FIDDLER CRAB 



2163 



FIELD 



Mrs. Deland's feels that he has made acquaint- 

 ances and friends who will long 1 be remembered. 



Some such questions as the following will help 

 in the appreciation of character-studies in books : 

 Do the persons in the story seem real? How does 

 the author accomplish that result? Does he 

 describe his characters in detail, or does he allow 

 the reader to find out much about them from 

 their own conversation and actions? Do they at 

 any time act in a way that seems out of keep- 

 ing with their general character? Do they grow 

 in the course of the story, or are they the same 

 at the close as at the beginning? Are such 

 changes natural, or are they too sudden and 

 unaccountable to be possible in real life? Is 

 the author more interested in his character- 

 development than in his plot? Has the author 

 favorites among his own characters? Does he 

 succeed in making the reader feel toward them as 

 he does? 



The Scene. While lengthy descriptions which 

 retard the movement of a story have no place in 

 fiction, a vivid impression of the setting or of the 

 scene in which events take place may add much 

 to the pleasure of the reader. Does the author 

 make the locality in which his scene is laid stand 

 out clearly? Has his city a distinct individu- 

 ality? Does his countryside differ in any way 

 from all other countrysides? Does the author 

 know his locality thoroughly? Has he intro- 

 duced "local coloring" that is, peculiar features 

 of the landscape, peculiar traits in the characters, 

 dialect, mannerisms, tricks of speech? Does he 

 succeed in giving the "feel" of the place? 



The Purpose. Had the author any purpose 

 other than that of entertainment? Did he wish 

 to teach a moral lesson, or merely to portray the 

 life of a certain region or of a distinct period of 

 history? Many a good story has no obvious 

 "moral" ; no truly artistic work of fiction ever 

 actually points out one, but if it is true to life 

 and is the work of an earnest writer it is sure to 

 carry its lesson for the thoughtful reader. 



At first in reading fiction it will be necessary 

 to have these specific questions in mind; later 

 they will become so completely a part of the 

 reader's mental equipment that they will help 

 him in his analysis of the story without his 

 conscious use of them. One point is worthy 

 of note not all fiction is worth careful study, 

 and many a story repays no more than a 

 hasty reading; but every reader should take 

 care that he does not read exclusively or chiefly 

 such stories. C.W.K. 



Consult Baker's Guide to the Best Fiction in 

 English; Dawson's The Makers of Modern Fiction. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 



the following articles in these volumes : 



English Literature Novel 



Literature Romance 



FIDDLER, fid'ler, CRAB, a small crab 

 which abounds on the muddy shores along 

 the eastern coast of the United States, south 

 of Cape Cod. The male of the species is 



distinguished by the enormous development 

 of one of its front claws, which it waves as if 

 fiddling, hence the name. The female has 

 small claws of equal size. These crabs feed on 

 vegetable matter, and are used as bait. They 



THE MALE FIDDLER CRAB 

 throng sometimes in thousands in marshy 

 places, and their burrowing weakens levees 

 and dams. See CRAB. 



FIEF, jeej, from the French, or FEE, in 

 English, is a legal term meaning an estate in 

 land which is inheritable, or descending to the 

 heirs of the grantee. The term originated in 

 feudal times and referred to land held from a 

 lord, or superior, conditional upon the per- 

 formance of service. The term has three di- 

 visions: fee simple, or absolute ownership of 

 an inherited estate; fee, or private ownership; 

 and fee tail, or an estate limited to a specified 

 line of descent, which cannot be disposed of 

 at the will of the owner. See FEUDAL SYSTEM 

 OR FEUDALISM. 



FIELD, feeld, the family name of three 

 remarkable brothers, two of whom won dis- 

 tinction in the field of law, and the youngest 

 associated with one of the marvels of modern 

 communication, the submarine cable. They 

 were the sons of David Dudley Field (1781- 

 1867), a notable Congregational clergyman who 

 was the author of several histories dealing with 

 Massachusetts. 



David Dudley Field (1805-1894), who was 

 born at Haddam, Conn., and educated at Wil- 

 liams College, held a foremost place among 

 American lawyers as an advocate of law reform. 

 Forty years of a brilliant career which began 

 in 1828 with his admission to the bar of New 

 York were devoted to this cause. In 1847 he 

 began the preparation of a code of civil law 

 which was later adopted by nearly all the 

 states of the Union, and which is the basis of 

 the reformed procedure established in 1873 

 in England. His writings had far-reaching in- 

 fluence, not only in the field of civil and mu- 

 nicipal law, but also in that of international 

 relations. In 1873 he was elected first president 

 of an association which met in Brussels for 



