NEW MARRIAGE LAWS 369 sions by the pleadings, nor except upon hearing before the court in open session." Either party to a divorce was to be permitted to remarry. The State of Minnesota, in 1901, passed a new marriage law. It was intended to effect certain reforms along lines laid down by scientific knowledge of the laws of heredity. Thus, the marriage of an epileptic, feeble-minded, imbecile, or insane person was forbidden unless the wife was at least forty-five years old. It was thought that this restriction would check the natural increase of defectives. Some of the supporters of the bill even tried, though unsuccessfully, to include in it a provision requiring a physician's certificate as a preliminary to securing a marriage license. In New York the marriage laws were changed with a view to the correction of a recognized evil. Under the old system in that State, if a couple lived together as man and wife and acknowledged the relation to third parties, the facts were held to constitute a common law marriage," which was a basis for legal claims. Blackmail was a common outcome. Where in one case a common law marriage might protect an honest woman, in others it led to blackmail or scandal. Out of such relations came will-contests, claims to estates, and other unfortunate incidents. The law passed in 1901 provided that no common law marriage should be valid unless entered into through a written contract of marriage, signed by both parties and at least two witnesses. The recording and filing of the contract were also required. CHAPTER VIII BOOKS AND PLAYS To lay aside from the piles of books published in 1901 those which possess in a greater or less degree the elements of permanency would be almost impossible. There is no critical rule of thumb; nor can there well be one. Time is the only test. The lasting book or poem or play must satisfy the mood of more than one generation. The function of our record of the year will be carried out by recalling those publications which were most prominent in both critical and popular attention in 1901. Biographical Works Three notable biographies were published: Horace E. Scudder's "James Russell Lowell" (Houghton, Mifflin), Graham Balfour's "Life of Robert Louis Stevenson" (Scribner), and the "Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley" (Appleton). One of the strongest impressions of Lowell gained from Mr. Scudder's work is that the man was really greater than anything he ever wrote-that he never, save in an occasional passage of poetry, gave adequate expression of what was in him. Another impression is of the opposing elements that made up the man: his radical sympathies were often at war with his conservative judgment. In his biography of Stevenson Mr. Balfour did a difficult task well. There was, in truth, more autobiography than anything else. Mr. Balfour supplied only the needed thread of description and explanation; the real story was told as far as possible in Stevenson's words. The work was in no sense a repetition of the previously published "Letters." Rather it was an addition and an interpretation. The life of the great scientist, Huxley, was also told largely through the medium of letters, notably those to Darwin, Tyndall, and Spencer. With this work it is but natural to couple Professor Packard's 66 LIVES OF QUEEN VICTORIA 371 (Longmans). Careful re "Lamarck: The Founder of Evolution searches in France rewarded Professor Packard with considerable biographical material concerning a personality of which little had previously been known. Norman Hapgood's "George Washington" (Macmillan) was a straightforward story of Washington as a man among other men, not as one removed from the common virtues and failings of mankind. "Israel Putnam" (Putnam), by William Farrand Livingston, told the story of a famous patriot and his services to his country. The death of Queen Victoria was quickly followed by the publication of several "lives" of the great ruler. Obviously these volumes were calculated only to meet the special demand of the hour. The material for a complete life of the Queen would doubtless for a long time. remain inaccessible. There was a new edition of Mrs. Fawcett's "life," and later was published by Harper the Marquis of Lorne's "V. R. I. Queen Victoria, Her Life and Empire" a large volume which had to a great extent the authority of personal knowledge of the subject. The Marquis of Lorne, who in 1900 became the Duke of Argyll, was a sonin-law of the late Queen. Among the interesting ephemeral books of the year was "The Private Life of King Edward VII." (Appleton), written by a member of the royal household. Two autobiographies of novel interest were published during the In one of them "Up from Slavery" (Doubleday, Page), Booker T. Washington tells of his struggles from the slave's hovel in which he was born to the virtual leadership of his race. No simpler, finer story of achievement has been recorded. The other life history to which reference should especially be made is "The Making of an American " (Macmillan), by Jacob A. Riis. One of the not too numerous immigrants who become potent factors for good in their adopted home, Mr. Riis had rendered