BOOK REVIEWS
The Bloody Mohawk. By T. Wood Clarke. (New York, The
Macmillan Company, 1940. 372p. $3.50.)
The author begins his story at the
beginning, so to speak,
when the Iroquois first settled in the
Mohawk Valley. The story
ends with the war for American
Independence inasmuch as the
last three chapters are composed of
biographical sketches of the
little-known leaders of the patriots,
the loyalists, and of the
Iroquois in that struggle.
We are told that this is "a frankly
popular history" and that
"it is intended for all those
readers to whom the struggles of our
country present an ever fascinating
panorama." As a popular
history this book is very good,
especially that part which deals
with the Revolution. To be sure, the
great amount of hatred
generated by that conflict continues to
live in the Mohawk Valley
but the author, a native of the valley,
is unusually fair in his
treatment of that phase of our history.
He freely admits that
the loyalists who remained in the valley
were "ruthlessly hunted
out, arrested, and either shot as
traitors or sent to the prisons of
Albany, Massachusetts, or
Connecticut." The author also admits
that the "arrogance and
over-confidence" of some of the army
officers and the "quibbling and
procrastination" of the legislature
did much to prolong the struggle in the
valley and thereby impose
additional hardships and dangers upon
the inhabitants. This
official arrogance is especially noted
in the "incapacity and coward-
ice of General Van Renselaer" in
the battle near Fort Klock.
The chapters which treat of Burgoyne's
failure at Saratoga
are likewise very good. Popular
histories give too little mention
of the leadership of Benedict Arnold,
who not only won the battle
of Saratoga but who succeeded by a ruse
in forcing St. Leger to
retreat from his seige of Fort Stanwix.
Nor do many popular
histories tell of the "fourth
column," under McDonald, which,
marching from Nagara Falls by way of the
Chemung, Susque-
(398)
BOOK REVIEWS 399
hanna, and Schoharie rivers, was to join
the armies of Burgoyne,
Clinton, and St. Leger at Albany. But
nothing is omitted in
this history.
On the other hand, there is much in the
book which is not
good. For example, the author repeats ad
nauseam that the
effect of Champlain's aid to the
Algonquins in their battle with
the Iroquois was "nearly two
centuries of bloody warfare and the
fate of the North American
continent." The author also makes
frequent mention of "the solidity
of the League of the Five Na-
tions" and he emphasizes the
untruth that the Dutch of Fort
Orange supplied the Iroquois with guns.
Another statement is likewise open to
criticism: "By the year
1700, the Iroquois were undisputed
rulers from the Hudson to
the Mississippi, while the terror
inspired by them cowed the New
England Indians and reached from Hudson
Bay to the Carolinas."
Perhaps the author would not have fallen
into these errors if he
had been able to consult the excellent
study of Professor George
T. Hunt, The War of the Iroquois (Madison,
1940). At the
same time, perhaps the author might have
avoided his errors if he
had consulted source material instead of
secondary works.
But, on the whole, the author has given
us a very readable
and worthwhile "popular
history." It is replete with excellent
maps and photographs which add
immeasurably to a better under-
standing of the text. The book contains
also eight pages of
bibliography as well as a good index.
And, furthermore, it is
well bound and the printing is good.
EUGENE 0. PORTER.
Hardly a Man Is Now Alive. The Autobiography of Dan Beard.
(New York, Doubleday, Doran and Company,
Inc., 1939.
562p. $3.00.)
This autobiography of Dan Beard, long
the "Grand Old
Man of the Boy Scout Movement,"
offers to the reader a fasci-
nating story of a life covering ninety
years of activity. In the
preface entitled, "The Beards
Discover America," the author
400
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
traces the history of his family in
America from the time of the
landing of the first representative in
1637. The chapter offers
a fine illustration of the history of a
typical American family.
The author himself was born in Ohio and
the story of his early
life in the State is of distinct
interest to any one concerned with
Ohio.
Always a lover of the "great
out-doors," he traveled ex-
tensively all over the country,
particularly in the Mid-west, New
York and New England. The story of his
own life is told in four-
teen chapters, the last one devoted to
scouting, in which he played
such a prominent part.
The book is well illustrated. There is
no opportunity for
contradiction or criticism since it is a
personal story which
cannot be questioned.
Mr. Beard has written a number of books
and has shown
himself to be a talented writer.
H. L.
Tippecanoe; Being the Story of the
Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!
