Mr. Richard Maher's The Shepherd of the North (Macmillan) looks a little like one of those rather elaborate Catholic tracts in form of a novel of which we have so many classic examples. Mgr. Winthrop, the Bishop of Alden, way up in the Adirondacks, was indeed a noble old fellow, somewhat given to long speeches, but with a great heart in the right place, and wise and tolerant withal. He was known and loved by the small farmers and lumber-men as The White Horse Chaplain for a deed of valour done in his youth in the Civil War. And he carried that high quality of courage into his work of defending his people against the machinations of the U. & M. Railroad, which swept down upon them and stuck at nothing, not arson on a Teuton scale or judicial murder, to get the prize it was after—valuable iron ore in the hills through which its track ran. However, it was the Bishop's oar, dexterously thrust in, which finally won the victory. There is a point which puzzles me considerably. The crisis of the story turns on the secret of the Confessional. A young man is accused of murder, and the Bishop, his friend, has heard the confession of the real murderer, so that his lips are sealed. But his fiancée also unwittingly overheard the essential of the confession screamed by the dying man. Mr. Maher seems to think her bound by the same sacred ties as the Bishop, even to the point of allowing her lover to go to the chair because of her silence. But is that sound moral theology? I should doubt it. I ought to add that there's nothing to shock the most sensitive evangelical conscience, and quite a good deal to edify, instruct and entertain.
Overheard at a fashionable restaurant:—
1st Guest. I read in one of the Sunday papers that Benjamin Franklin discovered the Daylight Saving Bill by noticing that the sun shines the moment it rises, and not several hours afterwards, as is popularly supposed.
2nd Guest. How interesting! By the way, Franklin's body has never been found since he discovered the North Pole.
3rd Guest. No, poor fellow, although Stanley went in search of him.
1st Guest (correcting). He found him right enough, but Franklin preferred to stop where he was. Rough on Stanley.
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.