has also achieved the success of producing a work which ought to attract many readers from the public in general. The volume contains some sixty illustrations, many of them full page, covering the various phases of the wheat industry. Consumers of wheat products will certainly be interested to read the description of the modern bakeshop, the account of the macaroni industry, and the pages on the production and use of breakfast foods. Some light is thrown upon the nature of the process of bleaching of flour which has recently been the subject of controversy between the flour mill owners and officials of the Department of Agriculture. One is, however, left in the dark as to the grounds upon which the government officials have objected to the process. Dr. Dondlinger states that "the foreign trade prefers a strong granular flour with little regard to color, for the flour bleaches during the time consumed in transportation." In this he seems to be at variance with statements of flour exporters, recently reported in the newspaper press, that artificial bleaching is necessary in order to hold the export trade.

The whole book is a most praiseworthy account of the way the world's work is organized and done in the production of one of the great staples of life. It was well worth writing and should receive the recognition of a wide circulation. W. H. G.

POEM OUTLINES. By Sidney Lanier. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908,-vii., 120 pp.

The work that Lanier left behind is more of aspiration than of attainment-broken arcs rather than perfect rounds. All lovers of the poet will rejoice that his family has published some of the outlines and notes found here and there in his papers. "These poem sketches," says Mr. Henry W. Lanier, "were jotted in pencil on the backs of envelopes, on the margins of musical programs, on little torn scraps of paper, amid all sorts of surroundings, whenever the dream came to him. Some are mere flashes of simile in unrhymed couplets; others are definite rounded outlines, instinct with the beauty of idea, but not yet hewn to the line of perfect form; but one, at least, is the beginning of quite a long narrative in verse." There are suggestions of three volumes of poems which Lanier had planned: one in the nature of religion, to

be called "Credo, and Other Poems," another, a series of poems on the marshes, and still another, "The Songs of Aldhelm."

One cannot but regret that greater care has not been taken in the selection of these outlines; some of them ought never to have been published, for they are full of conceits beyond the anticipation of those who realize Lanier's chief defect as a poet. Some of these fragments he had perhaps himself discarded as unworthy of development or even of use. There are others, however, that more than justify the volume-there are bits that show how insight could condense itself into epigrammatic form; there are similes and metaphors that only a highly imaginative mind could have struck out; there are undeveloped poems that remind one of Whitman's; and here and there is a piece of imaginative prose or even poetry that ought to live with the best of Lanier's writings. E. M.

LEWIS RAND. By Mary Johnston. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1908,-ix., 570 pp.

If this be not one of the best novels published during the last decade, the reviewer cannot see the reason why. It is great alike in its historical background-it is of the age of Jefferson and Aaron Burr—,and in the art of telling a story of marked human interest. Miss Johnston, in her previous novels, had displayed an unusual power to narrate stirring incidents, but there was a tendency towards sensationalism, with even blood-curdling effects. Here we have greater distinction of style, more refinement of art, and at the same time a wealth of searching reflections on human life. There is scarcely a dull page in the book: one feels at times that the plot strains the test of probability in the author's desire to make the story thrilling. The personality of Jefferson, which is felt like a subtle influence throughout the book, the romance of the Southwest suggested by Aaron Burr and still more by the adventurer and hunter, Adam Gaudylock, the delineation and interpretation of life in old Virginia as seen in the Carys and the Churchills, the yearning of the lower classes towards greater power as set forth in Lewis Rand himself-all these are of surpassing interest, while all the while the central story of human love and tragedy and redemption is never lost sight of in the wealth of details. A calmer mood might cause a change in critical judg

ment, but in the enthusiasm of the first reading of this remarkable book, the present reviewer cannot but feel that it is one of the American novels that will abide-so far removed in style, in plot, in characterization, and in a wide and luminous view of life, from the novels that come and go with each returning season.

E. M.

THE SALARY LOAN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY. By Clarence W. Wassam. With extracts from an unpublished report by Frank Julian Warne. Paper covers. New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1908,-143 pp.

