A NOVEL BY MISS WILKINS.

Miss Wilkins is sure of her welcome, be the season what it may, and no amount of protest against a "surfeit" of New Englandisms on the part of the novelty seekers can have much weight with her many ardent admirers.

Drawn for the Journal.

RUDYARD KIPLING.

"Madelon " is very different from the character studies which her vivid realism and the restricted, hopeless conditions usually treated of made so humorously pathetic. Madelon Hautville, of French and Indian blood, passionate and fiery, presents a vivid contrast to mild Barbara Fair and the apathetic New England country folk. Madelon believes her lover, Burr Gordon, to be untrue to her and intending to kill him, stabs his rich cousin, Lot, by mistake. Burr comes up at this moment and forces her to go for help, replacing the knife in the wound with his own; consequently he is charged with the crime himself, since the two cousins had been at enmity. All Madelon's efforts to free him are unavailing; her brothers, who know the truth but hate Burr, refuse to testify, and Lot himself, who loves her, is deaf

to her appeals. Finally, upon her promise to marry him, Lot declares he stabbed himself and Burr is released. The latter, exasperated at Madelon's engagement to his cousin, prepares to marry the fair haired Barbara, who, however, refuses him on the day set for the wedding. Lot, who is by all odds the finest character in the story, after trying in every way to arouse Madelon's love for himself, sets her free from her promise, induces Burr to return to her by explaining matters to him, and after the marriage, when on his increasing weakness the townspeople threaten to try Burr and Madelon for murder, he kills himself, thus effectually clearing them. Miss Wilkins has surely done better work than this; the fig. ures in "Madelon" have not the exquisite realness and naturalness which make her short stories so fascinating, but it is a readable, interesting romance, and has in it some of the poetic touches which characterize all her writing.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling's new story, which is said to be a study of life among the fishermen of the North Atlantic, is awaited with interest.

A multi-millionaire, with the not over scrupulous traits commonly ascribed to those rather maligned individuals, a son of finer calibre and another who does his best to go to the dogs are the not strikingly original dramatis personae in the "Quicksands of Pactolus." Mr. Horace Annesly Vachell has done better in his short stories, but the present book has that most essential feature of "light reading: " it ends well. The same may be said of "White Satin and Homespun," by Katrina Trask. The lady in the satin, though greatly in love with him of the homespun, does not at first fancy Delancey street as a permanent dwelling place, but when homespun stands firm and prepares to return to "his people" alone she finds it easier to go than to stay.

Naturally one runs the gamut of human sensations in the "Study in Feminine Development," which A. V. Dutton calls "Wisdom's Folly." After" Miss Romeston's Offers" and some intermediate chapters come "Proposal," "Persuasion" and, too soon in the game for peace and happiness, "Surrender" and "Matrimony." Nine chapters only out of twenty-two leave room for "The Serpent's Robe," "The Siren's Spell," "Struggling in the Web," "The Passions," "Retribution" and "Confession." But we are not yet out of the woods-next comes "A Ghastly Study" and "The Blow Falls." "Penance" is succeeded by "Reconciliation," and even then our "Consolation " must be marred by a following question mark!

MISCELLANEOUS TALES.

Since "Will o' the Wasp" is, according to the prefatory statements, the journal of Bill Fry, edited by Henry Laurence, U. S. N., and merely "brought before the public" by Robert Cameron Rogers, it seems hardly correct to call the latter the author. Stirring adventures they are which the staunch old tar records: the deeds of the good Yankee corvette Wasp, when she was stinging the British during the war of 1812. Much havoc did Bill Fry see before being taken prisoner by the frigate Sardis and subsequently going into captivity for life, the jailer in the last case being his "true love," Nancy Barker.-A tragedy is the "Love of Fame." Ulrica Breen is drawn from her quiet Norway home and from Hans Olsen, whom she is to marry, by the realization that she is a great singer. Her desire for fame is gratified to the full, but a poetic justice ordains that

