The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-10-02
Mr.. CABELL's8 STORY IN
THE OCTOBER HARPER.

An admirable feature Of the October
Harper is Mr.. James Branch Cabellis
story entitled 5S"1n Necessity.s Mortar
which Is given prominent place and men
ton.
) ing colorist, has made the illustrations
for It,, the leading one Of which SHOWS
Sthe heroine, Catherine De Vaucelles, IN
her garden,,' the garden which Mr.. Ca
bells art brings back to the mind, as
always heavy with the perfume OF roses
and mignonette, as always filled 8W win
/ tho moons silver radiance, the splashing
sof the fountain and the rustic OF over
Hanging chestnut and acacia boughs.
The time Of the story is the time OF
SLduis XI. OF France. Mr.. Cabell's hero
Is the man, remembered still by the world
Sof to-day, as Francois Villon.5 the poet
Easter Of Paris. he whose songs SO caught
nation IS fancy and held 1t captive, thar
even the King found indulgence Tor his
misdoings, and rescued him from prison.
because he was the finest and rea diest
ballad maker in all the fair French
kingdom.
But before Francois had become va
grant singer, careless OF to day IS. and
sthoughtless Of tomorrow, driven hither
and thther6by every wild impulse OF a
restless nature, he had been lover
whose lays were all attuned for his mis-
IL
glad, happy youth and his short hour OF
wonderful dreams and innocent hopes and
&fancies. 81 81 rs Y5a5
Claimed the lover for 4 her own; friends
one and all forsook him. the woman
whom he worshipped held her skirts aside
and would none &of him. And SO II
came to pass that gbecau use all failed him
IN his hour of need F,rsncois de Mont
corbIer was done to death in the house
Y OF those who should have Sministered to-
Il his helplessness-F de ;Montcorbier,
with the generous confidence and the
bounding ambitions OF boyhood. In his
stead, after a while, there passed to and
fro among men, a figure with ever
hooking jest on Its lips. and a stone for
q a heart in Its breast, where hope and
trust lay dead. NJ,
After years went by and in their 60
ing had taken with then, all GOMEZ mess.
and grace from face and form, he who
had been Francois de Montcorbler, and
was now Francois Yillon, was for the
hast time brought face to face with his
when her slight nature stirred and turn
ed to him, under they strength of an un-.
forgotten passion, 81
Laughing. tragic Paris, who once had
need of a singer to voice all her splen-
+ dor and all her misery. Fate made the
4man:Nin necessity's mortar she pounded
E his soul into the shape fate needed TO
sKings courts she lifted him; to thieves
novels she thrust him down; Lutetia'si
palaces and abbeys and taverns and gut
tiers and prisons and its very gallows,t
Fate dragged him past each in turn that
he might make the song Of Paris, He
could not have made It here In the SNUG
Rue jacques, And now the song Is
made, Ca Uterine. So long as Paris en-
dures, Francois yilon will not be forgot.
!Villon the singer fate fashioned to her
sliking:5Vilon the man she has damned,
body and soul, ~
Mr. Cabelll has Infused into the com.
plete the full strength of a style which
al its best is rapldly making him known
as a writer I'm Necessity's Mortar
is one of the best short stories ne has
yet pub ished, AS