Putnam patriot., 1929-04-11

have so excellent a portrayal of the times.
 When the Civil War broke out. al though Mir. Tyler had previously re- signed from the army, and was al ready over sixty years of age, he has tened to place his services at the dis posal of the government, and served throughout the war with distinction, Achieving the rank of General.
 An Interesting Episode
 An interesting episode of this pe- riod is to be found in a conversation between General Tyler and Lincoln at the close of the lengthy court mar tial of General Buell.. In the ante room of the war department, not long after the trial, the President challeng- ed General Tyler as to whether the latter had any matter worth report ing after such a protracted investiga- tion.
 'I think so, Mir. President" re- piled General Tyler, and reviewed the defeat of Buell. with eighty-three thousand men by Bragg with ten thousand.
 "Well, now, Tyler" said the Presi- dent. ''what is the meaning of this whats the lesson?"
 MT. President" said the General, there is a lesson. Bragg's little force was superior to ours because be had it under control. If man left his ranks, he was punished; if he de serted, he was shot. We have nothing of the sort. If we attempt to hang a deserter you pardon him, and our army is without discipline"
 The President looked troubled
 "Why do you interfere?" General Tyler continued. "Congress has talk en from you all responsibility"
 ''Yes, eonfound itr' said the Presi- dent impatiently, "they have taken the responsibility, and left the women to howl about me"
 There is much more of interest in the life of Daniel Tyler, 4th. He was in England at the outbreak of the Fran cO-prussian War in 1870. Going ten miles in to the country, to see camp of eleven thousand French prisoners, he reports s'how well the Prussians were treating their captives." He spent year travelling in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. He dined with Garibaldi. who gave the health of General Grant as toast. General Tyler's friend, Donald C.. Mitchell, "Ik. Marvel" writes inter estingly and affectionately of him.
 But. though 1t is the first forty five pages of this book relating to our own environment that is of special interest to Patriot readers, the re- maining and major portion of the volume cannot be overlooked. The writer's maternal ancestors were in no sense less interesting than the pa- ternal branch, except for the soil from which they sprang.
 The Tylers and the Putnams were no more interesting than the Lees and the Leightons, save that the former are our own.
 The Age of Innocence in New York Paris under the Second Empire sea faring and travelling in England and on the continent in the early days of the past century; such experiences afford interesting reading, however WE belittle them in favor of our own hills and meadows, villages and farm lands. and those who peopled them.
 Fetes celebrating the enthronmeni of Louis Napoleon; the Opera in Par is. prevailing modes. itineraries rife with interest, pages rich Tn distin- guished names and places; and all elo quent of the flight of time and kal. eidoscopic changes in morals and manners: Such is the valuable record of the major portion of American Backlogs.
 Dreams of Home
 1 Poor little Gertrude Tyler cast away in school in Parisl You dc not know" she writes to her mother, "how often l dream of home, and, as there is a rooster nearby that crows exactly like Ned's Cochin China, wake up saying, What noise Ned's rooster does maker
 "You cannot imagine how dreadful the weather isl It rains half the time. and the other half we are festooned with fogs, such as you have never seen. It is perfectly dismall If We have one pleasant day a week we think we are very fortunate" This in 1852, just as our globe trotters are complaining nearly eighty years at- ter.
 "They have now fine opera at Castle Garden" writes Gertrude's mother. q heard Stiffanove in Nor ma. They say she is the best Norma that has been in America, but l pre- fer Alboni's singing "Casta Diva, 7 although l heard Jenny Lind sing it. !"
 The correspondence of Gertrude Tyler is of such human interest, as well as historical, that it goes far towards outshining matter of more seeming importance such as the Log of the Fair American commanded by Gertrude Tyler's grandfather, Ben iamin Lee, whose papers were signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary ot State. This log records a voyage of more than 300 days.
 Extracts from later journal. writ ten bv Isaac Carew, Gertrude Tyler 3 father-in law, relating to a voyage 70 England in 1915 are not less interest. ing. though the entries are terse and less colored by personality
 It is evident that a volume, which, like this American Baeklogs, com nrises records of so many lives, must be of varied interest. The reader with n flair for humanity will enJoy every page; the historian hnds much to his enlightenment; the antiguariaa, a great deal of local interest, II is N ' a s.Hf