Chapter 128

6–40262.

Letters which until recently have been kept well guarded make available an authentic record of Washington society during its first forty years. Manners and customs, no less than notable political characters, appear in a new and intimate light.

“The editor has furnished a satisfactory index and the notes necessary to explain the text.” Montgomery Blair.

“The editor’s notes are always to the point.” S. M. Francis.

“Upon the deeper character and influence of the many notable men about her, Mrs. Smith’s comments are of no great value. But a clever woman is often able to see and portray the peculiar characteristics of an individual or an event in a way that is illuminating and valuable. It is this quality in the letters of Margaret Bayard Smith that makes their publication well worth while.” Sara Andrew Shafer.

“The book is too long ... but when we lay it down we feel as if we had been at a pleasant gathering, where no evil was spoken, and every one had a moderate old-fashioned enjoyment of life.”

“Possessing no special charm in themselves, they will be often resorted to for color by other writers. The editorial work is competently done by Gaillard Hunt. His candor in preserving the simplified spelling of the writer, and certain even more simplified grammatical constructions, contributes to the impressions of essential veracity.”

“This collection of letters ... is a distinct and valuable contribution to the completeness of the historical pictures of life in the highest political circles in the first half century of the American republic.”

Reviewed by John Spencer Bassett.

Smith, Marion Couthouy.Electric spirit, and other poems. $1.25. Badger. R. G.

6–25984.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The author ... brings to her work noticeable strength of thought and unusual feeling for rhythm.”

Smith, Mary P. Wells.Boys of the border. †$1.25. Little.

7–31225.

Events in the Deerfield valley during the French and Indian wars are narrated in this third volume of “The old Deerfield series,” which brings the history of western Massachusetts down to the revolutionary period. The tale of the border forts is told in a spirited fashion true to the times and scenes, the early settlers, their hardships, their sturdy endurance, are all clearly pictured in the course of the narrative which is told in a simple, personal fashion that will appeal to young readers.

“The general boy reader will, we fancy, rather protest at the overloading of details and the sad record of slaughter in the ending chapter.”

Smith, Richard.Tour of four great rivers: the Hudson, Mohawk, Susquehanna, and Delaware in 1769. **$5. Scribner.

6–32121.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The journal is well indexed and seems to be printed, in general, with praiseworthy accuracy. The foot-notes, perhaps adequate for the popular reader, will be found to explain the point which the student already understands more frequently than that as to which he needs enlightenment: and they are uniformly destitute of page references to the numerous books which they mention.” C. H. H.

“The charm and value of his journal is its remarkable directness. Several unfortunate blunders of the printer or of the proof-reader disclose themselves in the introduction, but the ‘Journal’ itself is a satisfactory reproduction of a valuable manuscript. The index, too, calls for a good word; it is full, yet not complicated; but why, pray, was it not strictly alphabetical?”

Smith, Rodney.Gipsy Smith, his life and work: an autobiography. *$1. Revell.

“This volume gives the story of the life of this remarkable man from its beginning as a gypsy child, and of his work as an evangelist in four continents, dating from the time when he became a Christian and forsook the gypsy life, in his seventeenth year.”—Outlook.

“An autobiography marked by somewhat unusual frankness, and by unmistakable sincerity.”

Smith, Ruel Perley.Prisoners of fortune. $1.50. Page.

7–5061.

A story of shipwreck and romance, of treasure stores, of intrigue, of wreckers and swarthy pirates. It is purported to be told in 1757, after an interval of fifty odd years, by one who at the time of the happenings was “active and strong and full of bold enterprisings.” The Atlantic shore waters are the scene of the adventures, and such bold spirits as Quelch and the famous Blackbeard of pirate notoriety animate the pages.

“A good old-fashioned story of Massachusetts bay in the days of Cotton Mather, a story told with the affected garrulity of reminiscent old age,” Wm. M. Payne.

“If one is very, very young, and not particular about the quality of his pirates, the blunderbuss type portrayed in this book may satisfy him.”

“In the beginning it reads like the real thing in piratical literature. Afterwards it hangs fire and trails its colors a bit—but taken as a whole there are worse stories of the brand.”

