The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 21, 1904, Page 5

Establishment of Middle Colonies N prev ues of this page of book cr opportunity has attention to the | pro- the ended reviews of the first of these vo. 1 1 To the fourth tiom of the Middle s have been of- “The Coloniza- collaborators in this hensive history of the the stone age to the k of no easy achieve- gned. In the general ip Professor Lee has it te the work of author-* p in blocks, as it were, an epoch to t sacrificing continuity to the whole scheme. The ation of the Middle e other historians, has ite strictly confined. the nature of this catching the signifi- 1 al movements out- , save in so far as his own province, the uffers from an enforced lack o ve and scope of view; he o close to written or- f things without opportunity to s of the entire colo- Lee introduces the volume int on the lack of interest in the colonfal history of the States, Always, says he, has terest been divided between Pur- New England and Cavaller Vir- ginla, whose respective sons have not ce d in their laudatory exploitation of the early history of these two sec- tions. He belleves that this sectional particularizetion against the middle colonies has been due to the dearth of writers native to the district. The suthor of the present volume, however, takes a far less peevish view of the question than his editor with the ex- planation that in this, the middle zone, there was & blending of the character- istics of both New England and Vir- ginia, making economic and govern- mental conditions of a neutral order. This has led to a complete exploita- tion of Stats histories to the neglect of interstate or intercolonial records. The Dutch settlement of New York is given the first attention. Tracing very succinctly the earliest Dutch voy- ages of exploration in and about the Hudson, Connecticut and Delaware rivers, Jones emphasizes the strictly commercial spirit which characterized all of the sturdy Hollanders’' earliest exploits. They came pot to till the soil and build homes, but to strip the land of its wealth of skins and sall away to-convert pelts into dollars. Just when the Dutch began to consider New Am- sterdam & permanent abiding place, however, the author leaves to econ- Jecture. The formation of the Dutch West Indis Company, its powers, the in- suguration of the patroon system of land tenure under its instrument of suthority—these affairs give opportu- nity for a brief though fairly complete survey of the governmental idea as ex- pressed by Peter Btuyvesant and his predecessors in office at Manhattan. Though elaborating at length upon difficulties arising out of the old feudal eystem of tenure, the feuds and open ruptures between governers and gov- erned and all the rest of the strictly chronological, strictly dry facts of his- tory, the author fails to give any in- sight into the social and economic con- ditions and customs that made this new Holland of the West the most quaintly picturesque of all the colonies. Even though cramped for space on ac- count of the scope of his subject, Jones could have inserted a livening chapter on Dutch New York with profit to his work. That the record of old Peter Stuy- vesant's quarrels may be taken aptly as the record of his Governorship is rather a strong assertion for the au- - to make and one not dovetailing the word of the genial Diedrich kerbocker. Frequently,” says Jones, “at the same time Stuyvesant would be en- gaged in disputes with the English and the Swedes about territorial clalms; with the colonial patroons in regard to the respective merits of company and patroonship privilege; and with his own people as to what were the pre- rogatives of the directors and privi- leges of the people. When it was not 2ll of these disputes together, it was & combination of some two or three of them.” A hard character this, iu- ., ridiculous which m fest so ny times, th account of the Swedish settle the Delaware country is better r To Captain David Pieters de Vries of Hoorn a worthy old sea dog, be all honor for that hi load of Swedes was scharged on a Deiaware shore in 1631, and the little State-to-be was thus bhorn. Then came more Sw s and some prote: from the Dutch and from the English, hardy Norsks were settled upon body claimed and mnobody Then came troubles. Doughty ernor Printz fired a shot at a vessel load of New England Yankees and then, by way of making amends, charged them forty shillings—the pri of the shot. N Moens Kling, com- mander of a