Alluring San Antonio. By Lillie May Hagner.
San Antonio: The Naylor Co., 1940. Pp. 140. Illustrations, $2.50.

"Alluring San Antonio," an attractive little book written and
illustrated by Lillie May Hagner, a native San Antonian, gives
a good historical account of the old and new in buildings and
life of the fascinating Texas city of the Alamo. It is singular
that Miss Hagner did not discover her city until she made a
tour of the Eastern historical centers of the United States
and upon her return she found her bluebird at her very doorstep.

She gives a good account of the missions--a drypoint illus-
tration of her Concepción Mission is one of the most interesting
in the book. I enjoyed her experience sketching the missions
among the huisache trees. She writes: "As this little drypoint
of Mission Concepción took form, I worked one summer after-
noon when the slender leaves of the huisache trees hung limp
in the heat and an occasional whiff of dust dimmed the scene."
How many times have I experienced this. Her explanation
of the name "Alamo" is plausible, though a new definition to
me. A good account is given of the family of Huizar, and the
carver of the famous Baptistry window of Mission San José.

There is no sequence in the narration, and no confusion. Each
page has an interesting story or an interesting picture of the
cosmopolitan city. The following topics, selected at random,
are well planned in word and etched descriptions: Old Fort
Sam Houston, the United States arsenal, adobes, the Zuschlag
and Schmeltzer homes, Judge Devine's home--a charming litho-
graph, The Bright Shawl, La Villita, The Spanish Governor's
Palace, and the more familiar places in San Antonio.

I am particularly interested in the dedication. The author
writes: "I dedicate this book to my father and my mother,
whose example and training in home have filled me with a
love for and an appreciation of the good, the true and the
beautiful." This is a fitting tribute to our pioneer forefathers
who founded for us in their lives and in their homes an honest,
simple, and beautiful heritage.

The University of Texas.

Samuel E. Gideon.

How to cite:
"Alluring San Antonio", Volume 45, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v045/n2/review_DIVL3879.html
[Accessed Thu Dec 4 12:57:11 CST 2008]