HISTORIC AND SOCIAL JOTTINGS If we of this stirring generation were suddenly jolted backward to the time when the art of writing consisted in painting with different kinds of ink, or when events were recorded by planting trees or throwing stones into a pile, we should begin to appreciate our current privileges. Visitors at the British Museum are often entertained by the examination of specimens of the earliest modes of writing on bricks, tiles, tables of stone, ivory, the bark of trees, and the leaves of trees. In the Sloanian Library is a Nabob's letter on a piece of bark, about two yards long, and richly ornamented with gold. There are also several copies of the Bible written on palm leaves. The ancients appear to have written on any leaves they could find adapted to the purpose. Hence the name leaf, of a book, referring to a tree, was derived. The Babylonians made their contracts of business on tiles or broken pots. The treaties between the Romans, Spartans, and the Jews were written on brass. The speech of Claudius, engraved on a plate of bronze, is preserved in the town-hall of Lyons, in France. There are wooden manuscripts which must have existed prior to 1423. In the shepherd state people wrote with thorns and awls; then they invented an iron bodkin. After that the stylus came into use, made sharp at one end to write with, and blunt and broad at the other for effacing and correcting. But the Romans found these sharp instruments dangerous, as vicious persons used them for daggers. A schoolmaster was killed on one occasion with them in the hands of his own scholars. With the roll of the centuries every possible facility has been provided for perfection in writing and for the manufacture of books. Now the most important question before the rising generation is "how to write." A great number of well educated and ambitious people are constantly besieging and seeking to enter the literary profession. Some of them have genius, taste and aptitude, while many are groping in the dark. A few, possibly, are impressed with the fact, on the start, that there is no excellence reached in any branch of literature without great labor. Others fancy they can climb the ladder and perch on the to pround with very little effort and without any previous schooling or guidance. They fail. Some try again and again, and learn the lesson of application at last, which would have saved them a score of troubles had it been vigorously attacked and conquered in the beginning. To the task of interesting and aiding all literary workers with hints, suggestions, and practical advice, The Writer is devoted, as for instance, in its October number is an article entitled, "How to write a story," the author of which says: "There is one encouraging feature about writing stories which lends a ray of hope to sustain the young writer in his efforts. In no other field of literature is success so directly the result of cultivation and determined zeal; for there is a literary mechanism about the work which cannot be disregarded, and the secret of which can be acquired only by patient and persistent study." Then comes a hint to be remembered: "Nothing wears so much upon a reader as to have long and tedious descriptions of people who never by a word or a deed ascribed to them really impress us as the living creatures represented." Better still is the positive advice given: Never locate a story amid surroundings with which you are not perfectly familiar. In these days of extensive travel any error which you are liable to make in regard to places will be easily discerned and criticised." One of the most charming books of the current month is McCulloch's Men and Measures of Half a Century, in which the author seems to be telling a succession of stories almost entirely without reference to himself, or, as some one has remarked, "it is like the after-dinner talk of a man of affairs, a man of ideas, of vigorous thought and decided action." He says: "The only time I ever heard Mr. Webster in Faneuil Hall was at a meeting of which Mr. Otis was chairman, soon after the veto by President Jackson of the bill making appropriations for the extension of the national road to the Mississippi. In speaking of the nationality of the enterprise, of the necessity of it as a means of communication between the Eastern and Western States, Mr. Webster said: There is no road leading everywhere; no road over which everybody or even a majority of the people travel, except, except '—and here he seemed to be at a loss for a word-'except the road to ruin,' interjected Mr. Otis, in his clear and penetrating voice. Except the road to ruin,' shouted Mr. Webster, and that's an administration road!' When down came a thousand feet upon the floor of the grand old hall, with an emphasis that made its thick walls tremble as if struck by a thunderbolt." Such writings are infinitely superior to stories short or long-of any description wrought simply out of the inner consciousness of immature minds. If young writers would only cultivate a better knowledge of the world's affairs, their chances of success in literary ventures would be materially advanced. McCulloch left his New England home in 1833 for life in the West. That was fifty-five years ago. He says: "Within the period named the population of the United States has been more than twice doubled. Sixteen States have been added to the Union, and what was then the far distant West has become the centre of population and political power." There was but one railroad then in all New England, the road between Boston and Providence. Mr. McCulloch records : In 1832 I listened to an argument made before the House Committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts, by Jeremiah Mason, in favor of a bill for the incorporation of a company to construct a railroad from Boston to Salem. The bill was violently opposed by a turnpike company, on the ground that its passage would be an infringement of the chartered right of the company to control the traffic between the two cities." An amusing anecdote is told in this connection: "Ichabod Bartlett, a contemporary of Jeremiah Mason, was one of the leading lawyers of New Hampshire. Inferior to Mr. Mason in legal knowledge, he was more than Mason's match in jury trials. In a case of some importance, in which, as usual, they were on opposite sides, Mr. Bartlett, who was a very small man, in his address to the jury made some remarks which irritated Mr. Mason, who, rising to his full height (six feet and a half), said: May it please the court, brother Bartlett is traveling out of the record, and if your honor does not restrain him, I shall have to pick him up and put him in my pocket.' And if he does,' replied Bartlett, 'he will have more law in his pocket than he ever had in his head. The laugh was at the expense of Mr. Mason." BOOK NOTICES NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA. Edited by JUSTIN WINSOR. Vol. V. The English and French in North America, 1689-1763. Vol. VI. The United States of North America, Royal 8vo. pp. 649 and 777. Boston and New York. Houghton, Mifflin & Company. As this great historical work advances towards completion we are more and more impressed with the vast amount of conscientious labor it represents. The fifth volume is devoted to a period in which every American citizen is or should be interested-from 1689 to 1763. “The English and French in America " forms a theme of many and varied features. The volume opens with a well written chapter on "Canada and Louisiana," by Andrew McFarland Davis, which occupies, including the critical essay on the sources of information, and the editorial notes, some eighty-six pages. The French scattered their settlements from Cape Breton to the Mississippi, and the record of their adventures reads like a romance. The explorations of Iberville and the chaotic state of affairs in the territory of Louisiana are illustrated very clearly. The governor of Canada claimed that Louisiana should be brought under his jurisdiction, and found fault with Iberville for interfering with the beaver trade. The name of Louisiana was for a long time in doubt. It was indifferently mentioned as "Louisiana or Mississippi" in many dispatches. The era which this chapter covers is coincident with a period of decline in France; when European politics were largely influenced by the desire to control territory in the new world. A colony at that time was merely a business venture, and if it did not earn money it was a failure. The antique maps in this connection are excellent. The editor handles the subject of "New Eng land, 1689-1763," in a masterly manner. Boston was in tribulation after the sudden restoration of the old government, first through the disastrous expedition which Phips led against Quebec in 1690, which cost Massachusetts £50,000; then with the discussion of the charter question, and a little later on with the witchcraft frenzy. The portrait of Samuel Sewall is one of the best illustrations in the volume, and Mr. Winsor's pen-picture of the First Abolitionist " is equal to the artist's portrait. He says: "Poor Sewall was a man whom many things disturbed, whether it was that to mock him some one scattered a pack of playing-cards in his fore-yard, or that some of the godly chose to wear a wig." Mr. Winsor also quotes from Mr. Sewall's diary of October 20, 1701, with reference to the Mathers, who were blamed seriously for many things in 999 their lifetime : 'Mr. Cotton Mather came to Mr. Wilkes' shop, and there talked very sharply against me, as if I had used his father worse than a neger spoke so loud that people in the street might hear him.' There is," continues Mr. Winsor, "about as near an approach to conscious pleasantry as we ever find in Sewall, when, writing, some days later, that he had sent Mr. Increase Mather a haunch of good venison, he adds: I hope in that I did not treat him as a negro.' Mr. Winsor also writes the fourth and the eighth chapters in this volume-" Maryland and Virginia," and "The Struggle for the Great Valleys of North America,"-with the critical essays and editorial notes in each instance, which are veritable mines of valuable information. The Carolinas" are treated by Professor William J. Rivers; 'The English Colonization of Georgia," by Col. Charles C. Jones, Jr., LL.D., and The Middle Colonies," by Berthold Fernou. The contribution of Colonel Jones, the historian of Georgia, is scholarly and exact, and adds greatly to the interests of this portion of the work. The sixth volume opens with a very instructive and philosophic study by Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, of the causes of the struggle," The Revolution Impending. He says: "The American Revolution was not a quarrel between two peoples-the British people and the American people-but like all those events which mark the progress of the British race, it was a strife between two parties, the conservatives in both countries as one party, and the liberals in both countries as the other party; and some of its fiercest battles were fought in the British Parliament. Nor did it proceed in one country alone, but in both countries at the same time, with nearly equal step, and was essentially the same in each, so that at the close of the French War, if all the people of Great Britain had been transported to