The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-04-17

ern mountaineers in fiction We prefer
them in the form of Paine Erskine' S
"a Girl of the Blue Ridge little.
Brown & Coz, with their faults ex-
posed as we'll as the virtues we must
wish them to have. The heroine is
charming and natural; she keeps true
to herself in spite of the allurements
Of uplifters and the vicissitudes she
endures arc such as may befall n
mountain girl; the boy she loves like
wise takes his time about reforming.
The creature who tyrannizes over
chem IL very complete she devil.
The hero is dramatic in the scenes IN
which he acts and the reader will like
him even If he does not understand
him. He will get a vivid impression.
however, Of the mountain and the
woods and OF the people who dwell
there. The old school teachers who
try to help them arr delightful; the
other outside people, pleasant as they
are, do not fit so well in the picture.
The author has succeeded in showing
what life in the mountains is and has
written a story that holds the atten-
ton to the end.
A perpleNing misfit is the japanese
half-breed girl whom Frances Little,
who is Fannie Caldwell Macauiay.
draws into THE House Of the Misty
Star" (The Century Company.
Brought up in the freedom of the
modern American child she ofends
her japanese grandfather by her dis
obedience and lack of reverence for
her elders and her persistence in be-
having in Japan as pretty wild girls
do in America, and she puzzles the
kindly old maid school teacher with
her slang and her recklessness. In
spite of her independence the author
finds a place for her after all. The
charm II the story lies in the way It
Is told. The narrator is the lonely
American woman who has spent her
life teaching in Japan. she takes In
sick missionary, woman who tries 10
do her work without money, trusting
wholly in faith. The two are delight
full and between them, through the
complications in the Japanese family.
they manage TO show the reader the
difficulties which such missionaries
encounter. the difference in ideas be-
tween the old Japan and the new
Japan and Of both with the outside
world. They have a good word to say
too for Japanese honesty. The love
part is OF minor consequence in a very
pretty and sincere story.
The State of Washington is novel
scene for fiction. 1t is difficult to think
Of II as settled enough for irrigation
to be as impo 'tant as 1t appears TO he
in Ada Woodruff Andersons "fhe Rim
Of the Desert" Cittle, Brown & Coz.
The men are all interested In Alaska
and the best portions II the book are
the stories told of Alaskan adventures.
the hero of which is a man now dead.
whose friend is trying 10 carry out his
plans. incidentally the author has
much to say of Government misman-
agement in Alaska and carries irrev-
erence so far as TO impute ignorance
TO G.. Pinchot and one greater than he.
The main portion Of the story. how
ever. has to do with turning desert
valley into garden and with the
hero's discovery that his friend =
heartless widow is - very charming
and capable woman. The explanations
OF her conduct to her husl nd, which
Is the point of the story, and of her
strange relations to her grasping Jew
ish friends seem to satisfy the author
more than It will rhe reader. II Is an
Interesting book, but as fiction II is
hammered by the conservation argu-
ments: the author seems more at
home in short stories than in a con-
tinued tale.
A deplorable picture Of Sussex,
somewhere in the eighteenth century,
IS drawn by Warwick Deeping in
Marriage by Conquest" Mcbride.
Mast and Company. The gentry and
the people are all Doors and fair
lady is pestered by an unmitigated
blackguard and bully TO marry him.
To them comes a scholar and gen.
tleman, who puts his estates in order,
sets up a school for the children, wins
the lady's affection and thrashes the
bully. He refuses TO fight duel and
for that reason is set upon and mall
treated by gentry and populace alike.
The lady comes to the rescue, how
ever, an amiable peasant girl shoots
the bully and everything Is set righa.
The story is told entertainingly and IS
readable.
Ten short stories by Montague
Glass are included in THE Competl-
tive Nephew" doubleday. Page and
Company, Most of them have to do
with the clothing trade and all Of
them with the type OF Hebrew that
the author has made famous. 1t seems
70 he an after cleaning, for though the
stories are funny, they have not the
snap or the point that marks the au-
thor at his best.
In substance "Bred OF tho Desert"
(Harpers) by Marcus Horton is the
biography of horse, intcrspersed
with sketches If che people into whose
hands he comes. The author begins
rather realistically with his birth and
abe MeXiCans to whom he belongs,
s<<e tsc.- transfers aim TO yo:-s
woman, who let's him run loose for
three years, when she has him broken
rather roughly. The authors at
'Pmpts at horse psychology arc NOT
.ery successful. After riding him for
q while the young woman is Woocd by
.ich Fastener, but bids him go and
do something for "A living and gives
him the horse. The animal il at once
stolen by cattle rustler, then cap
tured by Rangers, one Of whom IL the
Eastern youth. lie has savage fight
with another stallion and finally * led
Lack to his mistress by the young
man, whom she is now ready 20