BOOK REVIEWS
Ohio in Homespun and Calico. By I. T. Frary.
(Richmond,
Virginia, Garrett and Massie, 1942. 148p. $2.00.)
"This is a saga of common
people," says the author of Ohio
in Homespun and Calico in presenting his latest literary product
to the reader. I. T. Frary does not sing
of arms and the hero,
but of the sturdy pioneering Ohioans who
bore the burden of
building a commonwealth, and of whom, as
a bearer of their
tradition, he is justly proud. "I
like those simple people who
were mine . . . a few so-called leaders
have been accorded the
honors . . . but the common people, like
my people, carried the
burden."
Author Frary concerns himself but little
with the esthetics
of pioneer Ohio life. Rather, he prefers
to paint a word picture
of the homely virtues of the founding
fathers and their folkways.
The reader's mind is refreshed by a
brief review of conditions
which set the stage for the arrival of
white settlers and of what
they found awaiting them on their
arrival in the Ohio country.
The stern struggle against the
wilderness and hostile Indians serves
as a background for the erection of
cabin homes, clearing of the
land and planting of crops. These labors
are lightened by house-
raisings, corn-huskings, quilting bees
and singing schools.
The reader feels himself a very part of
these activities, thanks
to the skill of the author, whose
familiarity with the things about
which he writes is most convincing.
Pioneer arts and crafts,
schools, churches, travel and budding
industry in a wilderness
community, are vividly portrayed and
made a basic part of our
cultural heritage.
A wealth of illustrations depicting
early Ohio homes and
architecture, pioneer arts and crafts
and objects of everyday use in
the home, supplement the text. I. T.
Frary, a member of the
staff of the Cleveland Museum of Art, is
nationally known as a
(343)
344
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lecturer, writer and photographer. Other
books from his pen are
Thomas Jefferson, Architect and
Builder; Early Homes of Ohio;
Early American Doorways; and They Built the Capitol.
H. C. S.
Hennepin's "Description of
Louisiana." By Jean Delanglez,
S.J.,
Ph.D.
(Chicago, Institute of Jesuit History, 1941. viii??
164p.)
This book is a critical essay on the
authorship of Hennepin's
Description of Louisiana and continues the author's series of
studies of seventeenth century French
activities in the Mississippi
Valley. It is a book of fundamental
importance in this field and
that of North American cartography, and
has incidental im-
portance, also, in the historical
re-evaluation of Jesuit activities in
early American history.
With a brilliant display of textual
criticism, which seems to
settle the old controversy conclusively,
Father Delanglez shows
that Hennepin plagiarized the first two
thirds of his Description
from the first third of an unpublished Relation
des descouvertes,
composed by Abbe Bernou from a series of
letters directed to him
by La Salle. The basic method employed
is a careful comparison
of the texts of the letters, the Relation
and the Description. The
last third of the Description, he
shows, was written in an entirely
different style (Hennepin's), is
untrustworthy as to chronology
and geography, and inconsistent in many
points with the plagia-
rized section. The author then goes on
to prove, with less over-
whelming evidence, but still
conclusively, that Roussel's map which
accompanied the original edition of the Description
is an imitation
in most respects of the well known
anonymous map of 1682. This
anonymous map, the Abbe Bernou "not
only helped to draw, but
also amplified and brought up to date by
furnishing the artist with
data taken from the same letters of La
Salle on which he had relied
in writing the Relation des
descouvertes." It has long been well
established that Hennepin plagiarized
his New Discovery from
Le Clercq's narrative of La
Salle's'discovery of 'the mouth of the
BOOK REVIEWS 345
Mississippi. The addition of Father
Delanglez' well proved
charges makes the unhappy Recollect
missionary appear as one of
the greatest plagiarists in American
history.
One notes with interest the author's
intention to produce a
larger work on Mississippi Valley
cartography (p. 111) and hopes
also, that he will soon give attention
to the need recognized (p.
