The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-23

80 his power TO draw q soul-satisfying picture OF
. pea-green parlor lamp with q largo red
woollen wick.
In "A Forest Orchid " CMacmillnns), Mrs. Ella
Higginson publishes a new collection Of her sto-
ries Of life in that part Of tho Northwest that
she has made her own. In her last volume,
"From the Land Of tho Snow Pearls" this bril-.
liant writer seemed to us to have confined hor-
self too exclusively to the Hloomicr side of tho
life of the settlers on tho shores Of Puget Sound,
and II IL pleasant to turn to the brighter pic
lures that mako up the present collection.
Tho note Of sadness Is still there. but
Il Is less ~inslstent and does not DOM
inate the whole, and, as a result, tho
volume gains immensely in artistic mort.
"A Forest Orchid" the frat Of the stories, Is
full OF sensuous charm, and gives q wonderful
picture of the depths Of the great virgin forest,
wherein as we read we can almost hear the
shrilling of Pans pines and tho angry stamp OF
his hoof rs the axemon bring some giant Of the
woods crashing and laundering to the ground.
1t is but a small circle In which most OF
these characters Of Mrs. Higginson rcvolve
but within Its limits each story is a work
Of art, A beautiful and refined Young
girl, filled with vague aspirations and superior
to the sordidness Of her daily life, a mother
rough and good hear ted, and a rustic lover play
the principal parts, but SO skilful Is the treat
ment that each story fingers in the memory dis.
tinct In itself. Much Of the humor and pathos
Of humble and uneventful lives 10 brought out
In these delicate little dramas, while their set
ting brings before US the beauty Of tho splendid
hills that tower. white and glistening, above the
wells of purple mist.
In the second series Of The Golden Treasury
selections from the best English songs and lyrical
poems lMacmillans), Prof. PalGrave has made
his choice from some OF tho finest work of tho
Victorian poets, and has thus brought the whole
collection as near as Is desirable to our own day.
There are thirty eight poets in all. OF whom
Tennyson has furnished the greater number Of
lyrics In the volume, while Swinburne Is not
represented. though in him the lyrical gift Is
more perfectly developed than In any OF his
contemporaries This omission is, however. duo
to some difficulty in the matter OF copyright. No
selection could possibly satisfy all readers and
hence criticism Of this part Of Prof. Palgrave's
work Is unnecessary. Tho amount of space
Given TO Arthur o'Shaughnessy and to William
Barnes, the Dorset poet, will be, TO many, q mat
ter for surprise; but Prof. Palgrave ~justiaes
this on the ground that, Of all Victorian poets,
these two have met with tho least due recog-
milton OF their powers. One little-known singer
who is here represented is Henry Clarence Ken
dali, an Australian poet, whose verse Is full Of
exquisite and haunting melody. and whose early
death was a loss to literature that has not as yet
been fully estimated.
Here are three verses from his After Many
Years.:
The song that once I dream'd about,
The tender. touching thing.
As radiant as the rose without
The love OF wind and wing;
The perfect verses to the tune
OF woodland music set.
As beautiful as afternoon,
Remain unwrftten yet.
There is a river in the range
Hove to think about;
Perhaps the searching feet OF change
Have never found It out.
All! oftenttmes l used to look
Upon Its banks. and long
To steal the beauty OF that brook
And put 1t in q song.
But in the night, and when the rain
The troubled torrents nils.
often think l see again
The river In the hills;
And when the day Is very near
And birds are on the wing.
My spirit fancies &c can hear
The song I cannot sing.
In the great and ever-increasing army OF
"local colorists' Mr.. Charles Fleming Embree
deserves q foremost place. His volume of short
stories Of the great Southwest, For the Love
OF Tonita and Other Tales OF the Mesas' II. s.
Stone & co.,, is full of good things. Mexicans,
Spaniards, COW punchers, sheep herders are all
excellently drawn, and there Is o freshness
and q charm about each of these stories that
make It a delight. In ono or two the delicate
nathos recalls soma NJ the earlier NJ Rra, Har,e.s
uork while "Hia To,r,fvi,o N.uasi. - ~.
story told by a cow puncher of the wooing of an
unwilling swain by lady who Laid a heap O.
store by her instincks" and found 1t hard fer
awomanw with Instincts fer to be an old maid, u
is as full of broad. rollicking humor as anything
of its kind that has been written in recent years.
AR Recte Vivendi'' Harpers) is the title OF
Q series of essays written originally for " The
Easy Chair" in Hdrper's Magazine by the late
George William Curtis. Extravaganza at Col