The Portland daily press., 1895-07-17

trouble that wrecked his life" Here is
pretty landscape gardening scene: "beds
OF begonias, through all graduatiops of
color, from blood-red to faintest ivory,
while in serried ranks or artful patches
OF bloom, the formal aster rose or the
chrysanthemum smiled" The reviewer
notes these practised observations of the
author but the less prying reader will pay
little heed to other features than those
embodied in the plot of the romance and
its disclosures for the story is an asorbing
one and is beautifully detailed through
out (New York d. Appleton & Com
pany; Portland Loring, Short & Har-
mon. Price 81. 00)
The Zeit-Geist, by S. Dougall, author
of "The Mermaid, "Beggars All, etc. ="
is quite unlike other stories of this au-
thor. The theory here yelled in brief
dramatic story is that of the presence of
God even in what we call evil, province
given over in the old thinking to the devil
and his Vaccinations. The author says
81 do not believe that it belongs to the
novel to teach theology; but I do believe
that religious sentiments and opinions
are legitimate subject of it's art, and
that perhaps it's highest function is to
promote understanding by bringing into
contact minds that habitually misinter-
pref one another - The leading idea is
effectively sustained and illustrated in
the character of Bart Toyner, certainly
an unhackneyed study. Novelty may also
be claimed in the locals of the sketch,
north of Lake Ontario, in the fens Of
a district picturesque and unusual in envi-
comment. To one interested in the unfold
ing of a soul amid difficulties from within
and with out and back again to it's inheri
tance deterioration of this man kindled
by love but struggling against fearful
odds to victory cannot fail to be valua-
BILE and worthy of thought The incidents
and action of the story alone are original
enough to attract the novel reader apart
from the ideality and inmaterialisln en-
tering into the account of one mans
triumph over temptation and grasp of a
spiritual law which rightly understood
would plant firmly many feet that now
falter and would furnish light to eyes
long sealed New York: D. Appleton
& Company; Portland Loring, Short &
Harmon. Price rs cents
A Street in Suburbia by Edwin W.
Pugh. This volume of detached studies
which yet carries one group of characters
through to the close SO that it is made up
of dozen chapters instead of separate
stories, is dedicated to Madame Sarah B.
Grand and is peculiar and unwonted in
ealibre Perhaps we have our pet dialects
the English "Wot sort wuz she? asked
Watty, "But / amt no call ter arst.
Tom amt no mug, you amt" or Coon
corning wot the lawst speaker said, . he
began. "Ez fur ez I could mike art'e
wuz on'y atryin' it on. Mar, arst yer,
mates all, is tibet fair ply? We come ERE
te'o be elevated, an bloke gifts up and
talks lot o. bloomin' rot''-is not at all
events favorite of ours. Not u only
the dialect of the sentiments are coarse,
sometimes vulgar, always ugly. So are
the people here portrayed. We grant that
the reproduction is a good one; it reveals
the depths of certain sordid souls and in
the course of that process throws side
lights upon unexpected pathos or posi-
bilities of less ignoble things. But while
ga Street in Suburbia'' may have it's
uses to students of social reform, it is
grim reading and that's fact. The
lighting up of the gloom by the jocose
verses s'The Ghosts Revenge" seems not
very cheerful or successful. New York: :
d. Appleton & Company; Portland:
Loring, Short g. HARMONY Price $1.0o
One Hundred Bear Stories, Historical,
Romantic, Biblical, Classical Comical,
Tragical, Pastoral, Pathetical, Humor-
Gus, Horrible, Curious. Related, Selected,
edited by Murat Halstead. Certainly we
have quite poster on the title page of
this book and if the practical reader shifts
drollerie in the title he will not be disap-
pointed in the Introduction, 1.-THE Bear
is a Dramatic Creature for it consists
of dozen pages of as dry wit as we have
read in sometime. 'sThe Bear has lit
erature of his own. He is famous on his
merits. He is better than if he were him
self writer, for others write of him, and
it is the greater office to make than to
record history
"The extraordinary fame of the Bear
must be largely the product of his humor-
GUS character His accustomed comic dig
nifty is as delightful as his occasional saw
agery is alarming. He is a clumsy,
heavy-footed animal, but often alert and
erect, and there is something manly in
his hugging propensity" The bear in
literature, journalism and real life is in
Dictated and anecdotes follow, all worth
quoting. The recitals themselves, in
large print and with wood cuts are of all
varieties in location and adventure, brief
of course, and entertaining. These. words
close the collation-"It is perceived that
we lind bear tracks in the Bible and
Shakespeare, as we'll as a vast number of
volumes less illustrious down through