141) for more light on European aspects
of the subject of this
study, particularly that of the
"Jansenistically inclined coterie"
(pp. 30, 50-51 and passim) which
seems to have aided and abetted
Hennepin in his plagiariasm.
Hiram College HAROLD E. DAVIS
The American Agricultural Press, 1819-1860. By Albert
Lowther
Demaree. (New York, Columbia University
Press, 1941.
389 p. Bibliography and Index.)
Only recently have students come to
understand the tre-
mendous importance of the agricultural
paper and magazine which
went into so many rural homes during the
nineteenth century not
only to carry news of advances in farm
procedures and techniques,
but also to impart scraps of poetry,
bits of household advice and
columns of recipes and fashion news.
Dr. Demaree has sought to tell the story
of the significance of
this type of journalism from its
beginning in 1819 until the period
just prior to the Civil War. His book is
divided into three general
parts--the first a discussion of the
agricultural 'press including
chapters on program and policies,
outstanding editors, special fea-
tures and concluding with an explanation
of the significance of
rural journalism; the second might well
have been incorporated in
an appendix as it consists of more than
twenty-five selected articles
dealing with various phases of the farm
scene taken from repre-
sentative papers of the day; and the
third is a collection of sixteen
sketches of certain important
agricultural journals, including the
Ohio Cultivator which was published in Columbus for the period
1845-1864. There is no full length
sketch of the Ohio Farmer, but
scattered references to it are made.
Although the bibliography
346
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
cites the Ohio Agriculturist, published
in Tiffin, and The Ohio
Valley Farmer, published in Cincinnati, neither of these journals
receives attention of consequence. In
general, Dr. Demaree has
done the student who wishes a quick
survey of agricultural jour-
nalism in America a service. No history
of farm papers in the
United States, however, can be written
until a closer examination
is made of many more individual papers
and particularly of their
editors. Journalism in the Middle West,
in particular, deserves
additional attention. The entire field
needs to be continued from
the date that Dr. Demaree
stops--1860--until the end of the
nineteenth century, for this type of
journalism came into its own
after the Civil War. This, of course,
reflects no discredit upon the
volume under review whose author has
given a fair picture of the
agricultural press in its infancy.
Miami University PHILIP D. JORDAN
The Allegheny. By Frederick Way, Jr. (New York, Farrar &
Rinehart, 1942, 280p.)
Here are 217 narrative pages of
sheer delight--a simple,
"easy-going" unpretentious
book that probably will go a much
longer way than was intended. If you
enjoy a long ramble of a
holiday, try an afternoon with Mr. Way.
Mr. Way starts out from a spot
"under the postage stamp of
a postcard map of the western rivers of
the United States"--Olean,
New York, and ends right in medias
res in the middle of the Alle-
gheny River. He takes a whole book of
fast, exciting pages to
travel down the Allegheny, but gets
side-tracked (side-wheeled
seems more in keeping) with all manner
of people and things:
George Washington, Christopher Gist and
their 1753 ducking in
the icy deeps; honey bees and rats (did
you know they came over
with the white men?); oil wells and the
eastern boom towns of the
late 1800's; John Wilkes Booth; merry
John Steele, the whim-
sical millionaire; and on and on so
fancifully that you hardly care
quo vadis or whether you get there.
Mr. Way must have taken his cue from the
Allegheny, for he
BOOK REVIEWS 347
says she regularly does
stand-on-her-head antics and all manner
of unpredictable things like
disappearing her creeks and capes
and turn-about-faces and upsetting
sundry folk on Sundays. Yet
the savage river has bred a virile race
of people, he says, and here
he takes a two-page jibe at the lazy
Mississippi: "It's sticky,
muddy, lethargic, slinks along . . . The
Mississippi never ram-
pages. It rises with a slow stealth . .
. stands at flood tide for days
at a time, sopping and wetting
everything in reach, and covering
the landscape with a layer of the best
chocolate fudge. It does this
with such a sound-asleep monotony that
even the jack rabbits
can't stand it, and go daffy from sheer
boredom." Mr. Way should
have a nice long set-to with Clark B.
