The herald., 1896-04-26

Here is story III the pest freHch ~
erary form, and full of poetic and dra-
matte incident The theme is love and
remuneration. In fact it is a love story
pure and simple, with rather too much
of sorrow and misery at some points 10
make it altogether pleasant, but true
, to life and human passions, neVerthe,
less. In many ways it is artlsuc anu
brilliant, and never dull.
Vt is a sad story, but on a high plane OF
action, and is sure to find place
amongst the attractive books OF the
year.
A HARD WOMAN-Dy Violet Hunt.
Appleton & Co
This story is little trying TO the or
binary reader, because it is put into
scenes, as to parts of it, and these are
| in dialogue. The author in the preface
declares the purpose to use every op-
Dortunty and device to get at ana por-
! tray the inside character and life or the
| subject which in this case is Mrs Lydia
! Munday. "a fluffy little devil who is
dissected before our eyes as a human
| document" 1t is story Of great power
! of remorscless purpose. and wrought our
| as to details with great patience ana
| faithfulness There are many hard hits
! at hard conventional women. ana as
| applicable to our own countrywomen
| as to Mrs. Munday of Russell Square,
| London. 1t is dashing, audacious, yet
realistic story.
| ADAM JOHNSTONE'S S SON. BY F. Ma
rion Crawford. Macmillan q Co,
New York For sale by Stoll &
Thayer.
There is small need to remind the
reader of the many volumes Mr.Craw-
| ford has turned out. He has long kept
| the publishers busy and the public,
| too, for that matter. 1t has been the
nnit tac, fn
| treat Crawford as OVERRIDING the matter
of making new books and overdrawing
| his account with novel readers, and 1T is
a fact that he may have written too
much, been too much the slave of time
| and had too heavy pressure on nm TO
do the best in everything. Still in the
volume before us, he seems very sure
of his ground, and writes with the same
firm touch as of old
The world is full of mothers like Mrs.
| Bowring. that is, the world of travellers
who go about from place to place in
search of health and comfort-and many
| things beside not always stated or even
fully understood. 1t is a pretty scene
the scene of so many Crawford stories
| where this mother and her daughter
Glare look out upon the soft sea that
"blue at their feet, and quite still, but
further out the westerly breeze that
swept past the Conca combed 1t to crisp
roughness; then it was less blue to the
southwark. and gradually it grew less
real, till it lost color and melted into a
skyhaze that almost hid the southern
mountains and the lizard-like head OF
the far Licosa."
We shall leave the plot of the story to
the reader, who will find the text most
beautifully and aptly illustrated and
only commend it's literary style to the
careful study of the many who have
feared that the author had written HIM
self out.
We cannot forbear, however, to pre-
sent this fine bit of the picture of Glare
Bowring, the pale and quiet and weakly
young girl, who was surely delicate, If
not really ill, as she sat 'in the deep
straw chair hatless. with bare white
hands that held her work. Her thick
f1aXen hair. straightly parted and
smoothed away from it's low grow tt
oaa- i I,A. isasleeeaa 1.5fF III esppaB 1fiffp
FOR beauty, cast very faint light
shadows as she looked down; but when
she raised the lids, the dark blue eyes
were bright. with wide pupils and a
straight look. quick to fasten, slow to let
go. never yet quite softened, and never
yet mannishly hard But in it's own way,
perhaps, there is no look so hard as the
look of maiden innocence can be. There
can even be something terrible in it's
unconscious stare. There is a spirit of
coos own fearful directnesS in it, T"
There is no equality and no COM
munlty IN virtue; it is only original sin
that makes us all equal and human
The story ends at what would seem
to be the real turning point, but the
author chooses this to be. since real
life has no conclusions but real death.
and that is sad ending to tale, and
one which may as well be left to the
imagination, when it is possible
y y
SPRING NOTES FROM TENNES-
SEE BY Bradford Torrey, author
or A Florida Sketch Book Birds in
the Bush, A Rambler's Lease, The
Foot-Path Way Houghton Mifflin
&Co
rms handsome volume is made up
from delightful group of papers never
before in book form. Our readers. how
ever, VIII recall at least one or two of
these secretly given to the world in
magazine articles, especially Chica-
mauga and On Missionary Ridge.
Nothing could be more captivating
1han these sketches, in which are so in
genlously blended the short insight and
observations of the keen naturalist with
the proad knowledge of the man of the
world. We have talk of birds and bird
ways in the midst of war history. and
descriptions of the fields whereon the
bloody strife ragged for years But while
we express a preference for these la ter
and especially mentioned sketches. ali
s.ie cildrIillHS ana perfect of their kind
Ihere IS long list of birds and full in :
dex to the volume
4 4 &
F'OUR-HANDED FOLK, Bv Olive
Thorne Miller, author of Bird Ways
In Nesting Time, Little Brothers of
the Air, A Bird Lover in the West
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
And here is another book from the
Zen of born naturalist, comprising
| matters some of which are familiar to
the faithful magazine reader. but most
OF 1t practically new. The volume is a
ine specimen of book-making. The il
iustratlons are Of the cunningist kind
showing the habits and antics of the
small animals described
1t is a book for all ages and all sorts
OF readers, especially interesting. how
eyer, to those with a love of nature and
or pet animals. Perhaps Mr.. Crow
iey.' late of Central park, is worthy of
the most attention of any creature or
parsonage" treated of, though there
isn't dull description or useless line
| In the volume '''
r, Ihe following bull is, late London
spectator says. the last in the. line A
roman Catholic preacher was sneakinr
oI ,L tne transformers of earthly things
LOOK at the great cities of antiouitv,,.
ne exclaimed; where are they nowp
| why, some of them have perished so
utterly that it is doubtful If tbe,. a,,a,,