The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-23
SOME RECENT FICTION.

In Beyond the Dreams of Avarcc"
CNeW York: Harper & BroD, Walter
Besant presents a telling picture of the
corrupting power of ill-gotten wealth.
Lucian Calvert is a young physician,
masculine, masterful and successful!
His father. on his death bed, tells
Lucian that Calvert is not his real
name, but only a middle name, the
proper surname being Burley, by which
name Lucian's grandfather, hitherto
unknown to Lucan, had accumulated
millions of money out of operations az
manager of gambling hells, a pawn
broker and an all-round trafficker i'm
human vice. Lucians father had fore
sworn the family name So as to escape
this contaminated fortune: but the
grandson Is no sooner told of his pos
sible heirship than there begins to work
in his breast. unConsciously at first, the
insidious leaven of covetcOusncss. ava
rice and greed for name and wealth and
power. The development of this pas
sion to its eliminating point where the
victim sacrifices wife, friends, profess
sional prospects and almost every prin-
ciplc of honor to it, only To learn, after
few hours anticipatory possession.
that newly-found will has robbed him
of every penny, Is sketched with a
graphic hand. The young man recov.
ers from this blow and as we take
leave of him, bids fair once more to be-
come a useful member of society: but
the vividly-drawn lesson of his tempta-
tion and fall remains burned in the
mind, as if scared there by heated in
struments.
An admirable hit Of fooling which
will prove a welcome diversion from
weightier cares comes to us from the
Harpers in Hayden Carruth's "Thc Ad-
ventures of Jones'" Jones is an Iowa
or Kansas gentleman of rural procli-
vities-we forget which, nor does It
| matter--whose range of adventures
runs all the way from being rolled
across two states in a spherical cyclone
| house to n series of most unique eN-
ploits in the home OF the polar bear.
| There is no effort at sclcn1ic accuracy
in Jones peregrinations. Like the
wind, he bloweth as he lsteth. But one
| feels, as he surrenders to the tonic
swing of this aggressive western talc-
| teller, that If Jones didn't do the things
that are SET forth In his book Of tray
ers 1t wasn't because of any lack of
originality or nerve on the part of the
aforesaid Carruth. Munchausen was
circumstantial; whereas, Jones Is Bret
Hartesque. We perfer the forty
miner" fashion. Hence we say that the
man who reads Jones without interest
q, Is too stupid to run at large; for such a
man viii be buncoed by the gold brlcl.
game or taken in at three card monte.
If one is not asked to be too critical
George Bassett's two stories which the
Harpers publish in n neat volume under
the title of "Elippolytc and Golden
Beak," will pass muster as quite de-
llghtful reading, of Il purely entertain
ing kind We take this writer To be
comparatively a new one; In which case
the cleverness of the book, its hristllng
epigrams and n certain moving power
of dialogue that carries the readers in
terest through to the end, without flag
glng, ought In fairness to receive due
praise. while of minor blemlshes little
be said. The main point ls\ that he ac-
ceptably whiles away the idle hour foi
one who has idle hours to while away
and what more, pray. could such a
one desire?
The trials OF well-reared young glrI
reduced to the necessity of working fol
u living are alphabetically told by