The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 10, 1904, Page 6

THE SAN l;"RANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. K% THE.PROLIFI F(~\v1\v~l N NSEen H‘;'\. ry crudi- se tastes ute pale v d to clo ond forma f his romance upon the affec- ripe the th stion and is @ best. A Qu prompts him tc own until he he is not a fortune hunter is modest to ten. To do this the coffee mar- he sets about to corner ket. Soiciting the financial assistance of a friend from the woolly Brazils, Elijah succeeds in getting the coffee market well within his fingers when he discov- ers that the rascally brother of his lady love has plunged all his fortune and that of his sister into the balance against the corner. Then follows a re markable thing. Not only does Tillott- son “go broke” himself by breaking his own corner, but that convenient friend from Brazil, who has, of course, no in- terest in the deal excepting that of helping Elijah win his lady with dol- lars, readily consents to lose every cent In the crash in order that a lady whom he had never seen might not suffer. Hardly has the reader had time to catch his breath after this remark- able plece of chauvinism before the story closes in & sweet calm. One cannot rid himself of the idea that in this story the author is not at all in earnest, and that, in fact, he wrote it in delightful dalliance with experiment. The characters are pain- fully hackneyed; the blase O. M. of so- ciety, the cloutish jackdaw in the cial swim whose heart is true blue, the fogl Englishman of saving qualities and the weak young brother, turned embez- zler—these lay figures have worn even the melodramatic sock threadbare. The machinery of the coffee "change, which Brady has adduced to work up the climax of the plot, does not move with the spontaneity which comes of a sure handling. Pact is, Brady explains in his useful foreword that he had to se- cure the services of a broker and a ton, more or less, of literature on the subject before he could unravel the in- tricalcies of bull and bear battles. “Easier said than done,” saith Brady: the author who promises to write a story to order. Well spoken, that. (G. W. Dillingham & Co., New York; illustrated; price $1 50.) 50~ Brady is far more conscientious in “A Little Traitor to the South” than be makes any pretense of being in “The Corper in Coffee.”” Here is a dainty little story, well told. Its characters are far nearer to being flesh and blood than the hackneyed personages of the former story. This plot is new, which the other is not. itho edy alls this story a war- with a tragic interlude. y is sufficiently diverting to The come: hold up the reader to,the last page; the tragic note in the book is just strong enough to throw a softening shadow over the whole and put the Jighte ments into subdued relief. Wa and the romance of the sol- dier er Brady a thy of hand- heart o sym hard. clashing at- « the street is lald in Charleston, be- At he very outset len, is iss Fan e fires of conflicting loves t of two dashing Confederate rs, and things seem to be coming very wu turn when the mag- mity = of them throws to his the of nity to make a name for himself ix wring adventure. But is at point that Fanny Glen proves herself the little traitor vhich the book’s title proclaims her By a clever piece ¢ preven womar ing hi her, the magnanimous one goes t to his death in the crazy David. With this tragic thus suddenly to a comedy of the arrest of and his sweetheart and trial for a muititude of nses runs merrily on until it draws to a happy close. rore than the measure that “The in Coffee” fails of being good A Little Traitor to the ¢ 1a claim to that distinction (The Macmillan Company, New York; illustrated in color; price $1 50.) “THE VINEYARD,” Mrs. Craigie’s New Novel. £ HE VINEYARD,” the latest story of John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie) is a book to be read for study rather than amusemer It is powerful story, a deep story; one which goes way below the surface of trivialities and deals with life problems the most serious. None of Mrs. Craigie's storie: are trivial or suverficial. HeF genius savors more of the Meredith and James type than of the characteristics which belong to the writers of pretty littie Dresden China romances of the day This last story of hers is of a more serious character even than some of her previous efforts. - It is a careful analysis of the complex man- ifestations of the love passion between man and woman. The motif of her book is the clash between the spiritual, idealized aff tion of a woman and the worldly, self- ish love of a man. Her story out- lines the line of cleavage between the passion which is of the soul and that of the body; how hopeless of realiz tion is the one, how sordid in its very essence is the other. The heroine of the story loves the man whom she has chosen with an affection almost transcendental in its purity and complete severance from the secret forces of humanity which make man and woman inseparable. The man loves the girl selfishly, as one who must come to him to make his life of desired ease and luxury com- plete. Mrs. Craigie has analyzed with a keenness of insight the struggle between' these two natures, trying at first to reconcile themselves the one to the other, but failing and gradually drawing