The herald., 1898-11-06

that always find readers-a straightforward
and well told story.
AMERICAN PROSE SELECTIONS.
WITH CRITICAL INTRODUCTIONS
BY VARIOUS WRITERS AND A
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. Edited
by George Rice Carpenter, Professor of
Rhetoric and English Composition. Co.
lumbia University, author of 'Princi-
pies of Grammar" Exercises in Rhet-
oric and English Composition" etc. The
Macmillan company.
This volume is intended as a supplement
to the five volumes of Craik's English
Prose-" and follows in general the plan
adopted in that series and in Wards Eng
lish Poets" The object is to present ex-
tracts of considerable length from the
works of the chief American prose writer's,
preceded by an authoritative critical essay
and by short biographical sketch, and
Professor Carpenter has done his work
well. So far as 1t goes it is a handbook of
our prose literature, and would be a gra-
cious addition to any students collection
of handy and valuable helps. To those
who do not possess the fuller works of our
great masters of speech, this volume can
be commended as a most satisfactory sin
gle volume compilation.
O O O
A VOLUME. OF VERSE. By Mrs. Ella
Higginson, .uthor of 1.-The Land of the
Snow Pearls; or Tales from Puget
Sound,' "A Forest Orchid and Other
Tales" etc. The Macmillan company.
Mrs Higginson has prepared her readers
for these verses by the imaginative quality
of her stories. 1t has often been said of her
that she has portrayed the life. of the Pa
cific slope with skill and artistic feeling
Iyx-hi ioh eriyra her for he ~
that Miss Wilkins has achieved for the
New England states. These poems show
the author on another side of her sympa-
thetic nature. They have melody to an un-
usual degree, and like her stories they show
an ardent love of natural beauty, and in
emotion they range from the merry to the
gravest moods.
Mrs. Higginson's fine sketches have
earned her place in the ranks Of the prom
Using new writers of the country, and to
some extent, as Miss Jewett has made New
England known through the pictures of its
people, Mrs. Higginson has made the Puget
sound country known.
Her poetry is of the modest. chastened
sort that excuses lack of absolute genius,
and is really worthy, though we always
feel that it were better for good prose writ
ers to put their poetry also into prose.
There is melancholy in much in this taste
author leads. In "The Passing of the
Hours she sings:
And yet, howeveE-still their flight may be,
Their ceaseless going weights my heart
with tears;
These touches will have wrought deep
scars on me
When the light hours have worn to heavy
years"
OF Goods Creed" she says:
Forgive me that I hear thy creeds
Unarmed and unafraid;
They are too small for one whose ears
Have heard Gods organ played,
Who, in vast, noble solitudes,
In simple faith has prayed
There are some pretty lines in
DREAM TIME
1t is the time when crimson stars.
Weary of heavens cold delight,
And take, like petals from rose,
Their soft and hesitating flight
Upon the cool wings of the air,
Upon the purple night.
1t is the time, at eve, to lie
And in hammock family sway;
TO watch the Colds and crimsons die
Across the blue stretch of the bay:
To hear the sweet dusk tiptoe by,
In the footsteps of the day.
Some fine lines too, are they that pic
ture "Moonrise in the Rockes:''
Then of sudden springs a rim of light.
Curved like sickle. High and higher
Till the full moon burns on the breast of
night,
And million frs stand tipped with
lucent fire.
O O O
THE STORY OF THE BIG FRONT
DOOR. By Mary f. Leonard 25S DID,,
vo., cloth, illustrated s125. r. Y.
Crowell & Co.
There is a peculiarly congeniaI atmos-
pher about this story-an air of refinement
and good will about it's leading characters.
1.-THE Big Front Door, is the hospita BILE
entrance to an old-fashioned home In a
small town that might be in any of the
states west of the Mississippi There is an
aunt who has charge of family of lively
boys and girls, and she, by her tact and
winning ways, guides into useful and
benefcent channels their exuberant spirits.
They form club and accomplish excellent
work in friendly emulation. There is not
trace of priggis hness about any of the
characters, and the whole story is simply
charming in its vivacity and graciousness.
Nor is it lacking in interesting incidents.
O O O
DE SOTO IN THE LAND OF FLORIDA.
BY Grace King, author of New Or
leans" etc. With illustrations by
George Gibbs. The Macmillan COM
pany.
Miss King has again written notable
book-more interesting to the world at
large than her admirable volume that told
US of New Orleans and its romantic his
tory as had never been told before.
The story of Hernando de Soto and his