Omaha daily bee., 1884-06-03

know it is a fact7 Do we know that law
is deadl What do we ever know Of the
secrets hidden in the folds Of that power.
full orgauizationl Do we not know that
persons in Utah who mysteriously disap-
pear are never found-are rarely looked
forl Do we not know Of the murder of a
noted physician In sight and sound of
passing Mormonsl Yet those very men,
under oath, declared they had seen
nothing. Those living in Utah have
known how criminals are shielded by
Mormon authorities"
''THERE WAS ONCE A MAN.
a story by II. II. Newell (Orpheus G..
Kerr, finely illustrated, published by
Fords, Howard 81 Hubert, New York.
This novel opens, with immediate, strong
dramatic effect, in the metropolitan 30.
ciety of the patrician old Knickerbock-
ers, sixty years ago; and, after a roman
tic prelude, both surprises and keenly
freshens the reader by transferring
character and action to one of the most
fascinating tropical paradises of the
Orient. Here the web of the story be-
comes piquantly "international'- the
best American and English social types
coming together in a series of scenes and
adventures as picturesque and animated
as they are unhsckneyed. Upon the
texture of a delicate and poetic love-
story are etched, incidentally, the strange
and stirring principal acts in the career
of the famous English Rajah Brooke, of
Borneo; and through all the alterations
of the Anglo.Amerlcan social drama with
the most heroic and chivalrous passages
of modern personal history in the Orient,
comes conspicuously forward the charac-
ter of a great Darwinian naturalist, who
has visited the home ofthe o~rang-outang,
to work out the problem of the ''miss-
ing link" Here an enormous Ape
comes into the plot, in a subtly
woven scientific illustration, which by a
series of most striking pictures, brings a
denOucnlent such as none but the
"Orpheus @. Kerr" of the memorable
Papers could ever have devised. 1t is a
striking, ingenious, un~hackneyed, and
peculiarly ~''taking" story and study. 1t
is full of clear thought and warm feeling;
it contains numerous happy surprises and
numerous touches of the OrpheuS C..
Kerr of old, and ~cannotfail of a popular
welcome.
GA PALAcE-PRIsoN; or, the past and
present" a novel, published by Fords,
Howard & Hubert, New York, is GER
tainly a peculiar book, and a strong one;
peculiar, in that It's action, while passed
in the very midst of our most civilized
communities, is 30 strange and unfamil-
lar; strong, not so much in literary ex-
preston as intense vital force and evil
dent truthfulness. Simple. direct, with
out the lazy gracesof quitude and leisure
ly polish, it opens with an un%pretending
scene OF village life, introducing the
maidenly and most attractive heroine of
the story-a girl of sensitive nature but
rather unusual force of mind-on the day
of her graduation" from the village
high-school. Her brother, too, was a
stalwart, prosperous, clear-headed young
physician, claims attention. The girl
has been overworked in school and some
what absurdly restrained within Shady
like" limits al home,-it was twenty
sever years ago,-so thatshe passes rapid
ly into a condition of what is now known
as nervous prostration." Her brother,
after successful dosing, hndlpg that she
ii ''nothing better, but rather worse"
and that her mind seems affected, con-
suits a friend of his,-a ''distinguished
alienist, who advises a "few weeks
in his palatial ''retreat." Here the true
story begins. 1t is a vivid picture
of the life to which SC
many of our tenderest and
most sensitive friends those who have
been wearied if not worn out by the in.
tense activity Of American life-are 20
demned. And if it be true(which can hard
ly be questioned) that, as we arc told in
this book, patients are never discharged
as cured unless by the express order of
of those who are responsible for paying
their expenses in the institution; it is in
deed time that the public at large should
know why.