The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 17, 1904, Page 6

The Life Labor of Henry Dillard HE “Memoirs of Henry Villard” is a book of strong appeal. The American loves to read of a ssful fight, whether it be against a foe in the field or a niggard- Henry Vil- land of promise succe 1y anc who from his boy a millionair the resisting fortur lard the in Germany a poor out- and sans friend, 1 of - many ain of industry; that 1 that it is which striving this Villard's came to cast sans purse restless, side fror rec- endeavor have a value irs view. Few peo- this builder of Wall nds when th ‘Val »ondent in papers, Villard fighting It from the onal is rom his great ev ord ut sacrifice ealth intervened to ¥ Villard's comg n of his s t which he had only a of his ac- es 6 8 rief 126 ag th irops the vious and the we personal »hen A his life imper them s pu sona finding in strikes our im- te as to what Despairing of vinning k » his way of thinking ¥ or Villard, as he calle leaving fatherland, ) for America in 1853 without a groat in his pocket over and above his p oney with not e ge of the English within which this 1 does mot per- long series ¢ made both in van towns of what fore he succeeded correspondent of the boy in becoming the New York S g to “cover” the Lincoln- ates in Illinois Villard's of historic de- bates are somewhat meager, but the picture he gives of Lincoln as that great man first impressed him is one of the m noteworthy things in the K haracteristic frankness Villard says t he gawky, untutored backwoodsman disgusted him outright with his provincial manners and coarse speech “As far as all external conditions were concerned there was nothing in favor of Lincoln,” says Viliard. “He had a lean, lank, indescribably gawky figure, an odd-featured, wrinkled, in- expressive and her uncomely tace. He used awkward, a.- most absurd, up-and-down and side- ®ise movements of his body to givs emphasis to his arguments. His voice was naturally good, but he frequently raised it to an unnatural pitch. Yet the unprejudiced mind felt at once that, while there was on the one side a skill- ful dialectician and debater arguing a wrong and weak cause, there was on the other a thoroughly earnest and truthful man, inspired by sound con- victions in consonance with the true spirit of American institufions. There was mothing in all Douglas’ powerful effort that appealed to the higher in- stincts of human natule, while Lincoin always touched sympathetic chords. Lincoln’s speech excited and sustained the enthusiasm of his audience to the end.” So much for the Lincoln of the po- litical rostrum. As to the man in social converse, Villard is not at all backward in expressing his convic- tions. Saye he “I was introduced to Lincoln at Freeport and met him frequently afterward in the course of the cam- paign. 1 must say frankly that, al- though 1 found him magt approach- able, good-natured and full of wit and humor, 1 could not take a real per- sonal liking to the man, owing to an inborn weakness for which he was even then notorious and so remained during his great public career. He was inordinately fond of jokes, anec- dotes and stories. He loved to hear them, and still more to tell them him- self out of the inexhaustible supply provided by his good memory and of his fertile fancy. There would have been nmo harm in this but for the fact that the coarser the joke, the lower the anpecdote and the more striking the story, the more he enjoyed them, especially when they were of his ewn invention.” In a succeeding paragraph Villard gives another picture of the grat Pres- ident which is supreme in its essence of unconventionality, Meeting by chance at a lonely flag station near Springfield, the young correspondent and the young politician were forced to take refuge from a thunderstorm within a friendly freight car. There, with his lanky legs hoisted up about his ears, the future President con- fided to Villard his wife’s ambition that he should be some time the highest man in the land. *Just think of such a sucker as me as President,” roared Lincoln, rocking back and forth in his merriment. Follows Villard's exhaustive account of the campaigns of the war wherein spondent for the he acted as war co! New York Herald and la Tribune. Engrossed in the ing recountal of the terrible succe: er the inat- ion of momentous events which he wit- nessed, Villard has expanded the rec- ord of his pers observation into detailed accounts and comments upon the more important campaigns drawn rom close stu of the authorities upon both sides. His first battle wx the disastrous affair of Bull Run, then he became connected with the.army of the West. His description of the tremendous fighting at Shiloh is made striking by the assertion that Grant was unprepared for the blow of the first day’s fighting. ““While it was no doubt true,” says Villard, “that the Union pickets were on the alert and that their firing gave a short warn- ing to the Federal camps of the ap- proach of the enemy before the hostile host was