the setting unique. (Lothrop. $1.50.)
The Maids of Paradise.
Mr. Chambers has the right feeling for
romance. His "Maid at Arms" and "Car-
digan" were instinct .with it, and it animates
and refines the present adventurous story,
as a golden thread might beautify a string
of beads. The two previous books named
had North American wilds for their scene;
the present volume is concerned with the
Franco-Prussian war, its hero being an officer
of the Foreign Division of the Imperial Mili-
tary Police. Its heroine, the Countess de
Vassart, is one of the maids of Paradise,
Paradise in this case being a Breton coast
village. The author has handled his material
with considerable knowledge as well as ar-
tistry, and the result is a very pleasing story,
both from the literary and the circulating-
From " Gorgo." Copyright, 1S03, by Lothrop Publishing Co.
"l BOUND HER IN MY ARMS AND HELD
HER FAST."
library standpoint, a successful combination
upon which Mr. Chambers may be heartily
congratulated. By a curious error in binding,
a dozen pages of this book, toward its end,
are given in duplicate. The hero is a fine
type of the adventurous young American
abroad, and his comrade Speed is a pleasant
and convincing study. At one period these
two are members of a travelling circus which
performs in Breton villages during all the
horrid uproar of the beginning of the Com-
mune. This part of the story is a most ad-
mirable piece of work, full of keen and hum-
orous observation, and of deftly sustained
interest. Mr. Chambers is usually happy in
his portrayal of young and beautiful girls.
Without being sickly sentimental, he can be
really charming; with never a hint of bru-
tality, he can be thoroughly realistic. We
recommend the book cordially. (Harper.
$1.50.) The Athenaeum.
302
THE LITERARY NEWS.
[October, 1903
The Frolicsome Four.
"The Frolicsome Four/' by Edith L. and
Ariadne Gilbert, is a merry little book of
child adventures. The two sisters and two
brothers who compose the "four" get into
and out of enough mischief to make the story
extremely interesting. The incidents are un-
The Hermit.
In his latest and ablest work, "The Her-
mit : a Story of the Wilderness," the latter
term being used to mean the unbroken for-
ests of upper Maine, Charles Clark Munn,
author of "Uncle Terry" has gone to his
own familiar ground, close to the heart of
From "The Frolicsome Four." Copyright, 1903, by Lee h Shepard
HE SEATED HIMSELF ON THE TABLE-LEAF.
doubtedly drawn from real life, and have all
the charm and realism of being truly child-
like. The four characters, Larry, the learned
scholar, Billy, noble and fun-loving, high-
spirited Owen, and tender-hearted Polly are
real children.
The book is one any child will enjoy own-
ing as a part of his very own library. The
characters are healthful and full of origin-
ality, and he will regard them as life long
friends. (Lee & Shepard. 60 c.) A^. Y.
Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer.
Nature. The joy of woods and waters is
here ; there is much of camp life and wood
lore. The power of the forest is strong upon
the reader, and the spell is increased to the
greatest intensity by a thrilling double mys-
tery in the deep Maine forest, involving
the character who gives the title to the
book.
It is, moreover, a genuine old-fashioned
love story of the kind that the public never
tires of reading. The hero is the most ma-
ture and manly of all Mr. Munn's similar
October, 1903]
THE LITERARY NEWS.
303
characters, and all will sympathize with the
noble-hearted manner in which he seeks to
atone to the heroine, a superb type of attrac-
tive and capable young New England woman-
hood, for an earlier mistake. Of the other
characters, "Aunt Comfort," a central figure,
of a good story-teller who knows his subject
as does almost no other writer in the field
where Mr. Munn reigns supreme.
The dedication, "To those who love the
sparkle of rippled lakes hid in the wilderness,
the glowing camp fire chasing away darkness,
From "She Who Hesitates.'
Copyright, 1903, by Bobbs-Merrill Co.
THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
is a "Mother in Israel," of the kind that every
country-born man or woman remembers.
"Old Cy Walker" is a modern Leatherstock-
ing, and the others fill their parts admirably.
Both the humor and the pathos of village life
are impressively shown in the description of
"Greenvale," and presented with all the knack
the song of birds greeting the sunrise; or
whose hearts vibrate to the memory of the
old brown schoolhouse, the moss-coated mill
and pond smiling with lilies," well expresses
the spirit of the book ; its readers, we know,
will be numbered by many thousands. (Lee
& Shepard. $1.50.)
304
THE LITERARY NEWS.
October, 1903
The Harkriders.
