Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-09
BOOKS AND BOOKMAKERS
lBY L. B.l .

BY L. B..
For a series Of years the american
people demanded English and French
operas and dramas an American play,
no matter what merit it possessed, was
shelved, and foreign talent and scenes
sometimes hardly understood by the
audience, were given prestige. An OBJ
server will now notice change, the
most successful plays now on the Amer
lean stage. with lorgest runs and great
est number OF patrons, are such as
Alabama, The Old Homestead, Blue
Jeans, Potter of Texas, and Brown of
New York. The reasons for this change
are 30 numerous that space will not al
low US to discuss them. We will men
ton only the change in American litera-
ture, the changes in the typical Ameri-
can romance, and a desire of the Ameri-
can public to see American character
faithfully and accurately drawn. What
ever his name, in romance, short story
or drama, this typical American is a
fluent conversationalist, ready to
take advantage of opportunities,
cool, shrewd and brave. He
may be little unscrupulous,
but full of Imagination, bubbling with
wit and humor. Hard to keep down,
willing to venture, where there is
chance for gain, kind and always chival-
rous to women; a person whom all call
a jolly, good fellow. A division of this
! American literature is the subject OF
this sketch, that which is wholly west
ern. Among our few clever American
writers is man of the people, whose
writings and descriptions show deep
study of men and women, their man
ner, their speech, dress, and even the
most minute detail of everyday life.
His name is Hamlin Garland, author of
Main Travelled Roads, volume of six
short, but powerful pen-pictures of real
life; real photographs of the trials and
struggles of the hard-working farmer
and claim holders. His best effort seems
to be his. new book, A Spoil of Office
powerful, realistic novel of western
life. 1t is a story that will hold unique
position in literature, a story that will
hold your interest from start to finish,
wonderfully vivid, sturdy in spirit.
From the early start in country
college struggles, and later in political
battles of word and pen, we see that the
story is OF the life of it's leading charac-
| ter, Bradley Talcott. Its varied pictures,
unique characters and social movements
are all viewed from his standpoint. The
heroine, Ida Wilbur, is q peculiar and
interesting character, and holds the
readers attantion almost as closely as
that of Bradley. But she is only as
Bradley saw her, and not as an intimate
friend would ses her or as the novelist
might delineate her if she filed Brad
ley's place in the book. She is a type
OF women new to life as to literature, q
type developed in the west within the
last ten or fifteen years. A wonderful
type she is too, and her relation to Brad
ley is that of a guiding star, constant
inspiration. The interest from first to
last is well sustained. It has lights
and shadows OF life; the successes and
failures of life. Some of the scenes
are painfully funny, by which is meant
the situations are 90 ridiculous that they
force US to laugh, and yet the undertow
OF pathos is 30 strong that one feels al
most guilty while one is merry. There
are also many wonderfully vivid scenes
of life in the west and in Washington
city, as they are found today. A moral
is taught, showing that corrupt legisla-
tion will not always succeed; that the
grasping monopolies which are crushing
down labor and endeavoring to control
legislation, no matter how corrupt, may
succeed for awhile, but the right will
eventually triumph. 1t shows the now
unequal struggle of the poor for bread
and shelter. The story is radically un-
conventional, and is no doubt the truest
picture of western life which has ap.
peared in American fiction.
A Spoil Of Office, by Hamlin Garland. Fol
sale by Stoll d Thayer company.
x*x
The public and private schools have
opened, and the small boys and girls
are studiously at work for FIVE days each
week acquiring knowledge and business
training to fit them for the positions
they will occupy in this great nation.
After weary week of study there ie
nothing that rests the young peoples
minds more than good books on CHEEKY,
bright subjects, combining history, ad-
venture and travel. The versatile
author, Frank r. Stockton, has written
several OF these books for boys and girls,
The Ting-a-ling Tales. A Jolly Fellow.
ship, The Floating Prince and Other
Fairy Tales. Butprobably none of these
will more delight the wide-awake boyi
and girls than his new book just pub
lished, entitled, The Clocks of Rondaine
This book consists of seven diferen
stories full of odd fancies, frightened b,
whimsical humor, that will make tn
book enjoyable alike to youn
and old. There is good, old
; fashioned Christmas Tale 10
boys, which IL 80 full Of iinAl