The Portland daily press., 1895-07-17
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Phantoms of the Foot Bridge and
Other Stories. By Charles Egbert Grad
dock, author of SIN The Strange Peo-
pies" Country, etc. Illustrated. Five
stories constitute the substance of this
volume, which is of Miss Murfree's best
and is illustrated by Frost with spirit
and poetic sense seldom encountered in
this sort of depicting of scenes and char
acters Of the authors remarkable in
sight and rare literary equipment there
is no question, nor indeed has there been
any from her earliest writing to the pres
emit time. She rightfully ranks among
the leaders in realistic presentation while
profound, mysterious impression of
divinity not only in human beings but
in nature herself has grown and deepened
throughout her works The Tennessee
mountain, the moonshiners, the wild
strain of that section of the country could
never have lived for us as it now does,
save for the truth and romance with
which we have been lowered by this in
spired pen Its sympathetic interpreta-
ton shows to a wonderful extent in the
way in which she portrays children and
the knowledge she has of the loyalty and
humanness of the dogs who are some
times more numerous in those cabins
than the folk themselves. "To and from
the fireplace she was followed by two or
three of the younger dogs, their callow-
ness expressed in their lack of manners
and perfervid interest in the approaching
meal This induced their brief journeys
back and forth, albeit embarrassed by
their physical conformation, short turns
on four legs not being apparently the easy
thing it would seem from so much sup
pleness. The dignity of the elder hounds
did not suffer them to move, but they
looked on from erect postures about the
hearth with glistening eyes fand slobber-
ing jaws" In the midst of wildly drawn
accessories there progresses the pathos,
humor and tragedy of untutored existence
The "harnts' of the Foot Bridge lead
us forward in the story to the actual ring
ing shot which means life less and the
costly close of social complications "His
Day in Court :" is followed by Way
Down in Lonesome Cove, THE Moon
sinners at Hoho-Hebee Falls and "The
Riddle of the Rocks all mastery
touches in the art so true as to seem but
the simplest forth of human conditions
and mental forces New York; Harper
& Brothers; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmon. Price 81. so.
The Vengeance of James Vansittart,
by Mrs. J. III. Needell, author of
Stephen Ellicott's Daughter, ETC., gives
the history of a revenge planned against
the weak and faulty and carried out with
an u answering brutality, which must
needs involve the deserving also in the
ruthless grasp. The story has its incon-
istencies and it's improbable sideibut it is
told with such a fresh, winning charm
that these are not counted as much in the
flow of a really interesting narrative.
Nobility, gentleness and grace shine anew
for us in the reading and we are glad of
the future which it's close leaves unre-
yealed but which we may enter upon by
a forecasting imagination
We note the use of the word "resilience'
instead of moral resistance which comes
rather newly to the ear Some bits of
philosophy crop out though the story is
not OF the didactic sort-''He was one of
those men who hold themselves so much
above their work (being alone in that
opinion), that they never condescend to a
mastery OF its details, and hence arose the