Hans shall save her life at the expense of his own, and she then finds out too late that the love really counted for more than anything else.-Mr. Halliwell Sutcliffe details another case of poetic retribution in the "Eleventh Commandment, "telling how for his misdeeds toward Hilda Lisle Squire Daneholme is smitten down with madness and her's is the hand that smoothes the pillows on his death-bed.-Miss Imogen Clark shows in the "Victory of Ezry Gardner" that courage is a difficult thing to estimate properly. "Ezry" finally drove himself to enlist during the war, though doing so in deadly fear, and the remembrance of his dread during his four battles, when he only stayed in the ranks because he "wuz afeard o' desarting," afraid both of the penalty and the shame, humiliates him for many long years. When he has saved a drowning man, however, at risk of his own life, he is persuaded by a friend who knew his trouble that this washes out the black mark of cowardice.-Mr. Maurice H. Hervey, who once gave to the reading public a tale called "Dead Man's Court," is again in evidence, this time with an equally thrilling story of gentlemen "sports" and their inevitable concomitants: hops, races, Jews, heavy drinking, heavy weight lifting, forgeries and other crimes, with astute detectives, police inspectors, etc. The whole is seasoned with love and pounds, shillings, pence.-Much Italian scenery, "dis reputable and impoverished looking people selling strawberries," while the Counts and Countesses intrigue, plot and counterplot, and the Barons speak between their teeth, are prominent in the "Romance of Guardamonte," by Aline E. Davis. The author evidently believes that it is a dangerous thing for American girls to indulge in foreign romances, and when Elba has learned of the perfidy of Piero di Montalcino, she sensibly resolves to build her next castle "on American soil."Mrs. Andrew Dean surely has burning ideas of "futures." Her "Woman with a Future" deserts her husband upon learning that he has diphtheria and runs away with another man. Woman like, though, she must be persuaded-"I could not let you kill yourself,' he said. 'You know I love you.' 'We are going to the devil,' she sobbed. 'Who cares?' said he."

Mr. Henry Seton Merriman has selected a wild enough subject for the "study of a life," which he calls "Flotsam." From the time when as a boy Harry Wylam returns to attack the caged bear who has clawed him up to the day of his death in South Africa, he is consistently a handsome, dissipated, unreliable scapegrace who does many disgraceful things in a cheery, light hearted manner.

"A Marriage by Capture" is the text of an Irish tale by Robert Buchanan. Miss Catherine Powers, the heiress, disappears mysteriously and everybody believes that her cousin, Patrick Blake, who has already attempted to abduct her, has made away with her. Phillip Langford, who has been in love with her for years, leads the police to Blake's house and has him arrested, but on the witness stand testifies in his behalf and produces a letter from Miss Powers, showing that she is safe at home. Whereat, tableau, succeeded by dense mystery. It afterward appears that Langford himself had carried her off and unavailingly tried to induce her to marry him. Eventually Langford is shot by Blake and the heroine decides to marry him after all.-"The Broken Ring" is a story of petty German principalities where a princelet disguised as a captain in the army of Königreich woos the Princess of Herzogthum and wins her love, winning herself when he comes in his proper state

as a formal suitor. Elizabeth Knight Tompkins tells her romance simply and effectively, making a decidedly attractive story of it.

"In Sight of the Goddess," by Harriet Riddle Davis, details some rather remarkable happenings in Washington society. Stephen Barradale, private secretary to a secretary, falls in love, according to many classical examples, with his master's daughter. A temporary misunderstanding is caused by Stephen's "affair" with a dangerous married lady, and he retires from the scene, to be recalled by his inamorita through a "Parable ' which must have been very pleasant reading for an ardent lover.-"A Bad Penny," by John T. Wheelwright, will appeal particularly to the younger generation. James Woodbury runs away from his uncongenial Massachusetts home and takes part in the famous combat between the Chesapeake and the Shannon. He is taken prisoner, but eventually is exchanged and leaves the Halifax prison, reaching the old Massachusetts homestead to become a ship owner and the husband of his lady love.-Mary Clay Knapp, who gives us a treatise entitled "Whose Soul Have I Now?" is careful to set her readers straight. Not only are the latter provided with an introduction explaining how the book came to be written, but there is also furnished at the end an "analysis," in which they are informed concerning many vexed subjects. For instance :

"Love. The dominating element in life."
"The Ruby. Virtuous strength."
"Telepathy.

putable."

