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Show A VERY HARSH TRIAL. Tho Teet. By Mary Tap pan "Wright. Published Pub-lished by Charles Scrlbner's Sons, New York; A. R. Dergo & Co.. Salt Lako City,. This Is pronounced hy the Judgment that accompanies. 1U to be "a strong novel of contemporary American life." It may be so, but It Is a curious life that It depicts. A young girl, good and beautiful, la betrayed be-trayed by a weak, stilish sort of a cub. who means all tho time to marry her, but Is caught In his cups and married by another an-other girl who has planned all Lho tlmo to get him. by fair means or by foul. Tho father of tho cub Is very good to tho girl, and slands by her loyally, making her famous ao a wiitcr In collaboration with hhi, he being a distinguished public man and author. In the meantime, the cub has bis own afflictions, In tho wlfo ho has been trapped into marrying, for sho is exacting, ex-acting, fault-finding and smnll-soulcd, her meanness finally developing Into mania. But sho accidentally meets tho child of tho deserted girl and forms a powerful af-feclldn af-feclldn for her, finally getting the girl away from tho mother. Tho small-minded gossip, the scandal, tho Uncharitablencss, tho hurdshlus of it all, make a desolate picture. Thcro Is, too. a romanco of a very good young man and the sister of tho deserted de-serted girl, in which tho self-sufficiency and rigor of the young man tako a good many years to wear off. ami ho is punished pun-ished accordingly. Tho cub tries to drag down his deserted lovo by insisting that the-y go away together and live their lives In a foreign land, but sho holds bun to bis allegiance to his wife, and goes her own way in purity and usefulness. Finally, tho wife who has com between them dies, and tho marriage that ought to have been years before Ik in a fair way to come. It Is a sad sort of n problem story, and hardly hard-ly representative of contemiorary American Ameri-can llf. As a test. It is not clear whether It Is tho girl or the cub who is tested: but certainly both of them como out of tho tanglo remarkably well. The author has written othor stories which have made her name known to the public. This Is nor latest and best. |