Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

his accounts of battles, scoutings, individual adventures, and division-movements, is thoroughly convincing. The narrator, while acting as a Union spy in Confederate lines, is struck by a shell, completely loses his memory of the war when he comes to his senses in a Confederate hospital, and (being convinced by argument that the South is right, at least in part) becomes a Confederate in good earnest. In the end his memory returns, he escapes to the Federal lines, and gives valuable information. The psychology of this "amnesia" is interesting, but a trifle wearying. There is very little love story, and what there is has the effect of a mere piece of mechanism. The political philosophizing of the mysterious Dr. Khayme is not always entertaining reading. The average novel-reader will find some application necessary to keep up his interest; but such effort will be amply repaid by the stirring battle scenes (Bull Run, Fredericksburg,

Antietam, and Gettysburg) and by the subtlety of the character-study.

Where Dwells the Soul Serene. By Stanton Kirkham Davis. The Alliance Publishing Co., New York. 5x8 in. 220 pages. $1.25.

Winefred. By S. Baring-Gould. Illustrated. L. C. Page & Co., Boston. 5x71⁄2 in. 309 pages. $1.50.

Mr. Baring-Gould is always interesting, because he treats in fiction out-of-the-way places and subjects and utilizes his great stores of folk-lore and legend. This tale of the chalk cliffs near the mouth of the River Axe is no exception to the rule.

Wintermärchen. By Heinrich Seidel. Edited

by Corinth Le Duc Crook, Ph.D. Henry Holt & Co., New York. 44×61⁄2 in. 129 pages. 35c.

Writing in English. By William H. Maxwell, M.A., Ph.D., and George J. Smith, M.A., Ph.D. The American Book Co., New York. 5x71⁄2 in. 269 pages. 75c.

Notes and Queries

It is seldom possible to answer any inquiry in the next issue after its receipt. Those who find expected answers late in coming will, we hope, bear in mind the impediments arising from the constant pressure of many subjects upon our limited space. Communications should always bear the writer's name and address. Any book named in Notes and Queries will be sent by the publishers of The Outlook, postpaid, on receipt of price.

I have been especially interested in the articles which have appeared from time to time in The Outlook on the subject of direct primaries. As we need direct primaries, or anything else that will give us decent politics, here in Cincinnati about as much as any place on earth, I locked through the statutes of South Carolina and Georgia to learn the details of the system, but failed to find anything there. Will you please let me know where I can get full information as to this matter, and you will greatly oblige

C. E. T. Read the account of the Crawford County system in Dallinger's "Nominations for Elective Office" (Longmans, Green & Co., New York) and the report of the "National Conference on Practical Reform, of Primary Elections," published by the Civic Federation of Chicago. The direct primary systems in the South are the outcome of the demand of the white voters that they shall directly name the Democratic candidates. The systems were established by Democratic conventions and not by statute.

You say that the Evangelical defines religion

as "the life of God in the soul of man ;" and, further
on, you place this definition of religion in the six-
teenth century. Will you kindly state (1) if it is
known who first used these words as a definition of
religion, and (2) to what extent this definition of
religion was accepted by evangelical teachers in the
Church?
A. T. B.

1. The Rev. Henry Scougal, minister at Auchterless, Scotland, and till his death Professor of Divinity in Aberdeen, published a book in 1677, with an introduction by Bishop Burnet, entitled "Religion the Life of God in the Soul of Man"-the earliest known use in English of this phrase. 2. By the Wesleys particularly, and their followers; also such men as Thomas Erskine and Frederick Maurice.

Does Dr. Abbott hold to the view that the Synoptic Gospels in their present form are records of the life of Jesus as seen by the Apostles? S. The origin of the Synoptic Gospels is matter of hypothesis. Dr. Abbott holds the opinion that in all three Gospels some common matter, oral or written, was made use of by the authors or compilers, but that in each some original matter was added, either from personal knowl

edge or from current reports. They were probably composed or compiled, substantially in the form in which we now possess them, by the authors whose names they

bear.

I have read Gustave Le Bon's books "The Crowd" and "The Psychology of Peoples," and would like to follow the subject up. Can you recommend any other books? W. H. G.