apart by the very insistence of their characteristics. It is a re- markably subtle study. The charactgrs of these two are de- lineated with M1 the firmness of line necessary to throw the problem of the story into a clear light. Federan, the man, who can win the Victoria Cross in battie or outdistance all competi- tors in a steeplechase, is morally a weakling and very near a coward. When he finds that he must have money to encompass his wishes he does not hesitate to adopt very ques- tionable methods for its procurement. Yet, knowing his weaknesses, fighting them with a vigor more or less genu- “ine, he believes himself more sinned against than sinning and frankly goes to a woman in the end who will take his love for what she knows it to be worth. Jennie Sussex, the idealist, is one of the most spirited and winning characters fiction has brought forth this year. With all her exalted con- nighly responsible duties. There follows a particularly lucid ac- " count of the bank’s intricate bookkeep- ception of the diviue passion she is far from being the coldly intellectual, -re Vesta. The girl's sweetness of character is displayed as theroughly in the tempestuous break with her lover as in her silent grief and brood- ing which follows. This careful study of passions which forms the theme of her - story and which might be too heavy if unre- lieved, Mrs. Craigie frames in a quiz- zically humorous setting of English village life. Her bits of character- ization of the dowagers in the country nobility and the busy gossips of the neighborhood are delightful. (D. Appleton & Co., New York; il- lustrated; price $1 50.) ———— - AMOS K. FISKE Writes ‘* The Modern Bank.”’ important work is the latest A volume in Appleton’s well-known Business Series. In it the author describes in a clear style, devoid of all unnecessary technical terms, the multitudinous daily operations of an up-lo-date Ameérican bank and the va- rious methods by which they are car- ried out by its skillful staft of officials. Stress is lald upon the fact that without the instrumentality of the banking system, trade and industry could not possibly be carried on to any- thing like modern developments. The bank makes possible the wonderful ramifications of present day co-opera- tive associations in business, whereby labor is divided and applied to innum- erable divisions of human activity. And, although the daily operations of a large banking institution appear at first sight so intricate and bewildering, in reality all its' methods, well as those of other financlal agents, are based upon the elementary principle that trade, no matter how large and in- volved the transaction, ‘is always a form of barter; dr the.interchange of one product of human labor for an- other. £ Fiske opens the work by describing numerous elementary principles relat- ing to barter, money and credit.” He then turns to.a large bank and de- scribes its incorporation, . charter, sphere of ‘dutiés, legal obligations and’ methods and instruments. . financial 1 2 Then he refers to the officers, describ- ing their daily .routine and the com- plex - system -organized. to.gecure the. diligent and honest execution of their ing, illustrated by fac-similes of pages of ledgers, official and general proof- books and the various forms and docu- ments which contflbul:\: the record of the daily_ transactions\of a bank. Thence the author gives a detailed de- scription of the important functions of the New York Clearing House. Separate chapters are devoted to the description of the characteristics and methods of State banks.and trust com- panies, savings banks, private banks, foreign exchanges, safe deposit vaults, international banking systems, the de- velopment of modern banking, and the work closes with an interesting review of the more prominent tendencies of American banking. Fiske regrets that public sentiment compels the continuance f the State plan of independent banks of moderate capital scattered all over the country, instead of an adoption of the British system of powerful banks with branches in all busy trade centers throughout the empire. But he believes that the multiplicity of small banks is not at all the weak spot in our finan- clal system. Provided the State offi- cials do their duty in constantly seeing to it that the directors conduct their business within the limits laid down by the law, the competition for business must result in easier conditions than would otherwise prevail, and in this respect the present system offers ad- vantages to the commercial commu- nity, particularly to men in a small way of business, that cculd only with difficulty be procured under a system by which a few powerful institutions might monopolize the whole financial business of a town. Regarding the tendencies of several important New York banks to engage in the production of speculative enter- prises, Fiske makes the following ju- dicious remarks: “It is the business of banks to make loans and advances upon assured credit and sound security; to serve the legitimate ends of industry and trade and the financial operations by which they are provided and sus- tained, and not -to have.any part of their resources involved in risky ven- tures or be prostituted to the schemes of capitalists who' gain cohtrol over their management. It is an era