Firestone, straight as the fur
flies. Gentling the Allegheny's floods
was as overwhelming a feat,
says the former, as stilling the Moon in
the valley of Ajalon--and
Joshua had God's help, while the
Allegheny engineers have to
shift for themselves--and keep an
expense account besides.
This Frederick Way is a kind of
amalgamation of Robert
Benchley and Alexander Woollcott in many
of his flings and fan-
cies. His good-natured tirade against
artistic, pen-flourishing,
river cartographers could just as well
come out of My Ten Years
in a Quandary and many of his ghoulish river tales would grace
Mr. Woollcott's repertoire. He indulges
his every literary whim
--and the Allegheny's.
Here is his jolly speculation on the way
of the old pioneers:
"You know it is a wonder, as
wonders go, how those pioneer fel-
low got around the country the way they
did. Like as not a party
of them would strike off into the tall
timber with no idea on earth
where they were heading, and then
disappear from civilized so-
ciety for months, and months and
months--then someday turn up
again, usually with a big story to tell.
Most of them were young
bucks, and full of vinegar, and used
excuses (for their wives
mainly, I think) such as converting the
heathen Indians, and then
there was always the possibility that
they would discover the
Pacific Ocean. There is no denying that
the Pacific Ocean needed
a good sound discovering in those days.
A husband could look his
wife plumb square in the eyes and say,
'Honey, I've got a notion
348 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
creeping around in my bones that the
Pacific Ocean is over the
mountain yonder, and down the river
apiece.'"
Occasionally bad literary devices (eg.,
Great-grandmother
Way's two chapter recitative on early
Pittsburgh) and more than
occasional bad grammar are wearing, at
times, but then, in the
next breath, he more than compensates
with either pure poetry or
a gem of a story and all is well
forgotten. One valley of the Al-
legheny is a cool paradise "Where
silence screams to make itself
heard."
This story will go well with an
afternoon's lolling, a ham-
mock, stiff-egg-white clouds and someone
gay to share it with.
Columbus, Ohio ARDIS HILLMAN WHEELER
Flowing South. By Clark B. Firestone. (New York, Robert H.
McBride & Company, 1941. 263p.)
This is a vacation book--not the kind
you read on a vacation,
but the kind you read instead of one,
and that's always good
news these stay-at-home days. Yet, not
everyone will enjoy stay-
ing at home with Mr. Firestone's book,
and it's one many people
will take by hops and skips. It's high
spots are intensely absorb-
ing and its low spots, well--too much
spinach and not enough
garnish perhaps. Mr. Firestone has here
a curious (and in many
cases, admirable) blend of adventure,
romance, history, geography,
travel, humor, statistics and footnotes.
Perhaps it's so calculated
to reach and interest a wide audience,
and yet, at that, it's more of
a man's book than a woman's. Women are
seldom the adven-
turers, historians, geographers, or
statisticians, so that leaves them
only romance, travel, humor and
footnotes. There's enough here,
however, for general reading if the
reader doesn't bog down be-
tween the hops and skips.
The author has the experience of wide
and varied river travel
to draw upon, having been many times
packet passenger up and
down the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri
rivers and tributaries.
One of his joggiest and most tortuous
rides was aboard the Ser-
BOOK
REVIEWS 349
geant Pryor, a survey boat out of St. Louis on the wild Missouri--
the wild Missouri that has cost the
United States $182,000,000 to
turn into a civilized waterway.
His appreciation as a naturalist, his
zeal as an historian, his
spice as a humorist, all serve to add
height to his story. Into his
travel annal, he weaves many colorful
anecdotes, and it's remark-
able the ground he covers: from the
story of Cincinnati (especially
vivid perhaps, because it's the author's
home town), to revelry at
the Mardi Gras, and on to the breathless
tale of the pillaging of the
lycanthropes on the Natchez Trail.
(There's another reason for
reading Flowing South: what are
lycanthropes?) He illustrates
his book with a generous number of
photographs of river subjects,
and some of the angle shots of
steamboats and loading docks are
stories in themselves.
