The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-09-18

| Unable adventure. He is locked up
/ in a subterranean cellar, where the
! waters of the Seine slowly creep up
| to his neck, and from which pre-
| dicament the faithful Slasher rescues
him.
| 1nnumerable traps are laid for his
feet; but from each successive snare
he miraculously escapes. And through
out this series of entanglements he
never abandons his promise that no
! matter how depraved the individual,
| there is potential good in all humanity,
which if nurtured, will blossom into
virtue. In consequence he becomes
sort of inferior Providence" to
| those whom he meets. He saves the
blameless debtor from prison, and
places an honest livelihood within his
| reach. He does a thousand kind
| nesses. On the other hand, he does
not hesitatae to bring the unworthy
| to justice. Relentlessly he causes the
! eyes of wretch who has been pitiless
to the weak to be put out that he
may know what it means to be help
| less and the prey of the strong.
! The story is the network of crimes
and their eventual punishment, and
| everywhere triumphant we find the
! creed that in the breast of mankind
burns a spark of the Divine.
! The portion of the tale dealing with
| the kidnapping of Fleur-de- Marie from
| her home with Mrs. George by Screech
Owl, the blinded schoolmaster, and
the imp Hoppy, is a novel in itself
How these Wretches wait for the in
nocent girl; convey her to Paris by
coach; and thrust her into the arms
of the police. and who, in turn, de-
post her in prison, is exciting read
ing. From prison she is released by
a written order, only to fall victim
| to a band of hired ruffians, who try
to drown her in the Seine. LAS she
/ is floating down the river, one of her
old comrades from Saint Lazare leaps
in and saves her life Next we see
her in great Paris hopital, and 1t is
at this juncture that the Grand Duke
| Rudolph of Gerolstein, obtains trace of
her; discovers that she is his own
daughter; and bears her in triumph to
| his magnificent palace to be transform
ed from fugitive of streets, to her
Royal Highness, Princess Amelia. Here
for a brief period, we behold our lit
tie F'leur-de- Marie, the idol of the
court, and sought in marriage by a
prince of the realm.
But the stigma Of the past is ever
freh in the girls mind. She cannot
shake it off. Though she adore her
lover, she refuses to wed him, saying
that she "loves him too much to give
him a hand that has been touched by
the ruffians of the city" Poor, brave
deMarie! She at last seeks
peace in a convent; and when she
dies there, we have no regrets that
her blameless but troubled life is
| ended
In the meantime what of Germaino
We search for him through an
equally ingenius train of happenings.
With all NJ. Rudolph's wealth and
astuteness it is no easy task to find
this missing boy who is lost in the
great city of Paris. But he is found
Like Goualeuse, the young hero has
kept his soul unsullied by evil Urged
to rob his employer, he has not only
refused, but has given Information
against those who plotted the crime,
that they might be brought to justice.
AS the result of this good deed, how
ever, he has been bounded from one
end Of Paris to the other. At last
he falls a victim to a monster Of
crime, Jacques Ferrand, a corrupt
notary. who casts him into prison on
a fictitious charge. Here he is no
favorite, for by scorning to mingle
with the vicious creatures about him
he incurs their wrath and suspicion,
until at length they dub him a spy and
resolve to murder him. From this
fate he is saved by the Slasher, who
appears in the prison just in time to
fell his assailants and pilot him to
liberty Eventually he is restored to
his mothers arms and to his pretty
sweetheart, Rigolette, whom he now
marrieS.
The skill with which Sue constructs
his story, introducing character after
: character, and bringing these varied
> elements into unified whole, is a
marvel Of artistry. 1t is also interest.
ing to note throughout the novel the
authors knowledge Of medicine-his
handling of drugs, his portrayal OF
hospital practices, and other technical
touches relative to his profession.
Wherever such data can be turned to
use he does not hesitate to employ it,
) fearlessly setting forth in black and
white specific evils of the day that
should be righted. Nor does he
shrink from proclairing to France,
, as did Dickens to England, the defects
of the legal and penal systems of
his country.
A voice so boldly appraised at a time
when injustices were many, must have
, won a hearing, and we honor Sue not
, alone as a pioneeo in the novel-writ-
ing field, not alone as a prince of
story-tellers, but as a reformer of the
social and political evils of his gen.
; Grafton.
: Copyright, 1919, by the Post Publish
ing Company (The Boston Post). Copy
right in the United Kingdom. the Do
minions, it's Colonies and dependencies
under the copyright act. by the Post
, Publishing Company. Boston. Mass.
| u. s. A. All rights reserved.
published by special arrangement
. with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
All rights reserved).
i All Sorts anG Conditions of Men,
by Walter Besant, as con nsed by
5 Mr.. Charles H. Lincoln, will be printed