The times., 1899-07-02

more true to nature than the text. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Company
Washington: Ballantyne. s2.50)
Minor Fiction.
"a June Romance by Norman Gale
bears signs of having been written with
particular reference TO the matinee girl
though the hero is hardly possessed of
backbone enough to satisfy that young
lady. Briefly, it is the story-the diary
of young gentleman who is deeply, ear
nestly, Imply in love, and whose affection
reduces him to a state more and more
wiited as time goes on, until at tse end
of the book he has scarcely strength to
make the necessary proposal of marriage
When he is not indulging in emotion, o.
eating something, he is writing poetry
which would probably have been sold TO
the magazines had his fair one declined
to smile. The book impresses one as a
combination of love and lobster salad
with the latter in predominance. tChi
cago; Herbert S. Stone & Co. 10 cents.)
''The Cougar Tamer,' by F. W. Calkins,
is collection of adventure sto-, ,es of the
West. Most of than are novel and well
told, but there is ece of advice which
might profitably be given to Mr.. Calkins.
He has a tendency to use long word of
Latin derivation when short Saxon one
would do just as we'll Were is not for
this fault, several of these stories would
be excellent reading for boys, and he might
win fame and money by folio wing that pa h
in literature. When he says "a man of SCI
ence, entitled to write weighty abbrevia-
tions afte' bis name" he puts an obsta-
Gle in the way of the readers mind, and
this, however slight, is blemish in an ad-
venture story. 1t is no small matter to
write a really good book for boys, and if
Mr.. CalhIns would attend to this one thing
he would not only attain eminence, but
would make himself more acceptable to
| adults. 1t is perhaps not amiss to note
| that the frontispiece Of the book proves
that the artist did not carefully read the
story which it is supposed to illustrate.
There is gross error in it. Chicago:
Herbert S. Stone & Co. S1.25.)
"a Cosmopolitan Comedy" by Anna Ro-
| beson Brown, is good story for summer
reading. 1t deals with princess-in fact
two princesses, one by birth and one by
MARRIAGE famous Spanish pearl. and the
outbreak of the late war The scene is on
the coast of Maine, and the dramatis per-
sonae are a big, good natured American
Russian Prince Sarrszine; Sarrazine's sis
ter, charming girl masquerading in boy S
| clothes; Jew named Jacoby, and an en-
| thusiastic and irrational Cuban who plays
into the hands of Jacoby, the villain. The
working out of the plot is ingenious and
the denouement unexpected. (New York:
d. Appleton & Co. s1)
"The Carcellini Emerald" is the short
story which gives its name to a collection
of clever tales by Mrs. Burton Harrison
Mrs. Harrison is usually entertaining. and
this volume is no exception to the rule.
'Leander of Betsy's Pride" is. the only
one of the stories which can properly be
called strong, though THE Carcellini En-
| erald' is exciting and contains some re-
markably good character drawing THE
Stolen Stradivarius' is a sketch OF an Irish
| journalists family which suggests that
Mrs. Harrison could, IL she chose, write a
most charming book about Terence and
Molly Blair, Granny. and the children,
Kathleen and Maurice, and the rest The
| Irish gentleman in this country is just as
charming as he is on the old sod-with a
sort OF fieeting, exotic charm-and this
phase of our cosmopolitan national life
| has never been properly depicted. AN
Authors Reading and Its Consequences is
a bit of broad comedy, with touch of sat
ire, which points the moral that people in
questionable life should not try too vio-
lently TO be fashionable. Chicago: Her
bert S. Stone & Co. S1.50)
| For the Honor of a Child" is a small
novel by Beulah Downey Hanks, dealing
with the misfortunes of beautiful Ameri-
can woman married to a jealous and disso-
lutte Spanish don. The plot is considerably
overdrawn as to possibility, and the hero
| inc Is rather vague but there is one re-
! deeming feature in the book-the character
| of the child around whom the plot re-
wolves. Don Santiago Laurence Lamadrid
| otherwise Jim, is a most charming little
| fellow, and the chapter in which he chat
| ters inrocently to the man who once loved
his mother is one of the daintiest bits oi
romantic realism In recent literature
There seems to be no particular reason why
the book should end unhappily, but it does
| and the reader must cen make the best oi
| the situation into which the authors ap-
petite for tears has incontinently dumped
| her characters Fortunately for the artistic
finish of the book, she has not thought il
necessary to sacrifice Jim. CNew York
Continental Publishing Company. rs cents.l
"The Angel of the Covenant" is Scotch
story of the time of Montrose, by j. Mac
| 1
so very unlike other stories of adventure
with which the market has lately beer
flooded but it has a different flavor from
most of them, owing TO the thorough
| Scotch tone of its diction. We have haC
dialect stories in abundance, but here is &
hook in which the Scotch is used in suct
a way that one realizes that it is really {
language. 1t is not put into the tale fol
the sake of picturesque effect, or used witt
the writer and the characters. Lords anc
ladies' use the colloquial phrases and quain
words of Scotch songs. They speak o
the 'sneck,' and talk of thinner ant
of making siccar," and in the text itsel
| we find such words as "keek, 1alouse,
"tirled," and "birken shaw" cropping ou
in such a way as TO prove how strong ant
good a vehicle of thought the old Scotch
was. To those who are not quick TO catci
the meaning OF a strange word the Ian
guage may prove somewhat unhandy, bu
such readers need not struggle with th'
book; there are plenty of other books il
the world. On the other hand, those VIII
are interested in the language of common
folk of old days will find the diction fasci
mating, and declare that as used by Mr.
Cobban the Scotch is both a bonnie and I
cannie speech, full of strong, expressive
humorous. tender, and picturesque terms
New York: r. F. Fenno Co. Sl.25)
THE Strong Arm" by Robert Barr, Il
the best collection of tales of mediaeva
adventure which has been seen in som
time. Mr.. Barr knows how to tell story
and he has a wealth of material in th
history of the Rhinelands in the days o
the Crusades. This material he has use'
most deftIy and well. In this book Their
is a novelette, of half a dozen chapters
which is good. but the finest of the worl
is in the short stories which follow. Their
| /. , ,,ir, burnor and primfner tragedy II