Campaign of 1840. . . . By Thomas A. Knight. (Cleveland,
O., Tippecanoe Club, c1940, 138p., 35pl.
and index. Cloth,
$2.15.)
The author, a former newspaper man
active during the Presi-
dential campaigns of 1896, 1900, and
1904, was for years secre-
tary of the Early Settlers Associations
of Cuyahoga County, con-
tributing to its Annals, and is
the author of The Strange Disap-
pearance of William Morgan, now in its ninth reprinting.
The present work, besides being the
"story of the Tippecanoe
and Tyler too! campaign," is more
properly "a history of the
Tippecanoe Club of Cleveland, the oldest
Whig-Republican club
in the United States." The
Introduction by Dr. Nicholas Mur-
ray Butler, is a reprint of his speech
delivered at the Tippecanoe
banquet, January 29, 1920. The book, not
the best example of
the book manufacturer's art, is divided
into three parts as fol-
lows: Tippecanoe; The Garfield and
Arthur Campaign, and Mc-
BOOK REVIEWS 401
Kinley Campaigns, and contains special
articles by Colonel Carmi
A. Thompson, and Judge James B. Ruhl, as
well as a great many
excerpts from the speeches of famous
Republicans, with biblio-
graphical information. Most of the 35
plates are portraits of Ohio
Republicans (particularly Clevelanders),
making quite an exten-
sive gallery.
There is an index but no table of
contents.
C. L. W.
The Loon Feather. By Iola Fuller. (New York, Harcourt, Brace
and Company, 1940. 419p. $2.50.)
This novel extends from the birth to
engagement of the
daughter of Tecumseh, Oneta. Woven into
the narrative are
evocations concerning the circumstances
of her birth and fore-
shadowings of her married life. After
Tecumseh's death, Oneta's
mother moves to Michilimackinac, where
she marries a cultured,
fastidious Frenchman employed in the fur
business of John Jacob
Astor. The story is essentially
narrative, dealing with the doings
of Oneta, her step-father Pierre, his
mother Mme. Debans, and
Pierre's son Paul, who was born to
Oneta's mother. Oneta was
educated by the Ursulines in Quebec
after having been twelve
years an "Indian." Iola Fuller
has done more here, however,
than to narrate the lives of her
characters. She has shown the
clash of two civilizations--French and
American on one side and
Indian on the other. The desire of the
American for land--
cleared land, which destroys the hunting
ground of the Indians--
some of the problems of a half-breed
girl living in a white civil-
ization, the inability of the white man
to overcome the evils--
disease and drunkenness--which he has
brought to the frontier,
all these aspects of frontier life are
made evident. The problems
raised for Oneta by reason of her being
a half-breed are solved
by her recognizing that she is a
daughter of Indians, but also
by her influencing them to go west to
join Black Hawk in his
war, instead of attacking
Michilimackinac and probably killing her
own family. She remains, though, with
those who have reared
402
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and educated her, and she marries a
Bostonian. There are also
some excellent descriptions of the
riotous life lived during the
summer by the voyageurs at
Michilimackinac.
This is a good "first" novel.
Good ability to draw character
is shown, also ability to describe
manifestations of nature. There
is what one might term
"delicacy," in the failure to develop the
kind of scene which might bring forth
hearty laughter. The scene
in which Pierre, the cultured,
sensitive, self-centered, and fasti-
dious Frenchman is proposing marriage to
Oneta's mother (who
knows not a word of French) with Oneta
as interpreter--that
scene is an instance in which Iola
Fuller shows that she does not
care to write humorously of serious
things. To the reviewer's
mind the scene could have been much more
effectively and satisfy-
ingly done. Love scenes in the story are
romantic and idealistic
and apparently the actors are divorced
from desire to express
their love by physical manifestations.
Consequently the love scene
between Oneta and Dr. Reynolds is done
as that elusive person
we term a mid-Victorian would have it
done.
JOHN H. McMINN.
These Names of Ours. By Augustus Wilfrid Dellquest. (New
York, Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1938. 296p.
$2.50.)
The author of this book of surnames was
associated with
his father in the old and rare book
business and in this connection
acquired an interest in names and their
origins. His experience
gained by wide travel and newspaper
writing added further to his
interest in the subject, until
eventually it became a hobby. The
author is now associate editor for
Viking.
