The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-29

the END. The audacity of the author in in
PRODUCING Queen wilhelmina of Holland as
his heroine. keeping her identity a secret
till the story is well advanced is somewhat
amusing in fact. 1t is the most entertain
ing thing In the whole book, There is very
little plot, and the heroine seems to have
been constructed on the theory that. on
general principles. woman will do pre-
cisely what she is not expected to do. This
is perhaps true to 4 certain extent. but af-
ter all. even women have some reason for
their actions other than irresponsible i'm
pulse. and there is certainly no reason why
the Countess Amyce should fall in love
with the very ordinary hero of the book.
New York: Harper G Bros. $500
"A Man Adrift." by Bart Kennedy.
seems TO be less a story than a narrative
Of actual experience. The author claims
TO have been navy, tramp, singer, sailor,
coal miner, and oyster dredger by turns.
and tells his various adventures with a
franEnese and accuracy which are about
equally impressive. lie also intersperses
some rather original views of life and hui
man institutions.
A good specimen IF his general style is
TO be found in the chapter on ''Shoveling."
He says:
Perhaps the hardest sloyeling Of all is the
shoyellins of sand. had an experience Of this in
British Columbia worked there three or four
days unloading sandse"vs in the harhor of Van.
eouyer. The pay was 30 cents an hour-a rate OF
So DAY. After the first days work was
so tired that | felt as if could lie down and die.
| had strained, sore feeling all my body.
l was hardly able to eat my supper
Right here ! would like to explode the fallacy
TO the effect that extreme intellectual iabour IS
than extreme mammal lahOur. | have
tried both. and | mist say that my verdict is,
give intellectual labor every time. 1t IS clean
or in the first place. in the second place there are
no degrading conditions surrounding II; and, in
the third place. it is certainly less monotonous.
Again, the world attaches real dignity TO intel
lectual lahour. while the dignity that is at
tached to manual lsbour smacks too much. of the
Legendary and mythical. The people who pirate
OF the superior exhaustive quality OF brain abour
invariably people who have not tried both.
They give forth their Judgment with all the CON
hdence Of ignorance. To be just, however, j
must admit that it is polite thing to let the
navy know all about the hardships of intellectual
labour
But let us 60 back to the art Of slovelling sand.
The that sand is 40 much harder work
TO shovel than gravel. cinders coal, or clay,
is because every time you sink your shovel into
the sand you get exactly the same amount and
weight upon il. and the efforts you have 10 make
in pitching il off are absolutely uniform. Making
the same effort Of strength through several hours
al a stretch is most firing. The muscles get no
chance to rest In the shovelling OF
clay coal, or anything that breaks UP uRcveniy
the efforts made in pitching vary with the diff
ferent weights and sizes that get upon the shovel.
After time who works at shovel
ling Will begin to find himself getting muscle
bound. | mean that he will find himself getting
slow and stiff and clumsy in his movements. The
reason for this is because particular set of mus
cles developed out Of all proportion TO the
rest.
Mr.. Kennedy's opinion of the conditions
under which laborers exist in the United
States is not very complimentary. He en-
phatically asserts that they are not half
as good as the conditions in England, and
that. too, though he is an Irishman. His
remarks on this subject will be found in
teresting an3 the chapters dealing with
oyster dredg ng in the Chesapeake will
be interesting TO readers in this vicinity.
AS study of social and economic condi-
tinns this book, though unpublished and
blunt in style, is valuable. tChlAago:
Herbert S Stone & Co. S1.25)