The San Francisco call., 1906-06-17

Al the worlds a-seeking, and readers.
North and South alike, will like her.
The chief character, John Mayrant,
is a Southern boy born in South Caro-
lima and brought up under the jealous
are of a whole family connection of
alders, who are proud of their colonial
descent and obstinately conserva-
1--WE in their love of the lost Southern
cause. AS Wister expresses it, the
clock Of progress stopped for them
in the early SOS and they don't see the
necessity of moving il forward up TO
late. Young John has been very well
educated and has Travelled and seen
something of Northern life. and so is
less conservative than the beloved
elders. who try 10 keep him tied to
heir apron strings. Nevertheless his
1till strongly and characteristically
southern in many ways, and so Wister
gets his opportunity to describe him
as type in sort Of transition stage
man who laughs playfully at some of
the old family prides and prejudices
and yet does not see enough of attrac-
-iveness in the rapid commercialism of
the North to wholly surrender for 1t
the Southern nature to which he was
born.
Young John is infatuated with a
handsome woman whom Wister makes
I witty old Southern lady characterize
IS i steel wasp" The South Caro-
Ina family bitterly object to having
this fancee of the hero becoming one
f'them The crux of the story is John
Migrants mental struggles as to what
IS the noble thing for him TO do in a
angle of circumstances made very
embarrassing by his engagement to
he steel wasp.
At the time he is an employe of the
custom-house. and the vexed negro
question is subtly brought in by max
ng the time just when the President
lad appointed a negro as Collector of
he Port and thus made the Southern
white men subject to the orders and
discipline Of the negro boss of the
-ustom-hOuse. Mayrant objects to the
position. his family are bitterly op-
posed TO his holding it, and one old
'ady aunt refuses to let him visit her
because of il; but John. knowing as q
married man he would require the
salary to support his wife, feels him
self honor bound to marry at the time
set and to keep a position profitable
enough TO make his bride feel COM
Portable
owen Wister, speaking through the
mouth of the Northern visitor and
friend Of Mayrant, whom he represents
as telling the story, frankly confesses,
ton. that he himself would not like
such a position where he had to take
orders from a negro" To this puzzle
as 70 conduct is soon added another
20 bother Mayrant, when he finds he
loes not love the steel wasp" to
whom he is engaged Once he had
3een go enamored of her beauty that
ae told her he would be willing TO
irown himself in her hair even as the
=
savorite Malmsey wine. But his pas
SION passes, and he finds he truly loves
a truer woman. The steel wasp"
however, develops into a much more
interesting character than the reader
viii be apt to expect in the first half
IF the book. Read on expectantly.
She is not fire enough to mate with
he honest manliness of John Mayrant,
Dut she has passion and courage as
ness and one does not wonder at May
ANTS enslavement 70 her charms
The author represents the young
%ortherner who tells the story to be-
come quite in love with the little Caro-
ina town. Port Royal, which is the
Gene of the novel One of the chief
,xcellencies OF the book is the skill
With which the conversations are man
tged. The story. to large extent,
ellis itself in conversations.
An unusually good summing up of
The negro question can be found on
Dage 16S, where Wister represents the
Northern man as saying. otter he had
made a study of the Southern town
nd the Southern people in it:
philanthropy does not walk always
land in hand with wisdom. >
Moreover, I am friend to hot many
;uperlatives and have perceived no
saying 70 be more true than the one
that extremes peet: they meet indeed,
and folly is their meeting place. Nor
could ! say in the case of the negro
which folly were the more ridiculous
that which expects a race which has
lived no one knows how many thou
sand years in mental nakedness .
should put on suddenly the white
mans intelligence, or that other folly
which declares we can do nothing for
the African, as if Hampton had not
already wrought excellent things for
him."
6The Macmillan Company. New
York;