In a book of 296 pages there is
given the origin of thousands
of American surnames arranged in
alphabetical order. The preface
of twenty-one pages is very
illuminating, showing how names
originated. Mr. Dellquest answers the
questions "What's in a
name?" by a quotation, "There
is something more in a name than
there is in many persons who possess
it."
A list of name elements makes it
possible to determine the
BOOK REVIEWS 403
significance of thousands of surnames
not specifically mentioned
in the text of the book. These are
listed under the heads of
English, Scandinavian, Welsh-Cornish,
Gaelic, Norman-French,
German, Dutch and occupational. The book
will be of value to
genealogists and all interested in the
origin and significance of
family names.
H. L.
The Trees. By Conrad Richter. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf.
1940. 302p. $2.50.)
"They moved along in the bobbing,
springy gait of a family
which followed the woods as some
families follow the sea." With
this arresting sentence Conrad Richter
begins what is one of the
most absorbing of recent historical
novels, The Trees, story of the
Lucketts, a wild, woodsfaring family,
pushing ever westward as
the frontier advanced and as new
settlements threatened their
cherished isolation.
There were Worth Luckett, hunter, his
wife Jary, and their
woods-wild children, Sayward, Genny,
Wyitt, Achsa, and Sulie,
each strongly individualistic in
character but bound together by the
ties of kinship and a common love of
adventure and solitude.
From Pennsylvania they came, across the
Ohio and into the
deep woods beyond. There Worth built a
cabin and there they
lived precariously during the months
which followed. And there
came, in time, the persons who were to
disrupt their simple way
of life--farmers, traders, millers, the
"White Indian" Louis Scur-
rah, the bound boy and others.
Joys and sorrows came to them and,
inevitably, change, until
Sayward could muse on her altered
existence: "First to go had
been Jary under the white oak, and then
little Sulie never came
home with the cows. Worth had to track
off to the French
Settlements. Wyitt took himself out to
sleep in his half-faced
cabin. Achsa was up somewheres around
the English Lakes.
And now Genny, who came home a while,
was off again, working
by the year over at Covenhoven's."
And she herself was to go.
404
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to turn her back on her life as a
hunter's child, and to become
a tiller of the soil and the wife of a
Bay State lawyer.
Beautifully written, the book is
particularly noteworthy for
the manner in which it depicts the
varying aspects and features of
nature and interprets their impress on
the people whose lives
they so profoundly influence. A robust
story of the American
wilderness, The Trees is a book
which in startling episode, deft
characterization, and vivid background
gives a portrait of frontier
life as it must have seemed to the
pioneers themselves. That it
gives a trustworthy picture of the
pioneer period in Ohio has
been attested by authorities in both the
fields of history and natu-
ral history who read the work in
manuscript form.
L. R. H.
The Good Old Days; a History of
American Morals and Manners
as Seen through the Sears, Roebuck
Catalogs, 1905 to the
Present. By David L. Cohn. With an Introduction by Sin-
clair Lewis. (New York, Simon and
Schuster, 1940. xxxiv,
597P. Illus. $3.75.)
This well-printed, beautifully bound
volume, weighing over
three pounds, is one of the most
entertaining, and highly interest-
ing books produced during the past
several years. The long title
very adequately states its subject
matter but a review of the
chapter headings will further whet the
reader's appetite: Profuse
Strains of Unpremeditated Art (musical
instruments); What
Are the Wild Waves Saying? (radios); Fun
and Laughter with
the Stereoscope; Reading Maketh a Full
Man; The Horseless
Carriage; Time, You Old Gypsy Man
(clocks); Watch Birds and
Hunting-case Stags; You Get It--We Cure
It; Here Lies (tomb-
stones); Miss Jones Takes a Letter
(typewriters); How Many
Poets Are Lost (contraceptives); Save
the Surface and You Save
All (cosmetics); Fashion Parade; Woman's
Crowning Glory--
and Man's (hair goods); The Bird on
Nellie's Hat; Whenas in
Silk Stockings; That Which Her Slender
Waist Confined; From
Cotton Drawers to Silk Panties; Hang
Your Clothes on a Hickory
BOOK REVIEWS 405
Limb (bathing suits); Woman's Best
Friend (housekeeping ap-
pliances); A Garden Is a Lovesome Thing,
God Wot!; Every
Man His Own Policeman (guns); Sports;
Clothes Make the
Man; Gent's Furnishings; The Man with
the Woe (farm imple-
ments); Manners and Morals in
Advertising; The Burnings of
the Books (resentment of local merchants
to Sears competition);
Five Dollars Down and a Dollar a Month;
"The Largest Store in
the World" (history of Sears and
the mail-order business); "Dear
Sears, Roebuck" (letters from
customers on a variety of sub-
jects); Index.
