The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-14

AtCGsN
.I-esser Destinies." Samuel Gordon. Her
begt $. Stone & Co., Chicago and New
York.
To the American reader who must be
assumed to be unfamiliar with the life
of the humber classes of London So
ciety. this book presents at the outset a
most uninviting prospect. The characters
in it are all quite evidently drawn close
~ from life. The writer is familiar with
.cthe inner consciousness of the toiling
men and women in the charred heart of
london society AS its title indicates.
a7the story deals exclusively with such
81 folk. 1t presents them to view in the
factory and in the aching poverty of
their homes, as well as in the squalor and
.suggestiYeness of crime which attend
upon their places of amusement.
e The principal character of the story,
indeed it's heroine, is Tabitha Jupp. She
+ is as commonplace as her name indi-
Gates, but underlying all that might be
tho product of dubious heritage and ire
deemably bad environment the writer re-
Yeals in her one of the unsungs heroines
OF the world She has borne the burden
of her life without the slightest deviation
from the straight and narrow path, which
in lives like hers marks with cruel dis
tinctness the course to be pursued by
the decent and self-respecting, She has
!, attained to her thirtythird year and
presents nothing in outward semblance
which would commend her to the notice
Il. of the most observant passer-by, and
: when she has reached this age she eX-
periences the first divine promptings of
love. She essays to enter upon a stage
career. She plumbers and stumbles help
lessly in the course for which nature un-
fitted her and which her native lack of
Imagination has succeeded in binding
her to the absurdities of. But she per-
severes and her native good sense in
time enables her to distinguish the folly
of the course which she pursues. Having
in vain bestowed upon the unattainable
her first affections, she gradually real
lies her true mission and awakes from a
dream of marital happiness with one
ssMholly beyond her reach to the certainty
of contentment as the wife of hunch-
back
This is, the unpretentious and to many,
1T may seem, the embarrassing story I'M
'Hfolded in these pages; but to the true
student of life and character. to him
who sees the beauty which lies con-
cealed ia the heart of poverty want and
Ignorance, the story will appeal not only
as q superior work of literary art, but
as a deep and loving study made of
liTlng, toiling humanity borne down by
the evil conditions which society imposes
upon its weaker members.
-. Lesser Destinies' is a valuable social
study. To that class of sociological stu
sadents who believe that we are fast APP
preaching those conditions of European
society from. which the ancestors of most
of US fed for refuge to the United States
in other generations, this book will COM
mend itself as showing the vast abyss
which still divides the condition, of the
Intelligent laboring poor in American
cities fromvtne degradation which attends
every phase of their lives in the great
center Of modern wealth, the British
metropolis.
'sThe Living Machine"
s'The Story of the Living Machine" by
III. W. Conn. D. Appleton & Co., New
York
1-.sof the various little volumes composing
the Library of Useful Stories" which
1aev heretofore been issued, or which are
likely to be- it is doubtful whether an
other can be found of the great intrinsic
value which this one possesses. Prof
Conn is known to all readers of the lit
erature of science as one Of its most
luminous disciples. He is able to invest
a subject ordinarily beyond the reach of
the reader of the average intelligence
with the keenest interest. He makes
the most abStruse problems OF science
appear plain to the common understand
ing, and his work thus far has been of
SURPRISING value in bringing within the
popular comprehension the great discov-
cries in science which distinguish this
epoch Of the worlds progress. This little
book is devoted to telling the story of the
human machine. It treats of all the
most recent discoveries of science in the
domain of biology. 1t is a review of the
conclusions reached by modern biology
in regard to the mechanism which con-
trolls the phenomena Of living activity
Prof. Conn, as is well known, occupies
the chair of biology in the Wesleyan uni
Versity. He has alSo written the story
of germ life, Which is one of the present
series.
Prof. Conn traces with the profoundest
interest in this volume the various steps
in the scientific discoveries which bring
us 10 the conclusion that the living body
is a machine. 1t is the story of this ma
chine which he tells. He divides his sub
Ject into two great parts, one involving
the story Of the running of the living ma
chine, and the other the story Of the
origin of the living machine.
1t is a singular and highly instructive
fact that in the midst of the great adj
vancement of knowledge among the
masses Of the people which has been made
during the century now drawing to q
close there still subsists the densest ig-
norance even on the part of the men and
women of intelligence, concerning the
vital functions Of the human body. This
is the product in part of totally false
system Of education, and in part of a
grotesquely false mcdesty aud morality.
The reader who has mind enough and the
faculty of eXerting it to read this book
TO the end may be said to be the posses
ser of more knowledge of substantial
and enduring value than is possessed by
one person in ten thousand.
With infinite pains and in the clearest
possible way Prof. Conn takes the reader
through The various stages OF discovery
whereby science has at last reached, the
commanding enainence from which in
time it win be in position to survey the
profoundest secrets of nature. In his lit
tie book he brings together the discover
Ses of science in all that relates to hui
man life and gives TO the unprofessional
reader glimpses OF those grand domains
OF learning into which it IS vouchsafet
that only the most conscientious scholar
g. and student shall enter If this little
book Is in any sense a test of the valuy
of the fifteen or sixteen other like pub
ncations which make up the SERIES i
can truthfuNy be said that the eli
brary of Useful Stories" published by d
Appleton & Co., is one of the most val
liable libraries which the work of tn,
modern press places within the reach o.
the everyday reader
''Mexican Yistns.''
,ssAFexican Vistas" Harriott Wright Sher