The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-16

lished all of which had popularity in
their day. and one or two of which
still do not lack readers.
In the concluding chapter of Loom
and Spindle" Mrs Shattuck turns to
the factory life Of today, which in
every particular seems to her to show
deterioration. The major part of the
responsibility for this deterioration she
| throws upon the manufacturing corpo-
rations, who, in their greed, have
brought about physical, moral and
financial conditions among their en-
ployees which practically exclude per
sons of true American birth from
working in mills. Another enemy to
the mill hand has been high tariff
and still another has been the influx OF
foreigners. What was once a school
for the discipIining and broadening Of
mind and character has become within
half a century a cause Of decadence.
Yet, Mrs. Shattuck believes that if the
corporations would but mix a little
| conscience with their capital calling
| to their mills by higher pay better
class of operatives, the mill would to-
! day offer a most desirable outlet to the
| thousands of young American women
who are drudging in stores and work
shops.
"a Great Love" A novel by Clara
Louise Burnham. Cloth. 16 mo. Hough-
ton, Mifflin & Co.
"A Lover of Truth" A novel by
Sarah Orril White. IS mo. Houghton,
Mifflin & Co.
zone Of the Pilgrims" A bank story
by Anna Fuller. u mo. G. P. Put
MANS Sons.
"The widower." A novel by w. e.
Norris. Cloth. D. Appleton & Co.
| 1.-THE Title Mongers." By William
Farduhar Payson. Dodd, Mead & Co.
Miss Burnham has done nothing more
satisfactory than "a Great Love- -
which is story about pleasant, bright
people, who indulge habitually in a
gay badinage that is extremely enter
tanning, and who move in Boston's ex-
elusive circles with an airy self posses
sion that is reassuring. The charac-
ters are clearly sketched and the &C
ton moves briskly. Althea Gaylord,
the slangy westerner, is an irrisistibly
warm hearted. breezy, touch-and- &c
I creature, who enjoys the double ad-
vantage of being rich and eminently
| respectable. There are, to be sure, nc
| depths of passion or pathos or tragedy,
| but there is strong thread of moral
| earnestness and the character of Mar
/ garet Carruth is one of consistent ele-
/ walton and nobility The sacrifice
| which she makes in resigning her lover
to the little blonde blue-eyed person to
whom he has been struggling with
rather equivocal success to be true is
more than most women would feel equal
to, and more than in the Judgment of
some any woman should be called upon
/ to make. The honor which can die
] tate it is beautiful, but the practical
| consequences of sundering two young
people who love each other and have
every right to marry and of uniting
| one of them to a person he does not
love while the other is driven to de-
vote heart-broken life to music are
such as less courageous novelist than
Miss Burnham might shrink from ac-
cepting.
Eliza Orne White is at her best in
painting the subtleties, the reserves
and the anomalies of the New England
conscience, and since the New England
| conscience is peculiarly fem
mime arrangement, it follows that
I she is peculiarly successful in
! her delineation of the New
England women In this case howev-
er, the Lover of Truth" is q young
man. While all the characters are
cleYerly drawn, il is the figures of the
women that most satisfactorily illus
trate Miss Whites art. Yet it must be
admitted that Uncle James, the eccen-
| trio, cynical tender hearted old bach
elor, who marries at So, is one of the
soundest, most vital figures in the story
Lovers of the sensational and the dra-
matte will hardly care for the novel
which tells how an isolated, plain, awk-
ward little girl blossomed out, through
a series of defeats and humiliations
into a warm hearted, noble woman
capable Of the same passionate, costa
| tic loving, as those who had always
thought her cold. But readers who find
charm and interest in the gentler as
poets Of normal life will thank the au-
| thor for the pleasant reading she af-
! fords and for the frank, honest, clever
people with whom she makes us ac-
quainted.
Ii needs not the publishers list OF
/ Miss Anna Fuller's books to recall Their
names to us, for each remains distinct
and perfect in memory from Pratt
Portraits through "A Literary Court
ship" Peak and Prairie" and "a
| Venetian Jane" zone Of the Pilgrims
is written with all the story telling
ability the knack of style and the gift
| of humor that have marked Miss Full
ler's work from the beginning; it is
marked by an originality Of atmosphere
and local color, and it is conspicuously
clean and wholesome The best bit OF
character drawing in the story is that
| Of old Barney Flynn, type Of the su-
| perior Irishman of the early days oil
! immigration to this country, who is g
| fine comedy figure. There are also sew.
eral other characters of the same ma
| tionality and their hearty good temper
unconscious humor and little racia
| peculiarities temper the Yankee quality
Of the novel with a warm Hibernian
! ism that most readers will find enter,
! tanning. In the delicacy of its style ant
| the power of it's pathos, "One Of thu
Pilgrims is not the equal Of "Prat
| Portraits nor in the originality Of tn,
| plot and the dexterity with which it i,
handled Is on a par with "A Lit
erary Courtship." In one respect, how
ever, sincere gratitude is due Miss Full
Ter for having so successfully human
| lied the bank clerk. Cold, naughty, in
! different, he stands behind the bars O.
his little brass cage, automatically bull
i lying the humble depositor, who quaili
beneath his stern and icy glare, and re
| ceiving with immovable countenanc,
alike the scanty earnings of the casf
boys and the corpulent checks Of tn,
| railroad magnate. Miss Fuller ha,
shown us that automatic though he ap
pears, he yet has heart rustlng un
der his waistcoat: that he sometime,
Jokes and even upon occasion notice.
i the headgear of the young lady patrons
" the institution; that he is not abov,
jollying customer, and that he can b.