The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-25
BOOKS OF THU PERIOD
NOVELS OF THE HOUR AND POEMS
OF ACTION AND
WAR
Mr.. >HOWELLs' LATEST BOOK

Mr.. ,HOWELLS' LATEST BOOK
''The Story of "a PIay"--"The Spirit
OF SVveet~ater," by Hamiin Gar
Iand-''POcms OF Action" by
Conan DoyIe-"UnGer the Stars"
and OthcrS-Notes About Books
and Magazines.
Mr.. TIowells, latest book is a lively
might with equal truth have been
named "a Study in the Mitigated Fe
licity of MatrimOny" 1t deals with the
fortunes of a play written by Brice
Maxwell, a young newspaper man Of
Boston, who has married a devoted
but decorating young woman of the
one feminine type which Mr.. HoWells
seems to know by heart. Louise Hilary
is above Maxwell in point Of wealth
and position. her ideal Included an
explicit and somewhat noisy devotion
to the aims Of his ambition, because it
was his, and a patroniZing reservation
lin regard to the ambition itself. But
this was quite possible with Louise,
just as it was possible for her to have
had a humble personal joy in giving
herself to him, while she had a distinct
social sense Of the sacrifice she had
made in marrying him. In herself,
she looked up to him; as her fathers
and mothers daughter, as the child Of
her circumstances, there is no doubt
she looked down upon him. But neither
Of these attitudes held in their COM
mon life. Love may or may not level
ranks, but marriage unquesSionably
does, and is the one form of absolute
equality. The Maxwells did not take
themselves or each other effectively;
they loved and hated, they made war
and made peace, without any sense of
the difference or desert that might
have been apparent to the spectator"
There are fewer events in this story
than the author has been accustomed
to treat us 10 Of late and there is no
such strong study Of a personality as
made "The Landlord of Lions Head"
notable among Mr.. HoWells' recent pro-
ductiOns The happenings are the ups
and downs Of the manuscript play,
which is taken up and dropped by q
young actor; then taken up and drop
ped again; then handed from manager
to manager, and finally brought out in
New York by the actor who had first
thought highly Of it's merits. These
occurrences and the little domestic Jars
of the MaXwells make up the book,
which is written with he ease and
mastery that Mr.. HOWe.ls never fails
to display, though it lacks the bril-
liancy which was the strongest feature
of his work ten or fifteen years ago.
In fact, it sounds here and there as if
Mr. Howells were getting q bit tired Of
nOvel-writihg and of recording the
scraps of commonplace, if refined.
ri cd nd
er tires, his public tires also. But as
we said at the beginning, the story is
sufficiently amusing.
Harper Bros. New York. "" SIS. For sale
by the St. Paul Book and Stationery COM
pany.
The Spirit OF Sw >etw lter."
1t is a strange and interesting fact
Il at !lch veins CT realism and Of roman
ticism may lie side by side in the
mental mine Of a single writer, each
being worked by turns without preju-
dice to the other. If there was any
thing that a critic could suppose a fixed
fact in the literary world, it was the
realistic tendency of Mr.. Hamlin Gar
lands writing. Yet, in the pretty little
booklet just issued from the press of
Doubleday & Mcclure, containing his
latest story, we behold Mr.. Garland a
rOmanticist of the romarticists, placid
y composing a sweet tale to the taste
of Miss Julia Magruder's habitual au-
dience. 1t is not bal little tale either.
but W hat is Mr.. Garland doing in that
gallery? Is his Pegasus hitched to the
plow? Can THE Spirit OF Sweetwater''
be pot-boiler? What has become Of
Mr.. Garland's market garden, that he
should thus lay waste the fields of
literature to garner richer crops than
Wisconsin acres can yield?
The story is all about a young Col
Crado millionaire who believed in his
own intuitions. One of them led him TO
a gold mine and another caused him
tn believe that he could cure a delicate
corsumptive girl whom he met and
revered at Colorado resort. The
spirits Of the air serve Richard Clement
and bacteria obey his voice. Eliice Ross
RECEIVERS, because he wills her so to
do, and her goodness and purity so
work upon him that he gives away
half Of his millions to acquit himself of
his conviction that he did not act ION
the square" when he obtained control
of the entire mine which made his
wealth. But even This sacrifice leaves
him feeling UNIV orthy OF his wife. The
story seems taa bel two parallels. One
illustrates the power Of first love over
mind; the other, the power of a deter
mined viii over body. Clement works
miracle for Elliee, and she in turn
is very pretty,9f nqt exactly probable
Gorie@d's crnN5r,E 5belief that romance