Frederick Way calls the Mississippi
"turbid" but not Clark
B. Firestone. Here's what he says:
"The Mississippi is the wild-
est, strangest thing I ever saw . . .
wooded everywhere--aloof
almost as when De Sota first saw it four
centuries ago. As always,
the river is at its casual, ruthless
work, sending tribute by long
bayous back into the forests, tumbling
the banks, uprooting tall
trees, pondering new courses that would
turn the old bends into
oxbow lakes swarming with catfish.
"Its perpetual duel with the
people, whose troops are the
government engineers, is the most
dramatic thing on this con-
tinent. Scarcely can it be resisted. . .
. Sometimes the thought came
to me that it would go on and on, taking
away land, as once it had
bestowed it, until all between Ozarks
and Alleghenies would again
be sea."
A good literary selling point for
Buckeyes is that Mr. Fire-
stone compares every distinctive river
beauty with the Beauty of
the Ohio, and with him, nothing ever
quite measures up.
The book starts out much more brightly
than it finishes; his
sprightly wit gives good promise, but
the author seems to get
weighted down by his own narrative as he
goes along. His ac-
count becomes more matter of fact and
log-ish with every page,
as if he felt duty bound to include
every observation he had orig-
350
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
inally jotted down in his notes. With a
little more picking and
choosing, the book would take on more
sustained interest, and
read along more comfortably.
Columbus, Ohio ARDIS HILLMAN WHEELER
The Big Con. By David W. Maurer. (Indianapolis, The Bobbs-
Merrill Company, 1940, 300 pp. $2.50.)
The confidence man is the aristocrat of
the underworld. He
scorns the rough, brutal and clumsy
tactics of the thug and high-
jacker, preferring instead to excite the
cupidity of his "mark" as
a victim is called in the jargon of the
grifter. The depredations of
the con are always on the genteel side.
Usually they are legal.
David W. Maurer, professor of English at
the University of
Louisville, became interested in the
activities of the con man as a
by-product of his studies in
linguistics. In the course of his re-
search into the colorful and secret
vocabulary of the society of
high-grade confidence artists, Maurer
picked up from many "opera-
tors" information concerning their
activities and successes. This
book, then, tells the story of some of
the famous con men who
operated during the last quarter of the
nineteenth century and on
into the twentieth century. Christ Tracy
of New York, Ben Marks
of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Crawfish Bob of
New Orleans, and Tom
Denison of Omaha, to mention but a few,
are described with almost
loving attention. In general the volume
imparts by the case method
the varying devices employed by grifters
with boarding-house de-
ceivers in search of apples who won't
beef about a pay-off against
the wall. (Translation: In general the
volume describes by the
case method the varying devices employed
by men who live by
their wits and carry cheap suitcases
often left empty in hotels
when the grifter leaves without paying
his bills and who search
for easy victims who won't squeal to the
police when the deal is
consummated within a fake store with
realistic props.)
The book offers little for the
historian, but it is a refreshing
study which should be of value to the
sociologist and, obviously, is
vastly amusing and entertaining for the
general reader.
Miami University PHILIP D. JORDAN
BOOK REVIEWS 351
Yankees and Yorkers. By Dixon Ryan Fox. (New York, New
York University Press, 1940. 223 p.)
It is always a difficult task to
characterize with any degree of
accuracy a race of people. It is still
more hazardous to compare
or contrast two nationalities. The
national mind is not as easy to
dissect as a cadaver. Dr. Fox then
selected a perilous assignment
when he attempted to compare and to
contrast the colonial Dutch
with the colonial New Englander--the
Yorker versus the Yankee.
