Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-06-28


.o~.~~o-~.o~N.~.e.~as
Mrs. Mary Austin, author Of ''The
LanR Of Little Rain" and Of "Isidro,"
after finishing a university course,
went to California to live ON account
Of a serious illness. Her husband is
a government land agent at Indepen-
dence, and there is her home. Mrs.
Austin has made a careful study Of
mission days in connection with the
writing Of "Isidro," and believes 1t te
be historically accurate.
4 volume Of sermont just issued by
Revells is composed Of ten sermons
that DIR. James G.. X. Mcclure has
preached-one each year at Yale for
the last ten years. The central idea
Of the series is Loyalty, the Soul Of
Religion" which is also the title. DIR.
Mcclure is the newly elected president
Of Mccormick Theological Seminary in
Chicago, having been chosen as presl-
dent when the endowment gift Of ST.
100000 from the Mccormick family
made such leadership as he can give
both necessary and possible.
Mrs. Humphry Ward, whose novels,
LADY Roses Daughter" and ''The
Marriage Of William Ashe,' have made
her the foremost English woman nov
enst, comes of a family we'll known
and appreciated in the history Of Eng
hsh letters. Her father was Thomas
Arnold, an editor and writer of some
note; her grandfather was the famous
DR.. Arnold of Rugby and Matthew Ar
mold, poet and essayist, was her I'M
Gle. Naturally she was reared in an
atmosphere Of culture, and in touch
with the best classic literature. Her
career as a novelist did not begin,
however, until nine years after her
marriage to Mr.. Ward, himself an au-
thor Of some prominence in England.
Her first story was published in 1881,
and it was Robert Elsmere''-and
Gladstone's notice of it-that brought
her into prominence. 'sThe Marriage
Of William Ashe" is her tenth book.
Myrtle Reed, asked for bit Of her
biography in connection with the pub
lication of her new book by the Put
mans, furnished the following, which
is characteristic: Il discovered Amer
lea thirty years ago, and liked it so
we'll that l have not since left the
country. When l came had a pen in
one hand, a sheet Of paper in the 9th
er, and was yelling for ink. At this
my father. knew that was destined
for the fourth estate, and ran to the
dictionary for a name that you'd look
we'll in print. Hence my title, which
everybody thinks a psepdonym, and
the English reviewers insist to be the
name of a 'gsntleman,' one of them
saying: The gentleman who calls him
self Myrtle Reed Don't you call that
hard when have always been per-
feet lady? After this suspicious be-
ginning, the rest Of my career is his
tory. See chronicles Knickerbocker
Press last seven years"
Somewhat DecKy Sharpish Is the
heroine Of Mrs. Whartons ''The House
Of Mirth" now running in Scribners
At least the author might say of Lily
Bart's matrimonial maneuvers as
Thackeray said Of Becky: IF a person
Is too poor to keep a servant, though
ever so elegant, he must sweep his
own room; if dear girl has no dear
mamma to settle matters with the
young man, she must do it for herself"
Lily settles matters" in a more re-
fined way than did Becky, but she is
quite as worldly, in a modern Ameri-
can fashion, and altogether as subtle
as the famous Miss S. And the char
acters in ''The House Of Mirth" are
almost as finely conceived and project
ed as those of vanity Fair" The
loneliness Of Lily, the loneliness which
was mo fixed quality, but an element
shaping all emotions to fresh forms of
grace" Is seen and felt by the reader,
and the lovemaking is done with a
reserve and distinction that compels
one to rise and call Mrs. Wharton
blessed. Hard and worldly as Miss
Lily is, she is nevertheless a girl not
to be ignored; indeed, it looks now as
| II she were destined to take a high
place among feminine creations.
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