A book that treats of the days before and during the Civil War. Rarely do negro characters figure as hero and heroine in a romance. Negro superstitions, too, are fast dying out. This book, however, deals with the peculiar ideas of the negro. The author makes no attempt to weave an intricate plot, but one feels that the character of Lyddy is absolutely true, with just enough of the Southern dialect to give realistic flavor.

  The clever and sympathetic work is likely to bind closer that link of brotherhood once broken, but now forever cemented.

  Mrs. Eugenia Jones Bacon, author of "Lyddy," was reared in a palatial home in the Old South, and is a woman of culture. Left alone in the world, she has traveled much in her own country—as far as Alaska. In foreign lands, with a woman friend, she roamed through Russia, Norway, Sweden, and to the dreamy lands of the South. She was brought in touch with savants and with ladies in high life, yet, in reading "Lyddy," we feel that the tender spot in her heart is kept for the recollection of plantation days. Her pen has pictured the relationship of master and slave as few ever have.

BRIEF EXTRACTS

From a Few of Many Press Opinions.

  Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post.—The description of life on a plantation, of barbeques at Christmas time, of banjo-picking by the cabin doors, of love-making under the magnolias, of homely scenes of joy and sadness, all form a narrative that is well worth reading.

  Boston Literary World.—An account like this, telling the vicissitudes and losses, the great strain and perils in which the families of refinement and culture found themselves at the close of the war, is of more than ordinary interest.

  Chicago Times-Herald.—The time has come when such a book as this can be read and understood North as well as South.

  Boston Globe.—It is evidently written with personal knowledge of conditions prevailing in Dixie land before, during, and after the civil war. Mrs. Eugenia J. Bacon inclines to look on the sunny side of life on the old plantation, a side deserving of more attention from writers on southern topics than it has received.

  Detroit Free Press.—The author demonstrates the deep and abiding affection which the slaves of the Green Forest plantation entertained for their master's family.

  New York Times.—Its temper is to be much commended. Frankly holding a brief for the days of slavery, and describing the horrors of the civil war, and the suffering and anxiety of the period of reconstruction, the author avoids, nevertheless, all bitter words, any raising of the ghosts of dead issues.

  Philadelphia Press.—A striking tale of the Old South, giving dramatic pictures of conditions before the war.

  Wilmington Delaware, Every Evening.—It is the antithesis of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and shows how the black human chattels were not always treated like beasts, but led the lives of pleasure and healthful occupation. It is not a defense of slavery, nor in any way an argument for a revival on that decidedly obnoxious institution, but it gives a faithful picture from life of the brightest side of that eventful epoch in this country's history, the period of

  St. Louis Globe-Democrat.—The heroine is a negro woman, with a black skin but a pure soul. The author paints a pleasing picture of the happy relations which existed between master and slave.

  Baltimore Sun.—Lyddy is one of the fast-disappearing types of the old mammy; and the tale takes us back to the days of slavery, when this type—so often drawn, and never, as here, without reminiscent interest—flourished, ruled, spoiled, and was an important member of "the family."

  Los Angeles, California, Herald.—This is indeed a story of the Old South, and "Lyddy," who was sold as a slave in 1830, is one of the best characterizations we have ever seen. The book revives many memories of the old days, and presents not a few features of pathetic interest.

  Bookseller and Newsdealer, San Francisco.—We have been much diverted by "Lyddy." It is so readable we should recommend that it be placed in every circulating library.

  Taunton, Massachusetts, Evening Herald.—One of the most sympathetic and graphic delineations ever produced of southern negro life, is Eugenia J. Bacon's "Lyddy." The story is more than this, it is one of the few original delineations of the life named.

  Denver Republican.—The story is told with a fidelity to detail that proclaims at once the author's familiarity with her subject. She had a story to tell, sure enough, and she went about telling it in a matter of fact way.

  Washington Times.—It is full of human nature, humor, pathos, and the rich flavor of the Old South, and the character of mammy herself possesses the quaintness and the charm which are almost invariably found in this type of womanhood.

  Philadelphia Telegraph.—"Lyddy" is a tale of the Old South, and is clearly the work of one "to the manner born." Mrs. Bacon understands the master and servant of the old regime very well.

  Boston Journal.—"Lyddy," we feel moved to say, is one of the best stories of life in the Old South lately written.