The Stillwater Tragedy. By Thomas Bailey Aldrich. (Douglas, Edinburgh.)—To all
who have made acquaintance with the charming Queen of Sheba who gave her name to a charming little volume by Mr. Aldrich, the present work will be a disappointment. The rage for shilling " dreadfuls " has, it seems, penetrated to America. The deplorable result is, that instead of a delicate piece of workmanship, full of tender touches of feeling and side-strokes of refined humour, wrought out with great exactitude and admirable appropriateness, we have a murder mystery, which the experienced novel-reader sees through at once, thrust in out of all place and fitness, without any regard to the harmony of the story and its circumstance. The plot turns on the murder of a cantankerous old gentleman in a small New- England town, under circumstances whic!4, to the blind penetration of the usual marvellous detective, throw the gravest suspicion on the hero, whose character and conduct are such that the reader never credits the suspicion any more than the heroine. But the story does not in the least hinge on the murder in the town. The heroine is a charming little sketch in Mr. Aldrich's own quiet and pleasant style, and she is the daughter of the owner of some stone-works in which the hero finds employment as a designer and draughtsman, and the real incident of the story is the strike which takes place in the stone-works, and the way in which it is overcome by the hero, who wins his fortune and his wife at the same time. It is interesting to the English reader to observe that the bitterness between capitalist and labourer is even greater in New England than in Old England, and that the New-England writer's sympathies are considerably more with the capitalist than they would be under the circumstances in this country. As a curious trait of manners, too, it seems that the English dropping of the " h " is a noticeable peculiarity even amongst the lowest order of workmen in America. This is an encouraging sign for those who hope to see the English language preserved in its purity. We wish the same was true of Australia ; but in view of the liberties taken with the aspirate by one noted Australian ex-Premier who was in this country some little time back, we are rather afraid that the "too rough 'h' in hell and heaven" is very considerably softened in that country.
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