Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-17
BOOK TALK.
[By W. n. AL


his surroundings, makes them his own
and gives them forth in his books. The
rich imagery of the far east becomes his
and the mysticism of esoteric) India
In Paul Patoff we see the gleam of the
mosques and minarets of Constantine
pie and the pages of Gredfenstein are
rugged with the cold, grey tone of Ger
man forests. His England is the Eng.
land of the English his Italy, the Italy
of soft skies and softer womens Where
ever he chooses to take up bis local hab
itation, he writes OF that place and oi
that people with the touch OF one who
is native there and to the manner born.
He is, in truth, citizen of the world
free lance in the great realm of Bo-
hemia-equally at home in great cities
or on deserts, amid the ice of the north
or beneath the sun of the tropics but,
though born in the sunshine of Italy,
America is the home of his fathers and
the land of his allegiance.
1t is pleasant thing then, when this
world-wanderer sees fit to turn from the
old world world to the new and write a
distinctively latter-day American story.
Such story is his latest, the Three
Fates.
This book is written with no evident
intention except to please, which is
truly refreshing. 1t is the simple work
ing out of young mans love affairs.
The characters are we'll drawn and the
scenes we'll sustained, one or two of the
latter being of unusual dramatic power
and interest. He gathers around a
young New Yorker of good family, much
pride, strong intelligence and no money
a very natural group of friends and rela-
tions, who live out their lives much
after the fashion of everyday people
loving, hating, making mistakes and
suffering for them; some swayed by
questionable motives, some acting on
impulse, some drifting along with the
tide of circumstances, and all OF whom
go to make up good, strong, forcible
story, with nothing of the sensational to
mar it's pages. 1t is full, too, OF the
philosophy OF life, as Mr.. Crawford sees
it-a not unpleasant philosophy on the
whole, though sometimes, perhaps, q
little sweeping in its generalizations, for
Mr.. Crawford is bold thinker. How
ever, he is never cynical and in no wise
a pessimlst.
The trend of the story is entirely too
good to be spoiled by synopsis. 1t
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first, and the interest is unhagging. AS
for the three fates, they are three very
charming young ladies, each of whom
exercises fateiul influence over the
hero's life one unwinds the tangled
skein of his destiny another let's his life
thread run through her fingers and gives
it direction; the third, she of the fatal
shears-well, Mr.. Crawford has left us
to guess whether or not she uses them.
There is, in fact, sense of dreamy in
completeness about the fate of George
Winton Wood; and the reader is free to
imagine what he will.
Such books as this are an ornament to
American literature. We cannot have
too many of them, nor can we too much
encourage those who are capable of pro-
ducing such good, cleanly, wholesome
work in such an attractive forr& Any
of Mr., Crawford's works can be read by
anybody with profit and pleasure, and
read too for their worth, which is high
praise in this age OF strained sensation
alism and erotic trash.
The Three Fates, by F. Marion Craw-
ford. For sale by Stoll u Thayer, 13S
South Spring street.
x*x
"a Man and Woman"-the man is
one who, of course, wandered in looking
for what was, to him, the right, but
who, having once determined, was
steadfast. One who had pas
sions. and gratified them sometimes
ambitions, and wor ked for them; q con-
science, and was guided by it? As for
the woman, she was good and pure and
winsome and womanly--all that Iowa
BILE woman should be. But we see less
of her than of the man. This is we'll.
The flower is sweet to look upon, rare OF
perfume, but loses somewhat OF its sub
tie bloom by over much handling.
The teller of this little life story of
two people is Stanley Waterloo.
wonder whence comes this man who
writes so beautifully of nature, 80
knowingly of life, SO tenderly of love, so
peacefully OF domesticity? Who is he
that makes US hear the musical voices
of the forest in their rythmic unison
the bubbling brook, the wind soughing
through the branches, "the odd squall-
ing bark of the black squirrel. the chat
ter of the red one, the drumming of the
ruffed grouse, the pipe of the quail and
the morning gobble of the wild turkey?"
Whence learned he these things, save
from natures book?
Here, too, he reads for US the morn
ing of boys life, passed in these great,
green, healthful forests of an evanish-
ing past, when men could grow up and
develop with their country. And then
he turns page, and reads again.
The boy is on the verge of manhood,
has had a taste of men and things
through the medium of college career.
is carelessly reclining between indecis-
ion and future, when he falls into the
hands of a nineteenth-century "Mrs.
Potiphar." Through the delicate drap-
cry of half-revealing, all-concealing sug-
gestion, liaison, which is the out
growth of the Inevitable, between this
great boy-man of 20 and this designing
animal-woman OF 80, is skillfully limned.
And then another page; for with much
wisdom hath it been ordered that the
fuel of unholy passion rapidly consumes
itself. a G m sa
From episode to episode our man, no
part of boy now, has drifted, like so
many of the country-born, into the city.
Here his was no uncommon fate Gas was
no part of his life story, and therein
lies its beauty. He struggled with
poverty, starved most naturally, finally
stumbled upon sin and lived double
life of infamy and conscience-pricking
ease, "tasting all that is denied, and
gaining much knowledge of the world,
of much use in the future, all at the ex-
pense, perhaps, of that purity attaching
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