The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-17
VIEW hooks.
nvief nsvisvp ef Important ana Hnteres,inu
New Publications

q. MI. "nN iuOotoSbihb sUory N
r,,a nisslen OK Fopnaloy' tstreet & SMITH.
,n"' oi course, u not a tale built strictly upon
'n'p rlhp'Pies havonated by Nj. Howens for the
guidance OF conscientious persons engaged in
msnuieotuFe OF hction. It Is notorious that
NOT III consoisntious persons go engaged have
y 70 ADJUST themselves to the Howells
pon1 ot VisW' The late Prof. Boyesen, not
mitnseanoing that no cherished earnestly
very ceet ihtentionn, was powerless, at
tuncs' In MS W tales. to throw OF tho
romantic incubus; and II 10 q curious circum-
stance tnat some OF the purest, most unmiti-
gated romance perpetrated by Prof. Boyeson
snouiu nave won from Mr. Howells the liveliest
expressions OF appreciation. Mr.. Burton does
not profess to be q reformor Of the storytelling
art and Messrs. Street b Smith. az we romem-
Der. In their professional dealings with matters
appertaipinS TO Russia, have never confined
themselves to publication OF the works Of
Tolstoi. Russian police agents, whether In
realism or romantlcism wo havn not scou-
rately ascertained, have long been involved
in an aspect OF great pioturesqueness. Thoy
have done things darkly, In cloaks and
other DISCUSSES, and IL they have not been
more ominous or more disastrously efioacious
than the rat-wifo In lbsen's Little Eyolf," the
reason we are sure ID chargeable to the inevi.
tablcness OF circumstances. and 10 not to DO as
STlHNNl w Ine BnOTICOmlDRB OF good Intention on
he part Of those who have supplied the agents
IN question with form and interest and celebrity.
II a Russian police agent in New York should
behave himself In the same picturesque and
occasionally grotesque manner that he IL rc-
puted to do at home, We do not sec that
he would thereby render himself especially con-
spicuous. because our own police agents seem to
have grasped perfectly the essential points OF
tho general idea, and it IL well known that
seven of them put themselves in disguise re-
Gently in order to apprehend "a barber at Eighth
avenue and l25th street. New York has como
to DO n very great and miscellaneous community,
and 1t must DO that there are porpetually trans
acting themselves In 1t mysteries that Mr.. How
els, who Is Ohio and Boston bred, would with
difficulty suspect and under no conditions
tolerate. In regard to Mr.. Burton's Rus
sian police agent, we hasten to say
that he has commended himself to us
as both reasonable and interesting. As
We remember, he does not once put himself 10
the conventional trouble OF assuming Q dis
guise, and yet he gets ON remarkably well. Just
as curiously, his business in New York is not TO
administer the vengeance of the Car, but to do
q kindly and charitable deed. The ordinary
reader will he at no pains to discover and I'D.
preciate certain plain points about this story.
It Ia a story with a plot, and the narrative is
ENTHUSIASTICALLY N CIGt0El ACL0mDlAn00. NM.
Burton understands ne rfectly that very vaiusble
principle of tho story tsller,s art wherebv tho
curiosity of the reader In Quickly aroused. duly
mairsaiped. and finally KratiAed. His police
agent IL a vigorous figure, and his heroine en-
joys the distinction of being able TO face trouble
with some other aspect than that of lachrv-
NOSE despair, She Is an excellent heroine, a
GOOD talker. and A sensible. clever person. and
we cordially congratulate Mr.. Burton upon her
presence in his book. So do We congratulate
him upon q generally capable and interesting
story.
In 1.-THE Strange Schemes OF Randolph Ma.
! SON." by Aeiyi lie DAVIDSON Post "a. p. Potnam's
| Sons,. we have a series of stories founded upon
! peculiar points of omission or inodeouacy in the
I, law. One does not readily comprehend a possi.
bility OF the kind. for the law seems to contain
everything. including ali the words that there
! are. 1t Is q saying that the law 10 common
sense. but Mr., Post reminds us that Lord Coke
!, declared that the law was NOT the nat.
ural reason OF man, and that men
! could not, out OF their common reason,
make such laws as the laws OF England were.
All wrongs, the story teller adds, are not crimes,
ami his tales offer to prove It. The first tale,
| THE Corpus Deficit" is not pleasant. 1t is not
| agreeable to read OF a woman who had the mis-
| fortune to be Objectionable to her lover, who
was murdered BY him, and whose dismembered
body was boiled in acid in a bathtub and
run out In the form Of q liquid through
the 'scape pipe. The preliminary incidents
OF the story are crudely narrated; the loves
and quarrels OF the pair are not verisimilar
and are often unintentionally grotesque; but
the main point, that when the murderer came to
be tried there was no corpus deficit in the case
and no witness Of the crime, and that. although
the circumstantial evidence against the muir.
derer was overwhelming. the Judge was Obliged
to direct his discharge under the explicit pro-
vision OF the law of this State, is full of curious
interest and is very strikingly set forth. 1.-TWO
Plungers of Manhattan" another of these
/ tales, lacks the shock as web 40 the crudity
of the first. It is founded not In tragedy,
but in humor, and explains very interest.
inyly how n man, having sold his ya]u.
able house, receiving therefor q small sum
Of money and taking q mortgage upon the
property for the remainder Of the purchase
price, may eat his heart out watching the pur
chaser destroy the value OF the house by turning
it into q stable, and, In tho absence of anybody