St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-11-19

assumes to interdict the manufacture
of whisky from their own corn.
The dwellers in these wild mountain
Businesses, so far removed from the
softening influences of civilization,
which tend to the suppression of midi
viduality by establishing certain con-
yentional modes of life and habit OF
Thought, and so make men largely
alike, as if cast in the same mould, are
better subjects for the student of hu-
man nature than their followers who
have been reared and educated after a
conventional pattern. And as we
might expect, we find here phases of
life not of the common order, and stu
ations Astounding in interest and ro-
mantle possibilities.
Miss Murfree is less a story writer
than one skilled in pOrtraying human
characteristics. There is enough of
story to engage the interest of the
reader. but this end is subordinated to-
made accessory to the larger purpose.
And while it is true that there is Il lack
of defniteness and distinctiveness of
outline in her characters, so that we
do not recall them with that clearness
and vividness of impression we some
times find and always enjoy, yet not
withstanding this vagueness of outline,
her characters have marked individu
atty and much vigor of personal iden
tity. There is often displayed extra
ordinary skill in the combined hand
ling of nature and man. In her de-
scriptiOns of nature, with which her
writings abound, she does not seek
simply to display her magnificent pow
er of presenting in exact outline and
heightened cOlOring the picture so WV
idly conceived in her own mind, but
always makes it conserve the general
purposes of the story, by bringing
more boldly into relief the figures of
her men and women, and the noun
tain sOlitudes are deftly made to play
their part in setting off to advantage
the vigorous types of her rough hu-
mainly which, Notwithstanding this
something of vagueness alluded to, are
still living, breathing, sentient beings,
moved by strong human passions and
swayed by human emotions. These
results are not usually secured by
careful and elaborate working npOf de-
tails, but oftener by Il few bold strokes
of her pen.
Her description of nature is often
quite picturesque and always etfect ive.
Here is rich bit of work which dis
plays both the artist and the poet:
Those barren dOmes of an intense
blue, tinged with purple where the
bold rocks jutted out, flushed where
the yellow sunshine languished to a
blush those heavily wooded slopes
below the holds, sOmber and rich in
green and bronze and all darkling
shades, touched, too, here and there |
with vivid crimson, where the first
tickle sumach fiared those cOves in
which shadows lurked and vague SEN
timents of color We're abroad in vision |
airy guise, in unexplained sOftness of
grays and hardly realized blues, in dun
browns and sedate yellOws, vanishing
before the plain prose of an approach"
The story of the Prophet is nearly
devoid of plot and is like the recital of
something that has happened. Our
author has no doubt designed him for
her hero, and he performs one supreme
act of herOism. But we have not bee
led gradually up to such an apprecia-
ton of the character to expect it from
him. There is also one supreme act
of cOwardice, by one the reader would
gladly have believed to be equal to an
act of heroism. If our author could
have impressed upon the minds of her
readers the gradual development of
those qualities which led to these two
strongly contrasted acts, as they no
doubt existed i'll her own mind, there
would not have been this seeming in
consistency. She succeeds better with
her men than with her women and
yet there are fine touches of sentiment
now and then, and always honor and
rectitude in the only female character
worthy of notice in the story.
To the lover of well-ending tale,
in which the dramatic unities are pre-
served throughout, the denouement is a
little disappointing. There is no mar
rying or giving in marriage. There
must have been some funerals, though
they are not paraded to view. Meme
sis managed to Overtake the wrong
man. But there are graphic scenes,-
the interior of the mUOnshiners's cave,
the "gander pull" the escape of the
prisoner, the several passages between
the maiden and her rival LOVERS
where the cOllOquies are managed with
much skill and piquancy. AS Il whole
the story is a strong one and well worth
the readers time. 1t is good book,
if the supreme test of book is the
state of mind in which it leaves the
reader, and the lover of good literature
will look impatiently for its successor.
y.
TL...1 a.. 49,, .,,,I T,sJ...