Swedish fort, led an army of eight men against Commissary Hudde, the Dutchman, and cut down all his apple trees. Comes then Jan s new vernor of New ., and signalizes advent by ng a fort hcld by seven sol- This story of the Swedes in Delaware is brave reading. After a review of the eve.ts leading up to the occupation of New Amster- dam by the English, the author takes the reader over the wider fleld of colonization and furnishes a study of the “migration of the oppressed” by showing the sources, the extent and the distribution of the many immi- grants which persecution had driven to the shores of the mew world. In this study we have a succinct review of the conditions that operated to bring about the self-exile of these peo- ple, and we are enabled to understand their peculiar dispositions in the face of their new environments, and so are better fitted to comprehend the parts they played in the upbuilding of the nation among whose ploneers they were., The Walloons, the Puritans, the Huguenots, the Quakers, the Mennon- ites, the Lutherans, the Jews, the ‘Waldenses, the Labadists, the Roman Catholics, the Palatines, the Mora- vians, the Tunkers, all escaped from the terrors of European persecution, and found in the early colonies of the Middle States and Maryland a refuge frgm oppression and in general an un- fettered llberty to work out their own success, while they enjoyed that lib- erty of conscience that had been de- nied them in their native lands. The events.involved in these migrations are ably outlined in the present work. A particular phase of this migration is treated under the head “Lord Balti- more’s Experiment, 1632-1685"; this covers not merely the moving cause of the establishment of the Maryland colony, but also the outline story of this privileged colony's progress for over half a century, Both the pro- prietury and the colonists were placed under liberal conditions in relation to the mother country. The early troubles of the new colonists with those of Vir- ginia and the jealous opposition of the latter are followed step by step. The beginnings of legislative power; the assertion of the colonists’ right to self- government; the material development ot the colony; its administrative regu- lations; its ecclesiastical matters, and its boundary troubles with Virginia and Pennsylvania are each and all amply Teviewed. Under the caption “Penn’s Holy Ex- periment,” Jones gives a detalled ac- count of the founding of Pennsylvania, paying especial attention to the nature of the colony’s constitution and its many Impracticabilities born of the founder's religlous and soclal bellefs. Returning to the case of affairs after the dethronement of the Stuarts in England, the peaceable characteristics that are usually attributed to the Qua- ker colony are not in very strong evi- dence as the author' traces the pro- ceedings of its Assembly In its relation to the proprietary and its governor. Gf course the disputes were in no small degree based upon dislike of the mili- tary measures required, but there was also the strong antipathy to expendi- ture for government, in spite of the material prosperity of the people. With the breaking of the sentimental ties that bound the people to the founder, there was greater need for discretion in the choice of the proprietary’s gov- ernor, and in Keith an excellent repre- sentative was found to maintain har- mony. The course of the financial pol- ROBERT W, 3 RITCHIE THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY 'CAL!}. - for from Behon, Sover, York pyy, Ko Worrzmers -~ icy of the colony is closely followed, and the growth of the mixed pepulation and its effects upon the prosperity of the colony c traced. Of course e have an appreciative notice of Franklin and his great services to the commonwealth he distinguished—this is an indispensable subject. The nar- rative covering Pennsylvania is brought down to the period of Wash- ington’s expedition against the French. Lord Baltimore's religious experiment in the founding of Maryland, the sub- sequent history of that proprietary col- ony until the War of the Revolution, and the settlement and growth of New Jersey—subjects of lesser interest—are treated in the measure due their im- portance and the author closes his nar- rative with the assumption of parlia- mentary control over the colonies. A word in general critic and “Colonization of the Middle States” is dismissed. Adequately has the author covered the subject and very closely has he followed the lines