South by West; or, Winter in the Rocky Mow:tains and
Spring in Mexico. Edited, with a Preface, by the Rev. Charles Kingsley. (Isbister and Co.)-4,11awance being )nade for the inexperience
of the writer, who does not dieeriminate sufficiently between things which interest her individually to record—as, for instance,. her substitution of "our dear Queen" for President Grant in the official order of prayer, when she went to church at New York—and things which interest the public to read, South by West is a commendable book. There is nothing very new in it; we believe Canon Kingsley and the young lady whom he edits are mistaken In their joint supposi- tion that they have discovered the existence of the social virtues and amenities in the Far West. We could quote many recent works of travel which push "the border fringe of ruffianism" quite as far back as that of the adventurous young lady, who must have felt herself very courageous to venture into places like Denver and Pueblo, when she had such terrific notions of them as those of which she has been happily dispossessed by experience. The preface is a little too condescend- ing; it is hardly good taste on Canon Kingsley's part to assure " the man of the Far West," as he does assure him, that "so long as he is not ashamed of honest toil, and so long as his courtesy and chivalry toward women are perfect, as he [the Canon] is assured they are, so long he will find that every real English gentleman who visits him will recognise in him a gentleman also." All very nice and proper, of course, that the richest reward, even that of a real 'English gentleman's patron- age, should attend upon the chivalry and courtesy of the "man of the Far West," but is not the patting on the back a little overdone ? The portion of the book which relates to Mexico has more novelty, and is. freshly and pleasantly written. The journey was an adventurous one, not unattended with danger, and it is impossible to read its details- without pitying the gentlemen of the party—who were travelling on business—for having to defend their fair companions at the point of the sword and the mouth of the pistol, and without asking the trite question, "(Ace diable allaient-elles faire dans cette geese ?"- But as they came to no serious harm, and we have profited by their temerity to the extent of a pleasant book, let us not be too critical- The ladies who travelled South by West had invaluable qualifications for the undertaking in their ready good-humour, intelligent interest in all the natural and social features of the strange regions which they visited, and unswerving resolution to make the best of everything.
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