The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-01-22

contrary. it is full of them. Wit, satire.
poetry. philosophy skilifully convey them,
and the narrative itself. being q picture of
life. carries it's own lesson just as all hu-
man. life does. But, apparently. all the
novelist desires is TO relate the history of
a Fool, and he does it impressively. Asa
hero in fiction this Fool Is unique. He is
drawn with q powerful touch. He stands
out against background of common
place Dutch life like q statue
against the sky. and makes, place
OF literature who will not be forgotten.
The scene Of the story is laid in the town
OF koopstad, Holland. and all the actors
who figure In its pages. with one exception,
are natives. The author knows the coun-
try and the people we'll. A popularity of
the climate is described in the opening
chapter. A coach man wrapped in his heavy
coat sat upon his box waiting for his mas
ter:
infinitesimal spray lay all over the surface;
Of the thick frieze. He didn't mind the wet. It
wasn't wet. For. In fact, the night was dry or
so Dutchman would have called it No rain
had fBllen. only soft, white cloud vas trail
ing swiftly over the morasses In n succession OF
innumerable puts, from the mouths OF
Thousand cannons underground, as II the spirits
or the dead men in the waste were warning
against the climate that had killed them. And
a heavy mantle of gray misery soaking
quietly downward in shivering masses from the
leaden sky, as il the angels would shut out the
consciousness OF so much condensing rheumat-
ism, and softly, imperceptbly. bright glitter OF
blade ana pebble, upon everybody and every
bad weather for driving" said the bakers
boy TO the cOachman, as he went whistling by.
so. So. said Chris cheerlly. zone good
thing-it keeps dry"
"Yes. it keeps dry" answered the bakers boy.
Although tho general impression among
Americans may be that Hollanders are q
tame. uninteresting people their life and
social struggles show that Holland nature
Is very much like human nature the world
over. The Fool had a step-mother who did
not love him:
do not let US be unjust" says the author.
There is no law why step-mothers should love
their husbands children. On the contrary, there
exists every reason for them not to do so.
There is no reason. If you come 20 think OF that,
why anybody should love anybody else. and as a
rule they don't. unless the other person is bit OF
themselves, either by choice in the shape OF pas
sion, or by fate, In the shape OF birth. And the
intense egotIsm of the human race explains the
frantic admiration of our own offspring which
goes by the name OF "a mothers love- and which
never by any chance extends TO anybody ese's
progeny. Why doesn't somebody feel mothers
love for somebody else's motheress babel
oh, by the bye, dear step-mother, whoever you
are, who read this, don't write TO me TO say that
much as your own. 1 know you have. didn't
mean you."
With all his art in depicting life. Mr..
Martens defes all accepted rules of artist
ic matchmaking. A murder occurs in the
first chapter. and it is not until the next TO.
!"
was murdered or who the murderer. He 10
discurslve. too. On one occasion he drops
the thread of the story TO indulge in q
reminlscence of a personal visit TO the Fool:
talked with him a little-you could always
get Johanna to interpret-and then lapsed into
silence. facing him. with only the hearth be-
tween u.s. And presently. In the darkness and
eyes and turned them full upon me-turned
them with their sightless lmmensity OF a sorrow
that has conquered itself. got up and pressed
respect the earth-worm no less, nor the do
mestic pigeon. nor even the tailess ape believe
that the humblest human intellect is the servant
OF a soul which sprang from God, and that the
Hottest is nothing more.
The study made of the Fool-who is not
fool. but a man blind and deaf with the
mind of child-shows wonderful insight
and accuracy of observation, though at
times even the author falters and scknowl-
edges the difference between the mental
processes of growing and a grown-up
child: He has no memory for facts Of every
day life, but two women, who love him.
teach him patiently the moral truths they
know, and because his mind not dis
tracted by other things, he absorbs these
truths readily. The manifestation of his
moral and religious feeling is graphically
set forth. He is possessed of o pathetic
am bitlon to be like Christ. Every now and
then the author pauses TO assure his read
ers that the story. ID spite OF what they
may fear from indications, is really q cheer
women mentioned, one of whom is
an especially beautiful, seIf-sacri-
ficing character. all the people in
the book, besides the Fool, are
engaged either in sordid pursuits which
drive them to crime. or In unsatisfactory
struggles for social preferment They
scheme, and speculate, and defraud. and
even murder Only the Fool Is really
happy of them all. and at the end his hap
piness leaves him, but without good cause,
as the reader knows And after all, though
murder is done. and though the cheap but
half -hoped-for expedient of having the
FOOLS brain restored by surgical operation
is not resOrted tC-after all. the final I'M
preston is not one of gloom. For the
Fool. the head of "Volderdoes Zonen." who
thinks he has committed murder, talks TO
his brother, whom he thinks also guilty. In
a way very like the elect. And through all
the SIN, and misery, and darkness of mind
breaks a CLEAN which gives glimpse of
the resurrection and the life Gods
Foor' is not sad story.