The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10

| "The Queen Versus Billy" by Lloyd o.
bourne. proves that genius occasionally
runs in families. even when there is no
blood kinship. These stories of the South
Seas have much of the peculiar charm of
| style which was characteristic of Steven
son. the writer's stepfather. They are all
| good; some of them are very good: and
| they are of a type not before known in fic-
| ton 'T;se Queen Versus Billy" which
gives its title to the collection, is study
| of the subtleties and almost inexplicable
peculiarites of the savage. THE Beautl-
! full Man of Pingalap'' is another and quite
different study of the savage, with consid-
| cradle hunDr in it. THE Dust of Defeat
! is not a story of the wilderness or the
| jungle, except in so far as the teller of the
| story Is n prisoner in n convict camp. The
scene of the tale is laid in Europe, In the
days when the emancipation of woman
was a new and startling madness in
France. "The Happiest Day of His Life"
is a little idyl of Samoa, and, unlike most
of the romances resulting from the con-
tact Of savagery with civilization, 1t ends
happily. Father Zosimus'' deals with
missionary life, a feature of existence in
the South Sea Islands which cannot be
overlooked either in fact or fiction.
''Frenchy's Last job is tragedy of pc
culiarly sombre and cynical kind. THE
DEVILS White Man is still another tale
of the contact of savagery and civiliZa-
ton, and THE Phantom City touches on
one of the most serious problems of that
contact, while "Amatua's Sailor" is
charming story of child. Amatua is
new type of childhood and very charm
ing one.
The book is permeated with the atmos-
phere of the South Seas, the region where
the sea croons and does not roar and the
most determined will cannot keep a man
ambitious. The man who can faithfully
reproduce the conditions of life I'M
familiar TO the reader, and make the pic
ture seem vivid and real, is possessed of
uncommon talent; and this thing Mr.. Os-
bourne has certainly done. Although his
work must inevitably remind one of
Stevenson, partly because of the relation
ship and partly from the fact that many
of the stories of "Tusitala'' deal with the
life of the gentle. simple, kindly, primitive
people among whom his later days were
spent. there is really little resemblance of
style, and no suggestion that Mr.. Os-
bourne has borrowed from his predecessor
in the same field.
quoted, because each story is in itself
complete and artistic, and no fragment
can give an adequate idea of it, but there
is passage in THE Phantom City.
which is perhaps as strong as any single
paragraph in the book. 1t is as follows:
There will be city here in a month after
the news Is out; in a year there will be tram
ways, and newspapers, and brick banks and
churches, and wharves with ships discharging.
Don't you see, we must have our fist in all that;
must have the lions share; every pound the
the Others bring must pay toll. You
might as well try and hide the island TO keep
them out. When | was a boy / in the
Kattabelong gold rush with my father, and
know what ! am talking about. They rose up
like waves in the sea-waves and waves Of men.
bursting in with yells like an invading army.
Why, it won't be any time before we are
will all hell loose and thousand devils land
ing at a time; you will the horizon black
with steamer smoke, bringing in thousands more;
you will killed and their bodies rotting
in the sun. That's the first stage of gold rush
the pioneer stage the stage Of murder and
crime OF might for right. That will be the time
for 10 live through as best we can. Bit by
bit there comes Il subsistence into a kind OF
order. There is a rally Of the better sort; the
inevitable leader rises to the top. You walk out
one morning, and you run across Billy This, the
terror OF the camp, swaying peacefully at the
end Of a rope. At another turn is Tommy That,
with his toes turned up and ticket on his
breast The third period is the arrival of
official with tin Office and blank forms.
That is about as good description of
the invading army which overwhelms the
land where gold has been discovered as
any that was ever written. (New York:
Charles scnbner's Sons. $500
1.-The Brass Bottle by F. Anstey. de-
scribes the fluctuations attending the in
convenient present of Djinn of the
Orient in London of the nineteenth CEN
tury The hero, a well meaning young
man without enough Judgment TO injure
his chances of adventure, is nearly driven
insane by the equally well meaning Djinn,
who in his turn is greatly grieved and dis
appointed by the failure of his benevolent
schemes to make his protege happy. 1t is
a useful lesson on the folly of wanting
Arabian Nights conditions in modern life.
(New York: D. Appleton & Co. $10o)
'Hiwa; A Tale of Ancient Hawaii" is
the work Of Edmund p. Dole, who Is, of
course, familiar with the life of which he
writes, and has the advantage of having
chosen a field which is comparatively I'M
explored. Hiwa was a goddess-queen of
Hawaii in its legendary history, and the
story is idyllic in type, and cleverly told.
(New York: Harper e. Bros. 5000
1.-THE Footsteps of a Throne" by Max
Pemberton, is a story Of Russian life the
heroine being young Russian lady of
noble family surrounded by the usual CO.
terie of enemies and the hero an English
man. The plot is an exciting one, and
well worked out, and both the hero and
heroine are attractive people. New York:
D. Appleton & Co. a.25)
'WinIfred." by S. Barring Gould, is a
story of English life, the scene being laid
on the Chalk Cliffs of Devonshire. The
heroine is the daughter O: secret mar
rage between a man Of aristocratic birth
and a peasant woman. and the plot turns
upon the relations which exist between
the girl, her father, and mother when she
reaches maturity. The misunderstanding
is clever as the work of this author in
variably is, and the interest is well sus-
tanned throughout. (Boston: L. c. Page
q Co. SIS.
THE Conquest of London by Dorothea
Gerard, is a story of four English girls
who enter on a season of London life with
the frank determination to marry money,
which is observable in many English
heroines. Curiously enough, In them It is
not particularly Objectionable, probably
because they are hardly in earnest about
1t. (New York: f u. Buckles &; Co. sl25)
I'm the Days of Jefferson is an histori-
cal romance for boys, by Hezekiah Butter
worth The author is so well known as a