actually upon them, it is likewise incontestable that neither General Sherman, whose division held the most advanced position, nor Gen- eral Grant had the remotest suspicion that the whole rebel army was within artillery range of the former. Wit- ness Sherman’s report by field tele- graph on that very Saturday afternoon to Grant: °‘All is quiet along my lines now. The enemy has cavalry in our front, and I think there are two regi- ments and one battery six miles out.. And still later in the day he reported further: ‘I do not apprehend any- thing like an attack upon our posi- tion” Witness, further, Grant's dis- patch to superior authority on the same day: ‘I have scarcely the faint- est idea of an attack being made upon us, but will be prepared should such a thing take place.” " Villard was present at the woeful battle of Fredericksburg and was the first correspondent to get the news to Washington. He saw the attack of the irons€ides upon Charleston forts - in '63. The battles of Murfrées- boro, Chickamauga and Chatta- nooga command the most able of all Villard's efforts. Though fever pre- vented Villard from active duty in this campaign, he has made an elaborate study of its tactical problems, which refiects very greatly upon the char- acter of Rosecrans, the commander of the Federal forces. With the close of this campaign Villard’s com- mentaries upon the war come to an abrupt end and the next and last book comprises a hurried resume of his successful career as a - railroad builder and financier. This autobiography, unfortunately an unfinished product, is a story to be read carefully and with appreciation, as it is in parts picturesque, at other times remarkably instructive, and throughout a narrative which makes the heart beat quicker and the brain leap forward in imagination. (Houghton, Miffiin & Co., Boston; 2 vols.; price $5.) ke or THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. EORGE BAR® ME Su—oyEoN DA~ of THE DOG The Encyclopetiia Half Completed ITH the publi¢ation of volume hoe,” are also chronicled. A page is given to Baron Horace Guezburg, to whom the Jewish communities of Rus- sia are much indebted for his work in their behalf. In history and anthropol- ogy Volume VI'is rich in information. Although considerable historical mate- rial concerning the Jews has been col- lected during the nineteenth century, there has been a lack of carefully di- gested records of the activities of the Jews as separate entities in various countries and congregations. To Pro- fessors Richard Gottheil and Gottard Deutsch has fallen the laborious duty of supplying this deficiency for all countries, America, England and Rus- sia excepted, they having been entrust- ed to Dr. Cyrus Adler, Joseph Jacobs and Herman Rosenthal, respectively. Under the heading, “Gregory the Great,” on page 90, one finds a brilliant article on the attitude of this eminent Pope toward the Jews, written by Dr. Hermann Vogelstein, rabbi at Konigs- berg, and joint author of the standard work on the “History of the Jews of Rome.” Dr. Samuel Krauss of tke VI the Jewish Encyclopedia o pydapest Normal School contributes compietes the first half of its total publication, comprised in twelve volumes. Already mention has been made in these columns of the re- markable scope and the schularly char- acter of this latest addition to cyclo- knowledge. For those who are of the Jewish faith the remark- able fund of archaeological facts and pedic not rabbinical lore offered in the special treatments of Biblical and Talmudic subjects herein contalned make the book of as great a value as it must be to Jewish scholars anli teachers. To state that the present volume ranges from “God” to “Istria” and contains 1813 articles from 194 editors and col- laborators must at the same tir.e dem- onstrate its immensity and the inad- equacy of any review which time and space permit the writer of these col- umns to make. Perhaps one of the most scholarly ar- ticles in the present volume is that on “God,” by the noted professor of rab- binical literature at Chicago Univer- sity, EmJ G. Hirsch. Drawing his data from the Bible and the Talmud and an- cient Jewish commentators, Dr. Hirsch herein portrays the original Hebraic conception of the Almighty, the inter- pretations of the divine character by the psalmists and prophets and the later changes in belief due to Hellen- istic influences and the incursion of gnostic thought. The arguments of the early Jewish logicians upon the unity of God, the laws of God and the ever- present, ever-living are all given a place in this comprehensive and ex- ceptionally painstaking review of a subject which has been argued since history began. Especially rich . in biographies this volume happens to be. Heine, the apos- tate Jew and philosopher-poet, is the subject of a biography by Joseph Ja- cobs. The Baron and Baroness de Hirsch, philanthropists, are given places. We have also here the career of Abraham Goldfaden, Hebrew and Yiddish poet and founder of the Yid- dish drama, as well as that of