The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-07-17

1t must not be concluded that Mrs. Stet-
son alawys carries the air Of banter. for
many poems are of the most serious sort
She is a sincere believer and worker in her
chosen field, and there are not a few fine
bits of high poetic feeling in the volume
before us, like this. for instance:
A NEVADA DESERT
An aching, binding, barren, endless plain
Corpse-colored. with white mould of
alkali;
Hairy with sage brush; Shiny after rain.
Burnt with the skys hot scorn and still
again
Sulenly burning back against the sky.
Dull green, dull brown, dull purple and dull
gray,
The hard earth white with ages of de-
spair;
Slow-crawling, turbid streams, where dead
reeds sway;
Low wall Of somber mountain far away,
And sickly stream Of geysers in the air.
This volume will interest many Southern
Californians, for Mrs. Stetson has many old
friends and neighbors hereabouts, who have
taken lively interest in her career.
O o o
THE TERROR. A Romance of the French
Revolution. By Felix Gras, author of
1.-THE Reds Of the Midi" Translated by
Mrs Catharine A. Janvier. Cloth, $3.50.
D. Appleton & Co.
OF all the romances brought out in last
years publications, scarcely one was at
once so much of surprise and delight as
1.-THE Reds of the Midi" 1t was so simply
told, so sincere and so strong, that 1t took
and has ever since held first place. And
now comes another delightfully."- told story
of the French revolution, giving another
side of many things treated of in the for
mer volume. 1t has no deep purpose or
motive and 1t is not even historically ac-
curate; but 1t treats of persons and events
that make at once a vivid and pathetic pic
ture before the reader and one that holds
him to the end.
The central figure of the story Is a
young girl suddenly, and, It would at first
semm, hopelessly, cast into the vortex of
the French revolution. 1t is a novel that
arouses interest and sympathy, as was to
be expected.
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL GROWTH
IN AMERICA. Four lectures. BY Ber-
nard Moses. professor in the University
of California; 12mo. 81. G. P. Putnam's
Sons.
The titles of the four lectures are: I. "a
Fundamental Tendency Gan enjoyment of
common rights and privileges; II. Conflict
and Socialism, Ill Education and DEM
ocracy"; w. preservation of the Demo-
cratic Spirit" 1t can be said of this mod
est volume that it is straightforward and
to the point, going to the root of the many
troubles that threaten US. 1t is a timely and
worthy contribution that Professor Moses
has here given us.
Here is some trenchant talk in the chap
ter on Conflict and Socialism,: IF oppo-
stion to the trusts is based on their exercise
Of certain powers given to monopoly, this
opposition ceases of its exercise. 1t should
reach the unions of laborers as well as capt.
talists, for when a union Of laborers refuses
to allow laborers to work for certain desig-
mated persons 1t is not greatly different In
principle from the refusal of corporation
of coal dealers to sell coal to certain desig-
mated retailers.
"All this is undermining the foundations
on which the government rests. and he
who makes such an appeal is conspirator
against the common veal and is deserving
of the denunciations of his fellow citizens
and the brand of public infamy.'
All the topics in the volume are treated
with great vigor as we'll as fairness.
o O O
CARICATURE TYPES.-There are adj
vantages about fixed caricature type
which fixity alone can give. John
Bull may not be exactly the same sort
of man as his father or grand, but he Is
a chip of the old block, and nobody has
the slightest doubt as to his identity. We
know that he is honest (his honest express
sion is. according to the continental view,
only cover for the most shocking hypoc-
risy; but then they go too far on the CONT