On the Old Frontier. By William 0. Stoddard. (Hodder and
Stoughton.)—The second title of this story, "The Last Raid of the Iroquois," very fairly explains its character. The author speaks with far more authority than do most writers of books of this kind. " His weapon," he says of himself, " was a bow and arrows made for him by an Onondaga Indian, for he was born and brought up within a few miles of the Council House, where once burned the Sacred Brand of the Iroquois." His book sets forth very clearly the .condition of a white settlement in the days when the Red Indian was still a military and political power in North America, of the means taken to protect such a settlement, and of its perils when it was threatened by the Iroquois. In a book no doubt in- tended. chiefly for boys, it is necessary to have a youthful hero. Such a hero is presented in Dan van Lennep, who is both lost and found to some purpose, inasmuch as it is to all intents and pur- poses he who saves the settlement of Plum Hollow.. What ought not perhaps to be termed the minor characters, are also, however, admirably sketched, Mr. Stoddard is exceptionally successful in reproducing a council of Rod Indian chiefs.
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