The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-05-22
NEW BOOKS.
pr,er Rsvtevvs o. unpsrtsst ana Rntsrestisn
New Publications..

turo drawn Dy hr. btopnon Othno II Inc rVeu
Badge Of Courage" 10 stin understood By the
book reviewers of the British nation to repro
,cnt the actual incidents and aspects of war.
Possibly real war has never been reported, and
possibly Mr.. Crane, whose experiences had been
cast VIGOROUSLY in . time of psace, and who had
never behold anything moro than . ruotion In
q the Tenderloin precinct, with which the police
proved themselves amply able to cope, depended
: for his facts upon his imagination alone. Be this
m IL may, there 10 no reason to suppose that
Mr.. Crane may not have boon an original
observer In the Incidents Of love. which, differ
ing from those Of war. are spread porpetually
and everywhere for tho study Of tho curious, and
We arc willing to believe that Tho Third Vio-
, let" ID. Appleton s. Col shows. as accurately and
inevitably, how love may lead to matrimony
and peaceful happiness as Maggie, q Girl Of
+, the Streets," showed how 1t leads to ~disappoint-
ment and sorrow and the Lethe Of the East
River ut the foot Of Grand street. We have not
forgotten. and wo dare say we shall never for
ret, poor Maggie at pence In the ooze; and
In "Tho Third Violet" We shall not for
ret. II we dare to trust our present
Impressions, how love may DO compatible
with a continuance Of life and with the extreme
Of happiness, provided the circumstances war
rant ii. The trouble with Maggie was that she
. loved a fashy and finty-hearted bartender, who
was the psychical expression Of the lower Bow
cry. and the advantage Of the heart transaction
IN THE Third Violet" Is that 1t occurs between
an artist and an heiress, both Of whom can AFFORD
to follow their inclinations. II Maggie had been
an heiress 1t is probable that the bartender
would have managed to perpetuate his original
esteem for her. and 30 sho might have
lived and remained happy, with the assistance
Of her own primitive understanding Of what
WAS desirable in the world. On the other hand
the heiress might very well have drowned her
self, II she had not been an heiress and had fall
len in love with an artist. This being obvious,
we may proceed to say that we could wish that
Mr.. Crane had not employed the curious device,
,"doye," as an expression of the past tense Of the
verb dive, and that he had not caused his chief
literary character to inquire most pointed
", was that herr Why one set of per-
sons in a mountain stage should have been
"mucilaged to their seats" and why
another person In the same stage should
have been permitted secretly and impiously to
wrigHle in his seat 10 a question Of privilege
involving no end of potentially curious Incl.
dentals, and 1t was certainly O queer dog that
walked on his toes and swore half under bis
breath Further, 1t seems to DO u work Of super
e~rogation to write "wimen" for women" in
order to convey an idea OF the common pronuncia-
ton of the word, and 1t Is probable that the al
legation that "a wave Of astonishment whirled
into the hair Of the hero will excite and even
fabbergast some readers. All the same, Mr..
Crane has the right to be picturesquely unusual,
even as Miss Amelie Rives and Mr.. Edgar Saltus
had the right before him. and he is at liberty to
have people throng at stage drivers, and other
people make holes In the universal plan." as
often as he pleases. After q period Of jealousy.
studiously and obviously excited on both sides,
the artist and the heiress In "The Third Violet"
como to q pleasant understanding. and the story
terminates without tragedy or vague terror. as
the case was with Maggie" Tho Red Badge
OF Courage" and the poem of the death
demon who chartered in the ~tree-top. One must
commend Mr.. Crane for his versatility. 10
writes equally well of summer firtations. the
carnage OF gunpowder war, and tho red death
stains of perfevid souls. One thinks. in reading
Maggie" that the jawloss soldier in The Red
Badge of Courage provided with a spoon and a
tumbler of marmalade, will como presently into
: the barroom where the hero is employed and
seat himself uncannily and derisiveiy on top Of
tho hot water urn; but he does. nothing of tho
sort. and neither does the ohattering death
demon reappear in any tree that chances
to occur in 1.-THE Third Violet" Tho third
violet Is a token given by the heiress to
the artist, and means that she regards him ia
vorably. 1t was the artist who "impiously
wriggied " in his seat in the stage in the noun
tains Of Sullivan county. II he had remained
''mucilaged to his seat" 1t Is q question
whether he would ever have got the third violet.
The persons who did remain mucilaged GER
tainly, go far as the story shows never got any
thing of tho sort This indicates upon how
phght a matter happiness may depend. Still, II
mucilage were to DO abolished. 1t is hardly
likely that all of us would be happy. Even with
that advantage wo should have to take our
chances.
II ever there was irony It is Expressed in the
name of the heroine of Gertrude Atherton's
novel. Patience Sparhawk" John Lane, pub
]isherl. On page 40 we find 1t recorded that
Patience "tripped her mother and went down
on top of her. and that certain farm hands
who boarded in the Sparhawk house dragged
the little fury of just in time to prevent Mrs.
sparhawk from being strangled to death.
Not that 1t would have mattered much to
Mrs. Sparhawk. She was q drunkard. with
evidences Of yiciousness in other direc-
tons, and a few pages further on she is
burned to death while lying in bed In a state
OF alcoholic inertia. 1t was commonly known
in California that Patience had tried to murder
her mother. and years afterward, when the girl
bad got rid of her freckles. and was celebrated
for her beauty and intelligence in Yonkers and
contiguous parts Of Westchester county, the
taking of Of her husband by means of poison
was attributed to her, because the story of the
earlier episode of violence had travelled across
the continent. and was o matter of common and
disturbing knowledge hereabouts. The cir
cumstances that Patience had been a
newspaper reporter. and had had tenta.
tive love experiences with several men.
also told against her in tho under
standing of these matters as 1t exists in
Westchester. and IL IA no wonder mariana that
her trial at White Plains. Notwithstanding tho
eloquent defence put forth by the powerful
young Irish advocate, Garan Bourke. should
have ended in her conviction, though 1t Is a
little curious that sho should actually have been
deposited In the electric chair ut Sing Sing,
ready for the violent end that the law in certain
cases provides, because there has been mani
Tested In this State of late years O repugnance
to the killing Of women by legal means. and
hone has been killed in this manner for n con-
siderable time. A novelist. however, provided
he does not belong TO the school Of Mr.. How
ellis, has almost iilimitable rights, and 1t Is
prObDble that nohndv can mako anv nhiacfinna