THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, JANUARY 19, 190S.
11
VIEW OF UNCLE SAM'S SIXTEEN GREAT BATTLESHIPS IN LINE
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IIBIIi
r In Old Qsuntaiuiabia
ILL J A.NV inAJlAU-Xl OLU lWMtC-
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Wwtlr and C'taatrAux of Old Navurre. By
Francis Miltoun. Il!u(ttratd. L- C. Paga
Co., Boston, and the J. K. Gill Com- ;
pany. Portland.
With a beautifully designed book cover
In jrray. white, blue and gold, and inside
pictures In color by Blanche McManus,
and reproduced from paintings made on
the spot Mr. Miltoun has succeeded in
writing a useful book that is not only
ornamental but ia a lamp illustrating; the
comparatively little known region some
times described as the Pyrenees, of which
the old French provinces and before
them the independent kingdoms, count
slilps and dukedoms of Beam, Navarre,
Kolx and Koussillon are the chief. No
dry record appears of trade, or industrial
VroRress pages are rather given from the
historical book of the (rlorlous past. Feu
dal days live again, and poets are proph
ets as of yore. The book is what may
be described irs daintily written, and
from the beauty of its pictures an artistic
treat.
Mr. Miltoun well says that Henri dc
Navarre is the. chief romantic and hia
torlral figure in all that part of France
bounded nn the south by the Pyrenean
frontier of Spain. To an American, chief
Interest must bo felt in the description
Klven of the old Basque country for do
not the old stories tell us that long before
Colutnbua wus heard of.- Basque fisher
men discovered North America? It Is
thoupht that the Basques of today were
originally Phoenicians, and In speaking
of this people our historian writes: .
Amld.t the succession ot dlrera domina
tion?, one race alone came thronirh the mill
hoi. unarathed and Independent. There
were tie Basques. WeU sheltered In the
goraren of the Pyrenees, where the Gauls.
Kraucs and Saracena had never attacked
their liberties, the Fta-ques have escaped
any profound judgments of that race of
historians and philosophers' which has dis
sected mont pf the other peoples of Europe.
Itome even durrd not attempt to throttle
the Basque and merge them Into her ab
eorblnn civilisation. A Basque will always
tell you If you ask him as to whether he
Ik Kronen or Spanish: "Je ne suis pas
Krancels. Je euls . BuS'iue; Je ne suls V)s
paanol. Je sills Basque; on tout simple-,
roer.t. ye stils honime " In olden times the
GoUe de Gascosne was frequented by sraat
shoels of whales, and the Basques, har
pooning and killing; them In the waters of
their harbors, csme- to control the traffic.
When the whale Industry fell off, and
the whales themselves receded to the south
seas, the Basques went after them, and for
long they held the supremacy as before,
finally chaslne; them again to the New
foundland banks, which Indeed it Is claimed
the Basques discovered. At any. rate, the.
whaling industry proved a successful ' and
profitable commerce for the Basques, and
perhaps led the" way, for their migration lit
large numbers to South America and other
parts of the New "World.
Among the Basques themselves, and per
haps among others who have given study
to the subject, the claim Is made that they
were the real discoverers of the New World,
long before Columbus sighted the Western
isles. Thus Is the Columbus legend, and
that of Leif, son of Eric, shattered by the
traditions of a people whom most European
travelers from overseas hardly know of as
existing. It seems that a Spanish Basque,
when on a voyage from Bayonne to Ma
deira, was thrown out .of his course at
the mercy of the winds and waves, and
finally, after "many weeks, landed on the
coast of HaytL Columbus is .thus proved a
plagiarist. '
Several pages are devoted to descrip
tions of the districts from whence come
.the famous French wines of Bordeaux,
the Sauternes, Barsac, Entre-Deux-Mers,
St. Emlllon Toulouse, Armagnee, Beam,
Roussiion. Languedoc, etc. The very
reading of the names and their melliflu
ous Bound make one thirsty! Throughout
the pages are many representations of
feudal castles or romantic crags places
of abode not usually blessed by deeds
of civic righteousness places where mur
derous deeds were done at the pleasure
of. lordly tyrants and where democracy
was unknown. Yet Mr. Miltoun does not
believe that all was oppression in feudal
France. He says that the peasant land
owner, as distinct from the "vilain" and
"serf" was a real person and not a sup
position, even before the Revolution "al
though Thomas Carlyle on his fursy
Scotch moor didn't know It."
