The herald., 1895-03-25
A PASADENA BOOK
JAMES H. GRIFFEs

You may have noticed recently in the
windows and on the shelves of the book
dealers many copies of neatly bound
little volume covered in cloth OF greenish
tint and bearing the words. "Stories OF
the Foothills" and Margaret Collier
Graham" in silvered letters. Typograph-
! ically and in all other technical respects
the book is all that one could expect, even
/ from those masters OF the bookmaklng
art, Houghton, Miffiin d Co.
1t is not an ambitious book-those OF
real human interest seldom are. 1t is a
book that will never become the fad, and
| the proceeds from its sale will not make
its author rich. Nevertheless or perhaps
because of these things, the book de-
serves serious consideration by those who
have the time and taste for the discussion
and appreciation of good literature. Sto-
ries of the Foothills easily takes rank in
this class, and it ought to be of particular
| interest to local readers because it claims
to be a California book, and because its
author is well known Pasadena lady, the
wife of Professor Graham, who has held
responsible positions in educational insti-
tutlons in Southern California.
There are seven short stories in the
book, and most of them are only Califor-
to call them such. Idly. the story about
the "timid soul lashed by conscience. is
one of these. The telling of it would
suffer nothing perhaps it would even be
enhanced-were the scene laid in Com
necticut. But it is a good sketch, for all
that, and we'll told. All the stories in
this volume are well told. Mrs. Graham
has style that perhaps is not entirely
her own. but it is a clever, entertaining
style. 1t is clear and bold. a child can
comprehend every sentence, yet there are
tricks in it that will tickle the vanity of
,nsf1 iYp rpr rHn
touches in it worthy the pen of much
more famous writer. One of the tricks is
that OF carrying over the subject matter
of the last part of one sentence into the
first part of the new sentence. as, for in
stance, in the tale of Idy, where Parker
talks about his claim:
90 But if the Register of the General
Land Office wants to come an take
look he CT figure up from them ends an
reckon just about how long I've lived
here, an satisfy himself that I've acted
fair with the COVER 'ment, which I've
aimed to do, besides maxim all these I'M
PROVEMENTS.
1.-The IMPROVEMENTS referred to
were hardly such as an artist would
have so designated. but Parker surveyed
them with taste and conscience void OF
offense."
This is a trick that no less an author
than Olive Schreiner is often guilty. Of,
and many discriminating readers have
enjoyed The African Farm all the
more because of its judicious use. 1t is
trick, too, that the inexperienced writer
does not dare attempt.
in Mrs. Graham's s composition. In The
Withrow Water Right, where young
Sterling kills the old man, she says
1.-The report echoed up and down the
canyon. By the time it died away life
had changed for the younger man."
SC to ,1c vi oh Df hn mo-
gler with words, trick OF composition
that is very prevalent and very charming
in Mrs. Graham's style. Perhaps the
best example of it in this book is in an
other part of the same story, where she
might have said: "They carried the
But there is more poetry in her version
and none the less vigor: She says:
'Old Withrow entered his own house
with dignity at last
Another touch, that is less trick than
an inspiration, occurs in the first part
of Idy in describing Sonora Gonzales.
Perhaps" says the author, "a long
life of leaning and gazing had given her
those calm, slow-moving. eyes, full OF
the wisdom of unfathomable ignorance.
A criticism that might be made is that
there is deal of consumption in these
dry hacking cough" in it, a ''sunken
chest" or 'hemorrhage of the lungs"
But fair answer to such criticism
would be that the world has more of these
things than the stories have. OF course
this answer would only silence the realists,
but then the ideaiists would not be apt to
like Mrs. Graham's stories-save for the
style of composition alone, perchance.
There are no gaudy colors in these stories
no angels, no heroes and herones, no
deep mysteries and no great intrigues
They are simple stories, of plain people,
and the tragedies and comedies in them
are such as come to the lives of even the
most prosac men, but which need the
touch of master to delineate. There is
no ostensible purpose in tn stories yet
those who hold the maxim of art for truth
should read them. No sermons are
preached in them, save the sermon that
nature breaches to the receptive mind
yet even the altruist will not be likely to
find them frivolous.
They are true pictures of the kind of
life they attempt to portray that OF
the pioneers who settled and are still
settling along the foothills of the
Sierra Madres. They are far better
written than are the tales of Gertrude
Atherton though there is not so much
local co,orng in them. 1t is to be hoped
that Mrs. Graham will not content herself
with this volume, but will give the world
many another like it, and perhaps some
that are even better