The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-10
NEW BOOKS
CoLLEGn-BREp RuTH.

COLBEGE-BRlJD ItUI1'
 By Elton Burroughs. Published by
 the New York Recorder company.
 This entertaining novel by former
 New Haven boy. now of the editorial
 staff of the New York Recorder. gives
 the history of the development of a
 young girl in moderate circumstances,
 a New York society leader. She passes
 through some most astonishing adven-
 lures, but the interest is well sustained throughout. The story Is of special in- terest to New Haven readers, as the col
 bring of a large part of the story is en- tirely local. Ruth is introduced as a
 young girl living on the shores of Lake
 Whitney with her Aunt Louisa, who Is represented as a good-natured motherly person, but rather inclined to let her
 young ward have a good deal her own
 way Ruth at the opening of the story
 does not care for much of anything but
 her pony and outdoor life. She reads
 q French novel and soon after becomes
 acquainted with select coterie of Yale
 students, and from that time her de-
 velopment proceeds with remarkable
 rapidity. She takes ih all the big Yale
 events, such as the boat race ait New London and the football games, where
 she is a reigning belle among her stu
 dent admirers. She also grows fond of lSaturday afternoon matinees where she
 meets some other girls who are popular
 among the collegians. She finds them real nice girls and she quickly learns the recipe of good time as far as it was possible to be had in the sleepy old uni iversity town. After a. summer at a shore resort she with her young lady | friends decide that New Haven is too small for them and they are next seen in O flat in New York. Ruth's excuse is the culture of her voice, but in her thirst for adventure and experience she appears on the stage of theater fin the chorus of an opera comique. She does not like that, however But the evening she was on the stage an old man named John Hardman sees her and becomes her ardent admirer. He finally induces her to come to a flat which he had fur nished for her in an elegant manner, and attempts to make love to her. At this point is one of the dramatic denoue- ments of the story Her lover finds that she Is his daughter, whom he had sup posed was with Aunt Louisa up on the shores of Lake Whitney.
 She had been for a long time infatuat ed with Mortimer Belmont, a judge of the supreme court of New York To be nearer him she marrles his brother, q weakting By her charms and personal magnetism she finally draws the judge himself away from the path of duty and induces him to desert his family. They live together for a time in sec1u- slon until at last he comes to his senses 1 and goes back to his own wife. Ruth when she finds herself deserted by her lover, takes poison, but is saved at the last moment and is welcomed back to the arms of her husband. She now has I learned the true philosophy of life in New York high society and settles down l to a life filled with the petty intrigues of life in society-a typical society wo- man.
 The main action of the story is well developed, but some of the minor 1 threads are rather loosely drawn and seem to be out of place. The recogni- 1 ttor of father and daughter reminds one l of an exactly similar scene in Alice, or | the Mysteries" by Bulwer Lytton, l where Mir. Ma1travers finds that Miss 1 Cameron Is his daughter. The charac ! ter of Ruth before she actually bids | farewell to convention and draws Nor ] timer Belmont into her meshes is an ! enigma. And the author does not en- tighten us. Perhaps he does not know himself. Her career in New Haven | seems to be swift but whether or not she belongs to that class of girls which is rather demi-monde it is hard to de- eide The final outcome of her charac- ter, however, Is apparent enough.