A fact with certain natures. Indis

accurate and studious, is rather forced and heavy. But the chief journalistic task attempted in "Rome" is not a description of the visible city, but a pessimistic study of the Roman Catholic church as centered in the ancient capital of the world. The book contains also a series of character sketches of typical ecclesiastics and

.. A BARRE B

M. EMILE ZOLA IN WORKING ATTIRE.

personalities belonging to what Zola considers to be the inner ring of ecclesiastical politicans who control the Vatican and who thereby influence Christendom. These two volumes constitute an immense panoramic study of the Roman situation; and nobody can deny the genius for work, for observation and for literary construction that is evinced in the stupendous journalistic screed. It is intended to convey the impression that the Catholic Church, so long as its headquarters remain in Rome, can never rise to the height of its possibilities as a modern institution, but must remain involved in medieval conservatism. Whatever influence or effect this work may

have in continental Europe, it does not seem to us to address itself in any valuable or important way to English-speaking countries; nor will Zola's point of view be deemed a safe or reliable one, whether he approves or whether he condemns.

COLLECTIONS OF SHORT STORIES.

"In Homespun" is the title of half a dozen short stores by Edith Nesbit. The author knows her Kentish villages well and has managed to transfer them to the pages most realistically. She is one of those rare writers who possess the art (which Charles Dickens had, of course, in its utmost perfection) of making her servants and laborers, heroes and heroines act and speak really naturally." Nets for the Wind" is the initial tale of eleven by Una Taylor. Mystic utterances these and surely lacking in literary art in so far as they are difficult of comprehension-yet there is a strength about them which holds the attention. "My lady Mavis had eyes like blue hyacinths; her skin was very white, with scarlet flushes which came and went. She was very gay; sorrow was a great surprise to her-afterward the surprise would have been joy." This from the "King's Mountebank," one of the best of the stories, is characteristic, and the little book abounds in happy phrases and descriptions, together with passages of much dramatic force." The Way They Loved at Grimpat" is described by E. Rentoul Esler in nine short stories. Grimpat might be almost anywhere, for "village idyls" are much the same the world around, and “Kitty," "6 Linnet," or "Naomi" could be duplicated in many an American town.-"Princess Anne," by Albert R. Ledoux, is a sufficiently strange tale of the mysterious Dismal Swamp and a leper colony of negroes there who carry off beautiful Rose Van Antwerp in the hope that she will perform a miracle and cure them. The "other sketches" in the volume are short hunting and fishing yarns.

We wish to call most particular attention to a collection of short Western stories by Mrs. Peattie entitled "A Mountain Woman." The book contains several of the best tales of Western life ever written. The Nebraska stories throw so true a light upon recent conditions in the sub-arid belt that they explain, better than any political speeches or arguments could do, the reasons why men in that part of the country are advocating free silver.

Mr. Henry W. Nevinson, who gives us a collection of realistic short stories, "In the Valley of Tophet," the scenes of which are laid in the coal-mining district of the English midlands, is the same powerful writer whose "Tales of Mean Streets" (these being London slum stories) were so widely read a year or two ago. Mr. Nevinson's method is original, and while his stories are seldom pleasing they are marvelous bits of analysis and characterization.

Mr. M. Hamilton is a writer little known to American readers, whose sad and painful story of life in the north of Ireland entitled "Across an Ulster Bog" must entitle him to a worthy place among the novelists of the day.

Mr. John Kendrick Bangs republishes from Harper's Magazine "The Bicycler" and several other farces, which make good summer reading because they are as light as thistle-down, and which are all the more clever for their perfect simplicity and naturalness and their lack of forced smartness. Those who have not read the "Houseboat on the Styx" should not fail to include Mr.

Bangs in the list of the writers whose books they will seek this summer for unmixed entertainment and amusement.

TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION.

For summer reading, "On Snow-Shoes to the Barren Grounds," by Caspar Whitney, is pleasantly suggestive. Lest the reader should be deficient in his knowledge of Arctic geography, Mr. Whitney explains that the Barren Grounds begin ten days' journey beyond the Great Slave Lake and run down to the Arctic Ocean, with Hudson's Bay as their eastern and Great Bear Lake and the Coppermine River as their western boundary. We may well believe that this is the region of "the most complete and extended desolation on earth." Mr. Whitney's account of his journey to this far-away land is a tale of adventure. From it we learn how the woodbison and musk-ox are hunted, and how the many diffi.

