The times., 1901-04-28

~
enforce it. he arranged for him to go
to Sarrio with it and settle down
there He was to take a few compost
tors with him, who were to teach IIle
trade to some of the lads IN the IoWt;
and he was to be furnished with an
necessary materials for the establish
rnglt OF printing office. FolgueraS
the ruined printer, was thus TO De lne
director aud m2stcr OF the cohSeIh
and his salary was to be drawn from
the Journal, and according TO our
calculations this proved to be twice
as much as what IS given by the pesl
printing Offices in Madrid. However,
IL is not much if we cons ider the merit
Of the machine and the deep love pro-
fcssed for il by the owner.
THE title Of the newspaper was one
of the points in which the lhEehtiNe'
superior mind of Don Rosendo par
ticuIarly distinguished itself. 1t was
called The Light of Sarrio, name
extremely Impressive and well-sound-
inE and moreover testifying to It's
mission which its founder wished 10
be that Of enlightening and dignl1yihg
the town of Sdrrio. He secretly or
dered from Madrid an engraving Tor
the head of the paper, and on It's ar
rival q few dayS later IL caused rap
tlIrous delight among the sharehold-
ers and all those who had the Sood
fortune to see it. 1t represented a sea-
port like Sarrio. in the dark hours OF
the night-to judge by the black hue OF
The sky and sea on the left lowered
the heights of an ideal mountain, upon
which was seen man, bearing dls-
tant resemblance to Don RoSenuo,
turning the rays of an enormous IAN
tern upon the town: round about MN
were the heads of several people ana
the shareholders believed in good faltn
that they represented themselves, ana
so they felt deeply indebted to the de-
signer.'
If anybody can doubt. after reading
this. that there is much human nature in
a Spaniard, he would better interview the
next millionaire who without experience
in Journalism, buys a newspaper for a
plaything. and see if his experience does
not closely correspond to Don Rosendo' s.
And here is another bit of sly humor,
which might be Huckleberry Finn's own,
but for the fact that it is in a different
dialect and concerns the one little thea
tire Of Sarrio instead of show in some
Mississippi River town:
There it was / saw Don Juan
Tenorio.' with its flour-whitened
corpses, its commander gliding away
on a door pulled with cords. its infer
nal regions made of lighted spirits of
wine: and fits apotheosis of paper,
stuIfing, and packing-cas made such
an impression on me that never
slept that night. In the auditorium
=
as in the grandest houses of the capt.
tai However, more attention was
given to the performance here than
in court theatres. because we had not
arrived at that high state of culture
in which behavior is in direct con-
tradiction to the place-swearing and
chattering in playhouses, laughing and
giggling in church, and silence and Sc
dateness at The promenade, after the
delightful fashion in Madrid. | do
not know If they have attained TO this
state of culture in Sarrio by now"
The minor characters of the book,
which are numerous, are not its least de-
Hghtful feature The management of
such characters is one Of the great tests
Of a novelist's power. He must not drag
them in for the sake of the local color,
if they have no relation to the plot; nor
may he introduce them simply for the
sake of the plot, ana leave them lifeless
and commonplace lay hgures. Senior
Valdes does neither. All the people in
his book are Enthusiastically alive, and
none of them is quite conventional In
comicality, pathOs, or genre. There is
the pompous alcalde, who cannot meet
a town official on his daily promenade
without stopping him for a harangue
about some duty of his office; there is the
henpecked husband, who, as the author
dryly states. would have been very fast,
bad man if his property had not been ali
in his wife's name and If she would have
let him have any money; there is the
fiery-tempered little seamstress, who,
finding her gentleman lover busy with
another girl, avenges herself, not by the
stiletto-shades of Spanish melodramatic
heroinesi-but by boxing his ears and
pinching him; there is the unfortunate
editor Of Don Rosendo's yellow journal
there are the genial and lovable old un-
Gle of the hero and the half-pathetic, half
amusing figure Of the wife of De Belin-
chon, the former cigarette girl, comic in
her frightened striving after gentility,
but dignified and made pathetic by her
sorrow and her maternal affection. 1t is
TO be hoped that Senior Palacio Valdes
will write many more novels and that
they viii all be translated and circu-
lated in this country; for if it were not a
sin to compare one great man with an
other in any such way. he might almost
be considered the Spanish Balzac. At any
rate, he is fine enough and knows the
human heart wei enough, TO win fame on
his own merits. comparison or no COM
parison. CNew York: Brentanos)