Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-02-03

every chapter. The hero returns from
six years in the vars against tne
Turks, finds his estates confiscated
to make summer palace for the mis-
tress Of King Henry II OF France, lie
falls in with beautiful woman whom
he mistakes for the wicked Diane OIL
Poictiers, and then the fun and the
/ fighting begin. He saves her life ana
she saves his, there Is misunderstand-
ing and rescue, and in the final dis
ENHANCEMENT the hero wins his bride,
his chateau and lands are restored,
and the wicked Catholic king who has
dined on Protestants three times
day, proves to be a good fellow to all
[.Concerued.
There is a terrible fall of snow, a
great flood, mysterious chest OF Jew
elry, and, to cap the climax, bloody
duel. a la Spanish lin the dark with
pauses when the moon peeps forth
from behind scudding clouds). But
there are no silly, sickly love scenes
and the novel has a clean healthy at
mosphere.
"The Wrong Woman" by Charles D,
Stewart (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Bos-
ton and New York; is strengthening
story. The mistaken identity between
the good and the bad woman is part
of the plot, II 1t has any.
Narrowing a woman in a lonely
sheep camp on lonely Texas prairie,
with Steve Brown, the sheep-herder,
to watch over her, and about as much
feeling manifest as between two wood
en- Indians, constitutes the mild mosaic
Of sentiment.
The heroine, or non-heroine, Janet
a wooden-faced school-ma'am-gets
lost on the prairie and finds her way
to the sheep-camp A kind friend
comes along and takes her away. She
explains to him and he says
"You just got lost on the prairie.
And you've been stopping few days
with Steve
The "girl" was on her way to the
county seat to try for an examination.
Steve gets up her runaway horse and
finds a buggy-he has to keep her
lulC6 udyb az INC SuSOp- camp W w
this-and they take long buggy-ride
to the courthouse to have her exam
ined. She fails to pass" Then he
gets hold of her hand and proposes
certificate to marry instead of
certificate to teach. She offers no re-
sistance.
There is a delicious deliberation
about the whole thing that is intensely
humorous. We cannot imagine an au-
thor who can revel In such papier-
mache human beings who would do
things as the hero and heroine in this
book do them. 1t should be called
cardboard realism.
The descriptive matter has an abun-
dance of Still life," and the lowly,
humble Things, like lambs, oxen, dogs,
camp cooking and sheep herders, take
great deal of space. 1t hardly rises
TO the dignity of literary effort, but
will suit many people, There is much
skill and great art in the descriptions
OF sheep-herding, the natural history
Of sheep, lambing time, the prairies
and the skies of the boundless empire
known as Texas.
There is a tang Of hlgh-class realism
throughout Rebellion" by Joseph Me-
dill Patterson, author of "a Little
Brother Of the Rich 1t is a special
study of the divorce problem within
the Catholic church, divorces caused
by he drink habit, and the rebellion
applies to both.
II is difficult to determine whether
this novel treats the Roman church
with seriousness or mockery. The au-
thor says once; 1T is doubtful whe-
ther any other ecclesiastical instru-
ment since the world began has lifted
so much sorrow from mankind" The
whole presentation cannot be said to
be fair to the church.
The story is simple in q way Geor-
gla Is married to drunkard. She
leaves him, makes living as steno-
grapher, falls In love with another
man. Promises to marry him, falls
sick and upon recovery repents on
account OF her religion (she la a Cath
olic), and decides to take back her
husband, who has reformed. The hus-
band proves to be a dipsomaniac-an
intermittent drunkard-who can re-
main an abstainer only by spells-and
when he does drink becomes the vic
tim OF excess. But Georgia lived with
him, She has sickly five-pound baby
"a hell on earth for a woman with
n drunkard for husband The child
dies with the father stretched dead
drunk on the floor, They part at the
cemetery. The woman's faith In her
, religion is gone. She meets her lover
again--a very decent fellow who has
loved her alone. She gets rapld-firC
, divorce In the modern way of the
I world, gains a happy marriage, a Low.
ing husband, and forieits absolution al
= the hands Of the church. II is a pow.
! erful conclusion, wrought up to high
= dramatic niteh