The last chapter contains some excellent
examples of uncon-
scious humor and is good for many hearty
laughs. The value of the
book, however, lies in the analysis of
American life as indicated
by the items a nation has purchased, and
the change in buying
habits as charted in the pages of a
great source book.
The author, a graduate of Virginia and
Yale, worked for
Sears from 1932-1934, and since 1935 has
spent his time writing.
Besides contributing to Atlantic
Monthly, he has written God
Shakes Creation and Picking America's Pockets.
C. L. W.
Kings Row. By Henry Bellamann. (New York, Simon and
Schuster, 1940. 674p. $2.75.)
The story of a town, like that of an
individual, is more excit-
ing reading if it deals chiefly with the
colorful idiosyncracies of its
life rather than the commonplace
realities. Kings Row is un-
doubtedly a real town but Henry
Bellamann, in Kings Row, tells
of its eccentricities. The reader gets
the idea that the real parts
are there; perhaps he takes them for
granted, but he doesn't read
about them. He is likely to remember
only an assorted group of
insane people. Of course it is entirely
possible that the town
which inspired the story (the reviewer
understands it is a small
town in Missouri) is not a normal town.
But whether the town is normal or not is
of no consequence--
it is interesting. It has an asylum at
one end and a college at the
406
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
other. The people that roam its streets
are all "nuts" but fasci-
nating--excepting Randy. Randy is
substantial and good--she's
the backbone of the town. The chief
concern of the young is sex
and that of the old, insanity. In
between they think of real estate,
medicine or music. The hero, Parris
Mitchell, is insipid but fine.
The author is masterful with his
characters and puts them
where he wants them with precision. They
don't get out of place.
If young Parris is swimming naked with
his first love or studying
psychoses in Vienna he seems to belong
there. His transitions
from character to character and from
subject to subject which
could so easily have been
"jumpy" are smooth and easy. If you
read one page of Kings Row you'll
read it all and meet some
people you didn't expect to see and
probably didn't know before.
I think you'll like them. K. W. M.
Cincinnati; Story of the Queen City. By Clara Longworth
De Chambrun. (New York and London,
Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1939. 342p. Illus.)
Cincinnati celebrated last year the one
hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of its founding. To recall
the glorious achievements
of the builders of the Queen City and
thus to inspire American
readers with pride and humility, this
book was written. Mrs.
De Chambrun sees two causes of
Cincinnati's growth and pros-
perity, first, "the sane laws and
doctrines of the Northwest Ter-
ritory," and second, "the
spirit of her leading citizens." From
the Mound-builder to President Franklin
D. Roosevelt she traces
the political, social, economic, and
cultural development of this
colorful river city.
Her method is entertaining on the whole;
the illustrations are
pleasing additions to the text.
Particularly valuable are those
chapters for which she has new source
material, as "Pioneer
Portraits," and those in which she
herself participates as an
observer, such as "Society and
Politics." One wishes that this
sixty-nine-year-old lady of the
distinguished Longworth family
had written a separate book about her
recollections of life in Cin-
BOOK REVIEWS 407
cinnati. One of her significant
statements is of particular interest
to the historian of national politics.
She states that the rift be-
tween Theodore Roosevelt and William H.
Taft had its genesis
not in the latter's administration but
"much sooner, even during
Roosevelt's own regime, at the precise
moment when certain
advisers from Massachusetts were
insistent upon clearing the ad-
ministration from the approbrium of
having 'dabbled in Roman
Catholic affairs.' " The details of
this controversy may be read
in the chapter "Society and
Politics."
Believing as she does in the "great
man theory" of history,
individuals stand out in this book more
than events, the famous
more than the infamous, the prominent
more than the average
citizen, and men more than women.
Although the names of
women appear more frequently here than
in the average history,
they are cited chiefly as artists,
society leaders, and art patrons.
If anyone is particularly interested in
who-married-whom among
the elite during the entire history of
Cincinnati, he will find a
veritable social register in this book.
