Book Notices

BOOK NOTICES45 BOOK NOTICES Books of interest to Friends may usually be purchased at the following places : Friends' Book Store, 302 Arch Street, Philadelphia. Friends' Central Bureau, 1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia. Friends' Book and Tract Committee, 144 East 20th Street, N. Y. C. Friends' Book and Supply House, Richmond, Indiana. Friends' Book Centre, Friends House, Euston Road, London, N.W. 1, England . Jenkins, Charles F. Washington Visits Germantown. Philadelphia: Germantown Historical Society. 1932. Pp. 91. $1.25. This little booklet is a worthy contribution to the two hundredth anniversary of Washington's birth. It is taken chiefly from the same author's larger book of 1905 entitled Washington in Germantown, with the addition here and there of newly discovered facts. Most people know that Germantown was settled in 1683 by German Friends and Mennonites from the lower Rhine country. Probably not so many realize the prominent place Germantown has had in many lines of human endeavor. " The first paper mill in the colonies was erected here before 1700. . . . Three editions of the Bible were printed here in German before an English one was made elsewhere in the colonies. . . . The first religious paper, the first hymn book, the first work on pedagogy, the first type casting , and the first public protest against the institution of human slavery are a few of the results of the enterprise and public spirit of its German settlers and their descendants." Probably a still greater claim for distinction is the fact that during the month of November, 1793, while yellow fever raged in Philadelphia, Germantown was the seat of Government of the United States. For the whole month the President resided there and " it was one of the busiest, the most trying, and in some ways, as important as any month in the whole eight years of his administration." Germantown also has a worthy place in the history of American art. " The honor of having been the place where was painted the best known and the most satisfactory portrait of the First President, which has also been considered the masterpiece of a truly great portrait painter, is one well worth striving for, and one which seems properly to belong to Germantown." The book has ten full page illustrations including views of the two residences which Washington occupied, and also one of the house in which Gilbert Stuart lived while he painted the Washington portraits. Few books of small dimension contain such a wealth of information as does this little volume by the President of Friends' Historical Association. It is timely, pertinent, and of absorbing interest.—N. B. K. 46 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Pray, Frances Mary. A Study of Whittier's Apprenticeship as a Poet: Dealing with Poems Written between 1825 and 1835 Not Available in the Poet's Collected Works. Bristol, New Hampshire: The author. 1930. Pp. 268. $2.50. This is a thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State College. The author has definitely located nearly three hundred poems published here and there by the Quaker poet in the decade after he was eighteen years of age. Whittier, during his later life, destroyed most of the manuscripts of these poems and did not include them in his published works. They are now made available for those who wish to study the handiwork of the poet in his formative years. Here are poems on social and political questions, love poems, humorous poems, etc. Some of them are crude enough. Others show flashes of the poet's later and more mature powers. The author speaks highly of "The Black Fox," as showing some of the simplicity and directness of diction that characterized the poet's later work. One is reminded of "Snowbound" by the picture of the winter evening around the New England fireside: The air above was cold and keen, The earth was white below. . . . Around an ancient fireplace, A happy household drew; A husband and his own good wife And children not a few; And bent above the spinning wheel The aged grandame too. At length up spoke a fair-haired girl Some seven summers old, "Now, grandame, tell the tale again Which yesterday you told; About the...