The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-28
NEW BOOKS.

THE TAsKMASTERs, BY George Kibbe Turner.
New York: Mcclure, Phillips & Co.. Minneap
oils: N. Mccarthy: Price $1.25
While novels are increa sing in number
and going back in quality it is refreshing
to find a first novel of one of, the many
ambitious writers of fiction showing real
strength and originality Of plot and con-
struction. 1.-THE Taskmasters' is dis;
tinctly above the average level of the new
fiction of the day. The local coloring of
the New England manufa curing village is
true; The grim dignity of the wealthy
local manufacturers and their equally
grim abodes, overlooking their properties;
the "sordid principality," Ellington prac-,
tically owned by William Thorndike and
peopled by his subjects; the working
people, are portrayed with real art. The
master of Ellington has a daughter, Ruth
Thorndike who is the luminous feature of
/ the story, which details with realistic.
power the joyless life Of the mill people
under the uncompromising rigidity Of the
Thorndike overlordship The master has
upon his conscience the ruin of former
partner, with whom he had, 9sby dishon-
orable and criminal meansl amassed great
wealth ]by.which he had ssseu1ired his pres
ent position and power and, as he thought,
had secured and destroyed all the evid-
ences Of his guilty proceedings; The son
Of the man he had cheated is "a poor
young lawyer. of the town and him he
seeks to ruin also. John Mayhem is a
hero Of the robust, dauntless kind and
holds his own: Curiously enough, the
daughter of his ayowed enernyaf1oVes him
in response to his own deep love, but
there is no hope for them until there IS
an Aawful tragedy, growing out Of the
nursed vengeance Of a discharged EN- :
p1oye of the Thorndil<e mills: after which
Mayhem, long watchful of the wrongs in
f1icted by capital, is transformed Unto "a
proprietor, and, day by day, solves the
problems of labor and capital by dealing
fairly and llumanely with his employees;
righting injustices; meeting real dangers
honestly and fairly No love episode in
any recent novel reaches the power, the
sweetness, the purity and tenderness of
the devotion of Ruth Thorndyke and j ohm
Mayhem. t-55
BOOK OF MEDITAT1oNs, BY Edward How
ard Griggs, author of ''The New Humanism -
New York: B. W. Huebsch, $50 Nassau street
Price 81. 90. Postage 10c.
It smacks Of little conceit5for a man
to ask the public to read his private medi-
tatiOnS printed in book form. No man
|. continually meditates with sufficient force
to merit printing his thoughts. Yet in
this volume there are many bright and
suggestive thoughts, generally of the OPP
timistic favoring. Mr. Griggs secures
train of thought even from the offensive
gluttony of steamship passengers, who
are served with five or six meals a day
and are mot satisfied. There are readable
notes bearing on art, derived from his
European. wanderings-E and some incisive
literary criticism: His optimism is broad
and strong and Of thi skind: There is
som thing better in human life than farce
and failure. Healthy human beings can
not rest In philosophy of despair. Such
a doctrine may satisfy - the worn-out
| nerves Of diseased civilization, but every
strong, well lifs will react against it with
immense force.
EsHEK-THE oPPREssoR. by Gertrude Pot
Daniels Illustrated Chicaeo The Madf.
son Book company. Price $1.50.
The author. has succeeded in keeping
up the interest in the story by the adroit
process Of scene-shifting. The hero,
Jarvis Kennedy. a homeless lad in an
eastern town. pinched with want and out
of employment, selzes the bag of a lady
from her belt and escapes to be confront
ed by a man who demands the swag for
himself and a struggle ensues resulting
in the killing of the man by Jarvis, who
gets on train ar ! goes to Texas. where
| uuires wealth and becomes a great oil
well proprietor and runs for governor.
Here the crisis of his life comes in. His
entrance into politics starts search into
his record and the crime of his youth is
| brought up with somewhat astonishing
results, the details of which show the
authors best points. incidentally there is
some very lively writing about the war
| between the independent oil producers and
/ the monopoly bred by railway rebates.