Feudal France consists of 70.000 fiefs or
rere-fiefs of whfch 3009 gave their names
to their eigneurs. All seigneurs wno
possessed three chatellenles and a walled
hamlet (ville closej bad the right of ad
ministering Justice without reference 'to
a higher court. '
There were something more than TOOO of
these vllles closes within which or on the
lands belonging to the eetgneurs .thereof f
were l,bTZ.ouo monuments, churches,, mon
asteries, abbeys, chateaux, castles' and royal
or Episcopal palaces. Historians of 100
years back estimated the total population
of France In the fifteenth century as being
very nearly the same as at the Revolution,
perhaps 3O.000.0O0. Today 8.000.000 or per
haps 10,000.000 more may be counted. The
French noblesse of today, the proud old
French aristocracy. Is not on the whole as
bad as it has frequently been painted. The
feudal lords were a gallant race on. the
whole. They didn't spend all their time
making war they played -boules and the
Jeu-de-paume and held court at their cha
teaux, where minstrels sang and knights
mads verses for their lady loves, and men
and women amused themselves much as
country-house folk do today.
A' halo fit. romance seenis to be uni- I
versally cast over Lourdes, possibly the
most celebrated pilgrim shrine in all xthe
world, but Mr. Miltoun's opinion is this:
"Lourdes Is a beastly unclean and un
comfortable place in which to linger, in
spite of its magnliicent situation and its
great and small hotels with 41 manner
of 20th century conveniences. It's a plague
spot on fair France, looking at it from
one point of view; and a Hving supersti
tion of Christendom from another. The
medical men of France want to close it
up; the churchmen and hotelkeepers want
to keep Jt open.'J
Accous is described as offering no curi
osities to visitors, except as being the
place where Victor Hugo gives the last
glimpse of Jean Valjean when the police
were close upon his trail, "at the place
called the Grange de Doumec, near the
hamlet of Chanvllles," runs the romance.
Stirring references are made to past
hlstoricaV days of Orthez, the old re
ligious capital of the Huguenots.
Spanish gypsies are stated to be numer
ous in the Basque country, and their
marriage customs are curious. "An old
pot serves as a cure and notary. The
marriageable couple, parents and friends
assemble in a wood without priest or
lawyer, or any ceremony which resem
bles an official or religious act. An
earthenware pot is thrown Into the air
and the broken pieces as they tumble to
the ground, are counted. The num
of pieces indicate the duration of the
partnership in years, each fragment
.counting for a year.' Simple, isn't it?" ;
The illustration on this book page rep
resents a street scene in the old town of
Feuntarrabia. ."itself a cluster of brown
red houses piled high alon the narrow
streets, with deep eaves overhanging
grated wlno ,v and carved doorways
leading' to shady courts. There is a cer
tain squalid, gone-to-ruin air about
everything which in this case Is but a
charm. But one can picture from the
blazoned stone, coat-of-arms seen here
and there, that the dwellers of olden
time were proud and reverend seigneurs."
So passes a brilliant picture of a ro
mantic, debatable land, fought ovur by
Romans, Saracens, French, Spanish, and
British armies. Mr, Miltoun has done
his task well. But he has been guilty
of one error of judgment: It Is not pos
sible that all the people attracted to his
book can translate from French into
English. . He gives many extracts in
French without adequate translation be
ing appended.
The Settler. -By Herman Whltaker. Price,
SI. 50. Harper Brothers, New York City.
It's worth reading through 100 novels
of guaranteed excellence and parentage
to meet this one of pure gold and drink
deeply frbm its cool spring.
