The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-06-15
The v;rcinian. Horseman OF tho
- r,,n inc BY Owen Mister. Illustratcd by

The virginian. A Horseman OF t Inc
Plains. BY Owen Wists s, sa.,si,o oy
Company. New York sl.5o.
owen Wister is TO be congratulated
rpon the fact that his first novel is dis
linctly as successful; as his short stories
OF tho West were In Rcd Men ana
White. and Lin Mclean Your re-
viewer spent all the teens OF his age IN
the far west and has lived long enough
TO have had n glimpse OF the old order
OF things that was at its highest through
out the seventies and early eighties and
can saw without hesitation that Mr.. WIS
Ger has given the most perfect picture In
literature OF that strenuous and romantic
period In our country's development. lie
has given it not as a review, or q MARIA
tive or an essay, but in living, breath
ting picture of a typical fronueIsman n
the daily life OF his young manhood IN
the expansion OF his character through
love, and in the roundinSs out of his life
in prospecting. useful citizenship To
meet him is to know a man; TO feel the
period is to be conscious OF the greatness
OF empire building.
The hero OF the novel is young Vir-
gilman. apparently from the valley. who
had too much energy in his composition
to sit around and spend his life in the
same occupation and the same converse
zion and the same routine that was ptr-
sued by his grandfather, and SO packed
himself off to Wyoming and the great
cattle ranches. lie found variety ali
right In fact there is plenty of variety
to be found out there now. in far places.
4. you know where TO so for 1t. How
sncomprchcnsibIc the old days were, and
the present days are to the people OF
1.-THE East IS well dispiayd in the atti-
tude of the family Of the little Vermont
school teacher who goes out to Wyoming
.,,.i
captive to the life and to its hero, the
rirginfan It takes time for her TO get
accustomed to her environment and to
ffn-it is like the miniature of her
grandmother on the wall beside the war
sonnet of an Arapaho-but in time the
tnan's strong and unruly but line ndtL'e
wins a gradual victory over the womans
keener sensibilities. Her scruples are
l,-i,d In the cruoibe however.
They value human life and matters of
Yoru, much more highly in the confined
EAST than in the boundless West, and the
Vermont conscience is lacerated when her
lever and his men ride out on the trhls
Of the cattle thieves and visit upon them
the summary justice of the court OF last
resort-the people themselves 1t takes
the old Federal judge some time to make
her see the fight of that. And she is all
most heart -brolien when on their we'd
ding eve he leaves fler-forever, she says,
after imploring him to hide himself-to
&c out and fight his arch enemy Trampas.
who is ''heliing'' around the town search
ing to shoot him on sight. 1t is a print
tive business too deep for her over
civilized nature: but when the man OF
lier heart returns unscathed from having
killed his enemy, the whole love of her
strong fibre is returned irrevocably to
him. Their honeymoon in the mountains
IS Il western idyll.
Subdued as it is to the literary quality
of the book. the dramatic element is So
conspicuous in this story that it ought to
be made over for presentation on The
stage It certainly would equal If not
eclipse the phenomenally successful
,'Arizona" Of Augustus Thomas. In the
characterization Mr.. Writer'S passages in
the first person could he transposed into
the third. and the necessary acts could
easily be extracted from text rich in
situation. The country and the world
needs to know the truer life and chalac-
ter OF the great West, and to- appre-
ciate the Immense significance OF the
s'early days" It is writings like this.
done by keen observers of men and
women. rcplete with natural action. COM
nrehersive pictures Of q day and a gen
Grafton, that make social arGcialilty
ius.ly absurd and invoke invidious COM
na,tso.s upon closeted historians.