of competent authority. This one element of a good historical work is missing to a large de- gree: A reflection of the customs, social traditions and thought of the ti 8. Had Dr. Jones given this phdse of the task more attention he would have added to his book's value by just that much. (George Rarrie & Sons, Philadelphia; llustrated; sold on subscription only.) - riy An Old Problem STRANGE book is Morley Rob- erts’ “Rachel Marr”—a strange A book and a forceful. Though it is cast without fear into an atmo- sphere that is decreed by soclety to be unwholesome, though it breathes & dangerous iconoclasm for all ac- cepted creeds of morality, yet has Mr. Roberts’ story a tremendous moving quality such as very few novels of this day and generation possess. As with those who read D’'Annunzio’s poems of passionate paggnism and condemn and read agaln, so it is with him who pursues the love of Rachel Marr and Anthony to the tragic end. Here- in indeed is the spirit of the modern French school of the decadent pushed to its uttermost. Yet does one find himself caught in the swirl of this frankly avowed exaltation of the body over the soul and held fascinated un- til the final line. £ Rachel Marr is the embodiment of the elemental, the fundamental in the scheme of living things—a girl ting- ling to the finger tips with the raw wine of life. As unashamed in the promptings of her flesh as any Dryad of Pan’s train, still of the sweetness of" the seed bearing flower is she. For her the mating of all living creatures in happiness and the bringing forth of their kind is the supreme law of life; love is sanctified. Loving Rachel and loved by her is Anthony Perran, the man of reined passions, the relig- ious zealot In whose eyes mortification of the flesh is the only sacrifice ac- ceptable to God.. Here, then, the au- thor has for his motive the clash be- tween the law of Rhea, great earth mother of us all, and the law of the Twelve Tables. . At the very outset of his story Rob- erts gives a picture of the strange heart that is in this woman: “Yet how she adored the fullness of the earth and the ripe increase of the 20 Vipugoutto6 404 an Hongyr " Province, ang | o S resring, Word the 4:.' ¥ a 7 e s °:Iar;‘{:i4. Strigty s s, 4 1125 40d provigeg 1,279 o Obiery, the Supp., i Py on of che 703" o5t fl"""Neu.rM 5 WILLIA Oefeater. -breakmg, ete, < Library, Loy, p, FROCZAIIATIQN AGRINS T SWEARING. and Lopg off all el 304 Profner; P Cod, all forts of | the Laws "0lerity of chis every and 9 Cod, ang of = of G, STiY O this Prog By vanity, g eaive oy o i Relgon? 4350l s vy 12 Whollo Lo of B 10d thy'gg'jos2d che Bleing of Aot Vittvous. Dupor,a®d Joya i 10 olicn nc 107 Our pguce o Almig nd B, xt 8r0uing ‘PO generoyf e P08 e O0r eliveramce, O FOPETY and Acbisy . 1 bave ihe of Vice the fz A of the e, o » dated Apri) ranch. D, catnd <~ flocks and herds. The very cackle of the hens and the full murmur of their brooding; the mares and their foals; a litter of tumbling, yelping pups, ex- cited her as greatly as the sound of the ‘sen, ‘though to a softer, more in- explicable emotion. Little children she adored; those who were childless, she hardly knew; she rarely crossed their over-quiet thresholds: she did not pity them; they did not exist. A woman of the village only became a living creature when she bore life; when she renewed it. A baby was a, miracle to her. * =* * Her dis dain or hatred of the aged, which in- deed marked her strongly, seemed even at its greatest something foreign to her mind. It was rather an indiffer- ence than disdain, rather a fear than a dislike; she was so young that the old were aliens of another race.” So it is that to this young hedonist, this worshiper with the Sybarites, .there comes the overwhelming love for the ascetic, the man of iron will, con- quering the lusts of the flesh. Rachel, inheritor of a mother's passion, as she is of it the fruit, grows from innocence to knowledge, from girlhood to woman- hood in the strength of her love for this man of unbending puritanism. Out of sheer fanatical love of flagellaticn this Anthony—tempted beyond the limit apportioned to his sainted name- sake even—marries a woman of shriv- eled soul and thus sets barriers up against the great desire that is in him. How this causes Rachel to lose every grip cn religious belief, on honor for the soul's high province—this is the most dramatic portion of the story. Loving to madness, knowing that she is loved in return, yearning for the consummation of her passions, this