America and put in control of American affairs, and all the people of America had been transported to Great Britain and put in control of British affairs, the American Revolution and the contemporaneous British Revolution-for there was a contemporaneous British Revolution-might have gone on just the same, and with the same final results. But the British Revolution was to regain liberty; the American Revolution to preserve liberty.' Then again, he says: The Congress of 1774 was the inevitable result of the conduct of the British ministry subsequent to the peace of 1763." Mr. Winsor writes the second chapter, "The Conflict Precipitated;" and Dr. George E. Ellis, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the third chapter on "The Sentiment of Independence, Its Growth and Consummation," remarking on the start that "the assertion needs no qualification that the thirteen colonies would not in the beginning have furnished delegates to a Congress with the avowed purpose of seeking a separation from the mother country; and we may also affirm, that, with a possible forecast in the minds of some two or three members, such a result was not apprehended." Gen. George W. Cullum writes the fourth chapter, entitled "The Struggle for the Hudson; Frederick D. Stone writes of "The Struggle for the Delaware; " Edward Channing of The War in the Southern Department; " Rev. Edward E. Hale of "The Naval History of the American Revolution;" Andrew McFarland Davis of "The Indian and Border Warfare;" and Mr. William F. Poole of "The West, from the Treaty of Peace with France, 1763, to the Treaty of Peace with England, 1783.' This volume, like its predecessors, is fully illustrated. The portraits and maps will greatly aid the student who turns to these pages in the future for exact data, and the exhaustive critical notes form a compendium of authorities of the first importance. The only danger is that the immature mind may become bewildered in such an ocean of riches and lose the right pathway altogether. It is presumed, however, we suppose, that no person would be likely to enter this field without a certain amount of previous culture in historical inquiry. These massive tomes will naturally find their way into every library in the land, and serious investigators will owe a debt of gratitude to the learned editor for his able work and lavish provision of labor-saving aids, and to his accomplished associates and enterprising publishers. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WAR OF SECESSION.-1861-1865. By ROSSITER JOHNSON. 12mo, pp. 552. Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1889. Bibliographies of the civil war, if we include state and regimental histories, special pamphlets and the like, number at this writing somewhat more than 4,000 titles. The appearance of a new general history therefore, calls for some kind of an explanation. In the present instance this is found in the fact that Mr. Johnson has for many years been engaged in collecting and studying books and publications treating of the slaveholders' rebellion. With characteristic franknes he says in his introduction that the work has already appeared in the New York Examiner, for which journal it was originally prepared at the request of the editor, with a prescribed limit of thirty chapters. The reception accorded to the work in this form demonstrated to the author's satisfaction, that there existed a demand for a war history complete in itself, but comparatively short, and the present volume is the result. No one but a literary worker can appreciate the difficulty of condensing into a single volume the history of a war that covered so wide a stage, included in its official records nearly 2,500 engagements, and sacrificed more than half a million of lives. Mr. Johnson, through his long experience as editor of the American Cyclopedia, (Appleton's), is particularly well qualified to undertake such a work, and his first chapter, naturally devoted to the causes of the war, is a model of concise and accurate composition. The opening sentence so aptly presents the whole question that we cannot do better than to quote it: "When, within a period of eighteen months, a Dutch vessel entered the James river with a cargo of African slaves (1619), and the Mayflower' landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, a company of seekers after liberty (1620), the prime conditions were established for one of the mightiest conflicts that the world has ever seen. The first chapter covers only twenty-five pages, but it is safe to say that it omits nothing essential to an understanding of the fundamental reasons that led to the great conflict. 6 "What was it all about, this war of yours?" has been a question often asked by foreigners and not infrequently by the younger generation of Americans. A Southerner answers in one way and a Northerner in another, and between the two it is not surprising that at times the seeker after truth is somewhat perplexed. careful reading of Mr. Johnson's chapter leaves small room for doubt. While it is perfectly evident on which side the author's sympathies are enlisted, the statement is singularly free from partisan bias, and this is true of the whole volume as well. A After a chapter describing the outbreak of nostilities, the history of campaigns and of contemporary diplomacy and politics is taken up. The inexorable limitations of space render it impossible to cover so wide a field in a continuous narrative. Military operations on the Potomac. west of the Mississippi, and along the Gulf Coast, were contemporaneous and yet distinct. It is unavoidable that the account of one campaign should be finished