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THE ROMANCE of the COLORADO RIVER.

By Frederick

S. Dellenbaugh. (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1902. O., pp., xxxv+399, 204 illus., maps and portraits. Cloth, net $3.50.)

This volume seeks to present a comprehensive history of the explorations of the Colorado River of the West from the time of its discovery, by Cardenas, in 1540, to the present time. Before this Alarçon had been on its lower waters and Melchior Diaz had been on its banks, but it was left for Cardenas to discover and report to Europeans that grandest of all natural wonders, the Grand Canyon. Sixty years later came Oñate, and at the end of the 17th century Padre Kino. Padre Garces and Padre Escalante were in its bosom in 1776, the former being expelled from the Moki towns on July 4, 1776,-an American Declaration of Independence, which in spite of all our boasted progress, has been practically maintained to the present. With the death of Garces in 1781 the period of the entradas comes to an end. The men who conducted them, saving Cardenas and Oñate, were soldiers of the cross and were stimulated by the desire of plucking heathen souls from the burning. With the 19th century came the trappers, men like the Patties and Ashleys, who came to the region for beaver and who generally considered the natives as mere cumberers of the ground. These men grew rich in trade and incidentally added something to our knowledge of the giant canyon and its ferocious river. With American domination came a second age of exploration and discovery, the first under government auspices being that by Lieutenant J. C. Ives in 1858 when he explored from the mouth of the river as far up as Fortification Rock.

So much for the history of explorations and discovery of the Colorado by earlier adventurers. The remainder of the book deals with the two expeditions of Maj. J. W. Powell from the head waters of the river through all of its canyons, the first made in 1869, the second in 1871-73. The first

was under private auspices; the latter, under government direction, included the author among its members, and his autobiographical account of its work is therefore of the highest value and authority. Those who know nothing of the Grand Canyon, who have not seen other canyons of the Southwest differing from the Grand only in size and not in character, cannot realize or comprehend its majestic greatness or the magnitude of the difficulties which the intrepid explorer must face. Given a yawning abyss, hemmed in on either side by walls in many places almost perpendicular and running up in height to 5000 or 6000 feet, the distance from one upper edge of this chasm to the other, from rim to rim, being in places 12 miles across; a chasm from which egress was possible in perhaps not more than 20 places in its 2000 miles of length and into which provisions had to be packed for many miles on the backs of burros, a chasm at whose bottom was a ferocious, unconquered river, swollen at times by torrential rains and by melting snows, on whose turbid waters filled with hidden rocks, cataracts and whirlpools, the argosies of commerce had never floated, whose rocky shores had never been charted by man and through whose vast, wild desolation no man, Caucasian or Amerind, had passed or if passing had lived to tell the story; it was into the jaws of this monster, into the maw of this dragon, that Powell and his party boldly steered, not knowing what was before them, without chart or human experience to guide them and strange as it may seem not a life was lost of those who remained with the boats while the three who left the river soon fell before the hostile Utes.

No man can rise from a reading of the minute and circumstantial recital of the fortunes of these two expeditions, without feeling that the age of heroes is not yet passed and that we still have men willing to do deeds of daring that rival if they do not surpass the fabled labors of Heracles.

The printing and press work of this beautiful volume could hardly be outdone; the colored frontispiece gives us some conception of the wonderful colors of the Southwest; there are many illustrations typical of the region and the enthusiasm of the author is in keeping with the greatness of his subject.

REMINISCENCES, LETTERS, POETRY AND MISCELLANIES. By J. Staunton Moore. (Richmond, Va.: O. E. Flanhart Printing Company, 1903. O., pp. viii+785, port. of author, cloth.)

The author of this portly volume, impressed with the idea that "every man should leave some trace of his mind behind him, according to his capacity," has privately issued this volume for the pleasure of his children. It contains, as its title indicates, a great variety of papers. The reminiscences deal with the war and reconstruction and come down to recent times. The letters are those of the author, many of them written in war times from the front, dealing with the life of a soldier in camp, in battle and in prison. Others are later in date and treat on political topics, for the author, being a merchant who had made a competence in the grocery business in Richmond, was bitterly opposed to the free silver heresy, although, as he frankly confesses, he has no turn for politics and has met with defeat on each of the two occasions that he has been persuaded to seek public office. The miscellanies are made up principally of addresses delivered on set occasions. They cover a wide field, mostly biblical, and discuss subjects as widely different as the character of David and city administration. While a Democrat, he has many hard things to say of Jefferson and goes further in favor of Federal regulation of State affairs than most Democrats can relish. To the historical student the reminiscences, early letters and genealogical memoranda will be of most service; to the student of character those parts of the work in which

the writer tells how by honesty, frugality and industry he rose from poverty to independence and to a position of honor in church and State.

THE GIANT Of the Blue Ridge and Other Poems. By Mary Buckner Spiers. (Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1903. D., pp. 96, port. of author, cloth.)

The longest poem in this little volume is The Giant of the Blue Ridge, a tale of Ike Huck, a blacksmith, who rescues from death at the hands of her husband a beautiful and aristocratic woman charged with wantonness. The story is told in iambic tetrameter and pentameter. Abaddon is an eastern tale. The predominant note is the great human passion, but some of the shorter poems draw their inspiration from

nature.

By James

THE NAMELESS HERO AND OTHER POEMS. Blythe Anderson. (New York: A. Wessels Company, 1902. D., pp.73, cloth.) This volume of Missouri verse gives us an impressive idea of the horror of civil war. "The nameless Hero," its principal poem, written mainly in iambic pentameter, tells the story of happenings in Palmyra, Mo., in 1862, when Gen. John McNeill was in charge of the Union troops. A Union spy and informer had been killed. Ten citizens of the town were condemned to death in retaliation. At the solicitation of the wife of one of the victims McNeill agreed to spare her husband, provided a substitute could be found. It is then the Nameless Hero appears and rescues the doomed man at the cost of his own life. There are other war poems, all showing the extreme Southern sympathies of the author.

A. C. McClurg & Co., of Chicago, have brought out a book, entitled ALABAMA SKETCHES, by Samuel Minturn Peck. The stories are short and abound in the racy dialect of the Southern negro. The author depicts, with rare taste and

good literary discernment, Southern life as it existed at the close of the Civil War. A romance is woven into each sketch with much humor and pathos, and the scenes are all laid in the villages and towns of Alabama. The book will be found to be entertaining and enjoyable, and we heartily recommend it to those who desire to pass a few hours in light reading.

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