The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-13

land" because inhabited chiefly by young
married couples The young mothers of
these infants. for the sake Of improve
ment. had literary clubs and they met,
says the narrator naively:
Chiefly at Minnie Mason's She gets them up,
and Is president: yon see, she has more time he
cause she las no children: she's the only woman IN
Bahyland who hasn't, and don't doubt she feels
and sympathetic and takes such an interest in
an oar affairs. and il she Is somewhat inclined to
gossip about them. poor dear, II Is very niluTal,
when She has so few Of her own to think about.
Il was owing TO Mrs. Mason that the
Tolstoi Club came into being, and the
history of its birth is worth repeating.
This is the way it is told:
Minnie said We must get up 4 Tolstoi Club: she
said the Russians were the coming race, and lol-
Stui was their greatest writer. and the most
Christian OF moralists cat least she lad read so)
and that everybody was talking about him, ana
should be behind hand if We could not. - we
turned one of our clubs, which had nothing par
ucIlaT on hand Just then, INTO one ana peSues
Tulstoi. We read other Russian noyelists, lur-
gcnicf aHd-thai man who'c name Is 50 hard 10
pronounce. who writes all about convicts and and
other criminals. We did mol read them all. ior
they very long, and We can never get through
ANYTHING long: hut We hired very nice ladN
SKINNER who through them. and told us
the plots. and all about the authors, ana read us
bits. ! forget good deal, but ] remember she
said Tolstoi the supreme realIst, and that all
previous uovclists were romancerS and idealists,
else had ever done anything like II, except, m
deed, the other Russians, and then We discussed.
In discussion very apt TO stray of 10
other topics: but that day. | remember BESSIE
MillikCn saving that the Russians seemed very
queer people; she supposed that II everyone SAID
these authors were so true To life. they must be.
but she had never known such an extraordinary
state OF things Just az soon as ever people were
married-if they married at all-they seemed Wild
TO make love to someone else, or have someone
else make love TO them.
of
realistic Russian fiction lead eventually
TO some rather curious results.
''Of course SAYS the teller of the tale, in her
inimitable way. ''nnne OF US could ever have
dreamed of running away with fascinating young
man-likc Anna karenina-because in the first
place we all liked our husbands, and in the next
place who could he depended upon TO go into town
to do the marketing, and 10 see that the children
wore their India rubbcrs on wet days.!
The way in which a scandal, or the be-
lief Of one. came to prevail in this inno-
cent and purring little community, makes
up the rest of the story, and very
bright little story it is. The others,
! though perhaps a trifie less novel, are or
! iginal and fun OF humor, and the charac-
! ter study is extremely artistic. "A bit
/ tie Fool Three Cups of Tea" and THE
! Tramps' Wedding are perhaps a shade
! the best of the remaining seven. The
( book IS the sort of book that can be writ
ten by q very clever woman who knows
/ and likes her environment, yet is eclectic
/ enough to see the unconscious humor OF
/ the people around her. The aristocratiC
| Boston dame without any manners, the
real Boston gentlewoman with the sweet
/ est possible manners. the commonplace
! girl. the beauty the girl who begins plair
and develops into a beauty, that Is com
forting story for some poor mortals 10
read. The gossip of place where every
| body calls everybody else by her frs
| name and the tact of the people who do
! not gossip. are all here and drawn witt
/ delicate clearness. The author has no
written a great book, but it is a good one
and of a kind to afford the reader a hap
Ply hour, oblivious of outward surround
ings.
CNew York: G. p. PUtnam's Sons
Washington: All booksellers.)