The lack of depth in Opie Read's latest
novel, "The Harkriders," is more than made
up by the humor which runs through the
book. It is a Southern story, in which the
since her birth ; Beverly Harkrider, a nephew
of the Colonel, who is in love with Augusta
Thompson, the pair representative of the new
generation; Mrs. Colonel Harkrider; Do-
minion, an aristocratic, impudent and phil-
Frnm fip
Coiiyrif.'lit, 1903, by Laird & I..
THE FOX WAS SEEN,
author is at home. The scene is laid in Vir-
ginia, and the action is of the present day.
This has enabled the writer to bring into his
tale some of the relics of the war along with
the youth of to-day. The types of the South
made to do duty are the Colonel and the
Major, cousins and friends ; Lorena, daughter
of the one and the sweetheart of the other
osophical member of the colored race ; Slab
Parker and Callie, proteges of >the Harkrider
family; Yancey Simms, the villain, and his
tool, Washington Dismukes, one of the "poor
white trash" of the neighborhood. In these
varying specimens of Southern life Opie Read
runs the gamut of his fun, which is amusing
without being offensive, except in the case
October, 1903]
THE LITERARY NEWS.
305
of the poor whites, who are negligible quan-
tities. It is an attractive book, not in the
story, but in the telling. (Laird & Lee.
$1.50.) San Francisco Chronicle.
House on the Sands.
The hero, Godfrey Julian, is a rising poli-
tician, a man of ideas, anxious to crystallize
into something practical the vivid sense of
Imperial unity tliat was born of and during
the war, fearful of losing the golden opportu-
nity which serious people recognized as having
come at the conclusion of peace. We see him
in the first chapter watching the home-coming
of some regiments to London, and shrinking
from the thoughtless irresponsibility of the
crowd as it turned from cheering the soldiers
into rough horseplay when it broke up. He
is sincerely devoted to his ideals, and am-
bitious rather for the success of his principles
than for his own advancement. The idea
which floats him for the moment up to the
surface of the political whirlpool is that of a
great Imperial shipping scheme, whereby the
State shall combat the Atlantic Combination
so essentially up to date is Mr. Marriott's
material by entering the lists as a competi-
tor in person, and going into the shipping
trade for itself. The idea is an ingenious
one, very well worked out, and not at all
outside the range of possible practical poli-
tics, but, clever as is Mr. Marriott's treat-
ment, it is not the political career of Godfrey
Julian and the feasibility of his schemes which
enchain our attention, but his social relation-
ships with the other characters which figure
in the story. We have his sister, Michal,
who has devoted her life to her brother, and
will not marry until he is married, a stately
personage, rather cold and reserved, but true
as steel, and really a great-hearted woman.
Her lover, who frankly accepts her deter-
mination not to reward his devotion until
her brother has found a mate, is Randal Tate,
a poet, rather "shabby and empty of pocket,
"but full of ideas. He had never been bored
in his life, and his presence in a room in-
variably quickened ideas and made people un-
consciously move and speak a little more vig-
orously." He is Julian's friend, devoted to
his interests, and Julian, who is something of
a dreamer, usually trusts implicitly to his
companion's sharp intuitions.
Julian has a small estate in Cornwall
those who know the Cornish coast will have
little difficulty in identifying the locality as
the neighborhood of Perranport and on vis-
iting it after a lengthy absence he finds that a
remote house on the lonely sands has been
taken by one Chris. Lanyon, now a tin-
streamer with some private means of his own,
but lately a Socialist lecturer and thinker.
He has renounced the leadership of the world,
for the world did not listen as it should have
done; he has therefore washed his hands of
all responsibility, and taken up the role of
the detached onlooker. Mr. Marriott draws
him pitilessly, a quivering mass of sensitive
egoism, with a bitter tongue, entirely Unsat-
isfied a disappointed man, though he tries
to play Diogenes as though he liked it. With
him there lives Audrey Thurston, who once
had been what Tate called "a lanky girl who
came to Morris's Sunday afternoons and
talked about Tolstoi." She and Lanyon had
years before determined to be "brother and
sister" to one another. Their association
were to be purely intellectual. And it had
remained as it had begun. But now Audrey
has begun to realize that she has made an
appalling mistake, to see that, after all, a man
may enter into her life, and to know that
that one man can never be Lanyon. Lanyon,
too, is suddenly waking to the fact that Au-
drey is beautiful, that he loves her, that he
has been a fool to think that "the cold union
of the spirit" could suffice. There are here
all the necessary ingredients for the tragedy
which the reader very early on in the novel
sees approaching. One guesses that Audrey
and Julia will be irresistibly drawn to one
another, and that Julian will soon forget "the
nice girl," Amy Lawrence, whom his sister
wishes him to marry, that there will be a
struggle between Michal and Audrey, the
cold, proud lady keeping at arm's length the
girl who flung aside conventionality before
she was old enough to understand the conse-
quence of the deed, whom the world con-
demns, but whom Michal knows to be as
pure as herself. (Lane. $1.50.) Books of
To-day and To-morrow.
