ontier life, it must be confessed, though
there is abundant adventure. A family likeness runs through nearly all
histories of bear-fights, and one Indian-fight might readily be mistaken
for another. So also bear-fighters and Indian-fighters are akin in
character, and the pioneers who appear in literature leave a sense of
sameness upon the reader's mind. Nevertheless, one continues to read of
them with considerable patience, and likes the stories because he liked
their ancestral legends when a boy.

Colonel Marcy's book offers something more than the usual attractions of
the class to which it belongs; for it contains the history of his own
famous passage of the Rocky Mountains in mid-winter, and notices of many
frontiersmen of original and striking character (like the immortal
Captain Scott), as well as much shrewd observation of Indian nature and
other wild-beast nature. All topics are treated with perfect
common-sense; if our soldierly author sometimes philosophizes rather
narrowly, he never sentimentalizes, though he is not without poetry; and
he is thoroughly imbued with the importance of his theme. One,
therefore, suffers a great deal from him, in the way of unnecessary
detail, without a murmur, and now and then willingly accepts an old
story from him, charmed by the simplicity and good faith with which he
attempts to pass it off as new.

The style of the book is clear and direct, except in those parts where
light and humorous narration is required. There it is bad, and seems to
have been formed upon the style of the sporting newspapers and the local
reporters, with now and then a hint from the witty passages of the
circus, as in this colloquy:--

"'Mought you be the boss hossifer of that thar army?'

"'I am the commanding officer of that detachment, sir.'

"'Wall, Mr. Hossifer, be them sure 'nuff sogers, or is they only
make-believe chaps, like I see down to Orleans?'

"'They have passed through the Mexican war, and I trust have proved
themselves not only worthy of the appellation of real, genuine soldiers,
but of veterans, sir.'"

And so forth. We like Colonel Mercy when he talks of himself better than
when he talks for himself. In the latter case he is often what we see
him above, and in the former he is always modest, discreet, and
entertaining.

_Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing._ From the German of JOSEPH VON
EICHENDORFF, by CHARLES GODFREY LELAND. With Vignettes by E. B. Bensell.
New York: Leypoldt a