The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-28
RECENT PUBLICATIONS.
The Mississippi bubble.

Emerson tdOuGn, author OF this story, De
came favorably known to the public
through his book. 1.-The Girl at the Half
way House" In this later tale he handles
u very different theme The Mississippi
Bubble" is also a much more ambitious
work than any he has yet published. The
striking title he found ready at hand; it
was, in fact. inevitable. since the leading
figure of mis- book is no less a parsonage
than John Law, the famous gamester and
financier, whose great banking and specu-
lative scheme which wrought such excite
ment and havoc in France nearly 200 years
ago. was later known by this expressive
name. Ii is rather a daring venture for
novelist to take for his central character
one whose career is so we'll known as
Laws, yet, after ALL it is not the personal,
but the public acts of his life that are IA
miliar 10 the readers of history. He was
so noted a figure in a public sense that,
whatever may have been the case during
his lifetime, his private affairs fell into an
uncOnsidered background so far as later
generations are concerned. In dealing with
the romance of his life doubtless Mr..
Hough considered this vague knowledge
one of the probabilities. How much
basis he has for this romance it is impos-
sible for one who has not made close
study of Laws biography TO say So dettly
are his complicated love affairs woven
into the web of events known by an VINO
have read of him at all to be true that the
line between fact and fiction cannot easily
be drawn. Naturally this artful treatment
adds greatly to the realism and the interest
of the story.
The narrative divides itself into three
parts, in which the scenes and incidents
differ widely. Law, with his brother, Is
first introduced at the time of his arrival
in London from Edinburgh his reputation
the originator of novel and daring man.
cial ideas having preceded him. He Is rep
resented as handsome, well hammered, and
bold and self-confident in affairs OF the
heart as well as in more material pursuits
He meets the woman of his choice, Lady
Catherine knollys, by accident before he
has fairly entered London; he falls in
stantly in love with her and engages In
swift and ardent courtship in which he
succeeds in winning the ladys affections,
and all promises well. But the course
neither of true love nor of his other inter
ests runs smoothly at this time. For killing
a man in duel he is thrown into prison
and sentenced to death; he is also es-
tranged from his sweetheart through the
wiles of her treacherous friend who is in
love with him. Escaping from prison, he
fines himself by mistake on vessel bound
for America instead of France.
His experience in America forms the sec
ond part of the tale. Reckless and desper-
ate, yet, withal, observant of the great
possibilities of the country, he wanders
over the new world in company with
venturers all, seeking they scarcely know
what. At last he comes with his company
TO the ''Messasebe, and there he fingers
long; there, the author would have us be
lieve he builds the foundation of what
long after, results in the Mississippi bulb
BILE While leading this savage life he has
various wild adventures, fight with In
dams and capture by them among the rest
These are picturesque chapters, and the
flavor of primitive existence which they
bring into what would otherwise be largely
a chronicle of the conventional and luXuri-
Gus gives the book a peculiar attraction.
The last and third part relates Laws eX-
perience in France the trusted friend of
the regent, Philippe of Orleans, and with
his great financial scheme at last in sue
cessful operation. He had arrived in Paris
just as Louis XIV lay dying, and one of
the striking passages of the book is the
description of the deathbed scene.
Here, at the height of his success, when
| he is practically dictator and all men bow
down to him, the two women who have
most Influenced his life appear again. The
scene at the royal banquet where he meets
! once more the treacherous creature who
! has wrought him so much i'll is very dra-
matte and suggests striking stage posi-
/ bilities, though the book, a whole, does
not convey the unpleasant impression, now
so common with fiction, that its author
| wrote il with the stage in mind. Here is a
| description of Law as he looked on that oc-
/ casiOn:
There appeared now the tall. erect and
! vigorous form of a man owning a superb
/ physical beauty. Powerful, yet not too
/ nedNN Tor ease, MS inquire Ieldlneu lIdl
] elasticity and grace which had won him
/ favor in more than one court Of Europe.
/ He himself might have been King he
/ advanced steadily up the brilliantly illumi-
| mated room. His costume, simply made,
/ yet of the richest materials of the time;
! his wig, highly powdered, though of modest
| proportions; his every item of apparel APP
| peared alike of great simplicity and barren
| of pretentiousness."
| What the incidents were that so compli-
Gated his love history, in what way the
/ woman whom he did not love deceived
/ him. how the web was at last untangled-
/ all these things form such a part of the
interest of the story that to tell them here
would be unfair to author and reader. 1t
4 is enough TO say that the tale is extremely
we'll handled. 1t offers an unusual variety
! of picturesque scene and incident; its chief
parsonage is wildly presented, the charac-
/ ter study made of him being one likely to
/ be accepted a true portrait and it is
/ historical in a genuine sense. Unlike most
so-called historical novels IL is not built
against a vague background of history; ii
! is history In so far as it deals with public
matters 1t is a careful work in a literary
/ sense. showing signs of haste or care
/ lessness, and in this respect is again eX-
/ ceptional. Altogether it is a book quite
| out of the common and will undoubtedly
/ meet the approval of discriminating read
ers. The BowenMerrill Company, pub
/ fishers