The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-07
A NEW BOOK BY A NEW HAVEN
AJJTHOR

| AUTHOR.
In her pleasant home on Lawrence
lstreet, in a room ull of books and flow
ers, birds and sunshine, Miss Rose Por-
ter writes the charming books which,
since the days of her earlier Summer
DriftWood for the Winter Fire. have
given her welcome in many homes a
and helped and frightened many hearts.
Her last book, fresh from the print of
e. p. Dutton & Co., publishers, has
only just appeared 1t is a story Of tw
hundred and twelve pages and is enti-
tied "a Daughter of Israel" las SUBJ
ject is new departure for Miss Porter,
and involves no less feat than present
ing in the guise of vivid living story
the tragic tale of Jephthah and his
daughter as told in the book Of Judges.
NO one so far as we know has attepted
this before. and it is indeed no easy
| task. But Miss Porter has accom-
| plshed it most successfully. She has
so lived herself into the past life of
those early days of Israels history that
sheshe seems to read between the lines
and to fill in the story in way that
holds the attention of the reader from
beginning to end.
For the setting she has read Gerkei,
Farrar, Westcott, Motley, Plumptre
and Others and in style and descrip-
tons of scenery, costumes and customs
has kept well the color of the Biblical
narrative. To her Imagination she has
allowed interesting play in the attempt
to explain the seeming brutality of the
sacrifice of the lovely Jewish maiden to
the hasty VOW of Jepthah. In stead Of
an immediate and bloody death, the
daughter of Jeptha is in this book
banished for life to leper colony near
the Dead Sea, where by her devoted
service to the despised outcasts she be-
comes a truer sacrifice in fulflllment of
his fathers vow by consecrating "the
sacrifice of self to the cause of right, as
the highest and noblest Offering God
can accept" The idea that she was in
some such way saved from death has
been suggested by one or two of the old
est commentators, but to Miss Porter
belongs the originality of he suggestion
of the leper colony. While the majority
ly think that, as with many customs Of |
those undeveloped far away days, this |
tragic story must be taken literally |
Still we can only hope, as we read Miss |
Porter's sympathetic story Of the beau
tful Elisheba. that some such escape
from so horrible a death may have been
hers.
The pain Of the exile in Miss Porters
story has been enhanced by Ilishebas
from her young lover,
Ozem, whose romantic love runs like a
thread of gold through the sad tale.
Among other interesting characers
which she has creaed are the faithful
and valiant Simon, the gentle Micah
and the devoted Naomi. The charac-
ters of Jephtha and his daughter are,
however, those on which the interest
most centers, and an hour spent with
hem in this book makes them more
-eal than ever before. One turns to the
book of Judges with fresh keen interest
% re-read the scanty annals of this
;addest story in the Old Testament.
1t is an admirable book for the Sun
lay school library land few are the
Sunday school books which can truly
De recommended), for the church libra
~ and for the home AS it is Miss
Porter's favorite Of all that she has
written, so it may well be prime ia
lorite with the many readers whom her
writings have cheered and helped to a
higher ideal of life.