New-York tribune., 1903-02-01

cap the climax, Milligan, the official aforesaid,
plains that giving Piggy" wigging, h.
was politely asked to consider the feelings
OF the girl who got our brutal refusal to allow
claim for few hundTedweiGht of hams The
lecture that follows OF the wisdom OF sticking I
business in business hours is uaint- But a
these letters are entertaining. There is under
standing of human nature, and there Is "I.ors,
se~se,' at the bottom of all the fun. The Illus
trations uneven in quality, but the best o.
them, like the picture of Jim Donnclly. with
fool grin his fat face" are as clever rs the
text
The author Of Doctor Bryson' has d lov,
story to tell. 1t is pity that he did not ind q
way of telling it somewhat less painful tha-
the he has chosen. The doctor of the booi
is a specialist in eye surgery. He has = tende.
heart, and early in the book begins to play tn
protecting friend to a separated from
her husband, with little girl on her hands.
The child has something wrong with one of her
eyes. Can not the reader see the climax al
which Doctor Bryson" is bound 10 arrive? Ro-
nance could not but flow from the situation
we have indicated. Mr.. Spearman could easily
have kept romance in the foreground, but he Is
too fond of lowering around such themes as
secondary glaucoma," and delights to bore u
in this fashion: The fluids that feed the eye
fail to discharge; the ball becomes tense from IN
ward pressure, just as you might fill toy bladder
to bursting. The delicate cOatings Of the retina
torn and detached by ever increasing press
ure. The eye-bau becomes hard-stony hare
the optic nerve is cupped into its canaI-the heiC
of vision gradually narrows-sight fickers hh'
sinking candle-dies. We call it glauconla
Whatever the oculists may call it, the readel
cannot but resent having such horrors put be
fore him IL novel. II is not simply that they
make one vince; it is that one shrinks from
having a subject so heartrendingly serious fol
many human beings brought in for the trivia
purpose of enlivening q fictitious narrative
It was in the late sixties that Adelaide Sar-
toris Fanny Kembles bewitching sister. wrote
and published "A Week in a French CoUntr!
House" She called it "a fragmentary some
thing" and it did rot occur to her, or to her
many distinguished friends, to take II very
seriously. 1t has never enjoyed extraordinar!
repute in England, and though, If we mistake
not it was published over here il the old Frank
lin Square Library, it cannot be said to have
achieved anything like fame in this country
Yet II is a kind Of minor classic, book 50
brinuirg over with the charm Of rare per
sonality that It is unlikely that It VIII ever o.
completely forgotten The new edition nov
brought out by the Macmillans will give Il
new lease of life. AS a work Of fiction it MAY
not be great but it has a most winning vivacity;
poetic spirit flashes through its pages ano
everywhere there is a sweet old fashioned per
fume the SAVIOUR of interesting little corner
Of life observed by a writer Of wit and OF ex-
ouisite feeling. Mrs Ritchie, in her three pref
aces, gives the best possible Introduction to the
book in sketching the author, who like her
famous sister, was a woman OF genius and low