woman, now woman only in body with soul dead, breaks down the barriers only after wild battling and finds her reward linked with death. Roberts has given a broad, vital background to his story, commensur- ate with the flérce play of passions therein. With the careful attention to detall of a Hardy he has put ‘the little fishing village on the Cornish coast vividly before us, its people living and full of the hard, raw elements of sky and sea. Pictures of crackling storms, of the swish and turmoil of the waters and the changing cycle of the seasons along rocky headlands make shifting scenery for the dramatic action. The homely life of the fisherfolk, with their rugged sternness of precept and lax- ness of practice, gives color to the cen- tral plot of the tale. In one respect does the author show lack of taste and in another a weak- ness *of style. A higher sense of re- straint than that he has exerted would have prevented his bringing the spirit of his book dangerously near to the typical Hall Caine quintessence of sub- limated tragedy. In his passages wherein the souls of Rachel and An- thony are seared by passion unre- quited Roberts “piles on the agony’— to use a trite term—with too relentless a hand. We see the two kept too long on the saw edge of despair. This same lack of restraint also permits the author indulgence in a style at times flowered and furbelowed as Colum- bine's crinoline. Exaggerations, color- ations, constant alliterations mar the strength of the style not a little. In one instance the author’s fancy even carries him so far as to depict Sigurd, the dog, with tears of sympathy rollintg down his face! . Yes, a good book to read is this. “Rachel Marr,” provided one is not foolishly weak enough to permit of its ca.d swearyn 5 &5 O the origingy) n the distinctly unhealthy philosophy’s find- ing root in his heart. (L. C. Page & Co., $1 50.) Boston; price Some Books of Merit and Others S that terse phrase *“with the lid oft" it has done service over- time In reference to everything from Tammany down to a picnic of the journeymen street sweepers. In its latest application we see it advanced as characteristic of the contents of “Tattlings of a Retired Politiclan,” by Forrest Crissey. “This is politics with the 1id off,” reads the publishers’ an- nouncement. Accepting this on faith as regards the thoukht in Mr. Cris- sey's work the reader may well quali- fy the style with the conviction that 1t is indeed literature “with the lid off.” 1If the old Governor, State solon and United States Senator Willlam Bradley, who delivers himself of the wisdom constituting “Tattlings of a Retired Politician,” is to be taken as a type of American illiteracy in high places then may we well fear for the future of the Queen’'s English in the high councils of the land. As a reflection of the pure white light of honesty and righteousness that clothes things political, whether in city councils or the halls of Congress, Cris- sg¢y’'s book is instructive. With de- lightful ingenuousness Governor Bill Bradley recites tales of “holding up” city corporations for franchises, of “buying” legislation in State assem- blies and handing Governors a “sack” on “the way low down.” These little anecdotes, which we are led to believe are most of them closer to fact than fiction, cannot but prove to be of real . practical value to cur respectable gen- try of the lobby. Here, for example, is a saw which serves the double pur- pose of pointing a moral and fllustrat- ing the graceful rhetoric of this ex- Senator, old Bill Bradley: “The man who lies down and goes to. sleep on the soft side of a political cinch stands a good chance of waking up just in time to see his hide nailed to the barn door by the fellow who couldn't sleep because he had to whis- tle in the face of expected defeat in order to keep his courage up.” (Thompson & Thomas, Chicago; il- lustrated by McCutcheon.) INCE some politician or keen- brained néwspaper- man coined L] —_— 3 “Unecle Bob and Aunt Becky's Strange Adventures at the World's Exposition” —this is the crisp, terse title of a typ- ical “Aunt Samantha” book with the Aunt Samantha spirit left out. Upon its blue cover the publishers announce that Uncle Bob and Aunt Becky are “rural characters true to life” A perusal of the first chanter only is suf- ficient to convince the fair-minded J . er's -QOpecs - reader that this is a libel upon any and all of our rural brethren. This book should sell well in the day coaches of Tailroad trains, but it will