The Saint Paul globe., 1897-08-08

was a shrewd observer and a humor-
lst OF the early American type; it was
his hope in originally publishing these
sketches that chance would bring
them to light when. time would give
them an interest" that they lacked to
readers Of his own time, and kind
fate and the appreciation of his old
publishers have gratified his DESIRE
Historically, even. the style is inter-
est1ng, it SO thoroughly reproduces
past-and-gone fashions in literature
and reminds us at intervals of Addi-
son, Dickens and Maria Edgworth and
a score of others equally diverse; the
Illustrations. reproductions of the
original cuts by the author, awful as
they are, add notasa little to the old
time Illusion. |ss5
georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents,
Etc, in the First Half Century of the Re-
public by a native Georgian. Harper &
Bros, New York. $1.25. For sale by the
St. Paul Book and Stationery company
Miss Litchfield falls decidedly below
the standard of her own best work
for its background social Washington,
and for its moving figures a couple OF
naval ofncerS, a young lawyer, an old
general, a charming invalid, a beauti-
ful young girl and her aunt, society
woman of the usual type The beau
H.
deed-beautiful, stately and impressive
quite beyond the limit of even an ac-
tive and kindly imagination; of course
she is the heroine. AS it would prove
extremely difficult to create a hero
OF equal Importance, the author clever
ly eVades the impossible, and provides
two figures to balance this rather op-
presslVe young woman. One of these
heroes reminds us not little of George
Elliots Grandcourt, he calls his beau
t1ful wife lin a voice that had the hard
ness of steel, my Beloved" decks
her with jewels and leaves "a broad
red bruise around her slender wrist
The other hero is more ordinary
young man and would doubtlessly be
a more agreeable companion, but he
believes himself an unintentional muir
derer and quite cut off from domestic
relations. The heroine loves this man,
but she is very pure and scornful of
weakness, a frozen Hilda, and, at the
first suspicion. with cruel pride, throws
aside his love. She marries, justly
enough, the real murderer, who wins
her by blasting in her eyes the char
acter of his rival. She continues to
love the other man, and, finally, find
ing imperfection in herslf, even, gains
little hard-earned charity. Develop
ment is, of course, the keynote of the
story, but the material is inane the
times a little lush. The heroine is at
all times, either a disturbing saint or
an uncomfortable sinner. and we must
admit that, when tried I'm the Cruel
ble," proves mainly droSs.
C'In the Crucible by Grace DEMO Litch-
field G. P. Putnams Sons. New York. Pa
per, so cents. For sale by the st. Paul Book
and Stationery ccmpany.)
"Heart-Tones" is a series of poems,
sentimental, patriotic and religious, by
the Rev. D. O'Kelly Branden. The
religious poems are decidedly the
best, and the series on the visions of
st. Paul of the cross are filed with fer
vent feeling and their genuine earnest
ness and literary character give to the
volume value it could not otherwise
claim. However, this series has been
given permanent form before and the
only excuse for it's inclusion in the
present collection is the desire of Faith
er Branden's admirers to combine in
one volume what they consider his best
verses
cHeart-Tones and Other POEMS" by D.
| O'Kelly Branden. The Peter Paul Book Com
pany. $125)