“All put down in serious style, quite unrelieved by vivacity, but wholly consistent with the gravity of his day.”

Smith, Ruel Perley.Rival campers ashore; or, The mystery of the mill.$1.50. Page.

7–30991.

This third volume in the “Rival campers series” is full of interesting things for half-grown readers. The rival campers encounter many new adventures, and make many new friends, while old Colonel Witham loses his ill-gotten gains to the kind hearted Ellisons when the old mill, in a spring freshet, yields up its secret.

Smith, Rev. Samuel George.Industrial conflict: a series of chapters on present-day conditions. **$1. Revell.

7–20333.

A discussion based upon two series of letters. “The letters from labor leaders, in answering the question put to them, ‘What do workingmen want?’ state the commoner demands of labor for shorter hours, increased wages, and improved conditions, and embrace such concrete suggestions as postal savings tanks, government ownership and control, state board of arbitration, restriction of immigration, the closed shop, and protection of women and children. Employers demand loyalty, freedom in management of affairs, the open shop, a ‘fair’ day’s work for ‘fair’ wages, and respect for law and contract agreements. The author’s comment upon these demands is entirely sympathetic. In a final chapter entitled ‘Would socialism do?’ he expresses the opinion that it would not.” (J. Pol. Econ.)

Smyser, William Emory.Tennyson. *$1. Meth. bk.

7–6733.

This volume is one of a series of six which is entitled Modern poets and Christian teaching. It includes chapters upon Tennyson and the religious movements of his time, “In memoriam,” The record of a spiritual struggle, The answer to materialism, Of the ethical and social bearings of Tennyson’s philosophy, The spiritual symbolism of the Idylls of the king, and The last poems of faith.

“The writer is particularly happy in interpreting the poet’s thought in the light of the intellectual turmoil of his age.”

“Mr. Smyser judiciously restrains his personal views, and allows the poet and the circumstances of the time to speak. The book is a sympathetic appreciation of the poet.”

Smyth, Eleanor C.Sir Rowland Hill: the story of a great reform: told by his daughter. **$1.65. Wessels.

The entire history of the penny post is traced here with generous detail concerning the originator’s home life.

“This old story was well worth retelling, and Mrs. Smyth, the daughter of the originator of penny postage, tells it well.”

“The special feature in the book is therefore due to the more intimate and personal atmosphere which she has thrown around her story; but this is mainly to be found in the first forty pages of introduction.”

“A reformer in the heat of the struggle may well talk of ‘odious taxes on knowledge,’ and of the franking system as ‘a hoary iniquity,’ but such language is out of place in such a book as this. It is a mistake to apply to the past the standards of the present.”

Smythe, William Ellsworth.Conquest of arid America. **$1.50. Macmillan.

5–41786.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The book is marred here and there by inferior typography. But it is valuable, interesting, entertaining—a clear, impartial presentation of all the aspects of the greatest achievement in present times, the conquest of arid America.”

Snaith, John Collis.Henry Northcote. †$1.50. Turner, H. B.

6–14547.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The book is certainly one to be read, though we deplore the ultra-cynical scene at the end.”

“Whatever its defects, bears every trace of being conceived and carried out under the stress of genuine excitement; and whatever its measure of success neither in plan nor execution is there a taint of mediocrity.” Mary Moss.

“Is a book to be reckoned with.”

“Mr. Snaith is either a madman or a new kind of a genius. He has written one of the most powerful books of the year, and he has deliberately cut it off from being a great book by founding it upon the egotism of one long-shanked big-headed young man.”

“The great feat the author performs is to present a man of genius so that you not only believe in his genius but feel and see it. Its results are set before you and you are forced to admit it is the real thing. And to represent genius requires genius. Hats off to Mr. Snaith.”

Snaith, John Collis.Patricia at the inn; with an historical introd. by W. B. M. Ferguson; il. by H. B. Matthews. $1.50. Dodge, B. W.

6–37964.