For nearly two hundred and fifty years,
writes Professor Fox in
his pleasing, convincing style, there
was acute dislike between the
two groups. This series of essays, first
delivered at New York
University under the Stokes Foundation,
attempts to explain the
underlying antagonisms which set Yankees
and Yorkers--both
Americans--against one another. One point of difference, of
course, was the aggressive attitude of
the New Englanders who
coveted New York lands and
"sincerely felt that they had a sort
of divine right to anything they might
take." The result was a
series of boundary disputes which
eventually resulted in at least
a partial victory for the Yankee
element. In eight chapters Pro-
fessor Fox tells the story of the
English crowding against the Dutch
with border-warfare incidents until the
Yorkers gave way to a
great migration of Yankees who gave New
York their own pe-
culiar culture. The story of this
conquest is the theme of the
volume. Professor Fox enthusiastically
feels that although this
Yankee triumph is not as "spacious,
tragic, and significant" as
that of the Civil War, it "in its
own small way . . . bears some re-
semblance, for it too involved a
contrast in whole views of life."
If there is a resemblance between that
so-called "conquest" of the
Dutch in New York by Yankees from New
England and the sub-
jugation of the South by the North, it
is a very vague and nebulous
parallel. Nevertheless, the volume
offers a most fascinating study
of a small section conflict and presents
it with clarity and precision.
Miami University PHILIP D. JORDAN
352
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Kentucky. By Thomas D. Clark. The Rivers of America.
Edited by Stephen Vincent Binet and Carl
Carmer. (New
York, Farrar & Rinehart, 1942. 410p.
Illustrations. $2.50.)
"The Kentucky is not alone a river
or a drainage system, it is
a way of life," and before it
reaches its destination, in reality, it
becomes several ways of life--each
peculiar to the other and to
the rest of America.
A fast and fascinating story it is when
Mr. Clark takes you
on a run down the river through a land
of history, flavored with
legend to suit all tastes. Characters
like Boone, Harrod, "Roaring
Jack Russell," and that Lion of
Whitehall, Cassius Marcellus Clay,
once playing the leads in a moving drama,
produced and directed
by the Kentucky, are brought back by the
author for a repeat per-
formance. Cassius M. Clay takes a
chapter and at its end the
reviewer found himself hungry for more
of a story than could be
told between the covers of a large
volume. Many prospective
Clay biographers have backed away,
shaking their heads and mut-
tering, "He lived too long."
Beginning in the southeastern up-country
the Kentucky races
north-westward to empty into the broad
Ohio, but not until it has
bisected the Bluegrass region and shaken
hands with all from
mountainmen to Kentucky colonels. Few
rivers can say as much
in as many miles.
The Kentucky's west bank saw the first
white settlement be-
yond the Alleghenies; Boonesborough was
the embryo from which
civilization grew west and north. This
frontier outpost was to
play no small part in the settlement of
the western country. After
the more adventureous and less content
had moved on, Kentuck-
ians settled down to the serious
business of developing the best
horses, the best whiskey, the best food
and the most beautiful
women--all this while the rest of the
country bothered itself with
such things as railroads and
"manifest destiny." This, of course,
was illustrative of only a portion of
the banks of the Kentucky.
Farther upstream the mountain and hill
folk were worshipping
God through a literal translation of the
Bible: there were Shakers
and Hard Shell Baptists as thick as
squirrels in a grove of hickory
BOOK REVIEWS 353
nuts, and perhaps nearly as energetic.
Many citizens of the up-
country counties looked at each other
only over rifle sights.
Mr. Clark was fortunate in having such a
subject, for Dame
Nature had been especially kind to this
region. "It is too far
north to be south and too far south to
be north," and whenever
Dame Nature wished to view her handiwork
she chose Kentucky
as her vantage point. The wise old girl
didn't know it then, but
her location of Kentucky caused many a
heartache later when
fathers watched sons march in two
directions, to the blue and to
the gray, while they stood on neutral
ground. To the Kentucky,
the Civil War was just another incident
in its life--blood and
sweat had mingled with its waters
before.
Thomas D. Clark, a member of the faculty
of the University
of Kentucky, has contributed this, the
fifteenth volume, to the dis-
tinguished and popular Rivers of
American Series. He writes of
the Kentucky as one thoroughly familiar
with his subject.
R. C. W.
Great Soldiers of the Two World Wars.
By H. A. DeWeerd.
