The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-24
A Son of Hagar.

Now that the Heavenly Twins" are rele
gated TO the limbo whence they never
should have been extracted; that "Trilby'
and her left foot are fading into the literary
Nirvana, and "Marcella" is withdrawing
her tiresome personality from our pres
ence, we shall probably have a brief spell
in which to take breath before we enter
upon another novelistic orgie.
We shall also have opportunity to look
about us, so to speak, and to note, with the
way cleared, bit, of literary debris who
really remain standing among the various
novelistic idols the reading world has set
up in the last year or two.
Prominent among these remaining
figures perhaps the man most clearly pre-
deStine ed to permanent place is Mr.. Hall
Game. While he has been notable tlgure
since ever he first arose above the literary
horizon, Mr.. Game has never been popular
in the sense in which dozen other writers
have been popular in the past five years:
Even The Manxman" was not ushered
in by such blare of trumpets as heralded
the entrance of Du Maurier's fair, frall
heroine, but it will maintain place in
literature long after 'Trilby" is forgotten.
So, too, will THE Deemster." few
more years of ripening work and Hall
Caine will take an unquestioned place be-
side Blackmore. to whom he dedlcateS "a
Son of Hagar," which Fenno d Co. have
Just brought out in this country.
This Is by no means Mr. Game S great
est work; but in execution it is one OF his
best, with but few of the peculiarities of
style which in THE Scapegoat" and The
Manxman" possibly justified Oscar Wilde's
sarcastic commentary that Mr.. Hall Game
writes at the top of his voice"
The scene of the story is laid among the
harlond Maintains and the
author has endeavored to penetrate into
the soul of q bad man and to lay bare the
processes by which he is tempted to his
fall In Hugh Ritson he has sought to
show us man who, "whlle above the
common tendencies to guilt, is yet tainted
with q plague-spot of evil hidden some
where in his nature, and which developed
under a series of temptations which are
only temptations because of this latent
evil in the man, bring him to sin, to crime
and ultimate ruin, although by last rally
ing within him of the forces of good the
man, in the eleventh hour, saves his soul
alive.
Ritson is the younger and least favored
of two brothers who love the same woman.
Through the revelations of a sleek legal
scamp, named Bonnithorne, he comes TO
believe that his brother, Paul, is the son OF
his mother, but not OF his father, and that
he, and not Paul, is the true heir. In the
mothers life is sealed chapter. She has
had still another son by an lmprudent
Scotch m arriage with Robert Lowther,
father of the girl whom both Paul and
Hugh love. This marriage was void under
the English law. The son disappeared in
infancy, but reappears upon the scene
shortly after the death of Ritson Sr. His
resemblance to the heir, Paul Ritson, is
very marked, and through it the latter S
undoing is wrought. Hugh makes Paul
Ritson believe that Greta Lowther,
whom he has just married, is his
vent, to which, upon the death of her
husband, his mother has retired, and sets
about to clear up the mystery. Meantime
the illegitimate son, Paul Drayton, low
rascal, commits crime which through
mistaken identity is fastened upon Paul
Ritson, who, as Drayton, is sentenced to
imprisonment for life.
Drayton meanwhile is passed off as Paul
Ritson. He and the lawyer, Bonnithorne,
him from his home. a series of complica-
tions arise that eliminate in a powerful
scene in court, where Drayton and Bonni-
thorne are confronted by Convict B 2001
and the mother of both Pauls, who &C
knowledges Drayton as her son and identi-
fies the convict as the true Paul Ritson,
the legitimate son of Hugh's father. Hugh
Ritson, too, confesseS his guilt, but death
saves him from the penalty.
The story is one OF great power and Mr..
Game has not found it necessary to intro
lect-a circumstance for which we should
be grateful in these days of the literary
exa1tation of the British hind. New
York: Fenno e. Co. For sale by the Dodge
Book and Stationery Company and the
Bancroft Company.