. 'Seth's Brother's Wife' and 'The Lawton
Girl' leave a definite ethical intention. In the 'Damnation of Theron
Ware' is depicted the tragedy of a weak and crude character suddenly
put in touch with a higher intellectual and emotional life, which it
is too meagre and too untrained to adopt, and through which it suffers
shipwreck. In 'In the Valley' the gayety and seriousness of homely
life stand out against a savage and martial background.

Mr. Frederic profoundly respects his art, is never careless, and never
unconscientious. Of his constructive instinct a distinguished English
critic has said that it "ignores nothing that is significant; makes
use of nothing that is not significant; and binds every element of
character and every incident together in a consistent, coherent,
dramatic whole."

THE LAST RITE

From 'The Damnation of Theron Ware.' Copyright 1896, by Stone &
Kimball

Walking homeward briskly now, with his eyes on the sidewalk, and his
mind all aglow with crowding suggestions for the new work and
impatience to be at it, Theron Ware came abruptly upon a group of men
and boys who occupied the whole path, and were moving forward so
noiselessly that he had not heard them coming. He almost ran into the
leader of this little procession, and began a stammering apology, the
final words of which were left unspoken, so solemnly heedless of him
and his talk were all the faces he saw.

In the centre of the group were four workingmen, bearing between them
an extemporized litter of two poles and a blanket hastily secured
across them with spikes. Most of what this litter held was covered by
another blanket, rounded in coarse folds over a shapeless bulk. From
beneath its farther end protruded a big broom-like black beard, thrown
upward at such an angle as to hide everything beyond those in front.
The tall young minister, stepping aside and standing tiptoe, could see
sloping downward, behind this hedge of beard, a pinched and
chalk-like face, with wide-open, staring eyes. Its lips, of a dull
lilac hue, were moving ceaselessly, and made a dry, clicking sound.

Theron instinctively joined himself to those who followed the litter,
a motley dozen of street idlers, chiefly boys. One of these in
whispers explained to him that the man was one of Jerry Madden's
workmen in the wagonshops, who had been deployed to trim an elm-tree
in front of his employer's house, and being unused to such work, had
fallen from the top a