The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-10

ity than she has those Of the women;
we mean simply that, Willingly or un-
willingly, she considers the masculine
part of her village population as su-
perior in all ways, and without eXcep-
ton to the feminine, and has so rep
resented it. Other writers occasionally
allow a man to be fefnininely weak and
a woman to be whitley strong, but
Miss wilkins draws the line with pre-
cision and allows no stepping of
lit Her women may. be wise, but 1t Is
in little things; they may have GER
tain force, but it is strained and ner-
vous, never powerful; her sweetest
women are doll-ltke, brainless and
emotional; her. ablest women are
hysterfcals and ; grabbed; = to only
+ one, the squire's wife, is at
tributed any brains, and they are
not of a remarkable sort. Over against
+ these range thes men Of her creation,
| Whether they have virtues or vices,
they have force and repose; and these,
we are made to feel, are merely quail
| ties inalienable to the sex. If Miss
wilkins men and women are to be ac-
cepted as competent evidence no other
| testimony is needed to establish the
relative position of the sexes.
('Jerome A Poor Man." by Mary e: Wiki
ms. Harper & Bros, New York $l.zo: For
sac by the st. Paul Book and Stationery
company
The most artistically conceived and
symmetrical tale of vengeance that
we have had the pleasure of READING
for some years is 'Mr. Peters" a novel
by Ricardo Stephens. More brutally
thrilling plots are with US always, but
the subtlety of contrast, the balancing
of effects, the ever present knowledge
| of hidden machinery, the slow but in
evitable approach of the fatal climax,
| the insistence of what may be called
| the vengeance motif, cruel, but dispas-
sionate, in the midst of kindness and
gayety, is really more narrowing to the
| nerves than heaped up, pressed down
and running over blood, thunder and
dynamite-and if not to be~nerve-shat-
| tered why does one read vengeance
stories? $50 .tr
A Western town in the United States
| is the opening scene in the tale. A
man accused of horse stealing is con-
victed, through the agency of treach-
erous adventurer, and the eloquence of
an unsophisticated young Scotch law
yer, who is overwhelmed by the result
of his success. The supposed horse
| thief is only lynched-and the hanging
supplemented by shaoting-when his
innocence is established, and the re-
mOrseful town makes up a purse for
the widow, a heroic figure of an Ital-
ldIlI VIII uI6hGS sure OL Tie lnClQSnIS
Of the lynching and then disappears
with her little boy. Thirty years after,
Mr.. Peters, a mysterious stranger, ar
r1ves in Edinburgh, with family affairs
to settle-l1is father died with debts
unpaid and he has come to pay them
! what we count as especially artistic
in this tales composition is the intro
duct1on just here of 8. sane and whole
| some subplot-several of them, indeed
| each one having its own life. but close
ly related to each other and the dark
thread Of vengeance. Lucius Moriaritv.
the heartiest, cheeriest Irishman. of
sense and sensibility in the city of Ed
1nburgh is the best foil possible to the
1mpassive, pondefous Mr.. 81 Peters.
whose patient, dispassionate ''treasur-
! ing Of a wrong is the very spirit of
! Nemesis. He reminds one of a huge
black spider slowly spinning a fatefuI
! web, and his poisonous nature seems
as utterly removed from his own will
| as Is the spider's.~~ The author has
made good use of the force. of. contrast
again IN the two unwilling OBJ
Jects OF Mr. Peters ven geance.
/ One, depraved, besotted adyen-
turer, filed with bombast and
deception; the other,s a Judge On
the Scottish bench, the ''jjist iudee :"
a man dignified, though conscie9ce-
stricken by a SIN of pride long past. q
loVab!e, pit1ful figure, but brought he
fore the same Judgment as the villain
ana for share in the same crime.
Withal, 'Mr. Peters" is an unusual
story Of its kind, and combines many
OF the qualities Of the. school of ad-
venture tales with some of the subtletv
OF Mr.. Henry James. 49, ,..t, o. -
f.Mr. Peters" by Riccardo Stepbe1s Harm
er d Bros, New York. SE25. For sale by ths
81 Paul Book and Stationery company.)
A considerable story is "Fiercebeart
the Soldier" a story not to be dropped
till the last page is finished and not
even then to be quite forgotten. "a
Romance Of 1745" is its subtitle. and
IN rapidity OF action, highly coIored
situations and interest sustained at the
boiling point the tale justifies its right
TO the name; but in its really clever
character drawing, philosophy and
scraps of psychology, it is not what
Mr. Stanley Weyman and some Others
have persuaded us to associate with
the term. It is a romance in which the
great events Of history are pictured
with no little knowledge of the touch
that Turns them from mere facts into
| romance, at the same time that these
| events appear as of but slight i'm
! Dortance in the shadow Of a purely
fol