El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-28

i HE LAbbE ~
Frances Courtensy Baylor. Cloth,
352 pages, Svo. Boston: Hough-
ton, Mifhin & Company. Price
$1.5O.
THE Ladder of Fortune is an in
teresting novel, from the first pages,
where the rough frontiersmen turn
their winnings into the gentle hands
of two Catholic sisters who beseech
them for aims to start an orphan asy-
lum, to the last where = of their
p~roteges dies, and ends his long, blind
struggle for money. The 4'o"y's chief
interest is in the ambition IF the wife
for social leadership, and Ter slow,
painful success. One follows her from
the dull little town where she achieves
her first crude and gaudy triumphs to
her gala days of exquisite entertain
ing In Paris and her final complete
content in dining senators and diplo-
mats in Washington.
AS one reads one has glimpses into
the gay life of many cities. The hus-
band spends his long life, his immense
physical energy, and his pluck, In
buying and selling and the making OF
money, with no definite ideas beyond
the contemplation of his money
drawer. The wife spends her mental
and physical forces in the study of her
calling list.
The book ia q careful analysis of this
type of man and woman-a type which,
unfortunately, n secs In our
and therefore the story has truth. The
husband can be dismissed with little
thoughts he always was in his "
household. He is only . money max
ing machine, ssrves as q background,
and il not otherwise picturesque.
His ability to make money and inabili-
ty to enjoy it is a pitiful but minor
element of the story. The wife has
two splendid qualities-one, that she
let's he ambitious purpose conquer
her vanity, and learns from her
notifications; the other, her stead
f~astness of purpose. Had she spent
she would have wrought az
much joy and content a. she effected
woe and suffering by her fixed, un.
swerving desire to be . leader OF
fashionable society.
She 10 indomitable and uncomprO-
misipR-her own vanity and comfort
never keeping her from her purpose.
Wifehood, motherhood, gratitude for
benefits received, friendship, or any of
of these swerve her from her
path. She Ia entirely absorbed, per-
fsctly selfish. Her husband 10 only
considered in order to be csjoled into
loosening his purse strings; her chill
are only bats.
However, though one may lament
tina she was not noble, yet one feels
something of sympathy with her. Her
story IL very real as she goes through
and through the changes from the
handsome, but %uncouth. unschooled
and unrefned woman, 30 the days OF
her splendid veneer Of polish and re-
fnement, when she queens 1t in Paris
and tyrannizes over the gay city.
In New York she finally learns that
splurge 10 not all-that no display of
her diamonds, satin furniture, and
champagne will open III fashionable
portals,-and she decides to go over
aud practice on Europe. Her mortify-
ing failures are trying to her, but in
teresting to n who watches the
scenes.
Besides the wife there are two pretty
daughters whom the mOther uses DELHI
erately to help her purpose. Finally,
one marries a French marquis, has a
wedding so magnificent that all the
world hears of it, and a married life so
unhappy that she envies b most pitt
full begenr in the streets OF her own
country.
Her story is of one of those cruelty
unhappy marriages that are sometimes
made between an American he1ress
and . foreign title. The American
girl Is so free in mind, body and soul,
and so accustomed to the standards
that have made her go, that she can
have no conception of the difference
between a wife, standing in Europe and
q wife's standing in America. But oven
to the most Indifferent, frivolous, and
selfish American girl, it is . heavy and
cruel difference. The story of this
ones misery is plainly told, and, while
it is not the inevitable story of the
American girl who marries q foreign
title in exchange for her fathers dol
lars, yet there is as much fact as fancy
in it.
The other daughter is the only
wholesome, sweetbearted member OF
the family. She falls in love with an
marries him, and Is happy
ever afterwards. Polly's grace, her
and simplicity, relieve the
bitterness.
Frances Courtenay Baylor. the au-
thor, is q Virginian, and writes with
grace and a confident pen. Her story
is q careful study, and her characters
and many scenes are strongly drawn.