conspicuous service to reform in New York. The waning interest in the Dreyfus affair was temporarily reawakened during the year by the publication of Dreyfus's "Four Years of My Life." (McClure). The volume contains the ex-captain's own simple narrative, the letters that passed between his wife and himself, and the diary he kept for her while he was on Devil's Island. The most striking and pathetic disclosure made is the victim's ignorance of the efforts of his friends in France to secure fair play for him. Another autobiography that appeared to be a transcription of the author's personality was Clara Morris's "Life on the Stage" (McClure). It is practically a history of the American stage for twenty-five years, and is crowded with interesting anecdotes of prominent stage people. The year bore the usual crop of volumes dealing with the Napoleonic era. Lord Rosebery's "Last Phase" (Harper), a study of the great commander's downfall, is a careful commentary by an able critic. J. H. Rose's "A Life of Napoleon Bonaparte" throws some light on vexed questions. The work shows great devotion to original sources. An important study is Jessica Peixotto's "The French Revolution and Modern French Socialism" (Crowell), which compares the principles underlying the French Revolution with the doctrines of modern French socialism. In this connection should be noticed Professor Sloane's "The French Revolution and Religious Reform" (Scribner's), which seeks an explanation of some aspects of the revolution in a passion for religious freedom. Ida M. Tarbell's "Napoleon and Josephine" (MeClure), H. A. Guerber's "Empresses of France" (Dodd, Mead), "Men and Women of the French Renaissance (Lippincott), by Edith Sichel, are lesser additions to French history. Historical Works First among the year's contributions to American history should be named certain monographs dealing with the colonial period. Edward Eggleston's "The Transit of Civilization from England to America " (Appleton) threw light on the mental and moral equipment of the first colonists. Alexander Brown's "English Politics in Early Virginia" (Houghton, Mifflin) gives a useful account of the efforts of the Stuarts to check the growth of popular government in America, and of the gradual development of the ideal of liberty. "The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania" (Holt), by Oscar Kuhne, and "The Germans in Colonial Times" (Lippincott), by Lucy F. Bittinger, cover practically the same ground, Mr. Kuhne's work being the better. Both volumes show the considerable importance of the early German settlers as social factors. James K. Hosmer's "Short History of the Mississippi Valley" (Houghton, Mifflin), is a well-balanced survey. AMERICAN HISTORY 373 Two separate phases of the American Revolution are treated in Edward McCrady's "History of South Carolina in the Revolution and John Codman's "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec" (Macmillan). A successful popularization of the story of Lewis and Clark's expedition is Noah Brooks's "First Across the Continent" (Scribner). Professor John W. Burgess's "The Civil War and the Constitution" (Scribner), in two compact volumes, analyzes with gratifying impartiality certain conditions which partisanship has too often overlooked in its consideration of the war and its causes. From the Southern viewpoint Doctor J. L. M. Curry's "Civil History of the Government of the Confederate States," published by B. F. Johnson, of Richmond, clearly sets forth the principles that the founders of the Confederacy had in mind. Doctor Curry was a member of the Confederacy's first Provisional Congress. "The Confederate States of America" (Scribner), by John Christopher Schwab, gives the first systematic presentation of the financial and industrial history of the South during the war. This was the initial volume of the Yale University bicentennial publications. Several studies of the Reconstruction period appeared during the year, notably James Wilford Garner's "Reconstruction in Mississippi" (Macmillan) and Edwin C. Woolley's "The Reconstruction of Georgia" (Columbia University Press). Among more general works should be mentioned the fourth and closing volume of Albert Bushnell Hart's "American History Told by Contemporaries " (Macmillan), an admirable selection from original sources. The most valuable contribution to recent American history was General Russell A. Alger's "The Spanish-American War" (Harper), a documentary history of the administrative side of the conflict. The heated passions of the moment led many persons unwisely to pass by this history as a mere attempt on the part of the author to rehabilitate himself. The third volume of Edgar Stanton Maclay's "History of the United States Navy" (Appleton), covering the period of the Spanish War, helped, by its aspersions on the conduct of Commodore. Schley, to bring about the Schley Court of Inquiry. The problems growing out of the war with Spain inspired at least two books of some value. Carman F. Randolph's "Law and Policy of Annexation (Longman) is based on the contention that land brought within the complete and exclusive sovereignty of the United States can not be |