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Literature of tlie SoutJi African War 313 attempted. A new era has since dawned. Throughout the winter months the regimental officer under the supervision of his lieutenant- colonel now devotes much attention to the examination of past cam- paigns and to the deduction therefrom of lessons for the future. When next the British army takes the field, the necessity for noting its methods of action and their results will be understood. Such then is the historical material at the disposal of the student who desires to undertake original researches as to the true facts of the South African War. It must be candidly admitted that the prospect is not at the present encouraging, and the searcher after knowledge will find himself compelled to ask for help from the labors of others who have enjoyed special advantages and had access to persons and documents unapproachable by the general public. We will turn, therefore, to the works of actual laborers in the historical vineyard. The fashion has grown up in England — I do not know whether it is prevalent in the United States — of issuing, during the progress of a war which attracts public attention, pro- fusely illustrated popular books, which profess to lay before their readers history, red-hot from its making like a baker's rolls. These works no doubt answer their publishers' purpose. They have a considerable although purely ephemeral sale, and in the case of a national struggle fan a healthy spirit of patriotism. But it must be confessed that they have no pretension to be included in the historian's library. Their text is for the most part compiled by the scissors and .paste process from the columns of newspapers. Their illustrations are strangely dissimilar to the realities of modern war, and are often palpably the work of artists who have never been under fire, and whose acquaintance with battle-fields is limited to a study of Napoleonic pictures and of melodrama as presented by the suburban stage. It is unnecessary therefore to trouble the readers of this review by enumerating works of this class given birth to by the South African War. Their brief day has passed and, save to satisfy curiosity, it would be waste of time to dip into their pages. Their elimination, however, limits — at the moment of writing — the- number of actual histories of the campaign which will repay careful examination to three, Dr. Conan Doyle's Great Boer War^ the Times History of the War in South Africa} and the English translation of the account of the war compiled by the Great General Staff at Berlin.^ ' Revised and enlarged edition, New York. 1902. 'Four volumes published, 1900, 1902, 1905, 1906. 'Two vols., London, 1904, igo6.