FEUD LIFE IN KENTUCKY.

A Review.BY CHARLES ALEXANDER.The privilege of visiting the wonderful chemical laboratory of a great scientist is a rare treat to the plain citizen. The writer was welcomed into the laboratory of Professor John Uri Lloyd, the great chemist of Cincinnati, a few days ago and had the honor of a brief interview with the eminent and distinguished scientist.

Prof. John Uri Lloyd, Ph.D., LL.D., one of the most eminent scientists in the United States, while devoting the major portion of his time to the writing of purely scientific works and looking after the details of a large commercial enterprise, is more than a scientist--he is a remarkable man. When it is appreciated that the thought and 00032life of the traditional scientist is largely sequestered and cloistered, it is at once apparent that this one is an exceptional man. He is a man of indefatigable mental energy and indomitable will power. Beside being a very successful manufacturing pharmacist, he is a great chemist and author. His contributions to medical, pharmaceutical, and chemical journals alone have been of sufficient bulk to occupy all of an ordinary man's time. But his capacity for work is extraordinary. When "Rober's Biography of Eminent Pharmacists of the World" was published a few years ago in Geneva, Switzerland, only five pharmacists were selected for America and he is one of that number.

Professor Lloyd is the author of "Chemistry of Medicine" (1881): "Drugs and Medicines of North 00043America" (1884); "Supplement to American Dispensatory" (1885); "Elixirs: Their History, Formulae and Methods of Preparation" (1895); and "American Dispensatory" (rewritten, 1898--1900). As will be noticed, these are all scientific works. But he has found time to write five notable volumes of fiction. His "Etidorhpa" (1895), "The Right Side of the Car" (1897), "Stringtown on the Pike" (1900), "Warwick of the Knobs" (1901), and "Red Head", just brought out by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company of New York City, are all works of great merit, and were written merely as a recreation from the more exacting duties of scientific investigation and experiment. These splendid works of fiction, beginning with "Etidorhpa", largely the 00054record of speculative metaphysical thought in connection with a study of the geological formation of a certain section of Eastern Kentucky, and ending with "Red Head", a careful study of a strange character who was devoted to feud life, are destined to live as a great scholar's contribution to American literature.

This is the age of the novelist. The ardent admirer of recent historical novels, if he traverses the ground with critical discrimination, will find but few productions of our day that possess that enduring quality that will give them the right to live and rank among the works of fiction of two generations ago. The fact is, while there are many novelists at the present time, there are very few who will be remembered fifty years hence on account of any special merit found in their works. 00065Professor Lloyd may easily be counted among this limited number.

"Red Head," the latest book from the pen of this very versatile writer, is a unique and wonderful character study. It deals with the emotions, passions, and superstitions of a strange boy--a boy who was abandoned to feud life. This boy is an uncommon creation. With the merit of sound historical construction and dignified literary treatment, this faithful portrayal of feud life in the wilds of Eastern Kentucky is linked together by a beautiful love story--a charming and striking feature of the swift running narrative.

It appears that the deep sense of family honor shared by both Red Head and Holcomb, the principal characters in this story, was the result of hereditary influences. 00076Red Head was a descendant from the house of York, while Holcomb was a descendant from the house of Lancaster. And the tradition of the war of the Roses, though involved in the densest obscurity, came down to them through the centuries with all its terrible meaning. Both of these characters were inured from childhood to the hard, cruel life of vengeance, violence and murder.

As strange as it may appear, a parallel illustrating the growth of the feud is often found in the works of nature. A coral reef lying off the northeastern coast of Australia, the work of countless myriads of microscopic animals, has as its sure foundation the stony skeletons of many colonies of these animals that have lived and died, and bequeathed their bodies as a legacy to the few 00087succeeding builders that are now at work on the upper part of the reef.

The relentless and shocking cruelty on the one hand, the fearless and unflinching daring on the other, exhibited in equal measure by each of these strange beings, Red Head and Holcomb, and the constant watch for an opportunity to kill each other, are in sharp contrast to the constancy and profound devotion of the lovely heroine whose personality adds a lustre to the entire volume. And in the story told by Red Head to Professor Drew, his teacher, when called upon to explain why it was not wrong for him to carry a pistol, there is a matchless touch of pathos. The explanation: "I'm the last Red Head," as melancholy and calamitous as it may sound, does not carry with it the entire meaning 00098of the tragic situation. The extinction of one family by another on account of some difference between them, all knowledge of the origin of which having been lost in the mist and fog of a forgotten past, shows to what extent miseducated, misguided, superstitious, or ignorant people, hemmed in by narrow limits of life and opportunity, carried their family warfare in the rural Kentucky mountains of fifty years ago; and even to this day, in secluded and sparsely populated places along the Cumberland range, may be found remnants of these weird folks, who yet strive by strategy and blood-shed to maintain in lurid fidelity and intrepidity the dull traditions of their fathers.

While there is more of sadness than merriment in this story, it is not entirely lacking in humor. Red 00109Head frequently maintains that something must be "did" to protect his family honor. The story of his life from the time he left his home in the mountain to the day he was convicted in the Stringtown Court room, surrounded by his antagonists and school mates, is graphic and pathetic; but the awful tragedy--the highly dramatic climax that startled the little Stringtown village is a distinct literary achievement, on account of which the book will take rank with the strongest works of our day; and on account of the attractive manner in which it is produced by the printer and binder, it will have a cordial welcome as a fine holiday presentation volume.

"Red Head" is an eloquent appeal for social and religious tolerance, and a vigorous rebuke of professional and official dogmatism. 001110The book contains 220 pages, and from a typographical standpoint it is a work of art. It contains ten full page illustrations and a cover design by Mr. Reginald B. Birch. Each text page is beautifully decorated with scenes from the picturesque Stringtown country.

The publishers' price is $1.60 net. Postage 14 cents extra. Wilberforce, Ohio, Nov. 24, 1903.