St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-26
BOOK TALKS.


the days when that tropical country
belonged to Mexico, but when the
changes that brought about its separa-
ton from Mexico were beginning to
ferment. The local cOloring is perfect
You feel in every word the hot languor-
Gus luxury of the country and the time.
LIZ is story of fierce love and fercer
hate, of intrigue and treachery. as we'll
as deep patriotism = that patriot
ism that sees through the mist
and vaporS of inherited insular
pride and ignorance the thing
that is best for ones native land. The
heroine, the d0omSwoman, has SPAN
ish name, as we'll as Spanish nature.
Chonita Iturbi v Monceidas, and bore
out in her own life. being a twin, the
queer Spanish prophecy of all women
so born-they were doomswonen. In
fact, this quotation from an old Spanish
MS. might be called the text of the
story: For it is believed that the
woman who is twin is also the woman
of doom; that in her doth abide the
power to heal and to cure; to give and
to know the highest joy and the deepest
sorrow; her love exalts, her hate blasts;
in her nature is iron and fire. and the
fire shall melt the iron; calm is not her
lot. nor the lot of those whose fate is
herS-and so on unto the end" This
doomSwOman was beautiful blonde,
hiding under the marble calm OF her
Spanish pride the restless intellect and
love for power and action that her lover
called American. In the inherited
enemy of her house she found her mate,
the man who dominated her fiery nat
ure and satisfied all its needs. Pride
fought against him, prejudice ma
ligned him; the interests of
her twin brother. base scion of
a goodly tree. strove against him-all
in vain. She could foreswear him;
could crush her own heart, as we'll as
his, in the struggle. as long as he went
on his own triumphant way; but when
the shadow fell. she was all woman.
Don Diego EStenego, the counterpart
of this lovely doomSwomaD, was a man
in advance of his time, land with face
that was thin and almost sallow.
But the life that was In that
face! the passion, the intelligence,
the kindness, the humor, the grim
determination. And what vitality
was in his tall, thin figure and nervous
activity under the repOse of his car
rage" In the bosom of this man slept
true patriotism that desired for his be-
loved California tine best, and, seeing
the inevitable conquest of the Ameri-
cans, wished only that his country
should be benefited. Against the idle,
thriftleSs, unambitious men of his land,
too lazy to walk across the street, but
with horse for every step, sleeping all
day in hammOcks, gambling and drink
ing all night, alive only to intrigue and
proud of their uselesSnsSs, his bosom
burned with righteous wrath.
He was the intimate friend of his
excellency Alvarado, the governor of
California, and it was at the christening
of the governors little daughter that
these two royal souls met. They were
gOdmother and godfather to the little
one. The minor characters In the story
are excellently drawn. The servile,
cowardly brother. whose thwarted ambi-
ton wrought the last great catastrophe;
the loyal, high-minded father; the gen.
tie, loving mother; the crowds of friends
and hosts of relatives all stand out like
the pictures of cameo. The story ends
in tragedy-the tragedy of woman's.
broken heart and mans wrecked life.
TAFT Sons q Co. Cloth, .s1.25.
In ala Veuve," by Octave FeuiIlet,the
translator, Gustaye BeauseigneuT, has
kept the spirit, the bloom. as it were. of
the original III remarkable degree.
The women and men who play parts i'll
the little drama that has so tragic an
ending are French to their finger tips.
The friendship between Robert de la
Pave and Maurice du Pas-Devant
that intensified the mutual con-
geniality between them is so
frankly expressed that any oath
of self-sacrifice that either might give
the other would not seem at all out of
the way. Ii is a love story pure and
simple, but the character of La Pave
only could explain the commission he
lays upon his friend when, in dying
after a battle, he sends him to the wom-
au the dying man so adOred to tell her
that in dying, Notwithstanding all the
proofs of love he had given her. he for
babe her to ever marry again; that his
curse should follow her il she did, and
his specter haunt her. Maurice execut-
ed the commission, but unfortunately,
on meeting the widow of his
friend, both fell desperately in
love with each other. The widow,
as any woman would. felt that in asking
her to make this VOW her husband for
feited all right to her love. Il would
have been capable of the devotion and
eternal fidelity to his memory which
he asked" she said, but such devotion
and such sacrifice has no value nor
sweetness unless they are entirely vol
untary. My husband. in preSuming to
lay such charge upou my conscience
and such burden upon my life, showed
a lack of confidence i'll me which l can
never pardon. That wish killed all of
my love for him.. The story has the
ending-a French one.
Merrill, Higgins IL Co., Chicago. Pa
per; price, 80 cents.
In "a Royal Robber," Herbert Rau
tells again the old story Of the inSatia-
BILE greed and monstrous selfishness of
the meaDest man who ever bore the
prefix of great-LouiS XIV. OF France.
1t is source of constant wonder to the
modern reader of history that men of
and some pride conld have sub
mitted to the humIiationS that beSet
every day of the life of the cOurtierS
and officers of ''the grand monarch" as
he is called. Contemplate as is the
record of the time. that tells OF the
reign of mistress after mistress, the
pitiful ending of the lives of these poor
fools who rose or died at the command
of heartless rake, the act that has
never been forgiven him--an act that in
tine long crucibe of years moulded and
the future of his successors,
and nnally embroiled France in the
ruihous war that wrested miles of her
territory from her-was the treachery
that wrecked the freedom of StraSburg
and added that beautiful city to France.
The story is not new, but is as we'll told
as possible for so base thing.
Merrill, Higgins & Co., Chicago. Pa
per, 30 cents.
1t IS curious to note in Eugene Rich
tsr's "Pictures of the Future" recently
so fully reviewed by the American