Drawn for the Journal.
MR. RICHARD HARDING DAVIS.

culties of travel within the Arctic Circle are overcome. We get another glimpse of Northern coasts in "Vikings of To-Day," by Wilfred T. Grenfell. Dr. Grenfell writes from personal experience in Labrador as a surgeon in the service of the English Mission to Deep Sea

Fishermen. He has chosen what to most men would seem an uninviting field of labor, but his enthusiasm is intense, and his zeal unflagging. Apart from its function as a bit of missionary propaganda, Dr. Grenfell's book serves a useful purpose as a description of Lab. rador itself, as well as of the resources and inhabitants of that inhospitable land.

By way of inducing a reaction from the chill liable to overtake the reader after a perusal of these experiences in the frigid northland, Mr. Richard Harding Davis' "Three Gringos in Venezuela and Central America" may be recommended. Surely no greater contrast I could well be imagined than that between the bleak northern wastes which Mr. Whitney so graphically describes and the richly verdured slopes of Venezuela, over which the "Three Gringos" roamed ad libitum. Mr. Davis' fine descriptive powers have perhaps never been employed to better purpose than in this sketch of neighboring lands and peoples.-A more elaborate and detailed description of Venezuela has been written by Mr. William Eleroy Curtis ("Venezuela: a Land Where it's Always Summer.") In this volume is presented a good résumé of the most accurate and recent information obtainable concerning that country, including a chapter on the disputed territory.

"At Hawarden With Mr. Gladstone, and Other Transatlantic Experiences," by Mr. William H. Rideing, is a capital little book to relieve the tedium of ocean travel this summer. One of Mr. Rideing's best chapters is devoted to a comparison between transatlantic voyaging a quarter of a century ago and at the present time. The papers on English and Irish scenes and customs are full of information. The sketches by the same author entitled "In the Land of Lorna Doone" were favorably received by the American reading public last year.

M. André Chevrillon's "In India" displays keen powers of observation and analysis. The author has traveled extensively in India, and the subtleties of Indian philosophy have evidently appealed to the logician's side of his nature. He has, however, wisely refrained from undue indulgence in dialectics, and he tells us a good deal about the present social and religious life of the country.-Another recent book which deals in an entertaining way with certain phases of Orientalism is Mr. Hearn's "Kokoro : Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life" (reviewed in our May number).

Several exceedingly interesting books of out-of-door life have appeared during the past few months. Among these we may mention: "In New England Fields and Woods," by Rowland E. Robinson; 'By Oak and Thorn," by Alice Brown; "Spring Notes from Tennessee," by Bradford Torrey; "Notes of the Night, and other Outdoor Sketches," by Dr. Charles Conrad Abbott. These have all been reviewed in our May and June numbers.

Mr. George H. Ellwanger's "Idyllists of the Countryside" should not be overlooked. "It was deemed," says the author, "that a grouping of those who have written most pleasingly of the country-side, together with comparative references to their scope and method, would prove of interest to all those who possess a love for nature and nature's works." Six essays of the character indicated are here given : "The Wand of Walton," "Gilbert White's Pastoral," "The Landscape of Thomas Hardy," "" Afield with Jeffries," "The Sphere of Thoreau," and "A Ramble with Burroughs." These essays are graceful in style, intentionally discursive, appreci

Dr. Andrew D. White, in two splendid volumes, has at length given us in complete library form the historical studies in the warfare of science with theology that have made separate appearance from time to time during a number of years past. These volumes evince a vast range of erudite investigation, but they state conclusions with such freedom from pedantry and with such beautiful lucidity that the intelligent reader who takes them up with the impression that he has a painful task before him is delighted to discover how fascinating Dr. White's pages are, and how irresistibly the mind follows the story and the argument. While these volumes are made up of numerous chapters, each one of which has a certain completeness in itself, the different parts are so constructed that the work is an organic unity; and the impression made upon the reader is cumulative from beginning to end. Dr. White knows much of science and he knows much of theology. But his point of view is that of the historian. It is this fact which gives the greatest value to his book. We have whole libraries of controversial works dealing with the relations between science and theology, but they have been written either by scientists or by theologians. President White occupies the impartial position of the historical scholar, who has no prejudices against the truth of science, and no hostility toward the truth of religion. This great work does not deal very sparingly with a series of positions at one time or another assumed by the champions of dogmatic theology. But Dr. White has simply been writing down what is historically true. The work sums up for us the story of the development of such modern sciences as geography, astronomy, geology, archæology, metereology, anthropology, medicine and hygiene, philology, political economy, and that socalled "higher criticism" which applies scientific tests to the study of the Scriptures. In his introductory remarks President White explains and sums up his point of view in the following sentences: "My conviction is that Science, though it has evidently conquered Dogmatic Theology based on biblical texts and ancient modes of thought, will go hand in hand with Religion; and that, although theological control will continue to diminish, Religion, as seen in the recognition of a Power in the universe, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness, and in the love of God and of our neighbor, will steadily grow stronger and stronger, not only in the American institutions of learning but in the world at large."

