Newspaper Page Text
J £.
!
1
(BOOKS
(MAKE
((
A
(HOME
1 p^
lUriter*
l*\eadt
EDITED BY LEO J.
2332 North Decatur RcL
A. M. D. G.
For the greater glory of
God and for the spiritual
benefit of authors, publishers,
reriewers and readers.
THE POETRY OF THE
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, edited
by Lee Steinmetz, Michigan
State University Press, 1960,
264 pp., $5.75.
Reviewed by Sister M. Har
riet. O.P.
In The Poetry Of The Ameri
can Civil War, Lee Steinmetz
serves the reader a wide sampl
ing of the writings of “for
gotten or nearly forgotten
poets.” His choices pinpoint
perceptions of the American
nineteenth century social up
heaval as it touched the various
regions of the United States. In
the editing of these sentimental,
romantic, and naive selections,
Steinmetz has produced more
than a centenary volume. The
chapter and divisional commen
taries skillfully knit together
the bards’ audio and visual
sense perceptions of the war.
For the reader these descrip
tive sections carry a bifocal
effect. He envisions the inci
dents as perceived a hundred
years ago, with a minimal emo
tion reaction. This, the editor
achieves through delightful
evaluations in the current vein.
The Poetry Of The American
Civil War lends itself to the
reading of random chapters.
For everyone the selections
grouped under “The Holy War”
and “Slavery” promise insights
and satisfactions. They reveal
responses of our forefathers
to the crisis we do well to
recall. The indications of simi
lar reactions in Northern and
Southern bards hold pertinence
today. Theirs was behavior
without sophistication. But
three generations removed
from us, the social commen
tators will note! Striking this
note, the reader will have hit
upon the significance of what
Lee Steinmetz has done for him.
For it is as an easily read
and often amusing social com
mentary that the volume stands
to claim enduring values.
erd
ZUBER
Decatur. Georgia
THE ADOLESCENT BOY by
W. Connell, S.J. and J. Me
Gannon, S.J., Fides, 1961, 159
pp., 954.
Reviewed by Loras Walsh.
How are you faring as the
teacher or parent of adoles
cent boys? Read this collec
tion of short essays and feel
yourself take heart. The au
thor, a Jesuit priest and tea
cher, spent his life dealing
with teenage boys. He devoted
great effort to understanding
them and interpreting them to
their sometimes bewildered pa
rents.
The following are just a few
of the thoughts Father Connell
presents in these warm, friend
ly essays.
A growing boy needs a con
sistently cheerful person on his
horizon. He himself is in the
midst of an eddying pool of
STUDY GRANT - Sister Jo
anna of the Cross, GNSH re
ceived a study grant for the
NDEA Summer Language In
stitute at St. Mary’s College,
Notre Dame, Ind. Sister Jo
anna of the Cross teaches
French at D’Youville Acade
my, Atlanta. She has previous
ly pursued graduate studies
at Laval University and at
the Universities of Strasbourg
and Aix-Marseille under study
grants administered by the
State Department under the
terms of the Fullbright Act.
A reviewer for THE BULLE
TIN’S Book Review column,
her most recent review of
“CONFERENCES FOR SIS
TERS” - retreat records fea
turing the Rev. Leo Clifford,
O. F. M. (St. Anthony Guild
Press, $12.50), appeared in
the July 7th issue. (Photc
Van Buren Colley, P.S.A.)
44
Volumes of Pervading Interest,
Authentic Illustrations Galore!
STEAMBOATS ON THE MIS
SISSIPPI, COWBOYS AND CAT
TLE COUNTRY, and GREAT
DAYS OF THE CIRCUS, by
the editors of American Heri
tage, American Heritage Pub
lishing Co., 1962, each volume
153 pp., illus., $3.95.
BAYOU BEAUTY - Lit by flaming torches, a 19th cen
tury steamer glides along the lower Mississippi. One
of 132 pictures—52 in color—from STEAMBOATS ON
THE MISSISSIPPI.
change. If we are to help him,
to serve as a steadying source
of strength, we must be habit
ually cheerful. Gloom is poi
sonous to a growing boy.
If your adolescent boy could
tell you what he needs most
of all, he would say: “Encour
age me, don’t discourage me!”
Everyone who deals in any
way with boys must concentrate
on developing their good will.
We cannot do a thing for them
or with them without it.
This is a book that a parent
or teacher will enjoy reading
many times, and always with
benefit. Father Connell was a
kindly man who truly loved the
boys he taught. He has given
us a book that will help the
reader to understand and love
the thorny adolescent boy.
WISDOM OF THE POVER-
ELLO by Eloi Leclerc, O.F.M.,
Franciscan Herald Press, 1961,
126 pp., $2.50.
