The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-12-02


as this:
He was very tall young man, high-colored
and calm in the face, straisht-noscd blue-eyed.
spare of flesh. 1.-THE. swift in movement. He was
at once bold and sleek eager and cold as ice-an
odd combination. but not more odd than tie
blend of Norman dog and Angeyin cat which had
made him 60. Furtive he was not, yet seeming
TO crouch for n spring.; not savage, Yet primed
| for savaycrv: not cruel, yet quick on the al
| front. and on the watch for it He was neithe:
| rogue nor nadn,aH and yet he cum
ming the ami needless the other, II
| that is a possible thing. He arrogant but
his smile yelled the fault; you saw it hest in a
| sleepy look he had. Ills bleinishes were many,
his weaknesses two. He trusted TO his own force
! too much and despised everybody else in the
world. Not that he thought them knaves. he
was certain they were fools. And so most OF
| them We're doubt. but not all The Erst husll
| of him moved your admiration; great height;
| great color, the red and the yellow. his beard.
which ran iutting to n point and gave his Jaw
| the clubhcd look Of big cats; his shut mouth
and cold considering eyes; the eager set OF his
| head. his soft, padding motions-a leopard, n
| hunting leopard. quick to strike but quick to
| change purpose. This. then. was Richard Yea
andNsy. whom all women loved, and very few
men.
The strange, halfsavage, superstitious.
| imaginative. eXtravagant life OF those
! days of chiyalry and the Crusades .has
rarely been better pictured; and the story
| to Palestine, as a kaleidoscope turns. In
| the glamour thrown over him by Scott, 1t
| is seldom remembered that Richard,
! though he made himself loved by many
| English. was not English, but Norman,
| and not only Norman but Angevin, and
| furthermore, that he came OF one OF the
| most cruel of royal races. springing from
| that Henry whose greatness as a ruler
| was only equaled by the greatness of his
crimes. The record which Mr.. Hewlett
has made of him is a fascinating one. and
one feels in it, as in THE Talisman' and
"fyanhoe,' the strange magnetism of the
| man, which, through the dust of centuries
! and the tangle of old and formal chroni-
Giles. takes hold of the imagination. New
York: The Macmillan Company. s1.5o)
Little Lords of Creation is the sig
nificant title of small volume of child
history by II. A. Keays, and it is the biog-
! raphy of a small-a very small-boy, with
a thread of adult romance interviewer. 1t
is bright, amusing, and natural through
out and is the kind of book which almost
any young married couple, or anybody
who has ever had much to do with chill
| dren, will laugh over and appreciate. The
| average young mother will sympathize
when she found herself in the following
| situation:
Before her marriage Mrs. Bell had been an
adept in all the wisdom of the moderns on the
| subject of "chd culture She confident
then that she had exact formula for the de-
| vclopncnt of their little angel-seed souls into
| beatifc eifiorescence. She had written an arti-
Gle entitled "a Little Child Shall Lead Them"
which had been widely commented upon, with
! unanimous praise for its remarkable insight into
the Child spirit" She remembered it some
times now, but without joy, for her actual expe
rience with child in the concrete had led
her TO come conclusions of which the article in
question had been strikingly innocent. Oh, yes!
her little Laurie led them, but certainly not
along the route she had in mind when her fscle
pen sketched so glowingly the spiritual heights
up which rushed the teacher and the parent in
the train of the pedagogical! child.
Still, perhaps, it was Just well that she had
gained glory by writing it when she was sure
she knew all about it; she would be in
POSITION TO dogmatize again.
But the baby was not Mrs. Bells only
! means of discipline. She had servants
not two at time, but tandem. One was
Scandinavian. This was part of the
experience which the unfortunate family
had with her.
The first morning she raised issue on the
subject of roasts, and stuck to it. They were
| always cooked in the frying pan the top OF
the stove.
But they would be inside" objected Mrs.
Bell
Then fry him again. detained the girl,
with Scandinavian calm.
But it would be burnt black outside ther.'
Then cut him black off, suggested the
maiden, resourcefully.
Mrs Bell looked positively dangerous. but
Ingri had often seen people look like that and
she undismayed.
And this was part of the experience
the family had with the boy:
Suddenly Mr. Bells ears were assailed with
series Of rat-tat-tats, kept up with maddening
regularity.
Laurie, stop that noise." he commanded
etormily.
YES. but I must fix my shoe papa. This
nails wearing tracks in my foot
'Laurie,' vociferated Mr.. Bell some moments
later, ''if you don't stop that hammering pretty
soon. I'm coming there to hammer you
Vow papa protested Laurie in mildest
complaint, 'if you would only not use up all my
strength 'splaining why can't stop, l might
have enough left TO stop WITH
1t may be suspected from this that Lau-
rie was somehow related. spiritually at
least, to the immortal Bulge and Toddie.
Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Co. s1.25.)
1.-THE Lost Continent is a new novel by
Cutcliffe Hyne, dealing, as one may infer
with the history of the lost Atalantis.
who were tabled in the Greek mythology
to have been saved from the flood; and the
heroine, Nais, an Atalantean maiden. The
most striking character is, however, Phore-
nice the Empress of Atlantis young,
beautiful, brave, crafty, and cruel.
The author has managed what may be
called the local color of the book with
great skill, and the reader feels almost as
If the incidents recorded had some founda-
ton in history. The book is certainly
more realistic than half the historical
novels which have been given to the pub
lie in the last decade. The strange and
terrible monsters of the prehistoric world
the mammoth, the cave-tiger, and the
sea- ,izzards-iend a grotesque horror to
certain episodes in the tale; and the relig-
ious and social customs of the country are
a sort OF mixture of Greek. Phoencian,
and Egyptian traditions. One Of the most
striking features of the work is the char
acter of the hero, to which Mr.. Hyne has
contrived to impart distinct individuali
ty. In most books of this type the hero
is only a lay figure for the exhibition of
heroic qualities; but Deucalion is real,
grim. stern soldier, with thoughts and
prejudices which are quite apart from the
notions of the conventional matinee idol
hero of book of adventure. All things
considered. this novel is good one, and
entertaining in its way as few such books
are. tNew York: Harper & Bros. s1.50.)
1.-THE Soft Side is book of short
stories by Henry James. and people ia
miliar with current fiction will know ex-
actly what to expect. Perhaps the best
of the collection is THE Great Good
Place." the first Of them. II is a section
of the experience of an overworked and
somewhat morbid author. and may pnssi-