St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-22
ON THE BOOK TABLE.

Now that the whole world has be-
come interested in Japan through the
plucky and successful war so recently
waged by the Mikado's empire, Miss
Cherry Blossom appears most OPP.
portunely. For those who do not care
to read long books of travel and his
tory, Miss Cherry Blossom will prove
amusing and instructive. 1t is pleas
ant story about pleasure-loving peo-
pie. The Japanese, ''as every school
boy knows" are the most progressive
people in the Orient, and Miss Cherry
Blossom, the most progressive of her
race. She is the daughter of a high
functionery in Tokyo, her father being
minister of cuisine in the imperial
household.
: She has spent four years at school
near Philadelphia, and is described as
tall, with dark mysterious eyes, and
hair like the night. She dresses in
European fashion sometimes, but is
equally bewildering in native costume.
She is called Sakura San, the Cherry
BloSSom) because she was born in the
month when the flower is in full
bloom. She Is a curious product of
the mixture of Eastern and Western
ideas, and yet, with all her contradic-
lions, moods and Observation-Disclosures
haps because of them-a lovely woman.
apparently as artleSs as a Japanese
girl, she has all the destinations of
the most accomplished coquette. She
has a young and beautiful woman for
her most intimate friend, confidante
and social mentor. This friend, a Mrs.
'Haihes, is an American widow, living
QUITE alone in Tokyo. Both women are
in love with a young American, chief
secretary of the American legation in
Tokyo. Miss Cherry Blossom has
learned almost nothing of the social
-asases of society while at school at
-Bfyn Mawr, but has made the &C
quafntance of some ill-bred people in
Philadelphia, and learned a few things
from them in exactly the wrong way
Tho book is amusing in describing the
Efforts of young Japanese girl to
adopt the social customs of Europe
The ignorance of Sakura San is very
charming, but wholly impossible in one
Whe had spent four years among Amer
lean boarding school girls. Her love /
story forms the motive of the book
IT sweet and pure, without being
particularly strong or natural.
: The book will simply serve to while
away an idle hour, as it gives a pretty
picture of strange people.
Miss Cherry Blossom, of Tokyo"
By John Luther Long. Philadelphia
]. B. Lippincott Company. Cloth,
$3.50.
''TriIby, the Fairy of Argyle" is a
dainty little fairy story written by
Charles Nodier seventy-f1ye years ago,
after journey in Scotland, and now
translated. The subject of the story
is drawn from a preface, or note, to
one Of Sir Walter Scott's novels, as !
the author tells Jig. He called it
''Trilby, OH lie Lutin d'ArgaiP'-Trilby.
the Fairy of Argyle, and so the
Frenchman's fanciful and beautiful
tribute to Scotch superstition be-
came the prototype of the ''Trilby" of
Du Maurier-Trilby of 1S94-95, and the
greatest talked-of book of the day.
In Nodier's story, Trilby is mascu-
line elf, who makes his home in the
cottage of a poor fisherman on the
shores of Argyleshire, in Scotland, I'M
til driven out by the lamentations and
holy spells of an old monk The fish
erman's wife, JEANNE, is a bonnie
Scotch wife, but childiess, and Trilby.
the fairy, plays his pranks about her
as she sits spinning and knitting by
the fire, and even while she sleeps he
brings her dreams of childlike kisses
and caresses, until she fears the elf,
and becomes the cause of his ban
ishment. Triiby returns against the
commands of the monk, and tells
JEANNE his innocent love, and be-
seeches her consent to his return.
The end is sad, for Trilby is impris-
oned for thousand years in a beech
tree, and JEANNE cannot support her
loss, though ever true to her human
husband. Throughout the tale one is
fascinated by the most delicate i'm
agery and poetic fancy. Some of its
fancies are as delicate as anything in
"a Midsummer Nights Dream
A Scotch elf painted by the refined
of Frenchman is a rare
treat, and as delightful as rare.
While JEANNE slept by the fire
Trilby would Jump forth lightly from
his covert, leap with the JOY of a child
into the flames, scattering about him
a cloud of spangles. timidly approach
the sleeping spinner. and sometimes,
eassured by the even breath which
came from her lips at regular inter-
walls, he would come nearer, draw
back. come near again, glide up her
knees touching them like a night
moth. with the noiseless huttering of
wings, caress her cheek.
twine the locks of her hair about him.
suspend himself from her gold ear
rings, without bearing any weight on
them; or he would rest on her bosom.
murmuring in a voice sweeter than a
breath of air scarcely moving, when
1t dies on a trembling leaf 1.-THE
web 9with its invisible tissues, which |
hangs under the old rafters," served
TrtlbEs; ''as a swinging hammock on
suitry summer nights
The story must be read more than
once, and it is very short, to catch !
the subtle essence of it's. bewftching !
imagery. 1t is like the delicate per |
fume of the trailing arbutus in the
spring.
TtEs fairy Trilby is redolent with |
the odo1s of yelvety MOSES, and of /
all young and tender flowers that /
come when the earth is awakening to |
the music of the spring.
"Trilby'' is Scotch to the backbone, /
and therefore canny, but yet he is as
aerial and dainty as eny French fay |
might be. We commend him to all /
who love the beautiful the mysterious, |
the legendary.
'Irilby, the Fairy of Argyle BY |
Charles Nodier. Translated by Nathan |
Haskell Dole. Boston: Estes & Lau-