The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-12-20
ESTHER IN MAINE"
A Juvenile Book by Mrs. Flora Longfellow
Turknett.

| "A OuSchl0 BOOK ny NAHos 4 AOA " AVhSACAAo W
Turknett.
A young Syracuse woman is the au-
thor of one of the most original and
captivating juvenile books of recent
years, the story of esther in Maine,' -
by Flora Longfellow Turknett, publish
! ed in beautiful form for the holidays by
Jennings & Pye, Cincinnati, and Eaton
& Mains, New York. . Several short
/ stories by Mrs. Turknett that have been
published in periodicals have found
favor with the public, and her first book
indicates rare literary gift. Her little
folks are not copies, but real creations,
each characterized by strongly marked
individuality. Their summer recrea-
lions and adventures take place amid
the most picturesque surroundings,
but there are no long drawn descriptive
passages.
| A few words put picture clearly be-
fore the eye of the imagination, as in
the following passage: "When they
4, reached the turn in the road they saw
| the little village lying peacefully in the
the beautiful blue waters of Penobscot
Bay shining in the sun, dotted with the
white wings of vessels from five masted
schooners down to tiny yachts
BOOK FULL OF INCIDENT.
The book is full of incident and
abounds in delicate humor. 1t is thor
oughly dramatic. Children and older
| people live before us and their CONVEX
satlon is as natural as the ripping of a
brook. The little folks are lively, and
whether journeying. trouting, driving,
playing on the beach, jumping on the
hay, singing in the twilight, telling
stories, or getting into exciting and
funny escapades, are always real, al
ways interesting, always healthy
| wholesome and winsome. There is no
sickly sentimentality, no priggish self
consciousness, no artificial demeanor in
any of them No didactic aim is obvi-
Gus; yet the atmosphere of the story is
as refreshing and bracing as sea
breeze.
The grown people do not take up
much room in the story, but they are
as individual as the children, whether it
be Aunt Patience, who tried to do her
duty toward making little machine of
a lively, restless child" white haired
Grandpa Abbott with his shrewd wis
dom, the tiny and quaint Aunt Matilda,
with her supertiuity of caps and ischus
and shawls and her humming bird Slip
pers, jolly Aunt Elizabeth, "a lively
talker," with her racy "reminiscences of
old times, OF Esther's gentle mother.
whose beauty we see through little
Mildred's eyes.
seen ES OF THE AUTHORS CHILDHOOD
Though it's characters and events are
imaginary, the environment of the story
has been familiar to the author from
| her childhood. She is perfectly familiar
with the Maine woods and waters, it's
trout streams and lakes, its rugged cliffs,
crooked cOveS, glorious mountains and
rocky islands, its forest trails, narrow
wood roads and lovely highways.
She was born in Bath, Me-, and most
OF her summers have been spent at the
seashore. She is still young and is re-
markedly girlish in appearance. At
the age of 10 she married Robert George
Turknett, a civil engineer of Chicago
though of a Georgia family. She was
widowed before she was 81. Her brief
welded life was spent in Chicago an6
Florida, and her home has during most
of the time since been i'll this city. Hel
ancestry on both sides goes back to the
early colonial history of New England
her father. Dr.. J. f. c. Sawyer. being
utoNtIluo't HUM Ile loullleIS u l4dllcaS
ter. Mass, and Windham and London
derry, n. H., and from Captain JOIN
Gallup one of the six captains who fel
in the great Swamp fight" which
broke the power Of Narragansetts
while her mother is of the Gloucestei
line of Sargents and descended from the
Giffords who came into England witt
/ William the Conqueror. Several OF
Mrs. Turknett's ancestors We're soldier,
of the Revolution, and as many more
bore an active part i'll the Colonial wars
She is an accomplished linguist, an(
has read widely in German, Italian an(
French literature as we'll as in that OF
her mother tongue. Syracuse. y. y.
Post-Standard, Dec 5th.
The book is for sale at F. G. Mixers
Belfast, and by Miss NJ. B. Sargent
Searsport.