What is the mysterious something that
lifts a story like this out of the com
mon rut? Surely its natural originality,
ruggedness, bold character drawing, and
pictures of mingled love, temptation and
sacriflce leavened by a close study of
primal passion. "The Settler" is a lead
er and really one of the big prairie
stories of the year, pulsing with human
interest. Its men are strong and mas
terful, while too many of the women
belong to the "smart" set and are dis
sipated a la Kipling. The author. Mr.
Whitkker. ia a resident of Piedmont. CaL
Never has such a severe attack in re
cent years at least been directed against
English "remittance-men" inr Canada, or
worthless English idlers sent away for
their country's - good and supported by
money from the folks at borne. An oc
casional '"rap" is .also directed against
the Scotch, until the reader . begins to
wonder at the bitterness displayed
against two such sterling nationalities.
Surely an Englishman or Scot has not
come out ahead at any time in a busi
ness deal with the - author, leaving the
lat'ter disconsolate? If so, let this thought
be his solace "it taks a lang spune tae
sup wi' the dell!" But In spite of all
this, Mr. Whttaker's undoubted liter
ary ability shines forth and his readers
are bound to admire his message.
Two principal characters in the novel
are Carter, strong-man and empire-builder
in the Canadian Northwest, and ' Miss
Helen Morrill, afterward Mrs. Carter.
Carter Is usually spoken- of in the book
as "Carter," and he is like a locomotive
in leash. Both he and his wife are
Americans. Action proper begins when
Miss Morrill comes -to her brother's
ranch In Manitoba to And him in the
last stages of tuberculosis, and she Is
escorted to her new home by tho ubiq
uitous Carter, who at that time was not
a very prosperous settler. The district
is thus described:-
"Each had Its log house, its huge tent
of-firewood upreared against next Win
ter's drift, and the same yellow straw
stacks dotted their defenseless fields. One
other thing they had in common a uni
versal mortgage, legacy of the recent
boom,' covered all."
Young- Morrill died, and, left to earn
her own living, his sister became school
ma'am at Silver Creek. "I never taught
school." she objects. "You'll never be
gin younger," is the comforting advice
she gets. All this time. Carter hovers
near Ber as a sort of shy. guardian angel,
but. alas! an angel who Is careless in his
manner of speech and dress, although
he is eminently a man. Two rivals ap
pear for her affections Carter and Cap
tain Calvert Molyneux, an Englishman
who . was a British .army officer, but
Who is in Canada as a gentleman-rancher,
and Is mostly supported by wealthy
relatives In England. Molyneux Is a
moral leper, and all the time stands In
need of a chloride-of-lime bath.' He and
his idle but "aristocratic" companions
are mercilessly flawed. A few extracts:
Two-thirds of the settlers In Silver Creek
were .of Scotch descent; . were deeply dyed
with the granite hardness, harsh malig
nancy, fervid bigotry which have caused
the history of their race to be written In
.characters of blood. Fiercely moral, dog
matically religious. . . . Of Scotch des
cent, dogmatic, wedded to' convention, in
tense .clannishness reinforced in the settlers'
bitter morality, racial hatred, the condem
nation of sin.
The English remittance men were Indeed
over-refined. Five centuries ago the weld
ing of Celt. Saxon, Roman, Norman Into
one homogeneous whole was full ond com
plete. Since then that potent mixture of
blood had undergone , slow stagnation. Noble
privileges and laws of entail had checked
in the motherland those selective processes
which sweep the foolish, the wicked and
vicious from the face of the earth. Pro
tected by the aristocratic system, the fool,
idler and roue had handed their undeslra
bleness down the generations, a heavy
mortgage on prosperity. Ripe fruit of a
vicious system, decay bad touched them at
the core. Last links of a chain once strong,
they had lacked the hot hammering from
grim circumstance that alone could make
them fit to hold and bind. . . . Their
Insufferable national conceit and blind
caste-feeling. '
"Frankly, my dearr we (English in Man
itoba) are a rotten lot. A sweet gisl with
conscience and -morality has no business
among us. We couldn't scrape up enough
of either article to outfit a respectable cat."
Revolting from the rough settler life, she
had turned to the Bngllsh set only to find
that their polished ease was but the veneer
"of their degeneracy, analagous to the phos.
phoreseence Riven in the dark by a pois
oned fish, and equally indicative ot de
cay. - - Their moral and intellect
ual leprosy.
