One of the difficulties when dealing with
the sober circumstances of life in a newly-opened settlement is to
choose between what is too interesting to omit in the record and what
is too trifling to include. Father Spetz in this History
manifests a remarkable sense for facts, a rare gift for verifying his
statements so far as dates could be found, an ability to rate at their
actual value the traditions of a community, and a quick discernment to
detect the value of information when separating the legendary from the
true.
The book is interesting and scholarly
from cover to cover and is fall of reliable information from the pen of
a writer, whose intimate familiarity with local documentary history and
with many of the estimable characters introduced to the readers,
deepens the fascination of its pages.
It is an admirable undertaking carried
out in an admirable way and, independently of its intrinsic worth, its
fine type, paper and binding, is a triumph of the art of photogravure
illustration.