See the following: Tarde's "Les Lois de l'Imitation" (Alcan, Paris); Sighele's "La Foule Criminelle" (the same); J. M. Baldwin's "Social and Ethical Interpretation in Mental Development" (Macmillan). Please give a list of books relating to the trusts, especially on the side against trusts, and also where I can secure these books, and their price. M. W. C.

1. "Trusts or Competition," by A. B. Nettleton (Leon Publishing Company, Chicago, $1). 2. "Monopolies and Trusts," by R. T. Ely, and the books to which it refers its readers (The Macmillan Company, New York, $1.25). Is there any authority for the idea that "Cyrus" was a title as well as a proper name? For instance, The Cyrus of Persia; as, The Sultan of Turkey, etc. M. G. A.

None that we are aware of.

[blocks in formation]

They sound like "Festus," but I have not been able
to find them there or anywhere.
W. J. S.

Can some reader of The Outlook give the author of the old poem "The Shadow on the Wall,” beginning:

"My home a stately dwelling is,

With lofty, arching doors"? E, E, Y. Can you tell me who is the author of a hymn the closing lines of whose chorus read: "The harvest time is passing by, The summer days are ending"? Also where can I purchase it? C. G. H.

To the Ports of the Mediterranean

O the transatlantic traveler Europe used to mean chiefly England and the Northern sections. What is left us of "the glory that was Greece and the grand eur that was Rome," and all the art and the loveliness of scenery of the Mediterranean countries, were a sort of afterthought, and the Southern lands were to be visited if time and money held out. With the advent of the joint steamship service of the North German Lloyd and HamburgAmerican Companies, established between New York and Mediterranean ports, this has been changed. Now Spain, once so difficult of access, Morocco, Algiers, and Italy, are as quickly reached as was England ten years ago, and Greece, Egypt, and Turkey are no more thought of as very far-away pleasure grounds. The traveler just returned to New York by this Southern route says naturally, "The other day, on Vesuvius," or "Last week, in Madrid," and our closer neighborhood to these places is realized with surprise by one who had not noticed how the Old World and the New had been drawn together in this direction.

Now we have our Italy and the wonderful Mediterranean borders at first hand if we will it so, and at the

[graphic]

in warmer and calmer waters than those of the North Atlantic. The traveler who makes choice of the Southern route has no monotonous trip before him, all sky and sea from port to port, but he is on a course full of variety. The vessels which ply between New York and Genoa are famed for their hospitality, and also for their bright social atmosphere so unusual on shipboard. It is no rug

[graphic]

end of a sea voyage

Monte Carlo

Summit of Gibraltar

wrapped crowd in steamer-chairs, calmed by the stagnation of vast ocean without a break till the haven is in sight. These passengers are kept active with the spur of repeatedly seeing new bits of the world, as they go on bound to a final landing where Europe is most attractive.

Instead of resignation to the inevitable uniformity of the Northern route, it is eager interest in coming events at sea that fills the mind of the traveler voyaging to the Mediterranean. The lovely group of Portuguese islands makes the first break on the line from New York to Genoa. There is a lively gathering on the decks when these lands of perpetual spring come in sight. The richly cultivated slopes are carried high on rugged, precipitous cliffs, and over the mountain-tops the vineyards grow green up into the clouds. White towns nestle everywhere in the rich vegetation, and the fields are marked off by hedges

that, particularly on the island of Fayal, make lines of azure through the green at the time of the dense blossoming of the blue hydrangea that is used for this purpose.

Fayal, St. George, and St. Michael's are fair to see, but the glory of the Azores is Pico, a volcanic island rising direct from the sea nearly eight thousand feet, without a meaner height to confuse the eye glancing up the symmetrical mountain to the perfect cone on the top, from which at times even now a thread of smoke can be seen ascending from the crater. When, as is often the case, a mist floats about the cone, and the summit breaks clear above

[graphic]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]

Arrival at a Mediterranean Port

the cloud, and seems to rise to an incredible altitude, then on the ship's decks the excitement goes to fever-height.

The next land sighted is the Spanish

coast, along which the ship runs for hours with an engrossing panorama unrolling beside itcliffs with rocky highlands running back to blue mountain ranges, and fair wide valleys cutting a green swath through from the shores. Cadiz is seen, lying along the sea, and white like all Southern towns.

