The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-22

chronicles of her small life as told In
rhyme are If possible more feiicitous
than the interludes in prose But a.
specimen or two will be worth a dozen
descriptions of the kind of thing Mr..
Canton does so delicately and well.
NATURULA -NATURANS.
Beside tase water ami the crumbs
She lid her little birds of clay
For when some other HRarrow
Perhaps they'll fly away
rAh, golden dream. to clnfhe with WINGS
heart Of sTringing COY; to know
TWO lives, 7 the happy sum of things
To her their bliss will owel
SDay dawned; they had not taken flight:
mo playmates called from bush and tree.
She sighed: 1 hardly Thought they might;
Well, Gods more. clever n mei''
BRooK-sIDE LOGIC.
AS the brook caught the blossoms she cast,
Such a wonder gazed out from her face.
Why, the water was all running past
Yet the brook never budged from its place.
"Oh, the magic Of what was so clear!
Il explained. And enlightened her? Nay
why, but, father, l couldn't stay here
II L always was running away"
To the little book of w. V. is subject
ed a collection of various verses in
spired by other subjects than the
NIllSI > 1lIIIS uduSuIeF. AS a poet MI.
Canton's merit is uneven. but always
his verse shows sympathy, insight and
a certain rare delicacy. At it's best, 1t
is absolutely satisfactory as this little
poem will serve to show:
THE WANDERER.
81 met waif i the hills at close Of day.
He begged an, aims; l thought to say him nay,
what was he? Sir. little DUST said he,
Which life blows up and down. and death
will lay
''I gave, for love of beast and hill and tree,
And all the dust that has been and shall be-
CIV. v, Her Book" by William Canton.
New York. Stone G. KiInball 81. %. For sale
by the st. Paul Book and Stationery Com
pany)
The Macmillan Company issue in
four handsome volumes Traits and
Stories Of the Irish Peasantry," by
William Carleton, who is, perhaps, best
known to the public as the author OF
willy Reilly and His Dear Colleen
RaWn," book which has passed
through some fifty editions, but is con-
sidered by the critics inferior in reality
and workmanship to much of his other
work. His Trails and Stories is 81
collection OF historical value, throwing
as it does a search-light upon the Irish
character and Irish life of a vanished
day. The Irish peasant Of the old
school abOunds in these pages with
his faction fights, his wakes, his pfperS
his native Gaelic. OF peasant aextrac-
ton himself, and living for the first
thirty years of his life in that environ
ment exclusively, CarletDnss emporium
tty for acquiring a knowledge of his
subject was unequalled. To a certain
extent, however, he lacks the point of
view which a different training would
have given him. His face, as depicted
in the frontiSpiece, is strong, shreWd,
humorous. and typically Irish. His
personality is said to have been as
winning as his face. He was in his
youth an athlete, a dancer, a fighter
and an all-around good fellow. In the
work Of his maturity he drew almost
exclusively upon the experiences and
recollections of his early life When
he relied upon his imagination, his
work was comparatively poor and
weak. He has been called Irelandss
Burns and its Walter Scott by turns,
but as a matter of fact he never rose
to the point of generalizing,. or saw the
stories which he told in their relation
to the whole Of life. lie was not q
great writer, but an accurate, and
amusing one instead Many of his
stories deal with Celtic legends and
fairy-tales which he. had an especial
aptitude for reproducing in a pig
tureSQue and vivid manner. His value
as a writer, however, is not to the.
modern reader of tales, burt to the stu
dent of social life and history to whom
his collected worries will constitute q
valuable and entertaining encycio-
paedia of information regarding Irish
Dfe and character during the first forty
years of our century
C'Traits and Stories by William Carrie
ton. New York. Macmillan q Co. vols
o. For sale by the St. Paul Book and Sta
donery compaly.(
OF the highest criticism, our current