of com- bination and association, and there is a disposition among powerful capitalists to unite in directing. great interests and making theém work together, but banking should stand. apart as the com- mon agency of them all, .to be used conservatively and impartially for the . benefit -of. industry, trade,.commerce and finance, of which it is the neces- sary, and snculd be the faithful and trustworthy, servant.” (D. Appleton & Co., New York; price $1 50.) WOMAN TELLS True Story of Her Life. OME author who has not the cour- S age of her convictions in sufficient measure to declare her name has . Written a distinctly unpleasant book under the title, “I: in Which a Woman Tells the Truth About Her- self.” If the veiled author really does tell the truth about herself she has sufficient reason for hiding behind anonymity, for the truth is not beau- tiful; if she means her book to be a little sermon for weak women and men it certainly should be franked with her =ign thanual. + The author's theme is the hackneyed one of the villain man and the unsus- pecting woman in his toils, who knows not her perils until they raise their heads suddenly in horrid brutality. She varies the usual order of such stories only by making the denouement a bit more broad and unvarnished than is customary in all such tales,outside of the French. Nor does added worth come from this frank definition of a spade. Some-spades there are which should bear no naming at all. The very sordid topic of this author's confessions is one of that kind. 4 From an unmarried man’s view point the story has a certain interest in that it reveals very concisely how fair woman arms herself with bow and spear when she goes forth to conauest. Some men think they know a few things on this score, but the delight- fully ingenuous female in this book can teach them a bit. For she tells how she puts on the delicate crepe-de- chine gown with the lawn fichu at- tachment when she wishes to make a telling effect on an unsuspecting man, or how she takes pains to wear a decol- lete creation in white satin, appliqued somewhere with something, when she perceives that she “has a neck.” Now this is all very instructive. But Madame I'Inconnue’s story itself is distinctly “mechant” where it is not twaddle. The subject of the autobiog- raphy is either an innocent lamb or scheming parvenu—both interpreta- tions are possible; her husband's chief ability lies in teetering on the brink of an early grave with unseemly per- sistence; the chief villain is a villain, yes, but his villainy found ready fan- ning at the hands of the aforesaid au- tobiographical subject. (D. Apvleton & Co., New York.) HE IS CERTAIN That Electricity Is Life. N first taking up “The Universe a Vast Electric Organism,” by O George W. Warder, the reader will be disposed to think the author has intentionally prepared a huge joke for him; but we can assure him it is not so, and that the book earnestly represents the author’s views. In a well-printed volume of 302 pages ‘Warder endeavors to show that the ac- cepted principles of the physical and astronomical’ Scienices are radically wrong and that “Electricity produces all the phenomena of nature, confirms scientific evolution and explains nat- ural philosophv. That it sustains the religious ' concept and makes huméan reason and the universe books of God s well as the Bible. That love is the ectric law of life and Jacob's ladder the electric pathway between the suns and planets.” This is a large task, but ‘Warder grapples with it cheerily. H methods of advocacv are most irregu- lar. He indulges in a breezy style of opposition to established scientific beliefs by repeating the phrase “I con- tend” whenever he wishes to run coun- ter with a concept and then assuming the accusacy of the statement thus made. He frequently makes copious quotations from obscure authors and, pamphleteers and equivocally quotes statements made by famous scientists. The following paragraph, dealing with the creation of man, gives a good fllustration of Warder’'s style: ‘“When the crystalline rocks and metals were settled Into a crystalline globe, throb- bing with electric power,” says he, “vegetation came and the electric life cell was formed as the first step to- ward organic life. Then came the for- mation of nerve tissue as the basis of form structure and the evolution of microscopic life, which developed un- der electric enmergy into all forms of animal existence which now inhabit the earth. These were all formed and perfected through ages of response to the varying electric currents of life- giving power. Then the animal form evolved a brain and acquired the sense of feeling and sight and hearing by reason of the electric currents that im- pinged on the sensitive brain tissues and animal instinct was slowly and gradually developed and the animal organism raised to the highest grade of the perfected mammal. All this was done under electric law by magnetic energy. Then the Creative Deity said, ‘Let us make man.’ And it is likely he took a perfected mammal, enlarged its brain-pan, stood him erect to front the stars_and breathed into him an atom of his own spirit, ‘and man became a living soul” The psychic power of glowing thought and reasoning mind, inspiring hope and heaven-bound love and truth and language, music. poetry and dreams of heaven were implanted as a celestial fire in his deathless spirit. This is marn—the soul, the spirit, the divine, eternal spark of Deity himself—not the body; that is merely the overcoat of atoms for the spirit, the temple for the soul, the house in which it dwells.” This erratic book is written with as much naivete as any that came from the fertile pen of the illustrious Para- celsus. It is brimful of inconsisten- cies and extravagant fancies and can- not fail to afford considerable enter- tainment and amusement to scientific readers. (G. W. Dillingham Company, New York! price $1 50.) g Tin SPRING HUMOR Comes in With the Birds. HE days of the frisky spring lamb and the twittering pee-wee have brought with them three booklets which “are to laugh Whether or not the gentle reader will laugh depends upon that nicely bal- anced modicum of humor which may or may not be his. Nothing is so hard to cater to as the good public's sense of humor, for though a city full of people may have the emotions of love, sympathy, curiosity, patriotism in al- most equal endowment, their several conceptions of the humorous will vary with each individual So Edward Townsend’s new “Chimmie Fadden” book and George V. Hobart's “Eppy- Grams” by “Dinkelspiel” and “I Need the Money” by “Hugh McHugh” will have a different appeal for every reader. The writer of this brief review can- censure any of these not praise or little books unreservedly, for that would hold him up as one de- void of a healthy humor in the eyes of those who might take ex- ception to his criticism, and nothing is o mortifying as to have that slur cast upon one’s mental equipment. Let him say, then, with all due humility, that he could find nothing funny in “Sure,” the “Chimmie Fadden” book, that “Eppy - Grams” was mildly amusing and “T Need the Money” screamingly funny. Edward Townsend's Bowery boy died several years ago, and the effort to reanimate him is a ponderous and a laborious one. The present book lacks all the spontaneity and the novelty of the former one and the conceits are painfully forced. “Eppy-Grams” may be dismissed with the word that it is a collection of sayings in German dia- lect from Hobart's well-known Dinkel- spiel letters. “I Need the Money,” the sixth of the “Hugh McHugh” books, is capital, like its fellows. The laugh lies beneath the bewildering fantastics of slang. It cannot be analyzed, for really there is nothing tangible to ac- count for the laugh save the surprise of the delightful argot. For example, some people may not think it funny to read of six-story flats with 10x12 rooms as ‘‘people-coops.” Others with livelier imaginations wilt hold their sides over this. There again is the indeterminate quality of humor. (“Sure,” Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, price 75 cents; “I Need the Money” and “Eppy-Grams,” G. W. Dillingham &wnrk.) A WEIRD TALE About an OIld Viking’s Skull. | HE VIKING'S SKULL,” John £« R. Carling’s new story, is ing Solomon's Mines” re- divivus. Rider Haggard at his haggardest never conjured-up a tale more fantastic than this romance of the tumulus of Orm the Golden. Allen Quatermain in thegheart of the Moon Mountains encduntered not such eerie adventures as those of Idris Mar- ville, the treasure hunter and avenger of his father's wrongs. But the breath- less interest sustained in “The Viking's Skull” does not. depend upon the mys- - tery of lands and peoples unknown, as in Haggard's African stories. An Earl's castle on the coast of England serves Carling for a card about which to wind such a tangled skein of mystery in piot and counterplot as has not found book covers for many a day. The author’s chief skill lies in his creation of almost impossible enigmas and their solution, bit by bit, by the acute deductive reasoning of the hero. Carling’s mazes in the path of his story are none of these flimsy crea- tions which the reader himself can penetrate even while reading of the hopelessly stupid blundering of the characters involved in them. It is the compelling force of the author’s inven- tive genius in working up the success- ful solving of these riddles that makes the story one of powerful fascination. Given a broad silver armlet, for in- stance, of ancient Norse manufacture, with “an inscription writ upon it in runes—in a runic cryptogram, in fact— how is a plain, twentieth century Eng- lishman going to deduce from this evi- dence alone the knowledge of the hld; ing place of a mass of ancient treasure- But he does, nevertheless, and It i3 upon the final discovery of the where- abouts of this Viking treasure and the startling revelations attendant upon that discovery that the chief interest of the tale hangs. Carling has handled the subject of his runes and archaeological references very skillfully, but every writer is sub- ject to a slip In the matter of ancient properties, and Carling has made one which is a noticeable anachronism. One of the elements in the mystery of the piliaged tomb of Orm the Golden Iis the partially destroyed tapestry or web which recounts upon fits faded surface the incidents attendant upon the dg,uh of Orm. Now, Orm and his retinue were pagan Vikings, who had estab- lished themseives in England as rob- beérs and sea wolves, true to the last to the barbaric customs of their race, yet