The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-19
THE Two Standards"

THE Two Standards"
By DR.. William Barry, Cloth; PIP. 513; the
Century company, New York; st. Paul
Book and Stationery company.
Twelve years ago DR.. William Barry
a Roman Catholic priest, brought out
his New AntigOne'-a romance, whose
dynamic elements were anarchy. Chris
tianity and free love. The book won
the approval Of scholarly readers be-
cause of it's chaste but mastery treat
ment of delicate and difficult subjects.
DR.. Barry's Two Standards" which
has just been published. will attract
much wider circle Of readers. Aside
from the fact that it deals with mat
tiers supposedly foreign to the priestly
mind, there is a novelty of treatment,
a vividness in sketching characters and
situations that keep the edge of inter-
est keen. AS one reads the last chapter
1t seems as if the author should have
written at the bottom Of the last page:
Vanity vanity, all is vanity saith the
preacher"
What are the Two Standards" The
church and Mammon. perhaps; but it
will give most people a mild shock to
see where the reverent father draws
the line of demarcation. When ministers
of the English church speculate and
peculate, and their wives frown at
novels, cards and theaters while they
gleefully urge their daughters into
marriage with reprobates and swind-
iers: when missionaries form trusts and
play into the hands of gospel syndi-
cates;" when true love finds no rest
ing place and virtue no reward, one is
forced to the conclusion that Mammon
and church have become sadly mixed
The author himself gathers up in one
terrible chord the burden of the heavy
dirge when. in describing the career
II
head of the gospel syndicate, he says:
And then came across it a scent OF
religion in decay, of putrefying super
Stitions; it was cant with a text in it's
mouth and leprosy in its bosom-the
. hottest besmirched, fouled stuffed with
falSehoods. adulterated and put up to
sale for the good of trade: the Heav-
emily Jerusalem let into a prospectus
and sold by the square yard" Where
then is the true standard? In the
Roman church-by inference
On the fidelity of the types in the
book there will be as many different
opinions as there are readers for there
is a grouping of characters so dis
tinct and so opposite that the sympa-
thies and antipathies of the reader are
brought into sharp relief
John Hancock. His Book,
By Abram English Brown. Cloth; DID. 272;
price. 81; Lee & Shepard Boston; St Paul
Book and Stationery company.
John Hancock. while figuring more
or less in histories and sketches of
prominent men, has never until recent
~ been given that detailed considera-
ton by biographies which is due him.
The volume put before the public by
. Mr. Brown gives a, clear picture of
s. the patriots commercial, social and
political life. The author has drawn
his material from John Hancock's let
ter book, wherein there was much evil
dence of the constant toll and sacrifice
which he devoted to the public good
during that turbulent but history-mak-
ing period of revenue acts
A pleasing relief from the tension
of political life is afforded in the ac-
count of his courtship of Dorothy O.,
whom he married while he was presf-
dent of the Continental congress
Mr.. Brown has given space to some
Of the letters which answer the MANY
aspersions cast upon the motives that
governed John Hancock in his adher-
!. ence to the cause of the colonies. The
strong letter in which he defines his
attitude toward the stamp act is of
especial interest and was placed in his
letter book as "a standing monument to
posterity' of his opposition to the act.
The quaint spelling and syntax in
the epistles add very much to the in
terest of the book
ssHosy to Right a Wrongv
BY Moses Samelson. Cloth; PIP. 1888; F. Ten