St. Paul daily globe., 1894-07-23
NEW BOOKS.

I'VE w DVOASs
"The Green Bay-Tree: A Tale of To-
day." by w. III. Wilkins. author of
',St. MichaePs Eve" etc. and Herbert
~ Vivian. j. Selwin TAFT 81 Sons, New
YORK. Paper. Price, so CENTS.
~ The title of this book is drawn from
this verse in the PSalms: II have seen
1.-THE wicked in great power. and spread
ling himself like green bay.tree.H and
,the purpose OF the story seems to be to
9giye the history of man whose whole
GAIN In life was to minister to himself.
. When Rt. Hon. Spencer Coryton lay
IIa-dying he beckoned his son to his bed
side and whispered, Remember that
yourbest friend is Yourself" and with
othis,i> his only legacy to his heir,
he died, aud his legatee with
"a small annuity left him by one
fof his mothers relatives which
,this father had been unable TO touch.
and his fathers dying advice. with no
einconsiderable list of debts, faced the
tworld, which for him held only Wal
npole Coryton and his Interests. Being
the son of his father. he left his paternal
debts unpaid, and all of his own that he
was not obliged to settle. and with a
watehful eye for his own advancement,
and keen nose to smell out his own
destiny. unhampered by those ideal
things-hOnor, friendship or conscience
which ''Some fellows make such fuss
about" he lived his life.
Success attended him, of course. 1t
al or fNr
such men. and, like the wicked man of
the Psalmist, '.he fiourlshed like green
bay tree"
The coIaborators of the book show
@eat skill I'D dellneating the character
of Walpole Coryton. While contempt
ib!e villain at heart. without decent
human feeling, he had ia outside,
smooth, plausible. cool. never neglect
ing the amenities of life, land was praised
courted and trusted by many.
The force of the story lies in the fact
that during all his series of successes,
his victories over fortune. not once does
the reader feel the least sympathy with
him. Riding on the crest of popularity,
he is felt to be loathsame creature
more worthy of contempt than drunk
ard in a gutter or Bill Sykes.
This mirror held up to nature reflects
atrue picture of many public men in
every community 1t shows what cold
blooded, selfish, dishonored creatures
they really are. Like the serpent, they
are the most subtle and odious of human
kind, creeping in and out of society,
leaving their unclean trail
Ii TO make respectable vice despicable
in whatever dress was the aim of the
authors. they have scored complete
success. The tendency of the story is
to increase ones love for the noblest
attributes of humanity. Between the
lot of the successful man and that of
.Wiltrid Tyrconnel, his school friend,
who. like all who trusted him, was be-
trayed. and died in poverty, yet with
unStained honor and serene conscience,
| the choice would unhesltatfngly be
given to the latter; for, practical and
|. 1.mercenary as the world is, there are
5csome traces of the golden age when
swealth was only means to noble aims.
and love and devotion to honor and
truth have not perished. Some of the
+ conversations are proliX and jointless,
Inotably in the undergraGs' rooms at
Cambridge; but generally the book is
Upright and very readable.
1.-THE Workingmah's Wife," by Fried
/, rich Friedrich, translated from the
Z, German by Hettie E. Miller. E. A.
y Weeks d Co., Chicago. Paper; price
p so cents.
p The story of strike, whether i'll Ger.
many or Chicago. can have nothing
particularly original either in its plot OF
ending. This strike was Just as cause.
less. just as tragical, and had the SAINT
predestined end as has been the COM
mon history of strikes.
Conceived In the brain of some dis.
contented moody man. possessed by the
unrest OF ambition or a desire to live al
the expense of others, it spreads from
one to another, first among the idle aud
worthless, until the Industrious and
worthy are drawn in by the demands of
unions" and then it runs its usual
course, attended by violence and mur-
der. until it c0llapSes or is crushed out
by the strong arm OF law.
The SevereSt penalty of such unlawful
combinations falls the heaviest upon
those the least guilty.
This story is an object lesson for the
present time. 1t is true picture with
the lights and shade painted by skill
full hand.
The Disappearance of Mr. Derwent
Mystery" By Thomas Cobb. author