The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-02
AMONG The BOOKS
The Singular Miss Smith a
Bright New Novel.
Deals With NOmen's Clubs and
Servant Girls.
CRANE PRINTS HISTORY
Will RepubIish Wiley Britton's
"War ON the Border"
Items of Interest to Lovers of
Current Books.
CRANE PRINTS HISTORY

People who subscribe for the Sat-
urday Evening Post have read and
discussed Florence Morse Kingsley s
novel, THE Singular Miss Smith as
it came out serially. Others now have
an opportunity to enjoy it in the neat
and attractive form in which it has
Just been published by the Macmil-
Ian company. 1t was a popular Sc
rial and promises to be one of the
best sellers of the year in its pres
ent form.
Miss Kingsley Cshe may be Mrs. for
all the reviewer knows but her book
other things published but moth
ing so entertaining and original
as this story about the ''Sin-
gular Miss Smith," who although she
a fashionable school and was good
looking enough and wore her clothes
well and was properly introduced at
a coming out party to the best So
ciety of Boston was yet not a society
success aid is found at the begin
ming of the book not only a spinster
of twenty-Seven, but spinster or
twenty-seven who has had but one
opportunity to marry. This came
from the rector of the family church,
q middle-aged widower who had an
eye to her fortune. Miss Smith re-
fused him. not because she wanted to
be Spinster but because she wanted
to be loved for herself. The fact that
she never had been, that people found
her different" that she had no frlendS
and that the tWenty-seven years OF
there was no prospect of future eX-
element preys so upon her mind that
in a fit of sheer desperation she joins
q wOman's club and goes IN Tor phil
anthropy, and the sort of interests
which women usually take up when
they reach an uncertain age and there
is nothing doing matrimonially pr
when they have been married Tor sew
eral years and their husbands grow
neglectful. their children have grown
up and their waists have grown big.
The best thing in Miss Kingsley's
book is the opening chapter about
the meeting of the Ontological club
and the high browed sisters who dis
cuss the problem why do American
Service?" It is a very faithful pic
ture of the average club meeting.
except that there are few real club
members with the originality and
introduced to the reader on this oc-
casion and who dares to rise and
speak out in criticism of the methods
of the women who discuss this prac-
teal question from the standpoint of
the working woman's failure to rec
ognize her primal relation to the Cos
mos AS matter of fact, though
Miss Smith is only incidentally and
Joined the club because she hadn't a
lover and didn't know what else to
do and had made up her mind TO quit
It anyway as useless and stupid sort
of business when this particular meet
ing gave her an idea She conceives
the notion of trying domestic ser
vice for herself and finding out at
first hand why American women dis
like it. Her experiences in the in
veStigation of the servant girl prob
lem make up the rest of the book.
a
how the "other half" lives she falls in
love with a foundryman. Here was
a fine opportunity for the author to
follow up the books early promise
of originality and let her hero be
a simple working man whom Miss
Smith might learn to love for his
kindness. chivalry. good sense and
ability-SOmething like the Admira BILE /
overlooks Ii and the foundryman turns
out TO be only another social reformer
masquerading as Workingman and
getting material for book, Just like
Walter Wyckoff- This denouement is
somehow disappointing. OF course if
you insist upon a love story-but why
did he have to be a college professor |
and wear whiskers? Poor Miss
Smith might almost as we'll have mar
ried the rector.
A little disappointing. too. is the
authors portrayal OF the factory
boarding house where Miss Smith stays
and works for her board between
places" The book is otherwise very
realistic and the situations completely
convincing but somehow Joey Lark
ms and "Sella Kimbark' strike one
as ideals of the authors imagination.
But most of the characters are real
people. amusing or charming as the
case may be and in spite of some quar-
rel which you may have with the
author for giving it a rather COM
moplace ending. THE Singular Miss
Smith is one of the most entertain
ing things which has been published
in some time.
The Singular Miss Smith, by Florence
Morse Kingsley. illustrated by VIII
Crete. Published by the Macmillan Co,
New York and London Price $50.