New-York tribune., 1903-07-24

that is an eptome of Miss Jewett's talent will
name Miss Tempy's Watchers as an example
showing the finest shades of her quality. The
story describes how two women, Mrs. Grove
and Sister Binson. sitting up as watchers in
the house of the dead woman, Miss Iempy, the
night before the funeral The slightly eerie
lation of the living to the dead, the manner in
which the two women are constrained to draw
close together in outspolken condolences, and the
way the character of the dead woman creates
the powerful invisible atmosphere around them
most finely brought out The sketch is ten
der grave wholly spiritual in its essence. but
subtly strong is the feeling of our human frailty
lurking in these good womens private chat It
is the taint of human lfes appetites and
human life's necessities that is so finely indi-
Gated by contrast with the impassive silence of
the dead Here it is the fine flower of the Puri-
tan nature that speaks in Miss JeWettS art,
though the delight she takes in human nature
as human nature argues, perhaps, that she has
inherited some artistic strain foreign TO the
Puritan.
A cIearness of phrase almost French is allied,
indeed to her innate precision Of language. Her
gift for characterization is exceedingly subtle,
but neither rich nor profound. Her people are
sketched rather IN their essential outlines than
in their exact lineaments. 1t Is puzzlng TO say
by what hidden artistic spell she manages so
craftiIy to indicate human characters in the
characters of William and Mrs. Hight In the
story "A Dunnet Shepherdess' but after few
subtle hints dropped here and there her peo-
pie felt to be living an intensely individual
life. all their own, beyond their creators
control or volition. This gift of indicating char
acter by few short simple strokes is the glIC
Of the masters. Perhaps we shall touch near 10
the secret of Miss JeWetts power and the secret
of her limitations if we say that her art is eX-
ceedingly feminine in the sense that she has
that Enthusiastically feminine patience with
human nature which is intimately enrooted IN a.
mothers feeling. Just as a woman's criticism
of the people near and dear to her is modif1eo oy
her instructive understanding Shared by man In
far fainter degree) that nothing will ever
change them radically, so Miss Jewetts artistlc
attitude shows a completely sympathetic
patience with the human nature she mas
watched and carefully scrutinized. Her g1It ls'
therefore, the gift of drawing direct from
nature. with an exquisite fidelity to what ap-
peals to her feminine imaginatlon-such as the
infinite variety of wOmen's perceptions IN thelr
personal relations, but the feminine insight only
moves along the plane of her sympathetic ap-
probation and she can invent nothing outside
it neither has she depth of creative feellnS
apart from her actual observation or human
life She is receptive, but not constructive, IN
her talent 1t is for this reason that her his
torical novel "A Tory Lover" is almost COM
plete failure. All the men in the book are mas
culine ciphers, and its real hero, Paul Jones'
never begins to live.
on the other hand. when she is content to in
terpret for US the characteristic attitude to life
Of grimly hard working New-England splnsters.
such as Miss Peck, in Miss Pecks Promotion.
or broad matrony natures such as the village
wife, the herb gatherer, in the Country Oh the
Pointed FRS" we get delicious revelation OF
how men by nature play the second fiddle III
women's eyes Man a boy, a lover a nus
band, brother. father or friend, with his some
what obtrusVe personality as an honest well
meaning forceful creature, is shown US as hlling
up womans mental background in Miss Jew
etts stories but woman herself 1t is that de-
cides arranges and criticises her own life, and
the life of her friends enemies, relations and or
the whole pariSh-and the reader has sense In
her pages that should the curtain be dropped on
the feminine understanding the most interest
ing side of life would become a mere darkened
chaos to the isolated masculine understanding.