The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-26
FRANK NORRIS AT WORK.

Epic. of Wheat was destined never to
be finished. for those who have read THE
Octopus" and The Pit" the first two
of the proposed trilogy, are kcenly dis
appointed not to see the finish. Fer in
asmuch as The Octopus" was far
greater production than any of his pre-
vious books, SO does The Pit" excel THE
Octopus" The first of the trilogy deals
with the war between the wheat grower
and the railroad trust; the second. The
Fit" is a fictitious narrative Of IDEAL"
in the Chicago wheat pit, and the third,
The Wolf, which will never appear was
to have had for its pivotal episode the
RELIEVING Of wheat famine in an old
The Fit" has been running In the
Saturday Evening Post, where The Octo-
pus', was also published, and from the
beginning of it's first chapters has aroused
a widespread interest. 1t is a story
which appeals to almost every class of
wastes time" over novels may read it
and find there deep interest in the
throbbing life CT the pit SO wildly de-
scribed. And still it is a tale Of ''hu-
nal meaning of the term-but full of hu-
man interest because its characters are
real, everyday people who act as real
peorle do, not as they should. sometimes,
hut there is not character in the book
who is not always human.
The characters in the story are not too
numerous, as is SC often the case with
stories of the day; in reality there are
but nine people whom the reader is called
upon to interest himself in, and it is diff
ficult to choose which Of these is the most
interesting Probably Curtis Jadwin a
typical Self-made man, is the most prorni-
nent character. He is not one of the per-
feet self made men enc sometimes reads
OF, but never meets, for he too is human.
He Is first Of all good, and secondly, full
OF business He chose the girl he want
ed to marry and married her because he
loved her. He started in with wheat
gambling just for a rastime became en-
crossed, forgot his wife was deaf to her
! n n 111Cr 1t
finally learned his lesson by a loss of ev-
erYthing he had. 1t was one of those
times when wheat was forced higher and
higher; threatening every moment to fall
but Curtis Jadwin, confident but half
crazed. risked his every penny on it's 60
ing still higher, and lost it all. His con-
tstic of the man though they ruined him
| as they caused the death through suicide
of his best friend, Charles Cressler, who
| also failed in a big deal
Laura Dearborn, whom Jadwin married
IS the kind OF character that reminds
the reader of some acquaintance The
casual rea6er might have called her weak
but she was not, not more than any other
weak in a sense? She was a sentimental t5i
girl fond of admiration, one of the WON
en- to whom love is as essential as bread
ana butter. Besides Jadwin she had
two other suftors, as totally different from
each other as they We're from Jadwin.
! One, an artist, Sheldon Corthell takes the
place OF the villain in the story, only he
was not a villain; though, during the time
OF her husbands neglect of her he begs
her to go away with him. Landry Court
was a bright young business man, boy
ish, who loved her in a chivalrous man
ner All proposed to her on the same
| evening and, not meaning to be a f1irt
she encouraged all of them, though with
| holding any fixed answer from all AT the
| close of this day she bethought herself
/ OF nef pecul1ar conduct was ashamed of
! herself, and wrote to each of them a note
| refusing his offer of marriage. Court and
the artist ceased their counting but
JadW1n went ahead and married her,
even succeeding in making her love him.
And they lived very happily until he be-
came so deeply engrossed in wheat
There are several other rather interest
ing people brought into the story But
none can appreciate the descriptions of
tn bne b pit t fu1l OF life as they are, unless
the screeching mob in the pit and seer
| 1or himself how true G picture the book
mas given OF this part of Chicago life.
| II seems almost too real, too horrible foo
noisy to be true to the reader who has
| never seen for himself
The King Of UnadIIIIa-By Howard r
CARTS. Published by ]. s. Opflvie com
pany, New York
Every chapter of this little book is con-
vulsively funny and there Is Sometime
| wrong with the reader who can gel
| through 1t without an audible and exnan-
slve smile. The metaphor or slang, II
you like-is ingenious and not forced
The king is burlesque monarch. such as
Is found in musical comedy, only this
KING IS much more funny than any op-
cratic ruler shat has been this way D.
course, it IS all pure nonsense. but 1t Is
| Just what the doctor would order for ar
| attack of the ultramarines
The Derby Anniversary Caendar-Editee
! by George Derby. Published by James
T. White & Co.. New York
It's compiler has collected 5000 note
worthy dates and birthdays in American
history and biography. and has assorted
them according to the days of the year
l each day occupying page of the book