Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-21

We want the people to know what
they are getting when they buy our
book, and shall therefore give it brief
review in our own paper. 1t is dis
tigetively an American book. We
could have laid the scenes in London,
Paris or st. Petersburg, but we didn't.
We laid it in America, and the three
principal characters are kept moving
about between Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, st. Louis, Chicago, Den
yer and Giveadam Gulch, in order to
give them as much of a local flavor as
possible. We had to ring in a French
man in one chapter in order that some
one might act as cook, but he is not
heard of again after preparing one meal
and falling over precipice. Nothing
but the English language is used from
beginning to end. Where it becomes
necessary to use a swear word the
reader will find it spelled out instead
of On dash, and hence no musun-
derstandings are possible.
THERE IS A PLOT.
We could have written our book in
far less time had we let 'er go Gallagh-
er without regard to plot, but we were
determined from the first to have one.
The plot begins with the opening chap
ter and runs clear through the back
cover. An orphan girl, who is work
ing in lawyers office as typewriter,
is left 100000 by an uncle in Califor-
mia. The lawyer gets the information
first and puts up a job to marry her and
get the cash. His wife and five chill
dren are in the way, but he arranges
to get around that trife. The type
writer heiress is likewise engaged to
brokers' clerk, but the thrust of
dagger will fix him. In some mysteri-
GUS way banker hears of the great
fortune and mixes in and a boarding
house landlady suspects mystery and
starts for California to unravel it.
Two detectives and shirt manufacturer
suddenly bob up to thicken the plot,
and by the time chapter three is fin
ished razors are flying in every direc-
tion We are mighty proud of that
plot. It's full size and down weight,
and every time the reader thinks he's
got 1t down fine a new complication
arises. 1t was necessary to kill off Is
OF the people to carry the interest to
the last paragraph, but we did it cheer
fully and as gently as we could.
HERO AND HEROINE.
The hero and heroine are drawn from
characters of to-day and there is no
exaggeration. John Henry Jones is the |
son of an ice-man, but merit and ambi- |
ton secure him a place with broker |
He wears only passable good clothes, |
and his lunches are taken at cheap
restaurants. Nancy Thomas, the hero
inc, is the daughter of laundress. but =,
not liking the business of ironing
shirts she turns to typewriting. She |
wears old shoes and a cheap hat, and ]
doesn't even try to look naughty. To- |
ward the end of the book, when she |
gets her money and is married to Jones. |
there is something of change in both, |
of course, but nothing to startle the
reader. They get into better clothes
and can afford 75-cent restaurants, but
they don't go to chattering French or
threatening street car conductors with
the bounce. They are just plain, sem
sible folks right up to the very last,
and it was with regret that we finally
parted with them.
SOME MORAL LESSONS.
In writing this book we didn't fish
for opportunities to draw moral lessons
for the average reader They seemed
to come along naturally with each
chapter. In his greed for gain the law
yer kills his wife by rolling barrel of
vinegar over her. Three days after her
funeral he is leaning against barbed
wire fence when thunderstorm
comes up and flash of lightning runs
along the wires and blinds him. He
must live on fer years and years in
That helpless state. The shirt manu-
facturer has just put up jub with a
salesgirl to represent herself as Nancy
Thomas and thus secure the fortune.
when rattlesnake bites him and he