The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-02-09

Josephine Dodge Daskam made her
| first literary Impression with shor.
stories, is native of Stamford, Conn.
and a Smith College girl Of the class
of '9S. Each femlniscence of her youth
Is bound up with particularly active
sense of .humor. and 1t is a question
whether any school or college girl ever
had 81 liyelier understanding To
which the abundant anecdotes told by
her classmates are testimony After
the short stories, Miss Daskam pub
lished THE Memoirs of Baby" which
excited attention when 1t first appear
ed serially in Harper's Bazaar. The fact
that Mrs. Bacons habit is to restrain
herself from being overproliiic carries
the conviction that a new story from
her pen is really about something and
worth the telling. Four years ago
Miss Daskam was married to Mr.. Sell
don Bacon. Until recently her resi-
dence was New York City. but at pres
ent she is living In the country not
many miles outside. Mrs. Bacon's
| friends in describing her say that she
talks as she writes. crisply, sometimes
bitinsly, and with refreshing original
ity In word and phrase. Ten to Sew
! enteen' conveys Just this impression of
irrepressible humor and fancy.
----
hI&h''lINsD VIZ ~ hOsoSIaN IVY
NOR. BY Prince Serge Dmitri
yevich Urussov. Herman Rosenthal.
translator. Harper and Brothers,
of New York, publishers. s1.5o.
This liz said to be by far the most
revealing book that has yet appeared
about Russia. 1t is a very lucidly
written narrative that includes eN-
periences. social and personal. aud
confr~nts its reader with administers
tive problems az well.
The surprising realism of the book.
It's absolute freedom from sensation
and It's presentation OF Russian types
aG being human not enigmatical in
their nature. render 1t some quite re-
moved from the ordinary.
The clever and intimate way in
which ting red tape Of the Russian
''circumtocution office is pictured, at
once puts Prince Urussov and his read
ers on confidential footing and
creates sympathy for his embarrass-
ments and difficulties.
He not only makes plain his daily
living but presents a condition of af-
fairs not to be met with outside of
Russia. and above all looks at the
Jewish problem from an unbiased
standpoint. The occasional flashes re-
yealins the graft and corruption ex-
Istent In Russian official life are truly
illuminating.
Prince urussov was member of the
first Duma and has high reputa ton
for patriotism and Intelligence.
DEBORAH OF ToD'S. BY Mrs. Henry
de la Pasture. E. P. Dutton and
Company, of New York, publish
ers. $3.50.
In a preface to this very entertain
ing novel the reader is informed that
Deborah of Tods" was the authors
first novel, written in her twenty
seventh year, fruit of many happy
summers and winters spent in Devon
shire, and limited in every detail to
experiences which have fallen within
her own ken; though the actual char
acters and circumstances are, Of course,
imaginary.
!, The story has specially quaint
flavor on account of Deborah's dialect
IN which the soft sounding French "u"
replaces the dipththonS "ou" commonly
used in other parts of England.
Deborah it is in whom the main in
terest of the book is centred, other
threads of life being intertwined with
her own. but never dwarfing or OBJ
securing for moment the dominant
influence of her life and personality
on the lives of those around her.
She is pictured first as a beautiful
capable young Englishwoman, who
manages her own wayside farm In
East Devon, bred by her aunt and
uncle, whose heiress she was, in
stern doctrine of independence and in
dustry that rendered her rather hard in
her youthful judgment, uncomproms-
Ing in her severity and rather con-
temptuous of the opinions of others
in the narrow little world around her.
AS she stood one day in spring, out
side the shelter of her porch, her fig
ure outlined against the blue sky, with
the old fashioned flowers of her,
blooming garden around her. accident
brought General Sir Arthur dalton to
her gate. Deborah invited him into
her parlor, and treated him with cor
dial hospitality, conversation between
them revealing the fact that Deborah's
father, Jack Neville, had served in Sir
Arthurs regiment and that the general
had loaned him money.
Thus vas an acquaintance begun
that ended in marriage. Deborah went
away from her farm to London, took
the management of her husbands
household into her capable hands. and
ruled it with discretion. She found
the big world outside of Devon a place
in which heartaches were harvested,
but, though her lesson was bitter, she
learned it without murmuring.
When her husbands death set her
free, she went back to Devon, and
during succeeding months Of solitari-
ness realized that her married life had
at least taught her a cleared knowl-
edge of life and Herself and greater
charity toward others. Then when she
was loneliest, there came another
lovely evening in May. Deborah sat
again in her porch, and her white
lilacs We're bursting into bloom, Rows
of tall narcissus scented the air and
the sweeter lilies of the valley hid
their tiny white bells under their
pointed leaves.
So surrounded, her lover found her.
Not an imaginary hero, but q real man.
Who had met her in the outside world
and loved her for her goodness and
purity, as we'll as her beauty. He
pleaded his suit Well. and In the end,
Deborah did not say him nay.
THE HISTORY or TRURO PARISH
IN VIRGINIA. BY Rev. Philip
Slaughter, d. d. Edited by the
Rev. Edward l.. Goodwin George
w. Jacobs and Company, of Phil
adelphla publishers. $3.50.
The matter contained in this book
was Or. Slaughter's last contribution
to Virsiniana. and until now has re-
manned unpublished. II Is n history
OF the parish in which Washington and
George Mason were vestrymen and
church Wardens, and contains facts