The Old China Book.
Miss N. H. Moore's "The Old China
Book," albeit it treats largely of English and
Oriental wares, is wholly for American read-
ers, for it tells of pottery and porcelain of
artistic, historical, or what used to be called
"antick," value that can be gathered in Amer-
ica. It is of sufficient technical as well as
descriptive value ; with the aid of its instruc-
tion the most ignorant buyer should be able
to gather an excellent collection of china
if he can find it to collect. But domestic
sources of supply have been well hunted, well
examined, and wholly depleted ; no great col-
lection could be gathered now save from es-
3o6
THE LITERARY NEWS.
[October, 1903
tablished dealers who have buyers in Eng-
land. The lists of old blue and white ware
stamped with historical and pictorial designs
fill many pages. They are arranged in nat-
ural divisions. Grouping the wares of each
potter and each pottery replaces classification
by the pictorial subject of the decoration as
in other lists published by other authors, and
is the better method, though not so conven-
ient for the china-learner seeking to identify
a specimen. Best of all would be a conjunc-
tion of both lists, with a system of cross-
references. Omissions are few in this book,
mistakes are few. The easy, familiar, almost
colloquial style renders the text agreeable
reading, and the explanatory descriptions,
which touch on history, art, and literature,
are all well done and informing. The illus-
trations are many, and some rare pieces are
pictured. (Stokes. %2.)The Nation.
Rebecca of Sunny brook Farm.
In her new book Mrs. Kate Douglas Wig-
gin returns to the earlier vein in which she
first won appreciation and recognition. She
might say of it as she did of "Timothy's
Quest," that it is "a story for anybody young
or old who cares to read it." It defies classi-
fication, but will find its way to the hearts of
those who have loved the Ruggleses, Patsy,
Polly, and Timothy. Rebecca, the heroine
whose fortunes are followed from childhood
to maidenhood, is a unique personality. The
judicious intermingling of humor and pathos,
of colloquial reflection, .-xnd of irresistible
logic, that go to make her character, are in-
imitable. Then there are the two maiden
aunts, the kindly old stage driver, Emma
Jane the ''bosom friend," and the other sim-
ple Maine folk among whom Rebecca lives;
but the "making" of Rebecca is the theme,
and she herself the source and centre of in-
terest. A well known critic who has read
the manuscript says : "Rebecca is destined to
win all hearts. Smiles and tears are sure to
greet her, but the smiles will predominate,
for all things about her are drawn 'from
Maytime and the cheerful Dawn.' She is
indeed
'A dancing shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.' "
(Houghton. $1.25.)
Sally, Mrs. Tubbs,
In "Sally, Mrs. Tubbs," Margaret Sidney
has reproduced, on a larger scale and for
adult readers, all the charm of wholesome
naturalness and genuine sentiment which has
made her Pepper books so justly popular.
Sally Plunkett, the central figure, is a humble
washerwoman who realizes the supreme am-
bition of her life in her marriage to Abijah
Tubbs, an insignificant, weak-minded little
man, who is exceedingly droll in his reluc-
tant submission to Sally's matrimonial views.
Through him she attains the coveted title of
a married woman, but still finds life some-
thing of a struggle owing to her husband's
want of energy and the additional burden laid
upon her of supporting a destitute cousin.
But Sally, though sorely tried, is ever a
source of strength and comfort to others, and
rises to all the petty crises of her own life
with a cheerfulness and courage that are tru-
ly admirable. In her power to extract quiet
humor and pathos from the very-day affairs
of life Margaret Sidney has few equals; and
in Sally she has not only produced a quamt
and amusing character, but also has con-
veyed a valuable moral lesson of homely
heroism and true kindness of heart. A charm-
ing love story is provided in the romance of
Miss Violet Van Wyck, the especial friend
and patroness of Mrs. Tubbs. (Lothrop. $1.)
A Parish of Two.
