The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-01-14

| the reminiscent kind which looks back
through mellowing vistas of years TO time
when, in this country, the lot OF the farm
| ing population was considerably more COM
| Portable. compared with the rest of the
world, than IT is today. The latter sympa-
thizer is more like Jobs comforter than the
former one. Nor is Mr.. Garland n blank
| pessimist, like Zophar the Naamathite. as
cribing the sorrows Of the farmer TO an in
exorable fate, due TO human depravity,
| which shall never cease in the world To
such a philosopher the farmer is likely 10
answer, Job-like, mo doubt We are the peo-
pie, and wisdom shall die with you,
| though he may not use precisely those
words. Mr.. Garland. like Edwin Markham,
has been there" He stands shoulder TO
shoulder with the people for whom he
speaks. He asks the thinking. intelligent,
powerful entity which We call the public
to look into the conditions under which the
average farmer lives and works. and then
he says-and he has the ar of saying 1t IN
the very accent of his laborers:
"Right2 o. course it amt right. We know
that. Watcher goun t do about itY'
The moral purpose does not stick out
obtrusively in these idyls-for they are
nothing else. Some of them are full of
the strong sunshine of the prairies. the
sweet spring wind, the whirr of partrdges,
love and life in them. humor. Arcadian
trials of strength, uprightness of a sturdy
and unconscious kind. as well as the TRACE
dy. And through il all runs the indomit
able hopefulness OF the American tom
permanent
The most tragic of the stories is "Lu-
cretia Burns" the squalid story of squa-
lid quarrel betu zen two overworked.
stunted specimens OF humanity, who (God
save themD promised many years before
to be TO each other true man and wife
The episode is all too common among
American workers. 1t Is not exactly vul-
gar, as the Cockney conjugal quarrel must
be; there is too much stubborn reserve in
it. 1t is simply the revolt of the woman's
more sensitive nature against lot from
which all beauty, refinement. and comfort
are excluded. II is true to life in every
line. and would be a useful lesson for some
philosophical and well-to-do people TO
study.
Elder Pill, Preacher is an earnest
story with good deal OF humor, dealing
with the career of one of those preachers
who helped make Ohio, Illinois, and the
Middle West. generally. The Elder Is
rather too transient in his convictions to
be perfect specimen, but his methods are
those of his brethren. 1t used TO be said
that the Western circuit-rder's theology
cal seminary was a Bible and a copy of
Wesley's sermons, carried in his saddle
bags. Add a stock of ready wit. considera
BILE muscle and a stanch devotion 10 what
he considered his duty, and you have the
man whom Eggleston described twenty |
1--we years ago in THE Circuit Rider But |
Eggleston was not SO unbiased in his |
as Mr. Garland, and Elder |
Pill is live man. not character in |
story. Some Village Cronies" is pure |
un Of broadly comic variety; it is a |
ieene in country store. BLACK Ephram''
'ecounts the experience OF the first negro
brought into Rock Rivera typical
plantation darby OF the simple religious
lind. Another story half amusing half
is the history of family quarrel
rising from the division of an estate.
expressed in this connection a
ope that there would be no "aidgewise
eelin's" over the division; but there were:
nd Mr.. Garland took the expressive
hrase "Aidgewise Feelin's" for the title
I his story. Drifting Crane" comes
ear being pure poetry. 1t is the picture
I an encounter between an Indian chief
nd white settler-the coming and the
anishing race. There are ten stories in
II, and their merit is very much the same.
As for the verses, they express out
pokenly the poetic thought which comes
0 light now and then in the prose-at
east some of them do. Others are hardly
lore than metrical prose OF the sort with
Inch Riley and other singers Of the Mis-
lssippt Valley have made US familiar. |
erhaps as good an example of their style |
5 any in the book is the After word"
hich ends 1t:
! the city's streets the west wind sweers
efore my feet in rustling fight;
ne midnight SHOWS in unfrscked heaps
lie cold, and desolate. and white
stand and wait with upturned eyes,
wed with the spleDdor of the skies,
nd staT-uained progress OF the moon {.
he city walls dissolve like smoke
eneath the magic Of the moon, }
nd age falls from me like cloak:
hear sweet girlish voices ring
lear as some softly stricken string
ne moon is sailing in the west
ie sleighbells clash in homewsnd fight: o.
ith frost each horses breast IS white
he big moon sinking TO the wes.) y
Good night. Lettie!' S
Good night. Bend" 4
he moon is sinking in the vest) 4
io'' night, my sweetheart onoe again 7
le parting kiss while comrades wait
Ipatient at the roadside gate.
I'd the red moon sinks beyond the west
Now. this may not be recognized as in
ihsiSaiiy poeu9, put IL hts the Dooh, ana | u
Ids charm TO the last story, with which q
subtly chords. II is TO be hoped that .
is Wisconsin man will some day write a :,
vel as powerful as these short stories, a q
orthy expression OF the life of the man 9,
tn the hoe (New York: The Macmil- q
n Company. S1.50) a
Stories of the Ghetto. n
'''They That Walk IN Darkness" is Y
Election of short stories by that most b
nous historian of the Ghetto. l. Fang ~
IL When this odd signature first an ] -