As the ship approaches the Strait of Gibraltar, another continent claims attention, and the sight dissipates forever an old

[graphic]

meaning of the word Africa, gained from the geography lessons. This Africa is no desert plain with an oasis and a palm, but a range of lofty mountains coming down to the sea in great precipices and ridges, and the bare, sterile tops rising above with only the shifting shadows to clothe them. In whatever light one comes on this sight, it is grandly beautiful. At the base of the range, Tangier has crept into a niche and made a white touch in the scene.

Gibraltar is the first halting-place, and as the ship glides in under the great rock,

unfamiliar goods from Spain and Africa. The market in the proper seasons offers delicious fruits. Gibraltar strawberries and Gibraltar grapes are too luscious to be soon forgotten. In and out of shops and highways winds the throng of diverse peoples, dusky of face and light, and with the white robes of the Moor brushing the European garbs and the gay uniform of Tommy Atkins.

Those going to African countries, or to Madrid and the Spanish towns, make Gibraltar the starting-point for these tours.

[graphic][subsumed]

A Street of Pompeii showing the remarkable Excavations she finds herself in a lively company of other passenger vessels with war-ships and many little home craft. In Gibraltar the drive up to the fortress galleries and the walk through some of them are the main thing. The interest here, after the work of construction has been noticed, is in coming out of the embrasures and looking down on two continents and on the glorious sea and harbor, and at the life below as the steady stream of people of many nations flows back and forth over the causeway which is the connecting link with Spain. Down in the narrow streets of the quaint town the shops are set out famously with

Again at sea, the course is along the Mediterranean shores of Spain for nearly twenty-four hours, and all the way the faithful watch-towers of her old masters are found crowning the heights, ready for the signal-fires as of old. A day out of sight of land, and then, Sardinia furnishes hours of entertainment as the ship steams along its grand coast.

The approach to the Bay of Naples remains forever, to the traveler who has seen it, a beautiful thought. Ischia, at the left of the entrance, rises in magnificent lines-the volcanic island whose buried giant still moves at times, playing the part

[graphic]

of Enceladus under Ætna, shaking the villages to ruin. On

the right of the ship is Capri, the lovely island with softer mountain curves, and still holding the remains of the villas of the old emperors who loved it for its mild air and fascinating outlook. The ship sails on, following the path the Plinys took so many centuries before us, and that of St. Paul on his way to the seven days of rest at Pozzuoli. The land rises about the Bay in a wide curve, with Sorrento, Castellemare, Portici, Torre del Greco, and a dozen other towns carrying the white lines along the shores, and Naples piling up a mass of light-colored masonry on the hills in the background. Vesuvius trails a long plume of smoke from its summit, and on the lower slopes of the active volcano is seen the plain where lie the overwhelmed cities.

The ship stops at Naples long enough to allow a visit to the unsurpassed museum, and drives to the points of fine view. Often there is time to see Pompeii or Herculaneum. The street life of Naples is extremely entertaining. A landing at this port is a plunge into the novel and curious. There is no gradual familiarizing the traveler to the ways of strange countries, as there is when entering Europe by way of England.

For those who part with the ship at Naples, the excursions about the city are

On the road from Sorrento to Amalfi

The vine-clad slopes of Capri

unlimited in number. The magnificent temples of Pæstum, the finest of the Greek structures outside of Athens, are within a day's reach. Rome itself is only a few hours distant.

The sail for those going on to Genoa is along the Italian coast, with the steamship at all times near the land and in view of the fine shores. Arriving at the city of palaces, one finds Genoa indeed superb as seen from the sea. There is much here for which to linger, and in the suburbs is the Villa Pallavicini, in the most ornate and individual style of Italian gardening. As an entrance to Europe, Genoa is well placed. The French and Italian Riviera are close at hand, and the cities of Northern Italy easily reached. The Italian lakes are near, and, for those who come in

summer, Switzerland and her eternal snows can be gained in a few hours after leaving the ship. Considering the beauty and novelty along this Southern route to Old World scenes, it is not surprising that it increases in favor every year.

The sailing list for this German-Mediterranean service and all information desired will be sent upon application to Oelrichs & Co., 5 Broadway, New York; H. Claussenius & Co., 90 Dearborn Street, Chicago; or the HamburgAmerican Line, 37 Broadway, New York, and 159 Randolph Street, Chicago.

[graphic]
« AnteriorContinuar »