The herald., 1896-11-22

ough piece of literary work. 1t will be
very strange if it does not meet with
large sale here.
MARIN LISA. BY Kate Douglas Wig
gin, author of The Birds Christmas
Carol, tee. Houghton, Miffiin & Co.
Boston.
Mrs. Wiggin has done nothing better
than this. The insight into child life is
just as clear as in anything she has ever
written for children only, and the whole
is so allied to the great world of hui
manity that men and women feel it to
have been written equally for them.
The career of poor little Marin Liza
tugging the Grubb twins along their
hard road in life, and afterwards ar
riving at real heroism, is a fine bit of
work. Mrs. Grubb, to the great world
of women and their ways seems to US to
be central figure of the story. She
stands for so much, and so many. Mrs.
Grubb had troubles at her curious home
in Eden Place, but she scared above
them. and left it to darkness and to
whatever might happen.
Yet with all these crosses Mrs. Grubb
was moderately cheerful, for her trou-
bles were as nebulous as everything else
to her mind. She intended to invent
some feasible plan for her deliverance
sooner or later, but she was much more
intent upon development than deliver
ance, and she never seemed TO have the
leisure to break her shackles. Nothing
really mattered much. Her body might
be occasionally in Eden Place, but her
soul was always in a hired hall. She
delighted in joining the New Order of
mething-anything, so long as 1t was
an order and a new one-and then going
with a selected committee to secure
lodge room or a hall for meetings. She
liked to walk up the dim aisle with the
10, al inc a ia
the brilliant lights (paid for by collec-
tion) a neat table and lamp and pitcher
of iced water, and herself in the chair
as president or vice president, secre-
tary or humble trustee. There was that
about her that precluded the possibility
of simple membership. She always rose
into office the week after she had joined
any society. If there was no office va
cant, then some bold spirit generally
male) would create one, that Mrs. Grubo
might not wither in the privacy OF the
ranks. Before the charter members had
fully learned the alphabet of their or
der and had gained thorough under
standing of the social revolution it was
destined to work. Mrs. Grubb had mas
tered the whole scheme and was un-
folding it before large classes for the
study of the higher theory.
THE instant she had tale to tell she
presumed the listening earth" to be
ready to hear it. The new order be-
came an old one in the course of time,
and like the nautilus, Mrs. Grubb out
grew her shell and built herself more
stately chamber. Another clew to the
universe was soon forthcoming, for all
this happened in a city where it is neces-
sary only for man to open his lips and
say, Il am a prophet and followers
nJck unto him as many numbers as the
stars. She was never disturbed that the
last clew had brought her nowhere she
followed the new one as passionately as
the old and told her breathless pupils
that their feet must not be weary, for
they were treading the path of progress
that these apparently fruitleSS eXcur-
sons into the domain of knowledge all
served as so many milestones in their
glorious ascent of the mountain OF
truth
On the whole, Marin Liza is one of the
very brightest and worthiest bo<-s of
the season, full of wit and pathos and
worldly wisdom.
In this connection, one who would
know Mrs. Wiggin at her best should
read in the current Bookman about
Quillcote on the Banks of the Saco,
Away Down East, a region of country
very dear and familiar to the writer of
these lines.
THE FINAL WAR, AN HISTORICAL
ROMANCE OF THE NEAR FU-
-TURE. By Lewis Tracy. With 16
flll-page illustrations. Large 12mo.,
$1.75 G. P. Putnam's Sons, New
York.
Here we have a large volume with
consistent story running through it, and
upon this narrative are strung some of
the most remarka BILE possible events
Of the new future. They are fanciful
and improbable, but not altogether in
credible. They are audacious, and yet
l,nx
guessed. Hence it is that the volume
will be read with genuine interest. The
elimination of long threatened troubles
at length takes the predicted shape of
hatred of England, and is made the oc-
casion for united attempt of the other
powers of Europe to dismember the
British empire. The United States is
led into an alliance with England upon
grounds of kinship, and because it be-
lieves civilization is threatened, and
thus colossal war is inaugurated, and
is waged until the Anglo-Saxon race
is triumphant. The scene of the story
opens in Paris, 1898 in the merry month
of May, when mad whirl of gaiety
and lightheartedness filled the thoughts
of every class of society. Notables from
all nations abound. Especially plentiful
were rich Americans from Chicago and
New York, spending millions made III
packing pork. The whole world has.
however, made apprehension of trou-
bic, Notwithstanding this seeming in
difference and gaiety. A species of po-
litical electricity permeates the air, of
which men were dimly conscious.
The first dangerous intrigue and
threatening occurred at the British em-
! bassy, on the occasion of a grand ball
and it is at this p~. that the reader
is introduced to the principal charac-
! ters of the romance proper of the vol
ume and these attend throughout, and
| invest the story with personal, human
interest.
The book is too large and the events
| too many to justify an attempt to fully
review it here, but it can fairly be said
that a curious and just interest at
| taches to the remarkable happenings.
which finally result in the fall of Paris,
the proper disciplining of Germany the
| utter destruction of the Romanoffs.
| while 9 the Saxon tongue is made the
speech of the world and the Saxon en-
| sign-whether British or American-be-
comes the flag of the sea-
| OF course, there are many daring deeds
| done and many new inventions used.
Not the least of the latter is the electric
rifle, which can be equipped and used
for twelve hours uninterruptedly, and is
more effective by night than by day,
owing to system of lighted sights.
which, curiously enough, are so ar
ranged as not to disclose the position of
the marksman.
On the whole, it is volume that will
attract attention.
THE COUNTRY OF THE POINTE1,
-