The Saint Paul globe., 1897-05-30

dramatis personae The stories arc
none of them agreeable-to speaker
them as enjoyable would be to offend
against the precision Of d1ctlon with
the old-fashioned people who enjoy
Ill health" But the reader Of these
sketches finds his interest aroused and
his sympathies quickened by these un-'
pretentious tales Of crude emotions aIfft
bald, unlovely surroundings In way
which makes him quite willing to leave
mere enjoyment to other days. The
people are not nice, the saloon
is inelegant and sometimes over
strong, but these are only Incl
dents, and the author is con-
siderate enough not to demand your
admiration for his handiwork because
of these qualifications alone-not be-
cause Of them, but rather In spite Or
them. With such surroundings and
such people the elements OF pathos
and tragedy are one with the sur
roundings; the humor-if there is to
be any-must come from man alone.
The two are blended in '"The- LUCKY
Number" though it must be admitted
that usually the circumstances are
stronger than the man.
('The Lucky Number" by I. X. Friedman.
Way & Williams, Chicago $1.25.)
the story Of s. Levett Yeats last book.
II is a rather ambitious sketch of some
hundred and a half pages and about
shares the volume with another tale
of Eastern life, "The Widow Lam
port" "a Galahad of the Greeks" is
much the better story of the two and
at intervals is even quite above the
ordinary. The Eastern field that S.
Levett-Yeats has chosen. however,
is one in which comparisons are likely
to be odious and one in which the
reader is likely to heavily discount lit
erary virtues of the ordinary type. go
1.-The Galahad of the Greeks" is Per-
egrine Jackson. young Englishmln
who begins his official career as as
sistant commissioner of Pazobin, an
evil-smelling district in Lower Burma.
He brings a conscious purity and am
bilious ideals to his new post, post
where spotlessness and enterprise both
seem to be but matter out Of place.
He Immediately and most innocently
falls in love with the beautiful wife of
an American missionary. She iS4a
woman, mentally and morally insig-
nificant, but adequately serves as the
object Of two mems devotion and 'the
Galahad" finally dies in her defense
The parallel to the knight of the pure
found mainly in words. The best part
Of the book is apart from the main
characters in the minor persons and
incidents.
GA Galahad of the Creeks" by r levitt
Yeats. Appleton's Town and Country Libra
ry. Paper. 80 cents. For sale by the st. Paul
Book and Stationery companyD
Kings in Adversity'' is the title
of a small volume made up Of two
stories by Edward S. Van Zile. Love.
stories, of course they are, and stories
of tottering crowns. The hero Of enc is
a crown prince of an insignificant
principalty, travelling incognito in the
United States, and it's heroine is a New
York society girl; the hero Of the other
is a clever poker-playing Yankee,
travelling, or rather, sojOurning in
small and crumblng European prin-
cipality, and it's heroine is a beautiful
German princess. With such material
something surely should be done and
the author Weaves out of it two Stories
not, in truth, far out of the run of the
ordinary light fiction Of the day, but
interesting and readable-the thing for
a summer day. The poker conceits III
the last story suggest possible sec
ondary meaning for the books title. 60.
('kngs in Adversity,'' by Edward S. Van
Zie. F. Tennyson Neely New York. Is
cents. For sale by the st. Paul Book and
Stationery company