Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-17

are always gotten rid of in fiction, aud
generally in real life. am not going to
try to tell OF the days of their blissful
courtship, when they were 1.-TWO fools'i
together; nor of their happy married
life, as they wandered hand in hand
through the happy years, bearing, il
need were, one another's burdens. until
death called away the man and soon
beckoned the woman to join him. These
things are the pleasantest reading.
But whence comes this Stanley Water
loo, who has thus followed a not uucom-
mon man from the cradle to the grave +?
and who meets half way on life's iourney
womanly woman, and goes with her to
the end? l know not who he NAV be.
but somehow fancy that he has put
more of himself than he thinks for be.
tween the covers of this little book. Not
few of the experiences read wonder.
fully like actualities, and some of the
thoughts glow with fervor seldom the
result of things imagined.
Were disposed to be hypercritical, l
might perhaps be able to find eome
fault with this book. / might discover
an inclination to diffuseness; a want
sometimes of conference; a wandering
away from the subject matter in pur-
suit of some butterfly whim or fancy. /
might notice when bit of humor was
perhaps overstrained; or q chain OF
thought too long drawn out. Some OF
the scenes might have been more fully
developed the coloring of others might
have been artistically subdued. But
when there is much of general beauty
it is well to overlook minor defects.
Nature herself has many faults and
faws--gnarled trunks and withered
branches; but they are lost sight of in
the full beauty of the landscape.
CA Man and Woman, by Stanley
Waterloo. For sale by Edwards & Nc
Knight, No. la West First street,.
#*x
Is there go much OF coldness. harsh
ness, insincerity and hypocrisy in the
| world as some men would have us be-
lieye? Is money of such potent power
that, in the strife to gain it, all of man g
nobler instincts are ruthlessly trampled
in the dust? Is this poor old world so
vitality sick that there is no longer any
good anywhere? And is man, after all +,
so prone to become totally selfish, con-
science scared and sordid? I hope not /;
believe not.
An Heir to Millions, by Edgar Faw-
cett, is considered by Mr.. Fawcett (so
his publishers inform us) to be his best
and strongest work. 1t is strong, in q
certain sense; but strong only in that
world-scorning cyniciem, which is one
of Mr.. Crawford's principal weapons of
offence. 1t deals with the fashionable
subject of the day-socislism or, rather,
it deals with men who are, or think they
are, in touch with the socialistic move
ment; and its prime object seems to be
to prove that we are all buyable, though
| some of us may command a higher price
| than others.
| 1t is go easy to sneer, SO easy to be
| skeptical, so easy to doubt, that find
myself constantly doubling the doubt
ers. l even doubt the sincerity of their
doubts. Mr.. Fawcett, for instance, may
curl his lip with ineffable scorn; and
vet, I'll warrant me there turks kind
lier light somewhere in his eyes. He
doesn't want us TO see it--Oh, no! That
would spoil his reputation as cynic,
and take the fine edge off of mis- pessm-
lem; but it is there, nevertheless, and
| we do see it sometimes. 1t reflects
itself in the young man, who, in the
work under consideration, is the
hereditary victim of so many millions.
He is man of really good, generous
impulses-a little hampered by environ
ment, it is true; and though bit over
impressionable and perhaps weak, he is
| quite likeable, take him for all in all.
Then, too, the girl he marries seems to
be not half bad, although her character
isn't as clearly defined as might be; and
his eldest sister is not wholly unbeara-
BILE. But here the catalogue OF virtues
ends. The rest are all of the earth
earthly, or too utterly weak to awaken
even pity.
The plot of this story is of little mo-
ment; almost conventional, with at least
one timely taking off but tplots are mat
ters of minor consideration, since the
novel of motive has supplanted the
novel of action.
Gan Heir to Millions, by Edgar Faw-
cett. For sale by Stoll & Thayer, No.
139 S. Spring street.)
*x*
The character sketch in the Review
of Reviews for July is President Benja-
min Harrison.
The Honorable Fred Douglass has an
able article in the current North Amer
lean Review on Lynch Law in the
South. Mr.. Douglass, of course, speaks
from the standpoint OF the lynch laws
most frequent victims-his own unfor-
tunate race. But he speaks well, and
shows that the colored man is, at least,
entitled to hearing. At times, though,
the article rises above the calm dispas-
sionateness of sober argument, and in
Weighs in no measured terms against
those who take the law into their own
hands. This is unfortunate; for burn
ing words and scathing arraignment
never better cause, however much the
provocation to their utterance; and if
the gray-haired cham pion OF his people,
for whom entertain the highest re-
spect, really believes that dire and
bloody revenge is the portionfthat the
colored man at the south will eventu-
ally be forced to deal out to his white
brethren, unless things change-it
would be best for all concerned if he
had have kept the thought to himself
Such thoughts are dangerous.
Eugene Field, poet, humorist and
antiquarian, has made discovery, pos-
sibly in his last-named capacity. This
! discovery he exploits, with much ado,
in the Chicago news. The discovery is
no more nor less than Ambrose Bierce,
whom we of the coast discovered seons
ago, and the medium of the discovery is
Mr.. Bierce's Tales of Civilians and SOL
diers Great is Mr.. Bierce, at least 30
Mr.. Field assures us; and that is one