New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-02-10
NOVELS AND TALES.
BRET HARrEs NEW STORY.

CREsSY. by Bret IIarte- loino' pp -'V
Houghton, Mhiin q TO- - ,-ro-r %
LAsTCHANCE JUNCTION. TAX, tT a. " nm o5s
the author Of Cape Go1 folhS' i-NV' ~
Boston: Cupples 81 Hurd ,ovo
COMMODORE JUNK BY @. hanVlne fenH' O'
DID 347. Casscll Co. ,,,,,s
A SHOCKING EXAMPLE, AND oIh IKE ShIor aG4
Nv Frances COurtenay Baylor l-mo' PIP 49,
Philadelphia: J. b. Lippinoott Co.
There IS some very good Work IN btet i"i
new story IL contains curious ana carelul s'u''
Of type OF frontier character which, though oien
introduced IN fiction before has never been moro
subtly and effectively analysed. In the description OF
california scenery and camp and miningto~n nc
ur Harto continues to be without an equal ana u Is
a long time since pretter picture than that d sno
old schoolhotse IN the clearing has been drawn inns
and the quaint scenes Of school life, Win inc H0uVo
delineatons of childish ways and tendencies arc Que
fresh and in an unaccustoined manner DuI t''
heroine, Cressy and her father and mother are ais
tlnctIv original and strongly marked conceptions.
Hiram MKinstry, the southern-born squatter, who
lives In perpetual feud with another family OF
soussters the enemies fighting hercely over lana 10
which neither party has the shadow OF tiue MIS-
MINISTRY the strangely unsexed frontierored woman
who cherishes the family feuds even moro pH'efly
and implacably than her husband ana almost VIII
Ingiy offers up her kith and kin upon the altar OF
bloodrevenge; Cressy herself. tho beautiful, Wild
Ignorant passionate sens@rlhcing creature VINO
deliberately kills out her strong yearning5 after
fuller life than she hope for In her proper circle
each and all of these teens with lndlvliualism and
is true TO nature In some Of her strongest and most
difficult moods.
Ford, tho schoolmaster, with his hcldeness, his
recllessness Of consequences and his controlling self
ishness, is type this author IS fond Of reproducing
natural no doubt but not sympathetic, AMI here rather
too obviously employed as foil TO Crcssy. Ford
indeed, comes and goes unknown. Neither his ante
cedents nor his future disclosed. All that Is
Of him is that he loses two women, and plainly
deserves to have lost them. Dabney DaubIgny
the old miner who begins by passing for smpletor
and ends by poisoning out a millionaire, is Less
real than any Of the other Characters There have
been and stll are plenty who resembio hin
as he first appears; but then such people
In actual life generally end where they began
they do not develop into rich men. Mr.. Harte has
exploited the California small boy OF the mining village
species with fortunate boldness, and this is par
tculariy interesting element in Cressy' There Il
an unfinished appearance about the story, however
which is rather vexatIous But for this we should b.
inclined to rank @Cressy" as the strongest Of thi
writer's long stories and with this defect we arr
not sure that Il does not'deserve that estimate.
In "Lastchance Junction sallie Pratt MLear
has made an experiment which we should not advise
her to repeat The admirers of Cape Cod Folks and
her other Photographic studies Of New England society
manners, customs and ways of life and thought vii
surely fan 10 recognize the hand with which thel
thought themselves familiar In this queer and crude
book The reader is taken into scenes and circle
with which II is evident that the author has abso
lutely direct acquaintance The difference between
observation and imagination never sharply
Illustrated, and it Is made painfully apparent that tn
Imagination here Is anything but vigorous Their
Is no realism in the attempted pictures Of far Wesen
life. No life in the far West ever at all lih
these fanciful representations. There is plenty o
crime and wickedness but n Is not the right kind
As 10 the dialogue, 1t is wildly impossible No mat
ter how bad the characters are there Is about all
them something which suggezts at a youn
ladies seminary. IL is not, as Mrs M'Lean appear
10 think usual for murdcrers, brigands and outlaw
10 take palatial mansions "Nob HIP IN san Fran
CISCO and keep up sound OF revelry by night 70
weeks together while employing the daylight hours fl
variegated crime. Neither such story as tina
of Lucie Dorne, the high-bred young Downeaster VIII
feil in love with a bold bad cowboy at first sight, am
runs away with him 70 her lasting nnhapplness, be
the most useful character snobomish, the saint wou
be much more edfyng person H. instead Of permittn
his wicked brother 20 rob and ruin him, he had us
a far-wcstem cooqualism, jumped upon" that dis
crcdltable relative, and pulverized him. But thce
altogether too much false sentiment IN the story whc
indeed IS artificial and untrue TO and art fron
beginning to end BY all means let the author give u
as many more Cape Cod Folks" as she pleases, bu
no more excursions in the fashion Of SLastchanc
Junction"
Mr. Fem has written rather weak and chllds
novel In Commodore junk II appears to DO an al
tempt 10 follow Mr.. Besants models but IL so, It
a conspicuous failure. Commodore JUNK is an I'm
possible Devonshire hsheriass who throug
series Of equally impossible adventure
become5 q pirate king, so TO spsah, for donnin