[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
28
the way in which Mr. Harben tells her story, the unconscious power of the novel as a plea for lawful living, make the book very strong. Both Galt and Dora are strongly drawn characters, and almost equally so are Margaret Dearing and Frederic Walton, whose fortunes are so closely intertwined with those of the hero and heroine. While individual preferences may possibly incline toward one or another of Mr. Har-ben’s former works, this is, beyond question, the most finished and artistic of his novels. The story is as old as the stofy of humanity itself, the rhetorical adornments are scanty, none of the tricks of the literary craftsman is employed, the grammar is now and again at fault; yet the effect that it produces is the surest evidence of Mr. Flarben’s right to rank among the foremost of American novelists. Galt’s redemption comes through Dora’s fatherless son. It is a strong story with a moral.
V
The Federalists in Massachusetts
The Princeton University Library adds to its publications on American History a book on “The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to the Year 1800,” by Dr. Anson Ely Morse, now professor in Marietta College and formerly fellow at Princeton. The work was prepared as doctor’s thesis, but has been extended by an immense quantity of notes and a dozen appendices, many of which amount in themselves to short monographs and which are crammed with references to contemporary newspapers and other sources.
It is written in a distinctly vivid style for a work of this character, and the explanatory matter is relegated to the very full notes. It is not only a contribution to the political history of the period, but it is a brilliant contribution to the culture history of the time. The allusions, and the quotations in the notes supporting these allusions, give a far more clear and interesting picture of the times than the intentionally popular books on the manners of the times, while the bibliography and the references in the notes make the book indispensable to every serious student of the political or of the social history of the times. Published by the Princeton University Library. Price, $2.00 net.
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Bank Guaranty Attacked
Washington, November 8.—In an additional brief just filed with the federal court for the District of Kansas, first division, by ex-Senator Long, J. L. Hunt and J. W. Gleed, counsel for the complainant banks which are attacking the guaranty fund scheme enacted by Kansas and just transmitted to the national currency bureau here, elaborate argument is set forth to show why the Kansas act already charged with unconstitutionality in the earlier brief, is to be considered invalid for other reasons. Among other matters the new brief considers the question of the right to maintain the present suit, the amount in controversy, and the federal question involved.
It is argued that the bank guaranty act is not an act regulating state banks or an act which has a tendency to make state banks more stable or solvent or prosperous, but is purely an act guaranteeing to depositors in state banks the payment to them by the state of such of their deposits as the bank shall be unable to pay after its assets are completely wiped out, and it has become defunct. The law is charged with operating directly upon the depositing public and in no way upon the state banks except to permit them to pay assessments. The law, it is argued, does not better the state banks, but merely transfers business from the national to the state institutions. In reply to the claim of the counsel for the state officials that the guaranty fund does belong to the state and that the state in no respect differs from a mutual insurance. The opinion of the federal court in the Nebraska bank guaranty case is also called to the attention of the court.
ness of “Plain Tales from the Hills.” Rudyard Kipling in his good work—and some of the stories are nearly equal to his best and many of them are good—always manages to get a lot of vitality into his page. It seems at first due to his unconventionality, his journalistic manner, as if he were reporting the events of the story as they passed before his eye. But on further analysis his secret, as with all great writers, is found to be in his personality. He possesses the natural gift of story-telling; his observation is wide and deep; his sense of humor is like a bubbling spring in the desert, and is particularly refreshing when he is dealing with an unattractive subject.
“In Partibus” is in verse and runs in part:
The ’buses run to Battersea,
The ’buses run to Bow,
The ’buses run to Westbourne Grove,
And Nottinghill also;
But I am sick of London town From Shepherd’s Bush to Bow.
The sky, a greasy soup tureen Shuts down atop my brow,
Yes, I have sighed for London town,
And I have got it now;
And half of it is fog and filth And half is fog and row.
The Redemption of Kenneth Galt
Will N. Harben is out in a new and remarkable story, “The Redemption of Kenneth Galt,” published by Harper Brothers, New York. Kenneth Galt, brilliant and able, with a theory of life which pretty much allows human beings to make their own moral laws, betrays a young girl. Instead of righting the wrong, he quits the village, leaving another man to be suspected. The career of the other man is an achievement in story-telling. The development of the woman,
City of Sioux Falls, S. D.
