The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-06-11
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There is no denying that I'm hope
lessly Slow" said the Oracle, apropos
of nothing, f'but I've only just finished
reading William Dean HoWells' Let
tiers Home. 1t must have been pub
iished fully six months ago and so OF
course is no longer one OF the new
books, but it shows how far the pub
fishers are ahead of me. Dolores,
there, who actually pretends to keep
up with the new fiction and has her
nose right now in the fifth chapter
of something still damp from the
press with patches arriving hourly
from the different publishers, has
probably forgotten all about Letters
Home, it came out so long ago. II
you could get her to leave her prln-
cesSes and knights long enough to an
swer the question she would probably
guess that 'Thackeray or some of
those old timers wrote it. But have
been very much interested in Letters
Home, if it is rather archaic, as 1
am in all Mr.. Howells' minute and in
telligent studies of our American life.
This is a New York scene. but the
people are all western and easily
senSed by a western imagination, ex-
cept the fine, elderly Boston scholar
and playwright in whom one seems to
see picture of Mr.. Howells himself
and whose letters to his sister-in-laW
in Boston furnish a mastery critiQue
letters written by the other charac-
tiers of the drama tell so amusingly
and interestingly. The book is not pre-
tentiOuS, but Mr.. HoWellS has put into
it some of his finest character deifnea-
tons, some of his most vivid and
penetrating appropriations. i think
never knew q Howells character that
was not real to my experience and OBJ
servatfon and which did not take a
permanent place in my mental gal
lery of real people, alongside the
flesh and blood heroes and heroines
have met in our little corner of the
world.
'fBut 1 don't want to review the
book for your benefit, especially as
you are all going to sleep right before
my eyes-not that that would stop
me, only it happens that what want
to talk about is the story itself and
not how we'll it is done. Howells'
people are so real that it is almost as
much fun to gossip about them as
about real people and 1 want to gos-
sip about the 'hero'-I suppose that
is what you would call himE anyway,
he is the only man in the book with
love story on his handS-of Letters
Home. He is a young fellow, if you
have read the book you will remem-
Der, who has come from some little
town in Iowa to New York to earn his
living in Journalism When he left
home he fancied himself very much
in love with a girl who lived back
there and who had Tilted him. But
shortly after he arrives in New York
he runs across another girl, also from
his home town, an heiress, very beau
tiful If rather crude. who has come
on with her family and is living at the
Waldorf-Astoria CMr. Howells calls
it by some transparent pseudonym)
and trying to imagine that she is in
society and seeing something of the
smart set She has never particular
ly noticed the young man before, but
now that they are both lost in New
nrlrf discover other
the first thing you know they are
falling in love. At least she is. The
young man is very busy with his work
and his ambitions and although he
spends a good deal of time with her
the fact is that he is never very much
in love with anyone but himself. al
though, later. when there is some
danger of losing her, he deludes him
self and all the others in the book
with a very good imitation of a real
passion. But If he is selfish he is at
least not consciously mercenary and in
all his going about with the heiress
and her very evident announcement
of him he is not tempted by her
money and at the last it is the thought
of losing her and not Of losing her
fortune which overwhelms him.
But meanwhile there is another girl
there usually lis. I wish could remem-
Der her name-Mr. Howells, names his
people so intelligently- Her family are
also formerly of Iowa people, and her
which the father of the heiress gets
his enormous revenues. The other
girls people have come to New York
about the same time that the heiress
and the young man so opportunely
find each other in a strange city. The
young man also meets this family who
were acquaintances of his in Iowa and
the result of the meeting is that he
takes a room in their fiat and makes
his home with them. OF course the 9TH
er girl believe ner name is Effie-
falls in love with him and when all the
rest of the family are i'll and she has
to take care of them and do the house
work. the young man, who has that
rather fnconvenient and conapr omising
possession, a good heart helps her
and seeing that she loves him so much
he takes on of those mental reserva-
ton fancies' for her for which the mas
culine nature is so peculiarly adapted
and makes love to her. You know how
careful and ladylike Mr.. Howells al
ways is. so of course it all stops on the
safe side of the proprieties although
later awkward complications develop
for the young man who finds himself
engaged to one girl against his Will and
longing to be engaged to the other He
gets out of the mix-up to his own salts
faction and that Of the heiress who is
determined to have him and never hav-
ing been used to doing without the
things she wants, succeeds Of course.
THE other girl-I'm not sure but
her name is Essie-lapses into Oblivion
while the reader is asked to ASSIST at a
hey-married- and-lived- happily ever
afterwards finish. But later you can't
help Cor at least couldn't help re-