Jacob Gordin, the leading -Yiddish playwright in this country. The name of Leon Gordon, who has enriched Hebrew lit- erature with his contributions, is like- wise to be found here. And, oddly enough, the encyclopedia contains a sketch of Lord George Gordon, English agjtator and convert to Judaism, who is described by Dickgns in “Barnaby Rudge.” There is a sketch of Karl Goldmark, Hungarian pianist, violinist and operatic composer. The Gotthell family of New York, which suffered se- verely a short time ago by the death of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, is given its rec- ord, while the achievements of the fa- mous Gratz family, of ‘Philadelphia, which numbered -among its members Rebecca Gratz, the supposed model for the Rebecca of Walter Scott's “Ivan- the data for ‘Hadrian,” the Roman Emperor who suppressed the Jewlsh re- bellion at Cyrene and Alexandria, and during whase reign the Jews suffered a period of bitter persecution. Chiet Rabbi Dr. Samuvel Fuchs of Luxemburg writes on “‘Hammurabi,” King of Shi- nar, the founder of the Babylonian em- pire, and, as codifier, one of the fore- runners of Moses. In the short sketch of the life of Hercd Max Selig8ohn dis- credits the gospel story connecting this ruler with the slaughter of the inno- cents. Besides many articles on Jewish archaeology calewlated to be of interest to students only there is one of whim- sical interest upon hair,” its mode of dress in biblical times and religious and ethical significance. The rabbinical section of this article is supplied by Dr. L Broyde, who tells us that in rabbinical times *“a man who curled his hair was regarded as a vain persoi. At the age of 17 Joseph was still termed ‘na‘ar,’ or lad, because he was childish enough to curl his hair. -Elijah had naturally curled hair; his enemies, however, mocked him, declaring that he curled it. ““While Samson was filled by the Holy Spirit his hair,”” we are told, “made a noise like bells, and the sound was beard from Zorah.to Eshtaol” The anthropological side of “hair” is treat- ed in a third article, which is accom- panied by various tables showing the percentage of Jews in various European countries having blonde, brown, black or réd hair. Other tables treat of the character of the hair—whether straight, wavy or curly. Students of folk-lore will find in the account of the ancient Aramaic song, “Had Gadya,” a unique treasure. It would seem that the familiar “House That Jack Built” of our nursery days had its origin in this “Had Gadya,” or “One Kid,” which, translated, runs- in this wise: “One only kid, one only kid, which my father bought for two zuzim. One only kid, one only kid. The cat came and ate the kid, etc. Then came the dog, and bit the cat, etc. Then came the stick and beat the dog, etc. Then came the fire that burned the stick, etc. Then came the water that quenched the fire, etc. Then came the ox and drank the water, etc. Then came the slaughterer and killed the ox, etc. Then came the angel of death and slew the slaughterer, etc. Then came the Most Holy—bl be He!— and destroyed the angel of death that slew the slaughterer that killed the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burned the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid which my father bought for two zuzim. One only kid, one only kid.” “(Funk\ & Wagnalls Co., New. York; special price in advance of publication, per volume, $6.) The Lively Life TIRIAM MICHELSON, whose name is a familiar one to mem- bers of the local newspaper fra- ternity, has had publigshed a novel un- der the title of “In the Bishop’s Car- riage,” which is as clever and livening a plece of fiction as has appeared this season. \This piece of work alone should guarantee the author's final emancipation from the grind of news- paper life into the Elysian fields of fiction, the bourne toward which so many deSpairing faces are turned. This novel of Miss Michelson’s, the outgrowth of a little story of hers which appeared in Ainslee's Magazine, hits npon a decidedly new theme in con- temporary fiction, a thing, by the way, which is in itself deserving of especial mention. There have been stories of gentleman rogues and lady adventur- esses aplenty, but the tale of a full- blooded lady crook and shoplifter who finds her redemption out of her own heart is something refreshingly unique. Miss Michelson’s Nance Olden is as sprightly a young creature as one would meet in a month of Sundays. Miss Michelson has gone at her story in the right way. Instead of looking down on her plot from a distant place and developing her heroine’s character through the' clumsy medium of the third person, the author puts the whole story into the delightfully fantastic mouth of Nance, the waif from the “Cruelty.” It needs no lengthy disser- tations upon Nance's unhappy child- hood and the application of the sta- tistics of crime to account for her seemingly hopeless degeneracy at the opening of the story. - In a dozen words Nance tells it all and more, too. Her very first words are an epitome