To the vacation reader who is at all seriously inclined, a few recent works in American history will be found especially attractive. Among these the resident of the Mississippi Valley and the Middle West will probably find nothing more to his taste than Mr. Roosevelt's new volume in the "Winning of the West" series. This volume, which, like each of its three predecessors, is complete in itself, covers the period of the acquisition of Louisiana and exploration in the Northwest, 1791-1807. The exploits of "Mad Anthony Wayne" in his famous Indian campaigns, the foundation of the State of Tennessee, whose centennial was observed last month, the Louisiana purchase, the conspiracy of Aaron Burr, and finally the historic expeditions of Lewis, Clark and Pike in the far West, are among the topics which Mr. Roosevelt illumines with his usual felicity.

In "The Making of Pennsylvania," Mr. Sydney George Fisher has essayed a task made peculiarly difficult by the composite nature of Pennsylvania's population, with the resulting lack of unity in the State's development. Mr. Fisher has endeavored to describe these various elements. In successive chapters he treats of the early settlements of the Dutch and the Swedes, of the English Quakers, of the Germans, the Scotch-Irish, the Welsh, and finally of the Connecticut land-hunters. Not merely differences in speech and nationality, but sharp divergences of religious creed, have all along revealed them selves in the growth of Pennsylvanian institutions and communities. Mr. Fisher see. is to have succeeded in discussing these phases of his subject with due candor and impartiality.

Several of the essays contained in Professor McMaster's volume entitled "With the Fathers" are of peculiar timeliness, as is suggested by such titles as "The Monroe Doctrine," "The Third-Term Tradition," "A Century's Struggle for Silver," "Is Sound Finance Possible Under Popular Government?" In his discussion of the Monroe doctrine Professor McMaster is especially forcible and original, maintaining the broadest interpretation of that doctrine as a statement of the opposition of the United States to any attempt of European powers to acquire sovereignty of American soil, whether directly or indirectly. Other interesting historical studies are those on "The Political Depravity of the Fathers," ""The Riotous Career of the Know-Nothings," "The Framers and the Framing of the Constitution," "How the British Left New York," and "Four Centuries of Progress." Most of these papers have appeared during the last few years in the magazines or reviews. While no one line of thought connects them, they all treat of episodes in American history, and are appropriately grouped in a single volume.

"Beneath Old Roof Trees," by Abram English Brown, is chiefly a faithful recounting of incidents connected with the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the parts taken by various Massachusetts towns in these and other struggles at the outbreak of the Revolution. Noteworthy old houses and the descendants of Revolutionary heroes are represented in the illustrations.

"One Hundred Years of American Commerce" is a two-volume compilation of important data on the development of trade and industry in the United States during the past century. The articles are signed by acknowledged authorities on the various topics treated. The publication of this comprehensive work commemorates the centennial anniversary of the Jay commercial treaty with England. The illustration and press-work are excellent.

"Women in English Life, from Mediæval to Modern Times," in two volumes, is one of the most important books of the year. The author, Georgiana Hill, has done a scholarly piece of work, without permitting scholarly methods to befog and conceal the interest which attaches to her subject. The story is simply and clearly told, and the effect of it all is to impress on the reader's mind the unceasing betterment of woman's social con. dition.

The "Memoirs of Barras" do not afford, from every point of view, the choicest of reading. They are the work of one of the most immoral of men, and they faithfully reflect the grossest immoralities of their author; but they portray at the same time a momentous period in French history, while they reveal the historic characters of that period as they are revealed in no other