This report on the salary loan business was prepared under the direction of the Bureau of Social Research, New York School of Philanthropy, acting for the Russell Sage Foundation. It affords a most striking exposition of the way in which the necessities of the poor have been exploited by the money lenders of many of our large cities. For small sums advanced upon the security of future salary or wages most exorbitant rates of interest have been extorted. Borrowers have been sought by alluring and deceptive advertising, and, once they have allowed themselves to be bound under oppressive contracts and agreements, they have found it most difficult to escape from the toils of the money lenders. The actual conditions are set forth in this report concretely and with abundance of illustration and evidence. This present publication is in the nature of a disclosure of conditions, and no definite remedial program is offered. Without doubt, however, so thorough and able a report on the existing evils of the salary loan business will be of great service in stimulating efforts to deal effectively with the problem presented.

W. H. G.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: THE BOY AND THE MAN. By James Morgan. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908,-xii., 435 pp.

One rises from the reading of Mr. Morgan's life of Lincoln with a new conception of how strongly and how permanently our interest in that great American is bound up with what is most essential and most cherished in our national existence. His life stands for the great ideals of permanent national unity, human freedom, and opportunity for the most lowly to rise to the high

est place of honor and power. While these ideals live in the hearts of Americans, Lincoln's life will never lose its grip on human interest. Though the story has been told and re-told, we are glad to read it again in Mr. Morgan's pages.

It is most fortunate that so well written a volume should be at hand in this centenary year of Lincoln's birth. That reader will be unusual, who, beginning this book, does not follow it eagerly to the end. From the Kentucky cabin to the White House and the dramatic end, there are no dull pages. Every chapter is full of human interest in Lincoln, "the common man," who, gaining greater power than any other American ever had, never lost his commonness. W. H. G.

The following books have been received and will be reviewed in the April number of the QUARTERLY-some of them in connection with articles suggested thereby:

MAGAZINE WRITING AND THE NEW LITERATURE. By Henry Mills Alden. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1908.

Literary RevIEWS AND CRITICISMS. By Prosser Hall Frye. New York George P. Putnam's Sons, 1908.

ROBERT E. Lee, the SouthERNER. By Thomas Nelson Page. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION. By Charles W. Eliot. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1908.

JOHN KEATS. By Albert E. Hancock. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1908.

BY THE CHRISTMAS FIRE. By Samuel M. Crothers. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1908.

JOHN C. CALHOUN. By Gaillard Hunt. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1908.

A SOUTHERNER IN EUROPE. By Clarence H. Poe. Raleigh: The Mutual Publishing Company, 1908.

The

South Atlantic Quarterly.

The Passing of the Solid South

BY ENOCH MARVIN BANKS

Professor of History and Economics in the University of Florida

Conspicuous signs indicate that the politically solid South is approaching dissolution. Such a change is of momentous significance not only for the South, but also for the nation at large, for, in promoting a freer and more vigorous intellectual life in the part, a new energy will be infused into the whole. While it is the main purpose of this article to point out the important forces now working for the liberation of political opinion in this section, the logic of the problem demands some reference to the circumstances which led to the solidifying of political action here.

The political solidarity of the South is a product of post-bellum conditions, though there was a tendency before the war toward the unification of political sentiment as the question of the maintenance and extension of slavery became increasingly important. An examination of the popular vote in the several Southern States in the presidential elections when the Whig party was an influential factor in national politics shows that there was a stimulating division of opinion at that time in these states. As an illustration of the reality and strength of this partition of sentiment on national questions the case of Georgia may be cited: In the election of 1836 the Whig candidate received in this State a small majority of the popular vote (24,876 to 22,104); in 1840 the Whigs carried the State with an increased majority (40,261 to 31,921); in 1844 the Democrats outvoted the Whigs (44,177 to 42,100); in 1848 the Whig electors were again chosen (47,544 to 44,802). It is beyond the scope of this article to analyze the Whig and Democratic vote in the South with respect to the elements in the population that composed the chief strength of each. On that topic it is sufficient for present purposes to bear in mind that the existence of the two parties with such voting strength as was shown above indicates