The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-23

too much freedom of description in de-
plotting the many bloody episodes which
he has introduced. The chapters in which
gore does not flow are delightfully."- placid
by contrast. 1t was a mistake to go to
sucn lelG ms IN teillnB why Jared Osle-
tree NED from his home and became
miserable moonshiner of the woods The
narrative is well done, but it adds horror
10 horror. In a fOrceful, fair manner the
author presents the reasoning impelliug
the leaders of the negroes to rise against
the whites It is properly to be called
Aaron Green, the educated preacher; the
negro called Red Shirt plotter and lead
er Of the rebellion, and Lopez de Quina,
halr breed West Indian, his abettor and
lieutenant, form a strange group of sim
lster figures, They are really more inter-
esIng as character studies than the
white men and women of the narrative,
with the exception of Ogletree who is
only an Incidental participant. There is
a distressing mixing of rOmances, two
women loving the same man, and much
trouble ensues from the complication.
Perhaps in his later works Mr.. Mertins
viii acquire the trick of suggesting the
grosser phases of his horrors. In this book
MS ndellty to the doctrine of realism
causes him to shock his readers unnec-
eSSarlly.
The color printing in the January Cen
fury viii include another of Miss Anna
Whelan Belts drawing of old-time DAYS
In America this month, The Sewing
Room, besides two pages of decoration,
by Miss Beatrice Stephens, of an old En-
glish religious lyric.
Though Joel Chandler Harris Uncle
Remus stories. except for Indian legends.
are as near American folklore as our lit
erature viii produce, they are. so to
speak, American only at second hand
Facts seem to indicate their having been
imported with the negroes from some
where on the west coast of Africa. In
lhelr main substance OF character and
incident these stories are to be found in
many other countries where slaves have
been held, though nowhere have they
naQ the SEmDaTn6tlc retailing that Mr.
Harris has given them for us. They are
part of the stock of the negro story-tel-
lers in the West Indies and Africa; and
they are told in the Taboo of the gold
coast, the French patols of Martinique
ana the mixed Dutch OF Curacao. In each
county the particular native animals are
drafted into the tales In the West In
dies there are no rabbits, foxes or wolves,
but there is Brer Spider. Brer Hawk, Sis
Ground Dove, etc. The cunning spider
called Annancy, has the role of Brer
Rabbit. with its adventures just as drolI
The story of how Annaney. dislfkfng
Brer John Crow and his family for being
so curious taught John Crow a lesson by
scaldlng the feathers off his head and
making him and his race bald forever, is
one a number of West Indian tales that
that would make mighty good material
for Mr.. Harris.
J. z. House says that he has been
agreeabIy surprised at the manner in
which his book. AT the Grass Roots -
was received He sold half of the edition
in one week.
A new and delightful book by W. W
Jacobs has just appeared. It is called
| Captains All and is filled with stories
Of those lOngshoremen, seamen, and vii
layers, not to mention their wives and
daughters, whom Mr. Jacobs describes
with such dry wit and sympathetic hui
NOR.
The seribners have published a new
/ Christmas essay by Henry Van Dyke. It
| is called The Spirit of Christmas" Mr.
| Van Dyke breaches the doctrine of bless
edness and peace In this dainty little
holiday book he offers a dream story.
The. Christmas Angel" little essay,
/ ing" a short Christmas sermon and two
Christmas prayers, all of them expressive
of this spirit. They are literary gems of
the purest water, and they are likely to
inspire in the reader a renewed sense of
the true meaning of that event nineteen
hundred and five years ago which so
greatly changed the world.
Among the new American novels that
have captivated Australian readers are
! The Regeneration of Aunt Mary by
Anne Warner, and "The Divining Rod -
a romance of the oil regions, by Francis
\. Thorpe. The Australian publishers
have just cabled for a second edition of
Anne Warmers humorous story.