University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-11-11


by John Fox, Jr., tale of feud
and moonshine and hardy mountai
neers, and withal a stirring romance, il
the best product of this writers pen
June, the heroine, undergoes a remark
able transition in the course of the story
John Hale a young civil engineer, 6
dreamer and yet strong man, finds he1
a wild, mountain child, educates her tC
become his wife, and at eighteen years
finds her the finished product of New
York boarding school. Financial reverses
make it necessary for her to take up
life in the mountain and countless COM
Plications arise from feuds, the reign OF
lawlessness and rivals in love and ambi-
tion.
All the characters are impressive, as
we like mountaineers to be and intense
climaxes recurring frequently allow no
lapse of interest. Some of the descrip-
tiOns are effective although the most
obvious criticism of the story would be
the overwOrking of certain favorite ex-
pressions.
The book moves to happy conclusion
after keeping the reader in suspense
to the last.
The scene is laid in the Cumberland
mountains. While the time is not given,
the indications are that it was not so
long ago but that John and June might
still be living in Lonesome Cove and
that the old pine is still standing there
to guard the secrets of other sweet
hearts.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" by
John Fox Jr., Charles Scribners & Sons,
New York, $l.5O.
= ATE'S Fidler" by Edward George
r Pinkham, is a rather interesting
tale of the life of Sumner Bibbus,
a young Bostonian, from infancy to the
age of twenty years. His infancy was
spent in a basement bookshop in Boston
and the tale begins when he is sent to a |
town to be educated. In
this nearby city he shows remarkably |
discretion in the maze of plots which |
enfolds him, and the first love affair |
becomes a rivalry between himself and
his cousin over Starbright, daughter of
the cousins guardian and by rights the
heroine of the story.
The rich uncle's estate is dissipated be-
tween a conniving lawyer and a specu-
Iating uncle and Sumner departs for
st. Louis, where he finds his cousin. The
rivalry over the girl has not lessened
he friendship of the two boys and both
20 to work for a cotton firm. Sumner
falls in love with the blind daughter
IF a fellow clerk and finds that his af
lection for Starbright was a youthful
ancy but that his cousins love remains
rue.
In the meantime Summers parents
prosper and the guardian restores the
lissipated fortune to the two cousins.
sumner, we are led to believe, marrles
he blind girl and his cousin the fair
The description of the little bookshop
S by far the best thing in the book and
eminds one of Dickens, Summers father
md mother, stiffness and idle but with
i ambitious, are also drawn after the
tyle of some of Dickens characters. A
arge number of characters are introduc-
d who have nothing to do with the
tory and are drawn so minutely that
is really a weariness of the spirit to
OllOw tnem.
The book is far from a finished pro-
net, and if it had been condensed one
bird it would have been far more in
eresting reading. Taking it all in all,
owever, it gives promise of better
hings.
Small, Maynard and Company, Bos
On.