A romance founded upon an adventure of Charles the Second when, after the battle of Worcester, he was a fugitive. “At an inn on a lonely coast the rascally landlord entertains unawares the king and two of his loyal subjects, man and wife. The vacillation of the Merry Monarch between his safety and his attraction to the Lady Patsy (although he had seen women ‘younger and more lyrical’), the Stuart witchcraft that held even injured husbands loyal, the cunning escape from the turncoat landlord, whose willingness to betray to the highest bidder led him at last to his horrid deserts, are the main features in the story.” (Nation.)

“The best work in the book ... comes from the author’s dramatic use of the fact that tragedy does not lie so much in circumstance as in the mind of the man involved.”

“A story of perhaps ruggeder texture than many Stuart tales, but otherwise hardly to be distinguished from the rest of the drops in the Jacobite fiction sea which rolls from pole to pole.”

“The author is one who knows how to give the material a turn out of the beaten path. He is not a mere plot concocter and marshal of incident. He makes his people real flesh and blood, with a due admixture of fire.”

Snider, Denton Jaques.American ten years’ war. $1.50. Sigma pub.

6–34283.

The civil war treated philosophically goes back to 1855 for its starting point. Mr. Snider takes the invasion of Kansas as the beginning of the war and divides the period into three parts—the Border war, the Union disunited, and the Union reunited. “It represents, to put the matter briefly, an attempt to narrate the varying phases of the conflict in the form of a prose epic.” (Outlook.)

“However, valueless as much of this work is, there are here and there some keen observations, evidently based on personal experience in regard to conditions in the West before the civil war.”

“Written in Carlylese, but yet a book of uncommon power. No one interested in the phenomena of social control should neglect to read these illuminative and instructive chapters.”

“The array of incident is, indeed, respectable, and the comments of the author are sometimes keen and suggestive; but as a contribution to the history of the Kansas struggle and the civil war, it is negligible.”

“It is quite evident that Mr. Snider has thought profoundly and as a rule clearly of the momentous events of which he writes, and if too frequently he leaves the impression of straining after effect, he undoubtedly contrives to set the essentials forth in bold relief.”

Snider, Guy Edward.Taxation of the gross receipts of railways in Wisconsin. *$1. Macmillan.

6–46362.

A monograph whose main thesis is “that the gross receipts tax is the superior tax for railroads, and that the rejection of that tax, for the ad valorem system in Wisconsin was a mistake.” (Ann. Am. Acad.)

“Very painstaking, and in many respects excellent study.”

“This paper presents numerous facts of interest to the student of taxation and is valuable as an investigation of original sources. The fundamental defect in the author’s argument is that it fails to recognize the necessity of considering the taxation of railways as a part of a general system of taxation.” Robert Morris.

Snyder, Carl.World machine: the first phase, the cosmic mechanism. *$2.50. Longmans.

W 7–93.

When complete there will be three volumes under the general title, “The world machine.” The first phase, “Cosmic mechanism” is the one treated in the present volume, the two following are to be “The mechanism of life,” and “The social mechanism.” This volume “shows how the modern conception of the Cosmos was worked out from the crude fancies of primitive men, through ages of observation and reflection, into the immense range and detail of accurately systematized knowledge. The chief contributors, ancient and modern, to the grand result receive due commemoration.” (Outlook.)

“It is a useful book for the public library, because it gives to the general reader more information on the history of science than he can find anywhere else in a readable form.”

“He gets his information mostly at second or third hand and gives few references by which his sources can be traced. Besides the liability to historical errors due to this, he is fond of exaggeration and rash prophecy.”

“The narrative is very verbose, and does not clearly show how one idea or group of ideas has been developed from previous ones. The author has evidently not studied the original works of the heroes of science whose judge he has constituted himself, as he is anything but a trustworthy guide in the history of astronomy.” J. L. E. D.

“Mr. Snyder’s work is historical and not technical, and it is full of assured facts.”

“The grandeur of the revelations of the book is intensified by the vigorous, picturesque, even dramatic, language of the author. That the work is a literary achievement of no mean order the most hostile of mystics, however contrasting his theories, must be ready to admit.”

“A valuable addition to the literature of popularized science. The story is told, moreover, in good literary style, animated throughout, and, at times, picturesque.”