hardly ap- pear among the list of six best sellers for the month. (Laird & Lee, Chicago; illustrated.) “In syrian Tents,” by Louis Pen- dleton, is a very readable little story of the great captivity of Israel in Baby- lon. Interspersing many scenes of Ori- ental magnificence in the palaces of Sennacherib are bits of spirited action, culminating, of course, in the great miracle done by God and the release from bondage of the Jews. (Jewish Publication Society; delphia; illustrated.) Phila- “We cannot recall any book that contains so many new jokes as “Com- ical Confessions of Clever Come- lans.” ™ Thus reads the ready-to-run review sent out with this paragon of humor by publishers indulgent toward the critical faculties of the downtrodden book re- yiewers. Follows one of the specimen Jokes, already set up in agate type: “I plowed the land and planted every kind of seed I could think of—potato seed, pumpkin seed, bird seed, flax seed and sow forth. I planted two kinds of 2ggplants—hard boiled and fried; but they had hardly peeped out of the ground when my chickens got into the patch and scrambled them.” No, strive as he may, this reviewer is utterly unable to recall any book— save the first bqund velume of Punch possibly—that contains so many new and really scintillating gems of humor as does "“Comical Confessions.” (Street & Smith, New York; trated; price 75 cents.) illus- In “Connectives of English Speech™ James C. Fernald has made a worthy try at defining the indefinable. To ex- plain the uses of prepositians, conjunc- tions, relative pronouns and adverbs as connectives the author has entered into extensive investigation, even philo- sophic analysis in some instances, with the result that he is able to give us the correct usages if not always the idiomatic. Mr. Fernald does not accept the split infinitive, though he seems ready to. He states that it is a very popular idiom and therefore may become approved, and draws an analogy with the split in- dicative “it will greatly Increase,” which is to some perhaps not so veid of offense as the author thinks. We have never been able to see the use of lists of classes of verbs with the prepositions that go with them; the idiomatfc use of prepositions in that form is knowl- edge to be acquired from reading or from the dictionary, not from catego- ries. (Funk & Wagnalls Company, York.) New Some Sidelights on Literary Topics J OSEPH CONRAD has achieved what is probably the most note- worthy descriptive style of any author writing In English. He has recently allowed himself to be quoted in regard to his literary creed as follows: “It is only through complete, unswerving devotion to the perfect blending of form and sub- stance; it is only through an unremit- ting, never-discouraged care for the shape and the ring of sentences that an approach can be made to plasticity, to color; and the light of magic sug- gestiveness may be brought to play for an evanescent instant over the commonplace surface of words; of the old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of careless usage. The sincere endeavor to accomplish that creative task, to go as far on that road as his strength will carrg~him, to go unde- terred by faltering, weariness or re- proach, is the only valid justification for the worker in prose. And if his conscience is clear, his answer to those who, in the fulness of 2 wisdom whica looks for immediate profit, demand spe- cifically to be edified, consoled, amused; who demand to be promptly improved, or encouraged or frightened, or shocked, or charmed, must run thus: My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel— it is, before all, to make you sse. That —and no more. and it is everything. 5 If T succeed, you shall find there, ac- cording to your deserts, encourage- ment, consolation, fear, charm—all you demand; and, perhap also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.” Professor Brander Matthews has been at work on his “Recreations of an An- thologist,” which will be issued in the fall by Dodd, Mead & Co. This volume contains all that the author has been able to collect of certain interesting literary subjects, no one of which. how- ever, is important enough to deserve a T separate volume. re is a chapter on unwritten books, of which “Edwin Drood” ard “Dennis Duval” are ex- amples; re is another chapter on the undeveloped ers plots of gre. pigram t story-ieli- " “Carols of Stewart heard that hi Edward yet ent Place is best selling novel in the United St 5 enjoying a three montkt ping trip, alone with his br nta lara M rs. White, who ws abeth Grant of Newport, a tenderfoot compared to her experienced outd usband. It follows that are fust now of 1 the dram : ;!