before another is taken up, and this sometimes necessitates a certain overlapping of dates. In accounts of campaigns and battles the author's happy gift of picturesque condensation is again apparent. Maps accompany nearly all the accounts of battles, and they are drawn as simply as possible, showing only the essential topographical and tactical features which rendered a position strong or weak in a military sense. The personal jealousies and controversies of the war are ignored, so far as possible, though the blunders on both sides are narrated with unsparing impartiality. The second election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency deserves the space that is accorded to it, and the underlying significance of the popular vote then cast is emphasized in a few well-chosen sentences that bear strong testimony to the inherent good sense of the American people. Of the concluding scenes of the war, the negotiations for peace and the final surrender of the Confederates, we can only say that they are treated in the same spirit that pervades the rest of the book. Unless we are sadly at fault in our estimate, its peculiarly meritorious combination of sustained interest with terse statement of fact will commend it to the public, and the warning conveyed in the concluding chapter should commend itself to every thoughtful observer of the signs of the times. CITIZENS' ATLAS OF AMERICAN POLITICS, 1789-1888. A series of colored maps and charts. By FLETCHER W. HEWES. Large folio, pp. 56. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. This unique and singularly comprehensive atlas is a résumé of American politics, admirably adapted for general use. Mr. Hewes has used charts and maps in presenting his facts, and by the aid of a semi-pictorial method brought before the eye at one glance what would require pages of text and dry statistics to cover. The entire history of the political parties from 17761888 is thus portrayed, and a more interesting study of the same matter has never been presented; their origin, times of supremacy, analyses of votes in Presidential elections since 1824, are given by states. Even statistics become attractive in such a showing. We are able to learn the wages and cost of living and the comparative condition of the tariff, and the wages of skilled and unskilled labor for any corresponding periods during the past forty years, by only a moment's search, as different colors are used in the maps and charts to make each class of facts stand out distinctly. It is a remarkable production. The entire material, economic and political development of the country, is furnished in a general survey that leaves nothing to be desired in its compactness and clearness. It would be difficult to recommend a work of more practical value and timely interest to every intelligent American voter. of which he seems to have possessed in an eminent degree. He went around the world on a bicycle in two years and eight months-five months of which were spent in the city of Teheran, in Persia. From that point the pres ent volume recounts his experiences and adventures. His observations throw new light and add fresh information to our store of knowledge concerning many of the places he visited. In a Persian town, he says: The entire village, as usual, assemble to see me dispose of the eatables so generously provided; and later in the evening there is another highly expectant assembly waiting around out of curiosity to see what sort of a figure a Frenghi cuts at his evening devotions. Poor, benighted followers of the False Prophet, how little they comprehend us Christians.' Again, speaking of insular influences, he says: "More and more fantastic grow the costumes of the people, as one gets, so to speak, out of civilization, and off the beaten roads. The ends of the turbans here are often seen gathered into a fringed or tipped with gold; and when gathered sort of bunch or tuft on the top; the ends are in this manner create a fanciful crested appearance, and impart a sort of cock-a-doodle-doo aspect to the wearer." A traveler in Brazil says: If it be objected that there is too much about religion in this work, all the author has to say in reply is, that he did not go out of his way to observe what he relates.' Of Mr. Stevens it may be said, he tells us a great deal about Mohammedanism in its practical working as it is to-day. At the time of its rise, Christianity was corrupted by heresies, and debilitated by dissensions. Mohammedanism improved the opportunity to fill a void, to impress and win to almost naturally suited. "My kingdom is not its standard races and tribes for whom it seemed of this world,' said the Divine Founder of Christianity. "If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight." Mohammed's was a kingdom of this world, and terrible were the swords with which it was maintained and extended. The state of things-the morals, the financial condition, the life of the peoples where it has dominated and flourished for centucinating pages of Mr. Stevens' book. It is ries are all graphically set before us in the fassomething wonderful to read of the extent to which ophthalmia in its varying forms prevails, there being scarcely a person throughout Persia who is not afflicted more or less with it. His descriptions of India and Japan are extremely interesting. His minute details of life, as he saw it upon the wing, make the reader feel as if he too were journeying through those strange and far-off lands. He writes of "a Hindoo temple, whence at sunset issue the sweetest chimes imaginable from a peal of silver toned bells. My charpoy (couch) is placed on the porch facing the east ; |