Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1900-09-20
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rHr ROSARY I or 4 g. ! A1llt1 Il
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There are critics and thefe are critics.
But those people who read books and
then write Of them, or rather. write Of
the few mistakes which are always to
be found in the best Of books, ana prob
ably always Will be. with an evident 4
desire to prove the books unworthy,
such people are not critics. Such al,
one wrote so-called review of that
powerful new book of Frances Hodgson
Burnett, In Connection With the De
Willoughby Claim. Ridicule for the
fact that in the story a bill passed only
one house and yet the claim was al
lowed, was rather clever and was more
forceful by the concluding statement
that any one would have known from
that fact that a woman wrote the book.
We have heard ever since We have
heard of reviewers at all that they are
a very busy people and that most Of the
books OF which they discourse they only
skim thru" 1t is easy to believe when
one has read that criticism ana has
also read the book; for a careful read
ing will show that no such mistake was
made at all and the impartial judge
must say that the critics point is far
from we'll taken. But il it wera true.
the book is too strong one to be
passed without careful considerations.
1t is one of the few new books worth
reading. The strong element of the hui
man is in it. which must appeal to those
who love men and women and have
even faint understanding OF their
Joys and miseries. The drawing Of the
characters is in itself enough to make
1.-The book worthy. Thomas Nelson Page
lean scarcely surpass the picture of the
faithful old darby Matt. and Mary E.
! Wilkins, whom we have come to look
/ upon as having monopoly upon viii
4 lage life in New England, has never
drawn a truer scene that that OF Will
loWfield and of all her disappointed old;
maids there is not one of the depth of.
character OF Miss Amory. OF big Tom
lit can be said that he is worthy Of a
|place beside the immortal creatures of
the pen, for whom an imagination low
ling people give thanks to Dickens. One
critic has deprecated the work OF Voc
man and s.scribes to that fact a mis-.
take, but 1t seems to one reader strange
1 that in the delineation OF the man who
A drought tragedy to others only to bring
i thei agOnies of remorse to himself, that
4 Mrs Burnett can be praised no higher
4 than to say that her portrayal, while
not equalling in intensity the work of
4 George Eliot, is yet dominated by the
sIssame force. Page. Wilkins and Dickens
4 may be equalled and even surpassed
land Eliot fallen far short of, for the
sisgreat woman novelist was the most in
tstense writer who ever lived. That this
new book is so thrilling is not due to
the fact that it is startlingly new. If
Hit were it would probably not be so
i thrilling as it is, for human hearts are
I not new and tho one have not read, he
must know by observation and expert
ence whether certain things are true.
4 Truth is an element in the story of the
4 DeWilloughbys, realism which is not
sordid and which has its tinge of ro-
nance. as realism which is true always
a has. Books have been written on much
q the same themes. The pastor is rot far
q different from the one who stood upon
a the scaffold wherein had stood in
! shame years before Hester Prynne and
her child. and the beautiful love OF Tom
Il for the baby who became his life tc
B him. is of the same order as that which
Il saved the weaver of Ravenole from
. miserliness and an empty barren life
4 The love OF man for man and the reve-
I hind 1T, why we read Of it when we read
!. The Gadtiy" a few years ago. Bull
4, no one think that because the story is
!, mot strikingly new it Is not original anu
q is not strong, for it is both and it il
/ more for it is worthy.
Tales of cities which have risen il
! quote trite old phrase, phoenix like
81,
of Galveston, as they work today no.
4 for wealth or fortune of any kind, bu,
i for mereslife. the very busy have little
time for the turning OF pretty phrases
i or for the listening to them. We. 1t i:
but natural that the kindly hearted
], should wish to send With their offering!
: for the temporal wants words of chez
I for the sorrowful and disheartened
,, The mind may need as much as tn,
I body. That the people of the fai
southern city, all but destroyed ar,
worthy of admiration as we'll as sym
pathy is evidenced by the spirit Will
7 which they have gone to work and TIL
: determination with which they an
: nounce that they arc even now prepar
]. ing the way for the new city which vii
Z take the place of the old. We of TIL
e north may we'll wonder whether w
: Ihave not been mis- taken when we haN'
III told Of our own energy and derided TIL
Z ease taking of our neighbors TO tn
south Well may we feel admiration
{ for the noble men and women who ar
!. passing thru such trials unfinchingly
!. for if it is hard to work under ordinar,
!, circumstances. what is it to work whel
homes are broken and hearts are bleed
o ing?
ii A laugh came when her letter wa
s read, the dear little girl whom nos on
/ ever saw without loving. 1t SCENE
nj rather strange that she should askhoN
!. her special admirer was getting alon
n without me. when she had been ava;
9 so long and was never seen but da
\ or two every few months. Yet it wa
81 not all laughing matter. How Woul
d Iit be to be without her-to know tina
the dusky brown eyes would never 70
lin innocent mirth again, that the littl
= warm lips would never be held up 70
the kiss she is never denied, and tina
!. the sweet baby voice would never b
n heard singing to her dolly again? Sh
n did not know what she was askin
when she wrote those words and per
n ihaps the one who loves her SO does no
:, either. but ii IS known that it woul