of her whole life up to the day when she rode in the carriage of the “dear little Bishop.” Nance’s narrative of her many ad- ventures with the crook Tom Dorgan is as exciting as a page from “Raffles.” Then comes her meeting with the vaudeville manager and her chance to shut the door on *“Crooked street,” which she does with commendable em- phasis. How she took a super’s part in the vaudeville, then rose to outshine the star attraction herself and finally found absolutjon for all her sins of the past in a wholesome love—these things she tells in a- bréezy, whole- hearted fashion that carries her in a bound straight to the reader’'s heart, To borrow Nance’s own phraseology for an instant, “In the Bishop’s Car- riage” is a corkin’ good book. (Bobbs-Merrill. Company, Indianapo- lis; illustrated; price $1 50.) A Fresh Breath Out of Arcady lF gentle Elia had lived more of his life near Margate Hoy | than in Threadneedle street he might have written something very like Halliwell Sutcliffe’'s “A Bachelor in Arcady.” The same quaint conception of life that prompted Lamb's dissertations upon London sweeps or the decay of beggars moves Suteliffe to' presume that cow language is infinitely more expressive than man language, or that a healthy row of peas in a country garden is of more worth than much gold. The sweet spirit of contrariness which makes Lamb’s essays so whimsical and of such an intimate appeal to the heart pervades this little country idyl of Sutclifte’s, touching off its seif-con- fessed bachelor cranki: and odd lit- tle egoisms of convic with just the of a Lady Thief same captivating cha.m. Sutcliffe’s eyes are for the country with much the same keenness that Elia’s were for the city; his story is a series of essays out of Eliana with the merest thread of a plot interwoven to give it modern form. The self-satisfied bachelor of the tale finds himself king of his little Ar- cady, a domain bounded by the walls beyond his pansy beds and cabbage plat and the good, broad eaves of his old country home. Herein ensconced, safe from the moil and trouble of the world and having no care but for his pea vines and the health of his go.nd horses and cows, the bachelor in- dulges in uninterrupted musings upon the worth of the flowers, the kine and the birds of the air to mankind. In the rooks which steal his fruits, the dogs which aré his henchmen and even the jovial beggar who/cozens out of him the price of many quaffings, the bachelor finds rare traces of commun- ity of spigit and blood brotherhood. To him beasts are far more tolerant of boorishness and courteous toward ignorance than men. To him, like- wise, the sweet companionship of the meadow, grassed over with waving green, or the tripping trout stream has a stronger appeal than the call of so- ciety. “What is so rare as a day in June?” is the armorial device of this happy bachelor. But there gradually steals over his heart the influence of little Cathy, the girl yet a child, but, sadly enough, very much a woman when he stands tongue-tied and stammering before her on the bridge of Amity with all his bachelor's harness of defense pierced through and through. Then comes the new light into Arcady; the daws are merrier, the trees greener, but the stupid bachelor knows not why uhtil at last the scales fall from his eyes and he sees himself ensnared for good and all. This lightly sketched tale of Sut- cliffe’s, with its absence of any weary- ing problem and its rich, full flow of nature sap, is as restful and invigor- ating to the jaded reader as a trip to the country. In humor, sly, evanescent quips and oddities of concept, it abounds. Feor its one admirable char- acter sketch alone, that of the crum- gudgeon Stylesey, it could be recom- mended were there nope of the many other attractive features which make it a book to be read and reread and then placed in a handy place for ref- erence on a dismal day. (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York; price $1 50.) Some Nonsense and Otherwise EORGE BARR McCUTCHEON G is one of those vefsatile young men who can report battles for newspapers and write romances for the great public. His latest manifestation “of genius is clothed in the form of as delightful a little comedietta as it has been the good fortune of a reader to lay hands on for many a longsome day. “The Day of the Dog” he calls it, and really a nice, genteel English bull pup and a broad, flat beam fifteen feet above the floor of a country barn in Tllinois unite to play the gentle god from the machine in this little entre- acts skit of McCutcheon’s. No more de- lightful comedy than this bears Frank Stockton's magic name. This is the situation: A young law- yer and the pretty widow whose estate is his care are marooned upon a beam in a carriage-house by The Dog whoese day it is. He must have her sign some papers in order that her rapacious “ brother-in-law may not swindle her out of her estate; the brother-in-law bopes to delay the law's course by keeping the twain upon their airy perch and so he will not