Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-08-04

freedom of expression and an absence of
timidity. But in this expectation the
reader will find disappointment, since the
lady has not written the book as a means to
political exposures, or for the PRONUNCIATION
of libels. II is true that political plot, in
which corruption ferns the warp and wool,
lies at the foundation Of the tale, but it is
not the actuating motive of the story, which
is by 10 means one Of unusual revelations or
disclosures, but just such a record as might
be made regarding any other capital or in.
| deed any metropolis where ambitious and
scheming msn and fashionable women are
the chiefs of society, and where there is seek
| ing by unworthy means the attainment
of coldly selfish ends. Mrs. Burnett presents
to US more of good than OF evil, when the two
qualities are considered in the abstract. She
gives Us examples of incorruptibility and pc.
litical honesty in more abundance than their
opposites are presented Mrs. Burnett is
resident of the national capital, and it must
be assumed that one SO cultured and 20 pecu-
liarly fitted to read the inner pages Of socie.
ty's record could, if she would, give us 8
story that would set the nation By the eags.
But she has not done 30. The tale is not of
all sensational, and those of morbid tastes
who enter upon It's peruaal will be sorely
| disappointed. In truth, the Washington
scenes and phases of the story are secondary
in interest to the other portions of the
work. 1t has no more to do with the Hayes
administration, 10 political sense, and no
more reflects its inner life, than that of jock.
son. The sorrows of those who suffer from
the oustipg process because of political Pat
ronags are strongly drawn, as also some of
the results of lobby methods official person
ages fit across the scene occasionally, and the
manner of working bill through by outside
management is explained but beyond this
there is very little indeed of Washington po-
litical life in the story. Much more interest
ing is the Iowa current Of two lives thas flows
strongly through the pages. 1t is the story of
young girl fresh from school, uncontam-
mated by the world, who is suddenly thrown
into the fashionable whirlpool, marriss the
wrong man, who hiss not wit enough to see
that his wife loves another, and is therefore
leading very unhappy life. He induces his
wife, through social influences and the power
she exerts in society, and among men espe-
cially, to aid him in his schemes TO secure the
passage of measure affecting speculations
that absorb him. In the effort to do this
bidding the woman's fair fame becomes in
volved in scandals with certain Legislators,
and the story then proceeds with
the labors and events to avert
ruin and save her reputation, which
is happily rescued, but her husband comes to
bad end and flies the country, while the
lover of her youthfslls upon Western Indian
battlefield. So the woman who is married to
one man and loves another is left at the close
of the tale. Such plot and such situations
are not commendable. Tney are not of a
character to influence young women properly.
There is ever present the possibility and the
temptation to wrongdoing on the part of the
heroine, and the associating characters are
not certain until toward the last that the
woman will not fall but the reader is not
allowed to be thus deceived, and this is the
one redeeming feature of the novel. It is not
Mrs. Burnett's best effort by far. In aband-
oning the usual style she has not entered
upon more pleasing one. She has not
chosen an elevated plane upon which to move
the characters in her drama, and they live
moral lives. As to the method of relation,
the story might have been as effectively told
in half the snecp.