The times., 1901-05-26


before their eyes by the unassailable
sovereignty of the soul which they
cannot reach
The whole book is the reiteration, IL
some form or other, of the tortures en-
dured by the prisoner and of his indomit
able resolve to maintain his innocenc'
and not to yield to his despair. (Nev
York: Mcclure, Phillips & Coz
Minor Fiction.
'"The Crows Nest" by Mrs. Everart
Cotes. better known as Sara Jeanette
Duncan, is sort OF revised Elizabeth
and Her German Garden" except that il
is a considerable Improvement on tht
latter book. In the first place, the gar
den Is in unique place, and in the sec
ondy Mrs. Cotes' style is more piquant
and individual than that of the unknown
author of the books predecessor. The
writer has simply recorded the expert
ence of an invalid, obliged to spend the
greater part of every day In the garden,
in a cane chair placed under the conf
fers, and this garden is in the outskirts
OF Simla. 1t has therefore, the fascina-
ton of place in which one not only rubs
elbows with nature, but gets a glimpse
into prtmeval conditions, for Atma, the
gardener, is patient hillman Of tradi-
uons as old as the Himalayas. and the
| landscape suggests the beginning and the
end of the world combined.
AS for the garden itself, it, too. is indi-
Vidual and fascinating. To Mrs. Cotes'
| imaginative and sympathetic mind every
flower has a personality of it's own No
| BODY else ever got at the soul of a pc
| tunia. This is what she says about it:
Now. il 1 were going to recognize
| social distinctions in the garden, which
am not, l should call the good pc
| tuna a person Enthusiastically middle
| ClasS whether 1t is this incapacity of
hers to see snub or her very fun
SKIRT, or her very high color, the pc
| tuna always seems to me a bourgeois
httie lady in her Sunday best, with
her halr smooth and her temper well
| Kept under for the occasion. l think
she leads her family a nagging life
ana goes to church regularly. One
should always mass them: a single
petunia here and there among the
community of flowers is more desolate
and ineffective than most maiden Ia
dies"
And here is a study of the garden in the
rain:
Constantly, no doubt. the cane
stranger spectacle; but my family
have become accustomed to It and
casional rickshaw that passes along
the road above pays attention to
nothing, but goes as fast as it can,
with the hood up, like a deranged bee
tie, and If anyone rides past II is with
bent head and flying macintosh. l
have the world very much to myself.
most of the mountains when I can see
them. and all of the garden. And it is
full of rewards and satisfactions this
rainy world. The wind that pushes the
clouds UP here blows over a thousand
miles of sun and sand and draws a
balm from the desert to mingle with
its cool dampneSs, delicious to breathe,
like a cooled drink to the lungs. 1t
cannot be tasted in house because of
the prevailing favor of carpets and
curtains. Nor can anybody know, who
has not sat out under 1t, the delight
of the slow termination of a shower,
the spacing lines and the sparser drop
dancers on the gravel, the jolly irreg-
ular drip from the branches on your
umbrella. the wraiths of mist skim
ming over the drive and the faint thin
veil slanting uD against the deodars-
into which it all dissoives. So invaria-
bly, we are careful TO wait in the house
until it is over-ql1te over. A pen
ell cedar too, very wet, with drop
at the end OF every spine, and a
soft grey light shining through 1t, is
a good thing to look up into. AS If it
were candied,' as Thisbe politely con
house out of the damp
The whimsical. poetical style of the
book will win it readers among all nature
lovers. It is one of the prettiest things of
its kind recently published. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Co. s125)
''The TRANSPORTATION of Miss Philura,
by Florence Morse Kingsley. is a story
about Christian Science. the comments on
which are quite as entertaining as the
book itself The Brooklyn Eagle" calls
1t a clever satire on the new faith, while
Miss Helen Wilmans, one of the apostles
2
pleased with it as an Illustration of the
great truths she has been teaching. She
thinks it shows how easy it is to make
these truths come into our everyday life
and do for us just the things we want
done" For the readers enlightenment
it may be added that the heroine of the
story is a meek little old maid who wish
ed for a husband, proceeded on the be- |
lief that he was in the encircling Good
and that she was engaged to him. and in
time got him Whether 1t is a satire or
a grand illustration of the truth may be, |
indeed must be, determined by the indi-
vi1ual reader. (NeW York: Funk q Wag- |
nails Co. 6Qc)
If anything could excuse the perpetra-
tion of more books of the David Harum'
order, it would be the discovery of more |
David Harums and one is tempted to say |
that the writer of Your Uncle Lew: a |
American" has done the |
trick Mr.. Charles Reginald Sherlock is, |
on the whole, to be congratulated on the |
discovery of the queer character pictured |
IN his book of this title. Lewis Dunbar is /
not like any other person yet put |
into fiction, but he is human enough to |
be met in real life and the author has |
had the tact TO avoid making much of
plot, and to put In very few other char
lcters. Uncle Lewis daughter Grace. the
young artist. Hillyer, who serves as foil
TO the chief character, and a few minor
are all there are in the book,
and Uncle Lew does most of the talking
II this book is ever dramatized-and ev-
srything short of a postoffice directory is
going on the stage nowadays-the star
should certainly be satisfied with the |
'fatness" of his part, for the play would
almost be a monologue.
Uncle Lew is the proprietor of a rail-
way restaurant, shrewd. dry, unculti-
yated. warm-hearted, slightly cynical,
md very much up-to-date American He
ather a composite of the farmer and the
.ity sharper. He is, in fact the kind of
nan into whom a sagacious farm-bred
10Y develops when he comes to city or
,illage with the determination to beat the
inhabitants thereof, and succeeds Not
90 scrupulous, he stiIl has his scruples.
md though cautious, there is nothing
lalf-way about him. He likes, or he
lates. or he is Indifferent, but he is de-
ided about ii either way.