The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-29

Philadelphia.
This is a charming story charmingly
told and is "racy of the soil" The
scenes are all laid in Buncombe county
near Asheville, and the characters enjoy
such North Carolina names as Gudger
Morgan, Carroll Wilder, Weaver and
Marlborough. II is a story of moonshine
liquor, revenue officers stills hid in the
mountains, with the chief figure in the
story (not the real hero. for he is a
typical North Carolina youth who lost
his Iife) a German baron, exiled by his
own queer sentiment in the recesses of
the North Carolina mountains. The
baron, Friedrich Won Rittenheim, was
Tilted in Germany by his sweetheart, who
married his own brother. In order that
his younger brother and bride might live
in comfort on the ancestral estate, the
baron who became the Tar Heel Baron
left Germany and became a wanderer on
the face of the earth. Finally, when his
money was about gone, he buys a poor
North Carolina farm and strives, with
no knowledge of what to do on a noun
tain farm, to exc out an existence. In
his dire poverty he sells pint of whis-
key of his own make to a revenue officer
morning arrests him and puts him in
iail The story of the base
ness of many of the revenuers and
the juggernaut of Federal courts is well
brought out. and is true to life. His re-
lease from the clutches of the law by
noble country doctor, whom the Baron
had wronged, brings out a type OF the
North Carolina country doctor who, Tor
a hundred years. has been the first man
of almost every settlement. What
robust type of the most useiul men
North Carolina has produced in old DR..
Morgan Some day fitting tribute VIII
be paid to these noble men who, In
hard and busy life of truest altruisni
never dreamed they were the highest
types of men of the heroic mould. Moth
ing in the book is finer than the drawing
of the character of the old fashloned
country doctor of the best school. just
such men have blessed almost every
country community in North Carolina
And the picture of his wife-a true help
meet--is given with a fine touch.
The low-down moonshiner in the person
OF Pink Presley and the humble and
typical North Carolina mountaineer Ill
the person of Bud Marlborough put in
contrast the two types that one meets III
the mountain life-the two types, minus
the environment that are found every
where in the world. The world is largely
made up of Bud Yarboroughs-good
clever and true-who are too often led
into wrong by the deyilish ingenuity or
the Pink Pressleys. The author shows a
truer insight into human nature in the
delineation of those characters, and the
character of Buds wife, than in any
others of the book. They are nearest to
Misunderstanding less of that culture and
education that tend to hide the true feel
ings and true character. Education ought
to develop individuality; it too often
puts all men in a common rut of hiding
their individuality. That is why the
story of the untaught is more real than
the story of the drawing-room.
Mrs. Pelton's accessories all show her
knowledge of the country and its people,
though her dialect is not always perfect.
She makes all her North Carolina char
acters use "Ah'' for II" She evidently
appreciates the true worth and solid stuff
OF the typical North Carolina character
and in the main she understands it.
Residence at Arden, near Asheville, for
eight years has given her the opportunity
to learn the character and habits of The
people, and in many ways she shows she
has studied them with profit.
The story shows that in Buncombe
county can be found a truly cosmopolitan
population and she introduces characters
representing almost every phase of life
the moonshiner bent on deviltry. the good
natured man persuaded to cheat the gov
eminent. the country doctor and his wife.
the simple noble wife of the unlettered
countryman, the high spirited and
splendid young man, having no fault eX-
cept the love of drink, the educated and
well-to-do family living in the country
and in touch with all classes, visitors
from the fashionable world of New York,
the German Baron and the German adj
ventures, the officers of the Federal
court and the internal revenue officer ard
his duplicity-all these figure in the
pages of the book and the author has
made an uncommonly interesting and de-
lightful North Carolina story. The
heroine is splendid, thoroughbred
North Carolina woman, but she never
would have lost her heart to that Ger
man baron as Mrs. Pelton makes her do.
North Carolina girls who are thorough
breds do not care for titles and they
prefer the North Carolina boys.
BAYOU TRISTE" a story of Louis
lana, by Josephine Hamilton Nichols GA.
s. Barnes e Co., publishers. New York;,
is very original and entertaining story
wherein the cordial good feelings exist
ing between the plantation negro and his
old masters children and grand children
is interesting and convincingly portrayed.
The time of the narrative is since the
war. the scene being laid at Southmeade
plantation. on Bayou Triste, near the
creole village of VieuXtemps and deals
with the fortunes of the young master of
the broken down old home and of his
humor- loving sister. 1t is grave and gay
by turns, the love story of both the young
people being interviewer with the por
trayal of the free and joyous life of the
plantation.
Miss Nichols is the daughter of Chief
Justice Nichols, of the Louisiana SUI
preme court, and is thoroughly familiar
with her subject. The negro characters
described are evidently drawn from life.
there being nothing of the traditional
negro of fiction about the group of OLD