The Indianapolis journal., 1898-11-06
IAN IDYL OF The WABASH. I"
Volume of Short Stories Just Pub
Iished by an indianapolis Writer.

In the ten tales collected under the title
"An Idyl of the Wabash and Other Sto-
ries" Miss Anna Nicholas has presented a
series of studies of people and manners in
the middle West that are illuminating Of
conditions OF life not heretofore touched by
writer's of fiction. The field has been so
often CLEANED that it would seem hardly
possible that anything novel could remain;
yet Miss Nicholas has not only found new
and interesting subjects but she has also
brought to bear upon them remarkable
penetration and insight. These are decidedly
not purpose stories, but as footnotes to
history-to what is really the unwritten
history of the Wabash country they have
a. distinct value. No one else has ever taken
hold so firmly of the essentially religious
nature of early rural life in Indiana-cer-
tainly no one with an equal capacity for
discrimination and analysis. DR.. Eggleston
showed an early appreciation of the ma
terial which he found in the Indianians Of
his young manhood, but he never success
fully returned to tho task which he began
so auspiciously, of representing it in fiction.
Moreover, it Is not in the curious spectacle
of deluded fanatics awaiting the end of the
world nor in any similar eXtravagances
that Miss Nicholas finds inspiration, but in
the most familiar phenomena observable
in the spiritual life of illiterate, but earnest
and well-meaning people. Not in New Eng
land alone were society and religion welded
firmly in early times but the same union
has been observable in nearly every Ameri-
can community during the formative period
of development And thus several of these
tales of the Wabash country are. between
the lines a tribute to that vigorous evan
gelization which triumphed over mud and
malaria, carrying the gospel far beyond
the sound Of church bells and building a
faith that has yielded slowly and reluct-
antly before higher criticism and purely
ethical substitutes
The title story is a model Of condensation
and of clear, straightforward and vivid mar
rative. The gradual assimilation by the
crude Western town of the New England
school teacher is happily described. There
is delightful humorous quality in her be-
lated romance. In 'The Solution of a
Text" later on in the volume the author
has scored distinct success as humorist.
This is a story in negro dialect, which lends
variety to the book and is one of its many
pleasant surprises. Mr.. Howells will envy
Miss Nicholas her Movement in Art'-an-
other surprise But it is in "At a Way Sta
ton" and "A Farmhouse Drama" that Miss
Nicholas has touched life most deeply.
These tales are managed with great skill
and power. The situations in both are i'm
pressive, and they are peculiar to the en-
vironment to which Miss Nicholas assigns
them The eliminating tragedies are so in
exorable and so heartbreaking that the most
hardened reader cannot fail to be- moved by
them. The slight sketch Of Valentine Jill
son in ''At Way Station" is excellent. The
farmhouse Drama relates in a striking
way to the subject of divorce, and
without any straining of effect brings to-
gether a most suggestive combination of
circumstances. AN Itinerant Pair should
be appraised with the two stories just men
toned. 1t is transcript from the wayside
that illustrates capitally the power of words
in the hands of an artist. This simple
sketch has the air of veracity inseparable
from good fiction. The figure of the ven
erable Servant in thc Methodist Vineyard
becomes a portrait, and in a day of de-
cadence it is refreshing to find so wholesome
and contented type reproduced in book.
IAN Abiding Love" sounds the note of fidel-
ity, and the description of lonely woman's
excursion to tho Shiloh battlefield, where
she supposed her soldier husband to be,
shows further the writer's power to create
and link yether unusual situations.
The autAor's singular insight into rural