Reviewed by E. Matthews.
Trials prove the heart of
man, and Father Leclerc has
probed the depths of the suf
ferings of St. Francis to demon
strate the Wisdom of the Pover-
ello. If to select just one short
period of a saint’s earthly life
to understand his guiding spirit,
then that period should cover
the saint’s deepest sufferings,
and that period for St. Francis
came when he returned from
his crusade to the Holy land.
His health was broken, and his
infected eyes were partially
blind. The- tremendous growth
of his Order had inspired its
leaders to attempt to model
it after other great Orders.
Opposed to such modification,
overzealous followers of its
founder had adopted dan
gerously extreme and ridicu
lous practices. Unable to cope
with a situation physically be
yond him and oppressed with
sadness, St. Francis sought the
refuge of a hermitage. There
he had added to his sufferings,
the pain of seeing one of his
earliest followers, Brother
Rufino, leave him to follow
his own way, his own devil-
inspired, proud way.
St. Francis came to exper
ience the meaning of our Lord’s
words, “My God, my God, why
hast Thou forsaken me?” He
knew the utter agony of feeling
abandoned by God his Father.
JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS
CABINET, by Rembert W.
Patrick, Louisiana State Uni
versity Press, 1961, 401 pp.,
$6.50.
Reviewed by Joseph Power.
This is a reissue, after two
decades. The author is concern
ed with one of the lost phases
of the history of the Confede
racy. He studies the makeup
and operation of the executive
branch of the Confederate States
of America.
The volume is one of many
sponsored by Louisiana State
University and, among others,
the University of Texas. All
have to do with the history of
the southern tier of our states
which, a century ago, formed
the Confederacy.
There is a general discussion
of the Confederate Government;
how their president was chosen;
some of the governing reasons
of Mr. Davis’ choices for his
cabinet; the weight and influence
of a minister of cabinet rank
in the councils of government.
There appears a fascinating
interplay of practical politics
As though having reached the
limits of suffering, he could
do nothing but abandon himself
to be led by God, and then
peace began to fill his soul.
There remained only the
immense reality of God. “God
is; that suffices.”
His work, his Order, was
God’s, and God could do with
it what He would. It was his
part to suffer. His brother
was God’s, too, and in time
God showed the brother the
error of his ways and led him
back to his Father. St. Francis’
soul was filled with joy.
To know God and to know
how to adore Him is the key
to the mystery of joy in suf
fering. For all those souls who
ask why in times of suffering, St.
Francis has an answer learned
through experience. And for
those who after many years
of faithtulness find they have
departed from the spirit of
their vocation, perhaps Brother
Rufino has an answer.
This Wisdom of the Pover-
ello is deeply moving spiritual
work which has been well-re
ceived in France. Thanks to the
translator, Marie Louise John
son, M. D., who shares the
author’s desire to spread
Franciscan spirituality, the
book will, in this reviewer's
opinion, be eagerly received
in this country.
Reviewed by Leo J. Zuber.
Ever get bored? For fun and
for adventure, what’s your dish?
The folks behind possibly the
most refreshing breezes in the
country's publishing experience
in many a day, the American
Heritage folks, offer a field
of juvenile titles that can add
to any junior’s reading pleasure
and satisfaction. The volumes
have pervading interest, factual
substance, and authentic illus
trations galore.
GREAT DAYS OF THE CIR
CUS puts together a now lost
world, one that will never be
quite the same again without
the Big Top, an immense, hot,
smelly tent which in itself was
quite a mechanical marvel. The
circus cast a spell in its heyday
when, at best, it competed only
with the phonograph in the
house, the local movie house,
seasonal revival meetings and
picnics. People enjoyed the cir
cus in anticipation, in reality,
and in reverie. The circus vol
ume captures as well as paper,
ink and able, authentic reporting
can that period of baubles, of
carnival, a world of considers-
ble fact and of substantial fic
tion, of performing men, women
and beasts.
Much of so-called American
history as taught in schools is
adulterated fare given to undue
emphasis of the military and of
the diplomatic; the pie has en
tirely too much crust! Our coun
try’ s strength on either side of
1776 is the strength borne of
a population not at war but at
work. Not the presumed
glamour of the sword, the mus
ket, the rifle or the BAR, but
the sweat and the toil of the
plowshare, the ax, the saddle,
the mill.
COWBOYS AND CATTLE
COUNTRY and STEAMBOATS
ON THE MISSISSIPPI are pure,
unadulterated period and local
history. The one recreates the
realities of the times when
cowboy, horse and saddle, con
tended with plains, rivers,
sparce grass, dust and miles
on miles on miles of riding,
riding, riding - all to get beef
on the American dinner table.
