The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-01-10
THE DAUGHTER OF THE ELM'
Tn. higher Meaning Of the Story
discussed By a Correspondent.


sIR:-I have been reading the new
West virginia novel. the 'Daughter Of
the Elm" and have even been making
a little study Of 1t to see IL could pen
citrate the motif that underlies the
work. For fancy the author has not
meant to merely give US an entertain
ing narrative about the offences OF a
rough gang that lived on the banks Of
tho MononEahela some forty years ago.
True the story Itself and the manner Of
telling t. make this notable book;
but did not the author intend US to
find something more? It seems to me
he did. and want to tell you what l
think It is.
The title OF the book is well chosen,
for the heroine Is the great and central
azure in the story She enters in the
arst chapter. with her girlish impa-
tIenee for the coming of her loye(, an
xious about him and eager to warn him
against the evil lines laid for him. She
bids us farewell under the starlight on
the porch Of her Kansas cottage; and
.ho ia the one character with a moral
nurpose all the way through. She parts
with the reader wife and mother,
who. despite this relation in which she
Is as faithful as integrity can make a
human being, has made "the great
sacrifice" as many. like her, do, in the
silence Of accomplishing submission to
the DEGREES Of fate. against which pro-
tent is vain. wherever she appears In
the story, between that advent and
this farewell, she IS the pure, true
hearted girl and woman; living her
lonely, companlonless, almost loveless
life. faithful to her obligation though 1t
consIgns her to an existence In which
the most fragrant flowers Of the soul
can never come to their eflorescence.
Here is girl born into a home and
family. in which. by the very fiber of
her lofty and virginia. spirit, she can
never have any lot or part save as
soiourning stranger. BY one Of those
fateful providences that result in hui
man mIshts-the author calls 1t a
freak Of heredity'-this girl grows
up in q household where she is per-
force a stranger from the time she
reaches the age and development to
realize the gulf that divides her from
those around her. OF love and COM
partnership. beyond and after the age
Of childish affection. she has none. She
Il in her soul as much alone as crusoe
on his island. Beautiful as she was,
she. could mot but have admirers among
the young men who came around her;
but ''she was separated from them by
an infinite space which they had no
conception Of, nor she any power to
cross" The first love. and the one
that shapes her life, comes to her by
force of circumstances. Her affection
for young Holmes grows out of pity
for a lad who needed the firm direction
OF a mother more than he did sweet
heart; and without experience to warn
her against such sacrifice, she gives
him all the affection he has capacity to
awaken in her and pledges an unreserv-
ed troth, from which when later she
comes to realize what an adequate love
would be to her. she never for mo-
ment thinks Of withdrawing. Faithful
unto death she truly is, though 1t must
have wrung the tenderest and secretest
heart-strings Of her soul.
Her meeting with st. George is like
the meeting of the dropping flower
with the vernal sun and the shower.
There bloomed In her at once con-
seriousness Of what life would be with a
noble, congenlal spirit; and at the
same time she was awakened to a re-
alIzatIon Of her own untoward fate.
with fine skin the author develops
the state of the case between Lorraine
and st. George-the mutual recognition
of kindred souls; St Georges percep-
ton Of her terrible position, worse than
an alien in her own home" andherper-
ceptlon that he understands 1t. Had
there never been any meeting but the
first, the poor girls fate would have
been less tragic, for her dream would
have passed like a baseless vision. But
the second meeting completes the fatal
initial Of the first; 1t warns and quick
ems what each had been feeling and
meditating, consciously or unconscious
ly. in the interval.
Love at first sight is not the ridlcu.
lous phantasy some would have US be-
lieye. Nature prepares the mated souls