The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-12

money into the Golfers and reveilings
upon the head Of it's author, one is
ready to grant; that it is an artistic
book, one begs leave to doubt, there is
too much Of chaos inziIss motives and.
style, despite its careful construction;
not enough of the creative power,
which divides the elements and makes
worlds.
(''The Christian" by Hall Game. D. Apple
ton & Co., New York, $1.5O- For sale by the
St. Paul Book and Stationery company
One reads with regret the adulatory
criticisms of Mrs. Steers ION the Face
of the Waters appended so conf,
IDENTIFY to her later venture, In the
Tideway.' With regret, not because
one does not appreciate their apprecia-
ton of a mastery book and recognize
their genial aptness-though one is IL
clined to discount the statement that
Mrs Steel has beaten Mr.. Kipling on
his own ground, India"-but because
these comments bring back so wildly
the memory of a strong book, and
force upon one the comparison with a
feeble one, and comparisons in this
case are unkind, and so unlike are the
two books that they are unnecessary
as well. However, even the name sug-
geStS comparison and floats the book
on a false hint of resemblance, which,
very possibly, was not at all in the
authors design. At all events, the
RESEMBLANCE. goes no farther. In mat
ter, treatment and power no two. books
by the same author could be more I'M
like.
I'm the. Tideway' is a book without
composition. 1t is like a painting
made up of fragments intended for
ether pictures and Joined together
10 O1ot ION
proportion or cohesion. The fact that
these fragments are at times of in.
tense dramatic power and drawn with
broad mastery strokes make the
patchwork effect of the whole more
annoying.
1t seems to the reviewer that Mrs.
SteeTs study was e-perhaps-trite
but still enthralling one of the human
soul bent to the usages of convention
until caught into the dark power Of
primitive passion; and to obscurely
typify her problem she has set her
tragic comedy of sophisticated society
life against a background of the wild
fatalism Of t|Eilean-a-fa- ash-Island
of Rest-the grim Scottish Isle where
the Vikings sleep and which lies
right out in the sunset, like Avlllon,' -
in the resistless embrace of the myste-
rious gulf stream. But, despite the
| smacks of realism, and the gaps and
inconsequence of the plot! as irration-
al as the shifting of dream or the
surprises in fairy story, are indefen-
sible in it's construction.
c'In the Tideway," by Flora Annie Steel.
The Macmillan company, New York. Sl25.
For sale by the st. Paul Book and Stationery
comDany)
"In Simpkinsville" is the name under
which appears a number of Ruth Nc
Emery Stuart's fascinating stories.
Character tales she calls them, and
character tales they are, but the at
mosphere through which Mrs. Stuart
sees the people that come within her
ken makes them entirely her own crea-
lions, though it brings them at the
same time into closer sympathy with
all mankind.
The humor. tenderness and human
sympathy which are so closely woven
in all these stories, that to touch one
grace and charm of style,
which, is always present to set
these sketches of Arkansas life quite
above the ordinary or even more
than ordinary character sketch with
which the presses Of the day are ever
busy Out Of these seven tales, all OF
which are worthy of more than one
reading, one at least Is ueSeIN llS u
a permanent place in literature. THE
JJnIiyed Life of Little Mary Film" has
that in it that makes for immortality
of nc mean order. The kindly people
of Simpkinsville are canonized by Mrs
Stuart, in spite of eir-.tendeney-@ta
gossip and other human failing, intQ g;
sainthood very tender and loyabls
and to the entireF community pfg themf
belongs that sympathy that leads
oil icf 70 10 q
Ananias an Sapphria" to comfort q.
heartbroken and demented little won1-
an, and to maintain that, ''if any wom-
Ell could have done 4otherwise-well,
maybe they might be. better Christians
than 1 am, but 1 don't never eNpec'
to be sanctified up to that point.
('In SfmDkinsville." by Ruth McEhery
Stuart Harper & Bros. New York. ,$1.25!
For sale by tie St. Paul Book and Stationery
Company.)