“We have not noted any positive blunders, but on the other hand we have no confidence that the author really understands the discoveries which he is expounding. The genuine scientific history which the book contains is drowned in a flood of turgid rhetoric, which bears along with it at intervals sprightly illustrations of the most depressing character.”

Sociological society, London.Sociological papers, v. 2, by Francis Galton and others. $3. Macmillan.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“Some of the papers are couched in such language as to render their meaning very obscure.”

Soden, Hermann, baron von.History of early Christian literature: the writings of the New Testament; tr. by Rev. J. R. Wilkinson; ed. by Rev. W. D. Morrison. *$1.50. Putnam.

6–11299.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“The translation is vigorous and good, but some accident must have happened to the correction of the press. The book requires revision.”

“A good English translation.”

Somerset, Edward Adolphus Seymour, 11th duke of.Correspondence of two brothers: Edward Adolphus [Seymour] eleventh duke of Somerset, and his brother, Lord Webb Seymour, 1800 to 1819 and after; ed. and comp, by Lady Guendolen Ramsden. *$4. Longmans.

“This correspondence ... is various, interesting, and the work of distinguished men and women. Though the letters of the eleventh duke and his brother ... make up the greater part of the book, they are by no means the only correspondents. Of Madame de Stael there are several short and characteristic notes, while the letters of Metternich and the princesse de Sagan ... are of considerable value.”—Spec.

“Lady Guendolen’s notions of editing are original, but not ineffective. On the whole, however, [she] is to be congratulated on a competent and conscientious piece of work.”

“The intimate correspondence here found on the concerns of such men is valuable not only for the facts and contemporary views given, but for the characters revealed by it.”

“To say that this volume was more instructive than amusing would be ambiguous, and perhaps untrue. It is both in a moderate and neither in a very high degree.”

“If she is not orderly, neither is she narrow, and her discursiveness is fruitful of many neat glimpses of contemporary society.”

“These letters are brief and dry. We commend the book to all students of the Waterloo period.”

“The chief importance of the book is that it presents a picture of the cultured society which once gave Edinburgh a right to be called the modern Athens.”

Somerville, Edith Œnone, and Ross, Martin, pseud. (Violet Martin).Some Irish yesterdays: stories and sketches; with il. by E. Œ. Somerville. †$1.50. Longmans.

7–35223.

“A pleasant medley of sketches of the West of Ireland.... Dogs and gardens, picnics, the ways of servants and primitive inn-keepers, and the delights of childhood in an Irish country-house, combine to form an amusing volume which on nearly every page will recall memories to those who know the Atlantic seaboard.”—Sat. R.

“These sketches of Irish life and character are as charming and as amusing as anything that the authors of ‘The experiences of an Irish R. M.’ have ever done.”

“Well written, with a warm, sympathetic, humorous touch.”

“The humour of this pleasant volume strikes us as a little less spontaneous than was the case with its predecessors.”

“One may sum up the book as a happy blend wherein the grave and the gay wit of the authors is interwoven amid the humour that finds subtle expression in the brogue.”

“The book is seldom interesting, often dull, and sometimes almost unintelligible.”

Soothill, W. E.Typical mission in China. *$1.50. Revell.

“A long series of moving pictures photographed from life. The author tells of the difficulties of establishing a mission, of its daily work, of the travels of the missionary about the country and the multitude of varied things his hands find to do, of the Chinese converts to Christianity and the aid they give, of the work that is done among the Chinese women by women missionaries, of the ravages of the opium habit, and of the movement toward westernization of Chinese education.”—N. Y. Times.

“His book is vigorously informative, shot thru and thru with human interest, and made attractive with wit and humor.”

“It is an entertaining volume, brimful of information about the life and work of the missionary, and vivid with pictures of the daily life of the Chinese.”

“With many interesting descriptions and touches of humor.”

Sorrel, Moxley.Recollections of a Confederate staff officer. $2. Neale.

Not so much of a narrative as a series of pictures of “camp and field and of the more striking personalities of the Southern armies.” (Ind.) The reminiscences begin with the battle of Manassas, and continue thru Chickamauga and the Eastern Tennessee campaign.

Southern stories retold from St. Nicholas.(Geographical stories.) *65c. Century.

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