If anyone wishes to know
what the common man and woman
contributed to the development
of Cincinnati, he will have to turn
elsewhere. If the reader is in
love with the Queen City, he will not
mind the strong scent of
civic pride in this book; but if he is
more objective in his feeling,
he will prefer a dash of critical
realism. Mrs. De Chambrun has
certainly achieved her purpose in
writing the story of a great city.
EUNICE SCHUSTER BALLIS.
Body, Boots & Britches. By Harold W. Thompson. (Phila-
delphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1940.
530P.)
Just plain people think more about fun
than they do about
politics or preaching or work or even
war. And since we plain
people are and always have been a
majority it's strange the
historians haven't spent more time on
us. But lately they've been
getting our fun, in the form of our
folk-lore, into books. Our
New York State cousins have a fellow
named Harold W. Thomp-
son, a professor at Cornell, recording
their hilarity. He's made
a book called Body, Boots &
Britches that's chuck full of frolic.
40
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
There are songs and stories about
pirates and robbers, witches
and liars, cheaters and fishers,
soldiers and sailors, tree cutters
and injun-fighters, killers and lovers,
stone giants and bed-bug
fighting in this hair-raising,
side-splitting book. The whole thing
is written so that anyone can enjoy it.
Historians will be pleased
to see that the author (although merely
an English and music
teacher) tells where he got his
material. Those who are fright-
ened by documentation will be reassured
when they find that Mr.
Thompson calls his bibliography,
"Who Told You?"
Students and correspondents and visitors
and "old-timers"
from almost everywhere helped the author
build a great mass of
material concerning folk-lore.
"Suppose," said Mr. Thompson,
"that anyone wanted to know the
history of New York outside
the big city--know it body, boots,
and britches--what better could
he do than read this lore collected by a
group of native Yorkers
of superior intelligence, . . ."
and so this book, which you can
use if you're a historian and can enjoy
if you're human.
K. W. M.
Wolves against the Moon. By Julia Cooley Altrocchi. (New
York, The Macmillan Company, 1940.
572p.)
The American frontier has vanished. The
more it contrasts
with our present urban life, the more
unfamiliar and remote it
grows, the more it inspires the
historian and romantic novelist.
Every year brings a new crop of books
about the frontier of
colonial times, the Old Northwest, the
Southwest, or the Far
West. Mrs. Altrocchi has written a first
novel about the frontier
of the Old Northwest from the point of
view of the French
Canadian trader. Her earlier work, Snow
Covered Wagons, was
a long narrative poem about the Donner
party, pioneers of the
Far West. The present novel is the
exciting, adventurous story
of the frontier of the trader, the
farmer, and the man of business
in the Northwest Territory. The people
who take part in the
struggle between the French, the
Indians, the British, and the
Americans, are presented in great
variety and detail.
The hero, Joseph Bailly, a
French-Canadian of aristocratic
BOOK REVIEWS 409
descent, at home in a ballroom, trading
post, or Indian tepee
makes the successful transition between
the years 1797 and 1835
from fur trader, to homesteader, to
capitalist. His activities and
those of his friends are the main theme.
In counterpoint runs a
second theme--the life and death
struggle of Joseph and his half
Indian-half French wife, Marie, with the
"wolves." The fiercest
of these are Maurice Rastel, crafty,
unscrupulous trader, Corinne,
tantalizing first love of Joseph and
wife of Rastel, De la Vigne,
evil Ottawa medicine man, and Lucille,
daughter of De la Vigne.
Fist fights, tense love scenes, duels,
scalpings, poisonings, tortures,
massacres are all part of the battle in
which our hero and heroine
emerge triumphant.
If at times the plot is confused, the
characters unreal and
melodramatic, their conversations
stilted, and their postures stereo-
typed, the main interest is sustained to
the end. Whether this
book leaves the reader with nostalgia or
with relief that the
frontier has vanished depends on the
individual.
EUNICE SCHUSTER BALLIS.
This Land Is Ours. By Louis Zara. (Boston, Houghton Mifflin
Co., 1940. 779P. $2.75.)
This historical novel, in which appear
many historic char-
acters, opens in 1755, with a
description of Braddock's Defeat
when John and Abbie Benton are preparing
to cross the Appa-
lachians from Lancaster, Pennsylvania;
it ends in 1835 with their
son Andrew, now eighty-six, and his wife
Hannah on another
of their treks westward--this time they
are headed for west of
the Mississippi. The story as it unfolds
is seen to be a consequence
of that land hunger that pushed the
pioneers always West; after
settling, clearing, and planting for a
term of years, the same rest-
lessness would come upon them, and they
were not content until
on their way west to newer lands. Andrew
Benton's way of
phrasing this restlessness was to say
that he did not like "the
smell of his neighbors."
