The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-11

semblance lived the Durgins, a family
broken by consumption and poverty
as homeless as their New England
farm was sterile. When the story
opens all that remain of this family.
after death and emigration have done
their part, are the cOnsumptive father
of sixty and the ccnsumptiVe son Of
twenty-seven, whose ages seem equal
lied by the same raYaging disease;
Jeff. the youngest boy, whose superb
vitality and almost brutal health he
inherits. with other more undesirable
characteristics, from his mothers peo-
pie, and that mother herself, whose
handsome and rigid presence domi-
mates the book MISSIONER, an artist
from Boston, comes to paint the noun
tain and stays for a few weeks at the
farm house. His presence suggests to
Mrs. Durgin the possibility OF sum
mer bOarders and from this grows
eventually the Lions Head Hotel"
and a worldly success that makes it
possible to send Jeff to Harvard. His
career there is extremely interesting,
throwing as it does an entirely new
light on college possibilities. At Har-
ward, jeff maintains with really adj
mirable dignity the unenviable POSI-
ton of a Jay" subtle and elusive
agreeably real and concrete. His col
1ege career is of more Importance and
instruction to the reader, we believe,
than to Jeff himself.
1t cannot be said that at any time
Durgin deveiops-what he is he IS
from the beginning, from first to last
his Dotentalities are the same-nat-
tod. Ii II
father knew how to make a hotel
pay"
He is ambitious for the things Of
this world, therefore he acts circum-
specify in all that counts for material
profit and cares not at all for any
other standard, nor fears the result.
Honor he simply does not know. He
IS the incarnation Of soulless success.
He reasons: Prosperity and adver-
sity. they've got nothing to do with
conduct If you're strong man you
get there, and if you're a weak man,
all the righteousness in the universe
went help you. [ shall be blessed #
look out for myself, and if I don't 1
shall suffer for my want Of foresight.
But I sha'n't suffer for anything else
Nor does he, the suffering, as is usual
with such people, is left to others,
while he attains his ends. Mr.. How
ellis hero is a BLACKBOARD, withouc
romance or glamour, without even a
family resemblance to the villains of
fiction. He is not meant to excite NOR
bid fancy, and yet there are times
when the reader regards him almost
with affection. Such is the power of
Mr.. HOwellS that one is Influenced by
this man exactly as are the people
around him; with old Whitwell one
says: 81 don't mean I don't like him,
] do; the fellows got a way with him
that makes me kind Of like him when
] see him." and again: He may have
a knife in your ribs the whole while,
but so longs he don't turn it, you don't
seem to know it, and you can't help
Hiking him"
This liking, entertained by friends
and stra myers even under the most
adverse circumstances, which the read
er finds natural because he shares it,
IS one of the main factors in Jeff's
final success, and this injustice is one
of the strongest elements Of realism In
O. realistic book.
The problem of the Jeff Durgins is
rot new, though the material tenden-
cies Of the present century and its
blind pride in its apparent success
make it Of particular meaning to us.
khe Psalmist saw the wicked flourish
ing like a green bay tree" and was
hopeless; Mr.. Howells can find nc
poetic justice WnereWlth TO condemn
his successful materialist, to justify
his just man, to confound the simple
because none exists. But with this
one is content. 1t is justice enough
that the just man still lives and is
table to recognize the wicked in the
midst of his fiourishing and is not de-
Iceived because of it; while this re-
mains: Gods in his heaven-alPs right
with the world" Nevertheless there is
Bomething hopeless about "The Land.
taord at Lions Head" which with al
ats brilliancy and vitality leaves its
reader overcast. It is pervaded by !