This novel, by Henry Goelet McVickar
and Percy Collins, is a clever bit of collab-
orated work. The love story is told in a
series of twenty-three letters between a New
York clubman and a crippled clergyman,
whose parish is in West Braintree, Mass.
The letters of Dayton, the New Yorker, who
is married and who falls in love with a mar-
ried woman, are written by Henry Goelet
McVickar. The letters of Daslhier, who
never married because of a misunderstanding
with a young girl he loved, bears the pseud-
onym of Percy Collins, said to be the thinly-
veiled pen name of a well-known ex-clergy-
man. The friendship between the two men
is the background of a story not along the
conventional lines. Caustic, epigrammatic,
witty, and often brilliant, are the letters which
take you step by step through an absorbing
love affair, and which betrays an unusual,
clear-eyed knowledge of the weakness of man
and the emotional attitude of a certain analyt-
ical type of woman. Not until one realizes
that both men are writing about the same
woman does the situation assume its deep-
est meaning. It is a modern story, full of
the rush and feeling of to-day where men
mask the tragedy of their lives with a smile
and sneer. The clergyman's letters are full
of broad charity that looks upon the world as
it is and not as it ought to be. These letters
have in them meat for every man and woman
who moves among his fellows. The book is
not one to be put aside once it is begun.
(Lothrop. $1.50.)
October, 1903]
THE LITERARY NEWS.
307
Beobinge from Netu Books.
CHILDREN OF AN IDLE BRAIN.
When we fall asleep, we do not lay aside
the thoughts of the day, as the hand its
physical work ; nor upon awakening return to
the activity of these as if to the renewal of
its toil, finding them undisturbed. Our most
piercing insight yields no deeper conception of
life than that of perpetual building and re-
building; and during what we call our rest
it is often most active in executing its in-
scrutable will. All along the dark chimneys
of the brain, clinging like myriads of swal-
lows deep-buried and slumbrous in quiet and
in soot, are the countless thoughts which late-
ly winged the wide heaven of conscious day.
Alike through dreaming and through dream-
less hours life moves among these, handling
and considering, each of the unreckonable
multitude>.- and when morning light strikes
the dark shadows again, and they rush forth,
some that entered young have matured ; some
of the old have become infirm, many which
dropped in singly* issue as companies ; and
young broods flutter forth, unaccountable
nestlings of a night, which were not in yes-
terday's blue at all. Then there are the
missing those that went in with the rest at
nightfall, but were struck from the walls for
ever. So all are altered, for while we have
slept we have still been subject to that on-
moving energy of the world which incessantly
renews yet transmutes us double mystery of
our permanence and our change. (Macmil-
lan. $1.50.) Frow "The Mettle of the Pas-
ture."
SHE HAD TOUCHED HIS PRIDE.
Marjie espied in the distance what at first
she thought to be tents, but soon discovered
to be white covered wagons at a standstill.
"She rode on and quickly came up with two
large "prairie schooners." The wheels of the
first one were imbedded in soft, sticky mud,
while two tired looking horses were making
futile attempts to dislodge it, aided by an old
man who sat upon the seat and, threatened
them with a well worn willow and many
harmless words of encouragement.
"Now, pa, if you ain't never goin' to move
on, we might just as well camp right here!"
called a shrill voice from the wagon, and an
elderly woman climbed from the seat and
over the wheel to get a better view of the
situation. As she moved away from the
wagon, Marjie crossed the creek from a point
farther up, and rode over to her.
"Can I be of any assistance to you? I see
that you're in a little difficulty," said the girl
earnestly. The woman looked her over from
head to foot critically.
"Well I don't know," she finally answered.
"You might if you had a four boss team an'
a yoke of oxen."
The girl laughed under her breath, then
slipped from her saddle and stood beside the
little faded woman.
"I wish I did have a whole string team here
this moment. Your horses look tired."
"Yes, they're plumb played out, an' so 're
we, too. Been on the trail now fur nigh onto
three months. Yes, an' it ain't very good
travelin' neither, in all kinds of weather.
But we're huntin' a place. Come all the way
up from Idaho. Your folks live anywhere
about here?"
"Yes, my sister and her husband four or
five miles from here. But how are you ever
going to get that wagon out of the mud?"
"Well, one time we just had to let it stay
till the mud dried up somewhat, then we all
set to work an' dug. I ain't none so sure but
what we'll have to do it this time."
"Oh, that's too bad ! There must be some
way out. Every moment it stays here it set-
tles deeper. If you could get that wagon out
you could find a better crossing for the other
one somewhere else. Why don't you hitch
both teams together?"
