The times., 1899-10-22
HALLWAY Romnnce.

Three or four books of railway stories
have come out within as many years, and
the best Of them all in some respects is
Stories of the Railroad" " by John A. Hill
Mr Hill was formerly a locomotive engf-
neer on the Rio Grande road, and his
yarns" have the realism which can come
only from thorough knowledge Of ones
ground, while they are full Of an imagina-
tion and power which prove the born story
teller. The technical phrases are not so
abundant to make the story uni1tellgi-
bic TO the outsider, but at the same time
there are enough of them TO give plenty
OF local color.
There are. nine Of the tales, two o. three
exceptionally good, the others of great
merit, and suffering only by comparison
with the authors own best work. Per
haps the most original and striking is My
Lady of the Eyes, and the most pathetic
and captivating Jim Wainwright's Kid"
The Polar Zone" is a weird creation, q
little out Of the regular line of the au-
tbOT's work and The Clean Man and the
Dirty Angels" is the queer title of the
best character sketch in the volume. "A
Peg-Legged Romance is the only one OF
the stories with a strong vein OF humor
The main interest Of them all may be said
to be the oye-interest-human emotion in
between man and woman. In the early
days OF the railway sentimental people
used to think that there could be few pos
sibilities for the stoTy-teller in this sOoty
gTimy, numbered monster, run on sched-
ule time, but it seems to be Mr.. Hills
mission to show how Romance brought up
the nine-hfteen."
Next to what the theatrical press agent
would call heart interest" the most sa-
I e ,fr ITrl a.. .
plot and incident. This is shown in almost
all the tales. In Jim Walnwright's Kid"
We have the story Of a young engineer
a little rough Of tongue, perhaps, but
! clean-souled, chivalrous, and manly Amer
| ican mechanic-and the curious relations
which existed between him and his fire
! man. who was not man at all, but an ad-
venturous, plucky, and intelligent young
! girl who, in a spirit OF pure daring, had
! disguised herself as a man and applied for
| a position on newly constructed engine.
! She was the kid" Her father had brought
! her up IN a machine shop; she had worked
| in the factory where the new engine was
! built. and was familiar with every part OF
| it; so that she easily carried out her plan,
| and not even her companion suspected the
| truth for "a time; others never found it out.
There are two or three things about this
! story which are peculiarly American. The
/ bringing up of the girl in a free, untram
| meled atmosphere is one. another is the
| character of the hero, who like the aver
age decent young American, Will protect a
weaker comrade as readily as he would
! shield a woman. When the Identity Of the
! Kid is finally discovered the romance be-
| gins, and the two are finally married
My Lady OF the Eyes" has touch OF
mysticism In it, Of very original kind
| AS for the style OF the book, from a lltera-
| Ty point of view II is rather rough Here
and there are conventional phrases which
| jar on one. The ex-engineer sticks out
all over 1t. Many of the paragraphs sound
If they might have been written by the
secretary OF the Amalgamated Brotherhood
Of Locomotive Engineers. They have the