analogy is close enough to the poems about Napoleon, Jesuits, and Roundheads to prevent too great amazement; but the use of such an intricate, technical device is particularly strange because poems of the present war, especially German poems, have almost all been written in strong and simple meters and stanza forms, bare of any unnecessary decorative devices or signs of sheer cleverness. Yet here is a highly decorated poem whose author evidently expected the echoes to be heard above the whirring noise of Zeppelins, and above the crash of cannon that speak the name of Krupp.

And here our collection and our comments end.

The use of the echodevice has been well nigh forgotten for something over two hundred years. But there were days when the trick was a popular one, when like Jaques we might come running with the cry, "A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' the forest." but ours would not be so sad a tale. These echoes, which have practically passed out of our literature as something unnatural, yet had their astonishing vogue and their adaptability.

The variety of uses to which the device was put for horror in the tragedy of blood, for humor in burlesquing pieces, for characterization in comedy, for support to a despondent lover in dreamy soliloquies, for pretty compliment in sonnet form, for cynical reflection in lyric introspection, for serious worship of Heaven and God, for bitter and dangerous political satire the very variety of uses renders the type interesting. And if we consider it too artificial a thing we have only to recall with Mr. Lowes Dickinson that the literature and art of the past can never be dead. "It is the flask where the geni of life is imprisoned; you have only to open it and the life is yours." Thus through shifting lights and shadows of the changing centuries By Hedwig Stephan, taken from "Der Heilige Krieg, Gedichte aus dem Beginn des Kampfes," reprinted from "Kladderadatsch."

we pursue our fleeting echoes, now deluded into praise or blame of Venus, now hearkening to political polemics, now trembling at thoughts of spilt blood and ghostly vengeance, now joining in the musical masques of rare Ben Jonson the princely compliment and the formal praise, now lauding that Gloriana whose honor so many poets have sung, now worshipping at our own adorable shrine and repeating the pleasant, courtly phrases of the lovers of three hundred years ago.

And if the mood of this paper has been a bookish one, if musty tomes seem to predominate over the soft green of rocky woodland glens or the sheer bold beauty of high blue noon, it requires but a word to remind us that the disembodied spirit of Echo still awaits our call. It requires but a shout and a pause to remind us that echoes are realities. The firing of a gun or the blowing of a train whistle will elicit a reply from some far-off hillside. But perhaps we are too sophisticated and too meticulous of our dignity to indulge in idle banter with an idle nymph. We leave it to the boys whose shouts are unrestrained. As a lad, I used to row out on Lake Champlain into the quiet of twilight, when the sun had gone down in a crimson flare behind the shadowy Adirondacks. I would pull away from shore and then indulge in curious calls, whistles, and shouts, taking great delight as from various bays which indented the shore, the darkened woods gave back my cries. But, alas, I am a boy no longer, and now I seek echoes not amid the beauties of a Vermont lake-side, but among printed rhymes by the poets of other years.

J. ALDEN WEIR, ETCHER

A MEMORIAL EXHIBITION

IN arranging, in the Library's Print Gallery, an exhibition of J. Alden Weir's

etchings and other prints, the Prints Division offers a review of a little seen side of that artist's activity. Weir turned his attention to etching during the late eighties of the last century, and showed in that field of graphic art the same qualities that marked his work in oils. Always a seeker, an experimenter, there was in him the restraining quality of taste, of balance. He wrestled with the etching process, understanding its limitations and possibilities, even though he sometimes seemed to attempt to go beyond them. Yet even when he seemed to go counter to the idea that many hold in regard to etching as an art of suggestion rather than of elaboration, it was the impression of tone and color that he intended to convey. He did not aim at amassing detail in form. And when he accomplished completeness of effect, as in that picture of a woman and child hanging wreaths at a window, it was with lines placed freely, and not with the formality of the professional engraver or reproductive etcher.

His attitude toward etching was that of the painter. And, as in his paintings, he did not limit himself to any one specialty. Portraits, figure-pieces, landscapes, wharf scenes, still-life, — all were welcome to his inquiring spirit. The interest in technique brought him to at least one attempt at originexpression with the burin of the line-engraver on copper or steel, his plate "Arcturus." And when the call came, from the "Art Amateur," in 1896, to try lithography, that process of rich possibilities for the artist, Weir and others responded. Here, too, he showed a sympathetic appreciation of the nature of the medium.

