The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-09
NEW BOOKS.
Brief Reviews or Inportant and 1nteres''hE
New Publications

What makes, and is there. n difference In the
num and impress OF the activities ot lio IN inc
different great cities In u measure there - u
difference. to nc sure. Leipsic is q tairly great
city, and yet the bankers there shut up shop--
or used to, only a few years ago-in order TO
PLAY billiards and take their coffee Comfortably
from noon until 3 o'clock i'll the "tterhooh'
That, so far as we know. has not been
the habit in London or New YORK; but
Is 1t true that it is harder TO cross tho
Strand or Fleet street at any point than IL Is 10
cross Broadway at Fulton street, and is there a
greater and stormier flight OF exigent humanity
over London Bridge, daily, than there is, uaily'
over the bridge to brooklyn Moreover, Wheh
peoplo are hurrying in London-whcn they arc
hungry. and pressing to got home to dinner-do
they hurry more decorously and more rest
FULLY than people do in New York; II they
do. why do theyl Is their dinner less
attractive than that which awaits New
Workers, or have they learned better than we
have that the longer you wait for dinner the
more you are likely to want II, and tho more
enjoyable 1t is when eventually 1t comes TO
pass These questions are suggested In many
an essay Of comparison and sumnlariZation, out
particularly are they suggested Just at TINS
timo by n series Of observations In Quiet
London" one in a volume OF essays entitled
"Patrins," bv Louise 1mogen Quincy copeland
& Day. Bostonl Very contradictory things have
been written in the course Of comparisons OF
New York and London. Americans who have
recorded their Impressions Of London have said
variously that it has ten times the activity and
ten times the elaboration OF New York. and
Londoners who have battered this com.
muuity by their presence have testified both
that We are feverish in a degree beyond
parallel. and that Broadway. TO a Londoncr,
seems like n village street. 1t 10 hard in
the ircunsfancpa II mako nut the unle-
nlable fact. No guide book. and no vehicle
OF less official expression, has positively estab.
lished 1t, so far as we know. Perhaps II is more
difficult. and perhaps 1t is less difficult, to ride
awheel from the Battery TO Thirty-fourth street.
than It is to do the same thing from Hyde Park
Gate to the Bank Of London. We have heard
Americans say that Londoners who went through
the Strand on a wheel were hare-brained.
and we have heard Londoners say that it is
positively marvellous that wheelmen here do
not come to grief in the cable slot. Miss
Quincy, going from Boston, finds n great rcsttul.
ness in London. 1T is. she says, !" as II tremen-
dOus London, her teeming thoughts troubling
her, said 'Hush!' in the car OF all her own.
The long.distance ironies or intellieential buzz
OF street lie in New York, where folks go two
and two. are here foreign and transatlantic in
decd. The even p~avements drink in all that
might mean conclusion. the soft, golden mir dead.
II I Y pktOStuILSus CIlOusuCSSo ~ luC III
element contradicts and forbids it." We re-
member that we have heard people cough ar.
IDENTIFY in the soft, golden air Of London. and, as
for the preoccupied seriousness of the London
populace, 1t Is notorious that any suitable
amusing influence, preferably a pun, will dissi-
pate it instantly. To the cold. unimpassioned
observer it seems as though in London. as much
as elsewhere, money or the hope OF money. APP
petite and the means to crafty it, served to
49, 49,
certain recent noveiists and e~ssayists have an
insight of especial clarity. and that the English
metropolis. rather than the place that II
seems to lie to the ordinary understand
inZ. is the place that they Say it Is. The
long-distance ironies and the inteligentisl
buzz attributed by Miss Quincy to the people
who frequent the streets OF New York are mat
ters that we dare say have been insufficiently
Investigated, and the same is doubtless true in
regard 10 the phenomenon OF people going in
pairs. The Harmless Scholar" "The Puppy
Irish" and On Teaching Ones Grandmother
How to Suck Eggs are others among the TWEEN
u essays contained in this book. which is ingen-
ious, delicate. and captivating throughout.
Mr.. Frank Mathews "A Child in the Temple"
Cohn Lance is q delightful! book handicapped
with an ill-chosen. misleading title. To ninety
in a hundred readers such a title will suggest a
work on some religious subject. whereas this is
q mere series OF amusing episodes-the adven.
lures OF a day and a night-strung together by a
sIilful hand and endowed with ali the charm Of
romance and the graceful fancy OF one OF the
New Arabian Nights" The temple of the
story is the home of the gentlemen OF wig and
gown, that gloomy pile OF buildings / ing be-
tween the London Law Courts and the Thames
em~bankment, and the child is Larry Burke,
. briefess young barrister from Ireland.
with a round and boyish face. light curls,
and a wisttul look that gives an air OF innocence
that is to him a source OF much secret sorrow,
From the moment we read the opening sen
tances OF the prologue We feel that we are in
good hands. Mr.. Mathew has 4 rare charm o!
sty.e and a sly ana subtle quality OF humor ol
the kind that, here and there. walks hand in
hand with tcars. Perfect, in its way, is the pic
ture. in the prologue, OF the boy and girl sweet.
hearts, the old house at Kilmorna, with thu
estate fallen into poverty. the gentle old land
lord collecting butterflies and beetles in thu
park, and in the background tho only half seri
cas- "moonllghters. wasting powder benin
the hedges and walls. and digging graves IN
front Of the house at night:
Uncle Andrew dl1 not mind them at all. till they
took to digging the graves; but that anr yeG him. be
cause he had 10 heed where he went. all Il was hi
custom to moon happily with . look OF despair. Tn
only time l ever saw him put out was when he he
gone for a stroll IN a shower and had tumbled Into
grave aAl taen he saiu ne was reluctant 10 s!oil an.
on''s amuscments, but thought the tenants were IN
kindly considerate.
The story. which opens fifteen years subse
nuently to the things pictured In the prologue
treats, as we have said. of the adventures tina
happen IN a day and a night in and about thu
Temple. And they are sufficiently fanciful an
surprising. Foster, the man who has rooms mex
door to 1.-The child. = is an entertaining chap:
Apparently he has many relations, for I often se
Firls on I've landing. and he says they are cousins.
love of music and noise appears to run In the family
But for all his gay lie he Is not seldom dependent oil
the stock Of sard mes and biscuits and Chianti l kee
In q deed box with " K!lmornn Estate On IL.
Another CHEEKY person Is Terence. the ma
Lord Kilmorna, the kiniest and most iu
moral OF men," who lived for nothing bu
wine. women, and song. and was so big and s
good looking and full Of irrational happincs
that even his only enemies. the police. could m
bear him a grudge." The two women arc we
COntrasIcl lypes. curly kdnir tho 0iyl sxno