The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-18
"A New Romance
ITO HAVE. AND TO HOLD,
Mary Johnston's
ITO Have and to Hold

ITO HAVE AND TO HOLD"
Mary Johnston, nearer than other nov
elists in a like field, surrounds the colo
NAL hero with a fitting atmosphere. In
her new book, ITO Have and To Hold, y
as in her former story, Prisoners of
Hope she has witched out of the past
somewhat of the feel of the air Of
early Virginia. In the midst of this she
has set three strong characters of good
colonial strength and leads them through
complication of incidents which do not
permit the reader to put the book aside
easily until he has finished 1t. Captain
Percy is a colonial, living near James
town. ship load of young women are
brought into the colony to furnish the
early pioneer bachelors wives. This was
in 1921 This is the scene, the novelist
| speaking by the tongue of Captain Percy:
Before the arrival of yesterdays ship
there had been in this natural Eden
Qeaving the savages out Of the reckoning
several thousand Adams, and but some
three score Ewes, and for the most part,
the Ewes were either portly and busting
or withered and shrewish housewives, of
age and experience to defy the serpent.
These were different. Ninety slender fig
ures decked in all the bravery they could
assume; ninety comedy faces, pink and
white, or clear brown, with the rich blood
showing through; ninety pair of ripe red
lips-the crowd shouted itself hoarse and
would not be restrained, brushing aside
like straws the slaves of the marshal and
his men, aoo surging in upon the line of
adventurous damsels. 1 saw young men,
| -+r;xra Tn
pull toward them some reluctant fair;
others snatched kisses or fell on their
knees and began speeches out of Euphu-
es: others commenced an inventory of
their possesions-acres, tobacco, servants,
| household replenishings. All was hub
bub, protestation, frightened cries and
historical laughs. The officers ran TO and
fro threatening and commanding. Mas
ter Pory alternately cried Shame! and
laughed his loudest; and 1 plucked away
a jackanapes Of sixteen who had his hand
upon a girls ruff and shook him until
the breath was well-nigh out Of him
The clamor did but increase"
1t falls to the lot of Captain Percy to
secure for a wife an exceedingly beauti-
full and independent woman, who turns
out to be the ward of the King, a lady
of high degree, who had taken this means
to escape the marriage with a Lord Car
nal, the Kings favorite. Captain Percy
is a gentleman, his wife is a lady, both
are endowed with a degree of frigidity,
| which does not melt, visibly, until late in
the book. The Kings favorite pursues
| his chosen one across the Atlantic and
the story is made up from his efforts to
obtain her, Percys efforts to keep her
and win her, and her own attitude to
both men as they struggle.
Here is a picture of jamestown which
will interest: DIVERSION we came to the
peninsula, and crossed the neck Of land.
Before US lay the town; to the outer eye
| poor and mean village, indeed, but to
the inner the stronghold and capital of
| our race in the Western World the germ
from which might spring stately cities.
the newborn babe which might in time
equal its parent in stature, strength and
| comaliness So 1 and a few besides, both
| in Virginia and at home, viewed the
mean houses, the poor church and rude
| fort, and loved the spot which had wit
messed much suffering, and small joy, but
which held within it the future which
was even now bit In the mouth of
| Spain, a thing in itself outweighing all
| the toll and anguish of our planting. But
| there were others who saw only the
meanness of the place, its almost defense
| lessness, it's fiuxes and fevers, the few
ness of it's inhabitants and the number of
its graves. Finding no gold and no earth
ly paradise and that in the sweat of their
brow they must eat their bread, they
straightway fell into the dumps and eth
er died out of sheer perversity or went
| yelping home to the Company with all
manner of dismal tales
The novel is full of such bright sketches.
ITO Have and To Hold" by Mary John
| ston, is published by Houghton, Mifflin
and Co., Boston and New York.