Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-16
NEW PUBLICATIONS

THE WIND IN THE RosE-BusH; and Other hs. sto-
Illustrated by Peter Newell New ,, nSrk =
Ballantyne & Sons.
| heretofore kept SO strictly within the range
of the normal. the natural the tangible,
| that she has been set down by many read
| ers as a. confirmed realist. Her clear char
! acterizations are all distinctly reproduce
tons from life. Her themes are the home
| ~ ones which affect the careers of the
| quiet classes But it would have been
strange if Miss Wilkins had continued her
cultivation of this field of New England
| folk lore without turning to that gloomy
corner where grow the rank weeds of SUI
perstition. Indeed. her role of chronicler of
the lives of these people would have been
| inadequately filled had she ignored the
influence which superstition exerts upon
| them. A stanch belief in "ha nts" Is so
| prevalent IN certain parts of the country
| that 1t may be said to be almost co-eXistent
with fervid religious faith. The people OF
| whom Miss Wilkins tells in these half dozen
| stories are all doubtless devout church
| members. Yet their belief in the ghosts
| that inhabit the spooky places in the mar
ratives is no less strong on that account.
Miss wilkins offers her apparitions
through the medium of the eyes and ears
of her characters. She tells what they
saw and heard merely as narrator not
as an eyewitness herself. The effect is
that the stories are adroit bids for the
readers own belief The story Of Luella
Miller for example, is so vivid a portrayal
of human vampire. living upon the life
| essences of those who aided her. that the
| final stroke of a spectral parade of her and
her dead victims does not offend the sense
of probability. Mr.. Newelrs pictures eff
fectively supplement the tales.
AT THE TIME APPOINTED. By A. Maynard Bar
bour, author Of The Mainwaring Affair." etc
Frontispiece by j.. N. Marchand. Philadelphia:
]. B. Lppincott Company.
This is not detective story, as the read
ers of 1.-THE Mainwaring Affair might be
led to expect, although it deals with mys-
terry and with crimes. 1t is rather a tale
of psychology treating in the main as it
does of the total loss and later recovery of
a mans memory. Between the two strokes
he lives as a distinct personality, only
family bound to his real self. In conse-
quence of this experience his identity is
completely lost for a considerable period,
and to his friends in the east, whom he has
left to execute a commission in the west
as mining expert, he is as one dead The
loss of memory. due to a seizure of fever,
prevents him from identifying a train rob
Der who kills man in the early part of
the story, although this man later enters
his life and is near to robbing him of his
dearest treasure, the love of a woman The
story is weakened somewhat by prolonga-
ton of the climax and some unnecessary
detail in the final Identification and death
of the villain, who has himself led a double
life, though consciously. 1t is vivid in it's
characterizations, however, and thrilling in
its dramatic situations.
CoNJURoR's HOUSE; A Romance of the Free
Forest; BY Stewart Edward White, author of
Phillips Co. Washington: Woodward &
Lothrop
When the Hudson Bay Companys mo-
nopoly in the fur trade was broken by acts
of the dominion parliament some of the
factors of that corporation continued their
despotic policy and excluded from their
territory all the free traders who ven
tured within. One of them, in the far
reaches of the north, undertook a course
which gave his headquarters an evil name
among the trappers and Indians of the ter
ritory. He had a method of evicting OBJ
jectionable individuals by sending them
forth upon what was known as ia Tongue
traverse, that is, starting them out
through the forest with no arms and with only
scanty supply of provisions. They sell
dom lived to reach civilization If they
did not die of hunger on the trail. they
were slain by the Indian runners who had
been sent out to watch their struggles to
get through the wilderness The present
story is based upon this situation. The ac-
ton is brief, covering only a few hours
and including many dramatic episodes.
romance is involved and the sympathy of
the reader Is aroused at the outset for the
young trapper who has fallen into the
hands of Galen Albret, the company's fac
tor. His eventual success and reward are
legitimate development. The story gives
clear conception of the life at one of
these isolated frontier stations. 1t de-
serves better Illustrations than are given
to it,
CARTOONS BY McCUTCHEON: Selection of One
Hundred Drawings. By John T. McCutcheon,
Including the Famous Boy in Springtime''
Series, etc. Chicago: A. c. McClurg Co.
Mr. McCutcheon's cartoons in the Chi
cago Record-Herald have attracted gen.
eral attention, both for their technical ex-
cellence and for their genuinely humorous
quality. He has, as Mr.. George AIDE re-
marks in the course of a preface to the
present collection, reached the happy con-
clusion that the American reading public is
interested in something besides politics. So
he takes his subjects from the events
which are attracting general notice, from
themes of the season, from the fads of the
people, from the human foibles, and in con-
sequence his work is ever fresh and strik-
ing He has a range of style from the
grotesque to the strictly artistic. Some
times he unites these two elements in
the same picture, WITH excellent erect
In his series of sketches showing
the diversions, dangers, delights and
decisions of the boy in the chang
ing seasons, Mr.. McCutcheon displays
his intimate knowledge of boy nature, his
keen appreciation of the boys environment.
In his political cartoons he is never vul-
carly offensive in his depletion of public
| men, although he does not fail to strike
hard whenever sharp blows are needed to
illustrate a truth. There is never any
doubt as to McCutcheon's meaning. In at
testation of the sentiment with which
prominent personages view this remarkable
newspaper artists caricatures of them a
letter recently received by Mr.. McCutcheon
from ex-Presdent Cleveland in acknowl-
edgment of a copy of the work is interest
ing Mr. Cleveland wrote: Il think you
have quite lately executed the best cartoon
in which I appear that have ever seem
I refer to that one in which l am repre-
scented as not a candidate in four differ
ent phases or stages. 1 have been immense
ly amused by it-especially by e'changing
expression of the main figure, and the 9TH
ers as we'll"
FIGHT FOR THE CITY. BY Alfred Holder,
author Of 1.-The New Americans" etc. New
York: The Macmillan Company. Washington:
Brentano's.