(New York, W. W. Norton and Co., 1941. 378p. Illus.
$3.50.)
In his foreword to this volume, Dr.
DeWeerd voices the
familiar complaint that the professional
soldier is regarded indif-
ferently in times of peace, but in times
of war receives ultimatums
such as the one delivered to General
Pershing: "If you succeed, all
will be well; if you fail, the public
will probably hang you to the
first lamp-post." The author, a
professor of political science at
Denison University and editor of Military
Affairs, seems qualified
for the task which he has chosen to
perform in this book--to con-
vey to the reader a fuller understanding
of military men and
affairs.
Twelve soldiers of recent history have
been chosen for dis-
cussion: Schlieffen, Hindenburg,
Hoffman, Kitchener, Lawrence,
Pershing, Petain, Gamelin, Wavell,
Churchill, Seeckt and Hitler.
A study in contrast is afforded by the
swift, brilliant Schlieffen
354
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
and the slow, cautious Hindenburg--one
of the most tragic figures
in German history, whose career was
marked by bewilderment and
confusion. His avowed aloofness from
politics led only to his last
sad act of turning his country over to
Hitler. Another lucid por-
trait is that of Hoffman, "a man of
ideas," whose military motives
were always tempered by his intense
hatred of Bolshevism. The
author expresses a belief that Hoffman's
plans of more than 20
years ago for a German invasion of
Russia may have provided
blue-prints for the Nazi invasion of
1941.
Lawrence is pictured as a humane soldier
who won his battles
with as few enemy casualties as
possible. He never lost sight of
the enemy's performance, often
expressing admiration for brilliant
opposition. He had a deep sense of
loyalty and fought to fulfill
his pledges to the Arab tribes of
setting up an independent Arab
state. Pershing is shown as a stern,
capable commander whose
early experience with a Negro regiment
gave him the name of
"Black Jack."
One of the most tragic figures in this
volume is Petain, the
World War hero who recently turned his
country over to the
Fascists. The author credits him with
much military endurance
but little intellect. Petain allegedly
saw no connection between the
Spanish Civil War and France. Gamelin is
shown as a philosophic,
ivory-tower militarist. Churchill is
vividly described as the spirit
of British resistance who foresaw
disaster in Chamberlain's "peace-
in-our-time" and its accompanying
appeasement. Seeckt, an au-
thor-soldier, is said to have
unwittingly laid the foundation for
Hitler's military strength. The last
chapter gives a detailed and
familiar account of the military genius
that is Hitler's. The author
makes an interesting observation--that
much of Hitler's success
can be attributed to superior thinking;
Hitler spends much time
at his retreat at Berchtesgaden, while
his assistants perform his
administrative duties.
This volume awakens the reader to
similarities between pre-
vious wars and the present conflict. For
example, an early plan
by Schlieffen provided for the striking
down of France, a highly
prepared enemy, before the invasion of
Russia; since the latter
BOOK REVIEWS 355
country was so vast in area that such a
campaign might drag on
endlessly.
The author's style is usually
interesting and sometimes elabo-
rate, as evidenced in the passage:
"The historian feels that there
must have been a stentorian laughter in
the Valhalla of Warriors
when this jewel of thought was
reported." He evidences a sense
of humor when, after relating a military
anecdote adds: "If this
story isn't true, it ought to be!"
A rather obvious shortcoming of the book
is that in profess-
ing to be an account of great men of the
two World Wars, it was
prematurely published. Although contemporaries Hitler and
Churchill are included, one wonders at
the absence of those re-
sponsible for the epochal battles in
Russia--Premier Stalin, per-
haps, or Marshal Timoshenko. Another
criticism which this re-
viewer might make is that there is an
over-abundance of battle
details and a scarcity of philosophies
which motivated military
doctrines.
Nevertheless, the author has
successfully conveyed the thought
--expressed by Schlieffen on his
death-bed and true of all military
affairs--the platitudinous discovery
that "great issues depend on
little things."
Ohio War History Commission RUTH J. FISCHER