“The Master Word,” by L. H. Hammond, Macmillan, is described upon the title-page as “a story of the South of to-day.” Its background is placed in the phosphate region of Tennessee, and the author assures us that many of the incidents described, “especially those more or less sensational in their nature,” actually occurred within her own experience. The purpose of the story, she says, furthermore, is “in full accord with Southern thoughts and hopes.”
It is hardly necessary to say that it would not be a story of the South if it did not deal in some way with the race question; but it would be premature to conclude from this that it is essentially a problem novel.
The opening chapters introduce this question, growing out of the distressing circumstances of a wife’s discovery of her husband’s infidelity, and the problem is interwoven closely with the plot in the presence of the latter’s illegitimate mulatto daughter. Her career and end are the more unpleasant to the reader because of the conviction that they are detailed with facts as they exist in the South. The pathetic interest of Viry’s story, though properly subordinate to the main plot, forces itself on the reader’s attention.
In other respects, also, the truth of the conditions described is impressed upon one, even though he may be unfamiliar with the facts.
It is a very strong tale, full of color, with a consistently developed plot, constructed with a fine sense of proportion and vivid characterization, except in one respect, which constitutes the weak point of the story—that is to say, the character of Dick Lawton, who is somewhat priggish and altogether disappointing.
Miss Geraldine Bonner has very wisely selected a theme for her story, “The Pioneer,” Bobbs-Merrill Company, with which she is thoroughly at home. Its subtitle is “A Tale of Two States”—viz.: California and Nevada, and, therefore, as may be correctly inferred, it is a mining story, or at least a story in which this element plays an important part.
The action takes place during the years almost immediately following the Civil War, and leads up to the period of the Bonanza discoveries in Nevada, in the early seventies. With such material as this afforded, it is easy to see that an extremely interesting tale can be constructed by so experienced an author as Miss Bonner.
The story involves, of course, the consecutive gain and loss of fortunes many times repeated; it pictures the social life of San Francisco and the rough life of Nevada mining camps, and gives attractive glimpses of the valleys of California, all with a degree of descriptive power that is a little unexpected.
The character of the old pioneer, Colonel Parrish, and the two sisters, June and Rosamund Allen, and the reciprocal affection of the three, furnish the large element of human interest in the story, for they are very attractive and lovable people. The relations of the two girls with “Uncle Jim” arrest the attention and stimulate the sympathies of the reader even more than the love affairs of the former.