Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-30
THE CRITICS REVIEW.

Burnett-Life in n Slow Country Villas &c
"A New Writer'S Effort.
| WHEN we read that "The Stories of the
Three Burglars (Dodd, Mead & Co, ].
r. Wedin & Co.; sly is by Mr.. Frank r. Stock
ton, we know at once what to expect; that is
we know that we are to expect the unexpected.
We are perfectly safe in anticipating the most
extraordinary situations, led up to by level
paths of most easy narrative, and described in
the most delightfully."- naive manner Mr..
Stockton stands quite by himself in our liter
ature and has not even any successful i'm
itators. And not only has he a manner pecu-
larly his own-anybody can have that, if he
| chooses to venture into eccentricity-but the
manner is a peculiarly charming one.
| Il am householder in pleasant country
neighborhood, about 20 miles from New ork.
/ My family consists Of myself and wife, one
boy, George William, aged 2, two maid servants
and man; but in the summer we have frequent
visitors, and at the time Of which am about
| TO write my Aunt Martha was staying with us.
$50 we settle down to home enjoyment The
little village is infested by burglars. Almost
| every house has visitation. There is gen.
e-al alarm, and everybody is racking his brain
| Tor burglar-preventing OF burglar-detecting, or
| burglar-destroying contrivances. The house of
| the hero is for long time undistur Ded-a fact
which causes the family some little chagrin,
the inference being that the burglars do not
| consider the house worth the danger of an ex-
| pedition. But in the meantime everything is
made ready to give Mr.. Burglar a worthy and
| appropriate reception.
I'VE do not live in paradise: we are occasion
ally troubled by mosquitoes and burglars.
Against the first of these annoyances we have
always been able to guard ourselves, at least in
measure, and our man and the cook declare
tnat they have become so used to them that
they do not mind them. but to guard against
burglars is much more difficult and to become
used TO them would, I think, would require
great deal of practice.
A T LAST the best possible expedient is con-
trived. A drug is obtained from a neigh
boring pharmacy, of such properties that a
single taste of it will cast the faster into state
of instant and complete Inconsistencies. And
another drug is found for antidote which if in
hailed will bring the inhaler speedily back into
his proper senses. Night after night, upon the
dining table is set out in a conspicuous position
decanter of wine, with several glasses on the
tray beside it. The glasses are left with little
wine in the bottom of each, as if the family
before retiring had partaken of a mild might
cap" and a bit of cake. and scattered crumbs
help on that supposition. The wine in the
decanter has been ''doctored" with the drug.
At last one night a sound is heard in the
dining room, and the hero, stealing down
cautiously, finds three hard-looking customers
stretched IN various positions on the floor In
very satisfactory stage of insensibility. The
man is called; wooden bench is pulled in from
the porch; the three insensibles are seated upon
it and bound fast. Then the antidote is ap-
piled. The three wake up into large sur
what the matter lis, and the three
burglars beg to tell their stories. that
they may offer some explanation of this
distressing situation. The stories follow, And
such storiesi 1t would be unfair to tell them
out of the book. The reader must read them. The
straight-out burglar and the funny little time
he had with Jerry Hammond and Putty Hen
derson; the burglary-preventef with his high
moral notions, and young man who is en-
ployed on a newspaper and who desires to cul-
tivate his abilities in the direction of realism,
and who tells the tale of the invisible dog. con-
tinue to give their auditors as entertaining
night as was ever spent in Arabia. Indeed,
the reader is inclined to be sorry when the In
genious romancers are taken offin the morning
al TITLE SAINT ELIzABETH'(C (Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons; H. Watts & Co.; 81 5o) is a
collection of stories by Mrs Burnett, which
have appeared for the most part in the pages
OF st. Nicholas THE Story of Prince Fairy
foot" "The Proud Little Grain of Wheat"
and "Within the White Brick'' are the other
stories The book is charmingly illustrated by
Birch. Of course, there is nothing here which
approaches Little Lord Fauntleroy." 1t is not
quite fair to critlcise the book on that basis.
however. 1t reminds one of Mr.. Stockton's
story, MY Wife's Deceased Sister," which has
for its moral that 1t is a most injudicious thing
to do your best After that, all your doings are
measured by that standard. We ought to be
satisfied to have here. as we have, collection
of pretty little stories. very simply and sweetly
told, and sure to delight the children.
Little saint Elizabeth is not by any means
everyday little girl She comes to New
York from the strangest sort of education. Her
aunt in France, who has been mother to her.
has lived in her castle the life of ascetic. In
her chapel she has spent her days and nights in
prayer. Her dress Is the conventional one of a
''relgieuse," and her whole heart and thought
are devoted to devotion. The little girl grows
up in this atmosphere, wears her little nuns
dress, with pendant crucifix and string of
beads. Her aunt dies and her uncle in New
York takes care of her-a bachelor uncle, in
tent upon bis pleasures Little Saint Elizabeth
wants to help the poor, and makes an effort at
it. going out alone one night into the region of
the slums carrying her ancestral Jewels. Her
uncle finds her. After that he thinks little
more about the needs of the life about him and
less of his own enjoyments. The story is only
an incident. 1t might have been elaborated
into greater length. The reader is most inter-
ested just as the story ends.
Mrs. Burnett knows how to write for young
readers and how to make her writings not only
interesting. but helpful and uplifting The pub
fishers have given the book a charming setting.
Saint Elizabeth's roses adorn the cover.
-
AT the beginning the plot of The Brighton
House tCharles Scribner's Sons, II. Watts
& Co.; 81 25) seems to move slowly. The reader
is reminded of some of Trollope's novels where
the heroine goes into a drygoods store and
spends in 1t the usual interminable time which
feminine shoppers seem to consider absolutely
necessary. One thing and another is
taken down, and looked over, and passed upon
and the conversation is duly recorded. until
the reader gets as weary as the unfortunate
man who stands by watching his wife shop"
Londerby calls at the rectory, dimes there, and
the entire visit is described with deliberation
and minuteness. What he said and what she
said, and what the parson said and what they
all thought between the sentences and what
they had for dinner-it is all set down here so
that we hear it with our ears, and see it with
our eyes.
Presently, however, we discover the charm
of the book in this slow movement. This is
life which is pictured here-life in slow
country village, with its few varieties of in
terest, and with its genuine passions and
tragedies underneath its comSlon-p place look
Bliss Perry is the name of II author a name
which we do not remember having noted before
in literature, but which we hope often to meet
again. .The Brighton House, is a remarkable
story and study. 1t is study, perhaps, rather
than a story for the plot is of the simplest. The
characters are strongly drawn, real living people,
whom we love and detest, and like and dislike.
as in the circle of our common acquaintance
Not line is out Of drawing.
So
THE story turns upon the relations between
Floyd, an artist, and his wife. The other
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