St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-15


ton, thus giving him an opportunity
to see social and diplomatic Paris,
which he studies, hoping to differen-
tiate himself from those of his coun-
trymen in France, who were always
painfully and evidently American"
AT first, the fetes of the court and the
people whom he meets there, especially
certain very beautiful Hortense LIE
Blanc who is reader to the empress,
tend to confirm his feeling that Amer
lea Is crude, and he himself humdrum.
He is annoyed at his own failure TO
seem cosmopolitan, and conceiVes of
his native country chiefly as civili-
zation that needs Europeanizing.
His illumination as to the meaning of
America comes slowly, first through
his recognition of the significant part
played by the War of the Rebellion
in the imminent overthrow of the Sec
ond Empire. The failure of the at
tempted occupation of Mexico by the
French was keenly felt by Louis Ma
poleon as a loss of prestige; that loss
of prestige gave Bismarck his opportu-
nifty to make Sadowa and a united
Germany. But united Germany needed
contest with some other nation to
solidify it, hence the Franco-Prussian
war, and ultimately the overthrow Of
the Napoleonic dynasty, the last link
In the chain whose beginning had been
in the dismemberment of the great re-
public on the ground that it would be
triumph for monarchial ideas all
over the world. The young Californian
further learns to regard the great Ma
poleon up to 1912 as the crystallization
of the American idea of fair play, and
to attribute to this fact his success
and his power over men.
The events of the book the siege, the
commune, Kent'S relations to Hortense,
all the varied incidents, finally tend to
one result. Kent returns to America in
truth an American, with an impassioned
understanding of what his country
means, of the principle that has been
it's strength in the past and must be
its salvation in the future.
To say that a book is both interest
ing and instructive usually means that
1t is rather mediocre combination, but
in the case of THE American in Paris"
both adjectives may safely be interpret
ed in the superlative. DR.. Savidge
treats the facts of history in brilliant
and convincing way and the reader will
rise from the perusal of the book a bet
ter-inStructed and more patriotic indl-
vidual than when he sat down to it.
c'The American in Paris" by Eugene Cole
man Savidge. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott
company. 81. For sale by the St. Paul Book
and Stationery company)
In turning to "The Crime of the
Century" we come down from that
blcodSheG by wholesale which is called
war, to the limited retail business Of
murder. The change is refreshing to
| one who is wearied with over-much de-
tail of slaughter, and the fact that the
| murder takes place before the opening
of the story inclines one still more fa-
| Vorably to it's peruSal. It would not
ha fon 1oI
| which the author has woven so skill
| fully that, although an unmistakable
| clue to the mystery is given the reader
In one Of the early chapters of the book
| (and also given the celebrated Mr.. Le-
| roy Mitchell, amateur detective), he yet
| remains In doubt as to the identity of
| the murderer until the end. But there
are many other attractions besides mur-
! der in the volume. There is "The Bur-
| glars Social Union," which charters a
floating gambling palace for a moon
| light excursion down the bay and offers
| as an entertainment lecture on crime
| by the "squarest crook in New York
| there is a baby which is deserted in
| an old graveyard under the windows of
| tenement house in the heart of the
! city; there is a founding who is heiress
| to five millions; there is also a touch Of
! sociology and some dissertations on the
| duty of society to moral idiots. All
these things and many more are woven
| smoothly into swift-moVing, coherent
| tale which, owing to various eXcellences
| of the authors style, is not as over
whelmingly sensational as the detail
would lead one to believe, and yet Is
sensational enough to suit the many
people who want a rousing story Of
the kind to beguile an hour of leisure.
{''The Crime of the Century" by Rodrigues
Ottolengin. New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
so cents For sale by the st. Paul Book and
Stationery company
Beyond the Paleocrystic Sea-" by
Mr.. A. S. Morton, of st. Paul, is also.
a story of war; but, dealing as it does
with Norsemen of far-distant time,
it does not bring the shock of battle
so directly upon the readers nerves
as do stories of the conflicts of our
own century. The introduction of the
book purports to be written by sci
entific man sent to Greenland by the
London Society for Arctic Research,
who discovers in Smith Sound manu-
script in a water-tight bag of walrus
hide which proves to contain an ac-
count of the adventures of one Pierre
Vacheron, of New Orleans. 1t was this
mans cruel fate to become separated
from Kane's party which went in
search of Franklin in 1853, and to be
carried by a drifting cake of ice to
an open country beyond the paleo-
crystic sea-" which land was settled
about 900 A. D. by Norsemen driven
from their own territory. Vacheron is
taken by their people for Halfjord,
their first king, who was also their
god, and whose ultimate return to
them was one of their religious beliefs
But Halfjord was to lead them to
honor and glory, an expectation which
Vacheron naturally finds it difficult to
fulfill. He draws UP an account of
his adventures and an appeal for help
and rescue and consigns them to the
walrus bag, together with the legend
of Halfjord, which he has compacted
and woven into a romance during the
tedious hours of his Arctic life. This
legend which forms the principal part
of the volume, details the circum-
stances which led to the emigration of
King Halfjord and his people from
Norway into the frozen north It is
stirring and ingenious tale of love
treachery and war, and will reward
the reader for the hour spent in it's
perusal. The volume is gotten up with
O. degree of good taste which is un-
usual even in this day of appropriate
bindings and admirable press work
The covers are of shimmering green
ish-white, which suggests the hues of
Arctic ice and whoever takes the vol
ume up is thereby prepared with
delicious shiver for transportation to
polar scenes.
c'Beyond the Paleocrystic Sea-" by A. S.
Morton. St. Paul The E. W. Porter COM
pany. Sl.50)
-Cornela Atwood Pratt.
One of the attractions of Music" for the
month is an appreciation of Elsa Rreidt the