The industry is a highly or
ganized, economically complex
one now; the cowboy is ahorse
at times and at times in heli
copter, cub plane, or aboard
a jeep. The industry is not a
physical endurance test of man
and animal now but once it was
and those that survived did so
because of endurance and wily
skill. The others found their
economic, if not their actual,
graves along a hard, hard trail.
Quite another breed of master
builder of America was the
early riverboatman. The river
steamboat was an American
specialty, an invention of home
made necessity; we happended
to have certain kinds of shallow,
COMING THRU THE RYE - A bronze by Frederick
Remington, pictured in COWBOYS AND CATTLE COUNTRY.
The four exuberant cowboys shown here are probably
celebrating the end of a round-up or long drive. Unlike
the movie or TV image of today, the real range-rider
of the western frontier did not always wear a six-shooter—
and when he did he didn’t expect to shoot at another human
being.
crooked, ornery rivers here
that other folks didn’t have to
bother with. The huffing, now
nostalgic, sidewheeler or
sternwheeler was the answer.
Like the cowboy, the hardy
river boatmen had his fine hour.
Navigation, now an electronic-
gadgetted science, was then at
best speculation and mostly
gambling with a pinch of luck.
Oweners and captains ran wild
risks. Sometimes they paid off;
frequently the vessel was the
dot at the bottom of an ex
clamation point which marked
the end of her career when boil
ers exploded. The Mississippi
was not the only river with
steamboats; it just had its
share.
The cowboy and the steam
boat volumes are rich in ade
quate period illustrations in
color and in black and white.
Remington, Russell and Selt
zer, artists of the cowcountry
West, remain an ever contin
uing marvel.
There are those who will
THE BULLETIN, July 21, 1962—PAGE 7
c & $
BRING ON THE CLOWNS! - Circus posters like this one (over 100 years old) were
once plastered on barns, store fronts and fences of frontier towns and cities across
America. GREAT DAYS OF THE CIRCUS, latest book from American Heritage Junior
Library, tells the story of life under the Big Top—from 18th century America mud
shows to present day touring companies. For young readers—and their parents.
tolerate no comparison; in a
real sense there is no compari
son to be made. However I
will prate the simple truism
that any one of thefe'e books
would be far better fare for
youth and adult alike than a
week or two or three of TV.
Come to think of it, the cow
boy book devotes a little time
and attention to the corn of
fered the viewer these days
as Westerns; wasn’t it a “de
sert” that man was talking about
recently? It’s a desert in more
ways than one.
To the publishers: May your
tribe increase!
ATHENS
Gerdine, Stafford
& Tillman
128 College Avenue
Athens, Georgia
Real Estate
General Insurance
FARMERS
HARDWARE
OF ATHENS, INC
BROAD AT OCONEE ST.
Telephone LI. 3-3681 P. O. Box 472
ATHENS, GEORGIA
Moon - Winn
Drug Co.
Prescription Work
Our Specialty
197 CLAYTON STREET
ATHENS, GEORGIA
and principles of government.
An instance of this is the de
velopment of the constitution of
the Confederacy. These were
American statesmen and politi
cians. They were, however, ac
quainted with the constitutional
forms and practices of Britain.
A proposition given serious
consideration would have cab
inet rahk carry with it a seat
in the Senate, C S A. Converse
ly, the cabinet officer would be
subject to questioning in the de
bates of the legislative branch.
The motion failed, but by no
wide margin.
Against such a background;
the men of the executive branch
of the Confederacy stand forth.
A reader can form a judgment
of Davis, the President, and
of Davis and his administra
tive team during four tragic
years.
Embassy Site Blessed
DUBLIN (NC) - The site of
the new U.S. embassy in Ire
land has been blessed by Auxil
iary Bishop Patrick Dunne of
Dublin.
C. A. TRUSSELL
MOTOR CO.
PHONE LI. 6-1421 ESTABLISHED 1918
PULASKI AT BROAD STREET
ATHENS, GEORGIA
Bradley
Provision Co.
247 E. Broad St. Athens, Ga.
Phone LI 3-3431
W. H. BAILEY
PLUMBING & HEATING
Telephone LI. 6-8133 - 1500 W-. Hancock Avenue
ATHENS, GEORGIA
ROBERTS ELECTRIC
& APPLIANCE CO.
640 Barber Street
ATHENS, GEORGIA
The
NATIONAL BANK
OF ATHENS
ATHENS' OLDEST BANK
Growing With Northeast Georgia Since 1866
MEMBER OF FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM AND
FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION
FULCHER
ELECTRIC SERVICE
2161 WEST BROAD
ATHENS, GEORGIA
THE ATHENS
BANNER HERALD
DAILY — (Evening)
SUNDAY - (Morning)
Member Audit Bureau of Circulation