Miss Morrill and Carter, thinking they
love each other, are married, tq find
shortly afterward that they are unsuited.
The young wife is filled with vain im
aginings after 6tyle, polished English,
and fine clothes, and is so cold to ber
settler-husband that he imagines she
doesn't care for him. He ultimately
says: "It is' a shame to live- together,
when love has fled," and leaves her to
start a lumber camp elsewhere. He sends
her money for support. Then the young
wife is persecuted by the salacious at
tention's of Captain Molyneux and other
evil - remlttance-meii.
Punishment meets Molyneux when in
a fight with an avenger he -falls from
a bridge and W drowned. The married
women of his "set" make love to other
women's husbands, and the bereaved
husbands industriously hunt for other
affinities.
Carter forges ahead in his lumber
camp, and ultimately emreges as a rail
road king. His domestic difficulties with
his wife are adjusted In sane fashion, and
the closing scene is that of a reunited
home. : .
Oregonians will naturally prefer the
admirable word pictures of lumber camp
life what a pity the scene wasn't laid
in Oregon! Oregon's woods are briefly
mentioned on pages 221-222. In mood, a
grim humor Is apparent over all, linked
with critical sense.
The book cover represents a plowed
farm and cabin, while the frontispiece
is a dashing picture in color of a woods
man with his ax, cleverly painted by
Mrs. Mac. M. Pease, ' wife of the editor
of the Pacific Monthly of this city, in
which magazine - the story recently ap
peared in serial form.
The Man. of'Oalllee: A New Inquiry.. By
George R. Wendllng. 3. Olcott Publish
ing Company. Washington, D. ' C.
To decide doubts trhich high criticism
had Insinuated and to widen somewhat
the foundation on which his convictions
rested, Mr. Wendling undertook this in
quiry, and the result is a fervent appre
ciation of Jesus Christ, to the extent of
270 unusually well-printed pages.
Mr. Wendling says that he has pro
found respect for the intellectual doubt
represented by Professor Huxley, Herbert
Spencer and Qoldwln Smith; believes in
the sincerity of Strauss, Bauer, Schenkel
and Renan; has entered fully into the
spirit of Amiel; recognizes the force of
much that the brilliant and profound
Martineau has said as to the seat of au
thority; has shared Robert-Elsmere's per
plexities as to the value of testimony;
and that no one holds in higher esteem
the scholarship, industry and honesty of
the later school of historical critics. But
his one cry is: "Show us the master."
Mr. Wendllng's great conviction Is that,
after resolving to accept the teachings of
the Galilean, and to live by them, and
to confess allegiance to him you have
the singular consciousness that you . are
not exactly the same person you were
before.
' The Chaldeans yearned for some wonder
ful man to 'come; Egypt dimly foresaw h Ira;
Confucius prophesied his coming; India
longed for him in her Vedas; and the
hope of Greek' philosophy found expression
in Plato's famous prediction that such a
messenger would some day visit the human
race. What we wish to Impress upon the
reader is this marvelous fact: After the
year of our Lord S3, all that longing and
aspiration found no further expression.
This latter statement will be disputed
today by Judaism.
It is Interesting to note Mr. Wendllng's
belief that Christ' native tongue was
Aramaic; that he read Hebrew and prob
ably spoke Greek and Latin; that he was
not a reformer, but a revolutionist; that
his appearance did not reveal that he
was a mystic or a fanatic; that his eyes
were blue and his long hair' and beard
brown. "And in his face we see 'Inex
haustible patience. Immovable firmness,
wonderful majesty, illimitable sagacity,
and fathomless, boundless love."
One feels better . spiritually and Intel
lectually, after reading such a sane, finely
constructed presentation.
The Sexual Instinct. By James Foster
Bcott, M. D. 2. B... B. - Treat 4 Co..
.New York City.' '
It seems to me that no apology need
be offered for the appearance of this
book of wholesome advice intended for
non-medical rather than professional
people. It appeals with eagerness to
those whose business It is to rear chil
dren, whether, the reader be parent,
teacher, big brother, humanitarian
all bound together in the holy misbion
of moulding a clean, healthy race.'
