The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-09

genious one. The dialogue is snappy but
is rather too full of slang TO be accept
able to all readers.
Mistress Content Cradock. BY Annie
Eliot Trumbuli. Barnes & Co., New
York.
There is a delicacy and sweetness
about this story of the Salem colony,
Roger Williams and John Eliot, that
distinguish it from many of the his
torical novels of the day. Content
Cradock, the young Puritan heroine, is
sought in marriage by two men, a
courtier of Charles II, who has come tC
the colonies to repair his fortune, and
young friend of Roger Williams.
There is considerable historical atmos-
phere in the book, which is one to please
most readers.
Fromnot and Risler and Robert Hell
mont BY Alphonse Daudet. Translated
by George Durham Ives. Little, Brown
g. Co., Boston.
This volume is the first in the new
edition of Daudet that Little, Brown &
Co. are issuing, and it is admirably
printed and beautifully bound. There
will be twenty volumes in the edition,
which will be emphatically the" edi-
ton to own. Katharine Prescott Warm
ely, Balzac's translator; Jane Minot
IL, >
Charles De Kay and others equally
capable have been engaged to do the
translating.
A Wager of $4,000 Marks Laid. BY f.
e. Biz, Published by the author,
Leipzig, Germany.
A small pamphlet bearing the above
title has just been issued by the pub
fishing firm of F. E. Biz, Leipzig,
which discusses from a new point of
view the question now in everybody S
mouth. Thesauthor shows from the his
tory of the world and more particu-
larly from the history of civilization,
that within an appreciate time the
sanguinary wars of today will entirely
disappear and that their abolition will
be accompanied by a considerable re-
duction in the ornaments of the pow
ers. He lays a wager of $4,000 marks
in support of his views, and shows by
examples that, owing to the spread of
culture and education, man stands
much higher in point of morality than
in former times. The pamphlet is writ
ten in an authoritative style, and can
not fail to interest the reader.
Child Life A First Reader. By Eta
Austin Blaisdell supervisor of Brock
ton public schools, and Mary r. Blais-
York.
Who would not enjoy being a child
to learn to read out of this engaging
book with it's multitude of pretty pic
lures and it's irresistible cover? The
reading exercises are reinforced by
phonetic drills, script sentences and
outline drawings so that several birds
can be killed with the one stone. The
book is about children, their life and
environment, as seen in relation to the
| home, the school and nature.
Part II of "Stories of the American
| Revolution" by Everett T. Tomlinson
| is a worthy successor to the many
| books of history by this productive au-
thor. The basis of each story is true
historically, and all are founded on the
war for independence. There are 22
stories and eight pictures in the volume
| in question, which is one to appeal tC
| every boy.
Without Dogma. By Henry B. Sien
! kiewicz. Little, Brown & Co., Boston
Leon Pleszowski is a young Pole o
80 years of age, rich, and modern
Hamlet over-civilized, selfish, analy
teal, weak-willed, he is not withou
ability, if only he could overcome tn,
faint of degeneration in his blood. H
falls in love, almost at sight, with
posing when an accident calls him t,
Rome, where he becomes entanglet
with a married woman. His GOODNESS t.
| Amelia, his cousin, forces her into mar
riage with man she does not love, anC
| PloszoWski returns to Warsaw to fine
himself madly in love with her
Thenceforth he sets to work scientific
ally to overcome her principles, Il
vanquish her virtue. His intrigu,
II 10.
him that "love merely spiritual re
mains a shadow but love without spirit
ualism becomes utter degradation"
| but later he accepts what he CALI
the only logic--the logic of passion
| Thousands of years ago it was known
to the world that virtue and righteous
ness alone give power to life; tha
| emptiness and nothingness dwell IL
the realm Of evil. The moment wher
that dear head rests onmy breast, wher
the beloved lips meet mine, truth ant
goodness will be with us. In the mids
of doubts which crowd my brain, thai
one truth shines clearly"
He hunts poor little Amelia as ruth.
lessly as a hound a hare; the suicide
of her husband seems an act of provi-
dence which removes the only unsur.
mountable obstacle; but Amelia, while
confessing that she has loved him al
the while, eludes his grasp, and the
story ends in nothingness.
1t is difficult to detect in this scien-
tific, psychological study Of a morbid
modern mind the hand that wrote
QUO Vadis," but the book is not the
less moving and artistic for being
pitched in a quieter key than that pop
ular romance. A profound knowledge
of human nature is displayed in it
the heroine is lovely, and this impres-
sion is intensified by the carbon
print of her that forms the frontispiece;
the hero is tragic in his rudderless
helplessness, his want of stamina and
his confused principles, but he is q
| type that is too common. The trans
lator, liza Young, has performed her
task successfully. This cheap edition
should do much to popularize this in
| teresting work