Life — August 22, 1895 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OUR FRESH Previously acknowledged. $3,112 72 D.G.. M Cah. coeccscsss : Ralph and bis Dad, Mar- quette, Mich... seses. Natalie Coffin...) Sarah de Witt Coffin In Memory of Little Char- VOU ses essseoeesterse From Ciytie.. Proceeds of “a given by Miss EB Hutchinson, aged 8, and Master G aged tra ment given by of Sunset Hill Sugar Hill, N.H. Philip Minn, he guests House, dys, Willie and’ Arthur Lang * Through Larchmont Circ. Library Mrs. F. M. Scott. Mr. 1. Tonnele. A Frien Books... David... : Carl and Erdmann In Memory of Low. K_A, M. and R:C inpathizer 500 AIR FUND. Endeavor Class,Grace S. S. A.J. PR... m Proceeds of a Fair held by Keith and Mary Esser, Stella and Betty Basch, Mary and Louise Leisen: ring, Emelie Bischoff, Mahlon and Jo Neale, Marion and Harrie B. Price, Jr a W. AH Miss Winslow. H., Boston... anchester, Baby Charles. In Loving Memory’ "of Katherine's Birthda August 7th... The Sturgis Chiidren, Beil- port, LL. V_N."D., San’ Francisco, The Grenell Island Sus School y R.J ‘om Ned A, Dulin, 6 00 6 00 yoo 300 900 3.09 300 3.00 900 300 5 cod 300 “Ig IT SO FINE A THING TO BE A QUEEN?” HERE has been an epidemic of royal ladies in fiction revival of an old form of romance which probably dates from “The Prisoner of during the past year— Zenda, ‘The writers of republican America have recently shown particular fondness for dallying with royalties, as is evidenced by “ The Countess Bettin: The Princess Aline, The Princess Sonia The latest comer in the royal retinue is “ Her Majesty” (Putnam), by Elizabeth Knight Tompkins. This is the love story of a young queen, who tired of playing her lonely part and took a ten days’ holi- day and mingled with her people. She is a very modern young woman, and has all the ideas and some of the slang that are easily acquired at an American girls’ college. True, she missed that experi- ence, but she had an advanced governess who put her in possession of the essen- tials, and she read American novels. She is, altogéther, a very fascinating personage—a most humane and lovable woman, who deserved a better fate than to be a queen, and who, in the end, managed to get what she wanted, * * * HE story is written with a charming style; it has grace and ease, and very pretty unexpected turns of expres- Moreover, there is a gentle and pervasive sense of humor that saves the whole tale from the category of artificial things and makes it real, human and sympathetic. Of all the recent royalties in fiction, Honoréa seems to us the one most easy to domesticate at an American hearth- stone. As the young Englishman who met her said, she is “the jolliest girl I ever knew.” There is just a dash of sociology in the book, enough to show that at heart the queen is a serious person, worthy of the love of a sober-minded man. But what makes it a suc- cess is its idyllic love story. Nothing prettier of this kind is in recent stories than the description of the Sunday morning which Hugo and Honoréa spent in the old garden. Then there is the flight from the kingdom during the revolution, and the night in the old castle that suggests an episode in“ Prince Otto” (a most trying comparison for any clever author). But it is all so well done that the wildest things seem probable, and the most daring and unconven- tional are the most modest. It is a satisfaction to say that “ Her Majesty” is a far better novel than most of the foreign atrocities that have been pushed into popularity. It has the good fortune to be written with intelligent skill; it sparkles with delicious fancy, and it is a clean-minded love story that is neither prudish nor stupidly Philistine. Moreover, we have not discovered any effort to “ boom " it by personal paragraphs, or exaggerated comparisons. ‘The opinion of no solemn authority has been evoked in its behalf. But it will be read with increasing favor by the genuine audience of appreciative people, who are the only friends, in a literary way, worth having. Droch, sion, LORA (at the seaside) : anyway ? Jutta: I don’t know. since last evening. What sort of a fellow is he, I've only been engaged to him