The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-16
BOOKS THAT LEAD
What WichitanS Are Now
Reading in Late Books.
VINCENNES ALICE AHEAD
Review of a New Novel" The
Isle of Unrest"

The most popular Of the latest books
in Wichita are as follows, in order of
popularity:
Alice Of Old vincennes. By Maurice
| Thompson.
2-The Lane that Had No Turning. By
/ Gilbert Parker.
Eleanor. BY Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
/ 4-The Redemption of David Corson
/ Corson. BY Charles f. Goss.
5-The Voice Of the People. By FL
len Glasgow.
s-The Isle of Unrest By Henry
! Scott Merriman.
Tommy ana Grizel By James NJ.
Barrie.
&The Reign of Law. By James Lane
Allen.
a-JOan of the Sword Hand By s. R.
Crockett.
Io-The Mantle of Elijah. By I Gang
will
'THE ISLE OF UNREST"
Henry Scott Merriman is a novelist
who is usually found scratching gravel
in some ancient place and getting some
thing new cut Of the process. This time
ne has tried Corsica and has called his
novel 1.-THE Isle Of Unrest"
AS pictured by Mr.. Merriman, who has
a warm side for thorny truth, the Cor
sican has a capacity for trouble that
would stock a western Kansas county
seat fight. With this dlfference-tfat the
Kansas county seat fight In it's feudal
characteristics, was a formative effer-
vescence which broke its last bubble
fuoboa+. oov5;rio- oaee1.5 10
permanent things. The Corsiclan is diff
ferent. He is perennialy diabolicaL He
is merourially devilish. year in and year
out. His mental equipment is a large
assortment of pigeon-hoIes, each labelled
Revenge" If he is wronged or fancies
he has been wronged and death beats
him to his enemy, he viii wait for his
enemys great uncle, and If the great
uncle reaches the grave in safety, he
viii bide his time, and some night when
the great uncle's second cousin is ass0-
ciaung with solitude, the Corsician viii
slip out from behind a plum bush and
sock all kinds of cutlery into the back
Of the great uncle's second cousins ana
tony. Then the g. u. S. cousins brother
will go cunning himself. The open sea-
son for killing Corsicans extends in
Corsica from January 1 to December 81
If you owned an estate in Corsica you
would be apt to take a Winchester and
sthOH out before breakfast and see If
you couldn't pink your neighbor in the
eye or at least wing him, because four
hundred years previously his ancestor
had called you ancestor a cross-eyed
hoodoo.
Mr. Merriman's novel is a sort Of ser
mon which teaches the morality Of in
dustry by giving the contrasted condi-
ton of the frayed-out peoples of the
Latin nations. If an idle mind is the
devils workshop his Satanic Imperator
IS in the manufacturing business around
the Mediterranean. Listen to the author:
"All around the Mediterranean sea there
dwell people who understand the art OF
doing nothing They DO it unblushingly,
peaceably and of a set purpose. More
over, their forefathers must have been ad-
dicted to a similar philosophy, for there
is no Mediterranean town or village with
out its promenade or Longing place,
where the trees have grown quite large
and the shade is quite deep, and the
wooden or stone seats are shiny with
use. Here those whom the French call
worth nothings' congregate peacefully
and happily, to look at the sea and con-
template life from that reflective and
calm standpoint which is only to be en-
joyed by the man who has nothing to
lose. To begin at Valentia, one viii ind
these human weeds almost Oriental in
their apathy. Farther north at Barcelona
they are given to fitful lapses into ac-
tity before the heat Of the day At Mar
settles they are almost energetic, and
are even known to take trouble Of asking
the passer for aims But eastward, be-
yond Toulon they understand their bust
ness better and do not even trouble to
talk among themseles The French
worth-nothing is, in a word. less than any
Of his brothers-much less than the tai
ian, who is quite easily aroused to a dis
play Of temper and rusty knlfe-and more
nearly approaches the supreme calm Of
the Moor, who, across the Mediterranean
viii sit all day and stare at nothing
with any man in the world. And between
these dreamy coasts there lie half /
dozen islands. which, strange TO say,
are islands OF unrest In 1Iajora every /
man works from early morn till eve. In /
Minorea they do the same and quarrel I
after nightfau- In viva they quarrel /
all day. IN Corsica they do nothing. /
restlessly, while Sardinia, as all the /
world knows, IS a hot-bed Of active dis /
The novel abounds in g perfect food Of !
Ike bold sketches, and among the scenes 4
50 artisticaily wrought. move many In /
characters. and a love plot. /
slightly Arctic, but interesting.
The Isle OF Unrest IS published BIZ
Dodd. Mead and Company. New York.
IS beautifully Illustrated and may be OBJ
tanned of the Goldsmith Book and sta
tonery company in wichita