The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-29

author These contests, as rule.
amount to very little. and have no liter
airy significance. However, the result of
This one is interesting. The authors re-
ceiving the largest number of votes in
relative older were:
1. Mark Twain.
2. William Dean Howeils
8 James Whitcomb Riley.
q. Edward Markham
s. Octave Thanet
g. Edmund Clarence Stedman.
z. Richard Harding Davis.
s. Joaquin Miller.
9. Ernest McGaffev.
H. Joel Chandler Harris.
II. Edward Everett Hale
Y Richard Henry Stoddard.
IL. Peter Finley Dunno
IA. Ambrose Bierce.
IS. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Is. Opie Read.
H. Lew Wallace.
Is. Jack London.
19. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward
In many ways the result is encoura ging.
When great many thousand readers
in all sections of the country express the
preference above, it indicates at least a
healthy taste in literature. The list is
dlsunctively American. Nearly every
name stands for a legitimate contribution
to native art. While all the authors in
the list have not wrought greatly, nor
permanently, they have at least worked
sincerely and without sham. The result
OF this contest proves that the average
reader IS not a faddist, and furthermore
is not carried off his feet by the faring
charts of ''best-Seling books Above all
1t is to be noted that the writer's selected
are, with one or two exceptions, writer's
who have made their appeal to the very
best in American life and character. The
result is, so far as it goes, a rebuke to
DeSSlnlSm q or CHI
and it pays no tribute to the pyrotechnic
advertiser who has so largely domino ted
our book marts.
1t is interesting to note the large num-
Der of Western names. Riley, Thanet,
Markham, Miller. McGaffey, Dinnie,
Read and Wallace. tt is pleasing to see
the name of Ernest McGaffey one OF the
favored. None of the younger American
poets has done more artistic work. or
written with higher or more earnest pur-
pose. His 'Sonnets to Wife" rank easily
as the best of the kind in the whole
range of American poetry.
Justice to the Women" BY Ernie Bah
cock. A. c. McClurg & Co, Chicago;
This is a better story than the title
promises. 1t is the story of a trusting
girl, alone in the world, BETRAYED bv a
society hero brought from the denths
by loving and understanding kindness.
rising superior to her conditions. heroic
ally lighting ard defeating the most ter
rlble temptations that can come from
poverty and the sight of a suffering child.
forging a beautiful and worthy character
out of pain and the bitterness of death.
TO be crowned with restored glory on
the very day that sees the man who held
her honor so lightly reap a merited ret
ribution The characters are few and
very graphically drawn. Cornelius Mans
field, who had two regulations. one ap-
pearing in the newspapers among society
notes which read WE'LL the other one
understood DIR. fernando, who came in
to the sad woman's life to redeem the
honor of his sex in her eyes; Mather
shepherd. whose discerning sympathy
and Kindness gave an anchor of hope to
q ruined life; Dariah Plunkett. whose
pathetic belief in spirits and communings
with the unseen world furnishes the hu
NOR of the story, and whose rugged hon
esty brings defeat to the villain, all these
characters move quietly and naturally
through the pages of the volume. There
is nothing morbid or sensational about
the book, as the theme might suggest
Its tone is healthy, and it's treatment sin
cere. There is touch of comic opera in
the manner in which retribution comes