1 OCTOBER 1904, Page 12

HENRY VILLARD.

Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier (1835-1900). 2 vols. (A. Constable and Co. 21s. net.)—It is to be regretted that circumstances have not allowed the publication sooner of this interesting, and from some points of view, valuable book, which tells how a Rhenish Bavarian emigrated to America in 1853 at the age of eighteen, and after varied failures and trying various employments, became in turn a newspaper correspondent during the Civil War, and a financier capable of holding his own with Jay Gould. Villard had all the energy and other characteristics of the self-made man, and his editors are quite entitled to say as they do : "His character shines through his manifold large undertakings, his achievements and disappointments, as also in his love of his native and adopted countries, his championship of every cause which made for political and social uplifting, and his delight in doing good." His account of the battles which be witnessed in his professional capacity will be found very engrossing by the ordinary reader, and very valuable by the student of the Civil War.