The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-07-20
BOOKS AND AUTHORS, COMMENT. AND GOSSIP
"A Singular Metamor phosis'-"The Simple Life"-The
speckled Bird"-Robert T. Hill and the Martinique
Disaster Salisburys Observation-Disclosures
Salisbury's Retirement
Literary Gleanings.

to be called a novelette,, but on all other
points 1t Is a perfect piece OF Worh anu
the absorbing interest OF the story Is
equal to its correct teachings ana easy
style Ransom, the son OF an atiiueht' IN
hucntiai father, is lieutenant In the
regulars. taking his cooking with III grace
at Fort Crockett. He has seen active
service in the Philippines and frontier gar
,:snn life is boring him to death. On, a
dare he sets out disguised as the Red
Rider to rob the stage; which ne does;
but the real Red Rider" holds up the
United States paymaster on the same
read, and pumps him and his driver fuil
Of lead. Ransom is arrested and things
look bad for him. However, there Is
death-bed confession which clears Ran
son, also his anticipated father-in-law.
the post trader; and the story ends IN
the good old way by Ransons winning
the st-traders daughter.
THE Bar Sinister fakes the blue for
sketches. 1t is the story. told aby him
self of bu]l-terrior half prize-wfnner.
half rnongrel. but really all thoroughbred.
However. the fact that his mother was
a street dog gives him much embarrase-
rrcnt, but he is as loyal to her as to the
memory of sire .egent Royal the great
champion. How the hero gets from BAD
hands into good and becomes the pride OF
the show at the garden is particularly
good reading.
The Simple Life. BY Charles Wagner. Nc
Clure. Phillips and Company. New
York s1.00.
This essay is a plea for simplicity IN
iife-for simple thoughts. simple words
simple pleasures. simple beauty. II
teaches the value Of retreatlng
from tae feyered, conventional life of
fashion, and making haunts of peace and
serenity wherein to live amid conditions
of a less artificial existence than that OF
tie world to-day
The author. Charles Wagner. Is an
Alsatian by birth. from the hill coun-
Try; a son. grandson and great-grandson
Of faithful pastors. He was educated at
Sorbonne and at the University OF Stras-
burg.
q; have lived with rich and poor" he
Whites, with wise and ignorant, city
folks and peasants, Germans and French,
.iievers and atheists, the champions Of
he past and the champions of the pres
mt, and have understood and loved them
ALL love life and humanity under all
ihcir wholesome sincere forms, in all
ttei: griefs and their hopes. and even
IN all the tempests Of thought and deed.
tIcnlo sum: humani nihl a me alienunl
puto. I am a pagan and an ancient, a
child Of nature come to God through
Christ"
Charles Wagners Youth and 'Cour-
age have also been translated into En-
Elish.
a Singular Metamornhos's BY May Evelyn
Skies. The Abbey Press. New York
so cents.
While the love element. now almost
necessity in fiction. pervades this book.
the psychological, together with the
moral phase of life is ingeniously intro
duced. The lighter vein only seems to
render more pronounced the more seri-
Gus questions which arise. and the earn
estness with which the author portrays
the emotions of each character can but
make the reader feel that the dramatis
personae have really lived. suffered and
enjoyed. One would be interested in the
development of the plot. even were there
no other enjoyable feature to commend
the work.