$178,500.00
Refunding Bonds
ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1909, at 9 o’clock a. m., the Board of Commissioners of the City of Sioux Falls, S. D., will receive open bids for $178,-500.00 refunding bonds, dated January 1, 1910, and maturing as follows: $35,000.00 on January 1, 1915; $43,500.00 on January 1, 1920; $100,000.00 on January 1, 1930. Interest 5% per annum, payable semiannually, both principal and interest payable in New York City.
Immediately upon acceptance of his bid by the Board of Commissioners, the successful bidder will be required to furnish a certified check in the sum of $10,000.00, payable to the City Treasurer, conditioned that he will faithfully carry out the terms of his bid. All bids by mail must be accompanied bv a certified check in the sum of $10,000.00, and must be addressed to the City Auditor, and plainly marked, “Bids for Refunding Bonds.’ The right to reject any and all bids is expressly reserved.
For further particulars, address,
Lewis Larson,
City Auditor.
November 6, 1909.
Wm. N. Canfield’s “Along the Way”
In this book the railroads get in a measure what the oil companies got from the same author in a former volume. “Along the Way” is Wm. N. Canfield’s latest work, published by R. F. Fenno and Company, New York. The author sets out to show the peril of allowing the railways of the country to pass under government control, and in a very interesting story, he proceeds to prove his case. True, several, at least, of the nations of Europe have long ago adopted the system under which the government owns and controls the railways, the telegraph and even the theatres, and have found it to work well. But Mr. Canfield contends that this would not be the case under such a form of government as our own. The story is in itself a good one, full of incident. The characters, many and various, are all well drawn. It concerns the journey from New York to Denver—over railroads owned and (mis)managed by LTncle Sam—of two young ladies, the expedition personally conducted by the Government Superintendent of Railways—the arch villain of the piece. The lesser villains are all railway officials, while the few respectable citizens are also railway men, but belong to the old regime before the days when the United States tried its hand at transportation.
The two girls are delighful specimens of the best class of Western-American girls, while Fred Stewart is a type of young man this country needs in large numbers. As for John Noone, the old Irish gentleman, he is really delightful, a portrait straight from life.
Old-time Recipes for Home-made Wines
No handsomer volume has come from the press this year than Helen S. Wright’s book on “Home-made Wines,” including cordials, liqueurs from fruits, flowers and vegetables. Printed on double printed, deckle edge bristol, flower embellished, the work is fully up to the high standard set by Dana Estes & Company, the publishers, in Boston. These recipes are all of undoubted authenticity, having stood the test of long and wide use. The only modification, in any case, made at the present printing, being in the reducing of the quantities to suit the scope and limitations of modern housekeeping.
This work will, we are assured, appeal to many. In compact but attractive form it combines a list of valuable recipes, and a beautiful and artistic gift book. The compiler has been most thorough, introducing us to a wonderful variety of rare and treasured old formulas for the preparation of a great variety of home-made wines and liqueurs, over whose wealth of color and delicacy of flavor the eyes and palates of bygone generations of our country and gentlefolk delighted to linger. The volume is decorated by beautiful marginal drawings by A. J. Iorio.
“Abaft the Funnel” by Kipling
There is only one Rudyard Kipling and of course he had a beginning. There was a time when the world did not wait upon him as it now does. B. W. Dodge and Company, New York, have collected and printed in a very handsome volume thirty or more of the master’s early short stories under the title “Abaft the Funnel. ’
The title given this collection is taken from “Men in pajamas sitting abaft the funnel and swapping lies of the purple seas.” Many of the stories are good. “A Little More Beef’ is the tale of a Texas steer most vividly described. “Sleipner, Late Thurinda,” a horse ghost story, is a thrilling narrative calculated to raise the gooseflesh of the most phlegmatic reader. “The Likes o’ Us” is a story of the British private soldier in India of the Mulvaney order. “A Supplementary Chapter” is a Mrs. Hanksbee story.
There is in these tales the same youthful cynicism, the worldly hardness yet jejune freshness that formed no small part of the attractive-