call oftf the dog. There theéy sit consequently until “love finds a way” and they escape into the dewy night. This situation is capital and McCutcheon has made the very best of it. Some illustrations in color by Harrison Fisher and dainty mar- ginal decorations give the proper finish to a very charming little story. (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York; price $1 25.) Now comes again Wallace Irwin, San Francisco’s pride and the cham- plom Jightweight rhymaster of the *lace Irwin; Paul Elder & Co., United States and Canada, with a booklet of foolishness in verse which he calls “Fairy Tales Up-to-Now.” ‘With his inimitable disregard of holy traditions, Irwin takes the helpless little nursery tales of “Babes in the Wood,” “Cinderella,” “Jack the Giant Killer” and the rest and cxplains them [ ~~ from a modern newspaper point ol’ view. Thus with scare-heads in black | faced type it is announced that a walking delegate hypnotized the sleeping beauty and that an adul- terated food scandal lurked behind the suspicious disappearance of Lit- tle Red Riding Hood. To add to the newspaper atmosphere somc of the booklets are bound in newspaper matrix—an oddity which will be even a curiosity to the general public. Altogether, the collection of metric fantasies is quaint and amusing. (Paul Hlder & Co.. San Franciscoj matrix covers, 50¢c; paper, 25c.) “Practical Track and Field Athe letics,” by John Graham, athletic in- structor at Harvard, and Ellery H. Clark, American champion all-round athlete, is a little text book which should be in every college training quarters. In it the joint authors re- view each track and field event from the 100-yard dash to the latest feature, throwing the discus, giving in each in- stance the best methods for accoma plishing the feat and pointing out common faults which deter the would- be champion from exerting his muscles along the line of least resistance. An introductory note and a word about athletic training in general show the place athletics should have in every college and academy and the in- fluences which it has upon the bodily and mental health of those who par- ticipate in the sport. Fifty-two photo- graphs of well-known athletes in ac- tion serve as efficient guides to the text. (Fox, Duffield & Co., price $1.) New York; There are detective stories and de- tective stories, but for absolute riot of imagination, the piling of mystery upon mystery and the working of the plot machine Uintil each of its wheels screams in an agbny of excessive fric- tion, “The Yellar Holly,” by Fergus Hume, takes the prize centennial me- dallion. Herein the grisly cloud of suspicion hangs over eaeh and every character in the book successively, the heroine excepted, and from each i3 regularly lifted to be transferred t the next in line. Diabolical machina- tions are concocted against the hero by the plotting villains. Time and time the clew is run to earth, only to prove a false one. The author certainly ful- fills all the requirements of a good de- tective story by making the mystery impenetrable until the last chapter, but a reader must have a healthy mental equipment to follow through with the maze to the last. (G. W. Dillingham & Co.; New York; price $1 50.) NewBooks Received A KNIGHT OF COLUMBIA—Gen« eral Charles King; the Hobart Com- pany, New York; illustrated. LETTERS FROM A SON TO HIS SELF-MADE FATHER—Charles Eus- tace Merriman; the Robinson Luce Company, Boston; illustrated. ‘ THE MIDDLE WALL—Edward Marshall; G. W. Dillingham Company, New York; illustrated; price $1 50. QUINTUS OAKES—Charles Ross Jackson; G. W. Dillingham Company, New York; price $1 50.) STRONG MAC—S. R. Crockett; Dodd, Mead & Co., New York; illus- trated; price 31 50. THE DARROW ENIGMA—Melvin S. Severy; Dodd, Mead & Co., New York; illustrated; price $1 50. THE DAY OF THE DOG—George Barr McCutcheon; Dodd, Mead & Co., New York; illustrated in color; price $125. WHEN A MAID MARRIES—La- vinia Hart; Dodd, Mead & Co., New Xork; price $1. THE BRIDE OF GLENDEARG—AI- lan Mclvor; W. J. Ritchie, New York. ROBERT CAVELIER—Willlam Dana Orcutt; A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago; illustrated; price $1 50. PRACTICAL TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETICS—John Graham and Ellery H. Clark: Fox, Duffield & Co., New York; illustrated; price $1 AMERICAN PROBLEMS—Joseph A. Vance; the Winona Publishing Com- pany, Chicago; price 76 cents. PHYSICAL TRAINING FOR WO- MEN-—H. Irving Hancock; G. I'. Put- nam's Scns, New York; illustrated; price $1 25. THE THEATRICAL PRIMER—Har- old Acton Vivian; G. W. Dillingham & Co., New York; illustrated; price 75c. TWISTED HISTORY — Franle C. Voorhies: G. W. Dillingham & Co., New York; illustrated; price $1. FAIRY TALES UP-TO-NOW—Wal- San Francisco; bound in matrix, price 50c; bound in paper, price 25c. FROM PARIS TO NEW YORK BY LAND—H. de Windt; F. Warne & Co., New York; illustrated; price $3. FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION —Charles W. Smith; P. 8. King & Son, London; price 2s 6a