The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-19

Minor Fiction.
"Pine Knot" by William E. Barton, is
a remarkably truthful picture of life in
the mountain regions of Kentucky during
the years Immediately preceding the war.
No attempt is made to deaf broadly with
political questions, the political interest
being subordinated to that of the charac-
ter-work and romance. Strictly speaking,
there can hardly be said to be any hero
or heroine, three or four characters shar-
ing these distinctions among them. The
| central figure, however, is j. Howard Buzz
bee, a Kentucky-born abolitioDist, who
goes into the mountain region to teach
| school and propagate his ideas. The part
| of Kentucky here dealt with is that on the
| southeastern boundary, close to the Ten
nessee line, a few miles from the town
now called Williamsburg, but at that time
known as Whitley Court House. Few
slaves were kept in this part of the coun
| try, and it was here that some of the
strongest supporters of the Union were re-
cruited, for the mounteineers held much
| the same opinions as the Union men of
middle Kentucky and were less affected
| by passing currents OF thought. Buzbee's
daughter, a pretty girl OF eighteen, is be-
| lo~ed by Jim Fletcher, sturdy young
mountain preacher, and also by young
denouement in the story is quite unex-
pected, but also quite natural Among the
incidents of the tale is one particularly
telling in dramatic foTce-that of the dis
covery by Buzbee of a supposed silver mine
in the mountains. The schoolmaster i'm
mediately forms a plan to sell shares in
this mine, which he conceives to be of i'm
mense extent, and make a proposition TO
Lincoln to purchase all the slaves in the
SANafh oNNA .f.,sW,
shares are to be held largely by aboli-
tionists and Jealous Unionists. Too late
however, he finds that a crafty neignbor
associated with him IN the management of
the mine, has tricked him, and that the
ore Is worthless.
The most striking quality OF the book
Is its absolute naturalness. II is a per-
feet picture OF the life of the region with
which it deals. SO perfect as to challenge
comparison with the work of Charles Egg
Der, Craddock who has hitherto held SUI
preme sovereignty over that part of the
literary field. All sorts of curious noun
tain customs and superstitions come into
the narrative from time TO time, and the
var ous queer characters of the region are
depicted with a truthfulness which is de-
lightful. One has the sensation OF going
into the cabin and actually listening to
the quaint, homely comments and rural
wit-and there is a great deal OF wit
among these nountaineers. The book
causes the reader to smile at almost every
page. Sometimes the thing which amuses
is an old proverb, and sometimes a
freshly coined witticism: both are fasci-
mating and unhackneyed in their origi-
nality. For example. here is a cure for
the toothache given by mountain wit:
You go to some certain field, no odds what
field: you pick three certain kinds O. weeds no
odds what weeds, you grind em up jes' so fine,
no odds how fine; yen put 'em in the tooth, no
odds what tooth, AMI i'm git well, odds
when.
delicious chapter is that IN which
the schoolmaster and the preacher on
one side. and the mountain wissscres on
the other, argue the question whether
the earth is round or fiat. 1t seems al
most impossible that, no longer than
generation ago. community could have
been living in America where the opinion
of the earth's fairness was universally held
unquestioningly: but those who have tray-
eled in that part of Kentucky and Ten
nessee know that the inhabitants of that
region get their ideas OF geography and
astronomy from the Bible, or not at all
Another fine bit of work is the story of
Daddy Campbell" the old man who was
cursed by a negro woman whose baby (his
own SOM he had sold. She doomed him to
live to be hundred years old and he
lived till he had outlived the story OF his
offence and was reg irded only with pity
and reverence. 1t is to be hoped that
Mr.. Barton will give US more stories of
this picturesque region for he surely
knows his ground. and the material of his
tales. with advancing civilization. is fast
becoming metamorphosed into mixture
of country village and cheap metropolitan
type. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
s1.5e.)
THE Girl at the Half Way House." by
E. Hough, is a good companion to Mr..
Barton's "Pine Knot" not because the |
two books deal with the same subject, or
because they are alike, but because they
have to do with two distinct types OF
American community, both now passing |
away, both possessed Of admirable quail
ties Of citizenship, and both primitive TO |
the last degree. Mr.. Houghs scene is laid |
in the middle West, at the time when it |
was regarded as the far West, and the |
Indian, the cowboy, and the pioneer figure |
therein. The hero is an eX-captain in |
the Union army, and the heroine South |
cru girl, come with her father, mother |
and old negro Iidmmy to the farthest out |
post of civilization. The nanny is a de- |
lightful character. So is Battersleigh, the |
major of the rifle Irish" settled all by |
himself on a claim with sod house on It. |
So is Curly, the cowboy. In fact, most OF |
the characters are delightful.
One characteristic OF the book is that |
the chapters are too short. This is not |
exactly a fault, however. Every time the |
reader finds ttat he has reached the end |
of one OF these divisions of the tale, he |
thinks there should be more of It. The
chapters are really very brief, and the |
author never runs his discussion OF one
topic into the ground. There are numer-
Gus dramatic and telling incidents in the |
book; one OF them Is the finding OF the |
body Of a dead man who had been MUIR
dered and burned afterward. Another is !
the ride which Franklin, the hero, and a
companion, take to rescue the heroine's |
family, shut in by a blizzard. san an
other is a lynching scene, In which the
hero and two or three companions protect /
half-witted Mexican from the fury of a +
mob.
The heroine is charming. the hero man
ly. and the plot thrilling enough; but when
all Is said and done the best features OF
the book are Battersleigh and the old NAM
my. Battersleigh. in combination of uni
form and multi, going to a ball with
white at neck and wrists as a gintleman
should have'-the white being a piece OF
an old flour sack-is the best thing that has
happened in fiction since Colonel Carter
of Gainesville, and Nanny Lucy, with
her pride and her chickens and her love
for her young mistress, is almost as good
as Chad. New York: D. Appleton
Company. S1.50)
miscellaneous Books.
Prophets of the Nineteenth Century" by
May Alden Ward, is a tiny book containing
three essays. on Carlyle, Ruskin. and Toll
stoy In the authors preface she points out