The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-19
CHARACTER TRIUMPHS,

= whose Latest novel, 1ue COuQueSI u
8 Canaan" Has Been Published. !.
:;:x 3 s:sas*'ss
=, GAARAGTER E7s7 E5 o,,57S TR5UMPHs, 4 ! As IS
whose triumph over Canaan, a thriving
city in Indiana, is the chief concern
Conquest Of Canaan, early in life
acquired a bad name. Canaan, being
no exception to the rule affecting the
comforting of bad names upon dogs or
other animals, set itself against Joe j
ever abandoning for something better,
his early acquired distinction. But
grit and patience, and, with a fair
woman's smiles and faith as a "dis
courager of hesitancy,' he did finally
the level of distinguished citizen
ship.
writer than MI. Harrington such a
theme might prove too weak to sustain
a story of considerable length. In the
hands of Mr.. Harrington it is ample
for story of vital and absorbing in
terest. Mr.. Harrington makes Canaan
place, not a shadoWy somewhere
peopled by shadowy beings who occupy
reader sees the place as clearly as tho
he drew the pictures from memory,
because the aut thor has a peculiar power
at word painting, as in this, the very
first paragraph in the book:
| A dry snow had fallen steadily thruout
the still night, so that when cold, upper
wind cleared the sky gloriously in the
morning the incongruous Indiana town
shone in a white harmony-roof, ledge
and earth as evenly covered as by moon
light. There thaw; only where
the line of factories followed the big bend
| Of the frozen river their distant CHM
neys like exclamation points on blank
page, was there first threat against the
supreme Whiteness.
If Mr.. Harrington is good at picture
painting, he is even better at char
acter drawing. No reader Of the book
is likely soon to forget 'Mr. Eskew
Arp, only seventy -fye,, but already a
thoroly capable cynic. Nor is one
likely to forget. any sooner! sooner Joe L9uden, ,,}
bitterness as "the orneriest boy ever
saw in an ornery world-full.' Joe s
stepbrother, Eugene Bantry, who has
thru his mother been educated to the
neglect of Joe, is another type faith
fully drawn. His appearance on his
arrival home after his first term at col
lege is cause. for CONSERVATION. The
first sight of him almost paralyzes that
aged but interesting. group of National
hotel loafers of which Mr.. Arp is an
important member. He is as we'll drawn
in words by Mr.. Harrington as ne
could have been in black and white by
A. B. Frost. Here is the figure as first
y seen by Mr.. Arp and his friends:
1t was that of a tall gentleman, cheer
fully, though somewhat with ennui, en-
, during his nineteenth winter. His long
and slender face he wore smiling, beneath
an accurately cut plaster Of dark hail
cornicing his forehead, fashion fol-
lowed by many youths Of that year. This
I perfect bang was shown under a rount
black hat whose rim was 50 small a:
y almost not to be there at all; and the
!, head was supported by waxywhite sea-
=, wall of collar, rising three inches above
+ the blue pillows of a puffed cravat, upo1
a which foated large, hollow pearl. Hi
g ulster, sporting a big cape at the shoul
g ders and a tasseled hood over the cape
a was of a rough Scotch cloth, patterned
f in faint, gray-and-w white squares the siz
of baggage checks, and it was SO Ion,
h that the skirts trailed in the snow. Hi
legs were lost in the accurately creased
voluminous garments that were tn
tailors canny reaction from the tigh
trousers with which the Eighties ha
= begun; they WERE in color, palish rus
T. set broadly striped with gray, and, il
>. size, surpassed the mider spirit O
n fashion so far they permitted a liberia
l., knee action to take place almost withou
4 superficial effect. Upon his feet glistene
long shoes, shaped, save for the heels
q like sharp racing shells; these were par
TALLY protected by tan-colored low gaiter
Is with flat, shiny brown buttons. In on
v hand the youth swung a bone-handle
n walking stick, perhaps an inch and a hal
3 in diameter the other carried a yello'
- leather banjo case, Upon the outer side c
IS which glttered =. the embossed silve
e. ! initials, 'E. b He was smoking, bu
,r walked with his head up making ust
n however, Of a gait at that time new
= Canaan, a seeming superbly irresponsible
i. lounge engendering much motion Of tn
d shoulders, producing an effect Of care
t, lessness combined with independence-a
z effect which the innocent have bee
81 known to hail as an unconscious one.
n The Incidents, thru a rapid yet no
$, hurried succession. of which the plo
y, is unfolded, are told with the same car
of as to detail, yet with no sacrifice q
q dramatic effect, and the reader follow
is en- to the unconventional but appr,
lg pirate end, glad if he may do 50 will
-, out interruption, crusty If compelle
of to break off to attend to sterne
le duties. ~.,.. -. i - : sSIs 4
fe If there is anything that does ne
III satisfy the reader, it is the dohbtf1
of basis for the threatened lynching {
cne Of the characters near the clos
ie The murder Of a comparative strange
of in town, and Of man of doubtf1
MS character, is hardly likely to move tt
n populace, to violence. ::.::5> ::
a But that aside, the story is logic;
IS, and convincing, and the reader fee
IS. that in it he has a piece Of iteratn,
MS of the enduring sort.
u Harper & Brothers, New York. ..
ue s..a. = r.-,4l ..,. 81 80. i. -. -. ~ "a.
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