The author has presented an array of
terrible facts, drawn from an exten
sive hospital practice, facts calculated
to make'people think. His book fills a
gap that has been too long empty, and
all. the plain truths are explained in
every-day language that leaves no
room for doubt as to meaning. It's not
a pretty subject this medical aspect of
oneself. But all, men should read It,
and then pass to neighbors. Never in
a book of "know thyself," baa woman
been written- about in that spirit of
lofty chivalry stamped with the name
of Dr. Scott of Yale and Edinburgh
Universities and home and foreign hos
pitals. The Sorceress of Rome, by Nathan Gallizier.
. Illustrated. $1.30. I C. Page & Co., Bos
ton, and the J. K. Gill Company. Portland.
Rome 'in the Tenth Century, torn be
tween revolting Italians and the soldiers
of fortune whom they had called to pre
serve order, forms ttie subject matter of
this interesting novel. The special period
illustrated is that in , which Crescentius,
the Senator of Rome, raised the standard
of revolt, expelled Gregory V as Pope and
nominated as pontiff John XVI. King
Otto III, of Germany, summoned his
Saxons to the rescue of the rightful
pontiff, the Army of Germans being led
by the Margrave Bckhardt, of Meissen,
Otto is a weakling who loves Stephanla,
wife of Crescentius. and in the end the
woman . poisons the King. . Barbaric
splendor, statecraft, war and love hold
the stage by turns, and the result is
pleasing. There are four illustrations in
color by the Kinneys, the decorations be
ing by P. Verburg.
These suggestive lines by Thomas
Bailey Aldrich are used as a foreword:
Somewhere, in desolate wind-swept .space,
In, twilight-land, 'in no-man's land, '
Two hurrying shapes met face to face.
And bade each other stand.
"And who .are you?" cried one agape,
Shuddering in the gloaming- light.
"I know not."- said the second shape,
"I only died last night"
A Conrse In Isaac 'pitman Shorthand. Price.
1.50. Isaac Pitman & Sons, New York
City. ,
. Recent returns from Washington, D. C.
show that of the 1568 stenographic clerks
employed in nine executive departments
p the United States Government, 1360, or
over 86 per cent, are writers of the pho
nography invented by Isaac Pitman. At
sthe first and second International con
tests for speed and accuracy in shorthand
writing under the auspices of the East
ern Commercial Teachers' Association
the first prizes were respectively" won by
two Pitman writers, Sidney H. Godfrey
and Miss Nellie M. Wood. This little
book of Instruction is a new edition and
will tell you all about phonography. It
Is a clearly expressed exnosition of the
'author's system and designed not only
ior' use in business colleges and high
schools, but for self-instruction. I per
sonally know Pitman's phonography,
having written that system, for years.
It's all right and the -"daddy" of them
all.
' J. M. QUENTlN.
IN. "LIBRARY ' AXD WORKSHOP
The recently published "Letters of Dean
Hole" probably cover a longer span than
any similar collection Issued In many years.
The first entry is dated 1834 and the last
1904. The "Letters" show the genial Dean
of Rochester In his more - intimate aspects
rather than in his official capacity as a
churchman.
"Manifesto of the CommuniBt Party," by
Karl Marx and 'Frederick Gngels (Kerr &
Co., Chicago), was first published as the
platform of the "Communist League," an
organisation well known In Europe just be
fore the French revolution of 1848. The
first English translation appeared two years
later. Interesting as a a study in social
economics. .
. It Is expected that "In. the near future
American readers will have the pleasure of
welcoming new volumes lay the two most
prominent of the younger English poets,
Stephen Phillips and Alfred Noyes. Mr.
Phillips promises "Faust: A Drama." and
Mr. Noyes & miscellaneous volume, contain
ing some of his wors that has not as yet
appeared in print.
v
"The Exaltation of the Flag." edited by
Robert B. Westcott.. and published by John
R. Edgar & Co.. Manila, Philippine Islands,
has -been received. During the Summer of
HK7. sedition was active among a portion
of the natives and demonstrations were di
rected against Americans in the islands
and particularly against the American flag.
