GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 477 



Dyer, of New York, and the book is dedicated to Mrs Elisha Dyer. Mrs 

 Hitchcock faithfully narrates all that she saw and heard, and that befell 

 her. Her journey comprised the voyage by steamship to St Michaels, 

 and thence by river boat and barge to Dawson, where she remained a 

 couple of months, and then continued by boat up the Yukon to the foot 

 of White pass, and over that summit to steamship service again. She 

 lived in a great tent on the riverside opposite Dawson, save for the three 

 or four days given to a heel-blistering expedition to Eldorado creek and 

 the diggings, and greater discomforts were probably never endured by 

 well-to-do women for so little apparent reason. The reader continually 

 asks why? and what for? as he follows the intimate record of their daily 

 life and housekeeping, the repeated dish-washings, fire-buildings, and 

 tent-proppings, the strange menus of their feasts of " canned goods," the 

 shivering in heavy clothing and furs, and the frequent dreary rains, 

 while the great Dane, the parrot, and the canary claim one's sympathies. 

 Nothing is withheld ; and manicuring, tender passages, land laws, cus- 

 toms regulations, the running of an animatascope, and the descriptions 

 of toilets take their turn at equal length. The two women staked a claim 

 in the Klondike, "grub-staked" a prospector or two, built a cabin on 

 their lot opposite Dawson, and after being fleeced and swindled in most 

 grotesque ways came away none the sadder, apparently. 



A Constitutional History of the American People. 1776-1S50. By Francis 



Newton Thorpe. Illustrated with maps. Two vols., 8vo ; vol. 1, 



pp. xxvii+485; vol. 2, pp. xv + 520. New York and London: 



Harper & Brothers. 1898. $6. 



There is suggestive originality in this title. Constitutional histories of 



the State abound, but not constitutional histories of a people. . Very few 



among past or still-existent peoples afford the field for a constitutional 



history of themselves. Usually the term would be a misnomer. 



In the preface Mr Thorpe states that this work "is the record of the 

 evolution of government since the Revolution;" that "constitutional 

 history is the history of a constituency which, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously; is ever striving to promote its own welfare," and that the claim 

 til' popular government to authority is " its identification with the great 

 principles of civilization." His first chapter opens with the words: "In 

 the evolution of democracy in America," and the same phrase — "evolu- 

 tion of the democracy " — is emphasized on the second page. On the fif- 

 teenth page he strikes his keynote : " My theme is a history of the evolu- 

 tion of democracy in America." 



I'm liim " American democracy, like Greek poetry, is the presentation 

 of the whole estate of man." But there is scholarly modesty in his 

 words: "The historian shrinks from attempting'to trace the record of 

 democracy in all its phases. He must lie satisfied, and indeed thrice 

 happy, if lie is able to trace, even imperfectly, the record of a single 

 phase." He defines his own chosen phase as " the history of political 

 and civil adjustments." This meager definition hardly hints at the mul- 

 tifarious nature of the theme or at the research and infinite patience 

 required lor its treatment. Intimate acquaintance was necessary with 

 the numerous decisions of the Supreme Court and of the State courts 



