The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-23
NEW FICTION.
Novels and Stories BY New and Favorite
Authors.

an elegant physician anu SCleHllSl' MI.
sturgis, the police reporter of the Ev-
ening Tempest, accepts a wager that he
can unravel a certain mystery within 80
days. Among the elements in the pro-
blem are a petty theft, two mysterious
pistol shots, a murder hack with a
driver on the box, who has been
drugged, an underground passage, a
beautiful young woman, defaulting
bookkeeper, and a cool, ironical pol
ished individual, who first suitocates
his victims with gas, and then dis
solves their corpses in vat of seething
acid. The latter, it goes without say
ing, is the most remarkable criminal
of modern times, although some OF his
demoniac processes are not unknown to
the records of criminology The in
Vulnerable links in the chain Of cir
cumstantial evidence against him are
fitted into place by the imperturbable
representative of. the Evening Tempest,
who unites in his person the most
characteristic qualities of Old Sleuth
and Sherlock Holmes. The story IS
told exceedingly wen, and is one of the
most exciting that has come to The
Spy's book table,
strong Hearts. By George w. Gable.
For sale by Scribner's Sons, New
York.
In this collection of three stories re-
printed from the pages Of Scribner's
Magazine, Mr.. Gable returns to the
scene, the people and the manner that
first made him famous. He has done
nothing better than these tales of
Creole life in New Orleans-nothing
more delightful just as literature, or
more tender, humorous and delicate.
But why he should have chosen to dis
figure them with such names-"The
Solitary" 1.-The Taxidermist," "The
tomologist'-passes understanding.
Mr.. Cables own explanation OF his
stories is interesting. Behind the three
sub-titles and changes Of time, scene,
characters, this tale of strong hearts
is one, he says, because under so many
different aspects it sets forth in heroic
natures and poetic fates the principle
that religion without poetry is as dead
a thing as poetry without religion.
The first story is of a man who was
going down hill and who, through
heroic discipline, conquered his own
weakness. The second tells of a taxi
dermist who worked at his trade in an
eostacy of creative and aesthetic en-
joyment, but who had the good for
tune to draw $4,000 in the lottery.
Neither he nor his wife had any use
for money, for they had had no chill
dren, but they began the erection of a
fine house in the suburbs, and when
a fire broke out in the neighhorhood, It
was the orphanage of the sisters that
the taxidermist nearly killed himself
trying to save. He took dose orphe-
lin ba-bee'" into his fine new house
out Of the way of the smoke and they
never left it, for he had traded the new
house to God for his mercy in saving
the "ba-bee'" 1.-THE Entomologist" is
more tragic, for it tells of the faith
and love of the little German wife of a
scientist who ignored her and lived on
the profits of her needlework while he
made love to another mans wife, OF
allowed her to make love to him. One
night he disappeared and when at last
he was discovered, "Oh, sank Kott!
sank Kottl" she cried. ''it is only Sc
yellow feveh." The entomologist died
and so did the silly woman who had
led him on, but in good time the little
German seamstress and the fool wom-
ans husband married and, presumably,
lived happy ever afterward in his rose
uncovered cottage on Sixth street.
Two Men O. Mendih. By Walter
Raymond. Doubleday & Mcclure COM
pany, New York For sale by Putnam,
Davis & Co.
Mr.. Raymond has written six or
seven novels of English life, but the
story under question is mediocre. The
scene is laid in the west of England,
with miners and farming folk fof
characters There is considerable dia-
lect and the author has Incorporated
Ii
with unpleasant frequency. Love and
murder and justice are the leading mo-
tives. There is a good deal of melan-
choly and no humor in the story, which
ends in deep-dyed tragedy.
Pastor Naudie's young wife. BY
Edouard Rod. Little, Brown & Co.,
Boston.
NJ. Rods recent visit to Worcester
lends additional interest to this most
interesting and powerful but pitiless
and sad novel of French Protestant
ism at La Rochelle and Montauban,
the two Huguenot stronghoIds. One
cannot but admirethe analytical subtle
ty, the suppressed passion, the delicate
literary quality, which the distinguish
ed author has displayed, yet the work
is not one to make the reader either
happy or hopeful. Pastor Naudie was
still young man when his wife died,
leaving him with six children to bring
up in poverty. At the suggestion of
a parishioner, he married a rich, sell
fish, deceitful, luxury-loving young wo-
man. who fancied herself in love with
him, and promised to love and cherish
his motherless little brood. Six months
served to ALLEVIATE her feather-headed
affections. the duties of a pastors wife
fatigued her, the children hated her
and she hated them, an interesting
cousin was on hand to ride and talk
with: and the pity of it all was that
till the last. her husband adored her.
He had surprised her in surreptitious
with the cousins, had discov-
cred her in bare-faced lies, but what
cut him most was her apathy, her
Gradually his passion for
her crumbled. until his only desire was
to protect and preserve the respecta-
bility and honor Of his home. One
day she announced calmly, in a steady,
reflective tone. that she should leave
his house. and she did accordingly. In
his ignorance of any reason why his
wife should have left him, and his in
ability to comprehend her false nature,
Mr. Naudie begged her people to en-
treat her to return; she stoutly re-
fused, and the clergyman, broken in
spirit, resolved to become a missionary
and go to Africa. So the story ends.
AS may be gathered. the novel is
deeply serious. There is no CLEAN of
wit or humor. nor effort after local
color. The characters belong to the
middle class of society. and all, even
the secondary ones, are marvelously
sharp in outline. Simeon Naudie and
his wife Jane are drawn in mastery
fashion. The reader feels actual pain
in being made a witness to the grow
ing collision between the sincere, sin