Mr. Tarkington has a perfect appreciation of the strength of local affection in the Hoosier, and also of the thoroughly American absorption in politics which seems to be more marked in county seats of a few thousand inhabitants than in large cities. History in towns like Plattville is not dated, _anno urbis conditæ_, but from a political incident or the visit of a President; and a national campaign is a quadrennial blessing that renews in the obscurest inhabitant the sense of his individual responsibility to the government. Mr. Tarkington emphasizes the homogeneity of the Middle Western folk; and this is warranted fully by the statisticians. The people of his town live together like a great, kind family, who are sufficient unto themselves. He has thrown into the story the sincerity, affection, and loyalty that are their attributes; and he adds, moreover, the atmosphere of the Indiana landscape, with a nice appreciation of its loveliness, sometimes hinted and often charmingly expressed. There is a crisp, bracing quality in the writing that fitly accompanies the story, which is, taken all in all, one of the most creditable novels yet written of life in the Ohio Valley. There is every reason why Mr. Tarkington should know his Indiana well, as his family has been prominent in the State for three generations, and he is a native, having been born at Indianapolis (1869). He was educated at Purdue and Princeton, receiving from the latter the degree of A.M. in 1898. He has also written (1900) “Monsieur Beaucaire,” a dramatic novelette of the eighteenth century, in which a few striking incidents are handled most effectively. The story has the charm of an exquisite miniature.