St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-09-05
NEW BOOKS.

Jdch FaIileT, anu Otnef StOrlcS,
by w. E. Norris, is a new volume in
LovelFs Westminster series. The first
story, and the one that gives the name
to the book. Jacks Father" is a ten
der little tale of the love and devotion
of a rarely gifted son for a selfish, fash
ionable father, who, by unfailing good
nature and ready wit, kept the sons
eyes blinded to his real character till
too late he woke to find his own life
blighted. With love lost and health
shattered by Overwork, poor Jack gave
up the struggle and died. The other
two stories in the book, 1.-The Romance
OF Pauiilatino' and The Wingham
Case" are pleasant reading, but not so
good liz any way as Jacks Father or
Norris, previous stories. especially
Mysterious Mrs. Wilkinson"
1t has been said that only women un-
derstand and depict women. If that be
u what aqueer lot of women Florence
Marryat must have known to be able to
write such a book as 1.-The Nobler
Sex" Perhaps an English woman
could be such a stupendeus fool as the
heroine. Mary Malmaison, but l am
sure no American could be. TO love a
fool is some women's destiny; to make
a t~hOughtleSs marriage before life has
Taught them its lesson of their individu-
al needs, and to repent the act in fig
nrative sackcloth and ashes, while try
ing to live up TO their best ideals of
duty, is the fate of many women: to
love a true man when such love, if
yielded to, would be a sin, is the lot
OF still other unhappy ones. But
to make the wreck of life that
Mary Malmaison did a second
time, and to love a man who was not
only a fool, but a ~diShonOred, diShOnor-
able scamp, a liar and a coward, simply
for his handsome person, 10 submit
to insult and unfaithfulnesS, and every
form OF coarse degradation, seems too
incredible for believe. Miss Marryat
would have us believe that her heroine
was a woman gifted beyond the most of
her SEX; one who could make for her,
self an enviable place among writer's
II on the stage, and yet be SO blinded
by passion as TO ruili her life a second
time. 1t is not to be believed. Mary
Malmaison is as unnatural a woman as
Lord himself is a man.. She is not a
possible character, but a composite of
all the weakest traits in womanhood.
Ii0oG tbitG SlOIieS Dy fcIi3Ol Lite
that have been gathered into a book and
called ''Vanitas'' are as social studies
far beyond the ordinary. They are
tenderly drawn. and yet SO clearly are
they portrayed that one has a feeling of
having met and loved and lived with
them. Lady Tai, with her honest Scotch
face, her g%renadier figure, her big baby
lsh blue yes and her tender, Womanly.
starved heart, hidden under a mask or
InSenSibility, is so true that feels as
II 1t were ON personal pang, the con
striction of the white threat that Jer-
vase Marion saw that evening i'll Venice
as She turned towards him from her
work of adjusting the lamp, with
her blue eyes a-glint with tears,
stung by his thoughtlesS words.
through the mask of indifference her
pride mad forged to hide a lonely wom-
ans heart. You long to help her, big.
strong, commonplace seeming woman as
she is. by a friendly hand clasp, d touch
that il who understands can
give to another oma who needs, The
second story, "a Worldly WomaD," goes
deeper into some aspects Of the much
talked-of social question. In Valentine
flodden is presented a large contingent
of the daughters of the earth who are
bound by environments that are as ip-
eXorable as the walls of that stored cell
that contracted night after night
till finally the lonely wretch confined
between its iron walls was crushed.
inherlting from a beauty-loving
grandfather an absorbing love for all
beautiful things. beautiful and useful
living as we'll as beautiful old china,
she looks about with that wonderful
courage and faith in herself that only
youth can give, to find a way out of the
SOrdid life that the. class to which she
belonged seemed content to live. AT
length she thought poor. guileless
little w~Oinan-that in the socialist Pot
ter, of Bloomsbury, she saw a leader
who would show her a way to right liv-
ing. You feel what must have been
Greenleaf's sensation when meeting her
some years later, the wife of a man of
common clay, he found her s. changed,
IN some i~ndefiuable way, living the life of
a worldly woman, and yet SO unchanged
in that pathetic, childlike simplicity
that had so appealed to him, and she
made her little story of justification to
him, and he Sal that his own hand had
slammed in my face the little
door through which l had hoped to es-
cape from all this sort of thing, 'and then
she stretched out her hand, with the
thin glove loosely wrinkled over her
arm. and she smiled that good, wide
eyed smile, like that of a serious child
Who wishes to understand. BE a little
more trustful to people who want your
friendship, won't you? l shall like to
think of that" Then, "Good-by," an
swered Greenleaf. ut is very gener-
Gus OF you to be so forgiving. But your
generosity makes it only more impossi-
BILE for me to forgive myself"