The story is woven principally about
Andrew and Hannah
410
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and their descendants. Andrew and Hannah
became acquainted
while their families were living near
Pittsburgh. They were in
Detroit when Pontiac's Conspiracy broke
out (it was Andrew who
learned from his Indian sweetheart of
the impending attack on
the town); Andrew served as guide to
George Rogers Clark on
his way to Kaskaskia and Vincennes
(neither John nor Andrew
was with St. Clair at the time of his
rout!); both served and
John was killed at Fallen Timbers;
Andrew was at the battle of
Tippecanoe and at Fort Dearborn during
the War of 1812 and
was ransomed by a French habitan for
fifty dollars (the Indians
demanded one hundred, but the habitan
explained that Benton
was old and only good to poke the fire;
could the Indians have
known how vigorously Andrew had killed
their own men when
they attacked the train withdrawing from
the fort, they might
have thought differently); Andrew
offered his services to go
against Black Hawk in 1832, and his and
Hannah's feelings were
hurt when he was refused. "Maybe
they all think redskin fightin'
is a coon-chase. Let 'em go! We'll see
what they're made of!"
The design of having Andrew present at
so many of the out-
standing military events of his period
makes it necessary that
there be gaps between them. Sometimes
these gaps are spanned
by narrating one event that happened in
the meantime--for ex-
ample, St. Clair's Defeat; sometimes
there is no attempt to account
for the passage of time in the lives of
Andrew and Hannah.
There is sympathy and understanding of
the Indian's plight.
Andrew did not believe that all Indians
were "varmints"; he knew
that white men--traders and British
commanders--helped to
make Indians bad, the former by selling
"fire water," the latter
by instigating and implementing them
against Americans. But
the words in the title are so often used
by Indians and Americans
alike that the reader is likely to
wonder whose land it is.
There is symbolism in the story: the
Bentons crossed the
Alleghenies in the first Conestoga wagon
to make the trip; that
wagon was made by John's father. In 1835
Andrew's grandson
somewhere west of the Mississippi, was
going in it to take up
new lands. There is also the white
buffalo bull which Andrew
thought he saw near Pittsburgh, and
which throughout his life
BOOK REVIEWS 411
he always hoped to get one more shot at;
but in 1835 Andrew
believed that the white buffalo bull too
had gone into new lands
west of the Mississippi, possibly beyond
reach of his rifle.
It will be obvious to anyone who reads
it that much work
was done in gathering material for this
novel. The treatment
of circumstances, facts of history, and
traits of character show
industry and carefulness. There are a
few minor slips, such as
when Mr. Zara says that from the husks
of the corn the settlers
would make hominy (p. 114) and when he
refers to an Indian
chief leading his flotilla of canoes
from Lake Erie "down the
Maumee" (p. 267); placing Piqua,
Ohio, on the Mad River is
another instance (p. 269). But the book
is, despite minor mis-
statements of this nature, good
entertainment. The author has
done here what many historians and most
novelists would like to
be able to do--he has made the mere
facts of history text-books
come alive and assume the nature of
reality.
There are maps which facilitate
understanding of the mili-
tary events and of the moves of the
Bentons. There is also a
note on sources, in which the author
quotes Froude's exhortation
to go to the original sources, "to
the chronicles written by men
who lived at the time." Mr. Zara
would seem to have followed
this exhortation. JOHN H. MCMINN.
Pope's Digest, 1815 (Vol. II). Ed. by Francis S. Philbrick.
Law Series, Vol. IV. Collections, Vol. XXX. (Springfield,
Ill., Illinois State Historical Library,
c1940. 485p.)
The present volume completes the
reprinting of Nathaniel
Pope's Laws of the Territory of
Illinois which was originally
published in Kaskaskia in 1815. The same
careful editing and
faithful reproduction of the original is
in evidence here as it was
in Vol. I, reviewed in the OHIO STATE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, XLVIII, 274-6 (July, 1939).
The acts include those providing for the
organization of
courts and the militia, the
establishment of towns, the collection
of taxes, and the regulation of interest
on money. A bibliography
and general index concludes the
volume. W. D. 0.