The sun., 1919-09-14

Servant Girls as
Fiction Heroines
BY w. B. MCCORMICK.

4 n novel the heroes were men of the
church; at another they were always mill
tary men, and we have only passed
through the era when the captain of in
dustry was the leading character in fiction.
These several classes of heroes were
chosen by novel writers as the dominant
figures of their time, and it raises the
question if the domestic servant girl has
now become the appealing figure of our
time when, within one week, reviewer
finds himself with two books to read,
whose heroines are servant girls, one Irish,
one Scot.
The first and most important of these
two heroines is Kate Carmody, whose
souls adventures are the chief theme of
The Land They Loved, by g. d. Cum
minis, herself an Irishwoman. Kate is a
superb figure of a woman who after five
years Of "living out" in America finds
herself hungering so for her native land,
in its most intimate sense, that she goes
back to Ireland to the farmhouse where
she was born and where her brother lives
with an old woman to keep house for him.
The land is Rates greatest passion. Her
love for it recalls phase in our fiction Of
a decade ago when the "retu1n to nature"
movement was in full swing. That move
ment always smacked Of the artificial to
us; but Miss Cummins's story is the finer
and absolutely sincere in that she makes
her readers feel that her heroine's passion
is genuine. Indeed the first section of this
tale, describing Hates return home and
the spell the land actually cast over her,
is a beautiful and moving piece Of writing
Moreover, her characters are real peo-
pie, full blooded and passionate, charged
with that tragic quality which is the hall
mark of Irish character. No reader, Of
course, who does not know the Irish will
appreciate the quality of the speech fall
ing from the lips of Kate, old Maggie.
Eugene Turpin and that picture of re.
pellent old age, Eugene's father.
From the time when Kate goes up to
Dublin to become a household servant
again the finer quality of the story de-
parts. But no one who knows the Irish
will fail to note the deep understanding
Miss Cummins has of her compatriots as
revealed in the scenes in the kitchens
where Kate is the cook, In picturing
British types Barrie himself has done
nothing. better than the scene in which
Kate plays off one of her two policeman
admirers. against the other. But we are
afraid many readers will think this Com
mon stuff" Heigh no! maybe it is. Yet
how human and profoundly characteristic
after all The story lifts again with the
regeneration of Eugene; but Miss Cum
mins's novel rests for its finest achieve
ment in its opening portion.
The second servant girl heroine is of
more familiar type, Scots lassie with an
abundant sense of crisp humor who is the
chief figure in j. j. Bells Just Jenlima.
The kind of humor Mr.. Bell gave to the
reading world in Wee MacGreegor bubbles
up continually in the narrative set down
by Jemima Just during the period when
she was housemaid at Seaview, sea-
shore villa where paying guests were the
reason for its being. Even in so short
a tale there are moments when the reader
would wish the bubbling of this humor
would cease for while; but on the whole
the tale achieves its mission satisfactorily,
which was to bring smile into the
readers eyes and keep it there while read
ing Jemima's story.
THE LAND THEY LOVED. BY G. D.
CUMMlNs. Macmillan Company.
JUST JEMIMA. By J. j. BELL. Elnminr