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THE FORTNIGHT.
K. S. U. But on the whole it is a very readable book, and, as far as we know, the only one of its kind.
We are always glad to receive so powerful and sympathetic a novel as *The Story of a Country Town. It is a sad story, it does not end happily, the very air seems laden with storm and woe, yet it never degenerates into the merely horrible. You feel its truthfulness and think you know most of the characters personally. The story is told in the first person by one of the characters, Ned Westlock. The narrative has a simplicity and a fidelity to nature that almost convinces the reader that the book is a direct study from life. Though we would be far from saying that Mr. Howe is Ned Westlock, yet the story reads like a personal experience. The opening chapters are almost devoid of incident, yet the interest is kept keenly alive by the picturesque description of the bleak country, and of the people who live within it. You can fairly see this land, materially prosperous, yet one where the men are always rough and surly and the women always fearful and overworked. It is a soulless life, with little home happiness and no public amusement. It is a life rendered still more bitter by a pitiless and unforgiving religion. The hero is a fine, manly soul, who revolts against this repression, and seeks to find an unknown happiness in the divine, all-sufficing love of a woman. The woman he marries is well-meaning but shallow. It is a case where both are to blame; weakness and vacillation on her side, morbid jealousy on his. We will not try to epitomize the plot. We do not wish to lessen the interest of the reader. Only less moving than the fate of the hero, Jo Erring, is the story of the narrator's father, the Rev. John Westlock. The book is full of dramatic scenes. One of the
best is where John Westlock, returning to his deserted wife all too late, goes forth into the night and the snow and disappears from the story forever. The most lovable character, Agnes Deming, is, curiously enough, the most dimly outlined. The style is sometimes rough and careless, and the young people talk in an old fashioned and grown up way. But the work has the elements of a great novel. We hope the author will take time to revise and remove some traces of haste. It is regretted that the type and paper are not better. We think Mr. Howe has the creative mind, and if he has not written himself out in his first book, has the qualities that make a great novelist. We hope The Story of a Country Town is not his last word.
The Society for Political Education has issued Prof. J. H. Canfield's pamphlet on Taxation. The argument all the way through is eminently sensible and practical. Prof. Canfield's theory is that the best and most equitable system of taxation would be a land tax on the basis of unimproved land, a tax without regard to improvements on the land. We have too little knowledge of such matters to criticise the idea. But the theory seems to us a very reasonable and commonsense one. We advise every student and every citizen to read and study the book carefully. While we think that too early formation of political opinions is likely to result in partisanship, yet it is clearly the duty of every one to have the fullest and best knowledge of all questions of government. The Professor gives a few side- thrusts to protection, but that we forgive him, in fact are glad to see them so well made.
Fay Templeton had a full house in Girofte-Girofta. Fay never had much voice, and her monkey-shines are becoming a bore-
* The Story of a Country Town. By E.W. Howe. Atchison: Howe & Co. For sale by Field & Evans.