The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1900-06-22

York. l2no. paper Doc, cloth
81 %.
The scene Of this story is laid I'M
that part Of Culpepper. county, Va,
where the West bank OF the Rap
pahannock river, forms it boundary,
and about fifteen miles northwest
from fredericksburg, where on the
Both day Of April, 1868, there stood
and perhaps still, stands, an old
fashioned farm house OF the colon
ial type. Here lived Phineas
Strong, a quaker of the old school,
who had bought the farm OF fifteen
hundred acres on which this house
stands for 100000 twenty years
before. He dressed then and un
til he died, in the garb of his reli.
gior. He used the plain language
on all occasions and to every one.
His wife Rachel was rather dimin-
utive in size and stature. Her cos
tune complied with the rules Of
her religion, but her face, which
shown out from her Shaker bonnet,
was as "sweet and placid as day
in May" She looked the sweet
wife and ideal mother. The civil
was was then in progress, and Tor
more than two years all that part
of Virginia was one vast battlefield,
the scenes already of conflicts past,
and of conflicts to come, between
the grand armies of the North and
the brave and persistent ones of the
South. Phineas Strong was an
abolutionist and four OF his sons
had already been killed in the war
leaving him only one child, Phoebe.
She was perhaps eighteen. In a
few days drummer boy, Bennie
Porter, whose father was killed in
the battle of Charlottesville, came
to the old quakers to live. Though
much younger than Phoebe he falls
violently in love with her, and their
love passages form the principal
plrt OF the story.
In spite of the intense interest
which every reader Of the book feels
until the last chicken comes home
10 roost," the pathetic and most
beautiful sentiments of the story
hover around the head Of the gen
: tie, pure minded, broken-hearted
} Phoebe. The world condemned
because ii knew not, but the aver
. age reader will be inclined to add
a flower to her lonely grave, and
believe that in the sight OF heaven
: she was always good and pure
! The plot is most ingeniously wover
and developments await the reader
: where least expected. One who
: expects to lind in the book a com
) mon place plot, something along
: the line Of the modern paper back
: ed novel, will be disappointed. In
| deed the narrative sometimes tread'
dangerously near the line of wha
some readers are prone to call for
: bidden ground, and while not sen
sational in the common acceptance
of the word, the book will never
the less produce somewhat OF a sen
sation with the reader.
t One does not deem the title D
"Chickens Come Home to Roost
inappropriate after perusal of tn
book. True to the maxim, tn
penalty follows the mistake unerr
ingly, and, though realizing tha
: fate hath ordained it ever to be thus
the kind hearted reader wishes 4
I. he last it might have been other
: wise III the life of the little Quake
\ maid Phoebe. "Chickens Com
Home to Roost' is stirring novel
, charmingly written, and the write
) Of this review believes it will b
/. genuinely enjoyed by many readers
though the purpose Of the bool
: seems to be made somewhat to-
' prominent and there seems consid
erable uncalled for criticism 0
/: Union Generals, but withal it is
4 good story, aud its popularity i
altested by the fact that 4O,OO'
r COPIES have been sold in the tirs
six months.
! The author, Mr.. Lewis B. Hilles
/. was born at Chatham, Chester Co.
, Pa, in 1857. At an early age h
left home and went to Culpeppe
( county, Virginia, where the seem
! cf the novel is laid. He worked OF
farm for sometime, but being am
) bilious saved sufficient to pay 70
d an academical education and grad
uated at Lafayette college, Pa. ii
: took first honors in classics. III
0 was admitted to the bar in indians
! by Judge Gillette and practiced 70
1 sometime in that state, he the
0 practiced in Ill.,, Ia., and Mich.
and is also a member Of the Su
preme court Of the U. ).
q A great deal Of the story is draw