Weir's contribution to the reproductive graphic arts is noteworthy through his personal expression, first of all, and naturally. But it is of significance also to the art student by way of example, — example not only in achievement, but in endeavor. To strive for expression in a medium with serious and sympathetic interest in its own peculiar qualities, the limits it imposes, the opportunities it holds out, that involves a fundamental attitude on which it may not seem entirely amiss to dwell a bit in these days of much and facile wielding of the etching-needle.

F. W.

THE

THE "HERALD OF FREEDOM"

HE Library has lately received a file of the first fifty numbers of the "Herald of Freedom" of Lawrence, Kansas. The first number was dated, Wakarusa, Kansas Territory, Saturday, October 21, 1854. The editor, G. W. Brown, went to this place from Conneautville, Pennsylvania, before the name of the place was decided upon. Late in 1854 the town was named Lawrence. G. W. Brown's mission to Kansas was expressed in his first editorial article, in which he says: "Our great object is to make Kansas a free State; and to that end we shall labor." This first number was printed at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and the numbers shipped to Kansas for circulation. The first number has become so scarce that but few copies are known. The second number did not appear until January 6, 1855. Brown had apparently received his press and advertised for a pressman. The name Lawrence City, Kansas Territory, now appears as the place of publication. The election which had been held for Delegate to Congress resulted in favor of a pro-slavery man, Whitfield. The editor plunged into the fight that made the "Herald of Freedom" the leading organ of the Free-soilers throughout the bitter and bloody contests that finally made Kansas a free State. The troubles were so serious that the paper was compelled many times to suspend publication, but the first number after a delay bristles with fight. With all the political troubles, the paper is very strong in local items, now of great historical value, and the articles had the great hopefulness of the confidence of success. The fiftieth number was issued February 2, 1856. The editorial article in this number says: "This number closes the first volume of the 'Herald of Freedom."" It is in this article that we get the information that the first number was issued from "our Courier office, in Pennsylvania." It is interesting to see in the fiftieth number, a column article on "Kansas a Slave State," reprinted from the "Squatter Sovereign," and another column article by the editor of the "Herald of Freedom" which answered the pro-slavery article in no uncertain notes.

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NEWS OF THE MONTH

GIFTS

URING the month of November, 1919, the Library received as gifts a total of 2,591 volumes, 3,007 pamphlets, 44 maps and 210 prints. Some of the more important and interesting of these gifts were the following:

From Mrs. Andrew Carnegie came a miscellaneous collection of 93 volumes and 24 pamphlets; from the Czechoslovak Information Bureau, Washington, D. C., a collection of books and pamphlets in Bohemian, containing 52 volumes and 7 pamphlets; and from Mr. Arthur Emmons Pearson of West Newton, Mass., a copy of volume 10 of the "Biographical History of Massachusetts."

Mr. Laurence Frederic Deutzman of New York presented a copy (No. 486, Author's edition) of his work, "Posies that grew at G. H. Q. ChaumontTreves, 1918-1919," also the original sketches made for the book in France and in Germany, as well as others, and the first-plate proofs of the drawings and photographs (6 original sketches and 20 original sketches in a sketch-book). Mr. Henry Sayre Van Duzer of New York gave a copy (No. 32 of 175 printed and autographed) of the catalogue of his "Thackeray Library, 1st editions and 1st publications, portraits, watercolors, etchings, drawings and manuscripts," New York, 1919.

From Mrs. Algernon S. Sullivan of New York came a collection of 69 prints after Benozzo Gozzoli and Franciscus Londonio; from Mr. George Kennan of New York came 439 photographs and drawings, portraits of Russian political exiles, views of Siberian cities, etc., and 100 pieces of manuscript material, mainly originals of letters from Russian political exiles to Mr. Kennan; from Mr. Louis Maurer came 8 of his lithographs of the race-course; from Mr. Jaques Reich of Staten Island came a copy of his etched portrait of Theodore Roosevelt, and from Señor Don Ventura García Calderón of Paris came a copy of "Reliquias de José García Calderón" (killed at Verdun, May 5, 1916), containing 51 drawings by José García Calderón.

Major Paul S. Bliss, U. S. A., gave the Library a copy of his work, "Victory, history of the 805th Pioneer Infantry, American Expeditionary Forces," St. Paul, 1919; Capt. Frank B. Tiebout of New York, a copy of his work, "A History of the 305th Infantry, published by the 305th Infantry Auxiliary," New York, 1919; and Mr. Gregory Mabry of New York, a copy of his "Recollections of a Recruit, an official history of the Fifty-fourth U. S. Infantry," 1919. From the 71st Infantry, New York Guard, came a copy of

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