‘lnar: Jacks and e art of expression while tightening a “diamon Perhaps the fcal book of the tions and Letters of be published in Septe by Dables day, Page & ( It is edited by Cap- taln Robert F.'Lee, the oldest son of the distin Confede soldisr. The book presents for the first time General Le o family and friends bet the Civil War. They not timately a noble a dence with his re and during only reveal in- d chivalrous char- &cter, but show ons on sub- jects on_which s heretofora have not¥been kpow Particularly is this true o% the trying his e e trying times near the close of the war and after, when he Cap- had become tain Lee h ical chapte private citizen. °n some biog ies of his father's The * ollections and Let- ters of General Lee” begin with Gen- eral Le return from the Mexican war and close with Mrs. Lee's account of his death. Thus, his whole active military career is spanned. The book will be bound in Confederate gray, *tamped with the Confederate flag in slor: litles of the re- hy terious potion described inJ. A. Mitch s “Villa Claudia” have suggested themselves to several play- wrights, who have sought permission to put the book into stage form. Mr. Mitchell, who has successfully tried his hand at a great many things, including architecture, painting, {llustrating, pub- lishing and editing, has a mind, how ever, to see what he can do as a dra- matist, and it is likely that the coming season will see “The Villa Claudia” on the stage in a dramatic version made by the author of the book. The experi- ment will be at least interesting as a further argument in the discussion of whether the ssful writer can pos- sibly be a suc ul dramatist. Among the books on Doubleday, Page & Co.'s list for late summer and early fall are “Confessions of a Club Wom- an,” by Agnes Surbridge, an “auto- biography” that is arousing keen inter- est; “The Interloper,” by Mrs. Violet Jacob, announced by foremost British reviewers as a remarkable novel; “The Seeker,” by the author of “The Spend- ers,” Harry Leon Wilson; “A Belle of the Fifties,” being the memoirs of Mrs. Clay of Alabama; “Letters of Robert E. Lee,” edited by his son, and, nota- bly, Rudyard Kipling's new volume of stories, “Traffics and Discoveries,” and George H. Lorimer's “Old Gorgon Gra- ham,” which as a serial is now even more popular than the very successful “Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His Son.” The same house also pub- lishes a large and beautiful handbook to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a volume of 400 pages, issued as a double number of the World's Work for August. An unusual feature for a magazine is that three special editions are bound In cloth and leather. An interesting announcement is made by Herbert B. Turner & Co. of the early publication of “Professor Love- dahl,” a novel translated from the Nor- wegian of Alexander Klelland by Re- becca Blair Flandrau. Klelland, who is not so well known In this country and in Great Britain as he should be, is 55 years of age. He was educated for the law, engaged in the brickmaking busi- ness for a while, and in 1879 appeared for the first time before the public as a writer of short stories. His published works now rumber twenty or more vol- umes, and in all of them he shows the radical spirit revealed the most strong- 1y through his own countryman, Ibsen, and a wide knowledge of foreign lMtera- tures, especially of the French. In “Protessor Lovedahl” he handles with- out gloves a man of social and political power, who has made his way to suc- cess through hypocrisy, love of money and influence. 3 Will Irwin, co-author with Gelett Burgess of “The Plearoons” (MeClure- Phillips), before taking up journalism, ‘which is now his profession, had a most variegated life-experience. He lived in almost every State in the West, and earned his daily bread at a variety of professions. By turns he was cow- puncher, waiter, coachman, lbrarian, actor and many other things for which there is no specific title. He rubbed shoulders with all kinds of people in the under-world, and “The Picaroons™ indicates how broad his knowledge is of the rough West. Richard Le Galllenne’'s new book, “Painted Shadows,” will be published in the autumn by Little, Brown & Company, who brought out his “Love Letters of the King” a few years ago.