The times., 1899-03-05

mates it entirely from words Ike sir and
more But the New England dialect rem
dered minus the r. is new thing in lit
erature. OF course, we have all known that
old-fashioned people in the Down East
States say "fust' and "wuss" and "cuss, ''
as they often do in other sections of the
country, but anything like a persistent and
unvarying omission of the letter 'r' has
never before appeared in New England da-
lect literature "as she is wrote" Indeed,
the authors of old-time dialect stories often
put the letter in where it did not belong,
as in "ter-day," or ''Marier.' But Mr..
/ Howells, after a lifetime of study, has sue
ceeded in dslodging from his mind that
conventionality along with several others,
and the result is pages and pages of this
kind of thing:
We've got quite ga den patch back Of the
house, and we should have had moa, but fatha
wasn't vc'y well this spring: he's much
beta than when we iust came hce.
The effect is a little puzzling, and one
is tempted 10 wish that IIr. Howelis had
explained about this r. business at the
beginning of his novel, and, like Lord Tim
othy Dexter, adjured his readers to pepper
and salt to suit themselves, instead OF
spelling out pronunciatiOns with the pre-
cision which he has used throughout.
But this, after all, is not the most re-
markable quality of this novel. In several
of Mr.. Eowells' love stories of past years
| he has laId himself open TO criticism be-
cause his heroines did not seem TO know
what ii was they wanted, even after sundry
explanations on the part of themselves
| and others; but never before has he
| created a suspicion in the mind OF the
reader that he had a heroine on his hands
and did not himself know what he had
intended to do with her. Somehow or
other, before one has read more than half
1. n 81
| nation, and 1t will not down. Ragged
Lady not only tothers everybody else in
the book by her contradictory qualities,
| but she seems actually TO have puzzled
the author of her being.
In still another particular this novel Is
different from any of its predecessors. One
hesitates to say 1t, because 1t seems like
such a dire insult to the creator of Brom-
field Corey and Louise Hilary, to say moth
ing of Lemuel Barker, and Brice Maxwell
and other heroes risen from the ranks to
| a comprehension of really good literature,
but the chronicle of Clementina Claxon-
| that is her name-bears traces of the infu-
| ence Of Laura Jean Libbey. Is it posi-
| BILE that Mr.. Howells, while sojourning in
the hotel whence Clementina takes her
| flight into the realms of fiction. picked up
under the table a copy of that thrilling ro
nance, ''Clarice; or, Only Lady's Maid,
| fallen from some waitress pocket; that he
| took it to his room and read 1t through,
and that its fascinating plot and more
| fascinating heroine somehow incorporated
themselves into the inchoate design of his
new novel? 1t looks as if something Of
the kind must have happened. RAGGED
| translated into Howells' style as anything
can be, and the author even forgets to
| snub his heroine, as he usually does If she
| chances 10 be addicted to dialect. Laura
Jean Libbey never snubs her characters.
even If they are only lady's maids or shop
| girls, and that is one reason why she is
popular in this democratic land of ours
Briefly, the plot of the book is this:
Clementina comes from one of those fam
lilies to be found in all classes of So
ciety. in which the father has all sorts Of
| talents except that necessary 10 make
| living, or keep his fortune II he has in
herited one. 1t may be observed that the
| children Of such a father, II he have no
vices. are frequently unusually bright
and clever, get on remarkably
| fast in the world. The girls
capable" and the boys intelligent, active,
and determined. This, at any rate, was
the case with the Claxons. Clementina is
| a girl such as one sees now and then
| even among the poorest American fam
| lilies, without education. but assimilating
| naturally every bit of knowledge which
| falls in her waY;-Without social experience.
| but with a sort of instructive grace and
| dignity which saves her from awkward
ness; without money, but with native taste
and elegance which makes a s. gown look
| as well on her as the rich woman's tailor
| made garments. At the beginning of the
| book she is sort of confidential assist
ant in one OF the big White Mountain ho-
| tells, on the same social level with the
| head-waiter and the clerk. and n little
| above the rest of the help" rich, vul-
gar old woman takes a fancy to the maid
en- and engages her as companion, and then
| the wonders begin. From that time on,
( every man whom Clementina meets-the
| clerk and the headwaiter do not count
| falls in love with her. There is an English
| lord on board the steamer which takes her
| TO Europe with her benefactress, and
| Socialist Russian baron in Italy, besides
| doctor, and a Western inventor of some
| fortune, and several youths whose exist
ence is only hinted at. In Florence she is
received into what We are to understand
| as the best American society, and promptly
becomes the belle of the place. The
head-waiter appears as tutor to rich boy,
and for the second time proposes marriage
| to the heroine, and then the indecision and
| the perpleXity begin Clementina finally
marries Mr.. George w. Hinkle-that is the
4
and leaves her n widow without much to
live on except a knowledge of dancing.
| In the last chapter find Mrs. Clemen-
tina Hinkle O. teaching a dancing class,
while the quondam head waiter, who has
since his last appearance married a woman
| older than himself, gone to China as
missionary, become widower. and come
home again, is meeting his old love after
her labors are over, and urging her for
the third time 10 marry him. At the close
of the book IT looks very much as If she
would, but from 357 pages of experience
| with Clementina, both as Claxon and as
Hinkle, We should advise the Reverend
Mr.. Gregory to get her into the woods
| somewhere near n parsonage, with the
| license in his pocket, and threaten her
with instant death If she does not marry
| him. In that way he would stand some
| chance of realizing the dream OF his life
before some other man happened TO come
and take her mind off the subject.
| 1t may be, of course, that Mr.. Howells
| had TO get up some sort of excuse to get
his heroine out of this country and into
Italy, TO which country he grayitates when
he can; and nothing except rich old lady
smitten with a longing for girl COM
panionl could have done that, in case like
Clementina's. Having gotten her into
Italy of course he had TO do something
with her, hence the suitors; and at that
point she seems 10 have grown unmanage-
able. OF course, he might have married
her to Gregory in the period of Gregory's
head waitership and allowed her indecis-
i've qualities to appear after marriage; but
the difficulty with that solution was that
Gregory had made up his mind to go to
China and what Mr.. Howeils would have
done with Clementina in China the Lord