To correct .this, a patriotic maw meeting of
Americans was held in Manila, August 23,
1907, and this little book contains the liter
ature Incident to that interesting occasion.
It forms a notable memento of our ex
pansion policy.
In course of the various comment attend
ing his latest novel. "The Secret - Agent,"
Joseph Conrad has been called the rtifclple
of Henry James. Such a comparison la
especially curious ip view of the fact that
Mr. James uses English as a natural heri
tage, while Mr.- Conrad's native medium Is
not English at all. but Polish. In this
connection, loo, it is significant that dur
ing th-s years when Joseph Conrad was ac
quiring the tongue hts only model was the
ppeech of the crew of a saillna-vessel. and
that his occasional reading was elilelly
French. - Mr. Conrad Is at present livin
in Bedfordshire, England.
Professor -A. Lawrence Lowell's long
awaited and important work .on "England"
is now in the hands of the printers and will
be on sale this month.
HOTEL CLERK ON FINANCE
(Continued from Page 0.)
war. As he crosses our main street ho
Is astonished to note that many of our
bright lights are still burning, with an
utter disregard of cost, although it is
nearly 8:46. Curiosity prompts him to
stop off and investigate.
"The next time the Self-Help YoyB con
vene a familiar form is missing from
the front pew. There's a gap in the
circle where Donald sits. Dear m&! Can
he be ailing? Not so as to be apparent
to the eye. At that moment Donald,
better known as the New Boy, Is Beated
at Sherry's gazing into the soulful,' violet
eyes of a winsome little keepsake from
the chorus with a barber-pole com
plexion and hair the color of the yolk
of a four-minute egg, and he is buying
for her a few of those edible knick-knacka
that cost J2.15 a throw.
. "About the same time he finds a large
working capital Is needed. . Dainty
Blanphe St. Claire, the coryphee pet, is
ofttimes hungry. The boy financier
knows the bank .doesn't care anything
about money, because It Is willing to
pay him as much as $9 a week with a
promise of a raise to $10 after the third
year. So he draws a few clandestine
dividends without mentioning the matter
to anyone.
"Some fine afternoon he starts up
Broadway on a car ana .gets oir in
Canada. And then, Larryr they spring
that Sunday school discovery, just as
they sprung It on the old guy that's
now en route back from the sub
tropics." "I wonder what they'll do with him,"
said the House Detective.
"The Jury will probably spend seven
minutes convicting him and' seven
months petitioning the President to
pardon iim." said the Hotel Clerk.
"That's the usual way of it."
AFTER- MOTHER WAS BURIED
(Continued from Page 2)
geons. Lady Burton, wife of Captain Sir
Richard Burton, ordered that her body
should be pierced with a needle in the
region of the heart" Edmund Yates. Miss
Ada Cavendish, Hans Anderson aid
other well-known writers left instructions
that they should not be Interred until
everything possible, had been done to
make sure that they were lifeless. In
some caBes it was the severance of a
vein. In others even decapitation, that
was resolved upon.
Others, with a similar end in view, have
adopted, or attempiea to adopt, different
means. Think of Edgar Allen Poe, who
wrote this subject up in his characteris
tically weird fashion, trying to invent, a
signaling apparatus so that those buried
alive could call for help. . A Russian In
ventor's Idea . was an instrument to be
placed In the throat of the corpse, so that
if consciousness returned and an effort
was made to breathe, the effort set in mo
tion certain wires, which resulted In a
bell ringing in the cemetery keeper's
lodge. In "Jezebel's Daughter" the Idea
is very similar, save that instead of a
throat apparatus, wires were fastened to
the hands of the corpse. Sir Henry Lit
tleton told his students at Edinburgh of a
fancy coffin, fitted with patent springs
80 constructed that on the slightest indi
cation of returning life they would Imme
diately open the coffin and thus save th
victim.
The' largest quill toothpick factory Is in
Paris. It was originally started as a manu
factory ot quill pens.