Life — May 27, 1897 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

gether in the mouths of the local characters themselves, she has shown what the effect of a mistaken religious en- thusiasm on an ignorant and simple class may be. And yet throughout the whole there is no touch of cynicism or scoffing, the genuine spirit of religion never being lost sight of. The disciplined and cultured reader who takes up this book will experience a sense of pity for these people in their blindness, yet he will carry with him a respect for their genuineness, and will be made to laugh more than once at the lively touches by which the author has brought out the best and the worst in them. This book is well worth reading. * * * OOKS on the Great West continue to multiply, some of them without any apparent reason, as instanced by ‘The Mistress of the Ranch,” by Frederick Thickstun Clark (Harper). This book has fora what-is-rapidly-being- honored-by-time plot the fracture of the skull, which, pressing upon the brain, stops suddenly the hero or heroine, as the case may be, and leaves them for a space of time in a state of non compos mentis, from which they are usually rescued at a correct stage in the development of the story. This has been done so much before, that one wonders at the assurance of 453 the author in giving it to us again, but apparently he feels that any good thing is worth rehabilitating. Witness, for instance, this reverend joke, which emanates as original from the star female character, Phase Ellen, Pinky, the station agent, says: ‘Wy if this ‘ere kentry had plenty o’ water 'n’ good people, it ‘ud be a reg'lar paradise!" **So'ud hell," was Phoebe Ellen's laconic retort, Phabe Ellen js not really the mistress of the ranch, but she assumes the rdle for purposes of her own, it being appar- ently easy for her to do so because of a well-timed Colorado landslide which descends upon her sister, the real owner, and deprives her of the use of her faculties by the afore-men- tioned fracture of the skull. There is a smart Svengali doctor on hand, of course, who reads Phade's secret at once, and startles her by saying that it would be an casy matter to write East and secure the proper identification—a thing which the reader knew all along, but which the author has tried to conceal. In due time the doctor succeeds in perform- ing a successful operation which we are fully aware will eventually happen, and Phave Ellen skips with the station master. We hope she will settle down after this and not appear in any more books. OUR LATEST BOOKS. HIRED FURNISHED. Being Certain Economical Housekeeping Adventures in England. GARET B. WRIGHT. With map. 16mo, cloth, $r.25. This volume is the accountof a simple, inexpensive way to see some parts and with a maximum of comfort and minimum of expense. tis an Xperience and tells facts, and although not a guide-book, it will be of at assistance to the many American visitors who want to see England ably at low cost. THE STORY OF SMOLLIE. By Mrias Bower, author of ‘*Paynton Jacks, Gentleman,” and “Samp- on's Youngest,”’ :6mo, cloth, $1.00. \ fresh, original, pathetic story about children, for adults. Iife from the child's own standpoint. THIRD EDITION. PER PETER HALKET OF MASHONALAND. 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