The age-herald., 1898-01-16

looklng beyond the actual scenes into Shad- owy space beyond.
 This to me is the greatest charm of Craw ford's work; a close observer myself I enjoy it. But he can tell good stories too full of throbbing, palpitating humanity and in "Cofleone' l read with breathless in- terest of the brigands of Sicily, and their perilous and daring adventures and only relaxed my fascinated attention and al- lowed my heart beats to assume their nor nal action over some introspectivo thought, as when he says For conveying a direct
 impression what is the sharpened concise ness of Euclid, or the polished eloquence of Demosthenes, what is the sledge-ham-
 mer word blow of Aschylus, or the light ming thrust of Dante's two-edged tongue, compassed with a kiss. or a girls blush, or ! the touch of mothers hand-or the si- lent certainty of two-fod thought in one, which needs neither blush, nor touch, nor kiss to say that love is all, and all Is love? or when he says, 'If there is one thing in woman which more than any other attracts l a misunderstood man, it is the conviction that she believes him capable of great deeds. and if there is one thing beyond others which leads woman to love a man, it is her own certainty is really su- perior to those around srsa, and really needs womans symb.iti1y. Youth, beauty charm, eloauence,ssssa are all second to these in their power to implant genuine love, or to maintain 1t. if they con- t1nue as COnultlOnS. what a Irufl! De- stroy these ideals and you dosaaway with
 more than half the affinities between men
 and women, and dozens of other reflections
 which lose much of their point and spirit
 when removed from their setting.
 "Corleone" proves that the novelist's old | charm Is with him still s- In "A Rose of Yesterday one was hardly pleased with the substance of the book and the final inn pression received was of good work wasted on poor material Mir. Crawford loses something in power every time he has left | his Italian subjects. Those he handles | with unequalled vigor, and in 'tCorleone" he writes almost as effectively as In Sara cinesca." The book belongs to the quence which began with that delightful narrative.
 | Giovanni's eldest son reappears, none the worse for those prosaic adventures through which he passed in "Don Orsino."
 "Corleone" is not exclusively engaged, | however, with the dolngs of Don Orsino. | On the contrary he marries the heroine without occupying the stage as a hero; his | brother, Ippolito, is really more closely 1 identified with that role, and Tebaldo, the villain of the drama, Is more important l than either of them Tebaldo, in fact, is l one of MT. Crawford's most interesting fig ures. Never has he been happier in his i interpretation of the southern character. than in thus dealing with the people of Sicily and the "Mafia" of which his heroine
 says "rhe Mafa is not band, nor any
 thing of the sort. It is the resistance
 which the whole Sicilian people opposes to
 all kinds of government and authority. It is a sentiment feeling, sort of wild love of our country that is a secret, and
 will do anything The story Is an elab- oration of this statement, with the senti-
 ment and It's fruits brought into play with | dramatic force.
 From beginning to end it realizes the 1 picturesqueness and tragic significance of l the Sicilian life and nature, and weaves into sombre web one of the most charm l ing love episodes which MT. Crawford has l ever described. The style is fluent as ever, and to pick up the volumes is to hold them until they are read through
 PAUL PRY.