The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-05-12
child character than any amount of

child character than any amount Of
influence in any one direction"
The fruits of her careful training
and the vivid remembered child-na-
ture are clearly to be seen in the de-
lightful pages of "The Story of a
Child" and such figures as David in
the Awakening of Helen Richie, y
and the poor little Theophilus in Gus
tice and Judge"
The Manchester of Mrs. Deland's
girlhood was strongly influenced by
the Old World. Its character was en-
inently British and Scotch-Irish, Eng
lish pure and simple. 1t is this touch
that has made the English readers
feel so much at home.
Mrs. Deland was educated at home
and at the boarding school of Pelham
Priory near New York. At 16 she de-
cided to shift for herself and set out
for New York. She entered Cooper
Institute where she took drawing and
design. After graduating at the head
of her class she became an instructor
of design in the Girls Normal College,
N. Y, where she worked till her mar
riage in 1880 to Mr.. Loren F. Deland.
AS a child she astonished and puz-
zled her elders by her conundrums
and in all her work she has conum-
drums of life, of faith and doubt or
some point Of right and wrong. She
translated the Allegheny of her child
hood into the Old Chester and Old
Mercer of her stories. Most of her
stories have their scenes laid in one
of these towns.
She has way of making her char
acters live and act. DR.. William
Kings mud-spattered buggy really
moves, the bridge across the river,
the dollhouse beyond with it's pleas
ant gardens, all are real.
She does mot invent her people and
places. They are made up of charac-
teristics and attributes of real per-
sons and places.
Her stories show an evolutionary
factor reinforcing a scene of an in
evitable procedure. ,
Great CONSERVATION was caused
when "John Ward, Preacher" was
first written. John Ward was Pres
byterian minister who banished his
wife because she an Episcopalian could
not believe in the rigorous views OF
eternal punishment. For time it was
thought this book could never be pub
lished but the decision was left to Dr.
VIM. Campbell, who said, "Print. it by
all means, l wish there were more
John Wards. The sale exceeded a
hundred thousand copies.
In her work as whole three char
acteristics may be regarded as Pc,
culiarly her own. first, knowledge OF
the heart and mind of an imaginative
child. second, familiarity with such
community as Old Chester and such
a person as DR.. Lavender, or the at
tributes of which he is made, and
third, an apprehension of the forces
we'll below the surface in the reia-
tions of men and women. She also
has the other common elements OF a
good writer.
Some of the best known works OF
Margaret Deland are, "John Waro
Preacher" "The Awakening OF Helena l,
Ritchie," "The Iron Woman" ine
story of Child" "Old Chester
Tales" "Dr. Lavender's People" and
."Old Chester's Secret" ~.
II is said that one might as well try
to criticise nature as to crltlclse the
"Iron Woman" The only competent
one to review or to criticise this book
is the one who reads it. 81,
The awakening of Helena Ritchie"
provides the reading world with lar
more than common occasion Tor
gratitude. There is soundness and
Intensity of conviction in her human
types which are limited to no partlc-
ular place. ~,
thought that Sin and God are very
near each other. She is often called
the .Friend of the Sinners" She
shows in her stories the reality OF SIN
and the sense of its awfulness. She
shows the tenderness Of an infinite
love in the book. "For the Good OF the
Soul" This is the story of Peter Day,
and his love for his young wife whom
he rescued from the vaudeville stage:
The evil of her life was not disclosed
to her until "the anguish OF the
knowledge of goodness had fallen on
her"
Margaret Deland wrote few poems
hut these are not so we'll known as
her novels, and her first works were
not as successful as her later ones. 1t
is the vitality Of Mrs. Deland's realls-
tic fiction that is it's supreme dlstlnc-
ton.
People have written to her to ask
If DR.. Lavender were still living, as
they would like to correspond with
him. also just where Old Chester IS
located. They would like to spend the
summer holidays there.