low. Coupled with
this as q significance of development
was the custom Of big land grants
from q remote and unmindful monarch.
Here Is the plantation" in embryo.
Climate and soil are potent factors here,
Tobacco and cotton move into the pic
ture. Labor becomes urgent when the
voluntary white slaves coming over have
worked of their debts and have become
the small farmers of the region. Just
then a benign providence, mindful OF
this favorite Underwater tribe, turned over
to 1t the heat-proof black man of
Africa, and slavery as an institution
took root and flourished nightly. It Is
upon this groundwork that Paul Will
stach works out the picturesque pattern
of early life IN Virginia. One minute
he Is the MISUNDERSTANDING depend
able in the recording of events that art
essential TO an understanding of the
scope and quality of grcwth in this
line or in that one. The next minute
he Is the romancer touching the So
cial life Of the South with the glamor
and charm that It's reality connotes
and exacts. Again he Is the economist
dealing with resources and their use,
with the achievements of the South as
producer and distributor. In swift ad-
vances Mr.. Wilstach touches the feudal
society the political philosophy, the
idealism of the South. He smiles.
family at its essential romance and its
heroic attitudes, at its sightless faith in
its own outstanding economic institu-
ton. Up and down the tidewater
streams this author goes, painting for
each its own city or other center OF
renown Richmond On Its Historic
ton Ended" The Ancient Kingdom of
Aceomack" Can enchantment OF q
story, THE Golden Age" Names and
names familiar to the history Of this
country here take on a new substance
and a new vitality. Old manor houses
come to life with the revived ac' ivities
of their lordly owners. Visitings. un-
known anywhere else in the world, are
here recorded both in their social sig
nificance and as common source of
ultimate economic distress and dis
aster.
There is but one thing to do with this
book. Read it. l have emphasized the
foundations of Mr.. Wilstach's work here
81
self. with the gusto of its spirit and the
drama of its projection 1t is. neverthe-
less, the realest of historic st'iSi'cs given