The times., 1901-04-28

| larry hard and cold theology and it gave
them, without destroying the faith they
! had, something warm and human and SEN
! sibe to believe. 1t reached the hardest of
| all people to convertible heather within
the church-the people who had convinced
| themselves and were trying to convince
other people that God was God of stern,
implacable, impossible justice-or what
they called justice; 1t would have been
called fendish tyranny in a man. Miss
Phelps book contained nothing anti
Scriptural, and it was the outcome of a
tender loving, imaginative spirit, and
doubtless cOmforted innumerable poor
souls who did not know what they be-
lieved and could find no comfort any
where. But it had more of this world
than Of the other in it, and the resur-
rection novels which have followed, by
this author and Others have reversed the
proportion till they have got to the point
of being merely speculatiOns about
heaven, very Improbable and uninterest-
ing. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. SD
"Understudies," by Mary E. wilkins, is
a book of charming short stories, of
whose qualities the somewhat enigmat-
ical title gives no hint. Those who are
familiar with the work of Miss Wilkins
realistic and one mystical, and now and
then blends the two. She has never ac-
complished the blending more success
fully than in this little volume. The
idea, a somewhat fanciful one, is that Of
the likeness of certain animals and plants
to people Everyone has probably been
struck with the idea, in visiting country
towns, that the people looked like certain
features of their surroundings; but the
notion has never before been developed,
and one could hardly do il save in the
whimsical, dainty way which Miss Wilkins
has taken. Half the stories are OF AMI
mails, the other half of plants, and, on
the whole, the plants are the more sue
cessfully handled THE Cat deals with
a lonesome little hut In the woods, where
there lived an old man with a grey cat,
half wild, both of them. The cat foraged
for both, and purred for both, and was
Independent enough for both but he only
expressed the subtle underlying spirit OF
the man. The Doctors Horse" was
beast which had been hypnotized by his
master, and, naturally fiery and skittlsh,
had learned to subdue himself TO the
doctors ways and needs just as, perhaps,
the physician had had to subdue his own
feelings The Parrot" was a gorgeous
maid and he represented all that there
was OF the tropical, rebellious, and
fiercely human In her starved New Eng
land nature. Somehow one has sym
pathy for that parrot in his wild out
breaks "The Dog and THE Monkey
are both good, but not quite so good as
the others. The flowers selected for
story-making are bouncing-bet arethusa,
peony, mountain laurel, morning-glory,
and princes feather, and every one of
them is represented perfectly In some
human character Most of these tales are
sad-the lives of country-folk are apt to
be tragic-but the pathOs is mixed with
humor I'm most instances. The peony was
the chief ornament of the garden OF Ara
bella Lambert, one of those helplessly
generous souls who are found here and
there in this selfish world; and in GER
tain sly humor and sympathetic kindli-
ness of treatment it is one of the best
things which the author has done.
'Arethusa" has dainty and exquisite
poetic beauty in it, suited to the charm
ing orchid for whom it is named. Those
who have found the arethusa in its ma
tive haunts-which by the way are not
the most accessibie-know that 1t IS
rare pink blossom, standing a-tip-toe on
its slender stalk If about te take wings
or tiny feet, and fly from the beholder;
and the girl, Lucy, whom the picture
shows gazing down at the flower, her
dainty gown a-futter, is just like it.
Miss wilkins has been exceptionally for
tunate in her illustrator. To illustrate
acceptabIy stories of so subtle and elu-
sive a charm as these would seem to be
almost an impossible task, but the artist
has done it perfectly, and even more sue
cessfully in the hOwer-stories than in the
animal sketches. The picture of Are
thusa'' and that of the peony dame are
especially fine; and there is also another
picture in which the artist has appar-
emily worked in a fanciful and wholly
appropriate original conception. 1t is
the sketch of an old woman sitting at
window gazing intently at her neigh
bor's windows across the way; and every
line in her face and figure even the geo
metrical lines of her tablecloth and
table. her chair and the Stats of the
blind, suggest a grimly observant spider
in the midst of a web. The picture is
good enough to frame. CNew York: Har-
per & Bros $l.25)
Mistress Nell" which bears the sub
title, "A Merry Tale of Merry Time"
and certainly justifies it, is a novel by
George c. Hazelton, jr., author of the
play by the same name in which Miss
Henrietta Crossman scored so great a sue
cess. The story is quite evidently but
little changed from the play, and is one
of the few readable books which have
thus been transposed. 1T is brimful of
gayety, wit, and laughter from the first
page to the last, and the characters of
the Merry Monarch and of the bewitching
Nelly are both shown in a light pic
turesque, and pleasing. Perhaps there has
never been a picture of Charles II alto