The Jericho Road: a Story of Trestern Life. (Jansen and
0o., Chicago; Trilbner, London.)—We cannot pretend to say whether this story is true to the life which it describes, but its power and interest are beyond question. A waif nicknamed " Slim " —these products seem to be conting into existence rapidly on the other side of the Atlantio—finds his way into a Western town. How he falls among thieves, and what sort of help he gets from passers-by, is the subject of this tale. "What would have happened had not the Good Samaritan come along?" is the speculation which has attracted the writer's thoughts, and he embodies it in The Jericho Road. A painful story, of necessity, but told without hysterics and with humour. "Squire Barkum " ought to take a good place in the gallery of hypocrites which belongs to English fiction, if only because his hypocrisy has been invested so cleverly with the couleur locale. The English miser-hypo- crite would not have been like Squire Barkum.
Previous page