Carling puts upon this tapestry depict- ing the death scenes of Orm inscrip- tions in Latin. Nor did the author stop to wonder how it was that his flerce pagan Vikings, who had evidently had no communion with the churchmen— the only people of the time versed in Latin—could have written mortuary inscriptions in that tongue? (Little, Brown & Co., Boston; trated; price $1 50.) — BRIEF REVIEW of Other Recent Books. CHARLUTTE PORTER and Helen illus- A. Clarke are doing a good work n their production, play by play, of the “First Folio” Shakespeare. Already ‘“Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Comedy of Errors” and “Love’s 4 Labor’s Lost” have come from their ed- iting, and now “The Merchant of Ven- e is the fourth to be added to the list. This is a good work because their books are in the exact text of the orig- inal folio of 1623, a photggraphic repro- duction save for the improvement upon the archaic type. The true Shakespeare scholar should not be content with the interlarded, expurgated, thoroughly mangled text which has resulted from the busybody editors’ work of these many years. The editors of these first folio reproductions have relegated all these blue pencilings to the footnotes, where they should be; authorities and their changes in the original text are thus placed in ready reference for com- parison. These volumes become verita- ble pocket varicrums by reason of the wealth of critical and editorial mat- ter displayed. “The Merchant of Ven- jce” contains a preface, an introduc- tion, literary frontispieces from rare editions, notes discussing its argument, sources, duration of action, date of composition, and early editions, liter- ary illustrations, glossary, variorum readings and selected “criticism. The variorum readings alone would serve to differentiate it from ordinary edi- ticns, and when coupled with the glos- and other scholarly editorial work of the painstaking editors the result becomes a mine of Shakespearean com- mentary. (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York; price in cloth, 50 cepts; leather, 75 cents.) “Araby,” by the Baroness von Hut- ten, is the typical Smart-Set story of “smart” people with a sudden dash of the tragic on the last page. Sparkling with repartee far more clever than the smartest of the “smart” could ever be capable of, flippant in the matter of ccnventions as so of the “smart” would be themselv presupposing a knowledge on the part of the reader of all the atmosphere which enshrouds the Laut ton, “Araby” is a tale of no great pretensions beyond that of amusing This it does. Araby is a girl out of her element. She does not know that flirtations are flirtations and nothlm‘ else, so when the big, blonde younz man whom she meets on the steamer makes violent love to her she belleves he is in earnest, despite the worldly wise advice of her very worldly auntie. Instead ‘of giving away to the inev- itable Araby shows herself to be a girl of unusual spirit as well as the legatee of an hereditary predisposition to in- sanity by attémipting the life not of the lover, but of the worldly auntie, and then throwing herself over the rail of the steamer. The lover is very much to be blamed for this sad occurrence. (Smart Set Publishing Company, New York; illustrated; price $L) Clara Morris has proved herself al- most as good a story teller as she was an actress. To her many tales and reminiscences of stage folk already published she has added withinthe past six weeks g novel, “Left in Charge,” and a short story, “The Trouble Wo- man.” While a review of the novel is withheld until next week, brief com- & ment may be made upon the short story. The little tale has to do with the sad history of an old country woman who would alwdys mysteriously appear upon the scene when any family was in dire straits from sickness or other ill and there remain .with tender min- istrations until all was well again. The appellation of “Trouble Woman,” which was given her accordingly, was a terrifying one to the little girl who is reciting the story, until one time the “Trouble Woman” came to her when she was in sore distress, rescued her from the terrors of a storm in the woods and then told her why she was the “Trouble Woman.” Though her re- countal is grisly enough, there is a lit- tle moral stored away in the story which comes home to the heart of the reader. (Funk & Wagnalls Company, Hour-Glass series; price 40c.) —— sy BOOKS RECEIVEL. AROUND THE WORLD WITH A KING, William N. Armstrong; Fred- erick A. Stokes Company, New York; illustrated. BESSIE BELL, Martha Young: Scott-Thaw Company, New York; il- lustrated. PRACTICAL TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETICS, John Graham and E. H. Clark; Fox, Duffield & Co., New York; illustrated. E. RUSSIA AT THE BAR OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, Isidore Singer, Ph. D.; Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York; price $1 50. IN THE TOILS, Mrs. A. G. Paddock; J. 8. Ogilvie, New York; price 25 cents. THE RECOMPENSE, John R. Hum- phrey; School Education Company, Minneapolis; illustrated. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUSTS, John Moody; Moody Publishing Com- pany, New York; price $5. INDIANS OF THE Y Galen Clark; published by Galen Clark, Yosemite Valley; illustrated: price 50 cents. 1 The