The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21

soft words, to help horn idiot out of her
difficulties by writing her examination
paper for her. This, by what Mrs. Greene
calls divination, the Vermont woman does
in a hand nearly resembling that of the
ignoramus. The name of the young lady
who is thus assisted to enter an institu-
ton of learning is Katherine Eleanor
Arundel, and she belongs to a rich and
prominent New York family, who are all
more or less afflicted with paresis- except
one, an Arundel by marriage-Miss Elean-
ors grandmother. The Vermont maiden
is sent for to visit Eleanor's home, where
she is Immediately adopted into the FAM
lily and becomes the controlling spirit of
the household. Meanwhile the young
scapegrace of the family falls in love
with Martha, and Eleanor falls in love
with Marthas brother Daniel, an ingen-
uous youth without any money. The tale
ends with a double wedding.
The keynote of the story is set by the
Arundel grandfather, who is the most
marked example of idiocy afforded by the
book, although none of the characters
act more like real persons than If they
were in a dream. The whole book, in
fact, reminds one of those dreams in
which one finds ones self gravely insist
ing that il is absolutely necessary that
ed with a Cuban machete, and that the
only proper accompaniment for soup at
dinner is plum preserves 1t is incoher-
ent, improbable, and fanciful to the last
degree, and the only artistic feature in it
is the completeness of it's imbecility.
There probably never was a novel writ
ten before in which the characters all
came out of Home for the Feeble Mind
ed. The grandfather may serve as a
specimen of the family character:
He was very fine; he shone from his blth and
was rosy checked from his breakfast every par
ticle of which had been removed from his pol
ished person, except small hot-water urn, CON
tanning the remains of some fried parrish, which
the attendant, now discovering protrudng from
ms eoat-tali pocket, bore grayely away.
This interesting individual keeps up
through several pages al a time a bab-
bling after this fashion:
"D-n your Pope and Milton grammar. Wat
SOM Why don't you talk EnglishP'
The nurse gathered up medley Of lobster
from the carpet beside him, pulled out
stalk OF celery from his shirt bosom, brushed him
little, and resumed her post on.
What you always mussing over me for
Mrs. Rose?' said the object of these attentions,
not discourteousy, but a little petulantly.
Putting me here in a bib and tucker at my
own table, and I've made my millions! Umph!
All foolsl Had in an insan asylum only
my brother prevented it. Just because | wanted
to be charitable-c charitable Martha Go to
church. and you're bawfed at, Charity charity!'
Come home and practice ii, and you're trotted
off to the madhouse. But they can't circumvent
me. ] can sign checks YETI
OF course, If, in the course of human
events, IL becomes necessary for the writ
ers of fiction TO explore asylums for VIC
tins of softening of the brain, and put
the results of their observations on pa
per. 1t can be done, but the ordinary
mind will fail to see the necessity. To
describe the mutterings and the behavior
of an imbecile moral or otherwise in a
book as to report them verbally 1t will
be remembered that this same Mrs.
Greene had some trouble in connection
with her first book because she saw fit
to use the history of the simple people on
Cape Cod and describe them under their
own names. The world smiled at the
book, because ii was bright, but the yer
batim reporting was an act of questiona-
bic taste, all the same Whether the
imbeciles in this book are drawn from
real people or not, one has no means of
knowing. but the authors powers of de-
scription are such that there is a certain
realism about some of the passages,
which is nothing more nor less than ut
terly disgusting. There is nothing i'm
moral about this work. There is not
sense enough in it for that. It is simply
what the inelegant but vigorous-minded
schoolboy calls rot
(New York: Harper Bros)