"Well, you see, my man, he's kind of funny
about some things. Now he 'lows to pull
that wagon out with that there team of hisn,
an' he'd git mighty touchy if I'd hint at any
sich thing. 'Twouldn't be no better if my
daughters, here, tried to interfere. Hi, he
don't 'low no meddlin' from wimmen folks."
Marjie mounted, and walking her horse
out into the mud beside the intrenched wagon,
smilingly assailed the old man.
"Good-morning !"
"Same to you," responded the old man. It's
good enough over head, but it ain't so all-
fired good under foot."
"No," said the girl, "that's so." Then look-
ing down suddenly at the mired wagon she
exclaimed in the utmost surprise, "Why,
you're stuck in the mud, are'nt you? Now
that's too bad ! I'll go right back to the
ranch and get you another team."
"You won't do no such thing! I'm just as
much obliged to you, young woman, but I've
another team of my own back here, an' I'll
be out o' this hole quicker'n you can say
Jack Robinson !"
She had touched his vanity, or his pride,
for though she did not fully realize it, he was
one of the most independent men that ever
existed. (C. M. Clark Pub. Co. $1.50.)
From Parker's "Marjie of the Lower Ranch."
ONE MAN'S HAPPINESS.
"Life is a good thing," I said again, "but,
Kelly, truth is better. And^ I must tell you
the well, something of the* truth as much
as you need know . . . now. My friend, she
is not ivorth it."
"Do you think that makes any difference?"
he said, harshly. "Let me alone, Scailett I
know ! . . . / knoiv, I tell you !"
"Do you mean to tell me that you know she
deliberately betrayed you?" I demanded.
"Yes, I know it I tell you I know it !"
"And . . . you love her?"
"Yes." He dropped his haggard face on his
arms a moment, then sat bolt upright.
"Truth is better than life," he said, slowly.
"I lied to you and to myself when I came
back. I did come to get Speed's balloon, but
I came . . . for her sake, ... to be near her,
... to see her once more before I "
"Yes, I understand, Kelly."
He winced and leaned wearily back.
3o8
THE LITERARY NEWS.
[October, 1903
"You are right," he said; "I wanted to end
it, ... I am tired."
I sat thinking for a moment; the light in
the room faded to a glimmer on the panes.
"Kelly," I said, "there remains another way
to risk your neck, and, I think, a nobler way.
There is in this house a woman who is run-
ning a terrible risk a German spy whose op-
erations have been discovered. This woman
believes that she has in her pay the commun-
ist leader of the revolt, a man called Buck-
hurst. She is in error. And she must leave
this house to-night."
Eyre's face had paled. He bent forward,
clasped hands between his knees, eyes fas-
tened on me.
"There will be trouble here to-night or,
in all probability, within the next twenty-four
hours. I expect to see Buckhurst a prisoner.
And when that happ^ens it will go hard with
Mademoiselle Elven, for he will turn on her to
save himself. . . . And you know what that
means ; . . . a blank wall, Kelly, arid a firing-
squad. There is but one sex for spies."
A deadly fear was stamped on his bloodless
face. I saw it, tense and quivering, in the
gray light of the window.
"She must leave to-night, Kelly. She must
try to cross into Spain. Will you help her?"
He nodded, striving to say "yes."
"You know your own risk?"
"Yes."
"Her company is death for you both if you
are taken."
He stood up very straight. In what strange
forms comes happiness to man! (Harper.
$1.50.) From Robert W. Chambers' "Maids
of Paradise."
THE CASTING OF THE NET.
Hartley was deep in a pile of disordered
notes and manuscripts, trying to arrange them
with some sort of method, when her tiny
knock sounded on his apartment door. He
did not hear it; it might never have been in-
tended for his hearing, it was so light and
timorous. Before he was even aware of her
presence everything had been slipped in
through the .softly opened door. And when
he suddenly looked up he saw her standing
there laughing, expectant, radiant, a Lady
Bountiful surrounded by her riches.
He started up and came quickly toward her.
He had scarcely looked for them so soon.
But she stopped him with a gesture.
"I've come alone," she warned him. And
she told him how she had been deserted at
the last moment. She was glad, and yet sorry
as she saw how his face lighted up that he
should look at it so joyously innocent.
"I have come to feed the lion," she cried.
"Roar if you dare, sir !" She slipped off her
wrap, and laying her hat and gloves aside,
deftly placed a couple of Hartley's carnations
in her hair. Noticing over her shoulder that